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

her words not mine

But she's also generous and supportive to people and looks out for her friends! Especially boys she has a crush on but won't admit it to!

Lufia was tsundere before being tsundere was cool.*



Excellent. *tents fingers.*



*Was being tsundere ever cool?

Oh God, I'm getting flashbacks from--

....oh. Huh. I did not know that about gemstones.

Well thanks for setting that straight, Solitayre. I was about to start quoting The Eye of Argon, and I don't think anyone wants that.

Field

Chapter 7: The Search for Professor Shaia

Last time, we spent four weeks looking for Artea only to find out that he couldn't actually help us at all. Whatever, I'd never send an elf to do a man's job anyway.

What he DID do for us is tell us to track down the Dual Blade, and the only person who can help us with that; Professor Raile Shaia in Odel.


Battle

New monsters live in this region, including these tough Gold Orks who are the toughest enemies we've faced yet. They can absorb quite a few hits before dying, but with Artea's Bow, Jerin can make a pretty impressive dent in a column's health. Starting at around this point in the game, though, enemies stop coming in convenient formations as often, so Jerin can't just swat whole enemy encounters.

It sure would be nice if there was some weapon or item that would let one of our characters just annihilate standard mob enemies with a wave of her hand. I'm pretty sure no item like that exists in this game though, so let's forget about it.



Jerin finally learns the “Stronger” spell, which would have been really useful against the Dark Ghost. This will be one of her more important spells for the rest of the game. Take note that Jerin has already hit level 20 while Aguro is still puttering along at level 18. This is a fluke of their level curves and it will resolve itself naturally as the quest continues. Despite her insanely fast level gains right now, Jerin's experience curve is by far the slowest in the game overall. If you were insane, and leveled the whole party up to level 75 or so, it would take Jerin around one million more experience points to reach it than everyone else. To put that in perspective, that's around 50% of the experience we'll gain over our entire quest.



MORE BEES.



It's hard to go wrong with Blast magic. It can't be resisted, and Lufia's natural magic power is usually enough to make it hurt regardless.




The third entrance to the Warp Shrine is located here.



However, otherwise this is one of the more boring regions in Lufia, as there's really nothing else here but this tiny little backwoods hamlet.


Village

This is Ranqs, the most inconsequential town in the game.



In fact, it's so inconsequential that I can't even stand to look at it. To the Old Cave!



Medi hit level 20 after fighting the Dark Ghost, so a new level of the cave opened up. Once again, the game gives you options when faced with a serious challenge. If the Dark Ghost gives you trouble, coming here might let you find something that gives you an edge.

The nearby Warp Shrine would provide a convenient way to get back to Grenoble if you weren't guaranteed to have warp magic by now.

Anyway, we're looking for a mythical Golden Chess Set on this level.


Cave



The critters on this level are like those we found near Ranqs. These Mace Men can use Jolt to deal some serious hurt, but aren't otherwise impressive.



A few decent pieces of gear give Medi a pretty impressive attack boost. The Trident was bought in Elfrea, so it was already an attack upgrade over what we had fighting the Dark Ghost, and this axe is a level above that even. So a weapon like this would be quite an advantage if you were having trouble in that fight.



The Frost Ring raises the potency of Jerin's Ice magic. Jerin can make great use of offensive magic, but, sadly, not with ice, which is probably the least useful variety in the game. We'll get some use out of this, but it's nothing great.



Lufia demonstrates that her Fright spell actually isn't so bad. However, when you're giving Lufia a command, your options are essentially

A. Blow everything up.
B. Do something less awesome.

In most cases, the correct choice should be obvious.



Speaking of which, Lufia acquires the Bolt spell, which is a massive upgrade over Flash and will utterly annihilate anything we can fight right now. Give her the Flash Ring, and it's even more overpowering.



Oh Lufia, you beautiful little engine of destruction, you. <3

Suffice to say that this is another good way to get a leg up against the Dark Ghost. Even his magic defense couldn't stand up to this kind of punishment.

This is only the beginning of Lufia's rise to power, though. In the next few updates, we'll witness her become a true force to be reckoned with.



This sword is the absolute strongest weapon in the entire game on paper, but don't be fooled; it's cursed. I guess maybe it's a bad Luck Blade. My theory about where this weapon came from; a warrior prayed for a sword that would bring him luck, and the gods are jackasses.



We turn in this level's unique treasure. But honestly, all things considered, this is one of the weaker levels of the Old Cave. Only one good weapon upgrade, and few armor upgrades. The best treasure is the Frost Ring, and it's not great.

Village

Anyway, Ranqs.

Ranqs is probably the least important town in the whole game and you could easily finish without ever setting foot in it. There's absolutely nothing worthwhile to learn or do in this town.

Which is a shame, because it's full of women!



The story in Ranqs is that all the men in town are working on a tunnel to Odel, but something has gone wrong. Odel is where we want to go, so we'll need to figure out what's going on if we're going to proceed.



Ranqs DOES have some nice gear for sale, but it's all very heavy. I'm not entirely sure how equipment's weight affects your character, but it slows them down. Nothing interesting ever really comes of this mechanic though, since you're never really give the option to choose lighter gear over more defensive but much heavier gear. You pretty much always want the strongest you can get. Anyway, we don't want to be too spendthrift here, so we'll outfit Aguro with the armor here since he doesn't give a damn about speed anyway.



For comparison, however, here's the Luck Blade compared to a morning star. It's an absolutely ungodly amount of attack power. Also note that poor Aguro is still wearing the Daze Ring we've had for ages. Don't worry, we'll get something very nice for him in this very update.



There's still hidden items in towns! That didn't stop being a thing or anything.


Field

Okay, time to investigate what's wrong with this tunnel.


Cave

What? You mean some mysterious power messed up your warp shrine tunnel?

Yeah, if you've played Lufia II you've heard this nonsense before. Some evil monster or something took up residence in the local dungeon, and you can't proceed to the next area without dealing with it.

Well, let's go find the jerk who did this so we can move on.



Aha, see? Another cave. This is probably where the monster is hanging out. I know how this game works.


Cave

This looks like a pretty small cave. Hopefully we'll just be in and out.



What the-?!

Oh, you're not a monster at all. The local all-knowing old man has transcended to the next level of oldness and all-knowingness; the all-knowing old hermit in a cave. This guy probably knows the solution to every problem for miles.



What? Even someone as wise and all-knowing as you couldn't figure it out? Then what hope do we have?



That's right, this is one of those “walk up, up, up the mountain ahead” style puzzles that were so popular back in the early NES days. You can only pass through the tunnel if you walk in a very specific pattern.



Alright, let's give it a try.



Following the old man's instructions gets us this far, but from here we'll need to figure out the solution on our own.



If you try to work out the pattern based on what the old man gave you, the solution isn't that complicated. For the curious, here's the entire solution:

One north, two east, one north, two east, four north, three west, one south, two west,
one south, two west, two north, one east, one north, two east, one north.

Field

So, that's it for Ranqs. As far as I know there's never any explanation given for who screwed up the tunnel or why, and as far as I know the town of Ranqs is stuck with a broken tunnel for the rest of eternity. I rather suspect there was intended to be more going on in Ranqs, what with the two caves in the region, but it got cut during development, and all that remains is the awkward puzzle in the tunnel, while the other cave simply gives you clues for how to proceed. Slightly odd, though, considering this is pretty much the exact middle of the game, where usually you'd expect end-game material to get cut.

I'm just glad we don't have to fix any more tunnels. Can you imagine how stupid and short-sighted it is to let the only passage between two regions fall into ruin and disrepair? I'm glad nobody would ever let that happen.

Now, on to Odel, where I'm sure they keep all their local caves up to code.

There are actually a few towns in this region, but Odel is the one we're looking for. It might not be immediately clear why Professor Shaia would seeks financial support from Odel for his research, or why Odel would be in a position to grant it. The only truly thriving nation we've passed through so far has been Lorbenia, where Shaia seems to hail from originally but apparently doesn't have the best reputation. Alekia is peaceful but has an appalling lack of leadership, Sheran is in ruins and Medan was apparently once wealthy but was teetering on the edge of economic collapse before we came along. The other towns we've seen seem to be regional powers at best.

But there is some evidence that the Odel Kingdom is prosperous. Many of the towns in the region are famous in their own right, some of the world's great thinkers, tradesmen, and craftsmen call the region home, and Odel itself has a large, modern castle. It would in fact seem that the King of Odel has some money up for grabs for people or projects which catch his interest.

Maybe we can visit the other towns when we're not preoccupied with world-saving.



Town





Most of the gossip in town revolves around the other villages in the region; Lyden, which is a town famous for its cooking, and Arus, a village famous for its magic. You may remember Medi mentioned Lyden way back at the beginning of the game, when he was insulting Lufia's cooking.

No mention of the professor, though. Let's check out the castle.


Castle



The castle garden yields us some of the usual goodies, but we're not here exclusively to loot the place, we're here for sweet science-y magic.



Jackpot.


Shaia Labs

Whoa, check this place out! Some serious grant money went into building this place.



Science!

Shaia labs are pretty interesting, as they seem completely incommensurate with the level of technology found elsewhere in Estpolis. Lots of aides and students lurk about, working on various science-related projects.



Double-jackpot.



Unfortunately, the professor is not in. He is visiting the village of Arus right now. We'll need to go track him down. I'd be mad, but honestly, learning more about magic from the magicians in Arus doesn't seem like a bad idea at all. So we'll definitely head in that direction.



The entire region is linked by underground tunnels connected to Shaia's lab. One of the tunnels leads to Shaia's primary lab, Platina. Another leads to the caves that head to Arus.



In the Arus cave, we finally get a long overdue ring upgrade for Aguro. Not only does it grant more defense than the Daze Ring, but the Yellow Ring also gives him a much needed boost to his magic resistance.

Unfortunately, we can't reach Arus from this portion of the cave.




Exploring Shaia lab 1 reveals a docking facility to service Professor Shaia's undersea-faring vessel. Unfortunately, there's no sign of it here.



We also can't reach any other towns in the region from Platina. So, we'll have to head back to Odel and ask around about how to reach Arus.

Town

Ah, excellent!




Yep, sounds about right. We'll head over to Arus, find Raile Shaia, learn magic from awesome wizards, and everything will be just great.




Hmm, well, that might be a problem, but we do have three magic users in our group. I'm sure between the three of them we'll figure something out.



WHAT?!

How did that happen!? How do you let the only bridge between two towns fall into disrepair? What's more, Professor Shaia was able to cross, did it just break now?!

Who's responsible for this?!



Aha! Thank you, all-knowing old man # 32!


Castle

Apparently this Piron is a pretty popular guy around here. He dates the princess and designed Odel Castle. I have to admit I'm not an expert on medieval construction techniques, but I'm reasonably sure a castle would take decades to build, and Piron seems pretty young, so I'm forced to conclude he designed the castle when he was seven or eight years old.



Alright, where the hell is your Minister of Transportation? Somebody explain to me how that bridge fell apart. Did you cut back on Transit funding? Didn't you listen to the guy?



In lieu of anyone else to complain to, I'm going to hold Piron responsible and demand that he do something about it.



Fortunately, Piron is a pretty stand-up guy, and offers to repair the bridge if we just help him track down some of his old crew to help him.



One of Piron's associates is nearby, in Lyden. If we find him, Piron will repair the bridge for us.

Lyden isn't far, but this region is lousy with new enemies. Let's check them out.


Battle

Haha random Beatles reference.

These enemies are actually supposed to be called the “ Blue Shaggy,” and they would reappear in Lufia II as a Capsule Monster.



Mad Oaks, being plant-type enemies, are weak to fire, so Jerin's Spark spell makes short work of them.



Frogulas are...uh.. vampire frogs or something, I don't know. Of greater concern is the new variety of archer in this region with their deadly hi-arrows.



Lyden is just a bit southeast of Odel, on a peninsula.

Town



As the town's designated greeter informs us, Lyden is a city where people come to study cooking.



Unfortunately for him, the suits upstairs found someone who can do the job better than him for less, and soon he'll be out of a job.



Medi mentioned the Lyden Wizard earlier in the game, but unfortunately he's not in right now.



Oh boy, taste-testing!



Apparently, among all our characters, it's actually Aguro with the most discerning palate. Either that or he's just a prick. In fact, I'm gonna go with that one.



We also hear about the legendary Purple Newt, an ingredient that can perfect any dish. It is very rare and I sure am glad we'll never have to find one if we don't want.



The Wizard of Lyden apparently spends his time searching the world for secret spices to make his dishes the greatest in all the land. Maybe we'll get a chance to meet him later.



Cool!!



I don't think you're allowed to call yourself a “master chef” if you've never cooked for people before...



Here, we meet Piron's old pal. Not even being in the realm of “important NPCs” but merely “associates of important NPCs,” this poor guy doesn't even have a name.



Apparently, his bonds of friendship with Piron are so strong, it supersedes even dessert, and he leaves for Odel immediately.



This, of course, leads to a crisis of confidence for the master chef on his first day, which probably ends with a ruined career, years of depression and torment for his entire family.

Castle

Back in Odel, Piron and his comrade are enthusiastic about our odds at repairing the bridge.



In the meantime, Piron sends us to go check on the bridge's condition for him. I'm not sure what the hell he could possibly expect us to tell him other than “it's broken” but okay.



There are multiple entrances to the Arus cave, but we already know one leads back to Shaia labs, so we'll check the others.



Vanquishing a foe gives Jerin the “Flame” spell, which is her second tier fire spell. Giving her the Flame Ring will make her offensive magic very viable for the next few areas.


Cave

If you've ever played Lufia before, you have said unpleasant things about this cave. It's enormous and sprawling and it's a maze of rope ladders, looping passages and dead ends.



Lots of treasure, though. Contrary to its name, the Glass Robe is a weapon. I can only guess that a text string got misplaced somewhere.



Jerin tries out her new magic on these tough Armor Lords. We'll be fighting a lot of enemies down here, and one of the rewards is Lufia's second tier water spell, “Water.” Sadly, she won't use this much, but in only a few short levels she'll get something really nice.



Those annoying pot enemies can petrify your heroes. Medi and Jerin both have spells to cure Petrification by now. I stopped reporting on Medi's magical spell progress a while back because his spell list isn't very interesting.



But yeah, he can totally heal petrification. Or cause it, if for some reason you wanted to do that.



Tough mimickers also lurk in this cave, but if you manage to kill one, the rewards are nice.



There's a lot of loot in this area of the cave, but we can't seem to find the bridge anywhere. There are three visible entrances to the cave, but two of them lead to the same area, and the third just goes back to Shaia Lab. The bridge to Arus isn't actually connected to this cavern at all, and I wandered around for almost an hour before I realized it.



Just look at how many levels I gained from searching. Medi learned the “Courage” spell here, which is actually a great spell. It's a pity there's almost never cause to use it. It raises the entire party's defense, but most bosses use magic, and it's not worth using on basic encounters.


Field

The way to Arus is actually back across the bridge, and further west.

From here, we can clearly see the bridge to Arus.



You should have been a detective, Medi!



Amazing, you figured this all out by yourself?



This portion of the cave also holds one of the elusive Dragon Eggs.

Dragon Eggs: 4/8

We're getting close to being able to do something with these. Once we have all 8, we can trade them for something good.




Castle

Back in Odel, Piron is eager to show off his mad skills to the princess.



He also asks us to lend a hand. I haven't the faintest idea what he thinks two knights, an innkeeper and a ten year old know about building bridges though. Maybe he needs a ladder holder?


Cave

Ah, what he really wants is a spotter. He'll have us watch from that cliff above to make sure he does his job properly. Fair enough. I'd be irritated at all this runaround, but Piron is doing this all to get laid out of the goodness of his heart, so I can't really fault him.



That cliff can be tricky to find. From the eastern entrances, head south from either entrance until you reach the bottom wall, then head west.



Here we go.







Yes, for those of you keeping score at home, this scene was also recycled in Lufia II.



Their mission finished, Piron returns to Odel to romance his princess, and his pal returns to Lyden to finish his meal.


Castle

Piron is quite proud of his handiwork, and as usual he's impressed everybody. Even the king admits he's a fine young man. This one architect did more to aid our quest than the entire army of Alekia.



While talking to King Odel, we learn that apparently he's a patron of sciences, which is perhaps why he's taking an interest in Raile and Piron's work. Good to see a monarch actually reward innovation and talent for once. Maybe, just maybe, there is one non-useless monarch in all of Westland, in King Odel. His financing of Professor Shaia's research just might prove critical in our success. Not sure where he would have gotten the money to fund Raile's four gigantic lab complexes though, unless he had to cut back on kingdom essentials like maintaining bridgSONOFABITCH.

Cave

Anyway, bridge fixed, now we can continue with the rest of the cave. That's right, even after all that, we're only halfway through.



You know, I can't help but notice that we could have avoided all this with a rope ladder right around here.



A little deeper into the cave, we encounter a strange door. It doesn't open, but there's an inscription off to the side.



Aha! Test of sorcery. Only the worthy may open this door.



Aguro, of course, admits upfront that he can't use magic, so he lets Jerin try first.




Ordinarily, elves are pretty magical beings, but apparently being only 50% elf isn't quite enough.



Never send an elf to do a man's job.



I am the descendant of Maxim, yield before my awesome power!



That..doesn't count as yielding.



I am pretty sure innkeepers are inherently less magical than mythical heroes and elves by nature, but Lufia's preferred method of killing her foes is shoving lightning bolts up their ass, so she's welcome to give this one a try.







Perhaps out of fear of getting scolded, the door obligingly vanishes at Lufia's command.



Lufia is pretty pleased that her magical abilities have proven useful to Medi at last. And to think he wanted to leave her behind!

Jerin gets as irritated when Medi pays attention to Lufia as vice-versa. Apparently, Medi inherited not only Maxim's great power, but his raw, sexual magnetism as well, as it's fairly clear that Jerin has a bit of a crush on Medi; after all, he's a kind, handsome, brave warrior who saved her life, who wouldn't swoon at least a little? But Jerin is a surprisingly nuanced character, and there are a few ways you can interpret her behavior.

A. Jerin is genuinely a na�ve child who doesn't understand that her behavior might be inappropriate.

B. Jerin is extremely manipulative and puts on a cutesy little girl act to get attention from Medi.

C. Jerin is a perfectly normal, honest young woman who is annoyed that she looks ten years old and can't get any attention from boys.

None of these is ever explicitly confirmed or denied, and there's evidence supporting all three possibilities (although Lufia clearly believes scenario B to be the case.)



Anyway, a bit further we discover another location where a simple rope ladder could have spared us a lot of trouble. But no, the only way to Arus is via the bridge that was broken that leads to the door that nobody can open. Neither of which apparently stopped Raile.

This cave is bullshit.



Farewell, horrible cave!

The village of Arus lies before us. Despite its humble appearance, Arus is one of the most plot-significant locations in all of Estpolis.


Village

Arus' main commodities are magic and old people. Is this where all the all-knowing old men come from?



As this old gentleman mentions, Doom Island crashed into the sea just west of here. As such, this town gets mentioned in almost every game in the series.

No signs of Raile anywhere, though. Somebody here must know where he is!



Wait a minute, you mean even after he crossed the broken bridge and opened the door that only magicians can open, that jerk didn't even have the decency to actually be here when we got here? Ugh.

Hope you guys like wild goose chases, because they're not getting old any time soon.

Other than that, Arus is pretty boring. Despite all the hype, not much magic seems to go on here, I guess they use their wizard tower for that.

Not much else in the village except for all the-


Priphea Flowers

FROLICKING.



We may be on a quest to save the world but that doesn't mean we can't stop and smell the flowers once in a while, right?





While Lufia plays in the flowers, Medi and Jerin have a bit of a discussion about how long he and Lufia have known each other. It's about this point where Jerin realizes she's up against the vaunted “childhood friend” and pretty much gives up on any hopes of romantic interest in Medi.



This of course won't stop Lufia from being catty with her at every opportunity.



Seems like Lufia would be right at home in this village though. Everyone's a magician and they have all her favorite flowers!





Another old gentleman in town tells us that not just anyone is supposed to be able to open the door to Arus, so clearly Lufia is sitting on some pretty serious magical potential. He points us to the Tower of Grief to meet the town elder, who can teach us more about magic. We were going there anyway to find Raile, so off we go!



Though not before we steal everything from the village of course.

Aside from this toxic marsh, there was nothing special about the tiny connecting cave leading to the Tower of Grief. I guess maybe the marsh is to ensure you have to use the float spell? And thus, be a wizard?!

Nah, I'm probably over-thinking it.


Tower

The Tower of Grief is, thankfully, a very short and straight-forward tower.





Dragon Eggs: 5/8



It also holds the Purple Ring. We'll give this to Medi.



The monsters in the Tower of Grief are mostly identical to those in the surrounding region, so I didn't bother showing any.



We learn a few important spells, though! Lufia picks up the “Boost” spell which finally gives us a group-healing spell. Not to be outdone, Medi gets “Champion” which fullheals the target.



The tower is fairly short, as each floor is usually just one room, and there are only a few of them.

You better be Professor Shaia.



Damnit!



The old man seems interested in us though, immediately sensing that Medi is no ordinary young man. The old man is Flake, the elder of Arus, a man so old and so all-knowing that he has a different sprite from most old men, just to demonstrate how old and all-knowing he is. He's also one of the most powerful wizards in Estpolis.



It's hard to say if Aguro is talking about Medi or the old man here, but depending on who it was, Flake's comment here is pretty hilarious.



Of course, Flake is more interested in meeting the magician who opened the barrier to the village.
Gotta make sure the Arus School of Magic doesn't graduate any potted plants.






No doubt, Flake senses Lufia has only begun to brush the tip of her powers, and will grow to become a powerful sorceress in time.



Being a mystical old man at the top of a tower, Flake can recognize the potential of heroes when he sees it, and can choose to aid them in unlocking it if he deems them worthy. Recognizing Lufia's good heart and potential, he helps her tap into the depths of strength within her.



I will never, ever turn down more MP for Lufia. Thank you, magic man!




Oh, trust me Lufia, by the time the next update is done we'll see firsthand just how much firepower you can dish out. Spoilers: it's a lot.



He also mentions that in Estpolis, it's easier to learn magic by studying than by doing, which seems a little backwards, but magic is mysterious like that.



Flake also senses the importance of our quest, and fears the Sinistrals are soon to return! We better find Raile, fast.



What? You mean after all that, fixing the bridge and opening the magic door and smelling flowers and climbing your crazy wizard tower, we'd have accomplished more by just standing around waiting for him?!



I'm stealing your Miracle as recompense.



Before we leave, Flake warns us of the powers of the Sinistrals, and that they can sense weakness and fear. Only by learning about true courage can we defeat them. As far as I know, Estpolis doesn't have any mountain-dwelling courage-teaching sages around, but we do have a “Courage” spell so I'm sure that's enough.

As for Flake, he still has a very important role to play in this tale (he has a semi-unique sprite, after all!) but we won't find out what it is until much later.

Next time, we'll finally meet Raile Shaia, just as soon as I figure out how to get off this tower.





Looks like we're gonna have to juuuuump.....

Y'know, I kept reading the name of this town as 'Anus'.

It made this update pretty hilarious.

(and now I bet you can't unsee it)

Granted, it's hard to tell from this perspective, but I'm preeeeeeeetty sure that's not a suspension bridge.

By the way, for anyone curious about the spastic leveling curves in this game, you can learn a lot about them by looking at Maxim's party.



For example, note that Maxim is at level 78 with just under 5 million experience. Artea requires 6.3 million just to get to level 75. If Maxim had that much experience I think it's safe to say he'd be level 99 or damn near.

What does this have to do with Medi's party?

Well, Medi's party shares character data with Maxim's. The party you control at the onset of the game is the same party you play in the game, just with the names and sprites changed, set to an extremely high level, and coded to use a different list of spells.

Maxim shares data with Medi, Lufia with Selan, and so on. Artea and Jerin are essentially the same character, which is why poor Artea is forced to wear high heels in the game's intro. If you leveled your party up to this level, they'd look pretty similar in terms of statistics, although level gains are somewhat random, and you can influence their stats a lot using potions.

So, essentially, the game is designed such that if everyone gains uniform experience, Jerin will rapidly fall behind everyone else, and would probably be 10-15 levels behind Medi by the time the team reached 6 million experience.

For this reason, the game compensates, and Jerin actually has the best overall stat growths of any character. This is why Artea's HP is higher than Maxim's, and his intelligence is nearly as high as Selan's, despite being several levels lower. If everyone were level 80, Jerin would beat Medi and Lufia in almost everything.

Though, note that actually leveling that high is extremely excessive. An average player will probably get around 2 million experience over the course of the game, and it would take a fairly excessive and very unnecessary amount of grinding to reach 6 million.

That's where the All-Knowing Old Men (AKOMen) are stored. In order to make an AKOMan you need to first start with a Know-It-All Youth (KIAY). Over the many years you teach the KIAY that everything he knows is wrong and have him learn what is actually correct. After many, many years of this (it takes a very long time) you finally have an AKOMan. The AKOMen are temporarily stored in Arus before being shipped off to where they need to go.

The town full of Know-It-All Youths is hidden and sealed off because it's a really fucking annoying place.

I wonder why they did it this way? I would assume that giving everyone the same level amounts would be easier all around.

That's a hard question, but I think it probably has to do with spell learning rates. Medi grows at a fast rate and will gain access to the high-end white magic spells like Champion and Rally much sooner than Jerin. But Medi has better things to do in most fights than play medic, and doesn't have the MP for most of the game to be a primary healer anyway. So the game gives you access to full heals for out of combat healing early on, but in battle you have to rely on the less powerful healing spells from Jerin (whose best role in boss fights is as a support character). Jerin gains levels very quickly when you first get her so that she can catch up to the others, but if she gained access to the high-end healing magic as early as Medi, the game would be trivialized since she could throw around party-wide full heals like it was no big thing. So, they made her leveling curve slower and gave her better stat boosts to compensate.

Lufia's magic learning rate is weird because a lot of her early spells are garbage and you spend around half the game with just Flash, Dew, and Bang, while later learning the second and third tier Blast magic spells within a relatively short time of each other. My guess is Lufia's growth rate is boosted because the developers wanted to make sure she finished out her spell list earlier than the white magic-users.

Aguro doesn't learn any spells, so he has the most "average" leveling rate. Not quite as fast as Lufia, but faster than Jerin.

Lots of long dialogue scenes in this update. This is the portion of the game where the narrative starts to kick into high gear, so we'll take care of a lot of extraneous stuff in this update. We'll finish out the Old Cave and visit the game's only bonus area, do some miscellaneous preparations for the end game, and even uncover a secret or two! Don't worry though, we'll still have one more long arduous fetch quest before this game is over!



Chapter 8: The Tower of Light

Last time, we chased Raile Shaia all over the southern continent only to narrowly miss him every step of the way.

I'm quite sure this is the last time anything like that will ever happen though, so now we can focus on important things, like asking Raile about traveling under the sea.


Shaia Labs

I want to believe you, but I'm not convinced he won't be in Lorbenia by the time I get upstairs.

No, who am I kidding, going to Lorbenia would imply he's a responsible parent.



But no, it seems at long last, we have finally tracked down Raile back in Platina, Shaia Lab #1. You can't get here directly, you'd have to go through Shaia Lab #2 in Odel to get here OR go by ship.

Huh, a ship would handily explain how Raile made it to Arus without the broken bridge and impassable magic door stopping him. Maybe I've been underestimating him...



Umm, is this a bad time to mention I already looted everything worth taking in this room?



Raile, as a man of science, is already involved in delicate scientific experimentation, and warns us the dangers of toying with any of his equipment.

If you're asking what anyone could need a “turns people into frog” machine for, I hear they're all the rage in the Sylph Cave.



Well, I certainly do feel like we're in good hands. That Artea sure is a straight shooter, sending us to this dude. The world is saved already.



Raile is a bit absent-minded, and only after chewing us out for an infraction we haven't yet committed, and sharing a humorous anecdote with us, does he realize he doesn't have any idea why there's a bunch of strange kids in his lab.



This game has an odd habit of always listing people in alphabetical order. Look through the other updates, you'll see!



“Just check out my business cards! 'Raile Shaia, Super-genius.' I also have it imprinted on my slippers.”



That...I'm almost positive that isn't how it works....



That...that is a terrifyingly good question.

No, seriously, who did you test that “Four-Arm Serum” on, and how did you get that past the institutional review board?



Hey, now see, there's a substance with some practical applications. I'm sure all those old bald men would love to make their hair grow back!



Once again, hard to tell if Jerin is intentionally trying to get under Lufia's skin or just hasn't developed her “No, don't say that, you idiot!” sense yet.



Hey, that's not fair, don't put Medi in the middle of this! He'll probably just say something dorky and-



As it happens, Raile has also invented a “steam shovel,” which would be perfect for helping Medi with that hole he's digging for himself.







It's been a while since we had some fun inter-party banter. Unlike his ancestor, Lexis, did for Maxim, Raile never actually joins our party, but he serves as a sort of honorary fifth member to our foursome of companions, and gets a lot of screentime. In fact, he's the most talkative character in the game after our four main characters. As such, scenes involving him are a good opportunity for the other characters to interact with him and each other.



As usual, Medi is the one to finally get down to business. Raile is thrilled that someone has actually heard about one of his inventions and is eager to talk about it.



Raile's ship, the Falcon, is not merely a sailing ship, but also a submarine and an airship, all in one! This would be quite the innovation if his ancestor hadn't already made one of those a hundred years ago.

In the basement of Platina, Raile shows us his super secret research facility, the underwater docking facility for the Falcon.









What a piece of junk!



The professor talks a good game, but its clear to anyone that his supposed greatest invention is held together by duct tape and wishful thinking.



Not to be deterred by our pesky “logic,” Raile insists on giving us a hands on demonstration of exactly how the Falcon works.



Come on now, everyone into the leaky deathtrap, let's go, stop crying!



It's true, we did come here to ask to use the Falcon. Note what we didn't say, though. There was no mention of Medi being a descendant of Maxim, or needing the ship to find the Dual Blade, or our quest to stop the Sinistrals. Apparently, Raile is totally cool with just letting some random kid he just met borrow one of his most prized possessions, no questions asked.





I predict that this will end superbly.

The Ocean


Huh. Well, for all his bluster, it seems Raile was as good as his word. The ship does operate under water!



...sort of.



One of my favorite lines in Lufia II was “When a ship goes underwater, it's called 'sinking.'”





Is it “I'm a charlatan and my underwater boat doesn't actually work at all?”



Gee, whatever gave you that idea?



Raile doesn't intend to leave us hanging, of course. He'll fix the ship for us if we bring it to Lab 3, where his equipment is located.



And without another word, he takes off.

Anyway, we have acquired our obligatory seafaring vehicle, the Falcon, and now the entire world is our oyster.


Sailing

Shaia Lab 3, Carbis, is due west of Platina. Practically the entire world is open to us now, but we'll head there first.





Battle

The sea is full of enemies, which can make navigation a huge hassle, if you don't know the trick to defeating them.



The trick, of course, is a Flame Ring-wielding Jerin. Any and every sea monster in the entire game is extremely vulnerable to fire magic. Jerin's flame spell can make short work of any encounter. This portion of the game is Jerin's time to shine, and she'll carry the team for a while.



Which isn't to say there aren't still hazard on the sea, but for the most part, seafaring foes are no threat at all if you're properly prepared.


Shaia Labs

After arrival in Carbis ,we set about our normal routine upon finding a new city, then look around for Raile.



As we travel around to the various Shaia labs, we'll meet various students and lab associates who designed various parts of the Falcon. This young lady built the engine...which is actually a pretty important part.

Kind of makes you wonder what parts Raile actually made.



Uhhhhhhhhh......no.



Hey, yo, did you know one of your assistants is huffing gasoline fumes? You should probably look into that!



The professor, naturally, wants to send us off on a long series of fetch quests in order to fix the Falcon, starting with Cooper, his top aide. Aguro is the only one who remembers that we spent a whole update chasing rumors last week, and does what we all wish we could do.

Don't you wish more characters told NPCs off when they try to send you on inane fetch quests?



Medi, being the level 20 Goody-Two-Shoes that he is, not only trips over himself apologizing for Aguro, but also insults Aguro when he's standing right there.



Jerin is happy to climb aboard the “insulting Aguro train,” although it's a little unclear what either Medi or Jerin would have against Aguro, since he's been nothing but helpful this whole trip. As I mentioned before, Aguro doesn't see much development, so I suppose we're intended to just assume Aguro is sometimes a jackass off-camera, and that he and Jerin bicker a lot.



So much, in fact, that Lufia quickly steps in with her black belt-level Scold fu, silencing both of them instantly.



Yeah, I kind of have the feeling that Raile's assistants do all the actual work, while he just stands around in a lab coat and acts important. He's like the Tim Taylor of Estpolis.



Anyway, since Raile would probably just burn down his laboratory if he's alone for too long, we'll need to get moving on finding this Cooper fellow to get the ship repaired. Right now, the Falcon can travel above water just fine, but we can't reach the Dual Blade until it can go under the sea.

Sailing

What we're supposed to do now is sail west and find Bakku.

But screw that, we have a boat now, we can explore the whole world!



Along the way, Jerin treats us to some fried clams. She's a pretty nice person for someone who's 50% elf.



West of Arus is Ring Island, where Doom Island plummeted into the sea. This place understandably creeps a lot of people out, and there's only one tiny village on the island. Somewhere in that lagoon, the Fortress of Doom sleeps, and hidden within, the Dual Blade.

We'll return here once the Falcon is repaired, but until then, the secrets of the lagoon will remain hidden.


Shaia Labs

Due south of Carbis is Frederia, Shaia Lab 4. We won't be prompted to come here until near the end of the game, but this place has the best equipment for sale that's currently available. In fact, it's so good that we can't afford it all! But that's okay, we'll be making several trips to the Old Cave this update, so what I buy here will be acquired over several trips.



Not quite; there's one town in the game with better armor than this.


Shopping

The most useful weapon for sale in this town is the Grand Blade. I can only assume this was a badly localized “Great Sword,” and it is one of Aguro's exclusive weapons. It is an absolutely enormous upgrade to his attack power over his current weapon. Also for sale is Lufia's top weapon, the Catwhip, but it's obviously not a high priority.



More notable for Lufia the Clear Silk, which is the best armor she can equip. Sword Shoes are also an excellent footwear upgrade for the guys. We also pick up some shields which grant a pretty impressive defensive boost.


Field

There's another place we can visit now that we have a ship, which was mentioned back in Surinagal. This is the isle of Forfeit, where everything that's ever been sold ends up. Let's check it out.


Shopping



The Isle of Forfeit existed in Lufia II as well, although it was a normal town that happened to have a casino under it. Here, Forfeit is a bizarre place that appears to be one giant shopping mall.



As advertised, you can buy back any item you've ever sold, here. Useful if you sell a unique item, like a ring, and realize you need it. Or if you sell a Miracle for cash early in the game. I don't need it though, and it's certainly not worth 5000 to me.


Black Market

This secret entrance behind Forfeit leads to a black magic shop. Here, you can combine “Long Nail” and “Straw Doll” items to make “Gloom Voices” which can instantly kill enemies. Mostly, this place is notable because it has a unique music track that plays nowhere else in the game.



This guy is probably the single most interesting NPC in the game, but we'll never know anything more about him than what's listed in this text box!

I don't think he knows what “incognito” means.

Forfeit is so weird that I can't help but think the developers were just goofing off when they designed it.



You can also pick up the Mind Ring, which offers an astounding boost to intelligence. This would be a great ring for Lufia if elemental rings didn't increase magic damage by more than this ever could.



Meanwhile, this enthusiastic patron promises we'll adore the shop on the top floor. Let's go check it out!

Shopping

Huh, what kind of shop is this anyway?



Ah, here come some customer service representatives. Surely they'll enlighten us!



Wow, service with a smile! Let's check this place out!





Well then, I'll be sure to peruse your fine products!



Will do, green lady, will do.



Huh...this is all garbage. I don't need any of this. Is this really the shop that the guy downstairs was raving about? I don't see what's so great.

I don't have time for this. Medi out, yo.



No, seriously, I don't want any of your trash!



Noooooooooooo!!!!



And thus we find the rub of this shop. The pouty sales girls threaten to cry until you buy something, and you can't actually exit the shop without making a purchase of one of their worthless items.



Anna and Lillian proceed to 'thank' Medi for his purchase, which involves a kiss and perhaps other things that 16-bit graphics are woefully inadequate to represent.



Haha I think Medi likes this awful shop after all.



Unsurprisingly, Lufia offers a dissenting opinion, and threatens to override Medi's opinion with it.



Jerin, being Jerin, offers up her services for kissing and being adorable on the go, should Medi ever require it.



Jerin is pretty much the best character.



Well no, of course not, you'd have to be much older to have to worry about wrinkles, and you're probably younger than anyone else in this room, so I wouldn't worry about it.


So maybe you're wondering why Lufia got so worked about the pouty sales girls, or what the actual sales pitch of this shop was, why the guy downstairs loved this place so much, or why the three clerks here inexplicably have a sprite not found anywhere else in the game.

Well, my readers, this is the second instance of a sprite being censored in the North American release.

Here's what Anna and Lillian looked like in the Japanese release.

Okay, we've toyed around on the high seas long enough, there's nowhere else to really go right now. Let's head for the western continent, where we're supposed to be.


Field

This is Bakku, where the next leg of our journey will take us. According to Raile, his main man Cooper is in town visiting the cleric.



But screw that, let's go find secrets.


Battle

This brave new continent has brave new monsters, including this monstrous man-eating plant creature, that is weak to fire magic, and as such, not a threat to our pyromaniac half-elf.



Jerin picks up the “Dead” spell, which is this game's version of a basic revival spell. This is nice because now we don't need to use one of our limited “revive” items every time someone bites it.

Note that this is the first revival spell we've gotten, and this is fairly late in the game. We're well over half of the way through the game by now.



North of Bakku is the Tower of Light, which is actually the next plot-mandated dungeon. But no one has prompted us to come here yet, so an important plot flag has not been set because we haven't found Cooper yet. The tower's boss will not spawn yet, and neither will the plot-relevant treasure that he guards.

So what happens if we climb to the top while the boss isn't here? In most games, you wouldn't even have been allowed to enter. Lufia II probably would have put some dude at the entrance saying “don't go in here, man, seriously!” But this game actually uses this opportunity to hide a secret.


Tower

We'll talk about the Tower of Light more thoroughly later, right now we're just heading for the top.





Battle

Eager to avenge themselves for their previous defeat at Elfrea, the evil clown squad returns here in full force.



At the top of the tower, you'd normally find a boss guarding a key. The boss isn't here, but the treasure chest he guards is still present. It doesn't contain the key we need, but it actually contains something much better.



The Might Helmet is, bar none, the strongest helmet in the entire game. Not only does it provide an absolutely absurd amount of defense, it also raises magic resistance, which armor doesn't normally do. Finally, it also gives the wearer a substantial intelligence boost.



Best of all, Jerin, who normally cannot wear heavy armor, can wear it. We'll give it to her for now to enjoy the monstrous boosts to her defense and magical attack power.

I've heard conflicting reports that a certain enemy in the game can drop Might Helmets, others say this is the only one in the entire game. Other pieces of “Might” equipment can be found by doing a certain sidequest, or by being dropped from certain monsters. We'll try to have a full set of Might gear before this game is over, don't you worry.



Okay, that's one more sidequest out of the way, we've still got some other ones to do this update, but for now let's get back and track and head to Bakku.

Port

Bakku is a bustling port city, the first we've seen in a while. Apparently, they do a lot of trading with Lorbenia.



The local all-knowing old man apparently hangs onto the key to the Tower of Light, which grants access to the next region. He lets us know we're free to borrow it if we need it. That sure is nice of him.



Yeah, that is fairly creepy. We were just there though, and aside from all the creepy clowns it didn't seem so bad.



Well...okay, that's just downright unsettling.



We'll find out what's been causing the sea to become violent next update.



Cool!



Wait ,this sounds familiar....



Well, that's probably just a coincidence, I mean it's not like there can't be more than one sailor in the world who likes telling his gal about his adventures, right?



Uh oh...



This sailor mentions a man named Clack, who researches Doom Island. Sounds like he'd be a guy to talk to, if we can track him down. He's not in Bakku though.



Here we get a bit of backstory on Raile. Though he's a bit old for it now, he apparently was a bit of an adventurer in his youth, much like his ancestor, Lexis,and traveled the world with his own party, which included Clack, Cooper, and the local cleric, who was apparently a bit of a badass himself as a youth.

It explains why Cooper is here visiting, since apparently they're old pals.



What.



We sailed all the way across the damn ocean and Cooper wasn't even here. Obviously he takes after his boss.

That's okay though, we're overdue for our latest adventure in the Old Cave, anyway.