Tecmo Super JRPG! Let's Play Secret of the Stars! Blind!

Yeah I'd bet my ear that "Homncruse" is mangled from the original "Homunkurusu" (or similar) for Homunculus.

(It reminds me of Homarids for no good reason.)

I can totally understand that. While this doesn't look like the greatest non-AAA SNES RPG ever made it does seem to be fairly well made and the party switching mechanic seems interesting (although I have this feeling that it is maybe a bit tedious to use).

This and Young Merlin hold one of those rare “nostalgia for something I never played” slots in my brain. I was always aware of both due to a gamepro write up or something that caught my eye but never saw them anywhere I could rent or buy on the cheap.

That's good but I prefer the "yesbienhat"

"He was the subject of a takedown video on youtube. There... there was nothing we could do. Our comments. Our downvotes. Nothing could stop his salient points and trenchant commentary."

FYI, I've been having some... frustrating issues with my image host in the process of preparing the next update, and I have reason to worry that I might have deleted some of the images in my existing updates, so if anyone sees any dead images in any of the previous posts in this thread, please let me know and I'll fix them. I wasn't able to spot any in a brief skim, but I could easily have missed them.

Anyway, the next update is already recorded and looks to be peak Octo, so please look forward to it.

Me neither! I was completely flabbergasted when the surprise tent happened.

Way ahead of you. I always take careful notes when playing a game of this vintage, and they'll be appearing as part of this next update. But a single note wasn't worth starting a dedicated list yet. Also... that chamber may be a bit exploded now anyway?

It's good! I wish I could quit writing the next update to just play more instead!

Yeah, now that you say it, that seems like a slam dunk.

It's occurred to me that if I do get hopelessly stuck (although if I do, this will be the first old RPG to defeat me), it might be fun to raid my old Nintendo Power collection and see if I can pull up some articles or Counselor's Corner entries to consult before heading to the internet.

You're not allowed to make funnier jokes than me.

Man, I'm totally there with you on feeling a bit wistful for these old, clumsy English translations. And now that I've completed several old JRPGs in Japanese, I can also see where a lot of the weird syntax and word choice is coming from. Like, a modern localizer would probably say "resists poison," but the literal Japanese would come out to something more like "strong against poison," which is more vague to an English ear.

I love this. Hopefully jbear hasn't been destroyed by bad image hosts.

I'm sure I would be bored as hell if I tried playing this. Exploring cool places is one of the things that appeals to me most about jRPGs, and this game looks way too much like somebody's very first RPG Maker project was put up for sale for my liking.

That said, the killer cat and some of the enemy sprites and the party swapping puzzles and Uncle Save are pretty cool, and even if the sci-fi is a tease I like sci-fi, so I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes.

Also the "Your parents were destroyed" thing is definitely the kind of ridiculous-awesome line I'd expect from a localization that was likely in the works before NoA stopped being such a hardass about what is and isn't allowed in games on Nintendo platforms.

Hello there everyone, and welcome back to Let's Play Tecmo Secret of the Stars! When we last left our hero, he died at the bottom of an exploding volcano, but then he got better! A cool dude with sunglasses somehow (???) rescued him with a hi-tech biplane and then dropped him off at a shrine in the middle of nowhere and tasked us with building a town there.



So I guess we'd better get started doing just that!



There's no sign of Uncle Save, so I guess that reloading a saved game must just dump you in at the entrance to the area that you saved in.

Apparently our new town is called "Old Hill", so the first thing that we're going to have to start working on is our branding. Ain't no one that wants to move to "Old Hill".

Anyway, let's survey the property and see what we're dealing with here.





The answer is apparently a whole lot of nothing! This settlement is definitely a grower, not a shower. Can't you just picture all kinds of people and houses filling this empty space, though? I'm excited!

(Also, I tried my best, but I’ll never make it into Nintendo Power with composite image maps like that.)



We're still running on empty after that last set of dungeons, so let's hope there's a bed in our only buildling.



Hrm. No bed, but hopefully one of these floor tiles will do the trick?



Score! Both our HP & MP are now at full. That's a handy feature to have for our new base of operations!



We can still swap to David at will, but I'm not sure why we'd want to?



Let's leave him in what looks to be the Kustera waiting room and send JBEAR out exploring!

We seem to be in a bit of cul-de-sac. Seems like a practical, attractive, and defensible place to put a town!



The enemies around here are all stuff that we've seen before, with nothing particularly threatening. Frustratingly, we still can't quite take out a Cat Boo in one hit.



This is annoying, though. :-/



Hopefully we'll be able to pick up a HARDSUIT soon so that we can join David in being tough from poison.



In the meantime, though, it looks like poison might not be as potent as I first feared? Given that, rather than cure it immediately, let's take this opportunity to experiment.



The next tick only did 2 HP of damage (the Slime also hit us for one).



Let's see how it functions outside of battle.



Huh. Nothing. Maybe it's only a concern during battle?



Or maybe not! On the way back to the healing pad, the screen flashes red and JBEAR takes a single point of damage.



I tried to count between steps, and it looks like this next tick (also for one) took us exactly 9 steps. I'm tempted to think that I miscounted 10, because 9 feels like a weird number to use. Or perhaps there's even an element of randomness to it?



It looks like our healing pad does not cure status ailments. Good to know!



Fortunately, we have antidotes to spare. Still, let's hope that we have the opportunity to buy more of them soon, before our supplies run out.



Only a handful of steps west already brings what looks to be the next town into view.

Let's take a look at the Shelbyville to our Springfield, the Wullerton to our Dog River.



Their name is way better than ours. We're losing this race already!



Er, maybe not?



So this place sucks. The houses are ruined, there are giant craters in the ground, and the music is depressing. Fortunately, I know of a place that these folks can relocate to!



That's not it. Also, what did I say about getting JoJos in my Let's Play?

[QUEST LOG: Beegees town is south of Winds.]



I am very curious to know what word the original word was here, because "edgy" feels like modern language that really stands out.

In fact, thinking on it, there are at least decent odds that this is in fact an architect named "Edgy".

[QUEST LOG: Architect's house west of Winds.]



Lost, exploded-- listen, it's been a busy day.



...How do I even punch this one up?

Yes, our villain for this update is BADBAD. There's no polishing that diamond any further.



Maybe they're playing in one of the craters?

[QUEST LOG: BADBAD destroyed the town of Winds and possibly kidnapped some kids?]



So much punctuation, and yet none of it correct.



That's right! It's the new, happening place to be! Can I interest you in a lot? Our rates for early adopters are very affordable.



Well I never.



[QUEST LOG: Aggressive Old Hill PR campaign.]



Listen, it's fine now. Come see our exotic Kustera collection.



! Okay, that's it, you're banned, lady. It's more than a little weird that you're so out for blood given the devastation currently surrounding you. Enjoy your craters, I guess.



This building has what looks like a vendor and a tiny Ben Franklin.



Having a source of bread and antidotes is nice, but I'm far more excited for EXPLAIN.



That seems super convenient, but I question why a town with superstitions about Old Hill is selling magic items that specifically send people there. Have... have these guys been dumping their trash in our backyard!?



Weird that this is our first item explanation that breaks across two pages, especially given that it reads identically if you cut the first page entirely.

Anyway, DQ Holy Water sounds useful, and I'm curious if it has similar restrictions. (In Dragon Quest, Holy Water is only effective in avoiding battle with lower-level enemies.)



Leather or Lethal? The answer is probably "both".



Could he just come here, then? I bet that would save us a lot of walking.



Wait, so this was the work of thieves? I thought it was BADABAD? These must be some pretty impressive thieves, given that they evidently tore up half the floorboards and rained meteors on the ground outside.

[QUEST LOG: Thieves who ruined the town of Winds live far south of Winds, in the mountains.]

The next house doesn't look much better, but it does have a set of stairs that presumably lead to a basement.

Am I the only one who thinks it's weird that all of the down stairs in this game are partially obscured? Like, it makes sense, but it runs counter to established JRPG visual language and thus feels really jarring. I noticed it right away in the volcano lab but I thought it might just have been an isolated glitch.

Anyway, let's explore the ground floor first.



I guess this guy is bedridden because he's constantly about to sneeze? That's the most tragic thing in this town yet.



Sure thing!

[QUEST LOG: Help Tina.]

Um... who's Tina, though?



SOME TIME AGO, A VISITING SOLDIER LEFT HER TO ME. SHE IS A GIRL OF MYSTERIOUS PURPOSE... PLEASE HELP TINA... THERE ARE MANY ENEMIES OUT THERE. SHE IS TOO YOUNG TO FIGHT THEM. HER POWER IS YET TO COME...

Just to confirm, yes, he did indeed repeat himself in asking us to please help Tina again, only this time with bonus ellipsis. He also gave us absolutely no indication of where or how we can help Tina. Anyway, if this Tina isn't our second AQUTALLION (read: party member), then I'll eat my NOMALHAT.



The stairs take us down to what looks to be a storage cellar. So many barrels! (They all seem to be empty. Trust me: I tried.)



Wait, now it's burning, and now it's BADBAD again? I'm getting really mixed accounts of what exactly happened to this town.



At least we have confirmation that he is in fact a kidnapper, as previously speculated.



See, here's the thing: I'd love to, really, I would, but I have a town to build from scratch and that's kind of a full-time job, so I'm not sure that I'm going to be able to squeeze you in at the moment.



But thou must!



But thou must! But thous must!



Fine, I get the message. Free will is an illusion.



! You kids should have led with that! I'm always willing to help a fellow citizen of the best new town in the land!

There's yet another new jingle that evidently plays when someone joins your town, and I think my stance on little jingles is well-documented at this point. I'll be tracking down as many of these little dopamine hits as I can.



The kids immediately peace out. Good luck with the monsters on the way, I guess?



Now that we've explored the town fully, it's time to stock up.



The Lethargic suit isn't the HARDSUIT that I was looking for, but it's still a nice upgrade.



Before we press on, let's go see if we can find the corpses of those kids so we can inform their families.



They're all clustered at the back of the shrine for some reason. I'm guessing David doesn't have much experience taking care of kids, which is why he's hiding in his tent and leaving them unsupervised.



Presumably BADBAD killed them? This mysterious foe's list of crimes is kind of difficult to pin down, and I promise you that it's going to get much weirder in short order.



Man, this kid is throwing mad shade at these other two kids. Like, they're standing right there.



This is a good time to stop and drop a save, and while I don't intend to document every time that I save the game, I love this little bit of encouragement from Uncle Save when I declare my intention to keep playing. Thanks, Uncle Save!



Gobbos ain't no thang in our fancy new duds.

We have a few items on our quest log at this point, but tracking down this edgy architect sounds like it won't involve much combat, so let's see if we can find him first. To the west!



We quickly run into some new enemies. I hate spiders, and this one looks scary, so it needs to go away now.



! Holy shit! That spider just hit us for over 1/3 of our health! I knew I hated spiders! West sucks!



The bugs hit us for much more reasonable numbers, at least.



Yeah, this isn't happening. I guess it's time to try out the new FLEE spell that we learned after beating the boss at the end of the last update?



Huh? Apparently FLEE is an out-of-combat spell.



I guess we're doing this the old-fashioned way. Run, don't fail me now!



Phew.



Sure enough, I can cast FLEE from the non-battle menu. 8 MP is pretty pricey, though.



Also, it doesn't seem to do anything? My guess is that it reproduces the effect of a Rat Tail? We'll have to test it later.



That first encounter was pretty rough, but we have Magic Branches for emergencies, so let's just top up with a HEAL and keep pushing west and see if that was par for the course or if we were just unlucky.

(This is actually our first time casting HEAL, and since a single cast fully healed us, it looks to be at least as effective as our current food items.)



Nope, not just unlucky! West sucks!



We can see the presumed architect's cabin in the distance, and we could no doubt brute-force our way over there right now, but it can wait. The whole reason I wanted to start with it was because I assumed it would be the path of least resistance, and that certainly does not seem to be the case!



So let's try south instead!

Now that's more like it. I am reading you loud and clear, game.



Given our experiences up until now, I'm going to be rubbing up against every one of these hills that we come across for a while. You can assume that I'm doing it off-camera. This one proves to be unremarkable.



Okay, now this we can probably handle.



Dangit! I sure do wish we could steal David's armour. At least we can't be poisoned more.



...or can we?

As far as I can tell, this does not actually stack, but the game certainly is not shy about letting you know that you've been poisoned over and over. It happens a full half-dozen times this battle alone.



The first bug is still standing after two attacks, so even this feels like we might be in a bit over our heads.



It goes down after a third attack, though, and we're still at over 1/2 HP, so I feel comfortable enough to let the auto-battle handle the rest.



Those are some pretty nice rewards! Hopefully rewards like this will help bring us up to parity before too long, if this is going to be the new normal.



If we're going to be poisoned that often, I see no reason to cure it, so let's just HEAL and continue exploring.



Heal magic is officially more potent than our consumables. I wonder if it scales at all? At 24 MP, we can afford to cast it 8 times total, which gives us a lot of staying power.



Dang. It looks like we may have just been lucky, as we find a spider to the south too. It's possible we wandered a bit too far west, though?



Oh, thank goodness, a town.



And that most intimidating of impassible RPG barriers: a bridge.



The music here is the same music that accompanied our class change to PENNON, I think. Perhaps this isn't a town after all?



Some polite conversation, for starters.



No wonder he's rude-- he's a tourist.



Listen bud, I have just as much right to be here as you.



Oh, this is just a room.



[QUEST LOG: Impassable "Victory" bridge south of Winds requires a key.]

Now that we're exclusively heading south and east, we're getting trivial encounters, so the game is pretty clearly signaling that west = bad.



As I'm poking at another set of hills, a building comes into view on the far side of this bay.



I have a suspicion that this may be the thieves' hideout, so a heal and an antidote seems prudent.



I am yet again clearly mistaken.



[QUEST LOG: Star Shrine south-east of Winds wants us to return later with more characters and/or higher levels.]



The second gate isn't for us.

Given this game's previous struggles with verb tense, I'm thinking it might be worth having David come take a look at this.



The right pad was kind enough to give us a full heal, so we can keep on pushing.



Let's take a break and run our Kustera errands first, though.



No one seems to have any new dialogue for David this time around.



He takes the opportunity to spend some of that big pile of cash.



David literally makes it all of the way to the shrine without actually encountering a single fight. In much the same way that you can have two fights on two consecutive tiles, it looks like there's no upper bound on the space between encounters either!



Lazy JBEAR has succumbed to his Lethargic suit.

Too real.

Geez, okay. No need to get pushy, magic tile.

Interestingly, while the "wrong" tile on the right was the only healing tile for JBEAR, this tile on the left is the only one that functions that way for David. I guess a stern reprimand is the price of healing.



My body is ready.



Well, that explains that more clearly, at least.

[QUEST LOG (Update): Star Shrine south-east of Winds wants us to return later with more characters and/or higher levels and/or more Kustera.]



All right, let's leave David in park and get this show back on the road.



I've done you all a great disservice: I missed calling out this very good enemy name in the last update. My notes even mentioned them, but I think I missed getting a screen shot of one, and was left utterly confused by references in my notes to "STUN RAT"s.



Note that this game is apparently capable of rending cave mouths. Let's see what the locals can tell us about this cave.



Anyone reading this is guaranteed to know more about music than me, so please feel free to insert your own best music joke here and then guffaw politely.



Look at all of these very good dogs!

Guys, I think I might love BEEGEES.



That's, um... quite a lot of dogs, though.



Like, a lot a lot of dogs.



...Everyone in this town has been turned into a dog, haven't they?



Signs point to "yes". I guess we're not buying a HARDSUIT here any time soon.

[QUEST LOG: The town of BEEGEES has gone to the dogs.]



The infirmary is entirely empty.



There's not even any loot in this conspicuous barrel!

This is actually the largest town we've seen yet by a fair margin. It's probably about twice the size of Likado.



And yet this is the only piece of loot that I was able to find in it.



And that includes this gigantic tease of a house.



This church at the centre of town certainly stands out.



I love the rows of little seats in here.



! A human!



I see. I think that we've found our "thieves", and they look to be adorable mobsters.



Umm... "woof?"



No?



Oh my god, they're mobsters with swords! This game rules!



Individually, they don't hit all that hard, but at three hits per turn that damage is going to add up pretty quickly.



After a couple of turns, we're down to about half health and they're all still standing.



Fortunately, a third hit does the trick.



We're rather hurt at this point, but we've stabilized, and things should only get easier from here.



A couple of turns later and it's time for a heal. After five turns of combat, we've consistently gone first every turn, so I'm sure it'll be fine.



Spoiler: it's not fine.



Fortunately, this is a particularly weak hit. Surely they won't both act before us this round?



RNG-esus giveth, and RNG-esus taketh away.



Well that was unexpected. I guess I got greedy. We'd have been perfectly fine if we'd just bothered to heal over any of the previous few turns. In my defense, I had every reason to believe that we were going to go first here; I feel like the BADMANs were acting slowly to lull me into complacency.



There's a brief dirge here that I quite like, but let's hope that we never hear it again!

I guess it's time to find out what happens on a Game Over!

Huh. We're back at the edge of town. Our HP is at 1, but otherwise we seem fine. (Well, aside from my pride.)



I don't know how much money we had before the loss, so I'm not even sure if it took half of our gold. Something to test out later, I guess. At any rate, the game continues to be very friendly to the player in unexpected ways-- I was 100% expecting to get kicked back to the save menu.



Well, we've found the limits of heal. It looks to be only slightly more effective than a plum or piece of bread, presuming that it doesn't scale.



Let's take this opportunity to explore the rest of the town first.



This warning comes fashionably late.



I guess we're not leaving that way.



This dog seems to be blocking a set of stairs.

[QUEST LOG: There's a basement in a BEEGEES home under doggo protection.]



Alright, this should be no problem, provided that we don't take it lightly.



After four rounds of combat, we're in pretty much the same place that we were last time, only this time we come armed with caution, so let's heal one round earlier.



I'm not sure if it worked; I'm seeing stars!



43 is the highest total we've seen yet. I don't know if that means in-combat healing is more potent, or if there's just a wide possible range of results. It's likely the latter.



In any case, that single pro-active heal is enough to win the day.



Yeah, that scans. Rather than BADMAN being a description of character, it's apparently an affiliation.



BADBAD for best villain. This screenshot is perfect. I want to frame it.

That said, given what was done to Winds, it seems like this town got off comparatively easy? This is some Mojo Jojo levels of villainy compared to Winds getting devastated by Sauron.



Let's go wreck this fraternity!

But first, who 'dis?



Tina seems to be a bit terse. Maybe she's still recovering.







Then how come I'm the one that got stabbed by arrows of light again!?



Aw, and here I thought it was a one-of-a-kind collector's item.



Tina's father didn't have many friends.



I love how she presents this as a mission statement instead of an immediate goal. I'm into it, though! We'll rescue all children, everywhere!



Tina joins at level 1. I'm not surprised.

Also, our HP & MP were apparently both fully restored when the light show happened.



With 24 MP at level 1 and a cane, I know a caster when I see one.



Tina's DEF is much lower than JBEAR's, so let's give her our hat for now.



I thought for sure that BADBAD would be in this basement, since this house is in the south-west corner of town, but we still can't get by.



Oh. Perhaps this sign is more literal than I thought. BADBAD is right here, in this house.



Huh. If so, there's no sign of him.



It occurs to me to wonder if maybe Tina has more pull with the local dogs, so I put her at the front of the party and try again, but no such luck.

Oh, the dog blocking the exit is gone! I guess we're heading south, then?



It looks like it won't be a very long walk, at least.



Would that make this a Necho? (Thank you, I'll be here all night.)



This was with Tina defending too. Yikes!



Although maybe Guard only works if she acts first?



JBEAR quickly gets revenge, scoring what I assume is our first critical hit of the game, although it's odd that it calls it a sharp hit, given that we have seen enemy crits and they're definitely called critical hits.



It takes both that sharp hit and two other dull hits besides to win the fight, but fortunately it did not strike Tina (who spent the entire fight defending) a second time.



Level ups for everyone!



Tina's HP did not go up very much, nor did her DEF. Looks like she'll be primarily defending for a while yet!

Given how that single fight outside went, this is probably unwise, but let's at least poke our heads in and see how badly things go.



That the first thing we find is a means of escape is not exactly encouraging.



PUMPKING! I love these doughy boys.



Uh oh. That's probably not good.



Yeah, that smarts, alright.



Wait, that wasn't both of their turns?



It sure would be nice if everything stopped hitting Tina!



Discretion is the better part of valour.



If there's a silver lining to be had here, it's that Tina's max HP is so low that a single spell is guaranteed to fully heal her.



In a game with as many amazing enemy names as this one, it's almost a little disappointing to run into something so pedestrian.



The first round goes pretty well! We can keep this up for a while.



Oh, come on now.



Alright, we're out.



The wolves disagree.



Whelp.



We may as well play it out at this point.

JBEAR is able to finish the fight for some nice rewards, but we'd rather this EP go to Tina.



So it looks like FAINT status ends after battle and that party members revive with 1 HP. Nice!



We should clearly leave at this point, but I can't run when there's a chest so tantalizingly close.



Everyone is wearing hats again!



As suspected, FLEE does indeed function like a rat tail.



Our MP reserves are running low, so it's time to head home and re-group.



Tina, welcome to Old Hill!

Now, a person might be tempted to do a bit of grinding at this point to help catch up, but that person would be wrong! Never grind, is my philosophy. Not even once. Grinding is where fun goes to die. If you can be grinding, then you can be trying to accomplish something instead, and gain EP on the way.



Disappointingly, the kids don't have anything new to say to Tina.



A second Lethsuit provides some much-needed defense. So far it seems like both of our characters can equip all of the same gear, but I doubt that will last.



Tina's poor dad has gone senile.



On our return trip south, we run into some fights where I feel safe allowing Tina to attack.



Thump that rat!



Ooo, some attack magic. That should help!



It's hardly amazing, but it's better than her default attack, and only costs 2 MP, so it'll be her bread and butter for the time being.



It seems a bit soon, but since it's on the way, I wonder if finding a second AQUTALLION is enough to unlock anything at the shrine.



I like the sounds of that!



Um. Where are we?

JBEAR seems to be alone again. I guess there's nothing to do but head inside.



Sounds like the sort of place where it would be convenient to have a Freeze spell, huh?



Has the game called us a soldier before? I forget.



Aw crud.



Almost certainly not, no.



I mean, that would probably be the smart move.



But that's not what you folks pay me for.



Yeah, this looks like something that our level 8 ass can take on.

Check out that rad background!



This is fine.



We've got it on the ropes.



There's no escaping our bad decisions.



As it turns out, there are many different ways to light a human body on fire!



No one could possibly have foreseen this.



We get dumped back in the shrine.

[QUEST LOG (Update): Star Shrine south-east of Winds has an optional Fire boss and wants us to return later with more characters and/or higher levels and/or more Kustera.]



As we near the cave, a couple of Bad Men bump Tina to level 4.



She's picking up new spells at an impressive rate, and her starts are starting to look more reasonable.



Investigating a bit further south brings a neat looking castle into view, but alas, we can't round this bend.

Alright, let's try this again!



It's kind of nice to see a familiar face at this point. I don't know what a ghost is capable of, but with the Bone being a known quantity, this encounter feels less threatening than what we've seen in here so far.



Which makes it a good opportunity to try stuff out!



Courage, Power, or Wisdom?



Looks like Courage!

I wasn't able to choose a target, so it seems like FAST is self-only, and it doesn't seem like a very potent buff? Tina acted first when casting it, but I suspect she just got lucky, rather than that being a guarantee. Still, I guess there are worse ways to spend 2 MP.



It looks like Tina might finally survive a battle in this cave!



The Bone goes down relatively quickly. (That's what she said?)



The Ghost, however, dodges both of our physical attacks for two rounds straight. It seems like it might be immune to physical damage?



A single cast of Freeze takes it out and ends the battle, and Tina lives all the way to the end. I'm calling that progress!



Here comes the real test.



Tina opens with FAST in hopes that it'll be more effective at keeping her alive than defending proved to be last time.



She then opens a can of whoop-ass.



The wolves primarily focused on JBEAR this time, and while things still got a bit dicey near the end (some healing was required), Tina lives to see the end and claims another level-up as her prize.



She also adds yet another spell to her growing repertoire.



I've just noticed the caves under the water in the channel that we've been following. Just a neat environmental detail, or will we be going for a swim later?



After that, we hit a nice lull of easy encounters and easy loot.



This fight in particular seems like a great match-up for us, with JBEAR taking care of the Bone and Tina freezing the ghost, so I'm thankful that it proves to be our most common encounter in this first area.

A pair of BADMAN seem like a good opportunity to take our newest spell out for a test drive.



As it turns out, SLOW is pleasantly symmetrical with FAST, but I don't know how often we'll be casting it.



"FLY BY", huh? No idea. I don't even have any guesses.



This, on the other hand, seems very likely to cure poison, although ‘A’ could either be short for Antidote or just indicate that it’s the first of several Cure spells.





Tina's stats are slowly starting to catch up with JBEAR, and she's already faster than him.



FLY BY is an out of combat spell, and costs 8 MP. In the same way the FLEE replaces our rat tails, maybe this will replace our magic branches?



Our resources are running pretty low, so this seems like a good time to withdraw and regroup again.



I want to test out what FLY BY does, so let's use a rat tail to exit the cave in order to save JBEAR's MP.



As it turns out, it's even better than a Magic Branch! It seems that we've just learned Zoom, for folks that are familiar with Dragon Quest. For those that aren't, it's a spell that can instantly warp the party back to previously visited towns.



Now that we have the option, let's just warp back to BEEGEES, rather than all the way back to Old Hill. It'll be faster to walk back from there to the shrine for a full heal than it would be to walk all of the way back here from the start.



Tina gets to flex her growing muscles on some chumps we meet along the way.



After fully healing, we quickly head back for our 3rd and what I hope will be our final attempt at spelunking this cave.

We quickly make it to the end of the first area without incident, already making this more successful than either of our previous delves.



The loot in here has not proven to be terribly exciting thus far.



What looks to be an unremarkable fight suddenly proves to be anything but when this lone Echo Cat calls for reinforcements.



And then things get even weirder. Remember when that pair of PUMPKINGs worked together?



Yeah, this isn't that.



The King Cat has noticeably tougher skin than either of it's individual halves did previously, and it hits like a truck.



Tina starts by debuffing it, but it doesn't look to have much impact on our ability to damage it.



Also it can do this.



Oddly, though, this seems much weaker than its regular attack.



After a lot of attacking and a bit of healing, we finish the fight with everyone alive, but I'm not sure it was worth the effort.



Another pair of BADMAN get Tina to level 7, but she gets no new spells this time. She seems to be catching up pretty quickly now, at least, and she's definitely started to pull her own weight.



*throws it in the pile*



Another Echo Cat calls for help, but we manage to kill it before it can merge by going full aggro with both JBEAR and Tina working in concert.



The next area is fairly large, but doesn't seem to have anything in the way of new encounters.



Just when I think I have this fight all figured out, the next echo cat calls for help on both of the first two turns. Fortunately, we manage to take all three opponents out before any of them can work together, and we get a nice EP total in return.

There's quite a lot of cave in this cave. The dungeons in this game seem to be on the long side, I'm noticing.



A pair of PUMPKINGs bring Tina to level 8 and teach her CURE-B.



It doesn't show up on her out-of-combat Magic list, so presumably whatever ailment it cures is one (or possibly even ones) that doesn't persist outside of combat?



Our MP totals are starting to dip, so we may as well make use of the food we've been finding.



Presumably this has the same function as our FLY BY spell?



As we reach the end of the 3rd major area of this cave, I find myself really hoping that we're nearing the end.



lol, nah, we're just getting started.



This feels familiar.



At least we get a level for our trouble.



As suspected, CURE-A does indeed remove poison. Hooray!



Not content to merely summon help, now the Echo Cats have just started showing up with a full posse.



I'm good, thanks.



Ooo, more new loot. I suspect/hope that this is our first MP-restoring item?



A couple of ghosts go down easy with some Fire & Freeze action.



Remember when these guys used to count as a boss?



They can't all be winners.



We seem to be running into this fight reasonably often, and while it's possibly the easiest encounter here, it also requires 4 MP each time, and that just doesn't seem worth it. Good thing the RUN command seems to work pretty reliably!

Are we at the end?



No? Cool.



This ladder is a tease. Who put this here? I bet it was BADBAD, the fiend. Is there no low he won't sink to?



The RUN command gets a lot of use as we climb.



This ladder makes even less sense!



We are killing a whole lot of mobsters on this mountain.



HP recovery? Status recovery? Both?



Oh come on now.

I guess we're taking the long way around!



I still feel compelled to take out this group whenever we run into it, but our MP stores are quickly dwindling.



At last, another cave mouth!



...but there's that chest that we couldn't reach earlier.



This was not worth the trip.



We're running on fumes at this point, so if this isn't the end of the dungeon then we'll probably have to start experimenting with our new loot.



Alas.



But what's this?

We seem to have found some kind of fort, and, mercifully, there don't seem to be any combat encounters in this area.



My boss sense is tingling, so we munch on some bread before heading inside.



So I guess this isn't in town after all. *shakes fist at translation*

BADBAD-HOUSE has some cool new music...



...and a lot of empty barrels.



I sure do wish that beds restored MP, but this isn't a bad consolation prize.



I was briefly optimistic that there would be no fights in here, but it turns out to have just been a lull.



BADBAD, your house is haunted.



Still nothing. This is just getting mean.



! Or maybe the barrels are all empty because all of the loot is in actual chests! We need to figure out how to get in there.



With two sets of stairs to choose from, let's hope this is the right set!



. . .



Back we go!



Okay, this time it was definitely worth it.



I spent a long time dithering over who should get this, but Tina's DEF is almost as good as JBEAR's by now, and JBEAR seems to take more hits, so I think that in the end we'd prefer him to have the poison toughness that this suit reportedly offers.



As long as we're here, let's take another nap before heading upstairs.



o hai.

Could it be?



I like the idea that JBEAR is just asking random people for dog pills now.



He enjoys the idea as well.



So is that a "no", or...?



So the leader of the the thieves is Kid Dracula. Sure, why not?



I suspect this will be our standard opening boss script going forward, with JBEAR coming out swinging and Tina spending a couple of turns setting up FAST & SLOW.



BADBAD hits pretty hard, but only once per turn, so it's nothing that we can't handle.



And we can hit him pretty hard as well!



Tina needs to Heal JBEAR every couple of turns, which is no problem for as long as her MP holds out, which unfortunately is not long at all.



If Tina's going to be doing any more healing from this point, it'll be by shoving food in JBEAR's mouth.



For now, though, all we know is war.



BADBAD finally switches his attention to Tina, which is honestly fine.



And the next round goes even better!



I just noticed our HP totals, and now you have too. Shame that Tina's MP total isn't 0.



A critical hit is welcome, but we've done hundreds of points of damage to BADBAD and he still isn't going down.



Uh oh.



Hooray! Screw you, jerk!



He tries the same trick again on the next round, with similar results, which means that we get two straight rounds to beat on him without taking any damage.



Tina gets the honour of dealing the final blow.

I did not expect BADBAD to be Kid Dracula?!