A Splendid Little Holy War: Let's play Chaos World!

But first she stops by the Guild to see if advancing the plot has opened up any new jobs. It didn't, but the Guildmaster at Izaruro has a message for her: "Your sm__Eremd is done." That's his silly way of saying that Baran has finished his stint as an indentured servant in Ruval.


A short trip on the Wings of Pegasus later...
Ruval no longer looks like a craphole. Most of the folks here comment on how nice the weather is, but one guy expresses utter disbelief that Litton could fall to the infidels.


At the Guild...
Aless apparently stopped by to visit while Baran was slaving away, and offered him some information about three emblems connected to Ideia. He also gave him Lies. Boy, this Aless fella sure does seem trustworthy!


It's actually the Emblem of Lies, the first of the three Ideian Emblems, not, like, actual lies. See it? Right there in the Mark box.

(Note: This does not make Aless anymore trustworthy)

Yep, the game just dumped two separate mcguffin quests in Swift's lap in under three minutes.


In Ruval's Throne Room...
Someone finally gives Swift the praise she so sorely deserves. Her moment of glory is short-lived, because some skank wandering around in the throne room is salivating over Aless.


Levin is surprised to learn that Ideia is like, an actual thing, but affirms that he runs a secular state and if some crazy ass nun shows up, they'll nip it in the bud. Swift contemplates leaving him some brochures about the Good News of Maria.


Ruval's King thanks Swift for loaning him a slave and tells her that Aless was looking for her. Yawn.


In Rodetia's Considerably Less Garish Throne Room...
I mean seriously, look how much more pleasant the blue floor compared to Ruval's hideous seafoam affair.

Princess Meldi happy that both Swift and Levin are safe and sound. She ponders aloud if Ideia really is connected to that Destroyer of All Things mentioned in the Prophecy.


Apparently Michenu's been this way, bound for Ryuita. Old King of Rodetia is flabbergasted to learn that she's spreading Ideia.


And lemme tell you, he is not gonna stand for that and orders Swift to chase her down in Ryuita. Are Kings usually allowed to persecute religious missionaries in another sovereign nation like this? Whatever.

(Note that the The World's Only Compass wasn't brought up in this conversation at all. I guess that's not a good enough reason to invade a foreign country.)


With her new permission slip, Swift flies to Ruval because it's closer to Ryuita than Rodetia is. A new job is open at the Guild: Repairing the Church. I'm dumb and I didn't get a screen shot of the Church, but it wasn't damaged earlier in the game so I don't know why it would be in bad shape now after Baran fixed up the city so nice. Swift decides to let Nande handle it. Baran and Wendy rejoin the team for the trip to Ryuita, while Leon takes a break.

Next Time: Who the hell knows? I think it's dragons or something?

In fairness to Swift, she was only told to find out about Ideia. Not do anything to thwart their/its wiles.

The church still needs fixing because Baran is a slacker. Maybe a stint back on the front lines will give him a work ethic.

Beastman?

What are you doing here?

You know how the mob will speak in code to avoid saying anything incriminating? That's sort of what's going on here.

Work ethic, or death. Whichever!

Dying.

Episode VI: Swift makes all kinds of dumb mistakes


After ditching Leon and pawning Nande off to the Church, Swift departs for Ryuita.


The Ryuita Border Cave is on the northeastern side corner of the sacred forest. It's quicker to travel from Ruval than it is from Rodetia (Rodetia's border cave is located on the southwestern tip of the sacred forest, so).


There's nothing to say about the border cave. It's one room with a single guard and no enemies.


After crossing through, Swift finds herself in the Kingdom of Ryuita, with a small town visible to the southeast. Ryuita has a whole mess of problems, but lucky for them the Heroine has arrived, and nothing's gonna stop her from kicking ass until the whole world is put to rights.


Except maybe this. Swift's first random encounter in this new land is statistically the worst possible one she could find herself in out here. Ideia Knights deal heavy physical damage, Sorceresses deal heavy magical damage. Swift's physical tank is four levels lower than where the party should be and wearing way outdated equipment; her magical tank doesn't have the physical defense to withstand the attacks of the Ideia Knights, and Wendy only has 67 HP.

Oh, and she doesn't have a dedicated healer.


Swift herself can handle the Ideia Knights, but the Sorceress cuts through her like she is something that is easily cut through. Wendy takes a dirt nap halfway through the battle, but is revived with one of the party's precious Elixirs. Which is what's happening in this screen, even though she's still on the ground.


Despite being heavily battered from a single random encounter, Swift and her pals manage to stumble into the nearby town of Dolgis. The town greeter follows up the standard issue greeting with directions on how to get to Ryuita's Castle, which is... actually quite a ways away.


Despite the Ideia Knights running rampant outside, no one here has heard of Michenu. This kind woman does, however, tell Swift about another person in town who possess one of those mysterious "names." See, when you live in an old school RPG, something as simple as having a name really makes you stand out to locals.

Wait a minute, Roger? Wasn't he the dude from Ruval? He must have wisely decided to put some distance between himself and his galpal.


There are two interesting things about the architecture of Dolgis: One, the buildings are made out of wood instead of stone, and two, this bigass building in the back of town.


Inside is a tiny, one room shrine that seems far to small for such a large building. A Stone Tablet in the center offers some cryptic mumbo jumbo:


I... I don't think this game is gonna have a happy ending...


Or not? I presume God's light refers to the Sun Statue. Maybe recovering it will let Swift take on the Trials of Elore...?


The people here are good for more than just hints to future fetchquests. This fella has information on the Compass! Apparently, the man that it was lent to retired, but his daughter still works for the King, so she should be able to help Swift.


Also: A dragon living in the a nearby cave is posing some kind of threat to the people of Ryuita, and the military has been deployed to get rid of it. But as we learned from the Ruval story arc, that's just fancy codespeak for "Swift, you need to go up to the cave and slay the dragon or else the storyline's never gonna move forward."

(The guy goes on to suggest that Swift take the job at the Guild)


Pfft, team up with the military? Swift ain't having that. They can keep their job, she and her crack team will take care of it by themselves.

(I think I forgot to point this out earlier, but the W here is for Mages. They're called Wizards in the Japanese version, so they must have forgot they changed it when they were going over the job listings)


Dona the Fem Shamn happy joins the team. For some reason, Swift sends for Leon. It'll take him two days to arrive.

Dolgis lacks an equipment store and it's magic list is subpar: The only new spells are Confuse (Elemental magic usable by everyone but Thfs and Priests - Confuses random enemies in battle for 4 MP) and Guardin (Divine magic usable by everyone - Raises the party's Def in battle for 4 MP). Neither of these spells is worth the pricetag.


Since she was told a named NPC hangs out in Dolgis at night, Swift decides to head back outside and wander around until nightfall. Some of the local wildlife include: Ideia Armor, which have higher DEF and HP than the Ideia Knights, and Panthers, which can poison with their attacks.


Ballbirds are weak and an excellent source of cash, while there's nothing much to say about Harpies besides the fact that they exist.


That night...
Swift speaks to Roger. He's come to Ryuita to talk to the King for reasons he fails to elaborate on, but says he was turned away because the King's got problems: Not only is there are fearsome dragon, he's also having trouble naming a successor.


He speculates that once the dragon has been killed, he'll be able to chat with the King. I know what you're thinking: "Well, we just came to get the Compass, so none of this really involves Swift at all. Good luck Roger, have a nice life!"

Haha who am I kidding? Of course you aren't thinking that, because you know Swift will eventually, for whatever reason, talk to the King and solve both of these problems before the game ends. Now, of the King's problems, Swift has all the leads she needs to solve the dragon one, so choosing a successor will have to wait.


Baran isn't so keen on the idea though. Too bad, fraidy cat. We're goin' dragon huntin'!

Also can you believe the outrageous rates the inn is charging here?


Anyway. The Dragon's Cave. It's to the northwest on a peninsula.


The Dragon's Cave uses the same graphic set as the Abandoned Mine did, except colored red. It houses a few new enemies, such as Armor Warriors (upgraded/palette swapped Ideia Knights) and lizards named Liz. Much like with the Abandoned Mine, the enemies here aren't difficult by themselves, but the constant battling while navigating the dungeon will really wear down a party's resources. For that reason, Swift tries to spend most of her time down here running away from battles.


Luckily, this dungeon is actually less frustrating than the Abandoned Mine because it has fewer staircases.


Eventually...
Swift and her flunkies make it to the Dragon's Lair. Like a proper dragon, it appears to be hording treasure.


The party doesn't appear to be in great shape. Orion has about half his max MP, but Wendy has most of hers. I don't know why it's showing Orion's spell list on Wendy'b status screen. Baran has embarrassingly low Def because he's still mostly wearing crap that was sold back in the Rodetia-Nazaal-Rarm area. He's not bringing a whol lot of Atk to the yard either: It's marginally higher than Swift's, but she'll be attacking more frequently. This has also put the party in a very uncomfortable position: The primary (or should I say "only") healer is also the party's strongest damage dealer. This is not a good thing. Despite all this, with a little luck Swift should be able to win. Let's do this.


As it turns out, this isn't just any old dragon, it's the King Dragon. A DragonLord, if you will. Or DracoLord, if you're going portable. Anyway, he-

Could this tragedy have been prevented? Let's take a look at Swift mistakes:

1. She sent Nande off on a mission, leaving her without a dedicated healer. This made the Dragon's Cave and the overworld around Dolgis even more irritating than usual.
2. She neglected to recruit the other character from Ruval who became available after Baran repaired the city.
3. She failed to upgrade Baran and [b]Wendy[b/]'s equipment, resulting in the two of them having the constitution of soggy paper towels.
4. She didn't bother to take the time to level Wendy and Baran to a respectable level.
5. Most importantly - and this one trumps all of the above - she attacked the King Dragon head on. Even if she had brought Nande, fully decked out Baran and Wendy in the latest gear, and got them up to level 15, the King Dragon still would have ripped them apart.

Next Time: Swift kills the King Dragon, grinds a bunch to bring everyone in the party up to par.

The fashion-conscious dragon gives you colored tombstones that compliment what you're wearing? That's... nice of him.

For a game that regularly makes use of some truly hideous tile/palette combinations, the Abandoned Cave and its red counterpart actually look pretty good!

But of course! Did you really think a dragon whose lair is filled with fuchsia accents and mood lighting wouldn't go that extra mile in the name of style?

You just gotta pull through, Swift!

There's a treasure chest behind that dragon and I have to know whats in it!

You know. It's kind of weird that there are knights of a religion based on doing what you want, when you want.

Maybe they wanted to be Knights.

Episode VII: Let Us Cling TogetherAn army fit for the Chosen One


Through some miracle or faustian pact, Swift managed to cheat death and retreat back to Dolgis with her ragtag band.


It occurred to her that she should give the military a second chance. After much deliberation, she decided that Wendy would be her sacrificial lamb. She's only at level 12, so her tragic death at the jaws of the King Dragon won't be too big of a setback. Good luck Wendy! I'll be sure to head back to Rodetia to notify your next of kin.

The guildmaster also passed along the message that Nande had finished repairing the church in Ruval. Swift is dumb and got the mission rewards mixed up, so she thinks what's waiting for her back in Ruval will just take up space in her limited inventory, and she's just not ready for that.


She calls that slowpoke LizaSamus, but it's gonna take her five days to arrive from Izaruro or wherever we left her.


In the meantime, she decides to check Dona's stats. Naturally, she comes with crappy starting equipment and no spells. She has considerably lower Str than Orion, but her Mag stat is ridiculously high (keep in mind that at this point, Orion has the Red Crystal, which gives him 14 points to Mag, and it's still lower than her's). Gawd though, look at that Agi stat.

Anywho, Dona, you won't be traveling with Swift just yet, so back to getting tanked in the pub for you! Swift, Leon, Baran and Orion will be traveling southeast to Ryuita's Capital.


The enemies through here are the same as what were around Dolgis. I apparently don't have a cap of it, but the castle would be in view if Swift were a few steps farther south in the last image up there.


This is Ryuita.


Around town...
It seems that South Ryuita is currently engaged in a civil war. Despite what Swift heard last time about the King of Ryuita worrying about naming a successor, the civil war has nothing to do with that.


One of the castles here belongs to the King and his youngest son, Alon, while the other belongs to the oldest son, Adan. The fact that they have two castles, side-by-side, speaks volumes about these people.


Michenu was never described as beautiful, was she? They just that she has a white cloak, right? It sure is a load off Swift's mind knowing not only that Michenu isn't up to her trickery here but also that Adan's lucky with the ladies.

…

Yeah, yeah, we'll be back here to stop whatever Michenu's up to later. =/


There's a graveyard, but it serves no purpose except to house this little easter egg. It's no Here lies Erdrick.


Ryuita is good for more than just plot points though, it has some genuinely useful stuff to buy! First up: Magic! Stop is elemental magic that attempts to stop enemies from attacking. Like the other status effect spells, it randomly targets members of the enemy party. It costs 2 MP and can be used by Mages, Shamns and Bshps. It's not one of the useful things I was talking about.

What is useful here is Flying: It's elemental magic that performs the same function as Pegasus Wings (teleport to any town with a guild you've visited) for 6 MP. It can be cast by anyone except Priests. Swift buys and equips this spell so hard. Being able to cast Flying and Turning without wasting spots on another spell caster's spell list is pretty much the Thf class's reason raison d'�tre. That and bows.


Ryuita also offers a new tier of equipment (and for some reason, Iron Spears):

• Mirage Sword: 17 Atk, for Knights and Ftrs.
• Knight Armor: 17 Def, for Knights, Ftrs and Thfs.
• Mirror Wear: 17 Def for everyone but Knights and Ftrs.
• Knight Shield: 14 Def, for Knights and Ftrs.
• Knight Helm: 10 Def, for Knights and Ftrs.

The Knight Helm and Knight Shield are the last buyable helmets/shields for Knights and Ftrs. From here on out, they'll have to make do with what they find in dungeons. Baran gets a suit of Knight Armor, but that's all Swift can afford for him at the moment.


At Ryuita's Guild...
Two new recruits are sitting on their butts, wasting time and refusing to join the party. Enak is still training, while Marin seems to be interested, but currently occupied.


There's a job posting for guards at the castle (ladies need not apply). See, you'd think this would be a way to get an in with the King, but nope, this is just a side mission! Leon's useless tail gets deployed to handle it.

Swift flies back to Dolgis, because she can totally do that now whenever she wants as long as she has 6 MP and heads to the Guild. The guildmaster once again reminds her that Nande finished his job, and she once again ignores him. Wendy has also completed her task. Well, more like "utterly failed" rather than "completed." She tries to persuade Swift not to go fight the King Dragon, because she'll be killed.

You don't say.

She goes on to say that the Ryuita Knights actually had a plan, but the King Dragon attacked the group before they had a chance to enact it. Wendy, being the brave individual she is, turned tail and ran along with a female knight. Luckily, she also happened to be carrying the key component of the plan when she made her escape. The Spring Ball will allow LizaSamus to jump while in her morphing ball mode.

…

Actually, the Spring should be something like Deep Sleep Incense (しゅんみんこう). Except, you know, it should sound good. I'm bad with words, so I don't know the best way to say it. Narcotic Incense? Incense of Slumber? Anyway. The point is, what Wendy brought back was incense that puts things to sleep. Now that Swift has it, she can carry out the plan herself.

Oh yeah, and LizaSamus arrived in Dolgis. She, Dona and Baran are tapped to be a part of Swift's dragon exterminator squad. Before heading off on their way, they fly back to Litton to pick up a Blue Crystal and the Feel spell for Dona so she'll be able to contribute something.


Ok. Let's do this thing. Dona's sprite has a feather in her hair (even though it's kinda hard to see), so I feel totally vindicated. Before heading to the King Dragon for a rematch, Swift wanders around searching for a treasure chest that she's certain is lurking in this dungeon.

(She also spends a lot of time running away, because that's how a Thf rolls)


Aha! A chest containing Mirror Wear! Sure, Swift can buy these in Ryuita, but free's free. It offers a pretty substantial improvement for Dona, effectively halving the amount of damage she takes.

After looting the dungeon's sole treasure chest, Swift gets back to the hunt. I mentioned it last update, but the Dragon's Cave is far less complex than the Abandoned Mine was. The King Dragon's lair is at Point G.


And the party arrives not a moment too soon: Dona is pretty much tapped out from all the Feeling she's been doing, and the party's out of healing items.


It's totes ok though, because even with the party's primary healer down to 2 MP they can win this rematch.


At the beginning of the battle, the party will use the Incense to put the King Dragon into a deep sleep. He won't wake up.


You know what makes automated combat even more boring? The enemy not being able to act. This boss fight is literally just sitting and watching the party treat the King Dragon like a punching bag.


When it dies, Swift takes the Dragon's Head as a trophy.


The King Dragon was hording a Dragonmail, a piece of armor for Knights and Ftrs that raises Def by 20. It's a pretty nifty piece of gear, and LizaSamus puts it on immediately.

…and Swift realized as she watched LizaSamus put it on, that she never gave her any sort of headgear or a shield. That would certainly explain why LizaSamus was taking so much damage during this little excursion.

After a quick flight to Rodetia for a cheap night's rest, Swift returns to Ryuita with a plan: She's gonna call all of her lackies to Ryuita, put them through some basic training and make sure they're properly outfitted.


But first: Leon has finished his job. He was rewarded with the L-Volt spell. We haven't even seen the regular Volt spell yet, but this is a multi-target thunder-elemental spell that can be used by Mages, Bshps and Shamns. It costs a whopping 8 MP to cast.

She asks the guildmaster to call everyone to Ryuita, but then remembers that she'll need to go to Ruval to get Nande. Boy you know he's just itching to tell her all about his job.


The church in Ruval is lookin' mighty fine. I mean, I didn't ever go back to check on it before Nande finished repairing so I don't have anything to compare it to so I really can't gauge how good a job he did.


He's... he's actually pretty pissed that the church only rewarded him with 20G. Ignoring his whining, Swift checked the guild for new party members, but the guildmaster said that everyone was busy. Huh. I thought there was supposed to be a character available to recruit now, but they didn't appear.


In Litton...
Sylva has decided that she wants to join the party so she can get in on some of dat sweet researching Ideia action. I suppose she got fed up with her hometown being completely overrun by Ideians. I actually have no idea what triggers her change of heart, but I assume it's either rebuilding the church or taking down the King Dragon. Probably the latter. Anyway, Sylva, the Fem Priest is shipped off to Ryuita as well.

In Ryuita...
Enak is still training, but Marin is so impressed by Swift's dragon slaying skillz that she joins. I think the implication is that Marin was the female knight that had the Incense seeing as how she's a Fem Knight who introduces herself specifically as a Ryuita Knight, but I have no way to confirm it.


With her whole squadron assembled in Ryuita, Swift begins to grind: She needs money to upgrade everyone's equipment and spells, she needs experience to get them all to a usable level. The original plan was to get everyone up to level 16, but Swift found that even after everyone reached level 16, she hadn't outfitted everyone in the latest gear.

Initially, Swift took her teams out to the Dolgis area to grind, but the abundance of enemies that can inflict bad status effects, such as Dread Harpies and their paralysis attacks, caused her to travel back to Izaruro's rivers to fight Atlantians. They're reasonable easy to take down and lack any obnoxious abilities, and every battle on the river yields a decent 49G.


It still took like an hour and half of holding down the fast forward button to get everything that Swift wanted. It was a lot of gear:

• Knight Helm for Baran
• Mirror Wear for Orion
• Mirage Sword for Leon
• Pois-C for Sylva
• Mirror Wear for Sylva
• Knight Helm for Marin
• Mirage Sword for Baran
• Mirror Wear for Wendy
• Orb Ring for Wendy
• Orb Ring for Sylva
• Mirage Sword for Marin
• Knight Armor for Marin
• Orb Ring for Dona
• Orb Ring for Orion
• Knight Shield for Baran
• Knight Shield for Samus
• Leather Hat for Nande
• Leather Hat for Wendy
• Leather Hat for Sylva
• Knight Shield for Marin
• Knight Helm for Samus
• Mirror Wear for Nande
• L Freeze for Dona
• Knight Helm for Leon
• Knight Shield for Leon
• Knight Armor for Leon

(I didn't even bother getting new weapons for Nande and Sylva)

(This is really for my own benefit - there's no real reason to level up everyone you've recruited, and even if you do, there's no reason to give each individual character their own equipment instead of sharing between active and inactive members. I really just wanted to compare stats and stuff.)

Let's take a look at Swift's party!

Knight

Baran has quite a bit more Str than Marin, but what surprises me is how agile Marin is, and how high her Def is. I seriously don't know what's going on with that. They're both wearing the exact same equipment and both are at the same level, but she's got nearly twenty points on him.

Ftr

As promised, the Ftr class is slightly faster and slightly stronger than Knights. Samus still has her Steel Sword equipped, but with a Mirage Sword her Atk should be 84, and her Def is only higher than Marin's because of the the Dragonmail. The real surprise is how much Charm she's accumulated.
Yadda yadda Leon has the highest Str in the game yadda.

Priest

Not much going on here. Nande is marginally better at hitting things and getting hit, while Sylva has a considerably larger MP pool. He's faster than her, but I think I'd rather have the extra MP.

Shamn

There's a pretty big gap between their Str and Mag stats. Their Mag difference is even greater than it initially appears: Orion has the crystal that gives a greater boost to Mag, while Dona has the one that raises Int more. So he's a little bit better at healing than her, but she's got a significant leg up on him as an offensive caster.

Thf and Mage

Since Swift hasn't recruited the other Thf or Mage, there's not much to compare. Swift ended up at level 26 after all the grinding and that's... well, that's just unnecessary. She also didn't get any new equipment during that shopping frenzy, but she has the raw levels to make up for it. She's also got enough MP to cast Flying three times before needing to rest, and that's gonna make life so much simpler.

Wendy has shit for HP, but is the undisputed champion when it comes to MP and Mag.


At various inns, at various points during the grindfest...
Dona brags about her exceedingly high Cha stat, Marin warns that Ryuita's wildlife can petrify. Deathbirds are green palette swaps of Harpies that appear around Ryuita. I ran into them like once (and missed screencapping them), but the warning is appreciated, given how costly it is to cure stone.

I saw both of these messages like six times apiece.

Next Time: What can I do for you? What can I do for you? Swift's wacky girl power adventure~

Marin has 2 MP. Hooray?

Also, how big a deal is Strength when it comes to calculating attack damage? For that matter, how much of a difference does a few points of Attack make? I'm wondering how beneficial the extra agility of Marin and Liza Samus fares in the face of their male counterparts' raw attack values... I find that in the typical RPG, hitting first is better than hitting hard in order to quickly remove some opponents from the field and prevent them from causing damage in the first place (so long as the number of hits required to defeat an enemy doesn't begin to significantly lag behind).

On the other hand, this is Chaos World, and the AI almost certainly does stupid crap that negates much of the benefit extra Agility offers.

Well, from some tests I just ran:
Samus: 88 Atk = ~19 HP
Swift: 83 Atk = ~24 HP (Why)
Nande: 67 Atk = ~11 HP
Leon: 104 Atk = ~37 HP
Baran: 100 Atk = ~33 HP
Marin: 83 Atk = ~17 HP

So that's a relatively substantial difference in damage.

However...
When you enter a battle, the party's first round of combat will be taken in order: Whoever is in the first position will act first, then whoever is in the second position, then the third and finally the fourth. So, even with Baran's crappy Agi, if he's at the front of the party, he'll always act first. But, like, if Swift is in the second position, she'll get her second action at the same time as Baran does, and her third action will occur before his, and so forth. It's only really noticeable in longer, drawn out fights.

I still consider Samus to be the better character of all the Fighter/Knight set: She doesn't hit as hard as the boys, but I feel that the extra Defense/Magic Defense is worth more.

I'm still not sure where a character's base Def stat comes from - I know that base Atk is Str + Level...

Edit:
Seriously, if any of you mathematicians can figure out where the 66 Def comes from, I'd appreciate it:

Are those your base ATK and DEF or are they augmented by equipment? I think your STR+LVL calculation is just a coincidence in that case, if the other screenshots of party members' stats are any indication. Bearing in mind as well that stats could be calculated differently depending on class, as it would make more sense for a high AGI to figure into a THF's DEF than it would for a FTR or a Knight.

Those are her base stats. She's completely unequipped in that screenshot.

Well, 1/2 AGI + level adds up to 66.5, and assuming the game rounds down, that would fit. That could just be coincidence though, and I can't say for sure without seeing the other characters' unequipped values as well.

The old dragon quest games add half of Agi to your defense, for what it's worth.

Yeah, it has to add half your Agi here too.

Look up at the knights in the party breakdown. Same gear, but one has ~30 more Agi and 15 more Def than the other.

Episode VIII: One, two princes kneel before you, that's what I said now...

What were we doing again? Something about a dragon? Oh, that's right! Swift came to Ryuita to get a Compass so she could become a Prte and search for Shiny Rocks that have a tenuous connection to Ideia.


Prince Adan, the elder prince who locked himself up in his castle and receives visits from a hottie, won't be any help.


The other castle is open and conspicuously lacking in guards or greeters.


The only NPC loitering down in the entryway is Remi, the Fortune Teller. I think she's the daughter of the Compass-bearing Sage, but that may just be conjecture on my part. She has the same sprite as the Magic Shop lady. She does not sell magic, but does have tons of cryptic bullshit!


Finally! Two guards are doing their job in the back of the castle. One says that Remi is the only lady in the castle (this is a lie, and not just because Swift is rocking out with a band of fierce wimmenfolk) and the other tells Swift she can't enter the jail.


The guards you'd expect down on the first floor are actually up here on the second. A couple of the NPCs (including a woman) congratulate Swift on being a megabadass dragonslayer.


Hmm. Heaven, you say? The ruins back in Dolgis had an inscription about the Chosen One and Heaven, didn't it? I suppose we should add the mountains to the northeast of Ryuita to our list of things to check out.

Yeah, the mountain he's talking about is to the northeast. Like, I've tried not to be a dick about the translation like I was in Lufia: The Legend Returns because it's a patch and all, but this is like the second or third time they've mixed east and west up.


Moving on. The King is excited to see that Swift has been walking around his throne room (and his city!) holding a severed head in her hands. Much like the King of Ruval, upon seeing that someone did a good deed out of the kindness of their heart, he asks for another favor.


He explains why he's having trouble picking a successor: Adan's converted to a new religion, and the King doesn't want to pass the crown on to a heretic. Wouldn't it be a delightful twist if the King was an Ideian while Adan had converted to Maria? Too bad that's not what's happening here. He asks Swift to go talk some sense into his son.

Swift: Gofer, Assassin, Slave Trader, Detective, Dragonslayer, Missionary.


The other Prince has nothing of import to say. I probably should have spoke to him before I chatted up the King.


Back downstairs...
Remi has more cryptic bullshit. Apparently Swift is destined to be God and get a sweet new pad thanks to a Ball of Guidance.


The guards at Adan's castle still won't let Swift in, so she has to take the one-way secret passage in the back of the King's castle. I feel for the girl, I do. Her eyes (or eye, if you think she's got an eyepatch on under her bangs) probably can't take much more between dealing with the painfully pink floor of the castle and the cyan cave walls back-to-back.

The passage itself has no enemies or treasure, it's just another one of these dumb caves designed to show off that hideous tile set. I suppose I should be a little bit thankful. If this wasn't an 8-bit game, this whole sequence would have involved a terrible stealth sequence. Tiny blessings.


Swift emerges on the bottom floor of Adan's castle from one of these... pink mirror/painting things. She deduces that the Prince's thorn probably isn't up the left stairs after traveling up them and coming up with zilch. She heads to the right...


...and a man and woman coming strolling up to her.


Wait how do you know her name?


Waitagoshdarnminute! That armor's not black! This is Swift's first encounter with the famed hero Aless. As you can see, she's pretty heavily outgunned. The party can barely scratch him, and he's hitting for over 200 HP a pop. Like the Dragon King without the Spring, Swift is not meant to win this fight. Also like that fight, the AI system is annoying and will cast healing spells and use healing items when all you really want is to wrap things up. Unlike that fight, Aless will only reduce characters to 1 HP instead of outright killing them.

The battle will end when the whole party is down to 1 HP.

After, Michenu pipes up and tells him they have to go. He agrees and excuses himself, and leaves Swift with a parting burn: "You've still a long way to go. With that strength, you'll never beat Ideia." The duo head upstairs.

You know, I think this scene would have been more effective if Michenu wasn't there. We know that she's up to shenanigans and if Aless is consorting with her, he must be up to nogood too. But if she hadn't been here, it would have kept up his ambiguous image. Is he a badass adventurer trying to stamp out Ideia and determined to do it before Swift, or is he working for them?

But nope! We have him on a first name basis with the Evilest Nun.

Whatever. They're not upstairs if you follow them, it's just an empty room.

(Also the party is still down at 1 HP, so it might behoove you to heal up if you're playing along)


The throne room is located in the direction where Aless and Michenu came from. Adan recognizes Swift as being the dragonslayer (I'm pretty sure she left the Dragon's Head with the King though), and wants to know what business she has with him. He does not seem to be concerned with how she got into the castle.


Also, Swift is really bad at this missionary stuff. She should stick to Crusading.

The guards in the front of the castle still won't let Swift through, even if it's to get out. The passage was one-way, too.


Swift's only option is to go up the left stairs and fling herself out the window.

Seriously.

As for the 8-bit standard, leaping out of a building dumps you back on the world map.


Back in the King's castle..
The King has a headache. This will thankfully not devolve into a fetchquest for Advil.


But then Adan didn't ask Swift to tell his father, he said to tell Adon, his younger brother. Adon proves that he's got what it takes to be a King by asking Swift to run errands for him.


His request: Walk a really long distance to a ask a hermit for help.


The enemies are basically trivial because of the party's great equipment and high levels, but it's still a long walk. It's point 19 on the map, while Ryuita is point 17.

About halfway there, Samus got paralyzed and the party was out of ParaHerbs. They had to lug her body the rest of the way to Forus's house, because Swift sure as heck wasn't about to turn around.


Forus has apparently heard about Adan, but then is surprised to hear Ideia is involved. Apparently he wasn't as informed as he thought.

Anyway, he says that the Ancient Book of Faltesis has some information about Ideia, but, you know, given how much actual information Swift has obtained from people and things that supposedly have information about Ideia, she's not exactly dancing for joy at this turn of events.


Forus's reluctance to giving Swift the Compass is strange. Like... what was he using it for, anyway, and why would it bother him to give it away? Whatever. Swift needs it because she'll have to cross the ocean to get to Faltesis in South Ryuita, and also because she's supposed to be looking for stellar gemstones.

This is the fetchquest that never ends, yes it goes on and on my friends...


With the Compass in her hands (finally), Swift flies back to Izaruro. She makes sure to get Samus fixed up before visiting the Mayor's Son.


It's not "a" compass, it's "the" Compass. She literally had to travel to the other side of the world to get it.


He's also got a new lead for Swift: There's another jewel on an island north of Ruval, located in a cave of no return. As usual, this only raises the question, "How do you know it's there if no one has ever returned from it?" Well I'll tell you: There's a bunch of neon signs around the cave that say, "There's a Stellar Jewel in here! Fem Thfs from Rodetia investigating Ideia will need to get it for reasons that are not entirely clear!"

Anyway. With the floodgates to the ocean open the ship will now follow Swift around when she casts Flying. Aside from her new-found freedom to travel the oceans, opening the floodgates has also made a new ally appear in Ruval:


Mara is ready to join the party on the orders of Prince Levin. The Prince himself has nothing to say on the matter, he just repeats his speech about his kingdom being strictly secular.


...which is strange, because Mara is the game's Fem Bshp. Why would a staunch atheist employ a bishop? Mara is a dreadfully powerful character, and immediately replaces Sylva and equips one of the copies of Feel that enemies dropped during the grindfest last time.

Note: Some English guides say that Mara's recruitment requirement is to complete the Revival of the City. I wonder if it's possible to make her appear in the guild before that job is completed?

Also note: In the Japanese version, Mara's name is Mira. This is the only main character name change that wasn't due to space limitations. Marina, Sylvia and Donavan had to have their names shortened to Marin, Sylva and Dona.

Since Swift almost has enough money for the Mind spell - and she wants to test it out - she decides to grind out some cash on the river. I ran into these Gusts on the bridge directly south of Litton. Despite looking like that one boss from Kirby, they were surprisingly sturdy.

Mara learns Mind and after "rigorous" testing... it doesn't seem to do much of anything at all. It would consume MP and she'd make an attacking animation, but it appeared to inflict the same amount of damage as her regular attacks (4 HP). So, uh, hooray for wasting money! Swift feels so bad for Mara that she buys her a Silver Staff so she can actually do something that resembles damage in battle.


At an inn, somewhere...
I really didn't consider the possibility that Dona would have such a rustic way of speaking. Her thoughts on the civil war: Sarvant is a creeper, so by virtue of not being him, Faltesis is the guy to side with.


Oh yeah! Swift no longer has to use the back exit in Izaruro to board the ship if she travels there, she get on from the world map. She flew back here because it's easier to navigate her way to Faltesis from here.

...but we shan't be seeing that today.

Next Time: Swift the Prte's World Tour

I'm assuming Aless has an "A Boy named Sue" thing going on, thats why he's such a dangerous opponent.

I say you let Ideia do whatever it wants to Ryuita as punishment for that abomination of a castle palette.

Maybe if his breastplate had greater emphasis on "plate" rather than "breast" ...

Isn't it just the worst?