Here there be dragons. Let's Play Bahamut Lagoon!

You know, these guys have been getting on my nerves for a while now and it's been more than time for some cathartic release.



Overkill? Why, whatever do you mean?



The march to Lestat continues with some more attacks...

By the way, did I mention what Lestat's attacks are called yet? No? Well shame on me, then. It still doesn't work, however.



PANTS softens Lestat up a bit before Taicho, fittingly, delivers the finishing blow.

Lestat: Heeheehee! I still have a whole deck up my sleeve!



It got a bit tough at times, but we pulled through.

Now that Mahal's free again, Taicho decides to stop by Celine's grave and pay his respects...

Taicho: I could not protect you... Do you think of me as a coward? It cannot be helped... Celine... Today, my... My promise with you was fulfilled. I took back Mahal from the Empire... All that time... If only I had been stronger... Celine... I would not have lost you...



Taicho: Celine... This coward that I am... If you can... Will you forgive me? Celine...



Join us next time as Taicho finds forgiveness at a certain Rainbow Bridge.

Yup. I just don't have any experience with this game, is all.

Ditto.

I'm amused with all the graphic details this shares with FFVI. And dragon-raising is awesome! If I owned a Wii, I would totally be pushing for some Wii-ware dragon raising spin-off of this game.

Most definitely. While imagining Lestat as some sort of unholy cross between Kefka and Tom Cruise.

It's more amusing than you'd think.

I'm still reading, but honestly I'm skimming the story parts and only reading the technical/gameplay bits thoroughly.

I just caught up! Also, I only now noticed that the Uni Uni has a flower on its head.

Whew. Sorry for the delay, it was a busy week over here. Thanks to everyone who spoke up - I've still got quite a bit left to go, but knowing that there are still people along for the ride should make it much easier to keep going.

Anyway, last time we left off, we had just driven Lestat out of Mahal and cornered him in the palace. After a brief respite, the PANTS platoon continues their push to free Mahal and to free the land of the...





Narrator: Nobody knows how Mahal came to be called this... With weather always nice... And a large lake.... There resides a people whose hearts are very pure... Within Orelus, where many lagoons float... Perhaps people call it a miracle because of its unrivaled beauty... The bridge where rainbows appear... Also known as the Rainbow Bridge... Day and night, men and women flock to this most famous tourist site in Mahal. Those who see the rainbows from here will have any wish come true... However, nobody has been heard to have seen the rainbows...



Matelite: Anybody here? If somebody's here, say something! No good! Nobody's here! This place was attacked by the Empire too!

Lukia: ...! That's...

Matelite: Damn the Empire! Why did they do this?!

Sendak: Hmm... where is Taicho? I feel uneasy... it must be my old man sense...

Matelite: We're going to go look for Taicho. PANTS, you look around the area one more time!

Sure, you're the boss.



Lukia quickly jumps in to tell us that the town is indeed empty, but a further search proves otherwise...

Lukia: Donfan? Are you alright?

Donfan: Why!? Why did you come back to Mahal? I had completely forgotten all of our memories together.

Lukia: Donfan... we'll talk later, okay? Right now we need as much help as we can get! Help us defeat the Empire!

Donfan: ...Am I wrong, Lukia? You weren't able to forget about me... But you just wanted to watch over me from the shadows... You wanted to see my face once more... Your agony continued for many days... Suddenly realizing... You brought yourself to Mahal... To Donfan... To see him once more... Am I wrong? Even looking like this, I... Inside your heart... I can read your mind as if I were looking through stained glass.

Lukia: No!! Donfan! Listen to what I'm saying...

Donfan: Lukia, you don't have to be and say it was because you were embarrassed. Moreover, I do not intend to deny the truth that has appeared inside you.

Lukia: What are you talking about?! It's nothing like that!

Donfan: Look at the lake of Mahal... I've been staring at this lake all this time... Yes... Lukia... While thinking of your face I would stare at this lake.

Lukia: You don't get it do you... Long ago... Your...

Donfan: When night would fall, I would gaze at the water's surface and smile like you do. Yes, like this... Then... I would silently whisper, "Lukia... this is for you only..."



Oh lord.

Donfan: ((What are you doing now? Are you okay? I am doing fine... The inside of my heart is blue like this lake, but without ever forgetting your face, I lived each day all alone...

What a touching display of affection, full of emotion and regret...



...Too bad Lukia's already caught on to his tricks. Ah, Donfan. Will things ever go your way?

For those of you who haven't caught on yet, Donfan's... well, a bit of a womanizer, to put it lightly. It doesn't really come across that well since the game plays the lines completely straight up until this point (in fact, it doesn't really become obvious until later on when he becomes more blatant and bizarre with his shmoozing), but, needless to say, if there's a woman around odds are Donfan's trying to get into her pants.

Fun fact: Donfan's name can also be transliterated as Don Juan*, making it even more obvious (and absurd).

*At least, I heard it does. Someone who speaks Japanese confirm this for me!



You can refuse to help Donfan, but the plot doesn't move on until you do. In any case, why wouldn't you want to help him? Donfan's awesome, simple as that.

Donfan: You! You're PANTS, captain of Kahna's Dragon Squad, aren't you?! I heard lots of stories about you long ago. I am Donfan of Mahal. People call me the pure-hearted and serious Donfan. I don't intentionally try to be serious, but I seem to appear that way around people. I also heard that Taicho is part of the Resistance. Such is the way of the world... I, Donfan, would also like to join your party.

There's a choice here, but it should be obvious at this point that we're bringing him along.

Donfan: Really? Do you really need my help? Then you've chosen the right man for the job. I think I might be useful to you.



Donfan: Well if it isn't the Light Armor soldier, Jeanne! How are you doing? Hmm... Are you busy today?!

Jeanne: I don't have time for your girl-hunting antics! But never mind that! Taicho has gone into Lestat's moldy old palace!

Donfan: Lestat...? The Empire...? Heh... With me in your party you needn't be afraid of the Empire.

Jeanne: What are you talking about?! This isn't a joke! Matelite of Kahna has somehow calmed down for now, but we must hurry!

Donfan: Are you kidding?! Jeanne... I don't blame you for wanting to see my face. Right?! Because I'm inside your heart... I can read your mind like I was looking through stained glass.



Donfan just can't get a break, can he?

Jeanne: We'll go first and wait for you! When you're ready, meet up with us!

Donfan: Um... Captain PANTS! Could you help me once again?

Donfan, distracted by our dragons, runs off and leaves us to explore the rest of Mahal.



Two items of note in Mahal are the Guardian and Nimbus Robe, equipment for Light Armor soldiers and mages respectively. They're a fair bit stronger than what you can acquire at this point in the game, so they're worth tracking down.



Also of note is that we've been accumulating Diamond Armor over the course of the last few battles. Finishing enemies with Thunder attacks around this point in the game will usually yield a set, so you can stock up on them pretty much for free and give them to your knights for a decent boost in defense.

Alternatively, you can feed them to a dragon as well to boost their Thunder stat quickly, as each one will boost the stat by 10 points. Once you've fully outfitted your team, you can focus on collecting them and feed them to your dragons for a large boost in power.



No dragon-feeding this time, sadly enough. Most of the money and items that I collected went towards upgrading the army's equipment, so the dragons will have to go without in the meantime.

Time to let Sendak know we're ready for battle. He's coming down with a bit of a cold, though - maybe it's all the rain lately?



With the inclusion of the Pure-Hearted and Serious Donfan as well as the Light Armor Jeanne, our teams have undergone a large change. Four of the groups here will stay the same for the rest of the game - PANTS', Matelite's, Joy's and Nelbo's units are all arranged to make best use of their skills, with the fighters being spread out to round their groups out while the mages pool their spells together to give them more kick. All that's left at this point are the addition of the final two knights and a pair of assassins, and our groups will be complete.



Lestat: My preparations are all set! Well then, shall we begin?



Nothing left to do here except throw Lestat out, I suppose. Well then, let's get started.

This battle marks the beginning of the inclusion of treasure chests. Opening them is relatively simple, as you just move a unit on top of them and they'll open automatically, dumping the item inside your inventory. The items themselves tend to be decent, but aren't worth going out of the way to get - pick them up during the fight if you can, but don't worry about it if you don't get them all before the battle ends.



Also of note are the statues littering the palace. Like the auto-cannons back in Campbell, these will attack you if you stop in front of them for decent damage, so either take them out or watch out for them.



Anyway, the battle starts off with a bang, as the front of Lestat's forces is close enough to attack from the first turn. They take heavy damage from our attacks, enough so that only one is alive at the end of the assault.



The last one goes down quickly on the next turn, however.

With the murderer units out of the way, the dragons close enough to the north get to work on the Magi.



The upside of this is that the Master Magi have absolutely no means of damaging our dragons - being flying units, they're entirely immune to earth attacks, which is all they have. The downside, however, is that not enough of them attack to finish off the Magi unit before it gets fully healed.



This stalemate doesn't last long, however - once PANTS and co. catch up, the battle turns into nothing less than an absolute slaughter.

And down they go!



The battles have taken a bit of a toll on VicViper though, forcing him to heal himself in this brief reprieve.



Here's what's in those chests, by the way - the left one contains a halberd for our lancers to use, while the one on the right is trapped. Though one has to wonder how Lestat managed to fit an entire sandstorm inside a chest...

PANTS powers himself back up with a Magic Gin in order to take on this Murderer unit. The idea was to damage them, then have them charge forward and get finished off by the counterattack...



...However, I forgot to set VicViper's command to Wait, resulting in his defeat here. (The annoying thing is that he might've survived if a few of them hadn't decided to throw bombs at him in lieu of their regular attacks. Ah, such is life I suppose.)



They don't last long, thankfully, so at least Vic can rest peacefully for now.

The murderer unit at the bottom aside, this is all that remains of Lestat's forces - three mages, three Gerummpels, and the big man himself.



Before the assault begins, the team takes a turn off first to position themselves and heal up first.



But like with the mages before, the battles are nothing short of a massacre.

Calzone runs afoul with one of the statues', er, "Mega Beams", and Matelite sees fit to warn us after the fact. Yeah, thanks for that.



The battles continue, of course.



The annoying thing is, the Gerumpels we're fighting all absorb one of three elements (those being Fire, Ice and Thunder), so you have to either nail them two at a time or attack with other elements to beat them with any speed.

After a few turns of back-and-forth with the Gerumpels, eventually I get sick of it and take the fight to Lestat himself.

Lestat: Heeheehee! I will have my revenge!



Lestat: F...Fuck!

(He actually swears at this point, believe it or not - it's a little jarring, to be honest.)



And that's a wrap!

Taicho: ((...Celine. I have defeated Lestat. And now, you... and the people of Mahal... Will you forgive me? Celine...



Taicho: ((C-Celine?!))

Celine: ((My love... Your promise to me... You kept your word...))

Taicho: ((Celine...))

Celine: ((Thank you, darling. Tee hee, we... Long ago, the two of us came here often, didn't we. To come see the rainbows. Do you remember? You were always angry when the rainbows wouldn't appear... You would say, "The rainbows will not appear! They will not!" But, you made me happy. Our happy memory together. Hee hee...))

Taicho: ((Celine...))

Celine: ((Right darling? You've become a spectacular knight... PANTS and Matelite of Kahna are also strong, and nice... But to me... you're the best. Hee hee... I kept a secret, but when Mahal was attack... There was a child inside of me. I'm sorry I didn't tell you. All the time, it seemed like your head was full of things about the war with the Empire... I didn't want to worry you unnecessarily. I really wanted to tell you... I wanted you to hear me... But you were always worrying about Mahal. That's why I didn't say anything. I had decided on a name. If it was a boy, Shogun. If it was a girl, Chiko.))



Celine: ((It's the rainbows, darling! How I wanted to see them with you when I was still alive... These rainbows... And then my wish would have been granted...))

Taicho: ((Celine...))

Celine: ((The people who see these rainbows... Do you remember the story that whoever sees them will have their wishes come true? My wish now is... That the people of the world live in peace! In a world without battles and wars! I wish for that...))

(Celine vanishes)

Celine: ((Right? Darling...))

Taicho: ((Celine! Your wish... I will make it come true!))

And on that note...



Join us next time as we search for the second Holy Dragon, Leviathan!

Last we left off, we had just finished driving Lestat out of Mahal, freeing the country once and for all and helping Taicho finally put his past behind himself. However, just because we've removed the Empire doesn't mean we're done here yet, as we've still got to pay a visit to the next Holy Dragon...





BRIEFS: ((Is there somebody there...? A Holy Dragon...?! This is... Water...? Is this water...?!



Typing this at 3 am in the morning, the look of bedding is downright tortuous at the moment. Somebody help meeee....

Gunso: *scratch* *scratch* The beds in my town are so nice... I don't want to *scratch* *scratch* return to Papillon...

...You know, as nice as it was for Gunso to lend us his bed, I hope he doesn't take it the wrong way when PANTS goes running for the flea shampoo.



Sneaky guy, hiding behind the scenery like that. Well, show me your wares old chum.



Figure I might as well finish armoring up the team. I only really need four, maybe six burning robes here, as the Priests (and, maybe, the Summoners too) will be so far away from combat that the extra defense wouldn't matter.

Dragon feeding time! I'll admit, I've been pampering Brandon for a fair bit of this playthrough, but can you blame me? He's turning out fantastically.

I admit, I went a little overboard with the feeding this time, but maybe it'll make up for the feeding-less last few updates.

That should be it... for now. Heh heh heh.



Even this early in the morning, Donfan's already at his womanizing antics. That boy...



Bikkebakke: Why don't you give it a try, PANTS?

Sure, I love octopi. I mean, who doesn't?

Bikkebakke starts by coaching us on the art of octpus fishing. There's honestly not much to this mini-game as it's always the same pattern.

PRO-Tip: The button order is right, down, left, down, right, then reel in with A!



Whoa, looks like we've got a big one here-



Bikkebakke: I can't pull him in!!

And this is just the start of things...

Lukia: And you even stole BRIEFS's...!

...BRIEFS's what? Her lingerie? Her earrings? Wait, you don't mean... not her ????, right?



Donfan's in a bind and he's grasping for a plan...



...And decides on trying to hit on Lukia. Smooth.

Lukia: You had BRIEFS drink some Sweet Wine... "Your eyes sparkle like the reflection of the night sky on the lake of Mahal. I shall show you the dragon's underground lake..." You said something like that, and then afterwards...!!

The best part is, Donfan didn't have anything to do with this - he's just being blamed for the Holy Dragon's vision. Ah, the dangers of being a womanizer.



Yeah, because you'd just be shooting yourself in the-



...foot.

Donfan: That I fell in love with Princes BRIEFS of Kahna... It was not by accident. It was the destiny of a man and woman. Detiny to fall in love... Decided from the moment we were born... Donfan and BRIEFS... Those names sound right together... That is why, Lukia... Please don't be sad. The man of your destiny shall certainly appear someday. Such is the way of the world... What do you think about Bikkebakke? What about PANTS?



At this point, Lukia's had enough and walks off, with Donfan giving chase (Bikkebakke just runs off). What to do with this octopus, though?



Maybe I'll just take these and call it a day. Goodbye, Octopus! I hope you have a wonderful life!

YES. Bikkebakke's mushroom shop, open for business.




After selling a pair of strategy books for some phat cash, I decide to max out he mushrooms and begin some hardcore dragon feeding.