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

Elcorano

Karina's words are almost identical to Sammi's, but then so was her storyline. And check out Boy up there going all Asuka on us.

The most interesting one here is Grandma, I think. There isn't a whole lot of parental concern during this sequence. Like, no parents saying, "Please save my kids" or "I don't want my son to die" or whatever. But here you have Grandma all willing to sacrifice herself in the place of the younger folks.



See what I mean? The kid's mother isn't fearing for her son's life. She seems more bewildered than anything.



Alstadt

The Guards are ready to fight to protect the kingdom, and it seems like a number of the people in town are counting on them. One of the advantages of what's-his-face's military build-up, I guess? Even the little Girl, whom Melphis previously tried to murder while under Amon's influence, is cheering her on.



A lot more of that is going on in the castle proper.



Grandpa seems to have misunderstood the Sinistrals' intentions on a fundamental level. They're supposed to be crushing humanity's hope, not strengthening it.

Also, Rino is still here.



Cobe

The Girl has resigned herself to her fate, but she's not scared because Nicky will stay by her side, and Nicky quite rightly states that he'll survive, no matter what happens. You know, like a cockroach. Actually, as you'll recall, Nicky was the kid that got hit by a cannonball head-on and suffered no lasting damage except delusions of competence, so it's likely he would survive Zalbak's attacks.

The adults, on the other hand, are flipping out, although they have good reason. I particularly like the guy trying to convince himself it's just a bad dream.



Copley Woods

I think I'm probably the first person to see this dialogue appear in game, because, like, who else would walk back through the forest at this point to come visit these two? Maqurine and... Rudo(?) happily accept their deaths because at least they'll get to die together.



Tomis

Man, Sister really is taking this with remarkable stride.

And here's another (or should I say, "the other") old person who's concerned about young people dying.



No one cares about Keit, but it's nice to see how his mother has come around. When we first met her, she was bitching Keit out for being a liar and troublemaker.



Caan

Lots of "Why's" down here in Caan.



Siantao

Two characters who are accepting their deaths, two that are begging for help because they haven't fulfilled their dreams, and one asking an obvious question that has no answer. "Because it's a monster, that is what monsters do" is not an answer.



Gantz the carpenter is starting to lose hope, too, but that may be because the creepy Boy is standing a few feet away. The Sister who stays in the royal chamber is thinking like a leader and trying to figure out how to help calm everyone. She won't come up with anything, but at least she's thinking proactively instead of begging Minim for help or resigning herself to a horrible death by hellfire.

It's kinda sad that no one here has anything to say to Aima.



Majari

Lurisa really shouldn't ask that question, because Life After People was super annoying. Her father doesn't seem overly concerned with her burning to death. It seems more like he's irritated that he didn't get to spend enough quality time with her.

Albano

Grandpa wins the award for most uncomfortable thoughts on the apocalypse, although he's totally right: It would be a living hell if Zalbak actually got started.



Fugo's Maid and Chef present an interesting contrast: One is all, "We're all gonna die, so fuck it I'm outta here!" while the other is, "I cook, there's nothing I can do to change what's going to happen, so I'm going to keep cooking."

Here is a neat little easter egg that you probably didn't know about:



Fugo isn't kidding when he says he'll give you all his gold. He'll fork over 100,000 G every time you speak with him. You can do this up to ten times (I think). I didn't count and didn't keep track of how much I had when I first spoke with him, but 1,000,000 sounds and looks about right. Once he's out of gold, he'll simply say, "He...help!"

There is nothing in the game you could possibly need this much money for. There's no practical reason to do this at all. But man, is it immensely satisfying.



Patos

You would think these people would have more words of encouragement for Minim, wouldn't you?



Thanks, Lamika.

Alright, all's that's left to do is hope on the AA and fly to Doom Island, so let's take one last look at our party heading into the final battle:

Ah yes, Lufia: The Legend Returns, always trying to squeeze an uncomfortable amount of information on the screen at any given time.

Random floors covered: 401, because I don't remember how many floors down it is to Maq's house so let's just leave it at 401 k?
Next Time: The End, for real this time, seriously there is no hidden white text

Apparently, in addition to the strife and discord, Daos moonlights as the Sinistral of Monologues. In later games, he resurrects as Hideo Kojima.

Despite the snazzy pixel portraits, I'm not quite convinced yet.

lol

The music is really good, too.

But seriously: I've griped a lot about how much these character talk, but it really isn't that bad if you're just playing the game and not, you know, screencapping every line of dialogue, then looking back through those captures and editing them together because of the draconian image limit that it starts to really grate on you and by the time you're actually writing an update you just want these characters to stop talking oh my god. The dialogue itself could be really cute, if it had been in the hands of a localization team that gave a damn (and if they had more space to work with).

The storyline is still really dumb, but it's Lufia and that's to be expected.

You could always do what most LPers do in the face of excessive dialogue, and type out the extra bits past the first screenshot of a dialogue sequence in script form.

I thought about that, but given the... nature of this game's dialogue, I felt it was best for the reader to actually see it with their own eyes.

Grandma is the true hero of this game.

Y'know, I always saw that scene as him just having a heart attack at the idea that the Sinistrals were back, I never thought Lufia had anything to do with it.

But now that you mention it, it does make sense. It's kinda sad too.

Oh no! They've subverted my expectations, and then reverted them!

I do like how they put in the effort to have NPCs all over the world notice that the Apocalypse is happening right outside their windows (and also give you the opportunity to rob Richguy McAsshole blind.)

Destryoed... XD what a typo
Also yay for Mousse coming back in!

Chapter 25: Minim says goodbye

Well, you had a good run, but when your numbers up, thats all there is to it.

So does this make Turnip a bad GM, or Minim and crew bad players?

My first impulse was to start praying for them, EarthBound-style.

I believe in you! Minim!!

Chapter 26: Minim and the Woman Adventurer

After Minim's untimely death, he woke in a strange castle filled with floating orbs, bowed before a grumpy old man with a white beard, two palette swapped chocobos and a freaky horse. The man offered to revive Minim, so long as he promised to do battle with him in the future. Minim agreed to this deal, and when he woke up in the Patos Church, he smiled, confident in the knowledge that the old man belonged in an entirely different 8-bit portable RPG.


And then he remembered that whole Apocalypse thing.


Music:Prologue/The Last Duel

Like in Lufia 2, we don't actually get to walk around the island part. Instead, touching Doom Island leads directly to the Fortress of Doom, which is now alight with shimmering gold. All the treasure chests have been refilled, but there's not really anything interesting to say about them. It's all consumable items like X-Magics, Miracles, X Potions, and the occasional Hi Potion. But really, at this point, the only things you could possibly need are the Miracles. The chests are all located in the exact same spots they've always been in.

The background music is now The Last Duel, which was also used in the opening movie. It was also the background music used here in the previous games.



What is new: There's now a staircase in the room where we previous clashed with Not!Erim. It leads up to that bridge that Maxim was afraid of in that scene that was kind of cool at the beginning of Lufia 1, but really out of place and odd when it came around in Lufia 2. Minim has no problem with crossing said bridge.

...they probably could have done a better job with it, though. I mean, if they were going to make unique graphics for it, they could have made it look slightly more like it does in Lufia 1 and 2 instead of ICE BRIDGE. Especially since we're going up against the God of Hellfire and all.


Music:Confession

Approaching Daos's alter... thing causes the Flickering Screen of Incoming Disaster, Zalbak descends down to make noise at Minim, and sad music to play. Minim gets pissed that Seena doesn't recognize him.



Zalbak replies by Sinistral Smiting him. Minim is unaffected, and the Dual Blade appears before him. He takes hold and promises that he won't go easy on Seena.

...well, he did say he wanted to try the Dual Blade out on her. There's no chance to prepare, the battle starts automatically.


Music:Battle against Zalbak, God of Fire

This is it. The very definite final battle. Despite earlier reports of Everyone Dying, Zalbak isn't actually that rough. (I actually had to strip the party of all their equipment and use normal attacks without healing to get him to get the screenshot of everyone dead) Zalbak gets three turns, and one will always be used to cast Mirror on one of the party members. It will also constantly keep Mirror up on itself, and target itself with offensive magic (to reflect against the party) and target a Mirror'd party member with support magic to buff itself. The spells I've seen it cast are Zap, Fire Dragon, Storm, Mirror, Trick and Spell Break.

Aside from magic, it also has some unique skills. Cakramdite is the previously pictured "Rocks Fall" attack, but it really isn't all that devastating. It deals about 200 to all characters, but that's like, one GoddessTear. Inferno will knock a single character down to 1 HP. The Spiritual Force of Evil Flame is different from the rest of the Spiritual Force attacks we've seen throughout the game because it only targets a single character. It hits a character with every status ailment in the game, unless they have equipment that grants immunity to a certain ailment. Like, if Aima has a Sanity Ring and gets hit with it, she won't be confused, but she will get poison, paralysis, sleep and so forth.

…Zalbak foolishly attempted to use this particular attack on Minim, who was wearing the Daos Ring.

Aima eventually gets the killing blow with Scatter Hit.

…

ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA


Music:Confession

After the battle, Zalbak fades away, leaving behind Erim, who reverts to Seena-mode and collapses. She's still mumbling for Minim to kill her, but he rushes over to console her.



He apologizes for killing her, and seems completely oblivious as to why someone might possibly find this situation upsetting.



Minim doesn't want to go on without Seena, and he's pissed that she couldn't see that he lurves her. He encourages her in the most Japanese way possible: He tells her she has to live so she can get better at her job.



It doesn't do the trick though, and she starts flickering out of existence, as Sinistrals are known to do. She assures him that they'll meet again, because her fortune says so. It's a nice little callback to the conversation they had when they decided to go on their suicide mission against Daos.

But with those words, she fades up and away, leaving a grieving Minim calling out to her.



Dei pops out to try and put a positive spin on it: She set a goal and reached it. Minim's not having any of that namby-pamby pep talk nonsense and continues to bitch about how fucked up the situation is.



...he's really not taking it well.


(Sorry, but Seena's death doesn't have anything on Lufia's. I think the main reason is because Lufia's death is different from the deaths of most RPG characters: She admits that she's scared and says she doesn't want to die yet. Usually RPG dying characters go all zen and calmly accept their death. They may express a few regrets, but it's usually along the lines of "I'm sorry I wasn't able to do more" or "I wish I could have seen my son one more time," but here Lufia straight up says, "No, I don't want to go, I want to be with you."

The Hero's reaction makes a world of difference. Minim is still himself: He's angry and wants to bicker with Seena the way he used to. The Hero mentally shuts down and has to be dragged out of the Fortress of Doom by his allies, and just walks away by himself after they land.

Also, Milka is the girl with Artea in this video.)


Music:Patos Village

There's no other tricks though: No collapsing Doom Island or crushing Floatium or anything. The screen simply fades out, and we fade in a year later, in a certain town. Note, that despite some vague graphical similarities to Patos and the same music track, this town is not actually Patos.



Minim emerges from a house, followed by a woman. It seems that Minim has taken on a job to find the Ruby Apple for her. He starts to make his way out of town...



When someone calls out to him.

Music:Reunion, and...

Seena strolls up to him, and Minim is understandably befuddled by this turn of events.



Yeeeeah. Remember that bit with the little girl's father who was trapped down in the mines, and Seena went to rescue him in order to make her prediction come true? Turns out that was a plot point. You see, back when she was first introduced, Seena said her fortune telling had become freakishly accurate. She hadn't gotten better at fortune telling, she was literally rewriting reality to match what she said.

...and that's how Minim got suckered into being a part of the SOS Brigade.



So the reason she was resurrected was because she predicted it.



Minim doesn't find this very convincing, but he seems happy to get back to the way things used to be with them by saying he wouldn't have cried if he knew she'd be back. Being a very special boy, he doesn't realize that admitting he cried over her gives her ammo to tease him with.



He tries to smooth it over by saying he wasn't sad, he was pissed off. Because men aren't allowed to feel things like sadness, only rage. A whole year and resurrection later, Seena is still completely oblivious to why her plan might piss people off.



But Minim finally gets to lay into her about it. Her response is... strange. It makes it sound as though Erim really is evil, which didn't seem to be the case in the previous games. It also makes it sound as though Erim is a Miang-like entity, except instead of all women she only possess chicks with blue hair.

It casts the plot in a whole new light. Erim's exchange with Daos at the top of the Tower of Twilight made it sounds as though that was really Erim speaking, and her time as Lufia switched her over firmly to the side of good. But nope, it turns out that was Seena, fighting to keep Erim's Spiritual Force from overtaking her and making her evil.



And they invoke the "If the Sinistrals revive it's Game Over man, Game Over!" even though they've repeatedly been defeated. Minim pretends to understand what Seena is saying, but is still upset that she used him.



Seena says she doesn't feel Erim's Spiritual Force, but then Daos couldn't feel it either and Milka was thrown off the trail by smoke and mirrors, so that's not entirely comforting.

Also, Minim still considers Seena his friend.



She's happy that they are friends :3
Then she gets all up in his face, and he asks her why she's getting all quiet. To ruin the moment, she makes another jab at his intelligence when she pulls away from him.



They're... they're pretty casual with cracking jokes about death. Like... if the Living Incarnation of Death and Killing and Massacres said to me, "You should try dying, too," I'm gonna be a little bit unnerved. Then again, maybe Minim is. He does try to change the subject to her Godlike powers.



...that she no longer has access to. Apparently now that the Sinistrals are dead for good (again), the Spiritual Force is at rest and everyone is hemorrhaging levels and super powers like there's no tomorrow.



It's kind of a convenient excuse as to why characters would be at level 1 if they decided to make a sequel. Not that this is going to turn into a sequel hook or anything.

Anyway, Minim's taken on a job, which will require him to fight strong monsters.



Despite all evidence to the contrary, he says he'll need a good magician. Seena volunteers, but Minim tries to play it cool. Since he is bad at bluffing/calling bluffs, Seena starts to storm off and he hastily apologizes.



He also mentions that he's doing this case pro bono, and Seena isn't exactly pleased by this. Remember how big a deal she made about money during the whole Fugo debacle? She laments the tribulations she'll be facing by sending time with Minim, and then asks how the rest of the crew is doing.



Minim is unable to offer up anything more about their whereabouts beyond, "They're probably still alive!" which is really only helpful with regards to Randolph, who by all reasonable accounts should be dead by now.

Seena wants to see them all again.

Minim assures her they'll run into the others on their journey, because Doom Island landed in the unexplored Estoland.


Music:Finale

See, because exploring an unexplored continent/region will be like, a big adventure! And the party loves big adventures! So of course they'll be there!

...how this factors into the Ruby Apple quest, I'm not sure.

Anyway, the cheerful, upbeat music kicks in and that means it's time for a montage!

I like to pretend that a lot of these scenes happened over the course of the previous year, unless explicitly stated to be taking place a year after the Sinistrals died. It works a lot better than everyone suddenly getting an epiphany about going to Estoland.

Redwood





Tak is still hassling Ruby, Ruby is still cheating to stay out of his reaches. She's bored with hanging out at the casino that only has one card table and wants to go on an adventure. A random Gambler walks up to her and tells her that he heard a rumor about Doom Island landing in Estoland. This interests her, so she uses her two-headed coin to make the decision for her. She's a gambler, you see. You may have missed that subtle bit of characterization.

The Gambler walks away and Ruby gives the flighty Waitress from her introduction her two-headed coin as a good luck charm and takes off.

The Ocean




Deckard has gone insane from being isolated at sea for so long and begins to extoll his virtues to himself. When suddenly a giant squid jumps on the deck of the AA.

This is probably the best line in the game.

Anyway, he punts the S...squid off the boat and continues on with his crazy person rant about how powerful he is. His delusional ramblings reveal that he's decided to sail to Estoland to find stronger enemies. He's going to have a hard time of it, considering it is physically impossible to sail there, what with the player's ability to circumnavigate the entire globe without escaping the Southlands.

Tanba




Look guys character development character development there is a character with actual development look she is not static look look looooook.

Yurist is paying his respects to Jan when Sammi walks up. She says she no longer cries when she thinks about Jan (if you'll recall, when we left her after Jan's death, she said she couldn't stop crying). That's character development! It's not particularly good character development, but sometimes you have to take what you can get.

Sammi wants to know if that makes her a bad person, but Yurist says it doesn't because Jan will always be a part of her. He sets out on a journey to find the new world (Hint: It's Estoland), and says he'll come back when the wind stops blowing. Given he has this whole thing about going with the wind, I take this to mean that he wants to be buried here in Tanba, alongside his best buddy Jan.

Mologolo




How the fuck do they that Doom Island fell into the unexplored continent? Anyway, Isaac somehow calculated that Doom Island would fall to Estoland, and is now preparing to go do research on it.

I think this scene is implying that Lady!Assistant has a crush on Isaac. She's pretty concerned about his well-being. He takes off, promising to return even more awesome than before. I assume that means the light bulbs on his wings will flash different colors and he'll have a whole entourage of middle-aged rockers to play his guitar with.

Alstadt





Melphis is sitting alone on the throne and Randolph walks in, apparently because she called him. She asks him what he thinks about the new, non-evil Minister. She then requests his permission to leave the castle, because sure, a Queen should have to ask a soldier permission for that sort of thing. Randolph suspects that she wants to go to Estoland, and further believes that even if he said, "No," she'd still go.

He does have one condition: He must be allowed to accompany her. She rightfully considers him a burden, and he responds by trying to guilt her into becoming breeding stock. He vows to stay by her side until he dies, and probably afterwards, and the duo depart for Estoland.

Copley Woods




Mousse comes out of Maqurine's house, and she follows him to ask where he's going. He says goodbye in his special Muu-Muu-Muu language. Maq doesn't really understand what he's saying, but somehow interprets that he wants to travel across the sea. She says she'll miss him and wishes him well on his journey, and he trots off.

Rudo comes out and asks Maq where Mousse went, and she lies by telling him he's gone far away even though he couldn't be more than two floors away. Rudo thinks that's sad, but Maq's ok because she's got her man and that's all that matters.

Well, that, or she's stammering and still really disappointed that she had to settle for Rudo instead of Minim. It's really hard to interpret what exactly "I...I have you..." means.

Oh, and you'll get this scene regardless of whether or not you did this (easily missed) sidequest, so, uh, you could enjoy watching two characters you never met in a location you never saw in the ending for no apparent reason.

Leong Temple



The Temple has been rebuilt, the end times are upon us!

Aima walks up to Master's grave and lies about how she's not half as good as he was even though she literally punched the "ultimate Sinistral" to death and can solo Guard Daos, while Master barely scratch Gades. She sets out on a journey to train in Estoland and asks him to watch over her.

Midy



They don't even keep up the pretense that the Sinistrals are gone for good. Milka's going to Estoland, along with Artea, because Doom Island is there and that's all they have going on in their lives. Milka believes a New World is coming, presumably because the Sinistrals really will be killed off for reals.

Majari

Dei has a scene but it's really borin and talky and I didn't want to do the screenshots for it. Lurisa, the precocious miner's daughter is looking for him around the village, and he sneaks out of the shadows when she calls to him. He's decided to go on a journey of self-improvement, because since he met Minim he's decided to go straight. I suppose this also counts as character development.

Anyway, Lurisa has a crush on him and says that when he comes back in ten years, she's going to be a hottie and marry him. He likes this idea.

A certain village


Back on Seena and Minim's Reunion Bridge, Minim says the others are gonna to be so surprised to see Zombie!Seena. Neither character even entertains the thought that the others might not be that stoked to see the her, what with her being the Lying Incarnation of Death and a Zombie.



Minim demands that Seena promise him that she won't ever die again. She points out that he's being an idiot because she'll have to die someday, but he won't back down.



So, against her better judgment, Seena promises that she won't ever die again.


Music:The Journey Continues

By the way, they're in love and if they break up she'll turn into seafoam, or something. The two kiss as the screen fades to the credits.

(I was going to make a crack about her trying to eat his brains, but then I remembered it's Minim.)



After the credits, we come back to Minim and Seena. They pull away from their kiss and walk off together. I like to think they're walking hand-in-hand. :3


Music:Diary of Memories

And then you're treated to three results pages to make you feel bad about yourself.

• Elapsed Play Time is inaccurate because of the fast-forward button.
• Use of Inns is pretty self-explanatory.
• I am unclear if # of Battles includes the Ancient Cave or not.
• My # of Escapes is zero, because Minim ain't no chicken.
• I think the missing Treasures Opened are from the Dragon Eggs. I believe there's also some chests down at the bottom of Gologolo Island where the fire dragon busted through the wall.
• Welp, in spite of all the hidden items I showed off, I still came up short on Items Found. Like with the chests, I know there's something down where the fire dragon busted through the wall.
• Double Up Win tracks the highest damage you've dealt/won with Ruby's Double Up. The only time I used it was that one time I whiffed.

Hahaha Seena died a lot. The two Total Defeats were to Gades back at the beginning of the game.

We'll be looking at the A. Cave Results page with a little more detail next time, when we finish it and the Egg Dragon quest off. For now, just bask in the knowledge that the last screen you'd likely see in the game has the word "Victorys" on it.

Next Time: Iris isn't Iris

d'awww, they're friends again.

Lovers and Friends. Frenemies. Foeyay.

Bravo, Turnip! This is a wonderful LP.

Well, I laughed.

Congratulation on your many victorys during this LP! I'll be looking forward to more victorys in the sidequest roundup.

458 random floors later...
(That's a total of 859 when you add in the random floors covered in the regular game)
I'm finally done. Now to start editing screenshots, of which there are surprisingly few considering how much ground I covered.



# of Escapes and # of Battles do not include things that happen in the Ancient Cave.
Character Defeats and Monsters Defeated do. As you can see, Milka and Ruby reveal their true nature as Super Ultra Squishy Characters.
I did not defeat the Master, but the reward for beating him is stupid and pointless anyway and I didn't want to go back through the first 100 floors yet again.

Cripes, that more than doubled your play-time.

Though I suspect there's some save discrepency, since you used Inns an additional negative two times.

Play time is inaccurate because I was using fastforward. It really only took about six real life hours.

Chapter 27: Minim, the Master, the Goddess, the Dragon and the Final Party Member

Well folks, here we are. The final update. There's really no excuse for it to have taken four months to finish this. It should have been done by mid-November, at the latest, and certainly before Christmas. But, ok, whatever. We're finally here, and that's all that matters.


First of all, now that the game's been finished, a new option is available on the title screen. Start Over is the Lufia series's version of New Game +. Rather than letting you keep your equipment and levels, you'll now receive four times as much experience, LP and gold after battles. This will make doing things like getting Gades's sword and shield much easier.

But I have no intention of playing this game ever again, so I'm just loading up a save from the Tower of Twilight from before fighting Guard Daos and Erim so Seena will still be in the party.

Sidequest V: Completely Clearing the Cave

Our first order of business is to head back to Parethea Shrine and pick up the Wind Flute for Yurist. As you'll recall back when we first went to the Ancient Cave, Minim wished for the Best Weapons! and I said you can pick four per wish, but I was only picking up three to preserve some illusion of challenge. Well, before heading back to the Ancient Cave, I snagged the Wind Flute as my fourth item.

The Wind Flute is equipped in the weapon slot and, when Yurist selects the attack command, will heal the entire party for free based on his current HP. The higher his HP, the more he can heal. If he only has 1 HP (say, if he was killed in one battle and not healed before the next), he'll "Miss" the entire party if he tries.



Thanks to this free healing (not to mention the fact that Minim is basically fully armored with blue treasure equips), Minim is able to run down to the Master quickly and without much hassle.

Blue Chests, Run #3:

• Iris Blade: ATP + 500. Can only be equipped by women who are not Aima. This is unfortunate in that she is the only one who could actually make any use of it.
• Light Helm: DFP + 130, reduces damage from Light/Holy attacks. Deckard and Randolph's best headgear.
• Old Sword: ATP + 400. For Minim, Deckard and Randolph. Worthless.

Minim once again wishes for the Best Weapon! on the 100th floor, and hoofs it back to Parethea Shrine.



This time, he picks up:

• Power Suit for Isaac, which raises his DFP by a whopping 500 points. Since it raises Isaac's SF by 10, it also increases his SPD and MP by 10.
• Fortune D. for Ruby, which raises her DFP by 300 and her SF by 10 (so, again, SPD and MP by 10). While wearing the Fortune D., Ruby will sometimes absorb an enemy's attack. It seems to be on a per-round basis, so like, she'll absorb every attack that comes her way for a whole round of combat. It may be limited to just elemental magic and elemental-based attacks though.
• Invsbl.Clk for Dei. It raises his SPD by 230 (effectively 240 thanks to the +10 SF), and has the same absorption property as Ruby's Fortune D.. Well, maybe not exactly the same, but he can sometimes absorb oncoming attacks.
• Decker Blade for Deckard, it raises his ATP by 500 (or maybe 490, I can't remember. The extra ten SF points makes this stuff hard to remember).

All this armor, plus Deckard's new sword and Yurist's healing, will make the next trip even more of a cakewalk.

When Minim tries to Warp to Gulduck, the game crashes. This is a bug that happens a lot: If you try to cast Warp while on the island of Parethea, the game will glitch and hang up just showing the Warp animation. It's a good thing I saved after finishing my last AC run! (I still had to go back through the Shrine to get the weapons)



Blue Chests, Run #4:

• Wind Buckl: A crappy shield for women who aren't Aima. DFP + 28.
• BunnyBlade: I don't need this at all.
• Flame Amlt.: For women who aren't Aima, raises REG by 20 and reduces damage from fire attacks.
• Light Helm: Again.
• StringSting: Should be "String Singer," which is a type of amp. Here, it's a weapon for Yurist and Isaac with an ATP of 352. It's not that useful since Isaac has the Custom 65 and Yurist has his Wind Flute.

• Luna Blade for Randolph. It raises his ATP by 666 (+ 10 Red SF), and that will always put him pretty close to 999 ATP.
• Queen Whip for Melphis, which raises her ATP by 400 (+10 REG and MAP from the +10 Blue SF) and always criticals.
• Artea Bow for Milka. It raises her ATP by 200 and her REG and MAP by 100, as well as Green SF + 10 to boost her HP and DFP. It hits all enemies.
• Dark Card for Seena, which gives MAP + 280 and REG + 120 (and the usual + 10 to her SF). While equipped with the Dark Card, Seena can cast the holy spell Zap.

Of these, Milka's Artea Bow is the only one that's particularly useful. It basically allows her to end every Ancient Cave battle before floor 70 with her first action. The rest of it? Pretty much junk.



Blue Chests, Run #5:

• Bunnysuit
• Old Helm
• Wind Buckl
• EarthBlade
• StringSting
• Old Helm

• Pearl Hlmt
• BunnyBlade
• Iris' Armor: Finally something new and useful. It's for women (not Aima) and raises DFP by 250 and MAP by 200. It's arguably the best pieces of armor that women can equip. There's one other that has slightly slower DFP but raises REG and prevents instant death that I would personally consider better, but it's also an extremely rare find in the Ancient Cave.
• Custom 65: At least now both Isaac and Yurist can equip them at the same time.
• Recv Armor: DFP + 210, for Randolph and Minim. It nullifies confusion and paralysis and is only slightly weaker than the Prl Armor, so it's good to give to Minim so he can hand the Daos Ring to someone else.

Minim's fifth run is markedly different from his previous trips into the Ancient Cave: This time, he's exploring every nook and cranny to find all the treasure and enemies he can. You see, this time, he's preparing, and 90% of his success relies on if the AC generates the right Ancient Texts.

Spoiler: It doesn't. He manages to find two copies of Shadow Dance and Split Attk, and that is far from ideal. What would be useful: Any of the IP attacks that knock off a specific amount of enemy HP (Head Crush, Upright, Final Dance or D-End Flash), or Scatter Hit.

Other stuff to be on the look out for: G.Charms, Miracles and GoddessTears.



On the 100th floor, a new wish has appeared in place of Best Weapons!: Fight me! The Master's all like, "Uh... I'm a god. Do you seriously want to fight me?" and Minim, being Minim, is totally up for it.



This isn't really a fight, per se. It's like in Lufia 2: You have three turns to kill it before it self destructs, and during those three turns he'll heal your party up. The difference here is that you can't just heal him to win the fight, you actually have to knock off his 9999 or so HP.

On his first turn, he restores the party's HP. On the second, their MP. He just checks the situation on the third turn, and at the beginning of the forth he kills himself.

Unfortunately, my resources were not enough to take him down. I may have been able to defeat him if Aima's Shadow Dance hit the full seven times instead of twice. I even changed Yurist's weapon to the Custom 65 and gave him the other copy of Shadow Dance, but he too only hit twice.

I tried multiple times, reloading save states from the 99th floor and reconfiguring my party, but nothing worked. If he self destructs, you'll be kicked back to the lobby. I do not know if you get to keep the blue treasures you acquired in that run or not.

If you do manage to defeat him, you'll be able to go behind the counter in the Ancient Cave's Lobby and start on floor 101. This will provide a more Lufia 2-like Ancient Cave experience, except you'll probably get wiped out by the first set of mimics you come across because they'll be the same high level ones from the deeper part of the first hundred floors.

Adios!

That's how it could have happened, but how about this?



This time, Minim wishes for Nothing. The Master is surprised by how pure-hearted Minim is (note: It's not pure-heartedness, it's stupidity) and decides to reward him. The screen flashes and Minim says nothing happened. Master corrects him, saying that he'll see what he did when he wins his first battle back on the surface, and teleports Minim back to the lobby.

Could it be... the Master will join us as our final party member when we finish the next battle?!

No.

The reward is actually everyone will gain four levels after the next battle. I don't know if you'll get these levels if you turn around and enter the Ancient Cave and win your next battle in there. I doubt it, and even if you could it would be kind of a waste: You'd either start on the first floor where enemies pose no threat to you, or you'll start on floor 101 and still be handicapped from not having run the first 99 floors for levels and IP attacks. It's really not a very good wish.

That's all well and good, but here's what really happened:



Minim wishes to make the Ancient Cave go all the way down to floor 200. The Master is all like, "...seriously?" and then Minim sounds like a pervert and so the Master reluctantly agrees to do so. He disappears, leaving behind a staircase.

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Real Ancient Cave


Floors 101 - 110 contain a mix of all the enemies from the first 99 floors, as well as these fellas: Coops are a new type of enemy unique to the Ancient Cave. On the map they look like yellow skeletons and... well, unlike the other types of enemies we'll be seeing here in a few minutes, they're completely forgettable.

Typically, we'll be seeing a new, unique enemy type introduced every ten floors, and then they'll stick around in the mix for the next twenty or thirty.


Floors 111 - 120 contains the enemies from map-portions of Fante, and these fellas: D.Summoners have red hoods on the map and are powerful mages. The worst trick they have up their sleeves is Thunder, which will hit a single ally for ~300 HP. They kept killing Milka over and over with this, because it hits for more than her maximum HP. They can also cast Dark Aura to deal pathetic darkness-elemental damage to one row, and Perish to kill a single character instantly.

Instant death is going to become a thing down here, you see.

D.Summoners will live up to their name by summoning alliesusing Call Companions to bring in Leechs and Chariots. Both of these types of enemies can be steamrolled quite easily, so Thunder is still the only thing you really need to worry about.

• Safety Hat: For Isaac. DFP + 50, MAP + 20.
• Prl Armor
• Dmnd Ball: For Seena. DFP + 100, MAP + 100, effective on hard-enemies.
• Ice Amulet
• Recv Armpr
• Iris Blade

Floors 121 - 130 have enemies from the Monster Track and Leydock's Mansion, and introduce GoldGolems. I, uh... they're in the same category as Coops. They aren't interesting and die quickly, so quickly that I had to check to see if they were enemies from the regular game or not. On the map, they're stationary, so you can avoid them if you wish.



Floor 131 - 140 is where shit starts to get real. Minim spawned on floor 131 two steps away from a G.Demon. They have a unique map sprite, and frankly seem like an out of depth encounter because they're nastier than most of the other unique enemies here. If you aren't prepared for them, or worse, let them get the drop on you (because of course they chase you on the map), you will find yourself completely wiped out.

G.Demons have high defense. Like, so high that Deckard was only doing double digits to them. I think they count as a "hard" enemy. They usually come in packs of three and can act twice per turn. They cast Mirror, which is no big deal but it makes it seem like they're weak to elemental damage, use Thunder with a greater fierceness than a D.Summoner (Dealing ~360 to a high RES character like Seena), breathe Hell Flame for about 300 HP to a column or row of characters (I can't remember which and am too lazy to look back and see), and Demonic Aura, which doesn't seem to be too nasty because I don't have anything written down about it except that Dei kept absorbing it.

Oh, and they cast Destroy. You know, the party-wide instant death spell, which means you're pretty much guaranteed to see it twice per round. I told you to keep an eye open for G.Charms!

So how does one survive an encounter with these beasts? Pray you found Typhoon Toss earlier in the dungeon. For whatever reason, it cuts through "hard" enemies like this and deals normal damage... which just so happens to be enough to OHKO these guys. There are a couple of other "hit all enemy" skills that will work, but Typhoon Toss is preferable because it's cheap (40 IP) and Aima can wear the Cat Ring so she'll get to act before they can begin their onslaught.

And with that, I have revealed the secret to the Ancient Cave: The only resource you're really managing is Aima's IP to make sure she has at least 40 IP at all times so she can bust out Typhoon Toss when needed. This means that there will be times that you'll engage with weaker enemies and draw the battle out by defending with everyone so she can recharge her IP gauge to full before moving on.


Floors 141 - 150 introduce the Sky Dragon. You'll be able to identify them on the map by looking for the triceratops that's chasing your ass down. Compared to the horror of the G.Demons, these guys are nothing. Sure, they can act three times a round and cast Strongest to fully heal themselves and Mirror (I really don't know what attack magic all these monsters are so afraid of). Their regular attacks don't pack too much of a bite, so really the only thing you have to look out for is Blazing Storm, which hits one column, then one row, for 150~250 damage, which is... so not bad, compared to spamming Destroy and Thunder.

Plus, you know, the size of their sprites limits them to just two per battle.


Floors 151-160 are where you'll start seeing Blk.Dragons. They have high DEF and HP. Their HP is high enough that Aima can't wipe them out with Typhoon Toss. They act twice per round and can cast Destroy (...sigh) and Dark Splash and an attack called Speed Poison, which poisons three characters and may deal a little bit of damage. Again, compared to the G.Demons, these guys aren't too bad. They're scarier than the Sky Dragons, certainly.

Like the previous two new enemies, they also chase you down on the map, and they have the same sprite as the Blu.Dragons from the main game. Remember those? I said they were tough and not worth fighting? Yeah, those guys are push overs now, especially compared to these new enemies.


These are the floors where we see the last type of Mimic enemy, the PandoraBox. They are also quite a bit scarier than the earlier types of Mimics. I think they get to act twice, and will typically use Rage to hit the whole party for physical damage. You can see in the above screen shots a comparison from the beginning of a battle and the beginning of the second round just how much damage they can do.


Floors 171-180 spawn Gld.Dragons, who are mercifully stationary on the map. I'm not sure how often they attack per round because I didn't write it down, but here's what they got: Strongest to fully heal themselves, Zap to hit the whole party with holy magic, and Star Dust Breath to deal around 300 damage to the whole party. It was like 400 to Aima. They've also got an ability called Golden Aura to raise their own ATP, as if they weren't nasty enough.

• Alum Fist: Lord how I wish this was an Alum Staff.
• Pearl Hlmt
• Lght Armor: This is Minim's strongest armor, raising his DFP by 240 and REG by like 60. It's not quite as practical as the Rcv Armor, but I suppose if you're going up against an enemy you know can't confuse you it might be worth equipping.

Behemoths are the final enemies introduced here, first putting in an appearance on the 181 floor and hanging around all the way to the bottom. They're stationary, which is good because they strong. They can act twice a round and deal about 180 per regular attack, ~300 to a column with Earthquake and ~320 to one row with Ground Shock.



Finally, the two-hundredth floor. The first room is unique in that it's structured like all the other towers we've seen, except instead of a raised platform in the center, it's just an empty hole that you have to circle around to get to the next room.


Before we move on, here's a look at the party. I never found a worthwhile piece of body armor for Aima, so her DFP is pretty lacking. I tried to compensate by raising her SF up (which could go to higher levels than normal thanks to me not having to use LP to buy magic), but it only took her so far.

My IP skills aren't really ideal, either:
Minim

• Head Crush
• Split Attk
• Grounder
• Sky Spiral
• Silhouette
• Bolt Sword

Dei

• Force Wave
• Lock-On
• Vital Aim

Aima

• Pressure Pt
• ShadowDance
• TyphoonToss

Deckard

• CrackBuster
• Split Attk
• Critical
• Rapid Hit
• Afterimage
• Dark Sword

Yurist

• Pressure Pt
• FalconDance
• TyphoonToss
• Revive

Ruby

• Card Stream

Isaac

• Lock-On
• Hit & Hide

Milka

• Force Wave

For support:
Multiple copies of Force Wave is good, it raises the whole party's DFP and REG. Having multiple copies of Lock-On is also good, it lowers the target's SPD and DFP. Vital Aim is good, because it lowers all of the target's stats. Revive is going to be unexpectedly useful.

For offense:
Yikes. Head Crush (knocks off one-eighth of the target's HP) is the only attack I have that removes a specific chunk of HP, and it's the worst of this type in the game. ShadowDance is super expensive and I would greatly prefer Shatter Hit. I think Deckard pretty much gets stuck using CrackBuster because it's his cheapest move, and not an especially great one at that. This is going to be an uphill battle.



Waiting on raised platform in the second room is Iris. Please do not confuse Iris with Iris. They're completely different. As different as pumpkins and squash, understand? This is Iris, spelled イリス, of the Iris Treasures fame. Erim's alter ego from Lufia II is Iris, spelled アイリス.

Anyway, she congratulates Minim and his cohorts for making this far into the Ancient Cave, and says that it would be rude if she held back any. Make no mistake, she won't be holding back.



It says Iria because on s QWERTY keyboard, the "A" and the "S" keys are right next to each other and Natsume is incompetent. She's the most powerful enemy in the game and can level even the most prepared teams. In this form, she has high defense and her abilities tend to be more support-based. Lock-On is useful to knock her DFP down to where you can actually scratch her.

Rainbow Attack will hit the whole party with assorted negative status effects. Being able to block Confusion is therefore very important.



NoblBlood will reduce the target to zero MP and 1 HP. This isn't too bad if she uses on characters Aima and Deckard, but when she hits a Valor caster like Milka or Yurist, things can get hairy.



Iris will eventually change forms. Let's call the first one "Praying Goddess" and this one "Holy Terror." Her DFP drops significantly and she switches to more aggressive attacks. When she shifts into Holy Terror-mode, she unleashes Divine Weapon, a series of seven rainbow-bursts that hit random party members for around 100 per hit. Pictured above: Ruby absorbing the bursts that hit her. She actually absorbed every burst that came her way that round, and there were like four of them in a row. Go Ruby!

Sometimes Holy Terror Iris will decide that she just wants to end the battle and uses Energy Break. (Energy Breaker was a SFC game developed by Neverland and published by Taito. It featured a redpink-haired heroine and a blind cerulean-haired fortune teller with a love for flowers and who may be more than she appears)

Energy Break is basically Iris's version of the Sinistrals' Spiritual Force attacks. It has the same animation as those, except with rainbow colors. It's also absurdly powerful: It did 729 to everyone in the party (except Dei, who evaded). The front line was wiped out and not revived before the end of the turn resulting in Total Defeat.



Losing to Iris causes her to kick you back to the lobby. TRY AGAIN NEXT TIME.



Let's... let's try that again. Holy Terror Iris's Vanish isn't a support ability. It's not a "Vanish to avoid enemy attacks" or anything like that, it's more along the lines of "Incinerate you until you no longer exist." It only hits one target, but deals an insane amount of damage (nearly 900 against Aima).

For whatever reason, Holy Terror Iris loves casting Resistance, too. I... I can't imagine why she would cast this spell, but she does. She'll also use Zap to hit the whole party for around 250 damage.



When she shifts back to Praying Goddess mode, she'll use Final Gurdian, which will reflect all attacks directed at her that round back at the party. It also looks like her stats are restored when she switches forms, so keep on using Lock-On and Vital Aim when she switches.

As the Praying Goddess, she'll sometimes cast Reduce, which is nothing at this point in the game. Gone are the days when Daos could cast it to OHKO characters, she's barely pulling off 150 against low REG characters like Deckard.



The next time she used Energy Break, Deckard managed to just barely survive, thus preventing Total Defeat. Yurist got a chance to shine and actually used his Revive IP. It restores 30 HP to everyone in the party, even the dead ones. Iris was kind enough to use that turn to shift forms, which allowed him to revive everyone and Deckard to use a Miracle on Minim. A few Champion X castings and GoddessTears over the next turn brought everyone back up to speed.

For the most part, this battle was won by Minim using Head Crush to slowly chip away at her total HP, with Yurist constantly healing and Aima using ShadowDance if she lasted long enough to get 90 IP. Deckard used CrackBuster a lot, but it wasn't really contributing that much.

Milka, Isaac and Dei did their parts, too: Milka healing with magic when needed and casting Force Wave to buff everyone, Isaac using Lock-On to lower her DFP, and Dei using Vital Aim and Force Wave. Ruby tossed out her share of Miracles to bring Milka back to life.


The battle ended in the only appropriate way: With Aima punching her in the fucking face.



After the fight: Iris backs down and acknowledges Minim's strength. She wonders if he's strong enough to defeat Lord Alekdias, who was last seen in the opening to Lufia 2. He seems to be the head of the Lufiaverse's pantheon, but his role was never elaborated on in any meaningful way, he was just named dropped a few times. Allegedly, the Ruin Chasers was going to be about defeating him.

Anyway, Iris immediately regrets saying that, and offers up a reward for defeating her:



The Rainbow is an accessory that, when equipped to a member of the active party, prevents enemies from spawning in a dungeon and on the world map. Basically the Moogle Charm.

D-End Flash is an IP for Deckard. It takes all 100 of his IP to use and will halve the target's HP. You can actually find this here in the Ancient Cave, if you're super lucky, and it'll make both Iris and the Master jokes. It's pretty unnecessary for the regular game though.

Iris returns Minim to the lobby, where he's given back all his equipment and can finally put the Ancient Cave behind him and start on the final subquest.

Sidequest VI: The Exasperating Excavation of the Eggs

Let's go get the rest of the Dragon Eggs. You see, the reason I did the Ancient Cave first was because I wanted the Rainbow so I could avoid all the battles going back down to the Egg Dragon over and over and in whatever dungeons the eggs randomly decide to spawn in.



Egg Collection, round 2:

• Gulduck Inn
• Gulduck Item Shop
• Midy Item Shop
• Big Mouth's Lair, Azoles Cave
• Elcoranp Item Shop
• Alstadt Treasury, second floor
• Bottom of Tomis Cave
• Minim's house, Patos]

Minim wishes for the 10 Seed set. He will never put these seeds to use.



Egg Collection, round 3:

• B11 of Pirate Island, in the cage room.
• Cobe Inn
• Mologolo Item Shop
• Bottom of Gologolo Cave
• Two in the Tanba Item Shop
• Midy Item Shop
• Midy Inn

10 Croquettes, please. Minim will never put these to use, either.



Egg Collection, round 4:

• Alstadt Castle, top floor
• B11 of Pirate Island, in the cage room.
• House in Majari village
• Bottom of Broffo Cave
• Two in Gologolo Cave
• Tanba Item Shop
• Midy Item Shop

The Egg Dragon seems mighty perturbed that Minim brought the eggs back yet again, because I mean, what more could he possibly want??? The Egg Dragon's given him so many useful things already!



The Egg Dragon seems plenty amused by Minim's request to fight and name drops Maxim, and agrees to fight.

Since this takes place in the normal game, we have access to all our usual standbys, so while he technically has the most HP of anything in the game, he's not nearly as intimidating as Iris. What he can do, or at least what he was able to do before I killed him: Turn Over, which deals around 250 to everyone and can cause confusion and Scrambled Egg which either did massive (1365+ damage) to Deckard or 250 to Yurist, according to my screenshots. See, Aima was confused and sometimes the screenshots end up out of order, so I have no way of knowing if it was Aima or the Egg Dragon that made Deckard go splat. And I'd believe either.

Anyway, I remembered that I needed to max out Ruby's Double Up for the results screen, so she took a crack at it:


Although it only displays 9999 damage, you better believe it hits for the full 25,600. Unfortunately, the Egg Dragon in one of two enemies in the entire game that can survive 25,600 damage. The other is Iris. (The Egg Dragon has 60,000 HP, Iris has 50,000)

It's ok, Ruby finished it up with her regular (Iris Blade'd) attack.


Mr. or Mrs. Dragon is worth a ton of experience, gold and LP.



The Egg Dragon is impressed that the party won, and seems to believe that the new, human-dominant era is finally here. It vows to see this will its own eyes, and requests to join the party. Minim accepts him onto the team.



And is rewarded with the Egg Sword, a completely useless weapon that does nothing but raise CLT by 5 (this is something that 99% of the weapons in the game do, but those weapons also raise, you know, ATP).

Egg Dragon is the final party member, and is yet another Red SF character. It starts at level 1, but all its stats are maxed. Just like Mousse, it can't actually be controlled and will instead act on its own accord. Despite how it looks, it isn't a particularly useful party member, and can be a pretty big liability against the remaining bosses. You see, it can't equip anything, which means it can't block confusion, and, well, you don't want it to be confused.

Well, that's Lufia: The Legend Returns everybody.
All 859 floors of it.