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

Chapter 3: Minim and the War on the Underclass



Fugo, the Rich Man, has a mansion on the northwest end of town, and he's building a second right next to it. Rich people are pretty wasteful like that.



More importantly, there's a carpenter named Gantz who's working on it. And of course, since he's a NPC, "working on it" means "standing in front of it doing nothing." Minim recalls that Lamika's mother asked him if he knew any carpenters, and brings it up with Gantz. Gantz is more than willing to accept the job, even though he doesn't know who or what a Lamika is or where the project will be, but he has to finish building Fugo's frivilous second mansion first.


Music:Enhancement

As Minim approaches the main house, he hears Fugo yelling about a thief, and sure enough, both Fugo and the Thief come barreling out the front door. The thief's pretty ballsy to leave through the front door, don't you think?



The thief stops dead in his tracks when he sees Minim and Seena blocking his escape route, but suddenly, for the purposes of drama, a young girl happens to stroll onto the scene. Minim calls the girl over to him, despite the fact that it would cause her to her run straight in front of the thief. Predictably, the thief takes the little girl hostage and uses her to negotiate his escape.

Wait. No, that doesn't happen. Instead, he charges at Minim. The two briefly skirmish before he leaps over Minim's head and scurries away from the mansion.



Minim and Seena both express surprise by the thief's forgoing a hostage situation in favor of a direct attack, and Minim comments on how strong he was.

Fugo begs the two to catch the thief for him.



Minim's reaction is surprisingly realistic: He wonders why Fugo would ask him to do something like that. The answer is because Minim and Seena are the only ones to get a good look at his face, and since they look like fighters, they'd be perfect for the job. I would hate to live in an RPG, because if you needed anything, you'd have to wait on a player character to swing by and do it for you.



He strikes a deal with the two: If they catch the thief and recover the stolen gold, he'll give them half as a reward. Seena thinks it's an excellent deal.

About that time, the little girl, named Melissa, interrupts. It turns out she's Fugo's daughter. He asks if she's ok, and when she says she is, he shoos her off so he can continue his important business (which involves finalizing his deal with Minim and Seena, then running off to count how much gold he lost). I wonder what they're getting at.



Well, I would wonder, except the game spells it out for the player immediately after Fugo returns to his mansion. Minim doubts that they should have agreed to this because Fugo's kind of a jerkwad, but Seena says that they can't just let a thief run around free.

For what it's worth, Melissa vouches for the thief. So to run it down: We have a greedy rich man who loves money more than his daughter and a thief that avoids taking hostages and has little children supporting him. I wonder which character will become our next party member.



Inside the mansion, the chef wants to cook the thief, Fugo makes a thinly-veiled threat about how if the thief isn't caught soon, something bad will happen, and a woman with a "rare" sprite named Etral asks Minim to catch the thief soon. I say "rare" sprite because I'm pretty sure this one only gets used like two times in the whole game, and this character serves no function whatsoever. Also she's a red sprite (...), which are pretty rare so as to make the hero look more special.



Now that Minim and Seena have agreed to catch a thief, they do the most important thing they can: Loot the damn place. There's a Potion in the tree next to the new mansion, a Hi Bomb in the painting on the second floor, a Miracle in the library, a Wisdon Seed on the desk in Etral's room (or maybe it's Melissa's room?), and a Skill Seed in Fugo's fireplace.

Wisdom Seeds boost WIS by a few points, which is related to REG. while Skill Seeds boost MP by a few points.


Music:Cave # 1

There's a gateway cave near Majari Village that we can't enter yet because the door is broken. I just thought I'd show you our arbitrary barrier for this sequence.

The thief, however, is seeking shelter in Slani Cave, a hole in the ground southwest of Albano. Unlike previous areas, there's no "entryway" for this cave: It's straight dungeon the second Minim steps in.

The neat thing about Slani is that it is filled with Gold 100 items, which can be sold for 100 gold. It's a decent place to farm for cash while you're on Epsis.



New, vaguely important IP: Holy Attack. It deals holy damage to one enemy, which is generally a handy attribute. Sadly, it requires Green SF, and Minim doesn't have a companion with Green SF. Perhaps he will by the end of this update??? (He won't)



The little candle holders are one of this cave's destructible pieces, the others are the vine'd walls.

New IP: Concentrate raises MAP by a bit, and can be used by most of the magic-oriented characters (and Minim)... but it really isn't that useful. I'll probably stick it on Seena, because why not?



New IP: Cooking. Exclusively for ladies, this IP attack will cause them to perform a regular attack. If the attack kills the target, it'll be turned into an item. Since it is female-exclusive, that means there's exactly one character who can use it effectively, and believe me, she's gonna have much better stuff to use her IP on.

The yellow-winged bats running around in Slani Cave are Bees, proving that despite what Bill Watterson would have you believe, Bats are Bugs.



On B4, Minim finds two new items: Sweet Water, which will destroy all enemies on the current floor, and Cats Eye, which will nullify all traps on the current floor. Cats Eye are mostly for when you come to a room that has a trap in the entryway. Sweet Water is best horded for later in the game when it decides to start pulling dick moves.

The thief is hanging around on B5. There's also a save point off to the side. Seena and Minim corner the thief, who comments on their persistence. Eh, I dunno. This is literally the second time they've met, and the first time was happenstance, so they aren't that persistent.

The dirty thief swears there's no reason for them to come after him, because he's really a good guy, see? Minim mispronounces "villain," and says that as a hero, it's his duty to stop bad guys. I guess he's technically correct, but as we'll see by the end of this update, "hero" isn't quite the word that accurate describes Minim.

The thief is all like, "If you're a hero, you shouldn't help rich folks" and calls Minim stupid.



Deep breaths everyone. This prompts a tedious exchange between Seena and Minim, where he wonders why people call him stupid when meet him, and Seena (correctly) suggests that it's because he is stupid. Minim whines about her picking on him, and she shurgs it off, saying it was only a joke (and calling him stupid again in the process).



The thief finds this whole thing as tedious as the player, and lucky for him, he's able to just kind of walk off while the two bicker. Some of us don't have that luxury. Seena tells Minim to stop being such a whiny brat and reminds him that they have a job to do. Minim turns to confront the thief, only to find that he's gone.

The two decide that he couldn't have gotten far and resolve to look around some more. This will prove to be a gross underestimation on their part, because he's crossed roughly 1/3 of the continent by now.



There are stairs leading down to more dungeon, but Minim won't go down that way, insisting that they need to find the thief. I'm not sure how he knows the dirty rotten scumbag didn't go farther into the dungeon, because that would have been my assumption if I had been there.

There's a Miracle in the torch behind where the thief was standing, and followng the direction he walked off in they find that he apparently carved through the wall by the save point to make a short path to the stairs leading back up.

I do not foresee a career in criminal investigation and apprehension for Minim and Seena.



On the way back up, new enemies have popped up: Jgl.Flowers run around the walls of rooms and can use Paralysis Pollen to paralyze one row and inflict sleep and poison with their regular attacks. Mosquitos are little twerps with bat sprites (blue wings, Bats are Bugs!) that can use an attack called Vampire to drain a very small number of HP from the target. Like, 2 HP. They're inconsequential.



The greeter in Albano says that the thief is hiding out in Majari, so after taking a short nap and saving at the church, Minim and Seena head up north. The greeter in Majari, a young boy named Kobin, says that no one suspicious has come to the village.



The townspeople try to play dumb, but a precocious little girl (the one who was afraid of the Tower of Death last update spills the beans that a fella named Dei is in town. I suppose the number of small children involved in the the plot is part of the Faustian deal they made that allowed the player characters to be mostly twenty-somethings.

Minim sells off all the Gold 100 he picked up in Slani, which comes out to 600 gold, and purchases a Cloth Helm for himself, boosting his DFP by 10 compared to the old Cap he bought in Patos.


Music:Enhancement

To advance the plot, Minim has to try and leave the village. When he does, something makes an ominous growling noise. A Pokemon charges into town toward Kobin, but the thief pops in just in time to stop it. Minim, the self-proclaimed "hero," is far more concerned with the thief's sudden appearance than the monster attacking defenseless children. This is getting to be a pattern for him, isn't it?

The thief tells Minim and Seena to help Kobin, who is apparently standing there wetting his pants because the "hero" has yet to make a single move to try and stop the monster from eating his face.



Seena rush up to Kobin and escort him off screen. Half a second later, the two return and offer to help the thief fight the monster.



The thief is a fellow named Dei (age: 24), and he'll be the third party member. Right now, he's practically useless because he's nearly naked in terms of armor. His Yellow SF adds one toMax MP and SPD per level. Dei is clearly the game's Thief. He's the fastest character in the game, has a few unique IP attacks, and will be able to equip bows so he can attack from the back row. There will likely be a few boss battles that come down to him tossing out GoddessTears every turn to prevent the team's horrible death.

I took a second to upgrade everyone's SF and teach Minim Head Crush and Bolt Attack to both him and Dei.


Music:Boss Battle

Hey guys can you tell what mistake I made?

Dei starts with the IP skill Grab Loot, which is unique to him. For 10 IP, he can steal an item from enemies. Most bosses have Miracles, which you might as well take.



Here's a thing about Belumie: It has an attack called Gold Rush which will tear one row a new one. Since all my characters on one row, this is very bad. Especially whenit's hitting Seena for 31 HP and her max is 44. Dei doesn't fare much better.

Minim opened the battle with Head Crush, and then he and Dei spammed Bolt Attack until Dei dropped dead. Belumie fell on the next turn.



Dei, still labeled as "Thief," thanks Minim and Seena for saving Kobin. Seena asks why the monster attacked, prompting Dei to reveal a stack of gold bars he stole from Fugo's mansion.



He reveals that Fugo keeps gold-eating monsters as pets. That seems... counter-productive? He's supposed to be a greedy fellow, but he keeps pets that literally eat his wealth and... I dunno. Let's just run with it. Seena is livid about this, because she is a champion of the underclass.

Fugo makes his entrance, furious at Minim and Seena for killing his precious pet. Seena yells at him for having such a stupid pet in the first place, and he insinuates she's a poor. Minim tries to calm her down, and then... then she goes "Hissss! at Fugo, which I find utterly charming.

Minim says that Fugo shouldn't keep dangerous pets, and he responds that they wouldn't be dangerous if they were fed properly. Good job Dei, you nearly got a little kid killed because you just had to thieve some gold.



Fugo gets his britches all up in a bundle because they were supposed to be finding the thief, not killing beloved family pets. Dei mans up and admits that he's the thief. Fugo decides that he won't... press charges? Throw them in his dungeon? Whatever. He won't punish them for murdering his pet, but he won't give them the reward he promised, either.

Seena takes this about as well as one would expect her to, and Fugo asks her how much she thinks Belumie cost. She guestimates 100,000 gold, but Minim doesn't think it could be that much, saying that at the most it would be half that. Fugo laughs at these guesses, saying that they're not even close and once again calling them poor.



With Dei in tow, he starts to head back to Albano, but not before snatching the gold bars Dei stole. Minim and Seena, being the heroic heroes that they are, decide to go beat up the law abiding citizen because he's a jerkface.



But before they can, Kobin runs by on his way to go save Dei from Fugo. He reveals that Dei is Robin Hood, as if any of you doubted that from the first time he showed up on screen. Minim applauds Kobin's courage, but says that he and Seena will take care of it because they're better equipped to fight monsters than poor little Kobin. Well, Minim certainly is.

Kobin gives them an Ancient Text for Dei called Dash Attack, which is uses the same calculation as a regular attack, except it uses SPD instead of ATP. It's perfect for Dei. Unless I get a Sky Blade



Over in Albano, rebellious young'un Melissa tells Minim that her father probably put Dei in their secret basement, and that she's not allowed to play in the room with all the books. Minim is able to find the one book on the shelf that serves as the trigger for the secret passage. The servant in the room feigns surprise at the existence of such a thing.



In the room leading down to the dungeon, there's a Miracle shoved in the suit of armor and a Bug Crush sword in a chest. The Bug Crush is effective on bug-type enemies, like bats. It would probably be a good idea to equip it.


Music:Ensnaring Maze

How does one even build a randomly generatd dungeon beneath their house? Sadly, this will not be the weirdest thing we find in some rich guy's basement. There are more copies of Dash Attack down here, which makes me wonder just how Kobin got ahold of his. Another IP skill is Lock-On, which reduces a target's DFP and SPD by 25%. Minim can learn it, but it requres Yellow SF, and he doesn't have that right now.



The bats down here are actually Atk.Beetles, which are a very good reason to equip the Bug Crush, because their hits hurt. The ghosts are Willowisps, which resist Seena's Light spell, can cast Flash for some serious pain, and use an ability called Curse with lowers the target's DFP. The Skeleton Ladies are a tacky shade of pink and can hit things with swords.



New IP: Instinct, which is ladies-only and should probably Intuition, allows them to see what items can be stolen from an enemy.

What it says vs What it does II
The IceBoomer, along with all boomerang items, is described as "Deals damage to flying enemies." It should read, "A aerial attack against enemies." "Aerial" isn't an attribute or anything, it's just saying that boomerangs are thown at enemies. Also the IceBoomer deals Chill damage, natch.



Dei is being held on B8. There's a Lthr Shld in the grating on the wall, as well as a save point and heal spot. At the east end of the hall, Minim and Seena come across a horde of treasure as well as a monster going all OM NOM NOM on it. Minim is suprised by this, despite being told repeatedly that Fugo's pets eat gold. Seena is pissed and yells at the monster, swearing to kill it. I'm telling ya, she's a champion for the underclass, that one.


Music:Boss Battle

There's not much to says about Belamie. I think Golden Dawn hits a whole row, and Golden Lance hits one character. Great Horn hits one character and managed to OHKO Seena, so I guess it's reasonably dangerous. That's right, Seena failed to make it through another boss battle. Sigh.

Seena Drained it's DFP, Minim used Head Crush, and they settled into a routine of using Flash and Drive until it died.



The stacks of gold aren't just for show: Searching them produces a Hi Magic, Gold 100, and Trick Ring (ATP+10, allows the wearer to cast Trick, an ATP-boosting spell). The two chests on either side of the room hold X-Magic (Restores 100 MP) and X-Potion (Restores 300 HP).



Dei is waiting beyond a prison door in the back. There's a Life Seed in the chest beside him. He's surprised that Minim and Seena followed him all the way there, but they assure him they've come to help him because Kobin asked them to. Seena says she would have come anyway to beat up the monster. Because that's definitely something she would have been able to do all by herself.



Dei is touched that Kobin was worried about him, and the trio decide to shake a leg, but not to let their guard down because there are still monsters in the dungeon. Dei rejoins the squad.

And then they run alllll the way back up the dungeon
When they reach the main house, the servant in the library screams "Thief" because he's an asshole, and the trio hightail it out of there.

Music:Sinistrals of Destruction and Terror

They smartly decide that five feet away from the mansion is a safe distance to stop and have a discussion of their future plans. Gades decides to pop in because he hasn't beaten up Minim's crew in over thirty minutes. (Actually, he seems surprised to find Minim there.)

At just the wrong moment, Fugo emerges from his house, screaming about how Minim and Seena let the thief go and murdered his pet. (Reminder: Our heroes kill pets) When he notices the large, creepy, floaty guy, he yells at him to get off his property.



For what it's worth, Minim's learned his lesson about provoking Gades and tries to get Fugo to shut up before Gades makes everything go smashy. Before Minim can clarify that they're in the presence of the God of Destruction, Gades has already made up his mind: Ignorance is a sin that must be punished. Fugo yells at him again, and Gades sets his sights on the new mansion.



He makes it go boom. Fugo nearly has a heart attack, and Gades threatens to destroy his old mansion, as well. Fugo begs him to stop, and I'm pretty sure it isn't out of concern for Etral (Melissa is hanging out in the garden, watching all this go down).

Dei steps in and tells Gades to stop. He ponders why Dei would try to protect a man who's wrong him, and Dei's all like, "Well, no, I don't like the guy but I'm not gonna let you bust up this town just because you feel like."

Minim is impressed with this display, for whatever reason. He and Seena decide to charge into battle against Gades. Because why not, right? It worked out so well for them last tiem, surely this time it'll go well for them.


Music:Sinistral Battle

This is another winnable unwinnable battle. The strategy for winning is pretty much the same as the previous battle against him, except now with three targets for him (hopefully spread across three rows) instead of two. Coupled with the free turns at the beginning where he doesn't do anything, you can hang in the fight as long as (a)Minim, Dei and Seena all act before Gades and (b) You have Revives.

By this point, I've amassed quite a few Hi Bombs, so I decided to see if I could win. After Head Crushing and using up all my Hi Bombs (and then every single consumable attack item I had), it devolved into Minim and Dei using Revives on one another and Seena casting Flash.

In the end, they just weren't good enough. If they had managed to win, they would have obtained the Gades Blade, a powerful sword that doesn't work against the undead. This severely limits the usefulness of the sword early on because there are so many undead enemies and right now the only character that can use it is our primary damage dealer. The reward from the first is considerably more useful.



Dei is understandably shocked by how nasty Gades is. Gades seems to indicate that he came to Albano because he felt a disturbance in the Spiritual Force, and that turned out to be Minim. Then he takes off, promising to fight again another day.

Yep, Gades has been downgraded to dull shonen villain.

Seena and Minim agree that if he hadn't run off, he would have killed them for sure.



Fugo thanks the trio for saving his house, and Seena the Indignant Poor yells that they weren't saving his house, they were saving the city. Our heros seem to think that "Saving" means "Getting their butts kicked."

Minim chimes in that they're taking Dei with them, and Seena says that he doesn't get to complain because even if they were doing it to save the city, they did end up saving his mansion. He tries to protest, but Seena threaten to come wreck his house if he doesn't comply.

Yes, one of our "heroes" did just threaten to destroy a person's property.

Fugo runs off, horrified by the thought of a poor person breaking all his shit.



Seena and Minim explain to Dei about the "Great Adventure" they're on, which so far has boiled down to: Getting beat up, losing a thief they had cornered, killing someone's pets, Seena dying, busting a thief out of jail, and getting beat up again but being praised for it. Not off to a great start here.

Nonetheless, Dei is intrigued by the idea of a great adventure, and asks if they'll find treasure. Seena tells a half truth: While there will be infinite amounts of treasure, most of it is gonna suck. She adds that they'll also fight the strongest enemies, too. Dei wants to know if by "strongest enemies" they mean Gades. Seena says he's the strongest for now. Gasp! You mean there are people out there stronger than Gades?!



Dei agrees to go along with them, and they all formally introduce themselves. Dei also produces a stack of gold bars, and insists that it isn't to celebrate joinig the group or anything, he just picked it up when they were escaping the mansion. Seena compliments him with a "Good job," while Minim just laughs like a moron.



Dei wonders what their next move is. Minim says they still need allies to help fight Gades, because clearly three people isn't enough. Dei tells them about a rumor of a skilled fighter to the north in a town called Siantao. And it's decided that will be the next destination. It's not like they have a lot of options, it's the last town on the continent. Will this skilled fighter be enough to defeat Gades? Probably. In fact, I'm willing to wager that just by being in the party, this character will be strong enough to not only weaken Gades's attacks substantially, but also strengthen the power of the party's attacks and drastically lower his max HP. Furthermore, I'm willing to bet that this effect will never be addressed by the game!



Schwing

Next Time: Giant Woman!
Random Floors covered: 24 (Tower of Death = 6, Slani Cave = 8, Fugo's Basement = 10)

The one theme I remember about the games plot is that EVERY rich person is a jerk.

With a randomized dungeon in their basement.

Bats aren't bugs!

If you want to get away with making a shoddy argument like that, you'll at least have to have a professional-looking clear plastic binder or something.

Hey, who wrote this game, you chowderheads or NATSUME???

Rich people are bugs!

Yes. Even the pretty pretty princess has a goddamn basement dungeon.

Unfortunately, there is literally nothing professional-looking about anything Natsume does.

Hey man, this is a Natsume production. That kind of thing is expected to happen.

Seena:

NA


JP


Concept

(She kind of dresses like a clown, but had a Ghibli-girl thing going on in her initial design)

Dei:

NA


JP


Concept

(Dei kind of looks like a butch lesbian in the JP art. His final design is less rogue, more ninja.)

Gades, the God of Frue Destruction, destroying the world one house at a time. I'm starting to think that title's false advertising. I mean, a random arsonist's more destructive than he's been so far. It's like he just got blamed whenever a house randomly burned down, and decided to roll with it.

Wow... I am really glad the in-game sprite looks nothing at all like Deis actual art...

Answer. At some point, we will be entering the Fortress of Doom, it will be dark, and Minim will ask Seena to cast Light so they can see

I like the visual gag of Dei leisurely walking away during their conversation, but the actual dialogue makes me wish it was in the hands of a much more competent company. And while Minim and Seena are "DUUUUUUUUHR," the rest of the cast tend to be far more capable, at least in terms of what happens in story sequences.

Well, I didn't want to say anything and hurt his feelings, but yes. In fact, Fugo's half-constructed mansion is a downgrade from Lamika's lived-in house when you think about it.

I don't see how it can be called false advertising without knowledge of what "frue" actually means.

Amazing.

I always wondered how Gades even fought if you beat him here. I mean, you take his sword.

Gades has destroyed many frues in his life.

It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a frue.

Stupid.

According to wiktionary, it's Danish for wife or lady. And he's taken Seena down every fight, so I suppose he's right about that. Kind of a dick thing to be the god of, though.

Weddings are weird in Albano. Right after the couple says 'I do', it's customary for Gades to run down the aisle and just punch the bride in the face. It's apparently a sign of good luck. Traditions, man.

Man, Gades is just Team Rocket in this game huh.

god, the spelling in this game....

Chapter 4: Minim versus the Garland Gang



First thing's first: Minim needs to wrap up a couple of loose ends. Melissa thanks Dei, and asks them to excuse her father's, uh, crazybrains. Gantz is still outside the ruined mansion, and laments that all his work has been for nothing. He bucks up and remembers that Minim already asked him to rebuild Lamika's house, and he heads off towards Patos to get to work. What are the odds that Gades will destroy Lamika's house twice? Zero



The cannibal chef is relieved that she was not cooked by Gades. Fugo freaks out when he sees Minim, and Etral is gives Minim the very minimum of gratitude. The rest of the folks around town express relief that the town was not destroyed, and some even thank Minim. If you hadn't shown up and got your ass kicked, our town would have been doomed!

Dei takes a moment to equip the Wake Rng and Trick Ring. Neither spell is particularly useful, but it grants him an extra 10 ATP and 5 DEF, which isn't too bad at this point.



With nothing else to do, Minim heads north to Broffo Cave. Apparently they fixed the door. The dungeon part of Broffo Cave houses monsters that are extremely powerful. Like, four dungeons from the end of the game powerful. We'll be heading down there eventually, but not for a loooooong while.

The guard says that Siantao is to the west, which his very helpful considering when you exit the cave, west is literally the only direction you can travel because of the ocean. Saintao is a port town and.... hey, what's that up there? It looks... vaguesian.


Music:Leong Temple

Walking up a couple of flights of stairs, Minim arrives at Leong Temple, TLR's out of place vaugesian locale in an otherwise standard Euro-fantasy setting. The Master says that Minim has potential, and asks him to train at the temple to improve his skills. Despite that being precisely what Minim and pals need, there's no way to take him up on his offer.

Also one of their candles is out.



And this place is loaded with items. All of the Shisa are holding items - one is a useless ConfusePowder that I didn't screencap.

The FireBoomer deals fire-elemental damage. The Sanity Rng boosts ATP by 5 and prevents confusion. This will be very, very, very useful later. The Croquette is an amazing healing item that restores 999 HP to the entire party. They're pretty rare, so they tend to be an item that gets horded instead of used.


Music:Port Town

Onward to Siantao. The greeter warns Minim that a gang has been causing trouble around town, and goes one step farther to point him in the direction of the next plot trigger.



Buzz around town: A girl says that in addition to Epsis, there are three other continents out there. A boy in the park tells Minim that the gang was picking on him, but someone named Aima beat them up for him. Other folks talk about Leong Temple, which apparently is where one would go to study the Jigen-Ryu style of martial arts, and some mention that this Aima character is teaching them how to use it. I googled and couldn't find itI'm too lazy to check, but I'm getting that's probably meant to be "Dimensional Dragon" style. I'm sure it's all irrelevant though.

The shopkeeper tells lies, but his equipment is an upgrade from the stuff in Majari. It's also the first place that sells equipment with attributes. Minim picks up a Long Sword (+64 ATP and +5 CLT); Seena gets a Garn Ball (+30 MAP and nullifies fire damage), a Beret and a Lthr Robe. Dei gets a Gladius, which boosts his ATP from 58 (with a BatlKnife) to 103. He also gets a Rubr Mant, which reduces damage from thunder attacks.

Minim had to hawk more the Gold 100s he picked up in Fugo's basement to finance these upgrades.



Oh and there's like four chests behind the shop's counter. Score!
The Poison Rng prevents poison and lets the wearer cast Poison, which in case you forgot is a spell that cures poison for the whole party because Natsume is bad at names.



The Church has a few new spells. Escape is the most important: It will allow Minim and friends to teleport out of a dungeon. Minim picks up a copy of it, and I might teach it to other characters later when I have more LP to spare. Seena gets X-Absorb, which drains HP from enemies. It isn't the greatest spell in the game, but it'll help her survive longer.

There's also a Wisdom Seed hiding in one of the pews.



Hey look lots of items.



Even more items! (This is actually a dick move on the developer's part)

A man in one of the houses near the pier says that he has tickets for a boat ride to the Lidal continent, but the boat is currently undergoing a safety inspection so they can't depart now anyway.


Music:Enhancement

While Minim is busy looting the town, he accidentally trips over the plot, which was actually waiting a little to the right of the church instead of behind it.

Anyway, some thugs from the Garland Gang are harassing a little girl (it should probably be "Young Woman" because it uses the young woman sprite, not the little girl sprite). They threaten to damage her face in some way, and just as she's about to give in and hand over all her money, Minim and his posse try to step in.

The gang members are all like, "Do you know who you're picking a fight with?" to which Minim responds, "No?" and then the gang members are like, "We're the Garland Gang! Haven't you ever heard of us?" and Minim once again is all, "No?" This is what happens when your wave of crime only extends to one town that has about eight people living in it.

The gang members start to give an introduction to their introduction when a voice from off screen finishes their sentence:



And then suddenly, a Giant Woman appears. She comes running from behind the church and leaps down beside the little girl. One of the gang members is flipping his shit because Aima has arrived. To be fair, she points out that she beat up one of them the week before, so I reckon he's the one freaking out. I wouldn't want to make Aima mad.

The one that got beaten up (presumably) says they should turn tail and run, but the other makes fun of him for being scared of a mere woman.



Aima leaps between the two gang members and hurls them into the walls. The two dolts wisely decide to make a run for it, and exit the same way Aima entered. I mean they took the same path behind the church, not that they were characterized by awesomeness and kickassery.

The little girl thanks Aima, who checks to see if she's ok and sends her on her way. She turns her attention to Minim, Seena, and Dei, and apologizes for them having to see the rampant crime and corruption in her fair city. She tells them that she was born and raised in the city, and she loves it, and that they shouldn't think that everyone who lives there is a gang banger.

Minim introduces himself as a traveling swordsman, and Aima introduces herself as a monk at Leong Temple.



A boy interrupts, yelling to Aima that Leong Temple appears to be on fire. She rushes off to check on it, and Minim is free to resume looting.



A little girl mentions the Northland and Eastland. That's bizarre because later in the game they refer to something called "Estoland" and I was so sure that was a poor translation of "Eastland."



Leong Temple is in ruins. Sorry if you didn't pick up all those neat items inside, because they're gone forever now! It is interesting that Neverland Company took so much time and effort to create unique graphics for the interior of Leong, even though it was unlikely the player would ever set foot inside before it burned down. There's no reason to go there before this point, in fact you might not even notice it on the world map if you're making a mad dash to the Siantao, the very first person you see in town points you in the direction of a plot trigger that causes it to burn down, etc.

Anyway, Aima's standing in the ruins of her temple, and tells Minim that the Garland Gang burned it down because she was always beating them up. They also kidnapped the Master and left a ransom note asking for the scroll that contains the ultimate technique of the Jigen-ryu style. Aima doesn't have it and doesn't know where it is. Minim asks her what she plans to do since she can't pay the ransom and...



Aima provides her solution: Go in commando-style and beat the hell out of each and every one of them. She won't ask the citizens of Siantao to help her, because the Garland Gang is apparently pretty tough.

Minim volunteers his friends to go with her to help out. Seena says that their little group, and by extension her, are "pretty strong" which is a bald-faced lie. Aima asks why they'd help her.



Minim: "I just don't like their ways. I want to beat them up too."
Seena: Same here. Anyone who attacks women in alleys is unforgivable!"
Dei: "They're one of the worst villans. My job is to steal treasure from those kinda guys."

Upon hearing these... lackluster reasons, Aima accepts their help and joins the party, telling them that the Garland Gang's hideout is to the west. Thanks Aima, that's literally the only place left on this continent that hasn't been explored yet.



Hello best character in the game. Aima is a beast. She has tons of HP, tons of STR (which translates to tons of ATP), she'll eventually get access to lots of powerful IP attacks, and her SF is Green, which means her Max HP and DFP will only get higher. She can equip fist-type weapons, and a couple of staffs. Staffs aren't usually as strong as fists, but allow her to equip a shield. For the most part, we'll be sticking with fists, although there is one very big exception we'll see on down the line.

Admittedly, her actual DFP isn't that great, and her armor is largely unique for her and not that tough. Luckily, her insane HP means she can take damage without dying, ensuring her IP meter will be filling up constantly.

As I recall, Aima can learn stat-boosting spells, but she needs to be on a character with yellow SF's wavelength to have (any) MP. It's not worth spending your LP on spells for her.

Needless to say, Aima has earned a permanent spot in the front row, center column. Seena gets stuck on the back row of the center column, so that she can get in on some of those HP and DFP-boosting SF waves.

Minim pops over to Siantao to buy a Toga for Aima, which gives her 10 more DFP over the Cape she begins with. She also gets the Sanity Rng and the Poison Rng. Might as well make sure the Giant Woman Who Punches Things To Death doesn't get confused, right?

Dei gets a few pieces of hand-me-down stuff: The Lthr Shld from Fugo's basement and Minim's old Cap, which will hopefully improve his survivability. He also learns the IP skill Lock-On.



With all that taken care of, Zach, Ika, Percy and BlBelt set out to defeat Garland. But seriously, look at that level up right there. Aima: A brick house.


Music:Infiltration

The Garland Gang are very polite hosts and leave a Save Point right in front of the dungeon's entrance. The Subordinate is surprised to see Aima, who tells them she'll never forgive them if Master has been hurt. This has been coming up a lot, so I want to clarify it for you if you're not familiar: "I'll never forgive you" is Japanese-anime speak for "I am going to open up a can of whoop ass on you."

The Subordinate says she'll have to go through him if she wants to find the Master, and she's like, "I was gonna."

The preparation menu quotes get weirder and weirder in this game.


Music:Boss Battle

This has boss music, but these enemies are not even a speed bump. They're like dried gum stuck on the road that you would never, ever notice.

What it says vs What it does III

Aima's DoubleKick attack twice. It will target the same enemy, but if that enemy is killed on the first kick, the second kick will land on a different enemy.

There's nothing else to say about these guys. They die quickly, and I think Dei stole a GoddessTear from one of them.



The blue winged things running around the dungeon are Pixies. They're pretty weak. They can cast Spark, which will hit the whole party for fire damage. Other than that, there's nothing interesting about them. Dei can even kill them in one hit.

Psn.Beetles appear on the dungeon map as red-winged bats. Can you guess what status ailment their regular attack can inflict? They can also use Dive. but that's pretty trivial now that we have GIANT WOMAN.



If we had managed to win the GadesBlade from the most recent Gades battle, the game would have been a complete asshole by throwing legions of the undead at the party in this dungeon. The pink-tinted Skeletons running around are either Skeleton Ladies or Zombies, neither are particularly terrifying. Sometimes Zombies attack in packs, which means Seena actually gets to use her magic for once.

The yellow-tinted Skeletons in the dungeon are Skeleton Fighters. I'm sure there's something interesting to say about them, but Minim and Aima smash them up too quickly to get a read on them.



Accurate boosts the user's SPD by 20% I guess. It might be useful for Dei if he was using one of his "damage is derived from the SPD-stat" attacks, but otherwise it isn't something we need.

Assassinate can instantly kill the target for a mere 80 IP. Dei is the only character in the game that can use this, but as you might expect it's next to useless. 80 IP means it can't be used regularly, and, naturally, enemies that it would actually be useful against are immune to instant death. (Plus Minim and Aima can already one shot most things so...)



Compare Minim and Aima's HP. Her life bar makes it look like she's nearly dead, but she has the same number of HP left as Minim, who is only at about 75%.

The Gangs' Hideout is a treasure trove of LP though.



Blind is a holy attack I believe. It costs a lot of IP to use, but seems to be far more useful than Dei's Assassinate. I think I'll teach it to Seena.

Seal Palm deals damage to an enemy's MP. This comes in handy during a couple of boss fights, but worthless against regular enemies. I mean if you come across an enemy that relies heavily on magic, there's a good chance that Aima will be able to do a one hit kill.

On B6, Minim decides to put his Escape spell to use and return to Siantao to restore eveyone's MP (well, Minim and Seena's precious, Strong-casting MP) and finish upgrading their equipment.

Dei gets a Wood Shld (+20 DFP), Seena gets a Buckler (+18 DFP), Minim a Rock Helm (+20 DFP), and Aima a Iron Fist (+25 ATP, +5 SPD, +5 CLT). Rested, re-equipped and ready, the party returns to the Gang's Hideout.



DeathPowder is a consumable item that can instantly kill the target. You see that Dei? There are items that can do the same thing as your Assassinate IP.

That little swirly thing up there? That's the worst trap in the game. When you step on it, the party gets confused and Minim walks in a random direction when you press the d-pad. If an enemy gets you while you're walknig funny, the whole party will be confused in battle. You have to just keep walking around until it wears off... and the trap doesn't deactivate after you first step on it, meaning you'll probably trigger it multiple times waiting for the effect to wear off. These are one of the few reasons you'll want to bust out a Cats Eye, and generally that's only after you've triggered it once.



The plot is waiting on B7. There's a barrel directly south of the stairs that has a Revive in it. The path leads to a four was intersection. To the left is a save point and chests, as well as a CharredNewt hidden in a barrel. The Fake Ring grants +10 SPD and allows the wearer to cast Fake, a spell that boosts SPD.



The center path leads to the head of the Garland Gang, Garland Boss. Aima demands to know where Master is, but Garland Boss tells her to fork over the scroll first. He says he tried torturing Master to tell him where to find it, but since Master never caved, he had to go with plan B: Have Aima bring him the scroll. He apparently feels this was a brilliant plan.



I did not cut anything from this.



Garland Boss gets all huffy and swears to make Minim and pals pay. Minm takes a moment to top off everyone's HP with items and boost everyone's SF up. That's sort of a habit I've developed. After all that's taken care of, it's time for the game's first "real" boss fight!


Music:Boss Battle

The Grlnd.Boss has two helpers with him. These types of bosses, ones with multiple enemies, are by far the most difficult. You'll have to contend with three attacks per round instead of one, you can't get rid of the helpers because the boss will just summon new ones. Oh, and summoning allies? It doesn't count as the boss's action for that turn. And the new allies will perform an attack when they enter battle. In other words, assume that unless otherwise noted, attacks are targeted at the boss character.

Anyway, the first round goes like this:
Minim Head Crushes while Dei and Seena use Drain and Lock-On to reduce DFP.

The next rounds go like this:
Minim uses regular attacks because Head Crush took a chunk out of his IP, Aima uses DoubleKick and Dei uses Bolt Attack.



The Grlnd.Boss has an attack called Secret Blade X, which did about 50 to Aima. He can also chunk Oil Bombs, which hits a row for fire-based damage.

Three attacks per turn starts to take its toll on the party: Dei is nearly dead and Aima has taken quite a beating (and yet still has about as many HP left as Seena does total). Since Minim is still recovering his IP, Seena moves over to his column so she can heal and let Aima unload DoubleKicks.

IP and SF are locked in from the menu screen, so moving around in battle won't alter the SF bonuses or costs of IP attacks. In other words, even though Seena is in Minim's column, his IP attacks still have the higher cost because he has no blue SF, and Seena still has the HP and DFP from Aima's green SF. Moving your healers around so they can heal without severely impacting your damage output is very, very important.



Grlnd.Boss has two scripted abilities: Short of breath... will let him regenerate 500 HP, and Get a grip on yourselves! will boost his party's ATP and DFP. You might want to toss out another Lock-On and Drain after he does this. I didn't, and both Minim and Aima ended up dying toward the end of the battle.

Seena ended up moving over to Dei's column after Minim's IP had reached a suitable amount. After Grlnd.Boss was defeated, his cronies managed to take out both Aima and Minim, and the final part of the battle was spent trying to keep them alive using Revives while also defeating the enemies. In the end, everyone survived the fight. Hooray!


Music:Tower of Sorrow

The Garland Boss dies and Minim receives the Prison Key. Aima compliments the party on their excellent strategy of pissing him off so he'd act rashly.



Naturally, they have no idea what she's talking about. She tries not to think about it too much because the stupid might start burning her brain the same way it's burned them. so she changes the subject and says they need to rescue Master.

(There's also a Boomerang in a barrel that can only be reached by this platform)

Master down the right path behind this locked door. Aima is happy to see him and expresses relief because he's not injured. I guess the Garland Gang isn't so good at torture, huh? Master is awesome and is like, "Uh, yeah, why wouldn't I be safe? Why did it take you so long to get here?"

Aima apologizes but restates her relief, and Master says, "Yes.... Well, something like this wouldn't finish me." He's right, too. To finish him off, it'd take something like a fist fight with the God of Destruction.

She volunteers to carry him out, because she is a GIANT WOMAN.



Then the screen shakes. Somehow, Seena, who is now seven floors below the earth's surface, was able to determine that it was an explosion, and Dei, who is also seven floors below the earth's surface, can tell it was from the city. The group decides to head back quickly, and thankfully Minim can do just that with Escape. God, this is such a handy spell.


Music:Lost Peace

Welp, Siantao has seen better days. The greeter says that a strange man appeared and started destroying the city, and he's still in the middle of town. Well we know it couldn't have been Gades because this is actual destruction, not like, blowing up a single house or his throne room.

Much like with Leong Temple, the game has just pulled a major dick move on completionists. I'm pretty sure all the items that were once in the town are now gone, even if their location was untouched. There are some new items scattered around, like this CharredNewt, which I like to pretend was a normal Newt until it was charred in various explosions around town.



The villagers offer various thoughts on the current situation: A few have just given up and attempted to make peace with their imminent death. A handful beg for help, a little boy in the park cheers for Aima to go kick some ass, and one man says that if they try to run, the stranger will kill them.

The Pastor will still sell magic and save your game though.


Music:Enhancement

Gades is hanging around in the middle of town. Apparently since he hadn't thrashed the party yet this update, he just had to drop and rectify that. Aima. Is. Pissed. Gades says that he destroys without reason, which only infuriates Aima more.



Each of the characters gives a little Big Damn Heroes speech. Dei says something about how "He won't let Gades destroy towns for no reason," which is pretty much what he said back in Albano and really that implies that if Gades had a good reason to destroy all these towns it would be ok by Dei. Whatever Dei.

Anyway, clearly this is it, the final battle against Gades! Are y'all ready?!



Minim and pals charge him and... he makes things go explosiony and swats them away. Urm. I guess they didn't want to do Winnable-Unwinnable Battle Against Gades 3, so they just let him own the party in a cutscene.



Aima is shocked to find that her Jigen-ryu fighting style can't even touch Gades. Master walks up and tells her that she's not strong enough to handle this enemy.



Gades says that apparently wisdom really does come with age, but tells Master that he's waaaay too old to take him on.



But Master is not backing down. Instead he's busting out the ultimate Jigen-ryu attack, the one from the scroll that the Garland Boss wanted. Aima has never seen it before, and Master tells her to watch closely to see how it's performed.

And then he unleashes Energy Punch.



He tears through Gades, and there's a dramatic pause, and then Minim says that Gades's forehead is bleeding.

Then Master starts bleeding. Badly.



And he collapses. Gades is impressed by Master's pluck and decides to leave the city alone. Gods work in mysterious ways. He leaves.


Music:Sorrow and Parting

Aima rushes to Master's side, and begs him not to die. He tells her he's passing on the Jigen-ryu ultimate attack to her, and not to be sad. She has to be strong and kind and all the stuff the good guys in martial arts films are supposed to be. Then he passes on.

The scene cuts to the back of the Leong Temple, where Aima is offering a prayer to Master. She tells him not to worry, because she will carry on Jigen-ryu. After finishing her prayer, she turns to Minim and asks him if he knows where Gades is. Minim tells her that he stays at the Tower of Death.



Aima thanks him, and begins to leave. Minim stops her, and asks if she intends to go after him alone. There's some typical hero-y stuff, about how they all want to go because they've got beef with Gades too.


Music:Decision

The Big Damn Heroes Music of Determination plays, and the party formally introduces themselves. For some reason, Minim does too, even though he introduced himself to her when they first met.



Aima says one final goodbye to Master, telling him she'll get revenge using his final lesson: Energy Punch. Then she gets the Ancient Text for it.

There's a HiPow Ring in Master's grave, and it's definitely not something you want to miss.



EnergyPunch deals 4x damage, and costs 100 IP to use. Aima learns it, because holy hell 4x damage? Yes please!

The HiPow Ring boosts ATP and DFP by 40, and SPD by 20. It's a very good thing.

Next Time: Return to the Tower of Death!
Random Floors covered: 29

Extra:



Aima concept art



JP art



US art

Aima is a 26 year old vegetarian monk. The fact that she's an adult may be one of the reasons she was reluctant to have teenagers following her into dangerous situations. Notable characteristics: Girl's got muscles, unlike, say, Tifa, who is allegedly also a martial artist and yet has wussy noodle arms. It appears she had even more swole going on in the JP version.

If I recall correctly, there's an even more absurdly powerful move Aima can learn.

Aima has joined the party to punch a god in the face.

And thats Real.

They're already my favorite bit of localization. It helps take the burn out of that "safty" inspection.

There are two that are really, really preferable to Energy Punch: One hits between two and eight times, and one that hits six times at .5 damage with each blow. Both are cheaper to use than Energy Punch, but are capable of dealing heaps of damage.

She's the best Octo, the best.

"Localization" is too strong a word for this game.

I'm interested to see the Ancient Cave. I mean...everything's already randomized.