I was actually going to include that in the next one.
Sorry it's a bit shorter than the others, by the way. I had to choose between basically ending it here and ending it at the end of the tutorial, which would have been too long.
I wish Nintendo would release an OST of the two games. Music rips have such bad quality. The tracks don't even have official names! Or if Motoi Sakuraba would rearrange a few select tracks into an album, I would probably listen to it every day forever. The Brawl remix is alright - I prefer the Fusion Dragon theme over the Doom Dragon theme mainly due to the badass keyboard synth and drums - but I want MOAR. Why do Tales of, Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile get all the lovin'?
Welcome back to Let's Play: Golden Sun. When last we left our heroes Isaac, Garet, and Jenna, they had discovered a secret cavern in the depths of Mt. Aleph containing mystical gems known as the Elemental Stars. Kraden thinks they're super spiffy, but he's an old man, so Jenna suggests that the spry young men Isaac and Garet gather these ancient and incredibly powerful artifacts for him.
Yeah, nothing could go wrong here.
On the plus side, this area does have one of the best songs in the game, so let's hear it!
I believe this is the part where Isaac should be saying the exact same thing to Kraden.
...and then conned several teenagers to come steal you the Elemental Stars that you said could take over the world, so that they could take the fall for you when you inevitably get caught?
Jenna shows her selfless side. A bunch of clowns have come to steal ancient, mystical artifacts of untold power. But more importantly, how's this going to affect me?
Kraden does what he can to keep her calm.
: That was our agreement, was it not?
: Isn't that enough?
: You heard us... if you wish to save your friends, then give us the Elemental Stars!
(Yes) This is another "But Thou Must" situation anyway.
: Ah, of course. a fine idea... he will be our guarantee. Under the circumstances, we have little choice. Felix, remove your mask!
I understand that this line is intended to be a reminder for the player, but really it just makes me hate Kraden even more.
: I'll... take off my mask.
This would be way more of a revelation if his head weren't the size of a piece of couscous.
Two different people with the same first name? Not really. There were like 3 other people with my first name in my high school graduating class. I've known like a dozen different Rachels.
Oh I guess it's him. Don't really see the family resemblance, aside from the fact they both get portraits.
: It was a miracle that I survived that day....
: We saw him floating unconscious in the river as we passed.
: But why? Why did you leave me all alone...
: Jenna...
: My own brother! I thought you were dead!
: Is this acceptable? Felix would never allow us to harm you... or his sister.
(Yes) Again, doesn't make any difference. If you say no, Garet steals the Elemental Stars from Isaac.
Garet does some amusing "jumping" across the columns.
Then this pretentious fop appears in front of him.
: Oh, Alex... you're late! Alex is another of our companions. Hand the stones to him.
Garet finds something else to complain about in this highly tense situation.
: For you will be bringing us the remaining Elemental Star as well.
: Wait a second!
The blue hair dude is flying. I find that remarkably awesome. Spoiler alert: Our heroes will never be able to master this power. You know why? Because it would trivialize just about every puzzle in this game and the sequel. Letting the dude fly is either a huge tease or a programming shortcut because the scripters got tired of having the characters walk everywhere in cutscenes.
: You said you'd set Jenna free if we gave you the Elemental Stars. You promised...
Garet tries to find a loophole in the contract. Sadly, he forgot that the extent of his experience in contract law is "the pinky-swear."
: Thank you for your cooperation. We'll be waiting for the rest....
At this point, we actually have to walk around the crowd of hostage-takers in order to get to the Mars Star. You'd think these idiots could pick it up themselves. Heck, send the flying dude to get it, what's the big deal?
We stop to talk to all of them en route.
At least you can admit it, Kraden. This really is entirely your fault. We won't see precisely for sure to what extent for a while yet, but it's pretty bad.
Felix is the strong, silent type.
The moment we take the Mars Star from the statue, the water leaves the cavern and a different music starts playing.
What "terrible retribution?" Oh, you mean all the dire warnings given by the people of Vale to be careful about exploring Sol Sanctum?
Or not.
Well, we're inside a volcano. If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say it was probably the volcano. It's pretty apparent that Menardi isn't the brightest bulb. Then again, neither is Saturos.
What's what?
Oh hey a floating, cycloptic rock. Didn't see that one coming. (Yes) It's a floating, cycloptic rock.
Then why are you asking me?
: Such power... incredible!
It's really not that amazing, folks. I mean yeah it's a floating rock. But don't you guys remember the Mt Aleph Boulder from 3 years back? That was an even larger floating rock.
: But we need the Mars Star, we can't leave it behind!
: The Mars Star will have to wait for another day.
: Forget about them. They won't make it out alive.
: We take this "Jenna" with us... If they survive, they will want her back. And if they want her back, they will bring us the Star. Regardless, Kraden must come with us. He is connected to all of this.
: Conditions have changed since we made that promise.
Sounds like Kraden's feeling guilty. As well he should.
: If we leave Jenna, she will surely die. Is that what you want, Felix?
I'd just like to say that, at this point, if we'd just shut up and made straight for the exit, we could be back in Vale right now. Instead, we stand around talking in the midst of this highly time-sensitive situation. You'd think that if the psychic rock had intended to murder you people, it would have made its move already.
Oh yeah, now we're all dying to go.
: Menardi! Master Kraden, you will be joining us, of course!
Jenna is brimming with confidence concerning our current situation.
: It's a pity that we have to leave it, but perhaps we'll be seeing it soon....
Okay, pause. So these guys need all four Elemental Stars for their diabolical plan, right? And they know that this cavern is collapsing. So their plan is... leave the Mars Star in the cavern that's about to be collapsed burying it forever under lava. If for some reason the heroes survive, then they can follow after the villains with the star and trade the Mars Star for Jenna? There's a MacGuffin Delivery Service in there too, but I just don't have enough room. These guys just lost, like, a thousand points for lack of creativity. And that's aside from the fact that, if Isaac and Garet fail to survive, their entire plan is doomed, and they refuse to intervene even though they're aware of this.
Isaac and Garet are next spotted hiding behind the Mars Statue.
(Yup) No arguments here.
: Jenna and Kraden are gone!
Garet walks over to try to leave, but the boulder appears before us.
Garet hasn't spotted it yet.
: You're the dangerous one!
There's a flare-up in the cavern. The boulder flies over to investigate.
He uses some Psynergy, and the flare-up subsides.
This guy doesn't have a portrait. I like to think it's because they asked an artist to draw them a photo of a magic Boulder with a single round eye and the artist replied by smacking them with his sketchbook. Unsurprisingly, there's essentially no Wise One fanart that I could find. If anyone happens to find some (or draw some, what is this, Something Awful?) I'll post it with a bio or something when I get around to character bios.
A bunch of golden tumors appear on the statue, then break off and fly away. I think it's called metastasizing.
And now for the most important plot point in perhaps this entire episode. This seems highly innocuous, and it won't be mentioned again for a long, long time. But it's an important thing to remember.
Or perhaps he was just using it to see where the other Stars are.
More tumors, this time on the Venus statue.
And more...
Another reason why Saturos and Menardi are incompetent fools.
The golden tumors leave the final statue.
: Alchemy? A threat?
Another flare-up. The Wise One flies over and tries to halt it....
...but he can't.
: But how?
I dunno, Garet. Maybe out the door? The way we came in? The way Team Clown Makeup left?
The Wise One uses Isaac's Retreat Psynergy for him or something. Anyway, we reappear outside the door. Now begins the epic fleeing the collapsing temple scene!
(Yes)
Exeunt Team Isaac.
There's no more random battles in here, by the way. That might distract from the tension, and it's actually a fairly decent thing for the developers to do. I will say that, although the game does suffer from random battle syndrome they're actually pretty reasonable with the encounter rate, in two ways:
1. The battles tend to be spaced pretty far apart. - We had about 5 battles coming down here.
2. The encounter rate drops even more in puzzle-heavy rooms. - This is absolutely wonderful, because there's no better way to lose your train of thought on solving a puzzle than being interrupted every 10 feet by a battle.
3. The battle avoidance item is cheap and readily available.
4. Level grinding is rarely a prerequisite. - This is less true on the first time through the game, but once you know most of the secret places and power ups you essentially never have to level grind.
Wow that got off topic. Back to the escape!
Uh oh, our path back to town has been blocked by looky-loos. Maybe they captured Team Clown Makeup fleeing the scene?
Well, Mr. Viking Man, you was wrong!
Garet's Grandpa, the Mayor, weighs in on the matter.
Man, we were so stealth! Who saw us?
: Isaac and Garet went to Mr. Kraden's house.
Odd that she leaves out mention of Jenna. I guess nobody cares about the orphan.
(Yes) Let's head towards the erupting volcano. Surely this is your most brilliant plan ever, Garet!
Wait no... stop, you idiot!
Welp, we're in trouble now.
Well, Garet's Grandpa, we decided to go for a picnic inside Sol Sanctum because Jenna said it was lovely this time of year.
(Yes)
I'm pretty sure this is where I have a brain aneurysm. Can't he just read my LP if he wants to know?
Sepia tone? We watch as Isaac and Garet act out the plot thus far. Oh, and within the temple there's another theme change. This is the only version of it I can find:
Again, I'm pretty sure this is Garet's Grandpa speaking. No idea why he doesn't get a portrait, since he gets the most speaking parts of any of Garet's family.
So it turns out the Viking Dude is actually the Great Healer. He's the fellow that'll raise your dead and cure your curses and such.
: You saw it just now?
He says, "It's all Kraden's fault."
: Will the volcano destroy Vale?
Looks like Vale is going to be the next Herculaneum.
Yup. Covered in molten rock.
He just said it wouldn't.
: What could be worse than the destruction of Vale?
Kraden living through this. That old fart better be killed for all the trouble he's caused.
Oh, really? Could you perhaps be bringing a bit less to the table, Great Healer?
Good thing we've got one. That means we can make use of it, to make ourselves super-powered and blow stuff up, right?
...finally get its act together and lynch Kraden?
: Then what can we do?
I propose a task force be established to retrieve the Stars. Gather the town's greatest warriors together, we'll take a squad of twenty strong and leave at daybreak.
: Are you suggesting we place the fate of the world... in the hands of Isaac and Garet?
Grandpa has no confidence.
Yeah, well speak again Wise One, there's no reason we can't have a couple dozen bodyguards.
Garet, for once, is indecisive.
(No) I'm out. Wise One can handle this bizness himself.
: It is a terrible burden. To be responsible for the fate of the world.
: Mother would never doubt your courage just because you declined.
Huh? That doesn't even make sense.
Like I said, I'm out.
Yup! It's a Non-Standard Game Over! That was about the only time your choosing an answer in those yes/no forks has an actual difference.
...and then it makes us pick back up anyway.
(Yes)
Garet instantly regrets putting his choice in my hands. That's right, Garet, I've screwed you again!
Oh snap it's the Wise One!
:
"Oh, uhh... I mean... you are quite brave to have been forced into this task."
: That was the Wise One.
Thank you, Dora.
No, he said we're brave. Also, I think he said that Garet's Grandpa was a douche.
Unless the Elemental Star is SUPER SUBTLE about the way it guides us, then it offers absolutely zero guidance. We will find the lighthouses purely by way of plot contrivance.
: What should they do there?
Um... okay. Still got no clue what I'm supposed to do at these lighthouses though. Kill the watchman? Break the lightbulb? Burn it to the ground?
: Isn't there anything else?
My sentiments exactly.
No-neck breaks the awkward silence.
His identical twin departs with him.
: I agree, but... they didn't give us any other choice.
Fade in, and we're at the plaza in Vale, near the entrance to the town, watching two children.
I really don't understand the purpose of this conversation. Basically everything these kids say is either restated elsewhere or can be easily inferred. Since you can't see the animation that indicates which player is speaking from screenshots, it's also a bit confusing.
Thus endeth the most fascinating part of the story.
Garet's sister offers "helpful" advice.
Way to drop the benjamins, huh.
: I know better than to drink stagnant water, Sis!
This is largely an informed ability, or perhaps Isaac's younger sibling is lying. I am reasonably sure that it is never mentioned again.
"Aunty" here does not mean that Isaac and Garet are related. I think the kid is just a little slow.
The Catch Beads are a useful item, but I'll explain them later. Suffice it to say, you've already seen them in action.
: I guess we're all set to go, huh Isaac?
Garet's family all looks the same.
Well then maybe she should have tried a little harder to reason with the Wise One.
Finally someone voices my precise concern.
There's the first use of the seldom-seen bold font.
And we leave! Behind us is our hometown of Vale, to our front is the World Map. It's where we'll be ending this Chapter. Now that the plot is finally fully underway, I feel comfortable getting some character descriptions up, so that'll probably happen before the next chapter.
Speaking of which, next chapter we'll meet our first Djinn and head for the noble town of Vault! And cutscenes will abound.
Well my copy of GS2 arrived yesterday so started ripping through the first game again to refresh the story for me. Just want to say great LP and thanks for getting me back into the serries.
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Mx. QuillI now prefer "Myr. Quill", actually...{They/Them}Registered Userregular
edited August 2011
That Game Over's a bit odd, really.
Especially considering the world would've been screwed if Isaac's quest actually succeeded. So maybe Saturos and Menardi would've ended up getting their party killed had Isaac and friends not come along and murder them?
It's also silly how Felix said he's experienced a lot over the 3 years but is still only level 1 at the start of TLA.
Especially considering the world would've been screwed if Isaac's quest actually succeeded. So maybe Saturos and Menardi would've ended up getting their party killed had Isaac and friends not come along and murder them?
It's also silly how Felix said he's experienced a lot over the 3 years but is still only level 1 at the start of TLA.
Isaac and co. are pretty instrumental in the later part of The Lost Age, and Saturos, Menardi, Agaito and Karst are all fairly terrible at lighthouses.
The implication was that they wouldn't have been able to pull it off without our heroes.
the problem with alex is that he is literally the laziest person ever
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
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Mx. QuillI now prefer "Myr. Quill", actually...{They/Them}Registered Userregular
Well, it's not like they were lacking an adept of each element. So maybe they wouldn't be able to storm Vale a third time for the Mars Star because of the Wise One?
On a different topic, I was kinda pissed when I first played TLA because I took the time to abuse the RNG to get the super equipment in GS only for it to all be utter shit once Isaac joins up. Friggin Kikuichimonji.
Especially considering the world would've been screwed if Isaac's quest actually succeeded. So maybe Saturos and Menardi would've ended up getting their party killed had Isaac and friends not come along and murder them?
It's also silly how Felix said he's experienced a lot over the 3 years but is still only level 1 at the start of TLA.
Isaac and co. are pretty instrumental in the later part of The Lost Age, and Saturos, Menardi, Agaito and Karst are all fairly terrible at lighthouses.
The implication was that they wouldn't have been able to pull it off without our heroes.
Keep in mind that Saturos, Menardi, and possibly Alex were incapable of solving the Sol Sanctum puzzle without triggering the Boulder and such. That really bodes poorly for them being able to solve the lighthouses on their own.
Sometimes I like to think that, had Isaac stayed home, he'd have found Vale attacked about 6 months later by super-powered Team Felix, supercharged because they've now all got the 72 Djinn divided amongst 4 people rather than 8, then they take the Mars Star from Level 2 Isaac, and go curb stomp the final lighthouse and final boss.
Well, it's not like they were lacking an adept of each element. So maybe they wouldn't be able to storm Vale a third time for the Mars Star because of the Wise One?
On a different topic, I was kinda pissed when I first played TLA because I took the time to abuse the RNG to get the super equipment in GS only for it to all be utter shit once Isaac joins up. Friggin Kikuichimonji.
i can totally sympathize, because i also wasted X years of my life grinding the earth golems for that thing.
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
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Mx. QuillI now prefer "Myr. Quill", actually...{They/Them}Registered Userregular
I hung onto those crappy random drops just out of principle of the matter.
No Mr. Shopkeep, I will not sell you this insanely rare sword for a thousand gold. It's mine.
Welcome back to Let's Play: Golden Sun. Last time, Jenna and Kraden got themselves kidnapped by Team Jerkface. Now Isaac and Garet have to go save their sorry butts.
Speaking of which...
Here we are, on the World Map. The world is actually known as Weyard, for what it's worth. As you might suspect, our presence on the World Map means there's a new song!
Yup yup. Say, what's that odd speck to the southeast?
Quick, kill it!
The strange, imp-like creature does the helix-shaped "look, I'm using Psynergy" thing.
<insert Star Wars reference here>
: Won't you please take me along with you? I am a Venus Djinni. My name is Flint. I must find my comrades. We were separated from each other when the volcano erupted.
Remember those odd fireflies that appeared on the statues inside Sol Sanctum? This is the first one we've met so far.
: If you let me join you, I'll prove to be very beneficial to you Adepts! Your Psynergy will grow stronger, and your Adept skills will also improve! You can call on us in battle or just use our power to boost your own! If you call on many of us at once, our powers will work together!
(Yes)
Flint then launches into a long and boring tutorial about how to use Djinn, which I'm not going to cover. Instead, I'll give you the short version.
Djinn are little creatures that our characters can Set, or equip, in order to give a passive boost to their strength. Different Djinn give different stat boosts. You can utilize a Djinni in battle for an effect, such as an attack or an in-battle temporary boost to a stat. Using a Djinn this way switches them into "Standby" mode, and you lose the passive boost. However, one or more Djinn on Standby can be used to cast Summons, the most powerful attacks in the game. After they're Summoned, the Djinn rest for a while before returning to Set status. Djinn are a vital aspect of this game; it's very important that you get every Djinni you can find. The stat boosts are really helpful, and the damage they do as Summons and the helpful effects they provide when used are a huge help.
The other thing you need to know about Djinn is that they affect your characters' classes. For example, Isaac is a Squire right now, the basic physically-focused Venus Psynergy class. If he Sets two Venus Djinn, he'll become a Knight. Knights have much better stats than Squires. Similarly, Setting this Venus Djinn on Garet will change him from a Guard to a Brute. He won't gain any noticeable stat boosts from that particular class change, but his Psynergy will change drastically:
Well, okay, right now it doesn't do all that much. But once Garet learns a few more spells it will be a big change. There's Djinn for each of the four elements, and Setting different Djinn to different characters can drastically affect character performance. For the most part, it's tough to go wrong with just equipping the Djinn of the same element as the character.
Anyway, Flint's in-battle use is a powerful melee attack against a single target:
That's about twice the damage Isaac would have otherwise done against that target. The Venus Summon, which requires the single Venus Djinni on Standby, is an Earth-element attack against all foes:
Summons are real pretty.
And they're powerful too.
You ain't just whistlin' dixie, brother.
We get this cool effect whenever we force a Djinni into our service. It looks a bit different depending on which element Djinni it is. For now, I'll be leaving this Djinni set on Isaac. When I get a few more, I'll be willing to do some experimenting, but frankly, I don't want to mess with Isaac's Psynergy just yet.
I decided to do a bit of level-grinding here before moving on to the next town. I ran into a Zombie and thought I'd show off Isaac's new Psynergy, Quake:
Fortunately, that's when Garet leveled up!
I stuck around a bit longer and got Isaac another level, too.
I'll show off Earthquake later.
This is Vault. It's the town nearest Vale. We decide to enter, when there's a cutscene!
A convoy of wagons leaves the town.
Don't let us get in your way, old man. We've got places to go!
That's not good.
: This is awful... how are we going to get to Kalay now?
: And his strange powers will aid him in search of the rod.
I really hope I'm not the only person who finds this part funny. I feel like a 12 year old, but I guess I enjoy low humor.
"Ivan is good at finding rods. I don't know if that qualifies as a special power or not, though..."
Suddenly, a meteorite made of crystal smashes to the ground nearby. It was coming from the direction of Mt. Aleph. If you'll recall, the volcano was supposed to be erupting. Apparently this rock must have been launched from the caldera.
Oh, come on. What are the odds of another rock hitting the same place twice?
I say head for Vale. Rocky said he'd protect the village, right?
I'm pretty sure that there are zero actual casualties as a result of this eruption. But sure, throw yourself into harm's way, what do I care?
The caravan heads north, and we continue into Vault.
Vault is a small town almost completely surrounded by a wall of dirt. I don't know how they pulled that off when none of them are Adepts, but whatevs.
(No)
We talk to a bunch of the townsfolk, but they're all boring. Let's loot their houses!
This is pretty much the only treasure I could find in the village. It'll make sense why soon.
Whoops. Sorry about that. Tell you what, we'll stop by your shops and buy some upgrades while we're here.
Of course not! I'm not stealing anything!
Or maybe that's what the thieves want you to think! I'd double-check everyone besides me, just to be safe.
Hrm.
We head up to the watchtower, and there's a dude on watch. I wonder if he spotted the thieves.
I guess not. Hey, let's give everyone a good scare and ring the bell!
Hey, what's that that just jumped out of the tree to the east? It looks like another Djinni! How'm'I gonna get to it?
Answer: I'll have to come back much later in the game.
Yeah, well at least you don't have a dopey best friend that comes along and ruins all your hard work. That's right, Garet, I'm talking about you.
Okay, before this whole "nut-and-bomb" robbery gets too out of hand, I need a scapegoat to pin everything on.
That's right, buddy! You're the one who stole the Nut!
...(No) I need to solve my own problems. Wait, what was that about the Shaman's Rod? I don't have one of those....
Wait a minute.... That means there's some other robbers! Which explains why there's not a whole lot of free stuff sitting around in the barrels in town.
The level grinding got me pretty beat up, so I rested at the inn before dropping all my gold at the local shops.
We buy a Long Sword for Isaac and a Battle Axe for Garet.
The guy gives us a Game Ticket. What is a Game Ticket? You'll find out in a long, long time. For now, just know that you get them occasionally when you buy things.
Then we talk to the armor guy and buy a pair of Travel Vests (a step up from our Cotton Shirts), a pair of Leather Caps (one of which nets us a Game Ticket), and lastly a Wooden Shield for Isaac.
I'm not getting framed for this Shaman's Rod debacle. I can't take life behind bars!
Don't care. Let's talk to the Mayor about this whole business. Maybe he'll help us.
Shut up about this Ivan jerk!
This must be Ivan. We try to talk to him, but he uses some Psynergy on us!
This would be way more suspenseful if it didn't say the name of the Psynergy right there in the box.
Well, not exactly.
: We have so much in common, I feel I can trust you with this. I am quite troubled- Master Hammet's rod was stolen.
(Yes) After all, "Spare the rod, spoil the child."
(Mind Read)
Isaac and Garet express their feelings succinctly.
(Yes)
Well, I was expecting to see a dead hamster lying paws-up on a wheel, but I guess so.
: Just as I thought.
: I guessed that I could help you read minds if we shared our Psynergy.
BS. You didn't even know it was called Psynergy thirty seconds ago. Now you suddenly know how to share it with other Adepts, when we're the only other chumps with magic powers you've met as far back as you can remember?
Good. Because I sent you a special message about what I'll do to you if it happens again.
Light bulbs mean "I have an idea!" or "I understand!"
: Isaac, both you and Garet are Adepts... Maybe that's why you can tell when I'm reading your minds. Ordinary people can't see anything. There's nothing to worry about. Don't worry... I will not read your minds again.
And our duo has become a Power Trio. In this case, Garet's the id, Ivan is the superego, and Isaac rounds out the party as the Kirk, resident ego.
Ivan's level 4 and has two OOC Psynergies, Whirlwind and Mind Read. Mind Read is one of those reasons why this game has so much bloody dialogue: every single NPC has at least one block of normal text and one block of Mind Read text; many have several. I'm not going to show every conversation and every Mind Read in the game because I'm pretty sure I'd have a brain aneurysm. Instead, I'll try to remember to Mind Read important people and I'll display the text if it's relevant/funny/interesting.
Eww.
Now then, let's go talk to that jerk by the tree who said he didn't know anything about the Shaman's Rod.
Welp, clap the irons, we've got 'em. Oh, I guess we need proof.
There's his two compadres, perhaps they'll let slip a hint.
Uh oh, they've noticed us. Looks like it's time for another Law and Order: Special Psynergy Unit.
"My name is detective Isaac, this is my associate, Officer Garet. Our forensic specialist Ivan would like a moment of your time."
"Insulting an officer of the law is not wise. Your future lies in our hands."
"Resisting questioning? I'll obtain a warrant if I must, but I can tell you this isn't going to be pretty."
We chase them around the room like kindergartners. Sigh.
Come on, Ivan. Garet's already got our quota of obvious statements more than filled. If you're going to be part of our group, you're going to need to find your own place.
(No) See? Garet's already got that job.
It's worth mentioning that you have to leave in order to bring up this cutscene. My first runthrough, I spent nearly half an hour thinking I could chase them down and talk to them before they escaped.
"Hey, who's in charge here? That's right, Detective Isaac. Just watch my back, officer."
"This is a warrant authorizing us to search the area and take you in for questioning."
"Garet, hold 'em down. I'm feeling some police brutality coming on."
Yeah you try that.
Simplicity.
He's dusting for fingerprints... inside your head.
: Are you done, Ivan?
We regroup to piece together the evidence.
: It's them, all right. I think they took a lot of other things, too. It looks like they're hiding it all somewhere in this inn... but they won't let me near them again.
(Yes) But we've already looked this place over, top to bottom. Where could all that stuff be hidden?
: Leave it to us! Isaac always comes through! I trust your sense of duty! Well, it's decided. Let's go, Ivan.
Hey, what happened to that fellow standing by the ladder?
We look around town, but can't find him. Maybe we should go investigate the roof? Turns out we can jump down that hole!
We end up in this little room. There's a doorway blocked by a big ol' crate, so we Move it aside and keep going.
Well that's odd.
It's that fellow!
Speaking of which, how does one access this loft when one doesn't have a hole in the roof? That's the only entrance.
Yeah, I thought lofts were mostly used for hipster parties.
: Maybe all that stolen stuff is in these crates....
Uh oh?
I'd be concerned, but these guys are such clowns I'm pretty sure they can't hurt us.
In case you couldn't figure it out, Hammet is that chump we ran into with the ridiculous mustache.
: What sort of place is Lunpa?
Bandit: The man has no morals. I've heard he's truly vicious. See, we're not so bad.
Bandit: You must be joking! We stole all this stuff fair and square! We'll just have to keep you quiet! And there's only one way to do that! Get 'em!!!
And here's our first boss battle! I said this was going to be a hybrid LP, and as such, here's the video I made of the battle:
: If you'll give me Master Hammet's rod, I'll head to Lunpa now. What will you two be doing, Isaac?
...and he's mind-reading us again.
(Yes) Dude promised he wouldn't and it's a serious invasion of privacy.
Sigh.
We're interrupted by Tied Up Guy returning with the Mayor and some other dude.
I can see this only as a subtle jab at RPGs that allow players to ransack people's houses for items without repercussion.
He gets kicked for his insolence. If only Isaac could do that when Garet started getting uppity.
I'm going to skip ahead a bit again. It gets really confusing with the no-portrait NPCs taking turns talking when you can't see their little sprites moving. It's also all completely unimportant. All you need to know is that the bandits get carted off to prison. Oh, and this:
I don't know how we can know if you don't open the chest.
: Oh, no... Dodonpa wouldn't miss an opportunity like that....
Way to comfort the kid, mayor. He's like 14.
Cheer him up somehow.
Or not.
Mayor: Dodonpa knows that he can use Hammet to extort a ransom from Kalay. We can't do much until Dodonpa makes his move, but at least we know Hammet's safe... for now. Your name is Isaac, right? And you are...
: It's Garet.
Good. I figure we deserve some sort of reward.
Doesn't matter. We've got business to attend to.
: I wish I could cheer you up... You look so depressed....
: But I couldn't ask you two to help me.
Don't worry, I'm sure we'll get roped in to doing it sooner or later.
: That's right, I saw it in your minds. I had no idea that the volcano's eruption held such a secret!
AKA Team Jerkface.
(Yes)
: Well, I guess we'd better get moving, too.
Exeunt all. One more check around the town....
Guess we're not going to Kalay then. Let's go see the mayor and get our reward!
Water of Life is a single use item that will revive a downed character. They're worth a good bit of money and I'm pretty sure there's a finite number in the game. They're always nice to have around, as a single downed character is a 25% drop in total effective actions. And if the downed character happens to be the only one capable of reviving downed characters....
(Yes) I have no idea. Let's go with yes.
That's a terrible name for a town. Well, time to leave. I guess we might as well take care of this whole Hammet business. We'll head to Lunpa next.
That's Lunpa. The cave there leads to a dead end, which we'll examine later.
Hmm... it's locked down tight. Maybe a bribe will get us past the guards.
(Yes) I believe I have a reservation under... George Washington?
Curses. Foiled again.
Oh look, it's a Nut. This looks like a job for Catch Beads!
We got these Catch Beads at the end of the last chapter, a present from Isaac's mother. If I equip them....
I get a new Psynergy to use out of combat, Catch. There are lots of these items throughout the game: think of them like new items in a Zelda clone. They're integral to most dungeon puzzles, and really add the "adventure" element to the Adventure RPG title that is Golden Sun.
Let's Catch us a Nut!
Yoink!
Nuts heal 200 HP, by the way. That'll end this chapter. We can't follow Ivan into Lunpa, so we'll need to move on. We've got a long journey to the first Elemental Lighthouse. We'll head through the Goma Range to Bilibin.
I'll try to get the next chapter up before the weekend. I'm hoping that there's enough posts that I don't have to put 3 chapters on the same page. As it is, this thread isn't anywhere close to safe for 56k; it's a good thing the file size for the pictures isn't that big.
Mind Read is great fun, but neither Ivan nor Sheba are particularly suited towards combat. I'd prefer getting a proper healer first, were it possible. At least in the Lost Age you start with Jenna, who has team healing psynergy by default.
Welcome back to Let's Play Golden Sun. When we last left our heroes, Isaac and Garet had failed to access Lunpa to aid Ivan. Got a short chapter here because there's important decision stuff to be made at the end and I decided to leave it up to you all.
Right. Lunpa. I know that Ivan wanted to rescue Hammet, but I say screw the brat, we've got important world-saving duties to take care of first.
I head East towards our next destination: The Goma Mountains. There's a cave that wends through the mountains and gets us to a large town called Bilibin.
En route, I do a bit of leveling because I don't want to feel like I'm falling behind. I don't learn any new Psynergy yet, though.
Behold, the entrance to the Goma Caves. You can actually see the exit on the northeast side of the screen. This is basically like the Mt. Moon of Golden Sun: it's the first real dungeon (I don't count Viridian Forest) that's intended to be a wear on your party resources, basically the first minor hurdle for the party. It also includes some nifty (but simple) puzzles that introduce the player to the manner in which they'll need to think for the rest of the game's dungeons.
But before we can enter the caves proper, we have to solve some elementary rock pillar puzzles.
Oh, no. I'm stumped. Did they really think this puzzle would give anyone even a second of trouble?
Pillar pushed to the right, climb the ladder.
This would be a bit challenging if we hadn't already learned that we could pull things towards us with the Move Psynergy in Sol Sanctum... so....
Yeah.
Another one? Well, step aside, I'll just pull out the Move Psynergy again....
Hmm....
Huh.
Looks like I can't Move this one.
Garet tells it like it is.
Ivan? What are you doing here? You're supposed to be helping the crazy dude with the mustache.
Well, the obvious answer is to use some of Garet's Mars Psynergy to burn the plant, but since you've just showed up again, I'm sure you've got some Jupiter magic that will accomplish the same outcome without making nearly as much sense.
What kind of lame Psynergy are you about to-
A tornado? Well I guess that's kinda cool.
The rock is no longer ivyed.
Calm down, kid. Nobody likes a braggart.
Me neither, kid. One wonders how a small town can survive with their gates locked down like that. How much food and water can they have stocked there? I doubt they could last more than a few days without opening their doors to merchants and such; perhaps if you just stuck around, you could get in.
That's good, because our aid isn't forthcoming. We've got important psychic duties to attend to.
: Your quest has been on my mind ever since I left Vault. Remember? I read everything that happened in your minds. I couldn't just leave, not with all these terrible things happening. If I can't rescue Master Hammet, then I want to help you...
Too bad. I don't need no SmartyPants McWindyGuy around. Garet's got my back too!
Wait what?
Dangit.
With the ivy cleared, we can easily Move the rock aside. That lets us jump over the gap.
Another ivy situation.
Fortunately, Ivan's Whirlwind Psynergy works on ivy that's grown over doorways too. As a matter of fact, that ivy is basically just a big ol' flashing indicator that it's time to have Ivan use Whirlwind.
We get a few steps in before we're assaulted by new enemies. These are Will Heads, and they're pretty worthless. They attack more slowly than Garet (whose Agility is abysmal) and they don't do a lot of damage. Unfortunately, they do take several hits to kill, which means that fights take a bit longer for a while until I've leveled up a bit.
Say, let's try Ivan's Whirlwind on them.
The image doesn't show how much damage it does, but it's a bit better than Isaac's attack Psynergy. Ivan, as the resident squishy wizard has very low HP and defenses. His melee attacks are also usually pretty terrible, but he has three things going for him:
1. He's fast. He'll pretty much always be the first character to attack, and it gets even more ridiculous when you stack Jupiter Djinn on him, which tend to boost Agility. This also makes him a decent item-user, for when you absolutely, positively, cannot let your ally get hit again.
2. His Psynergy is the most potent. He's the party's black mage and glass cannon. This will matter for surprisingly little as we approach the end game and have enough Djinn to use them essentially nonstop, but for quite a while, he'll be able to consistently deal a ton of damage to enemies with his attack Psynergy.
3. He has really good Luck. This manifests in his propensity for triggering weapon unleashes.
What's a weapon unleash, you ask? Well, rare weapons (weapons that can't be purchased more than once like Isaac's Long Sword and Garet's Battle Axe) have secondary attacks that can trigger in place of their normal attack. For example:
This is the Bandit's Sword, that we picked up off of those Bandits last chapter. When a player attacks with it equipped, he'll occasionally use the move Rapid Smash, which is several swipes in a row. The character's Luck stat determines how often these unleashes trigger. Garet, for example, has terrible Luck, and Luck isn't boosted by gaining levels. Some Djinn will boost Luck, as well as some class changes. The only way to boost Luck by more than a point or two is with items. But we'll get to that later.
Turns out Goma Cave is actually pretty well lit. I have no idea how this happens. Come to think of it, every cave is remarkably well-lit, even the ones that nobody's visited in centuries. So that's odd. Oh well.
Another pillar! Must... push....
Well isn't this quite the tableau. There's a random stranger here staring at some freaky creature on a cliff. I'm reminded of a parable.
That's kind of a hint. I'll explain in a bit.
When Goma Cave throws old enemies at you, it throws them at you in droves.
Fortunately, Ivan can pretty much one shot most of this stuff by now.
A little bit later, we encounter a Skeleton. These are actually a legitimate threat, or the closest thing to one we'll be seeing here. They've got a decent chunk of HP and they do good damage, especially with the Bone Charge move. Fortunately, I'm able to dispatch this one before it causes me too much pain.
And Ivan levels up in the process.
We push this pillar to the right so that we can jump across and down.
Then we move this pillar so that... uhh...
It falls below.
Then we move the pillar back to the left so that we can jump across and to the right...
And pick up a rare Lucky Medal. The item description for the Lucky Medal says only "A special medal from Tolbi." I presume that we'll figure out what they do when we get to Tolbi. Until then, they'll be buried in the deep recesses of my item bags.
As you can see, there's now a way to jump across. That's the pillar we knocked over upstairs that landed there. In retrospect, I probably should have taken a shot of this region beforehand so it would make a bit more sense. Boo.
We jump over the new bridge and go up some stairs, and we end up back here, only this time, we can jump across that pillar we moved and talk to the creepy monster.
Turns out it's a Mars Djinni, and it attacks us!
Djinn you encounter in battle will typically run away after a couple of turns, so it's a good idea to go all out against them. If they do run away, you can leave the area and come back. Just as the man implied, the Djinni will return and you can re-engage.
I use Flint and Ivan's powerful Psynergy to bring the battle to a rapid close.
Yeah, suck it chump. This creepy bastard is all mine!
There's an explosion of sparks.
Forge actually kind of sucks. In actuality he's not that bad; his unleash boosts the party's Attack. The problem is that boosting Attack doesn't help much when you go all out, because only two members of your party will be doing substantial damage by attacking physically: Isaac and Garet. Only boss battles are going to be long enough to warrant using him. But that's sort of how it goes with all the Djinn who don't cause direct damage, and many of them are still very useful.
As this implies, not all Djinn look like this:
In Golden Sun and The Lost Age, all Djinn of the same Element will look identical. In Dark Dawn, the DS game that came out last year, each and every Djinn has a unique appearance, although all Djinn of the same Element will look similar.
Like I said, Forge boosts party attack. Not spectacular, but it does have its place, especially in the end of the sequel, where attack boosts to one character with one particular weapon provide epic amounts of damage.
We head up the stairs once more, and we appear here, near the entrance to the cave. There's this pillar in the way of our progress, and most of our trip through the cave has been in order to find a way around. One wonders how the heck this pillar came to be in such a peculiar place, but since Team Jerkface likely came through this way, it's possible that they put it there to impede our progress.
From this side though, it's no problem.
Goma Cave is actually sort of nice in that it's fast to backtrack through once you've gone through once. With games that lack any sort of teleportation method, it's a pretty kind way of designing your dungeons.
As we prepare to leave the cave, we run into this group. Those two hooded things are Ghosts, and they're reasonably painful in that they're spellcaster monsters. Kill 'em fast though, and they don't pose much of a threat.
Naturally, I decide to show off Forge.
That's about a 25% increase in attack for Isaac, which is pretty decent.
One last look at Goma Caves before we leave.
To our right is Bilibin. If that sounds like a dumb name for a city, obviously you need to acquaint yourself with the rulers. But that's neither here nor there.
We run into these monsters before we enter. They're another step up (eh... maybe a step sideways) from the Goma Cave monsters. They tend to Defend themselves, which is just a pain in the butt and makes me want to punch things because it serves only to slow combat to a crawl.
I summon Mars to soften them up.
Isaac hits level 6 and learns Spire, a single-target attack Psynergy. It's pretty good, and it'll be useful for a while.
We Mind Read it, and we can reasonably extrapolate that this used to be a person.
(Yes) "Yeah, that thing used to be a person! That's messed up!"
Sacred tree? Oh, you pagans and your silly superstitions! Although... well... that guy is a tree....
Let's violate his brain like we did the whole village of Vault!
So it's the Lady McCoy's fault? Well I'm going to march straight up to her and insist that she stop turning people into trees.
Yeah, yeah, nobody cares. Got anything I can steal in here?
Must... resist... urge to make dirty remarks....
Seriously though, these are great. They're items that will permanently increase a character's Defense stat. There's one of these for every stat, and although the boost is small, it's still nifty. The most powerful of these, however, is the Lucky Pepper. It boosts the always-low Luck stat. I'm never quite sure who to give these things to, because I typically waggle between boosting a weakling's terrible stat and pushing the extreme of another's best. For example, I could give this Hard Nut to Garet to make him even tougher, or to Ivan so that he won't be quite so squishy. If anyone has an opinion, feel free to tell me, otherwise I'll probably just give it to Isaac, since he's the most important character.
Got an Herb too. Meh.
This statue looks suspicious. Plus, it's surrounded by that little edging of small stones. That means we can probably move it.
Yup.
Hmm... another statue.... and another of those creatures over there to the far right. Sadly, I can't Move this statue left or right, only down towards me. From this angle, that's not at all helpful.
This implies that the eruption of Mt Aleph was the cause of all the monsters we've been clubbing our way through since Vale. But Young Isaac and Young Garet fought monsters in Vale three years beforehand. So I'm not sure.
Kolima, the place where the tree people are? I guess I needn't be concerned by them then.
Screw you, lady. People are turning into trees and all you can think about is how it's going to affect your bottom line!
But the last guy only charged me 18 coins for three people! I know what's happening! This is that thing where inns get progressively more expensive for no reason whatsoever!
Have you, you know, actually looked outside? Wait, what am I saying? He's an NPC! He's never moved from that spot!
All the new weapons are way out of our price range. Instead, we buy some Leather Armor for Isaac and Garet, which is a decent upgrade.
That door leads to Bilibin Sanctum.
Turns out we can walk on this fence too!
We go down and around...
Then back up...
Welp, it's Whirlwind time.
Down the ladder.
And we're on this side! Now it's a simple matter of Moveing the statue down and jumping across.
This one decides to come along quietly.
Now we've got one each of Venus, Mars, and Jupiter Djinn.
Let's go try Spire!
50 damage is pretty darn good, especially since it can be used every turn.
After that battle, Garet and Ivan both level up.
Garet learns Flare Wall, which we'll see next chapter.
I'm going to end things here, because we're at a bit of a fork. We can decide to try and help the people of Kolima from the crazy tree curse, or we can head north to the first lighthouse. We have to do both, so it's just a matter of which we do first. Personally, I prefer going to the lighthouse first, but I'll defer to the audience's decision.
Posts
Sorry it's a bit shorter than the others, by the way. I had to choose between basically ending it here and ending it at the end of the tutorial, which would have been too long.
Well, only if you plan on going through to The Lost Age, as far as I know it only shows up in two places in the series.
Both are kinda important though, even if the second instance is an optional visit.
also, fuck you i just spent like an hour at TVtropes and then THAT linked me to cracked where i spent ANOTHER 2 hours AAAAAAAA
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
Also, what are your plans for classes?
They'll never be as good as mine were in Lost Age though.
You know you love the boulder! Stop denying it! You love the boulder!
I wish Nintendo would release an OST of the two games. Music rips have such bad quality. The tracks don't even have official names! Or if Motoi Sakuraba would rearrange a few select tracks into an album, I would probably listen to it every day forever. The Brawl remix is alright - I prefer the Fusion Dragon theme over the Doom Dragon theme mainly due to the badass keyboard synth and drums - but I want MOAR. Why do Tales of, Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile get all the lovin'?
Yeah, nothing could go wrong here.
On the plus side, this area does have one of the best songs in the game, so let's hear it!
Yeah, yeah, old man. I heard you the first time.
Can't go this way. Looks like we'll need to figure out a way to raise those columns.
We can get to the yellow-glowy lady easily enough. We reach over to take the gem in her hands....
...and more columns spring to life.
1 down, 3 to go.
Shut up, Kraden.
The path opened allowing us access to the Mercury Star, so naturally that's our next stop.
2 down, 2 to-
Sigh.
We secure the third star. 3 down, 1...
...to go?
Oh hey, it's those guys again! The ones that tried to kill us, then gave Kraden and us vague threats. I wonder what they're doing here?
Time for another soundtrack change, by the way. Behold, Saturos and Menardi's theme!
I believe this is the part where Isaac should be saying the exact same thing to Kraden.
...and then conned several teenagers to come steal you the Elemental Stars that you said could take over the world, so that they could take the fall for you when you inevitably get caught?
Jenna shows her selfless side. A bunch of clowns have come to steal ancient, mystical artifacts of untold power. But more importantly, how's this going to affect me?
Kraden does what he can to keep her calm.
(Yes) This is another "But Thou Must" situation anyway.
Felix? That name sounds familiar!
Wait a minute.
(Yes)
(No) If there's one thing I've learned from RPGs and cartoons, it's that they're never dead unless you can see the body, and even sometimes then.
My point exactly.
I understand that this line is intended to be a reminder for the player, but really it just makes me hate Kraden even more.
This would be way more of a revelation if his head weren't the size of a piece of couscous.
Two different people with the same first name? Not really. There were like 3 other people with my first name in my high school graduating class. I've known like a dozen different Rachels.
Oh I guess it's him. Don't really see the family resemblance, aside from the fact they both get portraits.
(Yes) Again, doesn't make any difference. If you say no, Garet steals the Elemental Stars from Isaac.
Garet does some amusing "jumping" across the columns.
Then this pretentious fop appears in front of him.
Garet finds something else to complain about in this highly tense situation.
The blue hair dude is flying. I find that remarkably awesome. Spoiler alert: Our heroes will never be able to master this power. You know why? Because it would trivialize just about every puzzle in this game and the sequel. Letting the dude fly is either a huge tease or a programming shortcut because the scripters got tired of having the characters walk everywhere in cutscenes.
Garet tries to find a loophole in the contract. Sadly, he forgot that the extent of his experience in contract law is "the pinky-swear."
At this point, we actually have to walk around the crowd of hostage-takers in order to get to the Mars Star. You'd think these idiots could pick it up themselves. Heck, send the flying dude to get it, what's the big deal?
We stop to talk to all of them en route.
At least you can admit it, Kraden. This really is entirely your fault. We won't see precisely for sure to what extent for a while yet, but it's pretty bad.
Felix is the strong, silent type.
The moment we take the Mars Star from the statue, the water leaves the cavern and a different music starts playing.
This seems bad.
What "terrible retribution?" Oh, you mean all the dire warnings given by the people of Vale to be careful about exploring Sol Sanctum?
Or not.
Well, we're inside a volcano. If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say it was probably the volcano. It's pretty apparent that Menardi isn't the brightest bulb. Then again, neither is Saturos.
What's what?
Oh hey a floating, cycloptic rock. Didn't see that one coming. (Yes) It's a floating, cycloptic rock.
Then why are you asking me?
It's really not that amazing, folks. I mean yeah it's a floating rock. But don't you guys remember the Mt Aleph Boulder from 3 years back? That was an even larger floating rock.
Sounds like Kraden's feeling guilty. As well he should.
I'd just like to say that, at this point, if we'd just shut up and made straight for the exit, we could be back in Vale right now. Instead, we stand around talking in the midst of this highly time-sensitive situation. You'd think that if the psychic rock had intended to murder you people, it would have made its move already.
Oh yeah, now we're all dying to go.
Jenna is brimming with confidence concerning our current situation.
Okay, pause. So these guys need all four Elemental Stars for their diabolical plan, right? And they know that this cavern is collapsing. So their plan is... leave the Mars Star in the cavern that's about to be collapsed burying it forever under lava. If for some reason the heroes survive, then they can follow after the villains with the star and trade the Mars Star for Jenna? There's a MacGuffin Delivery Service in there too, but I just don't have enough room. These guys just lost, like, a thousand points for lack of creativity. And that's aside from the fact that, if Isaac and Garet fail to survive, their entire plan is doomed, and they refuse to intervene even though they're aware of this.
Isaac and Garet are next spotted hiding behind the Mars Statue.
(Yup) No arguments here.
Garet walks over to try to leave, but the boulder appears before us.
Garet hasn't spotted it yet.
There's a flare-up in the cavern. The boulder flies over to investigate.
He uses some Psynergy, and the flare-up subsides.
This guy doesn't have a portrait. I like to think it's because they asked an artist to draw them a photo of a magic Boulder with a single round eye and the artist replied by smacking them with his sketchbook. Unsurprisingly, there's essentially no Wise One fanart that I could find. If anyone happens to find some (or draw some, what is this, Something Awful?) I'll post it with a bio or something when I get around to character bios.
A bunch of golden tumors appear on the statue, then break off and fly away. I think it's called metastasizing.
And now for the most important plot point in perhaps this entire episode. This seems highly innocuous, and it won't be mentioned again for a long, long time. But it's an important thing to remember.
Or perhaps he was just using it to see where the other Stars are.
More tumors, this time on the Venus statue.
And more...
Another reason why Saturos and Menardi are incompetent fools.
The golden tumors leave the final statue.
Another flare-up. The Wise One flies over and tries to halt it....
...but he can't.
I dunno, Garet. Maybe out the door? The way we came in? The way Team Clown Makeup left?
The Wise One uses Isaac's Retreat Psynergy for him or something. Anyway, we reappear outside the door. Now begins the epic fleeing the collapsing temple scene!
(Yes)
Exeunt Team Isaac.
There's no more random battles in here, by the way. That might distract from the tension, and it's actually a fairly decent thing for the developers to do. I will say that, although the game does suffer from random battle syndrome they're actually pretty reasonable with the encounter rate, in two ways:
1. The battles tend to be spaced pretty far apart. - We had about 5 battles coming down here.
2. The encounter rate drops even more in puzzle-heavy rooms. - This is absolutely wonderful, because there's no better way to lose your train of thought on solving a puzzle than being interrupted every 10 feet by a battle.
3. The battle avoidance item is cheap and readily available.
4. Level grinding is rarely a prerequisite. - This is less true on the first time through the game, but once you know most of the secret places and power ups you essentially never have to level grind.
Wow that got off topic. Back to the escape!
Uh oh, our path back to town has been blocked by looky-loos. Maybe they captured Team Clown Makeup fleeing the scene?
Well, Mr. Viking Man, you was wrong!
Garet's Grandpa, the Mayor, weighs in on the matter.
Man, we were so stealth! Who saw us?
Odd that she leaves out mention of Jenna. I guess nobody cares about the orphan.
(Yes) Let's head towards the erupting volcano. Surely this is your most brilliant plan ever, Garet!
Wait no... stop, you idiot!
Welp, we're in trouble now.
Well, Garet's Grandpa, we decided to go for a picnic inside Sol Sanctum because Jenna said it was lovely this time of year.
(Yes)
I'm pretty sure this is where I have a brain aneurysm. Can't he just read my LP if he wants to know?
Sepia tone? We watch as Isaac and Garet act out the plot thus far. Oh, and within the temple there's another theme change. This is the only version of it I can find:
(Yes)
(Yes) Isaac, eternal optimist.
Again, I'm pretty sure this is Garet's Grandpa speaking. No idea why he doesn't get a portrait, since he gets the most speaking parts of any of Garet's family.
So it turns out the Viking Dude is actually the Great Healer. He's the fellow that'll raise your dead and cure your curses and such.
He says, "It's all Kraden's fault."
Looks like Vale is going to be the next Herculaneum.
Yup. Covered in molten rock.
He just said it wouldn't.
Kraden living through this. That old fart better be killed for all the trouble he's caused.
Oh, really? Could you perhaps be bringing a bit less to the table, Great Healer?
Good thing we've got one. That means we can make use of it, to make ourselves super-powered and blow stuff up, right?
...finally get its act together and lynch Kraden?
I propose a task force be established to retrieve the Stars. Gather the town's greatest warriors together, we'll take a squad of twenty strong and leave at daybreak.
Whoops, wrong trope.
Yeah, Isaac. I know how you're feeling.
Grandpa has no confidence.
Yeah, well speak again Wise One, there's no reason we can't have a couple dozen bodyguards.
Garet, for once, is indecisive.
(No) I'm out. Wise One can handle this bizness himself.
Huh? That doesn't even make sense.
Like I said, I'm out.
Yup! It's a Non-Standard Game Over! That was about the only time your choosing an answer in those yes/no forks has an actual difference.
...and then it makes us pick back up anyway.
(Yes)
Garet instantly regrets putting his choice in my hands. That's right, Garet, I've screwed you again!
Oh snap it's the Wise One!
"Oh, uhh... I mean... you are quite brave to have been forced into this task."
Thank you, Dora.
No, he said we're brave. Also, I think he said that Garet's Grandpa was a douche.
Unless the Elemental Star is SUPER SUBTLE about the way it guides us, then it offers absolutely zero guidance. We will find the lighthouses purely by way of plot contrivance.
Um... okay. Still got no clue what I'm supposed to do at these lighthouses though. Kill the watchman? Break the lightbulb? Burn it to the ground?
My sentiments exactly.
No-neck breaks the awkward silence.
His identical twin departs with him.
And we fade to black.
I really don't understand the purpose of this conversation. Basically everything these kids say is either restated elsewhere or can be easily inferred. Since you can't see the animation that indicates which player is speaking from screenshots, it's also a bit confusing.
Thus endeth the most fascinating part of the story.
Garet's sister offers "helpful" advice.
Way to drop the benjamins, huh.
This is largely an informed ability, or perhaps Isaac's younger sibling is lying. I am reasonably sure that it is never mentioned again.
"Aunty" here does not mean that Isaac and Garet are related. I think the kid is just a little slow.
The Catch Beads are a useful item, but I'll explain them later. Suffice it to say, you've already seen them in action.
Garet's family all looks the same.
Well then maybe she should have tried a little harder to reason with the Wise One.
Finally someone voices my precise concern.
There's the first use of the seldom-seen bold font.
And we leave! Behind us is our hometown of Vale, to our front is the World Map. It's where we'll be ending this Chapter. Now that the plot is finally fully underway, I feel comfortable getting some character descriptions up, so that'll probably happen before the next chapter.
Speaking of which, next chapter we'll meet our first Djinn and head for the noble town of Vault! And cutscenes will abound.
The joys of having the equipment to do so!
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
It's also silly how Felix said he's experienced a lot over the 3 years but is still only level 1 at the start of TLA.
The implication was that they wouldn't have been able to pull it off without our heroes.
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
On a different topic, I was kinda pissed when I first played TLA because I took the time to abuse the RNG to get the super equipment in GS only for it to all be utter shit once Isaac joins up. Friggin Kikuichimonji.
Sometimes I like to think that, had Isaac stayed home, he'd have found Vale attacked about 6 months later by super-powered Team Felix, supercharged because they've now all got the 72 Djinn divided amongst 4 people rather than 8, then they take the Mars Star from Level 2 Isaac, and go curb stomp the final lighthouse and final boss.
i can totally sympathize, because i also wasted X years of my life grinding the earth golems for that thing.
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
No Mr. Shopkeep, I will not sell you this insanely rare sword for a thousand gold. It's mine.
Speaking of which...
Here we are, on the World Map. The world is actually known as Weyard, for what it's worth. As you might suspect, our presence on the World Map means there's a new song!
Yup yup. Say, what's that odd speck to the southeast?
Quick, kill it!
The strange, imp-like creature does the helix-shaped "look, I'm using Psynergy" thing.
<insert Star Wars reference here>
Remember those odd fireflies that appeared on the statues inside Sol Sanctum? This is the first one we've met so far.
(Yes)
Flint then launches into a long and boring tutorial about how to use Djinn, which I'm not going to cover. Instead, I'll give you the short version.
Djinn are little creatures that our characters can Set, or equip, in order to give a passive boost to their strength. Different Djinn give different stat boosts. You can utilize a Djinni in battle for an effect, such as an attack or an in-battle temporary boost to a stat. Using a Djinn this way switches them into "Standby" mode, and you lose the passive boost. However, one or more Djinn on Standby can be used to cast Summons, the most powerful attacks in the game. After they're Summoned, the Djinn rest for a while before returning to Set status. Djinn are a vital aspect of this game; it's very important that you get every Djinni you can find. The stat boosts are really helpful, and the damage they do as Summons and the helpful effects they provide when used are a huge help.
The other thing you need to know about Djinn is that they affect your characters' classes. For example, Isaac is a Squire right now, the basic physically-focused Venus Psynergy class. If he Sets two Venus Djinn, he'll become a Knight. Knights have much better stats than Squires. Similarly, Setting this Venus Djinn on Garet will change him from a Guard to a Brute. He won't gain any noticeable stat boosts from that particular class change, but his Psynergy will change drastically:
Well, okay, right now it doesn't do all that much. But once Garet learns a few more spells it will be a big change. There's Djinn for each of the four elements, and Setting different Djinn to different characters can drastically affect character performance. For the most part, it's tough to go wrong with just equipping the Djinn of the same element as the character.
Anyway, Flint's in-battle use is a powerful melee attack against a single target:
That's about twice the damage Isaac would have otherwise done against that target. The Venus Summon, which requires the single Venus Djinni on Standby, is an Earth-element attack against all foes:
Summons are real pretty.
And they're powerful too.
You ain't just whistlin' dixie, brother.
We get this cool effect whenever we force a Djinni into our service. It looks a bit different depending on which element Djinni it is. For now, I'll be leaving this Djinni set on Isaac. When I get a few more, I'll be willing to do some experimenting, but frankly, I don't want to mess with Isaac's Psynergy just yet.
I decided to do a bit of level-grinding here before moving on to the next town. I ran into a Zombie and thought I'd show off Isaac's new Psynergy, Quake:
Fortunately, that's when Garet leveled up!
I stuck around a bit longer and got Isaac another level, too.
I'll show off Earthquake later.
This is Vault. It's the town nearest Vale. We decide to enter, when there's a cutscene!
A convoy of wagons leaves the town.
Don't let us get in your way, old man. We've got places to go!
That's not good.
I really hope I'm not the only person who finds this part funny. I feel like a 12 year old, but I guess I enjoy low humor.
"Ivan is good at finding rods. I don't know if that qualifies as a special power or not, though..."
Suddenly, a meteorite made of crystal smashes to the ground nearby. It was coming from the direction of Mt. Aleph. If you'll recall, the volcano was supposed to be erupting. Apparently this rock must have been launched from the caldera.
Oh, come on. What are the odds of another rock hitting the same place twice?
I say head for Vale. Rocky said he'd protect the village, right?
I'm pretty sure that there are zero actual casualties as a result of this eruption. But sure, throw yourself into harm's way, what do I care?
The caravan heads north, and we continue into Vault.
Vault is a small town almost completely surrounded by a wall of dirt. I don't know how they pulled that off when none of them are Adepts, but whatevs.
(No)
We talk to a bunch of the townsfolk, but they're all boring. Let's loot their houses!
This is pretty much the only treasure I could find in the village. It'll make sense why soon.
Whoops. Sorry about that. Tell you what, we'll stop by your shops and buy some upgrades while we're here.
Of course not! I'm not stealing anything!
Or maybe that's what the thieves want you to think! I'd double-check everyone besides me, just to be safe.
Hrm.
We head up to the watchtower, and there's a dude on watch. I wonder if he spotted the thieves.
I guess not. Hey, let's give everyone a good scare and ring the bell!
Hey, what's that that just jumped out of the tree to the east? It looks like another Djinni! How'm'I gonna get to it?
Answer: I'll have to come back much later in the game.
Yeah, well at least you don't have a dopey best friend that comes along and ruins all your hard work. That's right, Garet, I'm talking about you.
Okay, before this whole "nut-and-bomb" robbery gets too out of hand, I need a scapegoat to pin everything on.
That's right, buddy! You're the one who stole the Nut!
...(No) I need to solve my own problems. Wait, what was that about the Shaman's Rod? I don't have one of those....
Wait a minute.... That means there's some other robbers! Which explains why there's not a whole lot of free stuff sitting around in the barrels in town.
The level grinding got me pretty beat up, so I rested at the inn before dropping all my gold at the local shops.
We buy a Long Sword for Isaac and a Battle Axe for Garet.
The guy gives us a Game Ticket. What is a Game Ticket? You'll find out in a long, long time. For now, just know that you get them occasionally when you buy things.
Then we talk to the armor guy and buy a pair of Travel Vests (a step up from our Cotton Shirts), a pair of Leather Caps (one of which nets us a Game Ticket), and lastly a Wooden Shield for Isaac.
I'm not getting framed for this Shaman's Rod debacle. I can't take life behind bars!
Don't care. Let's talk to the Mayor about this whole business. Maybe he'll help us.
Shut up about this Ivan jerk!
This must be Ivan. We try to talk to him, but he uses some Psynergy on us!
This would be way more suspenseful if it didn't say the name of the Psynergy right there in the box.
Well, not exactly.
(Yes) After all, "Spare the rod, spoil the child."
(Mind Read)
Isaac and Garet express their feelings succinctly.
(Yes)
Well, I was expecting to see a dead hamster lying paws-up on a wheel, but I guess so.
BS. You didn't even know it was called Psynergy thirty seconds ago. Now you suddenly know how to share it with other Adepts, when we're the only other chumps with magic powers you've met as far back as you can remember?
Good. Because I sent you a special message about what I'll do to you if it happens again.
Light bulbs mean "I have an idea!" or "I understand!"
And our duo has become a Power Trio. In this case, Garet's the id, Ivan is the superego, and Isaac rounds out the party as the Kirk, resident ego.
Ivan's level 4 and has two OOC Psynergies, Whirlwind and Mind Read. Mind Read is one of those reasons why this game has so much bloody dialogue: every single NPC has at least one block of normal text and one block of Mind Read text; many have several. I'm not going to show every conversation and every Mind Read in the game because I'm pretty sure I'd have a brain aneurysm. Instead, I'll try to remember to Mind Read important people and I'll display the text if it's relevant/funny/interesting.
Eww.
Now then, let's go talk to that jerk by the tree who said he didn't know anything about the Shaman's Rod.
Welp, clap the irons, we've got 'em. Oh, I guess we need proof.
There's his two compadres, perhaps they'll let slip a hint.
Uh oh, they've noticed us. Looks like it's time for another Law and Order: Special Psynergy Unit.
"My name is detective Isaac, this is my associate, Officer Garet. Our forensic specialist Ivan would like a moment of your time."
"Insulting an officer of the law is not wise. Your future lies in our hands."
"Resisting questioning? I'll obtain a warrant if I must, but I can tell you this isn't going to be pretty."
We chase them around the room like kindergartners. Sigh.
Come on, Ivan. Garet's already got our quota of obvious statements more than filled. If you're going to be part of our group, you're going to need to find your own place.
(No) See? Garet's already got that job.
It's worth mentioning that you have to leave in order to bring up this cutscene. My first runthrough, I spent nearly half an hour thinking I could chase them down and talk to them before they escaped.
"Hey, who's in charge here? That's right, Detective Isaac. Just watch my back, officer."
"This is a warrant authorizing us to search the area and take you in for questioning."
"Garet, hold 'em down. I'm feeling some police brutality coming on."
Yeah you try that.
Simplicity.
He's dusting for fingerprints... inside your head.
We regroup to piece together the evidence.
(Yes) But we've already looked this place over, top to bottom. Where could all that stuff be hidden?
Hey, what happened to that fellow standing by the ladder?
We look around town, but can't find him. Maybe we should go investigate the roof? Turns out we can jump down that hole!
We end up in this little room. There's a doorway blocked by a big ol' crate, so we Move it aside and keep going.
Well that's odd.
It's that fellow!
Speaking of which, how does one access this loft when one doesn't have a hole in the roof? That's the only entrance.
Yeah, I thought lofts were mostly used for hipster parties.
Uh oh?
I'd be concerned, but these guys are such clowns I'm pretty sure they can't hurt us.
In case you couldn't figure it out, Hammet is that chump we ran into with the ridiculous mustache.
Bandit: The man has no morals. I've heard he's truly vicious. See, we're not so bad.
Bandit: You must be joking! We stole all this stuff fair and square! We'll just have to keep you quiet! And there's only one way to do that! Get 'em!!!
And here's our first boss battle! I said this was going to be a hybrid LP, and as such, here's the video I made of the battle:
It's really easy.
Yup.
That's the guy we found tied up speaking.
Back to the bandits:
I swear, Garet, I'll choke on another platitude.
...and he's mind-reading us again.
(Yes) Dude promised he wouldn't and it's a serious invasion of privacy.
Sigh.
We're interrupted by Tied Up Guy returning with the Mayor and some other dude.
I can see this only as a subtle jab at RPGs that allow players to ransack people's houses for items without repercussion.
He gets kicked for his insolence. If only Isaac could do that when Garet started getting uppity.
I'm going to skip ahead a bit again. It gets really confusing with the no-portrait NPCs taking turns talking when you can't see their little sprites moving. It's also all completely unimportant. All you need to know is that the bandits get carted off to prison. Oh, and this:
Let's move on.
The Mayor walks over to the chests.
Okay then.
It's a gold statue.
I don't know how we can know if you don't open the chest.
Way to comfort the kid, mayor. He's like 14.
Cheer him up somehow.
Or not.
Mayor: Dodonpa knows that he can use Hammet to extort a ransom from Kalay. We can't do much until Dodonpa makes his move, but at least we know Hammet's safe... for now. Your name is Isaac, right? And you are...
Good. I figure we deserve some sort of reward.
Doesn't matter. We've got business to attend to.
Don't worry, I'm sure we'll get roped in to doing it sooner or later.
AKA Team Jerkface.
(Yes)
Exeunt all. One more check around the town....
Guess we're not going to Kalay then. Let's go see the mayor and get our reward!
Water of Life is a single use item that will revive a downed character. They're worth a good bit of money and I'm pretty sure there's a finite number in the game. They're always nice to have around, as a single downed character is a 25% drop in total effective actions. And if the downed character happens to be the only one capable of reviving downed characters....
(Yes) I have no idea. Let's go with yes.
That's a terrible name for a town. Well, time to leave. I guess we might as well take care of this whole Hammet business. We'll head to Lunpa next.
That's Lunpa. The cave there leads to a dead end, which we'll examine later.
Hmm... it's locked down tight. Maybe a bribe will get us past the guards.
(Yes) I believe I have a reservation under... George Washington?
Curses. Foiled again.
Oh look, it's a Nut. This looks like a job for Catch Beads!
We got these Catch Beads at the end of the last chapter, a present from Isaac's mother. If I equip them....
I get a new Psynergy to use out of combat, Catch. There are lots of these items throughout the game: think of them like new items in a Zelda clone. They're integral to most dungeon puzzles, and really add the "adventure" element to the Adventure RPG title that is Golden Sun.
Let's Catch us a Nut!
Yoink!
Nuts heal 200 HP, by the way. That'll end this chapter. We can't follow Ivan into Lunpa, so we'll need to move on. We've got a long journey to the first Elemental Lighthouse. We'll head through the Goma Range to Bilibin.
i think it makes subsequent elemental attacks more powerful
after a while it goes back to normal
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
I hate how it's Ivan.
You take that back.
Right. Lunpa. I know that Ivan wanted to rescue Hammet, but I say screw the brat, we've got important world-saving duties to take care of first.
I head East towards our next destination: The Goma Mountains. There's a cave that wends through the mountains and gets us to a large town called Bilibin.
En route, I do a bit of leveling because I don't want to feel like I'm falling behind. I don't learn any new Psynergy yet, though.
Behold, the entrance to the Goma Caves. You can actually see the exit on the northeast side of the screen. This is basically like the Mt. Moon of Golden Sun: it's the first real dungeon (I don't count Viridian Forest) that's intended to be a wear on your party resources, basically the first minor hurdle for the party. It also includes some nifty (but simple) puzzles that introduce the player to the manner in which they'll need to think for the rest of the game's dungeons.
But before we can enter the caves proper, we have to solve some elementary rock pillar puzzles.
Oh, no. I'm stumped. Did they really think this puzzle would give anyone even a second of trouble?
Pillar pushed to the right, climb the ladder.
This would be a bit challenging if we hadn't already learned that we could pull things towards us with the Move Psynergy in Sol Sanctum... so....
Yeah.
Another one? Well, step aside, I'll just pull out the Move Psynergy again....
Hmm....
Huh.
Looks like I can't Move this one.
Garet tells it like it is.
Ivan? What are you doing here? You're supposed to be helping the crazy dude with the mustache.
Well, the obvious answer is to use some of Garet's Mars Psynergy to burn the plant, but since you've just showed up again, I'm sure you've got some Jupiter magic that will accomplish the same outcome without making nearly as much sense.
What kind of lame Psynergy are you about to-
A tornado? Well I guess that's kinda cool.
The rock is no longer ivyed.
Calm down, kid. Nobody likes a braggart.
Me neither, kid. One wonders how a small town can survive with their gates locked down like that. How much food and water can they have stocked there? I doubt they could last more than a few days without opening their doors to merchants and such; perhaps if you just stuck around, you could get in.
That's good, because our aid isn't forthcoming. We've got important psychic duties to attend to.
Too bad. I don't need no SmartyPants McWindyGuy around. Garet's got my back too!
Wait what?
Dangit.
With the ivy cleared, we can easily Move the rock aside. That lets us jump over the gap.
Another ivy situation.
Fortunately, Ivan's Whirlwind Psynergy works on ivy that's grown over doorways too. As a matter of fact, that ivy is basically just a big ol' flashing indicator that it's time to have Ivan use Whirlwind.
The way clears, and we enter Goma Cave.
We get a few steps in before we're assaulted by new enemies. These are Will Heads, and they're pretty worthless. They attack more slowly than Garet (whose Agility is abysmal) and they don't do a lot of damage. Unfortunately, they do take several hits to kill, which means that fights take a bit longer for a while until I've leveled up a bit.
Say, let's try Ivan's Whirlwind on them.
The image doesn't show how much damage it does, but it's a bit better than Isaac's attack Psynergy. Ivan, as the resident squishy wizard has very low HP and defenses. His melee attacks are also usually pretty terrible, but he has three things going for him:
1. He's fast. He'll pretty much always be the first character to attack, and it gets even more ridiculous when you stack Jupiter Djinn on him, which tend to boost Agility. This also makes him a decent item-user, for when you absolutely, positively, cannot let your ally get hit again.
2. His Psynergy is the most potent. He's the party's black mage and glass cannon. This will matter for surprisingly little as we approach the end game and have enough Djinn to use them essentially nonstop, but for quite a while, he'll be able to consistently deal a ton of damage to enemies with his attack Psynergy.
3. He has really good Luck. This manifests in his propensity for triggering weapon unleashes.
What's a weapon unleash, you ask? Well, rare weapons (weapons that can't be purchased more than once like Isaac's Long Sword and Garet's Battle Axe) have secondary attacks that can trigger in place of their normal attack. For example:
This is the Bandit's Sword, that we picked up off of those Bandits last chapter. When a player attacks with it equipped, he'll occasionally use the move Rapid Smash, which is several swipes in a row. The character's Luck stat determines how often these unleashes trigger. Garet, for example, has terrible Luck, and Luck isn't boosted by gaining levels. Some Djinn will boost Luck, as well as some class changes. The only way to boost Luck by more than a point or two is with items. But we'll get to that later.
Turns out Goma Cave is actually pretty well lit. I have no idea how this happens. Come to think of it, every cave is remarkably well-lit, even the ones that nobody's visited in centuries. So that's odd. Oh well.
Another pillar! Must... push....
Well isn't this quite the tableau. There's a random stranger here staring at some freaky creature on a cliff. I'm reminded of a parable.
That's kind of a hint. I'll explain in a bit.
When Goma Cave throws old enemies at you, it throws them at you in droves.
Fortunately, Ivan can pretty much one shot most of this stuff by now.
A little bit later, we encounter a Skeleton. These are actually a legitimate threat, or the closest thing to one we'll be seeing here. They've got a decent chunk of HP and they do good damage, especially with the Bone Charge move. Fortunately, I'm able to dispatch this one before it causes me too much pain.
And Ivan levels up in the process.
We push this pillar to the right so that we can jump across and down.
Then we move this pillar so that... uhh...
It falls below.
Then we move the pillar back to the left so that we can jump across and to the right...
And pick up a rare Lucky Medal. The item description for the Lucky Medal says only "A special medal from Tolbi." I presume that we'll figure out what they do when we get to Tolbi. Until then, they'll be buried in the deep recesses of my item bags.
As you can see, there's now a way to jump across. That's the pillar we knocked over upstairs that landed there. In retrospect, I probably should have taken a shot of this region beforehand so it would make a bit more sense. Boo.
We jump over the new bridge and go up some stairs, and we end up back here, only this time, we can jump across that pillar we moved and talk to the creepy monster.
Turns out it's a Mars Djinni, and it attacks us!
Djinn you encounter in battle will typically run away after a couple of turns, so it's a good idea to go all out against them. If they do run away, you can leave the area and come back. Just as the man implied, the Djinni will return and you can re-engage.
I use Flint and Ivan's powerful Psynergy to bring the battle to a rapid close.
I have no idea why this creature is carrying coins. Let's just not think about it.
Yeah, suck it chump. This creepy bastard is all mine!
There's an explosion of sparks.
Forge actually kind of sucks. In actuality he's not that bad; his unleash boosts the party's Attack. The problem is that boosting Attack doesn't help much when you go all out, because only two members of your party will be doing substantial damage by attacking physically: Isaac and Garet. Only boss battles are going to be long enough to warrant using him. But that's sort of how it goes with all the Djinn who don't cause direct damage, and many of them are still very useful.
As this implies, not all Djinn look like this:
In Golden Sun and The Lost Age, all Djinn of the same Element will look identical. In Dark Dawn, the DS game that came out last year, each and every Djinn has a unique appearance, although all Djinn of the same Element will look similar.
Like I said, Forge boosts party attack. Not spectacular, but it does have its place, especially in the end of the sequel, where attack boosts to one character with one particular weapon provide epic amounts of damage.
We head up the stairs once more, and we appear here, near the entrance to the cave. There's this pillar in the way of our progress, and most of our trip through the cave has been in order to find a way around. One wonders how the heck this pillar came to be in such a peculiar place, but since Team Jerkface likely came through this way, it's possible that they put it there to impede our progress.
From this side though, it's no problem.
Goma Cave is actually sort of nice in that it's fast to backtrack through once you've gone through once. With games that lack any sort of teleportation method, it's a pretty kind way of designing your dungeons.
As we prepare to leave the cave, we run into this group. Those two hooded things are Ghosts, and they're reasonably painful in that they're spellcaster monsters. Kill 'em fast though, and they don't pose much of a threat.
Naturally, I decide to show off Forge.
That's about a 25% increase in attack for Isaac, which is pretty decent.
One last look at Goma Caves before we leave.
To our right is Bilibin. If that sounds like a dumb name for a city, obviously you need to acquaint yourself with the rulers. But that's neither here nor there.
We run into these monsters before we enter. They're another step up (eh... maybe a step sideways) from the Goma Cave monsters. They tend to Defend themselves, which is just a pain in the butt and makes me want to punch things because it serves only to slow combat to a crawl.
I summon Mars to soften them up.
Isaac hits level 6 and learns Spire, a single-target attack Psynergy. It's pretty good, and it'll be useful for a while.
Welcome to Bilibin.
Well that's creepy. I wonder if....
We Mind Read it, and we can reasonably extrapolate that this used to be a person.
(Yes) "Yeah, that thing used to be a person! That's messed up!"
Sacred tree? Oh, you pagans and your silly superstitions! Although... well... that guy is a tree....
Let's violate his brain like we did the whole village of Vault!
So it's the Lady McCoy's fault? Well I'm going to march straight up to her and insist that she stop turning people into trees.
Yeah, yeah, nobody cares. Got anything I can steal in here?
Must... resist... urge to make dirty remarks....
Seriously though, these are great. They're items that will permanently increase a character's Defense stat. There's one of these for every stat, and although the boost is small, it's still nifty. The most powerful of these, however, is the Lucky Pepper. It boosts the always-low Luck stat. I'm never quite sure who to give these things to, because I typically waggle between boosting a weakling's terrible stat and pushing the extreme of another's best. For example, I could give this Hard Nut to Garet to make him even tougher, or to Ivan so that he won't be quite so squishy. If anyone has an opinion, feel free to tell me, otherwise I'll probably just give it to Isaac, since he's the most important character.
Got an Herb too. Meh.
This statue looks suspicious. Plus, it's surrounded by that little edging of small stones. That means we can probably move it.
Yup.
Hmm... another statue.... and another of those creatures over there to the far right. Sadly, I can't Move this statue left or right, only down towards me. From this angle, that's not at all helpful.
This implies that the eruption of Mt Aleph was the cause of all the monsters we've been clubbing our way through since Vale. But Young Isaac and Young Garet fought monsters in Vale three years beforehand. So I'm not sure.
Kolima, the place where the tree people are? I guess I needn't be concerned by them then.
Screw you, lady. People are turning into trees and all you can think about is how it's going to affect your bottom line!
But the last guy only charged me 18 coins for three people! I know what's happening! This is that thing where inns get progressively more expensive for no reason whatsoever!
Have you, you know, actually looked outside? Wait, what am I saying? He's an NPC! He's never moved from that spot!
All the new weapons are way out of our price range. Instead, we buy some Leather Armor for Isaac and Garet, which is a decent upgrade.
That door leads to Bilibin Sanctum.
Turns out we can walk on this fence too!
We go down and around...
Then back up...
Welp, it's Whirlwind time.
Down the ladder.
And we're on this side! Now it's a simple matter of Moveing the statue down and jumping across.
This one decides to come along quietly.
Now we've got one each of Venus, Mars, and Jupiter Djinn.
Let's go try Spire!
50 damage is pretty darn good, especially since it can be used every turn.
After that battle, Garet and Ivan both level up.
Garet learns Flare Wall, which we'll see next chapter.
I'm going to end things here, because we're at a bit of a fork. We can decide to try and help the people of Kolima from the crazy tree curse, or we can head north to the first lighthouse. We have to do both, so it's just a matter of which we do first. Personally, I prefer going to the lighthouse first, but I'll defer to the audience's decision.
also, ragnarok coming soon
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy