The island suddenly appeared in the sky. Let's Play Lufia & the Fortress of Doom!

Apparently, Medi and Lufia are Alekia’s official favorite sweethearts, and pretty much everyone is trying to get them together. Here, a young woman suggests planning a cross continental voyage to take Lufia shopping.



…You’re a nosy little brat, aren’t you?



Wow. I think we just got put in our place. Luckily, Roman’s a sport, and still lets us stay for free at his inn even though we just broke the heart of his surrogate daughter.



Yeah, not gonna lie, Medi, that wasn’t exactly your finest hour. You could have at least said something. “Hey, emergency, the knights need me for something, brb!” I mean, this line always used to work on my girlfriend.



Oh for the love of… fine! I guess we should go find Lufia and apologize.



Hmm, she’s not here. Maybe back at the inn?



She’s not in her room either, which of course affords Medi an opportunity to rifle through her things.



You can’t actually find Lufia anywhere, so apologizing will have to wait. For now, our next move is to investigate Sheran. But there’s one last thing to do before we go.



Medi isn’t generally the best recipient of a Power Potion, as his natural HP growth is pretty good. But right now, he’s level 1 with only 23 HP. This is the lowest HP total our party will ever have, and thus no Power Potion will ever do us more good than it does right now. So we’ll use it on him here, to give him a bit more survivability for his solo journey to Sheran.


Field


The world of Estpolis will, in a lot of ways, never be more hostile and dangerous than it is right now. Even though the creatures here are very weak, Medi must make this journey alone, and he doesn’t have a lot to work with. None of the events in town were mandatory, so a first time player might very well find themselves here with nothing but what Medi started the game with. Suffice it to say that the Dagger, Cloth Helm and Power Potion, at least, are all very helpful, and a player who leaves town without these things is in for a hard time.



Sheran is to the north, past the village of Chatam, and through a short cave. However, there’s something interesting to the west we should check out first.


Battle

Our first battle! These madshrooms aren’t tough, but this is the first time we’ll be hampered by the game’s sub-par targeting AI. You can only target an enemy group, not a specific enemy. So I can’t focus my attacks on one enemy to eliminate him more quickly, and can end up taking a lot of unnecessary hits. This is actually less of a hindrance than you might expect, once you have more party members, but right now? It’s pretty annoying.




Triumph

Our first victory! And hard won, too. Note that Medi lost almost half his HP in that single battle. Gaining even a single level will do wonders for our survivability, but for now, it pays to be cautious.



West of Alekia is this strange structure. Let’s investigate.


Shrine

Fans of the series will likely recognize this song.





Stepping onto this mysterious portal whisks us off to a mysterious shrine in a distant location. The only occupant is a peculiar old man.



The old man of the shrine is wise and all-knowing. He can heal you for free, and remind you what your current objective is. This shrine can be accessed from several points in the world if you happen to get lost or forget what you’re doing. It’s not as useful as it perhaps should be, but it’s still a nice feature.





Unfortunately, we only have access to the Alekia warp point at the moment. All the other doors in the shrine are locked, including this one that appears to lead outside. It probably doesn’t lead anywhere important though.

Anyway, nothing to do here, let’s move on.

Newts are, fortunately, probably the weakest enemy in the game. Even as he is, Medi can slay one in a single blow. Sometimes, they drop items called Grilled Newt, which can restore a small amount of HP.



This little hamlet is on the way to Sheran, so let’s stop by.


Village



Seems like the people of Chatam are worried about Sheran as well.



The main gossip in Chatam is about a brother and sister named Danil and Lilah. Apparently, Lilah works in Sheran castle, and her brother ran off to look for her after hearing about the rumor.

Guess we should keep our eyes open for them.



More importantly, more secret items!



Great Potions raise strength, which is very useful to Medi, especially right now. Strength directly influences your attack power; in fact, your Attack Power stat is literally your Strength + whatever attack bonuses are granted by your equipment. Each point of strength you have helps.



A bit further north, we encounter two caves. The cave on the left leads to Sheran, but let’s check out that other cave first.





Something attacked Medi on the way, and vanquishing it gives Medi his first level! That +9 HP is quite a boon this early on.


Cave

Here, we enter our first cave. There’s only two types of dungeons in Lufia; caves and towers. Later caves will have some distinctive elements to them, but a general lack of good dungeon design is probably Lufia’s greatest fault. I can't in any good conscience complain about this, however, since anyone who has played Lufia II knows they resolved this problem a thousand times over in the series' next installment. Anyhow, this particular cave is just one long passageway to the end.



These Spiders are bastards. They have higher defense than other monsters around here, and can poison you. Getting poisoned this early on is a huge hassle. We have one antidote in our pack, but fortunately we don’t need it here. With the strength gains we have so far, we can usually kill them in two shots, but it’s not a guarantee.

The “two hit” rule is a good rule to follow in Lufia. If you know what you’re doing, you can almost always slay the local monsters in two hits. The trick is figuring what those two hits need to be; I’ll talk more about this later, when we have more party members.



These red slimes are called “Jellyfish” because Taito is silly. They have pretty good defense, but thankfully don’t hit hard.



The end of the cave holds this treasure room. This 200 gold pieces is actually quite a windfall this early; you might have to fight 30-40 battles to make this much scratch. This money, along with the money Princess Estea gave us, will make it much easier to buy gear in the next town, which could be a real hassle otherwise.



But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, we’re not even to Sheran yet! This time, we’ll enter the western cave.



These two caves are connected, but you can’t access one section from the other. First, we’ll turn north.



On the other side of this rock formation, you can see the treasure room I just visited. Seems like there’s nothing on this side, though.



Or is there?!

The game throws a lot of revives at you during this section, which is at least a little odd. I mean, Medi can’t use them on himself, and we certainly don’t have any soon-to-join party members nearby, sulking about pie.

Ugh, two spiders! Medi is at dangerously low HP, he’ll need to use a potion to come out of this one alive.



Oh ye gods.

Actions aren’t executed instantly in this game. If enemies are faster than you, sometimes they’ll get their actions first. And spiders are fast. It pays to use items before you think you’ll need them. Medi DID use his potion here, and survived the fight, but barely. If I hadn’t used that Power Potion on him, he’d have certainly wiped, and then he’d have to go to the afterlife, where no doubt Maxim was waiting to berate him.

“Dude, a spider? Really?”



Let’s go ahead and heal up so that doesn’t happen again. We’re out of potions now, but that’s okay. We’ll get a healing spell soon, and potions don’t stay useful for long in this game.



Let’s get out of here.



This is Sheran. Hmm, it doesn’t really look like anything is wrong. Maybe this was all just a rumor after all?


Ruins

Well… this doesn’t look good at all.



There are people lying in the street all over the city. Some of them are still conscious, but most seem too in shock to tell us anything useful.



Maybe this guy knows what happened.





Something caused the monsters near Sheran to flip out. Only something pretty powerful could have done that…



Black caped men do have a habit of burning down villages. We better be on the look out!



Okay, I’m officially terrified.



Oh no!

In our haste to investigate Sheran, we left Alekia defenseless! Our adorable not-girlfriend is completely vulnerable to plot-motivating kidnappings! Our kindly old guardian is probably highly susceptible to galvanizing death scenes! And those useless knights back home are going to be no help at all!



We’ve gotta get back!



Run, Medi, run!



Like the wind!!



Something gives Medi another level, here. I’m not sure that +5 Int will ever do him any good; I’m not sure if Int affects healing magic, and Medi doesn’t learn any offensive magic.

We made it! Are we too late?


Town

Oh… everything seems to be fine here. I guess the monsters haven’t reached Alekia yet. Still, there’s no time to waste! We’ve got to inform the king!



This is all your fault you know.



This guy might be the one competent knight in all of Alekia. At least he’s at his goddamn post.



This guy, on the other hand, is beyond redemption.



Poor Yuria is, unfortunately, doomed to be locked in this closet until the end of time.



Let’s get down to business. The princess promises to get the knights moving! Alright!



Hopefully the knight commander will have no choice but to do something now!



Now that's what I like to hear.





….



Unlike certain Dark Knights I could name, Medi immediately realizes when his kingdom has its priorities all messed up, and pretty much resigns on the spot. Seems asking the knights for help was a waste of time after all. If we want to help anyone in Sheran, we’ll have to do it ourselves.

We should probably check on Lufia first, though.



Lufia’s returned from wherever she was hiding, so we should say something.





Medi apologizes by saying what he should have said in the first place. You see, we could have avoided all this!





Yeah, honestly I think I’m with Medi on this one.



Lufia would rather pout than make up, however. Seems we’ll have to leave this matter unresolved for now. Sheran still needs us.

This whole “being a hero” business is starting to be a huge pain in the ass.







For perhaps the first time in JRPG history, the hero actually seems to understand the real reason his not-girlfriend is actually mad at him.



Of particular note here is that Roman makes no effort to stop Medi from going off to do his heroing thing. He knows it would be a waste of effort. They've been bros since Medi was knee-high to a grasshopper.





Even though she’s being childish, Medi still looks out for Lufia, even if he’s not going to be around.



Guess there’s nothing left. Time to head back to Sheran, and do what we can for the people there.

Priphea Flowers


The journey this time should be… that’s not the normal overworld music!



Awww. I guess Lufia was worried after all.





Sweet! Let’s get going!



Wha-



Oh come on Medi, don’t be like-



You see, now the rubber band is on the other claw. Lufia has accepted that Medi is going into danger, but there’s no way in hell he’s prepared to let her take the same risk.



Oh come on, are we still pretending that’s even an issue at this point?





I’m fairly certain Medi is bluffing here.



Having failed to appeal to emotion, Lufia’s next move is a good old-fashioned guilt trip.



Haha, okay, that was a good one.



Medi decides to level with Lufia. He’s afraid he won’t be able to keep her safe, and can’t stand the idea of her getting hurt.

Lufia scoffs at the idea of logic dissuading her from her decided course of action.





Lufia knows the score, too.







Thankfully, unlike certain other descendants of Maxim, Medi stops short of actually demanding promises that his companions will never die.




Another one of my favorite lines.





In the end, Medi accepts that choice was an illusion. Lufia was never not going to come with him to Sheran.




D’awww.

I always really liked this whole little scene. Back in the early ninties, RPGs didn’t work like this. You tracked down the other character with a unique sprite, and you’d go bang on monsters together for a while. The fact that Medi actually resists Lufia’s attempts to help him was actually something new, and put the motivations and desires of the characters above the needs of the game mechanics. You didn’t see this often in RPGs in that era, where characters were more often simply devices at the player’s disposal than anything else.

Anyway, it’s this scene that really drives home that some actual work was put into the writing in this game. It’s more poignant and meaningful than pretty much any scene in any other game I can think of.

Anyway, new party member!



Lufia is our resident black magic user, and the titular character of this game. While I billed Medi as the hero and protagonist of this adventure, this game is at least as much about Lufia as it is about him. Lufia likes flowers, tea, cooking, shopping, and other stereotypical girly things.

Lufia is a very powerful magician and will learn many spells over the course of this quest. This includes the full lines of Lightning, Water, Blast and Death magic, and a decent mix of supportive magic. Her MP and Intelligence growth are very high, and she has by far the best magic resistance of any character in the game. She is also very fast.



She has some drawbacks, however. Her HP growth is the worst in the game, and her strength is very low. In practice, you’ll never want to use Lufia’s physical attacks. She also, sadly, has the worst equipment options in the game.

Lufia does grow quite fast; she gains levels nearly as fast as Medi does. She also learns her magic list much more quickly than Medi. On average, she’ll learn a new spell every two levels, whereas Medi tends to learn them every three.



Right now, Lufia has only two spells; Flash and Waken. Waken is a spell that wakes your whole party if they’re asleep, and I’m pretty sure that in this game’s twenty year history, no one has ever used it. Flash, however, will be Lufia’s best attack option for probably 25% of the game. At a paltry 2 MP per shot, she can cast this spell all day.


Bit of an interesting note about Lufia, when I was nine-year-old Solitayre playing this game for the first time, I didn’t understand art styles, and thought that ring of white pixels around her head was meant to be some sort of flower wreath, rather than just the highlights of her hair. Since Medi has similar highlights in his hair, I spent much of my time playing through this game thinking that Lufia had made him a flower wreath too, and he was just a really, really good sport.

That ring of red pixels around her collar continues to baffle me to this day, though. Some sort of ribbon, maybe?



Once Lufia joins up, the monster formations near Alekia change, and become much more numerous. They’re easier to handle now, though, since Medi can reliably kill many of them in one hit now, and Lufia’s flash spell is essentially an instant kill to anything on this continent.





Now that you have even two party members, the weak targeting AI is really no longer a problem. Dividing your efforts on different columns generally gets the best results for now. You can also reliably exploit the “two hit” rule. Anything that survives a hit from Medi will probably be weak enough that Lufia can finish it off even with a basic attack, thereby letting you save her MP for tougher enemies.



Not that she’ll need to conserve MP for long. Every time she levels she’ll come into a wealth of shiny new Magic Points. Even this first level basically gives her 50% more casting power.


Cave


Back into the cave to Sheran. The enemies here come in larger groups, too, but they’re nothing we can’t handle.



I told you Lufia gained levels quickly.



Here’s a major milestone for Medi. He has learned “Strong,” which is a basic healing spell. Now he can put his MP to use, and our survivability is greatly increased. Lufia also learned her next spell, “Shield,” which raises one ally’s MGR, though at best it’s a pretty circumstantial spell.



Medi’s turns in battle are usually best spent attacking. Between battles though, his healing power is great.



Uh oh, looks like the increased encounter size was too much for this poor guy who tried to cross the cave alone. We should probably check if he’s okay.





Looks like he’s okay. This must be Danil, who we heard about in Chatam.





Danil’s pretty brave to come this far on his own; everyone else, in Alekia and Chatam, was too chicken to come check the rumor out. We’ll forgive him for only making it half way through the cave, he probably didn’t find a free Cloth Helm in his town after all.

He gives us a key to Sheran Castle, so that’ll be our next stop.

Ruins

Back in Sheran, nothing has improved. There’s nothing we can do for the people in town, so let’s investigate the castle. We better be careful; whoever caused all this is still around somewhere.







The castle is deserted. It’s a bit eerie.



Lots of items to be found though. These chests all contained potions, but honestly the days of potions being useful are already behind us.

One little detail I like is each castle in the game has unique banners.



Well that certainly is cryptic. Finding the king of Sheran would be great though, so let’s check it out.



Well, this is the hall to the basement, but there’s nothing here! Clearly, Sheran is full of liars, and they got what was coming to them.




No sign of the king either, but those shutters look suspicious.



With the Sheran key, we can access this switch, which makes a loud sound but doesn’t obviously open anything. This castle is weird.

The chest on the other side of the room contained some welcome money, if I recall.



Exploring the hall to the basement, a new stairway appeared. Let’s see if we can find the king.



The basement reveals a prison, where the king and his staff are being kept. Whoever wrecked up the place must have locked them in here. Given that there’s no royal vizier among the captives, I think it’s pretty damn obvious who’s behind all this.



This maid at the entrance sure is glad to see us.



The king, on the other hand, demands to know what we’re doing in his country.

This is the third worthless authority figure we’ve come across and we’re still on the first chapter.

Maybe you’d like it back in your cell, your highness.

I’m going to make a Star Wars reference in every update. I just decided that.



The king’s maid, at least, recognizes that he’s being a buffoon, and rightly calls him on it. Lufia immediately takes a liking to this lady who isn’t afraid to put moronic men in their place.



Turns out the girl who sassed the king is Lilah, Danil’s sister.







Alright, we found the king, and Danil’s sister! If we rescue them both, I’m prepared to call this a pretty successful mission!



We’ll also swipe this Great Potion from the castle, I assume the king is okay with this as he watched me take it and didn’t say anything. Maybe afraid of getting shouted down by the help again.

Occasionally in Lufia, you’ll enlist the aid of an NPC for some purpose. These people will follow your party around, but won’t engage in battles and can’t really influence anything outside of very specific circumstances. Here, we’re being followed by Lilah and King Sheran. Also following us is a second, nameless servant who has no lines and no significance whatsoever. The fact that she’s identical to Lilah makes me wonder why they didn’t use a chancellor as the third anonymous follower.




We’ve made it out of the castle. We’re almost home free!


Wave of Evil

Damn it!



We don’t know who this stranger is, but the musical cue tells us he’s nobody to be trifled with. Lilah helpfully points out that this is the guy who trashed the place, as opposed to, say, some other black-armored warrior with a pack of monsters at his back.



The newcomer immediately takes an interest in Medi, remarking that he’s unlike the other knights he’s already cut down today.



Medi immediately recognizes that this guy is no joke, and orders Lufia to make a run for it and take the other ladies in the group with her.



Yeah, I’m sure they’ll be a big help.



Lufia is distraught, but seeing no other options, she flees the scene. She clearly recognizes that now is no time for an argument. Which is good, because having an argument in front of this guy would be very stupid and I’m quite sure no one in this series would ever be idiotic enough to do that.



Medi calls out Sheran’s nemesis on being a jackass, but wrecking things is apparently just how he rolls.



And overacting on top of everything else? This guy’s really asking for it. Who does he think he is?



Oh.


Boss Battle

Uhhhh…I uhh….. I think this guy is gonna take more than two hits.

Okay, I’m not sure how we got here, but somehow, Medi’s worst nightmare has come true and an honest-to-god Sinistral just emerged from the still smoldering ruins of the neighboring kingdom, called him a name, and challenged him to a one-on-one fight. All Lufia’s words of encouragement suddenly ring a little hollow right now, don’t you think?

Incidentally, despite what we heard in town, Gades does not actually wear a cape, which I’m pretty sure makes him the least fashionable Sinistral.



Still, Medi knows what he has to do. If the Sinistrals have indeed returned, it’s his job to stop them. Lufia believed in him!



Yeah, get him, Medi! You got this!

Veterans of the series know what’s coming, right? It’s pretty typical for Gades to appear early in the game to intimidate the player and demonstrate the Sinistrals’ awesome power, but there’s usually a catch. A sufficiently prepared and determined player can usually defeat him in his first appearance, generally earning bragging rights and often a really great reward.

So it’s all a matter of figuring out the trick! Surely there’s a way even for our little level four knight to conquer the God of Destruction, right?



Haha NO.

This was actually quite a shock when this game first came out. Nowadays, unwinnable bosses who wreck your face are commonplace; as I mentioned, they’re extremely common within this very series. But in ‘93, this sort of thing was still novel. Having the game’s final boss show up when you’re still level 4 and bitchslap you across the room was a pretty new experience.

It also helps to demonstrate just how far above Medi that Maxim was. Maxim could have lived through half a dozen hits from Gades and kept on coming. Medi was dead ten times over after just one. He still has a long way to go.

Of course, it looks like he’ll never get the chance now. The God of Destruction has the descendant of his greatest enemy dead to rights, and there’s nobody to save him.

At least Lufia got away. You kept your promise, Medi. You did good…



Oh goddamnit.

Take note of the time line, here.

We already walked to Sheran once, came back, argued with the knights, left again, had a heartfelt talk with Lufia, and came back to Sheran again, in the course of one day. In the span of time it took Gades to rearrange Medi’s spinal column, Lufia ran back to Alekia, saw the Sheran refugees to the castle, argued with the knights again and ran back here. When Medi was little, he talked about playing in caves, and since the caves to Sheran are the only caves in the region, I’m forced to assume that even a small child could walk there and back in the course of an afternoon.

This means the Alekian knights are totally unconcerned that the neighboring kingdom, which could charitably be described as a leisurely walk away, had been sacked.



Gades is oddly taken aback by Lufia’s return. Lufia, not realizing who she’s mouthing off to, proceeds to give Gades a stern talking to. One assumes that this is the first time Gades has ever been scolded in his entire life, and Gades is the eternal God of Destruction, as old as time itself.



Yeah, that’ll work.



….



Even though Gades has his greatest enemy completely over a barrel, and even though he could end Lufia with a single blow, the sight of an angry teenage girl with a kitchen knife is enough to convince the God of Destruction to retreat.

I’m sure this decision won’t come back to haunt him.



Don’t worry about Medi, he’ll be fine as soon as he finishes picking up his teeth.



So what the hell good are these knights, anyway?





Here, Medi is forced to confront an uncomfortable question. If Gades was vanquished 100 years ago, how could he be here?



If Gades has truly returned, could the other Sinistrals have returned as well?



Lufia doesn’t even want to think about it, and instead just wants see Lilah back to Chatam and go home. But what then? In his heart, Medi must know the truth. Can he really return to his life in Alekia and pretend nothing happened? No, he must know if the Sinistrals have truly returned, and if they have, it is his responsibility to stop them.

He still has a long road ahead of him.

Hmm... I'm not sure I necessarily agree. While the hidden items were nice finding them could be tedious at times (but at least the first game isn't as bad about this as The Legend Returns).

He's also not a descendant of two of the greatest heroes in the world.

Actually she Gains 9 Magic Point Pts., which must clearly stand for pints. My current working theory is that magic in Estpolis is fueled by Tea.

I'm not an expert on Lufia lore, but I vaguely recall some line of Erim's implying that there used to be more gods before they died out and only the four Sinistrals were left. Maybe the clerics nominally worship long-dead gods who were a little friendlier to humanity?

The knowledge that in Estpolis deities don't come any friendlier than the goddess of massacre is dark enough for me.

While I wouldn't agree that this is some of the best writing in the history of ever, the localization quality in Lufia really does stand out compared to its contemporaries.

the art for the cellphone port sez:


e:


here's cleric man in japan

I think there are supposed to be "good" Sinistrals as well as the evil ones that we see in the games, though who knows what they're doing all this time.

I'm probably giving away too much of my inner fanboy, yeah, but I really do like the writing in this game.


What the hell is she even wearing? I looked up the cellphone artwork for the characters and I kind of wish I could unsee it.


Thanks! I'll go ahead and replace that awful blurry picture.

Dang, I love that little exchange too. Perfect flow and choice of words. And yeah, there's a unique quality in the Lufia script, which makes it feel significantly more earnest and natural, at least relative to most other JRPGs. So much personality injected into those lines of dialogue.

Can't wait for that scene when Lufia and Medi go shopping for clothes, which otherwise has no relevance to the main plot whatsoever. That's also my favorite scene.

Last time...

Lufia: The Abridged Series

Chapter 2: The One


Town

The game helpfully spares us from having to walk between Sheran and Alekia for the fourth time, which is good because I'm pretty sure Medi would limp the whole way after getting stomped on by a literal god.


Priphea Flowers

Roman rushes out to greet us. Apparently, word has already spread that Gades was the one who destroyed Sheran, and he was very worried about us.





Roman already suspects that Medi faced Gades in combat, likely tipped off by the size 27 boot print on his ass.





Roman and Medi both already know the truth; it is his destiny to face the Sinistrals. Here, they must say good-bye. It's can be hard enough to watch your children go off into the world on your own, but most of them time said children aren't going off to face literal gods of death.






Roman, of course, already knows what Lufia wants to say.







A simple, understated good-bye between two people who love and understand each other.



Medi, of course, has given up on arguing with Lufia at this point, but I assume there was some part of him that hoped Roman would convince her to stay.

Still, it's probably better that Medi doesn't have to make this journey alone. It might pay to have Lufia along to scare off any other destruction gods that come along.

It won't be long before we leave Alekia behind forever, but there's still one thing left to do at the castle.



The people of Alekia have vowed to help Sheran rebuild. Seeing as Alekia and Sheran didn't seem to be on the friendliest terms, this is a kind gesture. Though likely an empty one.



Godspeed, Yuria. Godspeed.



The princess is relieved to see us alive, but distraught to learn the Sinistrals have returned.





The princess agrees that Medi is indeed the official, designated Sinistral killer of the era. Being a descendant of Maxim is apparently a lot like being a Belmont.



Hmph. At least Medi gets some respect.



The refugees from Sheran all arrived safely. Apparently the anonymous maid replicated herself, as there are now two of them! This is probably all part of the king's plan to repopulate Sheran.



Lilah is waiting to be taken back to her family in Chatam. We better get a move on.



Farewell, Alekia.

If you try to proceed without talking to Lilah, or try to proceed through the cave with her still following, Lufia will stop you here. You COULD use a Swing Wing to warp to Sheran if you really wanted to, but the next plot event won't trigger until Lilah is back home.




Village

Once in Chatam, we witness a heartfelt sibling reunion.



I think Lufia has something in her eye...



Being a hero can be a pain, but it's not like there aren't upsides.



More importantly, Lilah gives us our next lead! If we journey to the port of Treck, we might find someone who can tell us more about the Sinistrals! It's not much, but it's better than nothing.



For our services to the town, this old man gives us a Speed Potion and a very nice compliment. Which is more than the King of Sheran gave us for saving his own useless life.






Lufia is also the first game I can remember where your party members would have little conversations with random townspeople. It's a nice touch, and sometimes results in humorous exchanges like this one.

Cave

Fortunately, this is the last time we'll ever have to go through this stupid cave.



But we can't leave...



..without saying “good night...”








If you poke your head in Sheran, you'll find that some basic functions have been restored. The inn is open again, at least. The rest of the city is still a mess, though.


Field

But Sheran is no longer our destination. It's time to turn our eyes to the horizon. It's time to take our first step into a larger world...



Beyond Sheran, we start to encounter new enemies. Fortunately, if you can reliably deal with the enemies in the Sheran Caves, these enemies shouldn't be too much trouble.



Despite Lilah's warning, Treck isn't really all that far, although it is at least twice as far from Chatam as Sheran is. Which amounts to, I don't know, a ten minute walk?

I think I'm done trying to make sense of cinematic time in this game.

Port

The port music in Lufia games tends to be really great.



Treck is a pretty busy port town that often trades with Lorbenia, but seems the ships aren't running on time these days.



Lorbenia is famous for its large department store, we've been hearing about it since Alekia, and we know there's no way we're getting through this quest without taking Lufia there.



No, but I'll go ahead and help myself to this hairband, and give Lufia a much needed defensive boost. I also gave her the Bracelet we stole borrowed from Princess Estea.



A young lady at the bar gives us a tip. There's an old man in town who apparently used to know Guy, one of the survivors of Doom Island. Maybe he knows something useful!



Looks like the old man has a lot on his mind.



All forms of alcohol in this game were changed to various forms of cider. I'm pretty sure both Medi and Lufia are underage, but you can still buy it if you want. Using them in battle can give you minor stat buffs, but they're not really worth it.




This guy is the captain of one of the ships in port, the Maberia. Seems business is going so well for him he feels the need to rub it in everyone's face.



Maybe business isn't as great as he claims though, since no ships are sailing right now.


Shopping

This is where the money we got from the princess, the north cave and Sheran castle is going to come in handy. The Cloth armor for Medi and the Robe for Lufia are both considerable defensive upgrades. And we're really, really going to need the defense, more so in this chapter than perhaps anywhere else. And if you didn't get that money, it can be really hard to afford all this stuff, as the monsters on this continent don't drop much gold.



There's no point in upgrading weapons though; Medi will find a much better weapon soon, and only an idiot like nine-year-old Solitayre would spend 180 gold on a weapon for Lufia.



With no ships traveling from Lorbenia, it's not just business that's being disrupted.
Hopefully we can find this little girl's father if we ever venture to Lorbenia.



Apparently the Maberia's crew are very enthusiastic about sailing! Not enthusiastic enough to offer us a ride, though.

A good rule of thumb in Lufia games; if you're lost, find the old man in town. He probably knows what's up.



Right away, this one uses his old man senses to tell we got our ass kicked recently fought a very strong enemy recently.



This is the old man who fought alongside Guy, long ago. Probably the person Lilah was talking about, too.



Medi is already engaging in revisionist history, and while he'll frequently mention fighting Gades, he tends to leave out the part about getting stomped into the pavement and having to be bailed out by his 90lb girlfriend.



The old man is incredulous. But his old man senses have been tingling lately.



Medi is already learning that the quickest way to get someone in his corner is to namedrop Maxim.



As soon as he does, the old man has something to show us.





The old man leads us back to his niece, Ainea, who fortunately doesn't recognize that we robbed her a few minutes ago, which would have made this conversation pretty awkward.



Whoa.

Somebody called “The One” must be a pretty important guy.





Ainea is reluctant to take us at first, but once again, Maxim's name is all she needs to hear. One of the perks of living in a fantasy world is everyone is perfectly willing to assume that some random ginger-haired kid and his magical anime girlfriend are obviously destined to save the world.



Looks like we've found our next destination! We'll need Ainea's help to access the East Cave though.

The creatures in the region are less dangerous with our new armor. Lufia levels up! Yay!



Heading east will result in new types of creatures appearing though. Nettles are fairly annoying because they can put you to sleep. All plant-based creatures are weak to fire, but Lufia doesn't learn fire magic.



We'll have to settle for regular old instant-death lightning instead. Sigh.


Battle

Eeek! Sometimes enemies will ambush you and get a couple free hits before you can act. Those Giant Bats are nasty as they can hit much harder than other creatures, and can cast Drain to lower your defense. The green Orbs can cast mirror, but are otherwise nothing special.





We've almost reached the East Cave! I wonder what's inside?


Cave

Oh for %^&*'s sake.



Medi's Strong spell will see plenty of use.



These cloth shoes offer a few welcome points of defense.



Eventually, we'll reach an ornate door. Only Ainea can open it.





Those bats took quite a toll on Medi's HP, but at least we got another level for Lufia out of the deal. She learned the 'Dew' spell, which is her first multi-target spell. It can hit entire groups for Water type damage. Lufia's water magic is non-factor in her late game arsenal, but in the early game, it's very handy.


Field

We've reached the other side. This must be where “The One” lives. Let's find out what he has to say.

Village

For such an important guy, the One lives in a pretty modest little place.







The One is an old man who was once a great warrior. He decides to put Medi to a little test.





I know what Medi is thinking about here, but I'm not telling.



The old man senses powerful energy in Medi. As I said before, energy waves can be found everywhere in the world of Estpolis. Apparently, with training, one can learn to sense this energy.

This started to get a little silly in the prequel, where genius inventor Lexis Shaia actually invented a device that could give a numerical reading of someone's energy waves.

And yes, Maxim's energy reading was over- *gunshot*



Anyway, this old dude seems to know a lot about Maxim.



And so we learn why, this guy knew Maxim personally. He reveals that he is Guy, one of the heroes of Doom Island!



This puts Guy in the neighborhood of at least 120 years old.



As one might expect, Guy does not take the news of the Sinistrals' return particularly well. In fact, he outright denies it could even be possible.



Luckily, we have Lufia to corroborate our story.

Medi wants to get right to the point. If Guy happens to know any of the Sinistrals' weakness, that's be a great help!



Guy, on the other hand, demonstrates that he is the most badass man on the planet, by deciding that he must join Medi in his quest despite his staggering age.



This is probably a bad idea.



Yeah, bad idea.


Sorrow

Unfortunately, poor Guy lived exactly long enough to learn that his worst enemies had returned to the world, and he doesn't have the strength to stop it.



With his last breath, he gives Medi the only lead he can; find Artea, the other survivor from Doom Island. Since elves live much longer than humans, Artea probably still has the strength to fight.



Guy and Artea lost touch long ago, but there's someone in a town called Grenoble who can help us find him.





And so passes a mighty warrior.







The torch has been passed. Don't worry about it, Guy. We got this.



Ainea recognizes that Medi has a hard road ahead, and beseeches Lufia to look out for him.





She'll also give us a tip that the quickest way to Grenoble is taking a ship to Lorbenia.

And then, Medi honors Guy's memory by robbing his grave.



Don't look at me like that; this sword is a monumental upgrade in attack power for Medi. There's no other way to get a sword like this until the next continent, and it's going to be absolutely crucial in a couple difficult fights coming up.



I'm going to go ahead and credit Guy's longevity to excessive steroid use.

It's really too bad Guy couldn't join us himself though. Finding another fighter as strong as him won't be easy. We certainly won't find one any time soon, certainly not in this very post.



Port

Back in Treck, Ainea's uncle agrees with out course of action, and offers us some advice.



He mentions that some soldiers from Lorbenia are in town, and they might be able to help us cross the sea. Good to see that not all soldiers are as useless as Alekians.



It looks like there's only two soldiers, but they do have a boat. Good deal!



This guy doesn't have much to say, I'd wager the one with the unique sprite must be in charge.



To keep you up to speed; news of the Sinistrals had to travel across the sea to Lorbenia, their commander got wind of it, and, again, they had to sail across the sea to come investigate. Their response time was still better than the Alekians, who are a five minute walk away.

Anyway, this is Aguro, one of the vanishingly few soldiers in the game who actually does his job.





Aguro is immediately impressed that Medi fought Gades and lived to tell about it.



Alright! This guy seems pretty on the ball, maybe he can help us get to Lorbenia.