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

Doesn't the Ancient Cave strip you of all your gear when you enter it anyway?

Gogo to Mologolo. Minim and friends deserve a shopping spree!

They should go spread their wealth at Mologoro followed by spelunking at the Anceint Caves.

Well, I guess I'll get started on playing this part of the game, let me just see how the voting turned out and...

...

>

I'm glad you're LPing this and all, because I can see I'd never be able to put up with those whackjobs in this day and age, no matter how sorta good the game is. It looks very much like one of those 8-bit games that was given 32 bits of dialogue.....Except the writers got their degrees from Clown College. And then Natsume translated it. =/

They must really like using that simplistic red blob graphic the art designers made for blood, huh?

Come to think of it, with all the (read: some) blood and swearing, how did this game end up with an "E" rating anyway?

I'd call old ESRB idiocy on that. Dragon Warrior III GBC had a similar level of cursive language, NPCs that were 10,000 times less detestable, and no blood, but got a T rating.

And let's not forget Jet Force Gemini, which lets you dismember, decapitate, and explode the defenseless cutesy koala people you're supposed to be saving, with orangish-pink sprays of blood that are close enough to red to be of concern to overprotective parents. That's some T-rated fun there! =D I wonder if the Happy Tree Friends creators played JFG.

And in Wild Arms 2, one of the villains shot himself in the head on camera. And it's implied that a brother and sister had a child, as a magor plotpoint. And it got an E rating.

But they also refrained from using the term "vampire" to describe a character who is a vampire. So... make of that as you will.

Unscrupulous reporting of game content to the ESRB, maybe?

Let's not forget the Disc 2 anime opening either, where the main characters dismember a bunch of monsters! Sure, most of the blood's kinda purple, but it's still very graphic for something that got an E rating.....Man, I wish Wild ARMs 2 looked more like that in-battle instead of LEGO polygons.

Unlikely. For that to happen, the review copy the ESRB received would have had to be different from the final product, which would have required more programmers on the localization team's part, which I really don't see them putting up the money for just to get an E rating vs. a T.

Come to think of it, you unlocked secrets in that game by collecting the severed heads of your enemies. And you could execute surrendered soldiers, and splatter everyone's guts around the room. Why did the parents get all crochety about GTA, again?

Especially since they could have used that extra money to proofread the script at least once.

Even though the votes ended up being tied, half were for an option that did not exist so I decided that the Ancient Cave won.

Y'all, we're gonna be adding a lot of floors to our randomly generated floor count. There will also be a Voting Time at the end of the next update for something completely different.

Of course, this assumes that the ESRB plays all the way through a game.

They do not.

Really, how far would they have had to play to hit their first few blood spatters or naughty words?

If they let BN2, whose very first scenario involved a house getting gassed and a briefcase bomb, get an E rating, I think it's clear that sometimes the ESRB doesn't care.

Chapter 13: Minim's Great Cave Offensive

I figured out how to map the fastforward to my controller, so here's a look at our current game time, because it will never be accurate again:



(The game really isn't 100+ hours, that's from fastforwarding through pretty much every dungeon/battle)



Like the Guard said, Deckard's boat is waiting just outside. It moves a heckuvalot faster than Minim, but there are still random encounters. Just off the coast of Cobe is an island with a shrine on it that we'll be seeing more of later.

F. Turtles don't seem to do much but die, but the Merman was able to use an attack called Big Wave that hits (I think) one row for about 100 HP. There are all sorts of enemies out in the deep blue sea, but, um, we probably won't see most of them, because we won't be spending too much time on the boat.

The Ancient Cave is located on this little island here. It would probably be easier to get a handle on the location if I had set foot on Fante, because that's what's lurking up there in the northeastern quadrant.



The island uses the same graphic set and music as Fante itself, which means ugly desert. Like in the previous two games, there's a town near the actual dungeon. Gulduck has hidden items like every other town, but none of it is remotely interesting.

Pretty much all the townsfolk are talking about how weird/awesome/dangerous the Ancient Cave is.



Really, the only noteworthy thing in this entire town is the response you get when you speak to the Old Lady at Shop after entering through the back door, because she calls Minim out for his obsessive chest opening compulsion. He can't help it lady, the game keeps track of how many of the chests he's opened, silently judging him throughout and then throwing it back in his face after the ending just to make him feel inadequate after his fleeting moment of victory and oh god he just wants to make the game happy so it will love him ok

The store sells Chill Rings, Flash Rings and Burn Rings, which is... less than useful.

I think we came across a Wing Ring earlier in the game. It boosts SPD by 30.

Reduce can be purchased at the church.

What it says vs What it does IX

Defeats 'Mirror' with darkness makes it sound like it simply erases the effects of the Mirror spell. What it actually does is inflict dark-elemental damage, making it the only dark spell the player has access to. If the target is under the Mirror spell, it'll deal major damage (When it's cast on a party member that's Mirror'd, the damage will almost always be enough to kill the party member). Unfortunately, not that many enemies use Mirror, and the ones that do tend to be Sinistrals, who I'm pretty sure resist darkness... but I believe Reduce will destroy a Mirror, regardless of whether or not the target is killed. You know, in case you wanted to use Dread or Blind or whatever.



Entering the manhole on the world map leads to the Ancient Cave's lobby. The entrance to the dungeon is in the back. The man behind the counter lays out the rules, and he'll also perform an addition function later.

Other things to note: This inconspicuous NPC that Minim is looking at. He has something very important to say, so I hope you take the time to speak with him. We'll see what he has to say in a bit, because it'll be funnier that way. And by funnier, I mean, "This is what happened to Turnip the first time he played this game."



There's a guy on the second floor whining about how he can't make it past the fortieth floor. Well, maybe you should go back to the Gang's Hideout and farm an Alum Blade and then find seven meatshieldsfriends to travel with him.

The third floor is where you exit the Ancient Cave. I don't know how that works, but there's a Dragon Egg in the teleporter room. There's also some items hidden in the scenery here in the Ancient Cave lobby, but it appears I didn't screencap any of it.



Let the adventure begin! The Ancient Cave is one of the legacy locations here in Lufia series, it's been in every game in some form or another. Most folks forget that it was in the first game, despite that being the only game in the series (besides Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals) where you have to visit it to complete the game. The reason they forget is because (a) it's referred to as the Old Cave and (b) unlike in every other game, it's not a randomized dungeon. Instead, it has an actual layout, with new floors opening up every five levels the main character gains. The objective was to take missions from the Treasure Hunter's Guild to find specific artifacts so you could be rewarded with massive sums of money. So, kinda like the Iris Treasures in Lufia 2, except, you know, actual benefits.

Semi-related: TLR is the first Lufia game to consistently refer to this thing as the Ancient Cave.

Semi-semi-related: The other legacy location (aside from Doom Island) was Forfeit Island, which was a really neat concept: You could buy back anything you had ever sold, including one-of-a-kind items. This really seems like a place you'd find in a Dragon Quest game, doesn't it? Anyway, it went from this awesome megamall in Lufia 1 to a cruddy casino town in Lufia 2, with the actual shop confined to a depressing little basement, so it's probably for the best that it only lasted for two games, never to be heard from again.


This is what we're working with. Just like on the outside, Minim's Alum Blade is going to make most encounters a cakewalk.

Here's the deal if you aren't familiar with this:

• The Ancient Cave is a randomly generated dungeon. Since all dungeons are randomly generated in this game, that means the graphic set will change every five floors.
• The Ancient Cave is has 100 floors. Your goal is to reach the hundredth floor.
• You can only travel down deeper into the Ancient Cave, there are no stairs leading up.
• The enemies will become more challenging the farther down you go.
• When you enter the Ancient Cave, your characters will be stripped of everything: Everyone will be set to level 1, their SF levels will be, I believe, whatever they naturally have when they join the party, they will all be naked and without IP attacks (even if they started with one). All of your items, ancient texts, magic, and equipment will be gone.
• You will be given ten Potions.
• There are only two ways out of the Ancient Cave: Being wiped out be enemies or using an item called Providence, which is usually located around the twentieth floor of the dungeon.
• Items found in Red Chests will be lost when you exit the Ancient Cave. Items found in Blue Chests can not only be carried outside the Ancient Cave, they can also be brought back in.
• When you exit the Ancient Cave, everything will be restored to whatever you had before you entered and you'll lose everything you find inside, except for Blue Chest Items.

See that scroll laying on the ground? It's what spells look like in the Ancient Cave. When you pick up a scroll, every character in the party that can learn that spell will learn it immediately.



I consider the Ancient Cave to be far better than the rest of the game, if only for this simple fact: The chests can contain equipment. This gives the player an actual reason to explore every nook and cranny to seek out more chests. In the regular game, it's like, the best you can hope for after the first few floors of a dungeon are GoddessTears, but here you can find stuff you can actually use. That Clear Cape? It raises Aima's DFP by 180, and she's only at level 2. Nothing is going to be able to touch her for quite some time.



Blue Chest # 1: Bunnysuit (+80 DFP, +20 SPD, +20 MAP and +20 REG, ladies only). Defensively, it's not that great, but it offers several other useful stat boosts, making it a great piece of body armor for the spell casting ladies, especially here in the Ancient Cave.

The Ancient Cave is not without its unique hazards: Heal pads only restore HP, putting your magicians at the mercy of the random generator and whether or not it decides to spawn the Absorb spell or not. I mean, it doesn't matter how many Max MP Seena gets, it's not going to mean a dang thing because she's only going to have 6 MP (because that's what she has at level 1) until you figure out a way to restore them.

In addition, sometimes the chests you find are not really chests. Mimics look identical to regular red chests. There are no subtle discolorations or anything, you literally can't tell the difference until you try to open it. Mimics are woefully unprepared to do battle against Minim and the Alum Blade, though.



On floors divisible by five, there's a chance you'll come across Grandpa and his wares. His inventory is generated based on how much gold you have when you speak to him. It's calculated so that you'll have to choose whether to buy, like, a lot of crappy pieces of or just one or two pieces of the good stuff. He also sells recovery items that take the form of refreshments: Milk (1000 G), CafeAuLait (5000 G), Coffee (10,000 G) and Espresso (50,0000 G). I'm pretty sure they all restore 30 HP and 30 MP, but he only sells one type at a time based on how much money you have.

You can game the system a little bit here: His inventory is calculated when you speak with him. As long as you don't back out of the shop menu, his inventory won't change, so you can sell off all the junk you've picked up to be able to afford more than what the game really wants you to have access to.



Blue Chest # 2: Ice Amulet (Reg + 20, protection from ice). I've heard contradicting things about the Amulets, so I'm not sure exactly what protection from ice entails. Even if it makes you immune or absorbs a specific element, the Amulets are pretty much the bottom of the barrell as far as blue chest items go.



Blue Chest # 3: Iris' Met. HEY LOOK YOU GUYS AN IRIS TREASURE YOU GUYS AN IRIS TREASURE. Unlike in Lufia 2, stuff that has "Iris" in the name can actually be used for something. It's all equipment for womenfolk that aren't Aima. Iris' Met. boosts DFP by 90, making it the second best piece of headgear for these ladies.



Blue Chest #4: God Helm (+125 DFP, for Minim and Deckard). Another excellent piece of headgear. It's the third best piece for Minim and the second best for Deckard.



There's a raised platform on the fiftieth floor, and a true healing spot that restores MP. The waitress on the center platform congratulates Minim on making it this far, but says he cannot go any deeper without the Glass Ruby from Broffo Cave.

Now wait just a cotton picking minute, what kind of horseshit is this? Why would they not warn us about this beforehand? What kind of sick game are they play---



Oh, right. This guy from the lobby explicitly states you need the Glass Ruby to get past the fiftieth floor. Good thing they gave this information to an easily missed NPC, right?



Minim won't be going home empty-handed, though. The Waitress forks over another Gold Helm so both Minim and Deckard can be God Helm Buddies. The chest behind her contains a Croquette, but you can only open it once and since it's a red chest you'll lose it when you exit the Ancient Cave, so it's best to save it for when you can go past the fiftieth floor. (Not that you're ever going to actually use it)

Minim uses Providence to escape, and the waitress promptly returns all his stuff. Because everyone's returned to exactly how they were before they set foot in the cave, that means the stuff we found in the blue chests will need to be equipped out here, even if we had it on in the cave. Deckard and Minim both equip those God Helms. Aima get the Bunnysuit and Seena gets the Iris' Met.

Now let's see about that Glass Ruby


If you'll recall, Broffo Cave was the gateway between Siantao and the Marjari-Albano region back in Epsis. The Guard isn't bluffing with his warning: The enemies inside are roughly on par with the ones you'll find in Fante's Sinistral Tower. I just used Sweet Water to make my way down to the B10.



There's a new IP here called Puzzle. It apparently confuses enemies with a lower INT stat than the user and will likely never, ever be used by anyone.



On B10, the north path leads to a Body Seed and Dragon Fang, while the side one leads to a Power Seed and the Glass Ruby. The Glass Ruby is another legacy for the series: In the first game it was Medan's Hope Ruby and in the second it was both a Ruby Apple and a Ruby Idol. In both of those games, they at least had some relevance to the scenario. In TLR, they didn't even pretend.



With the Glass Ruby in tow, Minim can give the Ancient Cave another shot and actually reach the hundredth floor.



The very first red chest he finds contained a Zirco Fist, the very best weapon that can be bought for Aima.



Blue Chest # 5: Old Shld (DFP + 130, REG + 33, for Minim, Dei and Deckard). This should be called the Ancient Shield (it was also called Might Shield back in Lufia 1), and it's without a doubt the best shield available for these three characters.

Blue Chest # 6: Bunny Ring (DFP + 5, allows wearer to cast Thunder, ladies only). I think it may also strengthen thunder spells. It's not a very useful piece of equipment.

Blue Chest # 7: Old Helm (+130 DFP, for Minim, Dei, Randolph and Deckard). This is the best headgear for Dei, Randolph and Deckard.

Blue Chest #8: Pearl Hlmt. (+135 DFP, Minim-only). And this here is Minim's best headgear. You may recall Maxim's Pearl Armaments from the end of Lufia 2 (I'm pretty much convinced that they were labeled as "しんじゅ" in Japanese and were meant to be "神授" instead of "真珠") and well, for whatever reason, they're now in the Ancient Cave.

Blue Chest # 9: RareMimic. Yes, even blue chests can have mimics.

Blue Chest # 10: Alum Fist (+430 ATP, +30 SPD). This is the weapon that gives Aima the highest ATP and SPD bonuses.



The waitress is no longer on the fiftieth floor. I decided to go ahead and get the Croquette because this chest counts toward completion and I'm not coming back to the Ancient Cave until after I finish the game.

Blue Chest # 11: Blzrd. Rng. (MAP + 30, wearer can cast Blizzard, strengthens ice magic).

Blue Chest # 12: Alum Blade. Yay, now Deckard can be like Minim.

Blue Chest # 13: EarthBlade (DFP + 60, SPD + 60, for Minim, Deckard, Dei and Randolph). The stat used to determine damage from EarthBlade attacks is 1/2 DFP + 1/2 SPD. It's kind of useful for Dei, but a waste of the other three's STR stats.

Blue Chest # 14: Prl Armor (+230 DFP, +44 REG, for Minim only). Another piece of the Pearl set. While it's nothing to sneeze at, there are better things Minim can wear, and those better things aren't just marginal improvements, either. (Spoiler Alert: We did not find any of those better things on this run, so he's just going to have to make do with the Prl Armor. Such is Minim's burden. Sigh.)

Blue Chest # 15: Alum Card ( +200 ATP, attack three times, _______ only). If you had let me go get the Ninth Character before coming here, you'd know who this is for. Because it hits three times, it could be considered her best weapon, but there's another blue chest weapon that gives her a sizable HP boost, and that's far more important for her than ATP will ever be.

Blue Chest # 16: Dmnd Ring (+30 ATP, +30 DFP, +20 REG, allows wearer to cast Zap). Seena is the only current character that can equip this, and the only other character who'll be able to wear it can learn holy magic like Zap through LP. Zap hits all enemies, and combined with Seena's MAP, it'll hit pretty dang hard.



Blue Chest # 17: Thndr Amlt. It is the exact same thing as the Ice Amulet, except for thunder magic.

And finally, on the ninty-ninth floor:
Blue Chest # 18: Custom 65 (+465 ATP). This is actually a Suhr Custom '65. Unfortunately, no one in the current party can harness the power of rock, so it's just going to have to sit in the inventory and wait.



Finally, Minim arrives on the one hundredth floor of the Ancient Cave. It looks suspiciously like a palette-swapped version of the Tower of Illusion.

But before we see what horror awaits, let's take a look at the party that conquered the Ancient Cave:


Hmm.... only level 29? That seems awfully low...come to think of it, weren't the monsters on floor ninety and onward just enemies from the Tower of Illusion? You'd think things would be tougher, wouldn't you?



Master is waiting on the raised platform. Not Master, teacher of Jigen-ryu and punching Gades in the face, but Master, the giant slime! Master offers to grant a wish for Minim. OH GOD WHAT SHOULD I DO TYRANTS???? I need you to vote to tell me what to think and how to act!



Just kidding. Minim wants the weapons. The other two options are undesirable: You see, what we just did? That wasn't the real Ancient Cave. The real one starts at floor 101 and goes down to floor 200. The real one has unique enemies that will destroy you. The enemy groups scale more quickly: In the first 100 floors, we were fighting enemies from Copley Forest on the seventieth floor. In the second 100 floors, we'd be fighting those enemies around the fifteenth. So, uh, yeah. Making the Ancient Cave two hundred floors deep is neither wise or necessary at this point.

And don't think for one minute that the "Nothing" option is going to give you a better reward for not being greedy: It gives you a couple of level ups during your next battle outside the Ancient Cave.

Master tells Minim he can find the best weapons are in Paresia Shrine's top floor, and then disappears.



Parethea Shrine is the place near Cobe I pointed out at the beginning of the update, so the quickest way to get to it is to Warp back to Cobe and sail the like three steps north.

Naturally, Parenthea Shrine is a dungeon. Because, you know, you've already been through a hundred or more floors just in the Ancient Cave, what's the harm in a few more? The enemies are, once again, the same as the ones from the upper floors of the Tower of Illusion.



Force Field is like the other Force ----- IPs, only it effects both the user and adjacent characters.

Rapid Hit hits three times. I wonder if Randolph can get in six hits with the MultiBlade?



The fifth floor has a GoddessTear in a chest, and a large central room containing twelve stone monuments.



Inspecting a monument causes it to flicker and Minim to read the inscription, then explain what it means. Well, sorta. He'll comment on who the item sealed inside is for, and then is given the option to take the item or leave it. Why would he leave it? Well, you see, Master is an asshole, and although Minim wished for the best weapons, and Parenthea Shrine houses one for each party member, Minim is only allowed to take four per wish. If he wants the rest, he'll have to head back down to floor 100 and make the wish two more times.

What this means for us: I'm not going back to the Ancient Cave until the post game, so I'm going to have to ask y'all to make some tough choices. Since only three characters can act on a given turn, I'm further limiting things by only picking up three of the items before the post game.

Voting Time
The following is a list of what Minim says about each monument, and a spoilered description of what it actually is and what I think about it. Please pick three pieces. Vote with your heart, or vote based on personal experience, or vote based on what I say, or vote based on which character graphics you like the most. I don't care.

(Note: Every item will give the wearer an addition 10 points to their SF. This bonus will not be transferred to characters on their wavelength, however.

(1) "A Hero's Sword sleeps here... Hero's Sword... I could use one someday."
Max. Blade (+550 ATP, can occasionally deal 4x damage). Easily one of the best options and offers a substantial improvement over the Alum Blade.

(2) "A Holy Card sleeps here... Seena could use that..."
Dark Card (+280 MAP, +120 REG, allows Seena to use Great Seal use Myriad Truths cast Zap. Two-handed). This is actually supposed to be a set of tarot cards. Because Seena is a fortune teller.

(3) "Noble Clothes sleep here... Noble? That's for Dei."
Invsbl. Clk (+240 SPD, increases evasion, can absorb darkness-elemental attacks). It's not really a weapon per se, but it makes it much harder to kill Dei.

(4) "A Justice Bracelet sleeps here... Justice? This is for Aima."
Ancnt Brlt (+450 ATP, +30 SPD, sometimes deals 2.5x damage). This is actually a shield rather than a fist. She can equip a staff as her weapon to further boost her ATP.

(5) "A Legendary Sword sleeps here... Legendary? Randolph might be good with it."
Luna Blade (+666 ATP). This katana has the highest ATP of any weapon in the game. It doesn't appear to have any additional properties. They could have at least made it raise his HP or something...

(6) "A Queen Whip sleeps here... Queen? That's Melphis. Wait, is she a queen yet?"
QueenWhip (+400 ATP, always deals a critical hit, is not encumbered by positioning). Hahahaha it sounds nice, doesn't it? Even with the guaranteed critical, Melphis just doesn't have enough natural strength to keep up with the actual fighter characters.

(7) "Holy Spirit Ball sleeps here.. Isn't Mousse a holy spirit?"
Capsl. Rng (+333 to HP, DFP, MP, ATP, SPD, MAP and REG). This can actually make Mousse useful.

(8) "A Larger-Than-Life Sword sleeps here... This is definitely for Deckard. No question."
DeckerBlade (+500 ATP). It doesn't appear to have any other special properties. It's only about twenty points stronger than the Alum Blade, so I wouldn't consider it a priority.

(9) "Future Clothes sleep here... Future...?"
Fortune D. (+300 DFP) This is body armor. I don't think it has any special properties, but part of me desperately wants to believe it increases your chances of success when it comes to this character's IP attacks. It is one of the strongest armors in the game, though.

(10) "Traveler's Flute sleeps here... Traveler..."
Wind Flute. Technically, it's equipped as a weapon. However, when the character equipped with it selects the attack command, it'll heal the entire party for free. The Wind Flute's healing is not effected by things like Mirror. This is a legacy item that appeared in the original game where it could be used from the item menu.

(11) "Ancient Technology sleeps here... Technology sounds too complicated for me."
Power Suit (+500 DFP). Body armor. It has no special properties, except for being the strongest piece of armor in the game.

(12) "Elf's Soul sleeps here... I don't know an elf..."
Artea Bow (+200 ATP, +100 MAP, +100 REG, attacks all enemies, two-handed). The character that equips this is pretty much a squishy mage. She's a lot like Seena, except with better healing magic, so the MAP and REG boosts are welcome. "Attack all enemies" sounds nice, but she doesn't really have the natural strength to put it to good use.

Random Floors covered: 284 (148 in this update alone!)
Next Time: Dragon Warrior

Didn't Aima get an aluminum fist in the Cave? And unless I'm mistaken, that would mean she shouldn't be able to use a shield. And the choice between "Able to Punch Gods in the Face until they die" and "Not able to Punch Gods in the Face Until they die" isn't a choice at all.

Unless I am mistaken, in which case, go right ahead and make Aima even more unstoppable.

Besides that, the Hero Sword and Capsule thingy sound good. Go get them.

Let's go with Hero's Sword, Holy Cards, and a Power Suit. Aima's already got a brand new toy this update.

She can still punch things, it'll just be bare-handed and with a pretty bracelet. Also she can bludgeon Gods in the Face if she equips a staff on top of her bracelet.

Max. Blade - Minim may be kinda stupid, but... wait, I forgot where I was going with that.

Ancnt Brlt - For great justice.

Capsl. Rng - Because it's all about the action economy, stupid.

Wow, those are some...pretty shitty ultimate weapons, especially if you factor in that only three characters can act in a turn. I vote for Max Blade, Capsule Ring, and Ancient Bracelet.

They aren't that bad. "Traveler's Flute" is darn near the best thing in the game, and most are serviceable. "Queen Whip" is a nice in theory, but the game mechanics prevent it from actually reaching its potential. The "Future Clothes" is really the only thing I'd say outright sucks (especially when there's a blue chest weapon for this character that actually feels like her ultimate weapon).

I had a bit of a Lufia: The Legend Returns moment yesterday in Real Life when I walked into what I thought was the entrance of a shop and found myself behind the counter. Instead of asking for a discount, though, I just left before anyone noticed I was there. Did I do wrong?

Max Blade- Rip through things faster
Luna Blade- Rip through things faster
Capsl. Rng- Rip through things faster while making a party member useful
Dang straight XD

Did you press the A button against every surface trying to find hidden items?

...after playing Okami, I found myself drawing circles in the air over dead trees.

I though you couldn't bring the Alum Blade. Did you find another one while you were in there?

Dei's not exactly the first person I think of when I think noble.

Anyways, get Maxim's Sword, the Capsule Ring, and the Traveler's Flute.