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

Well, Ideia is the religion of doing whatever you want, and what Swift wants is to mess up Ideia. They could have Swift join the religion, and they wouldn't really have to change anything in the plot.

It's amazing how a monster infested dungeon has better interior design that every human castle on the entire planet combined. Maybe royalty feels the only way to set itself apart from dungeons is with over-saturated floor tile.

It's the tower of the spirits. They're fabulous~

Also y'all I totes lied the mine graphics in the next update aren't green-tinted.

Unrelated:

Episode XII: I don't need any of this junk


This episode opens with Dona telling Swift that she can see what Swift is looking for, and that whatever "it" is, it's located in the west. I'm pretty sure I know what she's talking about, unless she's actually supposed to be saying it's in the east.


The mine Swift was told about last time is located on the eastern half of Rodetia and is only accessible by sea.


The town here is a town of text glitches. The first guy should be saying that the town of Bolder gets food from Rodetia. It turns out that the guy at the end of the previous update really was a glitch, because he stole the village elder's lines here. Because of this, I missed out on being told what's happening in the mine because the "Swift agreed to help!" flag was already triggered back in Rarm. Oh well.


In the daylight, Swift learns that this little mining town is named Mynelt, and that it's a part of Rodetia. If you've been keeping track (and I doubt you have), this means that Rodetia has a monopoly on both the mining and the timber industries, and the other kingdoms have squat. (Technically Izaruro has fishing, but a Rodetian lass took their last boat. Teehee)


So I've heard! In fact, Swift was just there picking up new spells for Dona: She dropped L Freeze and Volt for Pois-C, Sleep and Mind. I wanted to play around with Mind more to see if it ever became useful. It didn't.


Ryui, the miner, informs Swift that Mynelt relies on mining emeralds and indicates that there's some sort of problem now. This is the closest we're gonna get to an explanation about what's wrong with the mine. Sorry y'all!


Mynelt sells Flame Swords, which raise Atk by 23. I suppose if Swift had come here before attempting the Full Moon Tower, she could have picked up one for her Ftrs or Knights, but now that she's got the Kaiser Lance and Earth Sword, they're worthless.

ParaHerbs would be a worthwhile investment.

The great Dimaal never comes up again, but he discovered that there were emeralds in those their hills.


I... I really thought the graphics for the Emerald Mine were green. My bad! The guard warns Swift that the Emerald Mine is a maze. Presumably, she rolls her eyes at him because she's an adventurer and at this point she'd probably have a heart attack if it wasn't a maze.

I realize that mining does create twisting, maze-like tunnels, but wouldn't that mean they'd have to keep meticulous maps? You know, to keep the miners from getting lost while they're doing their jobs? And wouldn't it be wise to give those maps to people who are supposed to be doing something like, I don't know, hunting down the vile abominations from the abyss that are currently squatting in your mines?

Luckily, Japan has created such a map for us. The entrance is at the lower left of B1. Just follow the orange arrows until you reach the yellow door. It's really not too complicated because once you go down the second set of stairs, it's a one-way street to the goal.


The 1-Nail Shrooms can cause paralysis. Bring Para-C or lots of ParaHerbs~ I don't have anything written down about the rest of these enemies, so I guess they're just fodder. Is this the first time we've seen the Ghost Armor graphic? I don't remember.


Even if it is, their palette swap is hanging around here, too. Living Armor deal magic damage. The only treasure here is a single Crystal Garb, a piece of armor we could buy back in the ninth update. This is the first of this update's really disappointing treasure.


Eventually, Swift makes it to the evil fiend's bed room and engages it in combat.


The Dk.Summoner, who is probably a robot sent from the distant future, hits really hard but doesn't have that many HP. I was honestly surprised at how quickly he went down. I have nothing else to say about him. It's was basically just a boss fight for the sake of having a boss fight.


Back in Mynelt...

The elder thanks Swift for helping out, but says he doesn't have anything to give her. I'd say this is marginally better than the "Hey thanks for helping out now go do this other thing for me tia~!" thing that the royalty of Chaos World have going on.


I wanna say that this is Ryui, the miner we met earlier. He tells Swift of his sordid past, where he stole the Sun Statue from Dolgis and stashed it in the cave that Baran and Orion have been badgering her about exploring.

Unfortunately, neither Baran or Orion will get to explore the cave. Baran gets dropped for Samus, and she's sure to take up both the Windmail and the Earth Sword.

To reach Ryui's Cave you just sail west along the coast of Rodetia. You'll pass by Japan and eventually see the cave. For reference, it's almost directly east of the Full Moon Tower. (This is not all that helpful because the Full Moon Tower is ghettoed off in its own little lake).


…

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Ryui's Cave is actually really big and full of treasure. Most of that treasure is worthless. The enemies here are largely just the same ones from the Emerald Mines, except for those... things up there. I... I've mentioned more than a few times now that there are a lot of issues with the translation, but that's ok because it was a fan translation and not a commercial product, and then I started saying that, "Ok this is starting to be unforgivable" and now I'm confronted with this. This is worse than the equivalent error in Lufia: The Legend Returns. Do y'all realize just how bad that is?

...moving on. Those things are pretty potent magic casters, which means Swift needs to hide out in back lest she die quickly and painfully. However, thanks to keeping Dona in the front, I learned just how awesome it is to have your lead character cast Sleep right at the beginning of battle and put the whole enemy party to sleep.

(I lied about something else earlier: I said that spell effects only last until another spell is cast, but that doesn't seem to be the case at all. Sleep would stay in effect even after Enak started up casting Feel)

The chest on the far left of B1 is a Ideia Perfume.


The chest on the far right is a copy of the Turning spell, and while this seems worthless, it ended up saving my bacon later in the dungeon.


The stairs on the lower left lead down to the main part of B2. In the top left corner, there's a Thief Bow, and down the nearby stairs leads to a chest on B3 containing a Crystal Ring. For some reason, at this point Swift retreated back to Bolder. I think it was because Dona was nearly tapped out of MP?


Back in Ryui's Cave. This time, Swift takes the stairs on the far right of B1 to reach a closed off area on B2 that contains a Flame Sword. The other set of stairs down here just leads back up to B1.


It's worth noting that some enemy groups down here (I think it was Living Armor and some type of mushroom-based enemy) can drop Flamemails. Flamemail is body armor for Knights and Ftrs. It's not quite as powerful as the Windmail (it only raises Def by 28), but it's better than anything that can be bought in stores. Samus equips this and gives her Windmail to Swift.

There's an Elixir on the far right of B2. Elixirs are never unwelcome, but they're rarely something that'll make you jump for joy.


The stairs in the top right corner of B2 lead down to a chest containing a Blizrd Staff. It's essentially the Flame Staff for Priests. Y'all remember the Flame Staff, right? It was that thing we got way back in the Abandoned Mine when Swift was trying to rescue the Prince of Ruval from kidnappers. That was in episode 3.

The Blizrd Staff raises Atk by 24, Def by 4, and Int by 12. It can be equipped by Mages, Priests and Bshps, although I can't imagine why you'd ever equip this to a Mage. Plus we already have the Thunder Staff, which is better in pretty much every conceivable way. I guess if you had both a Priest and a Bshp in the same party, you might need this.

The Sun Statue is down on B3. Take the staircase nearest the stairs back up to B1. This part of B3 is split into two paths. Swift opts to take the top path...


But she's killed off by those Things ganging up on her with their wicked magic. Worse yet, Enak doesn't have enough MP to cast Resource and the party already burned through their stock of Elixirs! That means... Samus is left to take the lead of the party. This is the third thing I liked about earlier: I said that other party members don't have sprites. They do, but you'll only see them if your hero character is dead.

There's a suit of Dragonmail at the end of the upper path, but that shit's completely obsolete at this point. Even more annoying, Enak used up all of his MP to get to it. Somehow, pressing P caused a miracle to happen! The party found itself at an earlier point in the hallway, one where Enak had just enough MP to cast the Turning spell they had picked up at the beginning of the dungeon and escape back into the comforting arms of the world map.


I had actually seen the "Other party members take the lead if your hero dies" thing in my first playthrough of the game, but I had just assumed it was the female hero graphic. Knights and Ftrs have the same graphic as Baran did back in Rarm (except the ladies are painted pink), while the magic-users have a modified version of the Hero graphic The differences are that their headgear looks different from the side, their capes look different, and they're wearing robes (the hero's sprite looks slightly more armory).

I don't know what sprites Thfs have, but I'll assume they take after either the casters of the miner NPCs.


When Swift is raised from the dead, she returns to Ryui's Cave to get the Sun Statue.

Here's a map of Ryui's Cave. The red marks are the Blizrd Staff and the Sun Statue, the only things here that are even remotely worth taking.


You might recall that the Sun Statue belongs in the ruins in Dolgis. You know, the one with the creepy engraving about God's Light and the Chosen One going to Heaven. Swift, ever the curious one, flies back there in hopes that she'll get to see Heaven. The real one, not the janky casino town.


Uh.
(You'll have to take the game's word on it, no sound effect plays or anything)


That doesn't look like heaven. The pedestal holds the Pearl of Guidance.

A thought: The Sun Statue belongs on the alter in the temple, right? And it was just recently stolen, right? Well, maybe not just recently, but the guy that stole it is human and still alive so it couldn't have been that long ago. Now, if the statue sitting on the alter causes this pond to drain, the Pearl of Guidance shouldn't be some big damn secret, you know? The old fellas in town should be like, "Oh yeah, there's a Pearl of Guidance down in that pond, but you'll have to get the Sun Statue back to get it."


A floating castle above a desert you say?

Sigh.

Sylva finished nursing the King of Ruval back to health and obtained the Cure spell for her troubles. I think this is the "Cure every status + HP" spell. It only costs 6 MP to cast and can be used by Priests, Shamns and Bshps. This is the only copy you get in the game (unless enemies drop it somewhere), so for now it's just gonna sit in Swift's carriage.

(You may also remember that a kid back in one of the first towns talked about this spell. So, uh, here it is, finally.)


In Bolder because Swift senses the plot needs her to go there...
The people of Bolder can't get any food because monsters keep attacking. They posted a job at the Guild in Rodetia seeking assistance.


In Rodetia...
Kail is tapped to help deliver food to Bolder. He comes back with 500G as a reward and "news" that the elder down there has an Emblem. This is something Swift has known since she first met the guy.


Back in Kansai and please remember that poor Swift is having to sail down here every time...
The people thank Swift for delivering food and tell her of the Elder's strange hobby that's only strange because of his age. Hmmm...


!?

Swift startles him while he's busy doing... something.


It's nothing dirty though. He's just shining his badge collection. This is his weird, inappropriate hobby. Collecting badges is weird, but not just because he's an old man. He gives Swift the Emblem of Fear, and begs her not to tell anyone about his hobby. Yeah, too late there buddy. It looks like it's already an open secret around town.


That's the second emblem! Y'all remember the emblems, right? Aless told Baran that Swift needed to get all three to learn about Ideia back when Baran was working as a slave to rebuild Ruval. That was... kind of a long time ago.

So... let's see. Which one of her previous leads should Swift check up on now? She's made progress in the Emblem, Jewel and Chosen One quests, leaving her with Prince Adan and the Ancient Book, both of which are conveniently located in Ryuita. She's also picked up information about a Castle in the Sky and Something in the West Note: Ruval's desert - the place where the floating castle is supposed to be - is the westernmost part of the world.

For now though, she decides to go check up on Mara in Ryuita.


The soldiers in town are afraid that Adan will be the successor. Some drunkards in the bar tell Swift of a legendary temple in the sea. A castle in the sky? A temple at the bottom of the ocean? Pffft gimme a break!


Mara still isn't done translating, but talk around town has worried Swift enough that she decides to check in on the King and younger Prince. Remy is cryptic as usual, but the rest of the folks in the castle are much more open about what's going down: The King has been betrayed and imprisoned by Prince Adan!


...imprisoned down in his own castle's dungeon, that is. Everyone upstairs is running around like chickens with their heads cut off and not a single one of them dared to walk down to the fucking unguarded basement to free the King and Alon. Thank God that Swift decided to stop by and do this impossible task for them!

Prince Alon is happy to see Swift, while the King is stuck in his usual blue screen of death mode.


...and then Swift speaks. While the shock is still sinking in, two guards show up to try and stop Swift. I like to think that their reluctance to fight Swift is less, "We know you're a great hero and we don't want the King to be executed, but we've sworn allegiance to Prince Adan and we can't break our vows" and more, "We know you're a great hero and that means you mercilessly destroy all obstacles in your path, so we really didn't want to fight you."

This fight is just another pair of Ryuita Knights like the ones guarding the cannon back in Sarvant's castle. That was like three dungeons ago, and they were cake walk back then, too, so you can only imagine the slaughter that went on this time.


Up in the throne room...
Prince Alon refuses to believe that his brother was the one that ordered their execution, but believes that his followers won't hesitate to kill them. He also informs Swift that Mara has finished her translation of the Ancient Book.

The King continues to be worthless.


In Ryuita's guild...
Hot damn! Mara proves herself to be the most useful ally Swift has. Not only did she translate the book, she used her critical thinking skills to put two and two together and suggested a course of action to take. It's enough to forgive her for ditching the party for three dungeons!

The Ancient Book also seems to have come with a copy of the spell Blast. Blast is the upgraded version of Mind I mentioned a while back. It's divine magic that can be cast by Priests, Shamns and Bshps. For 4 MP, it "attempts to destroy the body and mind of the enemy."

Next Time: Maybe a dramatic confrontation with Aless?

Eh, maybe. Someone at the guild might need you to whitewash a fence or take their dog for walkies first.

I prefer to think that this is a startled cry from the monster, frightened by the armed people who broke into his bedroom to kill him.

And really; who's the REAL monster here?

You know, Dx. Summoner's room looks awful familiar. One bed. Six filing cabinets. A table with chairs.



Hmm...



Hmmmmm...

Yeah, I think you just killed off the monster oracle or whatever the hell. Now some band of intrepid monster adventurers will never be able to get their monster compass and sail the monster seas. You monster.

I feel like the game is trying to tell me something, but I can't figure out exactly what... I think it might have something to do with a castle, possibly floating in a sandstorm...?

Episode XIII: Rest in Chaos

Mara has revealed her findings to Swift, and rejoined the party to go have a big damn heroes moment at Prince Adan's castle. She even replaces her crappy Mind spell with Blast. It's definitely an instant death spell, and at only 4 MP a cast that makes it more useful than any of the damage-dealing magic spells.


...unfortunately, that burning spirit isn't enough to overcome the adventurer's greatest obstacle: NPCs. Once again, Swift will have to enter through the one-way secret passage.


Adan isn't in his throne room, nor is he upstairs in the room that Aless and Michenu disappeared into the first time Swift was here. That room literally serves no purpose in this game.


Fearing that she missed him, Swift goes upstairs to fling herself out the window in shame. As she's passing by Adan's bedroom, she overhears a conversation between the Prince and Aless.


She can only make out bits and pieces of it, but it sounds and awful lot like they're plotting to take over South Ryuita. Michenu will do something in Sarvant, and in a worst case scenario, they'll just use their mind control poison on the people of Faltesis. It also sounds like she knows something about the antidote.

Swift, being the heroic heroine that she is, then busts them, challenges Aless to a duel, and smacks Adan around to get him to come around.

Haha, just kidding! She can't enter Adan's room or interact with either of them. Her only option is to jump out the window (again). I guess eavesdropping on the bad guy's plan is in character for a Thf, but this scene plays out the same, regardless of the class you picked.

Oh well. Swift hurries down to South Ryuita to do damage control on whatever Michenu's been up to.


The folks down in Emrond - the ones who aren't still asking when the war is gonna end - break the news that the plan is already in motion. MichenuA WEIRD WOMAN made the town (fortress?) of Sarvant disappear and replaced it with an entirely different town. Apparently she traveled down south to that tower Swift heard about a while back.

Another townsperson (the same lady who told her about the tower, it looks like) tells her that Carlint, the birth place of the Ideia religion, used to be around here.


God only knows what kind of literally hellhole Michenu called forth from the Abyss. Why turn people into demons when you can summon them directly, right? Swift braces herself as she travels to where Sarvant used to be.


...and it seems that the town she summoned was Carlint. Which, again, the city where Ideia was established. This is like, The Vatican of Evil! But... something's wrong. The people are friendly. It has the same chipper music as Bolder. They're protected by a goddamn rainbow. It certainly doesn't seem like the place where "Kill the person you love the most!" is the golden rule.


There are only two buildings here: A weapon shop and a giant structure in back. This town is so peaceful they all sleep outdoors. The man outside the giant structure informs Swift that only the Chosen One can enter. UM GEE I WONDER WHO THE CHOSEN ONE IS. Let's roll up in this mother, loot it, and move on with our lives.


Uh.

Hey.

Y'all.

Chosen One here. Open up.

...

The doors refuse to open for Swift. Well that's certainly humiliating.


This trip isn't a total waste. The weapon shop is the last one in the game, and as such contains the strongest weapons that money can buy (except for Shamns, who, you know, had their best buyable weapons back in Ruval and Litton):

• Crystal Sword: 32 Atk, for Ftrs and Knights. Since it's better than the Earth Sword, Samus gets one.
• Crystal Lance: 35 Atk, for Knights. It's big upgrade over the Kaiser Lance.
• Crystal Staff: 23 Atk, 10 Int and 10 Mag, for any of the casters classes. Unlike the other two weapons, this is worthless since Bshps, Priests and Mages have access to the elemental staffs and Shamns have their colored crystals. What a shame.

Instead of heading down to find Michenu, Swift decides to fly back to Ruval so she can finally get Samus to shut up about doing battle with yourself on the island north of Ruval. The island is easy enough to find, just take the boat from Ruval and sail east around the coast, then a bit north. It's really not that far from the coast.

...there's a reason I've been putting off doing this dungeon.


Oh this is promising.


Oh hey, by the way, you know how in most JRPGs, when they say something about facing yourself, it means the dungeon culminates in a mirror battle boss fight? Yeah, see, here in Chaos World, every battle in this god forsaken dungeon is against Doppels in various party formations. At this point in the game, they're not much a threat, but if you come here right when the Mayor's Son tells you about it, it'll be huge pain in the ass. Just just look at how often the Swift Doppel acts. She doesn't stop for the entire battle. Now imagine that, except her attacks being able to actually damage the party.

There aren't Doppels for every player character, only Leon, Samus, Swift, Orion, Nande, Sylva, Wendy and Dona. As it stands though, the biggest threats to Swift are the Orion and Dona Doppels, since their magic will hit her for around 60 HP a pop (this is more than Doppel Wendy can do).

The real reason to hate this dungeon is because it's a goddamn teleporter dungeon. See, Swift starts in the top left corner of Room A. If she takes the middle staircase, she'll find herself coming down the stairs in the top left of Room D. However, if she turns around and goes up the stairs she came from, she'll come up the stairs at the bottom of Room F. It's quite frustrating, you see, especially if you end up in Room E, because the bottom stairs loop you back to the top of the room, and climbing the top stairs will send you back to Room A.

By utilizing this map that Japan made, I was able to map out the paths to the two treasures in this dungeon. The green path leads to the Gaia spell in Room K, while the red path leads to the Moon Ruby on Room L. For Gaia, you'll go down the center path in Room A, the lower right path in Room D, then the lower left path in Room B. I have written down that you'll be on the right side of Room I, in which case you need to go up the stairs you came from, as the staircase on the right side of Room I is what leads to Room K.

For the Moon Ruby, which is what you actually need out of this dungeon, you'll go down the center path in Room A and then the lower right path in Room D, just like if you were going for Gaia. Except once you get to Room B, you'll take the top right path, which will lead to Room G. From there, it's a straight shot to Room L as long as you don't try to go backwards.


The Gaia spell is a single-target elemental spell that uses combines the power of all the elements. It's ridiculously expensive to cast (8 MP, the same as L Volt) and can technically be equipped by anyone, even if Wendy and Kail are the only ones who have the MP pools to use it. I believe this is the only copy in the game, but it's not that useful (especially considering when you're instructed to come here). I don't care, Mara can instantly kill things with her Blast of Cursed Emission, why the heck would I need a damage dealing spell?


Swift flies back to Faltesis to prepare for her assault on Michenu's Tower. She hawks the Earth Sword and the Blizrd Staff to make room for more TriHerbs and Elixirs.

Michenu's Tower is located on the southern tip of South Ryuita. The easiest way to get there is to sail south along the coast from Faltesis.


Swift speaks again! Michenu taunts her and allows her to enter the tower.


Michenu's Tower has Monks and Bugs. I'm probably reading too much into it, but I'd like to think that the Dk.Monk being a random encounter is the game's way of saying that Michenu was directly responsible for the Dk.Shamn and Dk.Summoner that Swift put down earlier.


Compared to the fucking Island North of Ruval, this place is super straightforward. The stairs up to the second floor are directly in front of the entrance, but it's worth circling around the the outer hallway to pick up the three chests here on the first floor. The Earth Ring is the second best caster shield: It raises Def by 21, and both Int and Mag by 6. This goes to Mara. The Hat of Light is the best caster headgear in the game. It raises Def by 19, and Int and Mag by 2. This too goes to Mara. The Dragon Helmet is the second best piece of headgear for Ftrs and Knights. It raises Def by 14. This goes to Samus.

This is good stuff, y'all. I know you're not used to seeing Swift find a bunch of useful treasure in dungeons, but here we are,


In general, the enemies here aren't too tough. These fellars with sprites we've never seen before have some powerful magic, but they don't show up all that often.


The second floor is just as straightforward as the first, if not more so. It's almost like this tower was built for practical use and not as a labyrinth. Before heading up to the third floor, Swift has a look around. Her Thf senses are tingling. She smells treasure. Valuable treasure.


There are only two chests on this floor: One on the left side of the floor and one at the top. The one on the left if the Bow of Light, the game's ultimate bow. It raises Atk by 38, and Swift is just delighted to have it. She got her ultimate weapon before anyone else!

...though, technically, she got her ultimate headgear (the fabled Leather Hat) and ultimate shield (the Crystal Ring) first, too.

The chest at the top of the map has another copy of the Blast spell, if you really, really, really wanted it.

Navigating the third floor is easy: Just walk down to the bottom of the map and take the stairs up to the fourth floor.


On the fourth floor, you can head down to the bottom of the map to get to the stairs up the fifth floor, or you can head to the top of the map to get to the stairs that'll lead down to the treasure on the third floor. The left stairs lead down to a Crystal Staff, while the right lead to a suit of Flamemail. The Crystal Staff would never be useful, and the Flamemail would have been better if Swift hadn't got one from an enemy drop back in Ryui's Cave.


All this treasure hunting has drained Mara and Dona's MP, so the party returns to Faltesis for a little bit of R & R. You don't want to confront any kind of Nun when you're out of MP, especially not an Evil Nun like Michenu.


It's pretty easy to just go straight up to the top of the tower if you don't have to worry about treasure.


Michenu's waiting up on the fifth floor, in her off-center throne room.


She didn't destroy the town of Sarvant, she traded it with Carlint 400 hundred years in the past.

...do you get it?

"The Ideia religion began 400 years ago in Carlint," but the Carlint that existed 400 years ago is now in the present and full of peaceful hippies. Meanwhile, the fortress full of Ideians from the present was sent back to take Carlint's place 400 years ago. That's right y'all, Michenu made a time loop! It doesn't seem that stable since Swift already destroyed the cannon they're supposed to have.

I mean, at least it makes a little bit more sense than Garland's "Yeah I send them forward then they send me back and somehow that makes me live forever" thing, right? Boy I wish this game would stop lifting stuff from Final Fantasy. For what it's worth, it never really clicked in my head that she was creating a time loop until this playthrough.

Much less surprising is Michenu's revelation that Aless is the leader of Ideia. Like we hadn't figured that one out already.


...and she was just telling Swift all this because she's a villain and they monologue like motherfuckers.


...despite, you know, literally everything the game has said about Michenu, she doesn't deal magical damage in battle. Sure, she's powerful enough to make time and space her bitch, but can that really compare to awkwardly trying to club the party in the head with her staff?

She drops the A-Venom, which presumably counteracts the effects of the mind control poison.


After the fight, she congratulates Swift on becoming strong, accepts her death, and tells Swift that she's the Chosen One. Yeah, well, the door in Carlint sure as hell doesn't think so.


With her dying breaths, she rattles off a list of things Swift needs to do with the various plot items she's been picking up. Basically: The Ball of Guidance will allow Swift to enter the floating castle Saradis, where she should offer up the three stellar jewels she's supposed to be searching for. She dies before she can elaborate on what exactly this is going to achieve, but if Swift can't trust the dame that's been nothing but a pain in her ass since they first met, who can she trust?

Swift also appropriates Michenu's Staff. It can be equipped by Priests, Mages and Bshps, but it's really only good for Mages. In fact, it's their ultimate weapon: It raises Atk by 32, Int by 4 and Mag by 24. I guess I'll give this to Wendy to hold onto, not that she'll ever see any action.


Swift flies to Rodetia to regroup. That night at the inn, Dona tells her that she really, truly believes that deep down, Prince Adan is good person. Yes Dona, we know. He's under the influence of mind control poison. We're gonna fix him next time.

Next Time: I just said we're gonna go fix Prince Adan.

Does the main character always get his/her ultimate equipment first, or is this one of the perks of rolling up a THF?

It's a "perk" because Thfs, in general, have worse equipment options than the rest of the characters. Like, there's only one piece of headgear in the entire game they can wear (it's also the worst piece of headgear in the game) and they can only equip the buyable bracelets and rings.

...and looking at it, she's got her ultimate body armor too, since she can't equip the best heavy armor in the game and the best caster armor has the same stats as the Windmail. Swift: She's fully decked out now.

Are we almost at the end of the game now? It sure seems like it. Also thanks for doing such a great LP! My only problem is that I have trouble keeping track of the events that happen in this game, but I think that's more the game's fault.

There's like three updates left, I think?

Uuuuuuh sorry. I'm not very clear to begin with, and it's only made worse by everything in the game looking the same and the way the last third or so of the town has been running back and forth between towns.

Episode XIV: Royal Pains

Last time, Swift and her band of merry wimmenfolk tracked down the vile and awful nun Michenu, drove many a arrow, sword, crystal and staff into her black heart, finally ending her reign of terror and procuring an antidote to the mind control poison used by Ideia. With the A-Venom in hand, the team head off to Ryuita with high hopes that they'll finally be able to cure Prince Adan and bring peace to the country.


These hopes are quite expertly dashed as soon as they arrive in Ryuita, where the townsfolk are all abuzz with news that Prince Adan has passed on. Half the people are mourning his death, the other half are blaming Michenu for getting him mixed up in that crazy religion.


His castle is now completely empty, but hey, at least Swift can enter and exit through the front door, right?


In the King's Castle, the King is still utterly worthless as a leader. I would cut him a little bit of slack here since his son died and all, but this has pretty much been his entire personality throughout the game.

Prince Alon actually has information for Swift: It seems that his brother consumed all of the mind control potion to protect the rest of the people of Ryuita from coming under Ideia's control. It isn't clear if he means that all along Adan was malingering or if he drank all of the poison from the very beginning and that's what made him go bad. Let's just say that he had taken some, and went bad, but it was starting to wear off and he drank all of it to save the people in a brief moment of lucidity. It makes him sound more heroic like that.

Alon employs Swift to kill Aless to a avenge his brother. Sure, why not kid? What's another assassination to Swift at this point? She's already supposed to be crusading against this bloke, and it certainly doesn't hurt her cause to have another monarchy backing her.


When Swift tries to leave, she's stopped by Remi, who spews out more cryptic warnings, but at the very least points her in a concrete direction: Something bad's going down in Rodetia.

(Note: This is yet another place where the game only tells you where to go once. Remi simply will not repeat herself about the darkness moving in Rodetia)


Before returning to Rodetia, the team stops by the guild so Mara can officiate at Adan's funeral. The reward is another Dragon Helmet, which is great for some parties but worthless for us because our resident Ftr already has one. It finds its way to Baran, just as the party's other Bracelet of Strength finds its way to Sylva. Neither of these characters will ever do anything in the party at this point, but I just can't bear to part with powerful unique items like these.


In Rodetia...
Maaaaan, just when Swift solved the problems in one kingdom, the other two explode. Well, I mean, I guess Swift technically didn't solve the problems in Ryuita, it sorta resolved itself without her input, but you know, whatever. The King has a successor and it's been purged of Ideia.

Anyway. Prince Levin of Ruval is planning to invade Rodetia!


Princess Meldi beseeches Swift to go talk some sense into Levin, because she just knows he'll listen to her! Yeah! Totally! Those Ideians sure do love listening to Swift! Just like Prince Adan!

For what it's worth, the King comes across as much more practical. He just tells Swift to "stop" Levin, probably with an over-the-top wink.

With her orders from the Crown, Swift departs for Ruval by foot. You know, just to check on the folks in Rarm and Nazaal, to see how they're coping with the looming war. No one in either town seems to have heard the news. The folks in Rarm are still babbling about being turned into slugs and the people in Nazaal are still saying the exact same things they have through the whole game. Lame.


In Ruval...
Literally no one is down for this invasion. They're all disgusted that Aless is an Ideian (which, judging from this old fellar's dialogue, Ideia is actually an object of worship) or bewildered that Levin would want to kill Meldi.


The church still worships Maria, the three stooges are conflicted about the invasion, and poor old Ragon has been thrown in the slammer.


Up in the throne room, the King's nursemaid says that she's not allowed to let Swift in to see the King by Levin's orders, but she immediately steps aside after telling her that. I honestly cannot fathom how Levin got kidnapped back at the beginning of this game when the castle's got such great security.


And it looks like Sylva lied to us earlier when she said she fixed the King up right as rain. She probably just took the castle's copy of the Cure spell and ran as soon as she got here.

The King gives Swift some lameass excuse about how if he weren't so gosh darn sick, he could handle Levin (perhaps this is a jab at Sylva not doing her job?).


He also asks Swift to deliver a message to Meldi: "As long as I live, I won't start a war with Rodetia!"

...and then he hacks up a lung. Shouldn't he want to relay this message to the King of Rodetia instead of the Princess? Whatever old man, just go back to bed and let Swift take care of this.


Remember? Since Adan killed himself, she didn't get to use the A-Venom she got from Michenu. That means she has enough to cure Levin now! Thanks, Adan! Your suicide has made everyone's life so much simpler!


...but Levin hadn't taken any poison! Yep, it turns out the Prince converted to Ideia of his own free will, and keeping with the central tenants of his religion, he wants to kill Princess Meldi.

(In other words, the A-Venom has been completely worthless)


Back in Rodetia...
Swift delivers both messages to the Princess. They have a mini-brainstorming session, by which I mean Meldi monologues her thoughts, until they come up with another possible solution: The Rainbow Flower, a legendary blossom that blooms during times of true peace, can purify the evil in one's soul.

Hey. So. Do you see what they did there? Remember way back at the beginning of Swift's adventure? She was tasked with obtaining the Flower of Impression to cure Princess Meldi's sickness. Now, she's been tasked with obtaining the Rainbow Flower to cure Prince Levin's sickness. Kinda slick, don't ya think? You can tell we're getting close to the end of the game since we're getting our parallelism going on.

Anyway, this whole "legendary flower from a time of true peace" story would be worrying to Swift, a modern girl living in a Chaos World, if she hadn't already been to Carlint and heard they're protected by the Rainbow Flower. Better yet, she's already killed Michenu and had her acknowledge that yes, she is the Chosen One, so now getting into Carlint Castle and retrieving the Rainbow Flower should be a snap!

...or not. The door to Carlint Castle remains sealed.

Ok.

What are our other leads? Michenu's dying words were about putting the three jewels and that they were related to the BallPearl of Guidance and Heaven, so it looks like Swift is gonna have to go all the way up to Heaven to be anointed by Maria herself to be considered the Chosen One. Jesus.

...but as she checks her inventory, she realizes that she only has two of the three jewels. That's a problem. Luckily, Swift knows of a place she can get her hands on a shiny rock.


Mynelt, the mining town! They mine emeralds, so even if it isn't one off the magical space jewels, she might still be able to get her hands on a regular one and bs her way with it. But to her surprise, the Elder asks her to wait a bit longer, because he's still getting her reward for saving he mines together.

...

At this point, Swift had to use one of her super secret Thf abilities called Eff-Ae-Kyu to divine out the proper path.


As it turns out: Meldi posted a quest at the Rodetia Guild that Swift needed to undertake before plot flags would activate. Dona comes back with information that the party already knew w/r/t the Rainbow Flower: It's in Carlint Castle.

With that completely arbitrary roadblock out of the way, Swift returns to Mynelt:


The Elder says "Been a while." even though it's literally been less than two minutes since she last spoke with him. Whatever. He entrusts her with the Cosmo Emerald, a super awesome shiny jewel that Ryui found in the mines. Handing over such a fine specimen actually causes him brain damage, and from this point on, all he'll say is "gain!" over and over.

But with that, Swift has collected all three of the jewels she heard about way back in Episode V.


Dona reminds her once last time that yes, there's a castle floating out in the sandstorm, and the party sets off into the great desert of Ruval.


And boy let me tell you, chasing down the sandstorm is really, really, really annoying. It took, and I kid you not, a full day in-game day for Swift to catch it, all while fighting battles every three steps.

Anyway, touching the sandstorm with the Pearl of Guidance will catapult her and the party up to the heavens themselves...


Surprise! Heaven is a dungeon! This is Saradis, Heaven's Castle. It has new music. I'm reasonably sure that every single enemy in this dungeon deals magic-damage. So, uh, bring Shamns and maybe the Siren spell, if that actually works. I probably should have tried it out, huh?

Saradis isn't much of a dungeon. There's absolutely no treasure here (except for the treasure of unloading three plot mcguffins from her limited inventory), and it's not really difficult to navigate. There are three staircases on the first floor, with the left one being the correct path.


I mean, I guess you could take the right stairs, but then you'd have to circle all the way around the second floor to get to the alter. The left stairs put you right near the alter.


I thought this was supposed to be Heaven? Urgh, this game, always with the mixed signals.


Swift opens up her inventory and places each individual jewel on the alters. There's no set order or positioning or anything. Just plunk 'em down on whichever alter you want.


The voice of the Maiden of Saradis, an entity Swift has never, ever heard anything about and will never, ever be referenced again, rings out through the castle. She entrusts Swift with the Rainbow Flower and "the future of mankind." I hope this means that Swift gets to control evolution and shit like that.

Now, when she says that she's giving the Rainbow Flower to Swift, what she really means is that she's officially marking Swift as the Chosen One who can enter Carlint Castle. Because having Angels descend from on high to deliver it to her on a silver platter would just be too much work!

(Maybe the Maiden of Saradis is supposed to be Maria?)


Even more annoying: You can't use Turning to escape! You have to hoof it back out on foot and jump out the front door down to the desert.


Swift makes her final trip to Carlint, and the door finally opens for her. Now she can just run in, say hello to the King or whatever, get the flower and vamoose.


Haha, just kidding! It's also a dungeon. It looks the same as Saradis and has the same music, but thankfully most of the enemies here are physical attackers. Carlint Castle is slightly more mazelike than Saradis was, but not by much. You can observe flowers blooming in the center of the first floor, in a section only accessible by stairs.


I said most of the enemies are physical, but those annoying Caverolls will sometimes show up to ruin Swift's day.

Like in Saradis, there are three staircases here on the first floor. They're located at the top of the map instead of right in front of the entrance though, and this time the stairs on the right lead to the correct path while the other two lead to a dead end. After choosing the correct stairs, it's a linear path up to the third floor, then back down to the flowery part of the first floor.

Swift has to investigate each flower tile to find the Rainbow Flower, just like she had to do with the Flower of Impression back at the beginning of the game. It's not as irritating here, since they're all clumped together like this.


Buuuuuut for brevity's sake, this is where it's located.


Carlint Castle is another dungeon that Swift can't Turning her way out of. There is a little shortcut right here on the third floor that leads back down to the main area of the first floor. You know, in case you didn't want to walk all the way back through the first and second floors.

(There's no treasure here besides the Rainbow Flower either)


Back outside, Swift has flabbergasted the townsfolk of Carlint by being able to enter their castle. I like how it's suddenly "Chosen Ones" instead of "Chosen One."


Back in Rodetia...
While Swift was out running errands, Meldi decided the best course of action would be to go to Ruval alone and talk to Prince Levin, the man who wants to kill her, face-to-face.


Swift wastes no time flying to Ruval to stop the Princess. Most of the NPCs in town seem concerned about Meldi's safety, just not enough to try and stop her from going to see the man who has made his desire to murder her very clear.


When she enters the throne room, she automatically walks beside Meldi. The NPCs in the room continue to mill about like nothing's going on in this highly dramatic scene.

Anyway, Meldi tries to get Levin to come around, he tries to kill her, but before he can Swift busts out the Rainbow Flower.


Another Levin appears behind the throne and curses Swift for interfering when he was this close to completely taking over Levin's soul.


There is nothing left for me to say about boss fights at this point. Dark Levin attacks by using the Roman Salute. He's got a bunch of HP, and the fight seemed to last longer than the one against Michenu.


After the fight, Levin explains that he was being possessed by Dark Levin, then gives Swift the location of Ideia's HQ It's Idevales, and island that can only be entered if you possess the three emblems. And as luck would have it, Levin is in possession of the third emblem, the Emblem of Doubt: It was the Gold Necklace that Swift retrieved from his kidnappers back in the day!

...which means, technically, that Swift had the emblem back before she even knew she was looking for them, and if she had kept it, she could have been on a boat to Idevales two updates ago!


Next Time: The Final Crusade

Two dungeons with the same music and graphics in a row is the opposite of good.

But I'm sure Swift and co appreciate the break from neon eye-slayer dungeons.

That was really it for Michenu back in the previous update? Seems awfully anticlimactic for someone that was shaping up as a respectable 8-bit villain. Pulling Dark Levin out of a hat just doesn't have the same menace, y'know?

It remains a delight that the entrance restricted to "the Chosen One" still includes her own personal wagon train.

At least it's a new track. The rest of the dungeons in the game use the same old music we've been hearing since the beginning of the game.

Yep, she's gone. It's a shame, because I really do like her as a villain. She's so proactive! Oh well, at least we still have the mysterious badass swordsman who was manipulating everyone from the start. Sigh

It's hilarious how as soon as you defeat Michenu she becomes totally upfront and helpful. "Hey Swift, I'm going to give you useful advice that actively works against the goals I've been pursuing for the entire game because I have the IQ of a rutabaga!"

And I know I've been snarking at this game for the entire thread about this, but seriously, those palettes! Who thought they were a good idea? Were the developers really into equal opportunity and decided to hire a blind guy to do the colors or what?

Does it work against her goals? Maybe Swift is playing right into her hands...

No, it's fine. The palettes in this game deserve all the scorn you can heap on them. They're hideous and they will never get better. I honestly wonder how difficult it would be to hack the game to alter the palettes. Like, I know when it comes down to it, the game has a lot of flaws that need to be fixed, but a good place to start would be making it so the Hero-characters don't look like this:

If things work out like that, I will be happy. "Bad guy who arbitrarily aids the heroes for no good reason after being defeated in combat" is a video game and anime trope that rears its head all too often.

They look to have pretty similar practical design, too. They could probably have just squished them together and had you do it all in one trip.

Episode XV: Swift versus the Ideian Pope

Well, this is it y'all. Swift brought peace to Rodetia, Ruval, and Ryuita (although, once again, that last one was more her just being in the general vicinity of it when peace arrived). She's picked off various Ideians in her crusade, but now it's time to take out the big dog: Mr. Pope himself, Aless.


She's stacked up and ready to go, although this image isn't quite accurate because she dumped AllFeel and taught Mara how to cast Field. The team travels to Ruval and sets sail for Idevales


The best directions I can give to Idevales: Sail up to the island north of Ruval (where Swift obtained the Moon Ruby) and sail west from there.


It takes about a day to get to the island north of Ruval and then another day to sail from there to Idevales.


Gross poisony swamp ground? That's suitably Dragon Quest final dungeony right there. The fuchsia ground doesn't deal damage when you walk on it. I guess at this point in the game they decided it was too late to add a new gimmick like damage tiles.


Idevales has new graphics! The walls are magenta. The floors are a shade that the internet tells me is called Mac n Cheese. The water is black with blue accents. Forget ideological differences, this religion must be irradiated for its crimes against Swift's eye(s).

But more importantly, look over there! There's a treasure chest within eyesight of the entrance! It's the only one on this floor, too. You see, Swift, like all good crusaders, is actually just here to loot and plunder right now, not actually kill the infidels. She'll have to make a trip back to Ruval once she's finished cleaning this place out to rest and restock.

The first enemy the party encounters here is a Fireman. It does magic, very slowly.


If you try to head in the direction of the chest, you'll walk right past the stairs down to the next floor. Convenient!

Cave Roos and strong caster enemies, but I don't have anything to say about the Mimics. They exist, I suppose.


The Aless Guards and SkullKnights are both physical fighters. One of them, probably the Skullknight, can inflict poison on a single character. Good think Dona is still knows how to cast Pois-C!

The chest contains the Photon Shield, the most powerful shield in the game. It raises defense by 20 and can be equipped by the usual suspects, meaning it goes straight to Samus, seeing as how she's the only one in the party who can wear it.

With that out of the way, Swift can head on down to B2.


B2 also has a convenient layout: The stairs down to B3 are located directly north of the stairs from B1. There are two chests on this floor, and both are located at the top of the map. The first is in the upper left corner and contains the Holy Staff. It raises Atk by 36, Int by 24, and Mag by 4. It is the ultimate weapon for healers, and can be equipped by Bshps, Priests and Mages.

(It also deals major damage to undead creatures. Like, major major. In the mid-hundreds)

Mara happily takes the Holy Staff.

The other chest here is located in the upper right. It contains the Photon Helm, the most powerful helmet in the game. It raises def by 20 and can be worn by Ftrs and Knights, which, again, makes it the exclusive property of Samus.


B3 time! There's only one chest here, located in the upper left of the map. It's the Holy Lance, the game's strongest lance. It raises Atk by a whopping 42 points, but is limited to being used by Knights. I didn't test it to see, but I imagine it probably does hefty damage to undeads, too.

KingGuards aren't much more menacing than the Aless Guards, but... who the heck is the king?

The stairs down to B4 are located south of this chest.


On B4, walking east will lead to another suit of Windmail. This is good news for Samus, because she can finally upgrade from the Flamemail she picked up back in Ryui's Cave.

Going west from the stairs and then down will lead to the game's best caster armor, the Feather Mantle of Light. It raises def by 32 (the same as the Windmail!), and can be worn by anyone except for Ftrs and Knights. It goes to Mara.

(I promise I'm not pulling these equipment names out of my ass. In the Japanese version, it's called the Hikari no Hagoromo)

The stairs down to B5 are located in the top right of the screen, so from the Feather Mantle of Light chest, Swift has to walk alllll the way around the edge of the screen.


Only one chest down on B5, and it's located directly south of the stairs. It contains the Dark Crystal, the ultimate Shamn weapon. It raises Atk by 37 and Def/Int/Mag by 16 each. Reminder: The last new Shamn weapon, the Blue Crystal, first appeared in shops back in Episode IV, in the town where Swift first met Michenu. So, uh, this upgrade is most welcome.


And that's also the last piece of treasure in Idevales!

Lame ain't it?

Swift Crusadin' Ladies make a strategic withdrawal and fly to Faltesis so they can rest and unload some of their unique equipment off on their allies stationed there. Because they're hoarders and refuse to part with high end unique equipment, even if they have no practical use for it. Baran gets the Holy Lance and Flamemail, his Kaiser Lance is passed on to Marin, who also gets the Dragon Helm. The Thunder Staff is entrusted to Enak.


Copious amounts of TriHerb are purchased, the team settles into the "Use MP" formation, and they sail to Idevales once more. This time, they're gunning for the Pope.

...They run away a lot.

But! Swift makes it back down B5 relatively intact. The stairs to the next floor are pretty easy to find: Just go all the way south, then all the way east, then north.


And presto!

...
Ok, fine, here's a map of Idevales:


Thanks Japan!

Before heading up those stairs to meet Aless, let's take a look at the party:


(I took screenshots and then got into a random battle where Samus leveled up, so I had to take hers again. You know, in case you were wondering why the money is different in her's)

Swift has the lowest Str of everyone in the party! However, her high Agi means she'll be out-damaging the slow Dona, despite her having a higher Atk. She still falls apart like wet toilet paper is anything magical comes near her because her Cha never broke 20. Her Def is pretty high though. I mean, she's basically just a bit worse than Samus despite having far worse equipment. Five levels shouldn't make that big of a difference.

Samus is pretty decent all around. She's not nearly as strong as Leon is (for comparison's sake, he's ten levels weaker than her but has 75 Str!), but honestly? The high Cha and Agi more than make up for it.

Dona's still incredibly slow, but her Atk stat is ok-ish. For some reason, during the looting trip she decided she wasn't gonna cast Sleep anymore, which was pretty annoying because the spells I taught her made her more of a support character, and when she's not even doing that it's a problem. Oh well, at least she can tank against magical enemies.

Mara heals things. Her high Int stat means she's good at it (although she did learn Field for those battles when casters target Swift). Blast is great when it works, but not so much when she tries to spam it and it never hits. Girl, if you wanna cast it once per battle, that's fine. Just don't keep casting it over and over and over on the same enemy. Her physical attacks are pretty much worthless, except against undead monsters.


Up the stairs lies Aless's throne room. It's very similar to Michenu's, except a little bigger and with an uglier. Wait, does the Pope have a throne room? I don't really know enough about the Catholicism to keep up this premise.


Listen y'all, it's unique battle music!
Poor Mara kept trying to Blast him. It's not gonna work lady!
Poor Dona had her face punched in and died, but popped back up almost immediately thanks to an Elixir.
But in the end, Swift and the Crusadin' Ladies prevailed and slew the Evil Pope of Ideia!


Oh. Hell. No. You are not pulling this shit. No. No. No. No. No. It's too late. You're the final boss. You don't get to pull this in the eleventh hour. No. No. No.

...



SIGH

After the fight, Aless commends Swift on becoming so strong, but immediately follows it up with some "Yeah, there's someone out there that's way worse than me" bullcrap. He brings up her father Mars for some reason. It's not foreshadowing or anything. No, seriously. It isn't. Her father isn't going to turn out to be the secret evil leader of Ideia. Hand to Maria. He just uses it as a means to take a potshot at Swift by saying she's not as brave as Mars was, so I guess that means he knew him at some point. Maybe Aless killed him?

Anyway, he goes on to say that even though she's a chickenwuss, she has friends and as we all know ~friendship is magic~ and have y'all seen the latest episode of My Little Pony because oh my gosh it was so awesome and squeeeeeeeeeeee~

He directs her to the Underwater Temple. (She heard about this temple in a previous update from some no-name NPC, but, you know, it was underwater so she couldn't access it)


...so his destiny was to found a religion and get his butt kicked? That's... that's kind of a lame destiny. I'm gonna pretend that the "Now... take my sword." was Swift throwing her voice so she could loot one last thing from this place. Aless's Sword raises Atk by 38 and can be equipped by Ftrs and Knights. This is a pretty decent upgrade for Samus, and best of all it means she can ditch that icky store-bought sword.

...

So. Underwater Temple. Sounds kinda final dungeony. Swift should probably get on that...


Or she could do victory laps! With Aless dead, the religion of Ideia has been eradicated. In fact, everyone on the planet is now all "You go girl!" Although, uh... there are noticeably fewer town people now. Like, every town is missing a couple of people. There's no storyline significance to this, they're just gone. I imagine that the dev team didn't want to write too much new dialogue, and there's a lot of repetition as it is, so they opted to just remove characters from towns.

Anyway. In Rodetia, Gramps finally says something new.


The King of Rodetia gives a pretty typical ending speech. Well, except for that last bit, which is a baldfaced lie. Meldi has nothing of interest to say to Swift:


See? Swift treks all the way to Ruval to visit her, and alls she says is "I wish you well." Levin was apparently coronated as the King at some point, and he plans to marry Meldi. I... I thought we already knew that? Did we? I could have sworn the game said they were engaged earlier.

Ragon continues to be MIA.


With Ideia gone, the people of LittonThe Vatican have resumed worship of Maria. Roger's girlfriend no longer wants to kill him. Remember Roger? He kinda just disappeared from the game after he helped Swift meet General Faltesis.


The Mayor's Son in Izaruro is relieved that his father can rest in peace now that he's been avenged. Which, technically, he was avenged when Swift killed Michenu, but, you know, whatever.


In Ryuita, Remi passes on the same warning to Swift that Aless did: There's something big and bad out there. She adds another helpful tidbit about how the Rainbow Flower will protect Swift. Yeah, if you say so lady.

In the throne room, you can kinda see what I mean about the missing NPCs: There used to be a bald fellar up in the top right corner of the throne room, but he's gone now.

Swift, having traveled around the world, or at least hit the three kingdoms, gets the sinking feeling that no one is going to reward her with anything more than a pat on the back and a heartfelt thanks. What a bunch of ingrates. Can't even pony up some super awesome equipment for the woman who led a crusade and destroyed an entire religion.

Maybe there will be shinies in the Underwater Temple? I mean, she might as well, since she's got no other leads.


The Underwater Temple is, as Aless explained, located between North Ryuita and South Ryuita. The quickest way to get there is to fly to Ryuita then sail south along the coast until you get into the gulf between the two continents.

And lookit there! The Underwater Temple has a unique graphic and the water surrounding it is golden. That's a final dungeon if I've ever seen one! Or, at least, the gateway to the final dungeon! Something like that.


Eeeeeeeh. It uses the same graphics as Idevales, right down to the first enemy Swift encountering being a palette swap of Fireman! Ebileist are casters, but I don't remember how fast they are.


Not far from the entrance is a branching point. There's no reason to turn, just go straight down. The "branch" leads to the same place as the straight path, it just takes more steps. This whole floor is shaped like a big D. I don't know why they even bothered putting the branch in. Just walk straight down and you'll reach the stairs to the next floor.

Behemoths are physical attackers, DarkMasks (purple) and BloodMasks (pink) are casters.

Literally straight down. The stairs lead to a big room with three treasure chests in it. Oh I get it, we're pulling a Phantasy Star II and putting the big bad in a treasure chest, right? I can dig it. I think I would have preferred a real final dungeon instead of a straight line, but whatever.

Swift, ready to get this shit over with, approaches the important looking box sitting off center in the circle of alters...


...huh? What is Love? Wait, that's the same graphic they used for the emb-


-lems. I mean, I guess it's pretty obvious that the Ideian Emblems were only taking up half the Mark box on the menu.


The box on the left contains the Sun Sword, a blade that boasts a whopping 48 Atk, immediately rendering Aless's Sword obsolete. Naturally, it goes to Samus. Man, at this point, she's wearing a shield and a helmet made of photons and now she's carrying around something called the Sun Sword. She should be able to just defeat enemies by blinding them with her radiance. Maybe the last box will have some bright and shiny armor? Clearly it won't have the final boss in it, so, it might as well be something to complete her outfit.


Nope, it's a letter.


From Aless, no less! And full of translation hiccups, too!
So, uh, couple of things: You might notice the symmetry is mixed up, seeing as how he links Doubt to Courage and Fear to Truth. The more astute of you might note that the emblems that Swift picked up were Lies, Fear and Doubt. (And the more pedantic will ask, "Why did he leave a letter addressed to Swift personally,? Why didn't he just tell her this shit back in Idevales?")

The Emblem of Lies that Aless gave to Baran while they were rebuilding Ruval (Aless is a fearsome villain, he volunteers in his community) should have been the Emblem of Hate and opposed by the Emblem of Love. The Emblem of Doubt that Prince Levin gave to Swift should be the Emblem of Lies, since it's opposed by the Emblem of Truth. And then Fear and Courage.

Next Time: Search for the Emblems, Mk II