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

He recites some poetic-warrior nonsense and leaps back over to his ship. And that's why I didn't talk about him as a character yet: Because he's not freaking joining the party yet. Yes, all this and I didn't even get a shiny new party member. Melphis asks who that man was, and Seena's says that he doesn't seem like a bad guy, but he's way too over the top.



Minim totes has a guy crush on him though. Randolph cuts Seena off before she starts bitching at Minim, saying that they need to get back to the port so Melphis can rest.



Back in Tomis, Melphis assures Randolph that she's a-ok, and when he tries to voice more concerns she says that she won't push herself. Seena volunteers to take Keit home, and I'm surprised the game remembered Keit existed. After she and Keit walk off, the Captain remarks that something is wrong. I'm not sure what he's talking about. The music is the same as it always was and the Captain hasn't had seen anyone but the party and Keit. So Minim asks him what he means.

The Captain suggests that Alstadt Army may have started to move. Melphis says that's a possibility, and Seena returns, saying that Keit's mother said something strange was going on in town. Aima says that everyone seems hostile, and I'm afraid I have to call bullshit on you Aima because you weren't even on the screen until you popped out of Minim's sprite to say that line just now. How would you know how the people are acting?



Don't worry, this is just a thing to point Minim in the direction of the plot, which is blessedly not based around Tomis or pirates.

Next Time: Kawaii Kawii Neko-chan no Densetsu~
Random Floors covered: 70

Wait...

If the cave is hidden by the tide, shouldn't the cove, you know, be flooded whenever it's high tide?

Seems like a bad place to leave a ship in.

Also, I love how Minim screams that he's "so mad!!".

So Deckard doesn't even join the party for real yet? What a friggin' tease. I'd be surprised he completely forgot that he thought the party were pirates before, but I'm aware it's Idiot Hat Day indefinitely in this game by now. <)=B

We're never getting our own axe ship, are we? =(

I like how creative the Pirate Boss was in naming his pet.

It's kind of like a small child being proud of naming his goldfish "Goldy".

Look, they sprang for some unique graphics for the beach area, so just enjoy it instead of trying to understand it.

Everyone's wearing the Idiot Hat, all the time.

The Axe Ship will be ours!

Good gravy is that hideous.

I never would have guessed that Hero was a sneering jerkass with a bare midriff and asymmetrical greave.

I assume they were trying to distance them from Ys.

Red haired heroes and blue haired heroines are a dime a dozen.



Between this and the Yoshi thread, I guess I have the opposite tastes of all of you because I think the cellphone artwork is pretty good.

Maybe I've just become desensitized to it all.

?

I'm unsure if i'm secretly in love with the game's writing just because of how stupid it seems to be during "dramatic" scenes. I'm unsure if they're expecting someone to laugh at the games humour or what.

Chapter 9: Minim and Seena: Chaotic

Today's update is super long. I had originally planned it as one update, and then going through the images I realized how long it was running so I decided to cut it into two, and then Lufia DS happened and I fell behind schedule so I decided to cram it back into one update.



When we last left Minim and pals, they had just arrived back in Tomis, only to find that the atmosphere had changed and everyone was acting hostile. Above: A sampling of this hostility. A few folks say they're happy that Keit's back safely, but most are talking about the Tower of Illusion, the Ultra Weapon inside, and the fact that the Alstadt Army has apparently been deployed there to obtain said weapon. The people aren't acting all that hostile, but at we have a Tower of... here, and you know what that means!

Infodump Aunt has all the directions we need: Minim will have to travel through Copley Forest to get to the Tower of Illusion, so that will be his next destination.

Minim and Mephis cash in some LP to learn Rally, and Melphis also picks up Trick. Not that she really needs it, but why not?



As mentioned, Copley Forest is to the northeast (this time for real). On the way, Minim realizes that he didn't rest and reorganize after the battle with the Giant Squido, so the center column is just barely clinging to life. A quick warp back to Tomis to nap and save, and Minm's back on the trail to Copley.


Music:Forest Labyrinth

The entryway to Copley Forest has a save point, a heal spot, and a sign warning not to enter. Seena warns Minim that the forest has a "bad atmopshere." I guess she can sense the horrible magical pain and suffering the monsters here are capable of bringing.

"Turnip, how is a forest dungeon going to work with this game's... dungeon system?"



Very inelegantly, that's how. The bushes finally (finally!) fit into the surrounding areas, but we also have stairs leading up and down into other forest floors. Jesus. They could have at least drawn, like, teleport squares or something instead of stairs.

(Remember how I was lamenting about how I could be playing Etrian Odyssey III instead? This is TLR's way of rubbing salt in that particular wound)

I think the blue skeletons are Weits, but I can't remember.

The brown women are Wood Elves, and let me tell you they are assholes. They're incredibly quick and can cast Fake to make themselves faster. They can also cast Blizzard to hit the whole party for not insignificant damage, Champion to heal the entire enemy party (this is usually wasted since they tend to act first in battle and not live until the second round), and occasionally bust out Perish to try and instant kill one character.

Baby Frogs can Call Companions and use an ability called Ribbit, Ribbit to paralyze one ally.

The standard model Elf is what one would call an "out of depth encounter." They have two things to look out for: Bolt, which is just as nasty as ever (and moreso, since they have higher MAP than previous Bolt-casters we've faced) and Zap, the party-wide holy magic spell. You... you don't want them to cast Zap. It hurts. A lot.



Typhoon Toss is a great IP attack for Aima that lets her hit all enemies. It's like Minim's Silhouette attack, but slightly less useful right now because Aima's ATP isn't quite as high as his.

Stealth Hit is an IP attack for Dei. It deals double damage and doesn't take DFP into account into the damage calculation. (It isn't as strong as Minim, Aima and Randolph's regular attacks)



Another new enemy: KingSpiders. As the great prophet Allie teaches, Spiders are scary. It's okay to be afraid of them. These guys aren't that scary though. They can cast Stronger to heal themselves and others, as well as Call Companions to summon regular ol' Spiders. Well, regular ol' Spiders that can paralyze you with a regular attack. In addition to that, they can use abilities called Poison Shower to hit a column with poison and ~40 HP of damage, and Spider Net to hit a row for about ~30 HP.

(You can also see an Elf knocking off nearly 3/4ths of Minim's max HP with one shot of Bolt.)



The fifth floor is non-random, but empty. Minim passes through only to wind up on the same screen again. Seena stops him and asks him and asks if they've passed through here before. He says it probably just looks like it, and they move on...



Only to wind up on the same screen again. Seena's getting pissed, but Minim tries to calm her down. By telling her she's being irritable. That's... probably not a good idea. Dei has to pop out to tell them to settle down. But Seena Hissssses again! Hee.

The group moves on and...



Right smack dab in the same spot once again. When I was putting these screenshots together, I had to go back and look at previous ones to see if this game even used question marks in the dialogue. You know you're dealing with quality when you honestly aren't sure if the game even uses question marks.

Anyway, Minim and Seena yell at each other like they always do, but then something magical happens: Seena finally asks why she bothers hanging around Minim. Well in terms of gameplay, Seena, you have to hang with him or become a pincushion for the enemies. But for the storyline? I don't know, you're the one who hitched her wagon to him.



Minim tells her to take a hike, and she storms off. I'll bet our next fetch quest is to go mine some marble for her headstone. Dei wonders if this is the right decision, but I don't seem him chasing after Seena and leaving his party of meatshields either.

Minim announces that he's very angry, and Aima, presumably ignorning him, says that there are dangerous monsters about.



Minim has devolved into a raving lunatic, and during his incoherent speech he says that they should go on. Now that we've viewed a cutscene, moving forward dumps Minim onto the sixth floor.

Since Seena ran off, you can't cast Escape, so if you need to buy any items from the stor---hahahahaha who am I kidding? Buying items from a store?

Floors six through eight are uneventful. Minim starts busting out Silhouette to end battles as quickly as possible and rush to the next exit.


Music:Enhancement
Seena is on floor nine. She's bleeding pretty badly and facing a monster. Don't worry, this isn't about to go Giten Megami Tensei on us. Also, if anyone makes a PMS reference, they will be banned.

The party charges forward, and Minim sees how badly Seena is bleeding. He puts two and two together and prepares to go up against the monster.



Seena tries to stop Minim, but he runs in front of her to shield her from the monster. He even tells the monster not to move so he can kill it. Does that even work? Because that would have made fighting those Wood Elves much less annoying.

Now, obviously, the monster isn't a bad guy. If you hadn't figured that out by now, it gives a cute little question mark emote bubble and asks, "Buku-bupi?" :3


Music:Rescue

But before Minim can land the killing blow (...or any blow, really), Seena cranks the anime up to eleven, yelling "Stupiddd!" and knocking Minim off into the horizon. You can't tell in the screenshots, but he's spinning around. She yells that she told him to hold on.

Minim comes walking back on screen and demands an explanation. Seena says that he's not an enemy, he's a forest spirit. I'm like 99% sure the term they use is "seirei," because later in the game he's referred to as a holy spirit.

Anyhow, Seena says that it saved her when she was being attacked. Minim apologizes to the spirit.



Seena and Minim decide that the spirit's name is Mousse based on the noises it made. What if it has Tourette's Syndrome and "Mousse" is like a string of vulgarities in its language?

Minim asks how badly Seena is hurt, but it turns out all that blood is just because she's a Squishy Mage and thus even a tiny scratch can cause profuse bleeding.



He's relieved to hear it, except then he isn't because he remembered they were fighting. He wonders why they were fighting over something so stupid. Seena says it's weird, but it totally isn't because they fight all the time. Randolph suggests that it's because of the Tower of Illusion, but like Randolph? We've been here from the very beginning, and they've been fighting since they first met. It was definitely not because of the Tower. You know why they fight? Because he's a dumbass and she's a bitch and instead of splitting up, they continue to stand side-by-side and rail against each other constantly.

But this is relevant to the plot: Apparently lightning stuck the Tower of Illusion a while back, and since then everyone's been acting weird in Lidal. He probably should have mentioned that way back when they were trying to figure out why Lidal is so weird.



Melphis thinks it makes sense that they'd be affected by the Tower because they're so close to it. Which... ok, that makes enough sense right now, but there's a town like five feet away from it and the people there are fine.

Dei steps up to clean up Seena's blood puddle (it'll be gone when his sprites moves from that spot), and while he works wonders aloud if this means there's a Sinistral in the tower.



He says that while Gades was popping up after each subplot in Epsis, this one hasn't shown his face once and we've only got two more dungeons on the continent. This will apparently make him harder to get to.

Aima syas that it's creepy. Aima, absolutely nothing is creepy when you can punch people six times in a row the way you can.



Dei looks at the bright side, saying that Minim and Seena aren't fighting. We'll just see how long this lasts, ok? Melphis thinks it's because of Mousse, and Randolph says that animals tend to have a calming effect on people. Yes, tell that to the King Spiders Randolph.

This implies that Mousse is going to make the party immune to whatever mojo is going on around here, but this won't be the case at all. While Minim is getting ready to leave, Mousse starts talking.



Somehow Minim deduces that Mousse wants to join the party. And he does! Now Minim has a pet furball! Hooray!

The exit to Copley Forest is to the right, but on the way is a large tree with a unique graphic. Searching it reveals the Good Tree, which is what Gantz needed to rebuild Lamika's house. Well, that's allthe storyline sequence for Copley Forest!



Mousse is said to be the descendant of Foomy the Capsule Monster from Lufia II. He has Green SF, and I'm personally excited to have another character that can boost DFP and Max HP. I went ahead and boosted his SF up to 20 and stuck him between Minim and Melphis on the first column, because if one character absolutely needs more HP it's Melphis.

The only things Mousse can equip right now are the Pendant and Toy Ring accessories from Chamy's shop back in Caan. Combined, they only give him +2 to his stats, bu that's better than nothing, I suppose.

Like Capsule Monsters, Mousse can't be controlled in battle. His regular attack is pretty weak, but sometimes he'll bust out Mousse Punch and deal... about as much as Randolph does with one cut with his Multiblade, which is still not that great. He can also pull off a Double Mousse Punch, which means on occasion he'll be dealing damage that's comparable to what Randolph can do each turn.

But wait, there's more! Mousse has yet another attack called Tail Illusion. It hits one enemy for about 700 HP. It's handy. He can also blow Mysterious Bubbles to lower the enemy party's DFP.

Even though he's not normally a heavy hitter like the front row, he's still an extra attack every round, so it isn't like he's a liability or anything,



The Tower of Illusion is right outside Copley Forest, right inside a marshland. There's also a small town just a littleways north of it. But Minim is stupid and doesn't pop into the town so he can warp back there, and instead warps straight back to Patos to deliver the Good Tree to Gantz.

Sidequest II: Getting the Good Tree for Gantz


Upon delivery, Gantz immediately sets to work on the house. The screen fades to black, and when it comes back the house is all finished.



Lamika's super excited about her new house, and thanks Minim by giving him another Dragon Egg. So that's like... two that were in Patos to begin with, and there were two more in Albano and Majari, meaning half of the Dragon Eggs were located in Epsis. Gantz, Lamika's mother and Lamika all go inside to check out their sweet new digs.

The sweet new digs look exactly like the bitter old digs, right down to all the stonework. The chest has been restocked with a Miracle. Gantz says that this is one of the best houses he's ever made and really? This? It looks like every other hovel in the Southlands.

Sidequest III: Salvaging Siantao at Some Point


When spoken to again, Gantz brings up Siantao, and how it's still all busted up. If Minim brings him special wood from the continent of Rosplett, he'll be able to repair it. Rosplett is the final continent, so we won't be finishing this sidequest for quiet some time, but when we do, you're all going to be very impressed with Gantz's carpentry skills.



Minim decides to head to his house and take a nap, and in case you were wondering about what kind of deep thoughts he puts in his diary, look no further. I haven't been covering them because it's such a pain to hike back to Patos before you get Warp, and they're really not that interesting. In a better game with better writers and better localization, this could have funny and insightful comments. Instead we get a bland summary of the latest events.

But enough about that, because...

Sidequest IV: The Longings of Lovers in Lidal


It's another sidequest! I'm gonna go ahead and warn you: I have no fucking idea what happens in this sidequest. The resolution is confusing and nonsensical, and not in a nitpicky, "How did Gantz do all that stonework with whatever tiny bit of wood Minim brought back?" way.

Moving along. Remember Rudo? He was the man living in Caan that had a crush on a girl living in Copley Forest. Now that Minim's been to Copley, we can finally do something to help out this poor fella.

He mentions something called the Purple Eye. It's apparently a jewel that Maqurine wants. He thinks that if he were to give it to her, he'd have the courage to confess his feelings. The bad news is that it's located down in Tomis Cave, and there are all sorts of nasty monsters running around down there. As someone with a generic NPC sprite, he has no chances of making it down to where the Purple Eye rests.

Hey y'all, can you guess what we're supposed to do now? "Go get the Purple Eye from Tomis Cave?" Hahaha no. Instead, Minim is supposed to return to Copley Forest and look for Maqurine.



So he Warps back to Tomis and hoofs it up to Copley Forest. Maqurine's House is located down on the fifth floor where Minim and Seena split up earlier. It's anyone's guess as to why there's now a house located here. But since there's a house, that means there are new items to find! Sadly, the only interesting item is the Leechblade (+180 ATP), a cursed sword that drains the bearer's HP with each swing.

Maqurine, despite being described as "elusive" is super excited to have visitors. Minim asks if she lives alone. She does. She says that she loves the forest, and hates crowded places. Lady you live in a random dungeon. How does that even work? Minim says that he doesn't really like crowded places either, and the pair instantly bond. She says that there's not a lot here, but tells him to make himself at home. The screen fades to black and the inn music plays, so even though I didn't check I assume the team's been fully healed.



Minim says that he feels refreshed, and that he hasn't relaxed in a while... which is strange, because he just spent the night in his own bed. Anyway, it's time to move on out, but Maqurine seems to be disappointed that he's leaving. Jesus woman, have some shame.



...and that's the end of the scene. Speaking with her again starts a new conversation about the Purple Eye. She seems to get awfully excited at the thought of Minim bringing her the Purple Eye, doesn't she? When he mentions Rudo though, she's like, "Oh yeah. Rudo. I know him."



The Purple Eye is very, very important to Maqurine, but when Minim says that Rudo is going to be the one who brings it to her, it seems to bring her down. She says it'll be bad "in a way" but refuses to elaborate.

Hand to God, this is not going where you think it is.

I want to point out that if you haven't really picked up on it, this quest is bullshit. To initiate it, you have to go back to Caan and talk to Rudo after clearing Copley Forest, which means you have to have spoken with him earlier and remembered he liked someone living in Copley, or just lucked out and talked to him at some point after finishing the forest. Except... there's no reason to go back to Caan at this point in the game, because you already have access to the Warp spell and no longer need to use their port. Then, you have to speak with Maqurine twice to get her to talk about the Purple Eye, and to even get to her house you have to run through three randomly generated dungeon floors.

But I promise, the reward is worth it.



Minim continues on his way down to the ninth floor and exits on the Tower of Illusion side of Copley Forest. This time, he wisely chooses to step into Cobe so he can Warp back here to get to the forest more easily. After taking a nap in the inn, it's back to Caan to tell Rudo what's going on.

He's super excited that she wants the Purple Eye, and I wonder what Minim told him exactly because she was pretty wishywashy about it. He says that he'll go to the seventh level of Tomis Cave to get it, and dashes off.



According to Dei, Tomis Cave is pretty dangerous, and Rudo will likely die. Seena gets her creepiness on and says that she thinks dying in the name of love is beautiful. This... this is probably a great big honking red flag.

But Minim doesn't see it, he simply tells her that love doesn't mean a whole lot if you're dead. She can't really argue with that, but calls him out on being unromantic. But Minim says he'll totally be romantic if it'll make him immortal. You and me both brother.



Seena says that's missing the point, and with that the scene is over and they're off to Tomis Cave. Straight ahead of the main entrance is the dungeon area. The Guard, who in all honesty is pretty crappy at his job, says that a young man went inside and is probably going to die inside. Thanks Guard! Perhaps it's time to find a new career!



I really dig the aesthetics of Tomis Cave, and there are a ton of new enemies running around, but this update is running pretty long as it is and it's not like they aren't going to be showing up in the storyline dungeons shortly, so we'll just cover them when we get there.

The sole IP attack here is ForceShield, which raises one ally's DFP and REG. Melphis went ahead and learned it, but I doubt she'll ever use it. She also learns a spare copy of Blind we had picked up earlier.



Seventh level. To the far right is a chest with a Jump Ring, which boosts the wearer's SPD by 50. It replaces Minim's Wing Ring, which gets passed on to Melphis to replace her Mind Ring. If she's gonna be casting healing magic, girl's gotta have speed.



Going down leads around a path to a large open room where Rudo is attempting to square off against an Aligator. Seena urges Minim to hurry and save Rudo before he gets eaten. Since the last Aligator they fought was such a push over, Minim doesn't even bother to prepare so he can heal.


Music:Battle against a Sinistral

The DevilAlgtr isn't a pushover like the regular Aligator. It's Demonic Aura hits a row for a couple of hundred HP. It hit Mousse for 375 and Aima for 200 something, but Minim and Randolph only took about 80 a piece thanks to their Holy Caps. Dark Smash is significantly less scary, hitting only one character for a small bit of damage (~80 to Mousse, presumably far less for everyone else). The regular attacks are no laughing matter, either. It critical'd Randolph down from full health to 78 HP at one point.

Despite all the dark attacks DevilAlgtr isn't weak to Holy, so it came down to just having Minim use Drive and Aima Scatter Hit while Dei futilely tried to keep Mousse alive.



After the fight, Rudo thanks Minim and Seena for saving him. Apparently Minim obtained the Purple Eye, but it never really explains how. Maybe he carved it out of the DevilAlgtr? Seena demands that he hand it over to her, and before he can ask what she's doing, she gives it to Rudo.



He's a little hesitant to accept it, but Seena manages to convince him to take it. After he leaves, Minim asks if Rudo was hurt. But... Seena just said he wasn't!



Minim is the Pot.

Escape, Warp to Cobe, use the Inn and Save, then walk back to Maqurine's House.



Rudo's inside, but Maqurine isn't. He says he can't find her, but Seena tries to calm him down by saying she probably just went out. Into the monster-filled randomized dungeon surrounding her home. He says that he can't shake the feeling that she's gone far away.

Her kitty cat tries to comfort him, and Rudo seems surprised that she has a cat. I am too. The Elves would probably use that as target practice for their magic. Seena says that he'll have to confess his love some other time, but he says he'll wait just a little while longer.

Speaking with him a second time triggers the next part of this quest. Because why should they just make this all one cutscene when they can screw with the player, right?



Rudo's still wondering where Maqurine ran off to, and suddenly recalls that there's another gem called the Blue Eye out there. He wonders if she went looking for that, but I don't think that's likely given the initiative she showed on obtaining the Purple Eye. Hearing "Blue Eye" makes the kitty cat start meowing excitedly, which is all the encouragement Rudo needs to go off hunting it.



Apparently it's in Sulani Cave back in Epsis. That would be the cave where Dei escaped to after he first raided Fugo's Mansion. I guess Rudo's think Lidalian accent causes him to pronounce it as "Sulani" instead of "Slani."

After announcing the location of the Blue Eye so the player will know where to go next, he runs off. Minim asks if he remembers that they had to save him last time, and Dei doesn't think he does.



Seena says mo' obstacles, mo' lovin', but Minim says that'd be fine if Rudo was the one clearing the obstacles.

Escape, Warp to Albano and walk to Slani Cave.



I admit I used Sweet Water on the first couple of floors so I could hunt down another copy of Holy Attack so that Randolph could learn it. And I did and he did.

Minim makes his way down to the fifth floor, where Dei executed a bold and daring escape by simply walking away from Minim and Seena. Now it's finally time to hit those stairs Seena wouldn't let Minim go down back then!

There are new enemies down on the lower floors, but we'll be seeing them soon enough in the story.

Pressure Pt. lowers an enemy's ATP by 20%. It might be useful for an upcoming boss fight, but right now Aima doesn't have the Green SF to learn it, so that'll have to wait.



Down on B12, the pathway from the stairs splits. To the right is a room that contains a Wisdom Seed, X-Magic and Burn Ring (+10 ATP, +5 MAP, strengthens fire magic, enables wearer to cast Spark)



Rudo's on the left. He's totally pumped to take on the giant Snake, because winning will grant him the Blue Eye. When the Snake charges at him, he screams like a child and probably wets himself.

Despite the man being in mortal danger, Minim feels compelled to crack wise about him not learning his lesson. Seena actually shows concern for him and says they need to defeat the monster to save him.


Music:Battle against a Sinistral

The DevilSnake can probably do stuff, but Aima used Pause Palm on the first turn for lack of better options and paralyzed it. TLR is one of those unfortunate games where you don't know if a status ailment was successful or not. There's no cute little icons above the enemy's head or anything. Instead, you just have to observe and see what happens. In the case of Pause Palm, you just have to watch and see if the enemy takes an action that turn or not. (I wondered if I had just missed it attacking the first turn and didn't realize until the third turn that it was actually paralyzed)

Pause Palm kind of became a thing for Aima in this battle, and that's all she did. The ATP boost becomes smaller and smaller with each use, but that's not a big deal. When it paralysis wore off DevilSnake, Aima would just paralyze it again. It never even got a chanec to hit.

Oh Aima, is there anything you can't do?

"Use attack magic effectively."

Oh. Right.



Rudo thanks Minim for saving him (again), and Minim yells at him for doing something so stupid. He defends himself by saying that he just had to get the Blue Eye. Seena forks it over, telling him to "keep it in a safe place," and I like to think that's her way of saying "shove it up your ass."



He thanks the group and runs off. Seena is envious of Maqurine because of her wimpy wooer.

Escape, Warp to Cobe, walk to Maqurine's House.



But Maqurine's still gone. Rudo exposits that he has both the Purple Eye and the Blue Eye, and the kitty cat perks up upon hearing this. It runs over to Rudo and starts meowing and scratching at his pant leg. Minim, using the same excellent animal skills that allowed him to communicate with Mousse (after trying to kill him), thinks that the kitty wants the jewels.



He suggests Rudo set the jewels down in front of the kitty cat. Rudo does and... the kitty cat turns into Maqurine. So... she's a catgirl dressed as a maid? Maqurine is pretty nonchalant about the whole thing.

And here is the resolution to this sidequest:








I don't have any fucking clue y'all. She stole the jewels to become human, and then somehow lost the jewels but stayed as a human. For some reason, getting one of the jewels turned her back into a cat, but getting them both turned her back into a human. Why would she even need the jewels if she could exist as a human without them? And what the hell is with Minim, Seena and Dei's reactions? They saw the cat turn into a human, why the skepticism? It isn't like the cat took the jewels and walked behind a curtain and Maqurine popped out, they literally saw the cat become a human with their very eyes.

Note: Rudo does not seem to be bothered by bestiality.

So what was the point of this long, meandering sidequest? So glad you asked!



Maqurine gives Minim the Cat Ring. It's an item for ladies that boosts SPD by 300. Naturally, it goes to Aima so she can punch things more quickly. She passes off her HiPow Ring to Minim to replace his Angry Ring. She'll eventually get the HiPow Ring back, but she's going to be needing that Sanity Ring very shortly.



JP art



NA art

There's not much to say about his design. He apparently likes to take baths.

Today we covered 33 randomly generated floors: Six in Copley the first time through, six going back through to meet Maqurine and get to Cobe, five in Tomis Cave, three back in Copley, ten in Slani Cave, and then one last set of three in Copley. Thus, we have hit the first hundred of the titular hundreds of floors. No, the thread name isn't a hyperbole.

Next Time: The Princess begins her coup!
Random Floors covered: 103

While that subplot makes no sense, the thing that is really bothering me is just how in the world you are supposed to pronounce Maqurine's name. Is it supposed to be 'Mack-reene' or something?

It's written as マキュリン in the JP version, so I guess Ma-Cue-Reene. I'm not sure why type of name it's supposed to be. I like to pretend they meant to write "Marjorine" though.

More deeper.

Also, I'm just a cat. ♥

Wait, so why was it so bad for Rudo in particular to bring the gems to her?

She wasn't expecting him to think that as cat is fine too.

But how many of those blue-haired girls turn out to be Goddesses?

The series has always been pretty light-hearted (except for the endings, which are usually dramatic and soul crushing), but yeah, some of the stupidity is intentional and supposed to be funny. Gades has already commented on how different/goofy Minim is from the previous heroes, and another familiar face* will make a similar remark later on. But then quite a bit is just from a terrible localization.

*Note: This familiar face will probably make most of you go, "Who?" but I'll explain it

I have no idea. It seems like they're setting it up as a love triangle because she seems really excited to talk to Minim but kind of disinterested in Rudo, but then it goes off into left field and her explanation of the events completely contradicts the order. She clearly doesn't have the jewels at the beginning of the sidequest, so she should have already been a cat, and...

Maybe it's what Nodal says and she was worried that she'd have to explain the fact that she's a kitty cat and not a real person?

You know what? It doesn't matter. I have the mother fucking Cat Ring, I can take it into the Ancient Cave, and that's all that matters. I don't have to think about this stupid subplot anymore.

(I do like to think that this subplot is somehow related to the cats scattered across the world that say, "Meow man, meow...")

Let's see...

There was Lunar. Though the hero there wasn't red haired...

Anyways, in that sidequest Minim seems to suddenly gain enough IQ to become a cynic. Huh.

So is Erim just going senile?

Lunar is the other game Lufia 1 cribbed heavily from.

I don't know what you're talking about. We haven't met Erim yet.

You know, I was kinda hoping Seena would die when we saw the giant blood puddle graphic return. The game's dialogue would be 99.9% more bearable without the stupid banter between the two. Then again, it wouldn't make much of an LP if that was the case. Or we'd just have a bunch of bad dialogue ranting on about avenging Seena's death instead. =/

Still, we've got a giant shaggy dog man on our team now. Does this Foamy transform at all?

I actually think this is the only time we see the blood puddle that doesn't involve the character dying a horrible death.

Mousse doesn't transform at all. We can get him a piece of equipment that will dramatically increase his stats, and that's sort of like transforming, I guess.

Er... yes we have.

What? What are you, crazy? There's no Erim here. If she was, she'd obviously have been following the party. Thats her whole thing.

Am I missing a joke here?

Seriously, I'm not even sure if I should bother spoiling the fact that Seena is Erim.

It's pretty much Lufia 101.

That's ridiculous. Why would you think such a thing.

Chapter 10: Minim vs the Alstadt Army

Minim's current destination is the Tower of Illusion, if you'll recall waaaay back near the beginning of the previous update when the characters were actually discussing things and not doing sidequests. You may also recall the small village that was located five feet away from the Tower. Considering the effect the Tower had on Minim and Seena, the village must be completely overrun with crazies, right?


Music:The Fishing Village of Cobe

Wrong. In fact, there doesn't seem to be anything going on in Cobe at all. The only thing Infodump Uncle has to say is about a kid named Nicky who lies a lot. Another named child? Don't worry, as far as I can remember, this is the last precocious child we'll have to deal with in the plot.



Looting time! The Weird Ring in the Inn boosts ATP by 15 and DFP by 10, which is pretty unremarkable at this point.



The store is located upstairs from the Inn and holy hell, when did I get that much money?! Granted, I haven't had to buy anything since before I went to the Pirate Ship and that was... five dungeon ago. Huh.

Dei upgrades to a Long Bow (+130 ATP). Minim gets a Cut Shld (+35 DFP, +10 ATP), and he and Randolph both get [b]Iron Mails[b] (+70 DFP) and Bronz Helms (+35 DFP). Melphis and Seena both get Rage Braces (+30 DFP), Lthr Berets (+30 DFP) and Naite Dres (+65 DFP). Aima doesn't get anything because of her equipment class.

There's another Wizrd Ring behind the counter at the inn (you can also sleep for free this way). The kid Infodump Uncle mentioned is hanging around at the dock, along with the only boat in town. A fishing village with only one boat? Really? The kid claims he's Deckard's partner, and I'm sure he's lying. After all, an adult told us that this kid with an actual name was a liar, so clearly he must be lying.

The church has got some great new spells. Stronger is the second tier single target healing spell (Minim, Seena and Melphis learn it). Blizzard is the second tier ice spell that enemies were hammering the party with all last update. Minim and Melphis can learn it, but Melphis is the only one who even has a shot of actually hurting things with it (and even then it isn't gonna be that helpful), so she learns it.

What it says vs What it does VIII (are we on eight? I think we're on eight)

Champion X says it will recover all HP for all targets. What it actually does is recover lots of HP for the entire party, but most certainly not all. Melphis is the only character that can learn it, and you definitely want to learn it.

That's pretty much all we can do in Cobe for now.


Music:Kingdom of Alstadt

Alstadt is located west of Cobe across a bridge. Minim is his usual, uncooperative self and refuses to enter because they're supposed to be heading to the Tower of Illusion. At least now it's been added to his Warp list, so he can get back in a jiffy.


Music:Tower of Illusion

Having exhausted all his options, Minim resigns himself to entering the Tower of Illusion. The Tower of Illusion looks a lot like the Tower of Death, except it's blue instead of red. There's no lobby, so the dungeon starts on the 1F.

There's a new class of enemies here: Oaks. Their map sprites look almost exactly like Goblins, except without horns. Regular Oaks have a green map sprite and mimic Minim's movements, so it's ridiculous easy to trap them in a corner and get in a preemptive strike. Or avoid them entirely. Sometimes they'll use an ability called Oink,Oink, but it doesn't seem to do anything. Whichever. Mage Oaks have blue map sprites and mirror Minim's movements, so it's not quite as easy to get the jump on them. The good thing about Oaks is how slow they are. It's unlikely they'll get to attack before being killed off. In case you are wondering, Mage Oaks can cast Blizzard and Fireball if you let them live long enough. They're certainly nothing to worry about.

D. Spirits seem to have some resistance to physical attacks. Mousse can't seem to hit them. They're capable of using Curse to lower one row's DFP, a spell called Dark Flame that deals ~40 to one column, and can Call Companions. Their regular attacks can inflict Poison.

Also new: BloodBats. They can use Vampire to drain a character's HP and inflict poison.

(Note: None of the enemies are actually new, they were the same ones Minim fought in Tomis Cave and Slani Cave's lower floors)



Vital Aim will knock off 1/8 of the target's stats. Dei learns it, because it's a pretty useful thing to have against bosses.

R. Blade, on the other hand, is mostly worthless. It hits an enemy for however many HP you're missing, and that will very rarely be more than what characters typically do with their regular attacks.



The strength of Cure Force seems to be about half of the user's max HP... which again means that Minim is the only one who could make effective uses of it. Nevertheless, Seena learns it.

More enemies:
ArmrGoblins can Call Companions, but I think that's about it.

Ents can use their regular attack three times and it can inflict sleep. They can also cast Confuse. They're not too big of a threat, and since they're stationary you can usually avoid them if you don't want precious experience, gold and LP. Which you totally want, so I don't see why you wouldn't slaughter them.

Spirits are yellow ghosts on the map and mimic Minim's movements. They can use Black Thunder on one target, and their regular attacks can inflict Sleep.



The center of the 10F is where the plot's waiting. In the room on the right there's a save point and some treasure: A Life Seed, another Sanity Rng and an Absorber. The Absorber is a pretty powerful sword (+230 ATP, which 30 more than the GadesBlade) that drains 2 MP with each use. I guess it counts as a cursed weapon, but Minim is the only character with natural MP growth that can equip it, and I tested it out and it doesn't appear to have any negative consequences if you use it without any MP.



The central room is quite a bit like Gades's throne room in the Tower of Death, except instead of a throne there's some sort of contraption on the raised platform. Minim refuses to continue up the tower, even though, like, we totes know there's a Sinistral up that way.



Minim is confused by this big contraption, and Randolph points out that it's probably a weapon. Could this be the Ultra Weapon we've heard so muchcasually mentioned once or twice? Yes


Music:Nightmare

When Suddenly a man and two henchmen appear. Apparently this is General Gohl of the Alstadt Army. He's surprised to see Randolph and Melphis, and is rightfully impressed that they're still alive. The only reason he's a contributing member of the team is because of that ring we found on Pirate Island that gave him a huge HP boost, and there aren't enough MP in the world to let Melphis keep them both healed and healthy if it were only the two of them fighting.



Melphis wants some answers, and Gohl explains that Deraf is the mastermind.... which... again, is something we already knew, because this is exactly what Melphis and Randolph said when they joined. Melphis says that Deraf isn't the ruler of Alstadt, but Gohl points out that the king is dead and the princess is supposed to be sick and confined to her room.



By process of elimination, that makes Deraf the ruler. Melphis ain't gonna take some punk ass minister snatching away her kingdom, and it looks like the only way to solve this is a good old fashioned fight.


Music:Boss Battle

Gnrl.Gohl can use ConfuPowder on one row. Aima's Sanity Rng and Seena's Ame Ball will protect them, and it would have been a good idea to equip those other two Sanity Rngs we've picked up, but I forgot. He can also use an ability called Vertical Slash that hits a column, but that was barely hitting for 40 HP.

The Guards flanking him can use that mysterious Attack skill, which is awfully trivial, ConfuPowder on one character, and Shock Wave, a skill that hits one character for quite a bit of damage. It hit Aima for about 150 HP, so you can imagine what it could do to other characters. Defeating the Guards will only cause Gnrl.Gohl to immediately summon a new ally. I know this because Mousse wasted his Tail Illusion on one.

Dei snatched a Miracle.



After the battle, the guards and the Ultra Weapon are gone. They somehow managed to transport it to Alstadt during the battle. I call bullshit: I saw the size of that weapon, and I know the size of the staircases in the Tower of Illusion. Hell, even the door to the central room here on the 10F is too small to fit it through, even if they were tilting it a little bit.

Gohl says that Deraf's mission is nearly complete, but it sounds more like his campaign is just starting. Like many enemies Minim's fought this far, he dies laughing.