=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=- BATEN KAITOS Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean Full FAQ/Walkthrough Written by Rebecca Skinner (Karpah) Version 1.0 25th February 2007 =-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=- Arrr, thar be spoilers ahead, me matey. =-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=- [ToC] TABLE OF CONTENTS =-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=- Fast Navigation! To skip to a particular section of the guide, press Ctrl+F (or select Find from the Edit menu) and input the section number in square brackets, eg. for Characters, enter [2.2]. Press Find and you'll find it! Thank you! - 1.0 - INTRODUCTION 1.1 Game Introduction 1.2 About the Author - 2.0 - GAME BASICS 2.1 Story 2.2 Characters 2.3 Menus 2.4 Magnus Basics 2.5 Battle Basics - 3.0 - HINTS AND TIPS - 4.0 - WALKTHROUGH (With Spoilers) 4.1 Sadal Suud Frontier 4.2 Diadem, Land of Clouds 4.3 Anuenue, The Rainbow Nation 4.4 Mira, City of Illusion 4.5 Alfard, Empire of the Flame 4.6 Party Regroup 4.7 The Ice Lands of Wazn 4.8 The Imperial Fortress 4.9 Duhr, The Earth Nation 4.10 The Celestial Alps 4.11 Xelha - Forbidden Book Of Magic 4.12 Gibari - Greater Celestial River 4.13 Savyna - Mad Wolf Unit 4.14 Lyude - Phantom Goldoba 4.15 Mizuti - Zosma, Tower of Stones 4.16 Cor Hydrae Castle - 5.0 - SIDE QUESTS (And Other Bits) 5.1 Quzman's Family Tree 5.2 Completing the Star Map 5.3 Animals for Wazn Campaign 5.4 Aging Magnus!? 5.5 Shop Selections - 6.0 - OUTRODUCTION 6.1 Revision History 6.2 Credits and Shameless Plugs =-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=- [1.0] INTRODUCTION =-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=- Ahhh, a new guide for me. I've been chomping at the bit to do one, in the break between Morrowind and Oblivion, and here I have a week of holidays to hopefully set down a good foundation for one. Plus it's an RPG. I'm hooked! ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- [1.1] Game Introduction ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- Mmmm, Baten Kaitos. What is there to say about a game like Baten Kaitos? Well for starters, it's one of the very few decent RPGs to surface on the little ol' Cube. So when I decided I wanted to write for another RPG, preferably one on the Cube because I don't have any Cube FAQs, the list of possible games to draw from was pretty small, and I only owned two of them anyways. So I rock/scissor/papered between Tales of Symphonia and Baten Kaitos, and this game won. So here I am. Whee! Baten Kaitos is one of the most unique games I've ever seen, simply because of its item system and battle system. And people liked it so much that it spawned a sequel, which will probably hit Australian shores sometime in 2008. Developed by Monolith Soft and tri-Crescendo, and published by Namco, this cult hit keeps most of the standard RPG fares, introduces some new ones, and creates an incredibly addictive mix that will keep most gamers hooked for at least 50 hours. (336 for the completists. And the ones that aren't hooked need to see a doctor.) I hope this guide completely covers the game, and helps you, the reader, unlock all of it's secrets (of which there are many). Good luck and good gaming! ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- [1.2] About the Author ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- Well now, what is there to say about someone like me. My name is Rebecca Skinner, so yes before the e-mails start saying 'r u really a gurl', I am a girl. (A female that loves video games? Wtf?) Right now, I'm 21 years old, though I expect that to change sometime within the next year. Whee! I live in Melbourne, Australia, and when I'm not addicted to playing video games, I'm either at university studying computer science, or at my local tenpin bowling alley. (Duh. I'm a nerd.) I love playing RPGs, games I can lay hundreds of hours into and never get bored. Though once in a while I am fond of sports games such as the latest AFL or cricket versions, or the odd car racing game. If you want to know more about me, or have anything at all to say about my guide, feel free to drop me an e-mail. ~~~~~ faqs(at)karpie.net ~~~~~ I check it fairly often, but my inbox does tend to fill up with crap all the time. A good way to get me to read your e-mail: 1) Make it in readable English. I hate 1337 or AIM speak. 2) Please don't ask me how to do something I've already documented. I don't mind if you ask for clarification on points, or ask me to explain further, but the fiftieth e-mail asking me where to get the Splended Hair magnus is ANNOYING. 3) Include "Baten Kaitos" in the subject title. These get forwarded to a folder I check more often than my spam-filled inbox. 4) Don't ask me when I'm going to update the guide. I'm a busy person, and I get about a dozen e-mails a week asking me 'omgwtfbbq are u gona updaet ur gide??' I work on it in my own time. E-mails like that make me not want to work on it. See where I'm going here? 5) Offer cash donations. Just joking. Or am I? *X-Files theme* Boring copyright info now. This FAQ is copyright Rebecca Skinner AKA Karpah, 2006. You can read it, download it, print it off, e-mail it around unaltered, whatever, I don't mind. But you wanna post it on your own site? Or copy and paste it, pass it off as your own work? That's a definite NO-NO, sorry. This guide can ONLY be found on the following sites: * http://www.gamefaqs.com (and affiliates) * http://www.neoseeker.com * http://www.ign.com * http://www.honestgamers.com * http://www.karpie.net (my site, of course!) Any other sites you find it on, lemme know so I can send some nasty e-mails to webhosts. I like doing that. ------ Go download Don't Say A Word, by Sonata Arctica as you read this. ----- =-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=- [2.0] GAME BASICS =-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=- Ah, good old game basics. This is the nitty-gritty stuff that you really should learn before jumping in and playing the game. If you don't, you'll either learn it pretty quickly in-game or be hopelessly stuck... Therefore, I suggest reading it as being stuck is never a good option. ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- [2.1] Story ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- Our story revolves around three main chracters - Kalas, a teenage rebel who thinks of himself, revenge, and little else; Xelha (pronounced Shella), a quiet but determined young woman on a mission; and you, the Guardian Spirit watching over Kalas and making sure he doesn't screw up his life TOO badly. Long ago, the world was ravaged by a wicked god named Malpercio. He destroyed the world's Oceans, and made the terrain unliveable, forcing the surviving population up to live on islands floating in the sky. (Ignore reality for just one moment here.) Now, in today's current world, there are five such islands - the nations of Sadal Suud, Diadem, Anuenue, Mira, and Alfard. Our story begins with Kalas, waking up in the small town of Cebalrai, on Sadal Suud. Here, he meets Xelha, and decides to accompany her to the nearby Moonguile Forest (for the sole purpose of getting revenge on some rock cats, I presume). There he learns a little about Xelha, who was there on a mission to find an especially rare Magnus. From there, it turns into a good old-fashioned race around the world between several parties to collect the set of these rare Magnus. Who will win? And what will happen when the Magnus have all been recovered? Stay tuned and get ready to play (or read), to find out... ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- [2.2] Characters ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- You'll meet a set of weird and wacky characters in this game, some likeable and appealing, some intrinsically evil, some just downright weird. And so I shall present, a list of the playable characters, with a little bit of information about them. ~~~~~ Kalas ~~~~~ Age: 18 Found: Cebalrai, Sadal Suud Base Stats: LVL 1 HP 132 DCK 20 ATK 13 DEF 10 AGL 11 VIT 10 EXP 12 CLS 1 HND 3 CM 2 IT inf. Equip: Aged Buckle The main character of the game. The one you're the Guardian Spirit of! Kalas is an unruly little kid, introduced to us at the start of the game in Cebalrai. After accompanying Xelha to the capital city of the island, Sadal Suud - he meets an old nemesis and becomes preoccupied with getting revenge for his sibling and grandfather. Of course, there are a lot of twists and turns in the road ahead for him, but Kalas is a good boy overall ;) Kalas will probably be your main fighter in battle, being the main character overall. Picking him up first in the game, you'll become comfortable with his battle style and equipment first of all and will probably be unlikely to change :P He can use weapons and armour of every element, making him a good all-rounder, and you can tailor his deck towards any specific boss with ease. Overall, a pretty darn useful character. ~~~~~ Xelha ~~~~~ Age: 17 Found: Moonguile Forest, Sadal Suud Base Stats: LVL 1 HP 101 DCK 20 ATK 11 DEF 8 AGL 22 VIT 7 EXP 47 CLS 1 HND 3 CM 2 IT inf. Equip: Fancy Anklet Ahhh, young Xelha with the terrible name. Seriously, what kind of name is Xelha? Anyways, you'll meet her in Cebalrai as well, as she tours Sadal Suud with a purpose in mind. She's on a mission to recover five sacred Magnus known as the End Magnus, remnants of an ancient and wicked god. Beyond her noble intentions, you'll learn a lot more about her as the game progresses, such as where she's from, how she came to learn about the End Magnus, and her possible connection with the long lost Ocean. In battle, Xelha will be your first (and only for a long time) spellcaster. She comes with a full deck of basic spell Magnus, and you will be using them quite a lot. Finishing moves are all light or dark based, perfect for a lot of bosses who have weaknesses to one or the other :P Later you'll get a second spellcaster, but Xelha has a much stronger base Attack, so is better suited for offense. ~~~~~ Gibari ~~~~~ Age: 34 Found: Nashira, Diadem Base Stats: LVL 6 HP 365 DCK 25 ATK 29 DEF 28 AGL 14 VIT 29 EXP 750 CLS 2 HND 4 CM 3 IT inf. Equip: Bamboo Creel Gibari's a fisherman from the land of clouds, Diadem. He seems set in his ways, unwilling to foresee a change in world order, and quite happy to accept Imperial rule... until the agenda is forced on him. He's almost like your group's fatherly figure, imparting words of wisdom when needed, also beating some sense into your other party members on occasion :P But watch him turn into a kid in a pissing contest whenever Reblys appears on the scene... aye. The vast majority of weapons Gibari has access to are wind elemental. You'd think they'd be water, he being a fisherman, but anyways. Combined with his rather large attack power, he'll be a major player in your team, especially when you come up against bosses weak against wind (of which there are several). ~~~~~ Lyude ~~~~~ Age: 18 Found: Castle Elnath, Diadem Base Stats: LVL 11 HP 449 DCK 30 ATK 37 DEF 39 AGL 34 VIT 31 EXP 2930 CLS 3 HND 5 CM 4 IT 30 Equip: Dark Red Earrings I like Lyude. I really do. Even though his voice acting constantly sounds like he's just finished running a marathon, I like him. Lyude is your token Imperial soldier, an ambassador stationed in Diadem, until an unfortunate incident sees him turn his back on his homeland and his people. And so he'll join your rag-tag group of misfits, on their mission. In battle, Lyude seems to have a rather big affinity for musical instruments, all either light or dark-based. Why musical instruments? No-one knows. But anyways. A versatile character, but one fairly average in all stats, he's best only brought in when the elements of a particular battle require it. He will shine during some parts of the game, and be totally off the mark for others, but is still a useful character. ~~~~~ Savyna ~~~~~ Age: 25 Found: Opu, Anuenue Base Stats: LVL 17 HP 780 DCK 30 ATK 55 DEF 52 AGL 57 VIT 48 EXP 8500 CLS 3 HND 5 CM 4 IT 30 Equip: Rubber Barette Ah, the mysterious Savyna. I won't say a lot about her, because for a long time, you don't learn anything about her. The crazily dressed woman with peacock tails for wings, who seems to be shadowing you around the island of Anuenue, checking up on you. Who is she, why is she following you, and what issues does she have? In battle, Savyna uses martial arts techniques combined with the elements of fire and water, just to counteract Lyude's light and dark. She hits harder than Lyude, and so is more useful, especially when the elements of battle are in her favour. Her finishers are also all fire and water, and involve multiple weaker hits. A very good character in battle, regardless. ~~~~~ Mizuti ~~~~~ Age: 14 Found: Duke Calbren's Manor, Mira Base Stats: LVL 22 HP 872 DCK 30 ATK 62 DEF 88 AGL 88 VIT 45 EXP 25000 CLS 3 HND 5 CM 4 IT 30 Equip: Dazed Birdie That's the Great Mizuti to you, punk! This little... person is the weirdest thing to come out of a game since Quina made itself known in Final Fantasy 9. But hey, at least we know Mizuti's gender (although it isn't apparent for a while), and at least Mizuti doesn't eat frogs. You'll pick Mizuti up on your way to Mira, when you take a wrong turn in the Trail of Souls and end up in the Outer Dimension. Scary, huh? And lemme say, Mizuti's introduction scene (the first one you see them in) is one of the funniest in the entire game. In terms of battles, Mizuti is your second spellcaster. Mizuti uses the same spell Magnus as Xelha does, so you can basically pick who you like better out of the two and use them for all your magic purposes. I chose Mizuti, as they're cute and you can barely understand a word they say. Mizuti has the edge over Xelha in defense, but in all other stats Xelha is slightly superior. Only slightly. ~~~~~ You ~~~~~ Okay, so You isn't a playable character, You means you, you holding the GameCube controller reading this guide because you're stuck on what to do next! You do have an important role in the game, that being the Guardian Spirit of the unruly Kalas. You'll be the one whispering the suggestions in his ear, telling him, yes you do want to hear that story, and NO, YOU DON'T WANT TO FIGHT THAT BOSS (I wish). Your responses to the questions Kalas and his group pose to you will determine the number of Spirit Attacks you get in battle - massively powerful elemental attacks that can be seen as your own input into battle, as the Guardian Spirit. You get to name yourself, whatever you like. I chose Becky, cuz it sounds very mystical and Guardian-Spirit-ish, and just happens to be my name. Of course, because you choose your own name, this means it will never be spoken in the dialogue, making for some very messed-up lines. "And (long pause) is your Guardian Spirit?" Arghhh! ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- [2.3] Menus ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- A lot of the menus are self explanatory... but due to unique concepts like Deck and Gathering, I'll go over them all. ~~~~~ Magnus ~~~~~ The section of the menu that deals with managing the hordes of Magnus you will collect over the course of the game. Lots of options with what to do with them... ----/ Deck /---- How we go about putting cards in a character's Deck, for use in battle. If they're not put into the Deck, forget about using them in battle. On the left side of the screen, you have the Magnus stock - all the Magnus that aren't currently being equipped in any Decks, as well as those that are non-usable in battle (such as Shish Kebabs). The stock has a maximum capacity of 1000 Magnus - but don't worry, you shouldn't come anywhere near it even if you are a hardcore collector. Cards listed in colour are able to be put in the current character's Deck. Cards greyed out are not, ie. weapons of the wrong type, healing items that can only be used in Camp, etc. On the right side of the screen is the individual character's Deck. L and R toggles between the sides of the screen, and up and down on the yellow C-stick switch between characters and their Decks. To move cards back and forth between the Deck and the Stock, press A to select the card. If putting cards in the Deck and there is no space left, you'll be prompted to select a card to replace, otherwise the switch will take place. Like all Magnus screens, pressing Z will show or hide more information about the current Magnus. ----/ Use /---- This is where you can actually use one-use Magnus. Some types of Magnus, such as Shish Kebabs and Wheat Crackers, are only usable in Camp, and using them here actually uses them up. Most Magnus can not be used in Camp, for obvious reasons. ----/ Equip /---- Each character is able to equip one piece of Equipment Magnus, and here is where you select that one piece. It has a similar layout to the Deck screen, except each character has a single Magnus displayed at right, and Magnus details are replaced with that Magnus' statistics at the bottom of the screen. Each character will only have a handful of possible Equipment Magnus to select from, and at the beginning of the game, none at all. ----/ Drop /---- Want to get rid of a Magnus? I have no idea why you would want to, unless you ran out of space in your Magnus Stock (which has never happened to me in several complete-Magnus runs of the game), but if you want to get rid of one, do it here. Select the Magnus, confirm the drop, and away it goes, never to be seen again. ----/ Quest /---- Early in the game, you will be introduced to the concept of Quest Magnus, those Magnus that can be used to draw the 'essence' of real objects, turning them into Magnus. Each Quest Magnus starts off blank, and you can fill them with essence by using them in the world, or empty them here. Pressing A on any quest Magnus will ask you if you really want to empty it. Or you can just check which ones you actually have. ----/ Valuables /---- This screen just holds a list of 'valuable items' and their descriptions. These are picked up over the course of the story, and don't get used manually like other Magnus. Keys and the like end up on this screen, as they are automatically used when necessary, and totally irrelevant when not. ~~~~~ Characters ~~~~~ This set of menu options relate to how characters are displayed on the Camp screen, and how they're organized in battle. ----/ Status /----- Changes the display of the characters on the right side of the screen to a more detailed view, displaying statistics and resistances for each character. Press up and down on the C-stick to change characters. ----/ BTL Members /---- Changes the display of the characters on the right side of the screen to a less detailed view, displaying minimal statistics for the three current battle party members on screen. When this option is selected, it will become greyed out on the menu screen. You can still scroll up and down, but when the characters on screen are not actually the ones in your battle party, the option will becoming active for selection again. ----/ Order /---- Changes the order of your characters in the party, and therefore the active battle party. The top three characters on the list will be the three that go into battle. Select a character, then select who to swap them with, to change the order. ~~~~~ Gathering ~~~~~ The Gathering section is for the collection nuts - it helps to detail just how far you've come in collecting all the possible items in Baten Kaitos. Completing the Gathering is hardcore. Truly. ----/ Magnus /---- Lists how many of the 1022 possible different Magnus available in the game, you have collected. Many of the Magnus are one chance Magnus, or otherwise not easily obtainable without meticulous planning and execution of the entire game. Completing the Gathering is perhaps the most arduous task possible to complete in Baten Kaitos. At time of writing, this author has 867/1022 collected. ----/ SP Combos /---- Lists how many of the 141 possible different special combos have been executed during battle, ie. different combinations of existing Magnus to create new ones, along with the combinations that created them (for future reference, should you want to repeat the combo to get more Magnus). ----/ Music /---- Lists all of the music tracks heard so far in the game, as well as some hidden ones that are unlocked by collecting various Magnus. In all, there are 58 songs to collect and they can be listened to here. ~~~~~ System ~~~~~ The System menu lists all the system options of the game - most are fairly self explanatory. ----/ Auto Sort /---- Sorts Magnus in your inventory automatically as you pick them up. Turn it on or off. ----/ BTL Tips /---- Displays Magnus detail in battle, such as name, attack, and elemental power, as your cursor is on a Magnus. Turn it on or off. ----/ BTL Results /---- After each character's turn, statistics are shown - attack power in each element, defense power in each element, overall damage, combo additions (or subtractions), and final damage taken/done. You can select to show all (on a screen you have to press A to get out of) after each turn, or show popups only. ----/ Rumble /---- Simply, turn the controller rumble feature of the game on or off. ----/ Voices /---- Turn voice acting on or off. While the voice acting isn't terribly great, I find it best to leave it on. ----/ Sound /---- Change sound output, to either mono, stereo, or surround. If hooked up to a massive big-ass speaker set, press Surround, otherwise Stereo should be just fine. ~~~~~ Save ~~~~~ Saves the game while either at a save flower on or on an island map. Select either slot A or slot B for your memory card locations, a save file, and save. If overwriting, you'll be prompted to make sure you want to, that you're not accidentally overwriting some 500-hour save game or something. ~~~~~ Load ~~~~~ Loads a saved game from the memory card in either slot A or slot B. This can be done at any time. ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- [2.4] Magnus Basics ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- Ahhh, and we get to the Magnus section. Knowing about Magnus and knowing how to use them effectively is the key to getting through the game. ~~~~~ What Is A Magnus? ~~~~~ To put it very simply, a Magnus is a card. It looks like an ordinary playing card, with four sides, one or more numbers, and a pretty picture. The picture on the Magnus is what that Magnus is. Some Magnus have pictures of swords on them, and are used as swords in battle. Some have pictures of icecream or apple pie, and can be eaten as recovery items. (Yum.) ~~~~~ Using Magnus ~~~~~ What good is a card? Not much, really. Except when you use it. Use it, and the card basically turns into the item pictured on it. Use a sword Magnus and attack someone with the sword. Use a wine Magnus and get smashing drunk. Well, no, but it would be nice. And when you combine multiple Magnus cards into a Deck.... that's where REAL the fun begins. Each character has their own Deck, of Magnus they can use in battle. If it's not in the character's Deck, they can't use it. Planning out each character's Deck is important - each needs to have a good combination of some or all of the types listed below, otherwise they'll get slaughtered in battle. Moving right along to the different types... ~~~~~ Magnus Types ~~~~~ Magnus come in a variety of types, as stated earlier. Each type is used differently, by different people. Looking up a Magnus to see what it does is easy in-game, but here are the general types, just for reference. Some Magnus fit under more than one category. Some fit in none. ----/ Attack Magnus /---- These are the Magnus that get used in battle as weapons against enemies. You can also use some against your own party, but what would be the point in that? For attack Magnus to be used, they must be placed in the right character's Deck, in the camp menu prior to battle. Some attack Magnus have elemental affinities, for example, Gibari's Mosquito paddle does both physical and Wind-elemental damage, and all of the spell Magnus are based on an element. Different types of attack Magnus are usable by different people. Sword Magnus are only used by Kalas, paddle Magnus are used by Gibari, musical Magnus by Lyude, claw Magnus by Savyna, and spell Magnus by both Mizuti and Xelha. ----/ Defense Magnus /---- These are the Magnus that get used in battle as protection against enemy attacks. They can loosely be split into several categories based on which of your characters can use them - a large portion of defense Magnus can only be used by Xelha and Mizuti, for example. Some defense Magnus have elemental affinities, for example, the Crystal Helm, usable by Kalas, Lyude and Gibari, will protect against a certain amount of both physical and fire damage, as it is a water- based helm. ----/ Recovery Magnus /---- These are the Magnus that get used to heal and revive your own characters, either in the Camp menu or in battle. They can also be used on enemies, but really, whats the point of that now? They may restore HP, cure status ailments (including Death), or add resistance against status ailments. Generally Very Useful Things. ----/ Finishing Magnus /---- These are special Magnus designed to be used as finishing maneuvers in battle, to finish off a long (or short) Magnus combo. Each character has their own set of finishing Magnus, each with more attack power than a normal (equivalent) weapon, for example, when you find Kalas' level 2 finisher, Shadow Wings, it will have more attack power than any weapons you find or can buy at or near that time in the game. Each finishing Magnus comes with a ComboMax requirement, ie. the number of cards that must be played in a combo before the finisher is available for use in battle. As a good guide, lower levelled finishers require a combo equal to the level of the finisher, for example, Shadow Wings has ComboMax 3, while higher level finishers (such as Chaotic Illusion, Kalas' level 8 finisher) require ComboMax just over half of the Magnus' level (ComboMax 5, in this case). ----/ Equipment Magnus /---- Equipment Magnus are the set of Magnus that each character can equip. (Way to state the obvious, stupid.) At any one time, each character can equip one of a predefined set of Magnus to increase their stats and also boost their resistances. For example, Savyna's Fairy Barette equip is useless on its own, but when equipped, boosts HP, ATK, DEF, and AGL dramatically, while offering minimal resistance to all status attacks. It's easy to tell each character's set of equipment Magnus, because they're all different types of one item. Buckles are equippable by Kalas, anklets by Xelha, creels by Gibari (with the exception of his Goldfish Bowl), earrings by Lyude (are they trying to tell us something?), barrettes by Savyna, and birdies by Mizuti. ----/ Class Magnus /---- These are special Magnus found over the course of the game, required to 'class up' your characters at the church. Each character has their own set of class Magnus, and each set has between one and five Magnus in it, depending on that characters' initial class level. Benefits of finding these Magnus (not that many are missable) and using them to class up your characters involve a larger Deck, a larger Hand, and larger possible combos, up to a maximum of a Deck of 60, a Hand of 9, and a Combo of 9 at level 6. ----/ Photo Magnus /---- These Magnus represent photos you have taken during battle, either of your own party or of your enemies, using a camera Magnus. Photo Magnus have no real purpose other than to complete the Gathering, and sell at any shop for gold. Selling photos is the only source of income in the game, so it would be wise to take photos, especially near the beginning of the game. ----/ Quest Magnus /---- Quest Magnus are special Magnus that are obtained by 'extracting the essence' of real world items. For example, examine a crate of apples to receive the Mountain Apple quest Magnus. As the name would suggest, these are not usable in battle like most other Magnus, rather get used for mini (or major) quests - get a Mountain Apple Magnus, take it to a specific person somewhere for a Magnus reward. Some of these quests are small, some develop over the entire game, such as the Constellation quest. ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- [2.5] Battle Basics ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- Alright, now that you know how our menu system works, what our Magnus are and what types there roughly are of them in the game, it's time to get into the important stuff. Using Magnus in battle, and how battles in general work. ----/ Friends, Foes /---- Battles will always be between your party, of up to three characters, and an enemy party of up to three opponents. Of course, in the beginning you will only have one character in your party, that being Kalas, but you will still fight multiple opponents. ----/ Turn Concept /---- Baten Kaitos uses a turn-based system. Each character (good and bad) will get an opportunity to take a turn, in which they can play one or more Magnus against friend or foe. Almost always, a battle will start with your party, ie. one of your party will take the first turn. ----/ Decks and Hands /---- At the start of a battle, each character's Deck of Magnus is shuffled just like a deck of cards, and Magnus dealt into your Hand. The Hand is the number of Magnus a character will have to choose from, in any one turn, and is decided by the character's class level. At class level 1, your Hand will consist of three Magnus. The Deck is predetermined before the battle, you set the Decks in the Camp menu, manually adding and removing Magnus as you see fit. Just remember, if a card is not in a character's Deck, that character can not use it in battle. A good basis for a Deck is a majority of weapons, say 65-70% of the Deck, most of the rest as armour, and a few healing items. When you use a Magnus, the next one in the Deck is dealt and added to the Hand. When the end of the Deck is reached, as it will in a lot of boss battles, one of the character's turns is used to shuffle the Deck, and the dealing process begins anew with a fresh Hand. ----/ Kicking Butt /---- When it's time for your party to take a turn, the standard course of action is to attack the bad guys, right? So that is what you should normally do. The character's Hand will be laid out for you to choose from, and you'll have a certain amount of time to choose the first Magnus in. This time, known as the IT, is also determined by your class level; at class level 1, IT is infinite. If you reach the end of your IT without selecting a Magnus to start your turn, you will forfeit it. Magnus greyed out are unavailable for use in an attack turn, either because they're defensive Magnus, or their ComboMax requirements have not been met. Once you have selected a Magnus to start a turn, then it's on for young and old. You have until that attack finishes executing, to select your next Magnus in your combo, or else your turn is over. You can select as many Magnus to use in one turn as your Combo stat will allow, again decided by class level. At class 1, this Combo is two, so two attacks can be carried out (two attacking Magnus used) in one turn, and at class 6 Combo is nine. As you attack (and the same is true for defense as well) you should keep an eye on what elements you use in a turn. Using a fire weapon, then a water weapon, will do lots of physical damage yes, but the fire damage and the water damage will cancel each other out (or at least partially). For best results, you generally shouldn't use weapons of opposing elements in the same combo. Once your turn has finished, a stats screen will display showing the results of that turn. How much damage you inflicted over your entire turn, how much defense the enemy used over the entire turn, overall results. Prizes are also indicated here, and an overall damage result is shown. Once you've finished your turn, it's onto the next character's turn. And if that character just happens to be an enemy... ----/ Saving Your Butt /---- Ah, this is when the tables get turned. It's your opponent taking turns in the exact same way as you did, selecting Magnus (only you don't get to see what Magnus they get to choose from). Again, you're picking Magnus - the single character targetted by the enemy attack gets their Magnus Hand spread out again, the same one they ended their last turn with. This time, all of your weapons will be greyed out, and your armour and other usable defense weapons will be active choices. IT isn't shown for your enemy, but you will only have several seconds to select your first defensive card, and you just keep on selecting them for as long as the enemy attacks. If you miss selecting a Magnus, that attack will not be defended, but you can continue selecting Magnus for the rest of the enemy attacks. Often, you may miss the first attack, not selecting a defensive Magnus fast enough, but you can continue selecting Magnus for the rest of the combo. As with attacking, at the end of a turn, statistics for the turn are shown, with damage the enemy dished out, defense you put up, and the difference. Plus any Prizes. What are Prizes, again? Keep reading... ----/ Prizes /---- Put simply, Prizes are bonuses you recieve for selecting a good combination of Magnus on any turn, be it an attacking or defending turn. If attacking, the Prizes will increase the damage inflicted (after the defenses have been applied) by a percentage, if defending, the Prizes will reduce the damage you sustain (again, after defense calculations). So, how do you get prizes? Prizes have to do with the numbers on your Magnus - the Spirit Numbers. Early in the game, each card will only come with one number, but later on they'll come with up to four, one in each corner. When you select a Magnus, one of the spirit numbers is chosen to represent the Magnus in the combo. By default, this is the top-right number. If you press A to select a Magnus during battle, this will give you the default selection, the top-right number. However, if you use the C-stick in battle, to select your cards, you can select between any of the numbers on the Magnus. How to use the C-stick to select Magnus? Put your cursor on the Magnus, then move the C-stick in the direction of the number you want. This way you can pick which numbers go into your combo, and which numbers don't. Why would you want this? Because the numbers are what gets you prizes. Like poker, you get rewarded for making pairs of numbers, 3 of a kind, so on. At the start of the game, you can easily make a pair, ie. picking two Magnus with 7's on them. You also get prizes for making straights, for example, 1-2-3-4 (in order) with your Magnus, or 8-7-6-5-4-3, or even just 6-7. Be warned though, with straights, the numbers MUST be in order and there must not be any extra. 1-2-3-4 will get you a prize, 1-2-3-4-3 will not. 6-7 is good, 6-7-9 is bad. With groups, such as pair, any number of combinations is good, but having odd ones out will lose you your prize. 6-6 is good, 6-6-7-7 is fine, 6-6-7-7-7 is also fine, 6-7-6-7-6 works too as a group of three and a pair, but 6-6-7 will get you nothing. So a complete list of the different prizes, and what sort of percentages you get for them? Here goes... Note: "Cards" in this case means groups of that number of cards - 3 Cards, 2 Pairs means two lots of three cards, eg 3-3-3-4-4-4. First percentage listed is for attacking turns, second in brackets is percentage for that same prize on a defending turn. * 2 Cards: 10% (-9%) * 2 Cards with 9: 15% (-13%) * 2 Cards, 2 Pairs: 13% (-11%) * 2 Cards, 3 Pairs: 26% (-20%) * 2 Cards, 4 Pairs: 40% (-28%) * 3 Cards: 21% (-17%) * 3 Cards with 9: 31% (-23%) * 3 Cards, 2 Pairs: 39% (-28%) * 3 Cards, 3 Pairs: 65% (-39%) * 4 Cards: 33% (-24%) * 4 Cards with 9: 49% (-32%) * 4 Cards, 2 Pairs: 64% (39%) * 5 Cards: 45% (-31%) * 5 Cards with 9: 67% (-40%) * 6 Cards: 57% (-36%) * 6 Cards with 9: 85% (-45%) * 7 Cards: 69% (-40%) * 7 Cards with 9: 103% (-50%) * 8 Cards: 81% (-44%) * 8 Cards with 9: 121% (-54%) * 9 Cards: 93% (-48%) * 9 Cards with 9: 139% (-58%) * 2 Straight: 13% (-11%) * 2 Straight with 9: 19% (-15%) * 3 Straight: 28% (-21%) * 3 Straight with 9: 42% (-29%) * 4 Straight: 45% (-31%) * 4 Straight with 9: 67% (-40%) * 5 Straight: 64% (-39%) * 5 Straight with 9: 96% (-48%) * 6 Straight: 86% (-46%) * 6 Straight with 9: 129% (-56%) * 7 Straight: 111% (-52%) * 7 Straight with 9: 166% (-62%) * 8 Straight: 139% (-58%) * 8 Straight with 9: 208% (-67%) * Final Straight Sunset (9~1): 255% (-71%) * Final Straight Sunrise (1~9): 306% (-75%) OK, that was a long list. As we can see, the ultimate combos are the final straights - creating either 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9, for sunrise, or 9-8-7-6-5-4-3- 2-1, for sunset. Obviously this is only available for class level 6, with a Combo of 9. Getting prizes regularly will ensure a much easier game. For some boss battles, getting major prizes will turn a hellishly horrific nightmarish battle into a manageable one. If you can practice making prizes early, using the C-stick, the game will become rather a lot easier as the battles get harder. ----/ What Now? /---- Armed with that knowledge, you should be able to at least attempt the game without getting your ass totally kicked. All battles (except several which are detailed in the walkthrough) work in this manner, so once you get the hang of it, you can go out and slaughter thy enemies with some degree of ease. Moving right along! =-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=- [4.0] THE WALKTHROUGH =-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=- Dun-dun-dun. The main part of the guide, though I suspect it will not be the longest. This walkthrough will take you by the hand and walk you through the entire game, from the moment you turn your GameCube on to the moment you see the pretty screen that says "The End". Step 1: Get out GameCube, plug it in, make sure all wires are properly secured. Step 2: Obtain Baten Kaitos game discs, either legally or illegally. I suggest legally. Step 3: Insert disc 1 into GameCube, shiny side down. Close lid, and turn GameCube on. That's it for the REAL basic housekeeping stuff. Once you've got the system on, treat yourself to the beautiful introduction seen, in which you'll meet your six playable characters, a few extra characters, and hear a little bit of stuff I wrote in the story scene above. The wicked god, Malpercio. Something about an End Magnus. Kalas, not caring about things that musn't be touched. Enjoy the scene, because it's the last you'll see for a VERY long time. Anyways, let's go! Press New Game and awayyyy we gooooo! ~~~~~ Ah, it seems Kalas has found a Guardian Spirit. Input your gender, and your name. Your name will come up frequently in written dialogue, not so much your gender. We get a little bit about Kalas' history, nothing that will make much sense. Him testing out his wings - one real, one mechanical. His home, ablaze. Him and his younger brother escaping, into the darkness. Five feathers, wanting to be freed from a thousand years of darkness. Oh, you'll learn to hate this voice, these feathers and what they represent. For the world, death and destruction. Oh, joy. ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- [4.1] Sadal Suud Frontier ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- And young Kalas awakens, not knowing where he is. The village doctor, a man by the name of Larikush, quickly informs him that he's in the small town of Cebalrai, not that that means a lot to you. He was found unconscious in the woods nearby, and Kalas remembers that he was attacked by rock cats. After learning about Kalas' winglet, and his grandfather's death two years ago, you're free to go. Be sure to thank Meemai, who found Kalas in the woods on your way out of town. In the room, get used to checking everything out and pressing A wherever a ! appears. As a reward for doing this, in the open wooden box you'll find a Shish Kebab (Small). The woman in the room is a great source of beginner's info, from types of Magnus, to earning money, to the Magnus Gathering. Read it, or not, then exit. ~~~~~ Cebalrai, the Farming Hamlet ~~~~~ Items Gained: Shish Kebab (Small), Shish Kebab (Medium), Fire Burst I, Dark Flare I Just in case you weren't sure where you were ;) Lots to see and do. Maynee, the girl in pink, suggests you go see the village mayor. Will do, later on. Speaking to the guy closest to camera prompts a scene about the Winglet. The guy close to the big blue flower will give you a small tutorial about saving and using the church. He's vague, but I'll be more specific. Red flowers are used for saving your game only. Blue flowers are used for saving, as well as transporting to a church where you can pray to level yourself up. No automatic level ups when you get enough EXP. If you don't visit the church and pray, you're doomed to be stuck on level 1. Forever! Bwahahaha... ... err, ok, that's out of my system now. On the next screen, you'll meet Meemai, the little blue... thing. Greythorne, I think. Do the right thing and thank him, now we can explore more. I like exploring and collecting things such as Magnus... the only thing to collect in the game >:( The stables net you nothing for now. In the house on the left, take the Dark Flare from the dresser, and note that the girl wants milk for her cooking. We'll bring her some shortly. The woman will offer you some weird advice, telling you there's someone waiting for you, someone you'll need. Guh? Oh well, you get a Shish Kebab (Medium) for listening to her ramble. The Magnus shop isn't much use to you now, seeing as Kalas only had 120 G in his pockets at the time of the rock cat attack. Last thing of interest is the girl in red, near the road out of town. Smart people will recognize her as Xelha, from the opening cinematic. She came to see the ancient ruins in the woods near here, but has to go. :( After she goes, Kalas decides he might like to take a look at these ruins too. But first, we have to see the village mayor, remember? In his house, the northernmost in the village, grab the Fire Burst from the bookcase, then speak to the mayor. He'll warn you against going back to Moonguile Forest - apparently an ancient, hideous monster slumbers deep within the forest. Oh, COOL! I wanna go! After he's finished yelling at you, you are indeed free to go. And where are you going? Baha, straight to Moonguile Forest. Head out of town, the same way Xelha and her posse did. On the Sadal Suud map, Moonguile is to the left, so head there. ~~~~~ Moonguile Forest ~~~~~ Items Gained: Voice 1, Leather Hat, Bamboo Shoot, Blue Storm, Fire Burst I x2, Draco, Warrior's Mementos, Flame Sword, Scale Buckle, Wild Strawberry, Escape Good thing to do might be to check your Deck and see if you're prepared for battle, because battles do and will start here. And you can and will die if you're not prepared. Luckily, Kalas comes with a full Deck of 20 cards - six Short Swords, three Sabers, one Long Sword, one Ice Dagger, two Leather Jackets, one Ice Armour, one Power Helmet, one Buckler, one Round Shield, one Camera 1, one Green Bananas, and one Bamboo Shoot. Battles here are pretty straightforward - take your time picking your offensive cards first, then gape at the short time you get to choose defensive ones. I was stunned when I was trying to get used to the system, seriously. Eventually you will get used to it, trust me ;) I suggest running into every enemy you see, for starters, just to get used to the system. Practice making two-card straights with the numbers on the cards, if you like, or pairs. Learn about claiming loot after battles. It's all in good fun. You'll also learn about collecting loot from battles. Whee :) The green sparkly thing on the left is a treasure chest, so examine it and you'll find a Voice 1 Magnus. Stick it in your Deck if you like, or leave it out, then move onto the next screen. There, you can ask the guy sitting against the log for battle tips, if you feel you need them. Attacks, combos, target selection, defense. You can't get to the chest behind the log (yet), but if you go through the little hole north of the river crossing, you'll find a chest with a Leather Hat. Even if you can't see the hole, you can see the chest so it shouldn't be too hard :P Across the river crossing, the chest to the south holds a Bamboo Shoot. Head up the path... and you'll hear something off in the distance. Uh oh. Seems like that creature the villagers were talking about was real after all... Xelha! Here she is... and her bodyguards aren't much good... And we're thrust into our first boss battle of the game. Whee! ~~~~~ ----/ Sabre Dragon /---- HP: 230 ELE: Fire(-80%), Water(+80%) DROP: Blue Storm, Fire Burst, Draco And here we are, with Xelha in the party. Note her pretty little magic Magnus. OK. First things first. It's an easy battle, because it's your first boss battle. But the principles of big battles get taught here. Firstly, elements. Being a sabre dragon spitting fire, this guy is obviously of fire element. So he'll absorb fire attacks (meaning Xelha's Fire Blast), and water attacks (eg. Aqua Burst) will do 80% extra damage. Good in my book. So pepper it with Aqua Bursts, and Kalas' swords. Not too hard a fight. Take a photo of it with the camera if you feel like going for a complete Magnus set - you'll be doing so in every boss battle from now on :P ~~~~~ Kalas doesn't make many friends after the battle, deciding to loot the corpses of Xelha's bodyguards... indeed, they won't need the Magnus much anymore. He gives Xelha the Warrior's Mementos... hold on to these, k? Finally, introductions are made, and Xelha seems to know a lot about you, the Guardian Spirit. The choice you can make is irrelevant... but may as well let Xelha know that you do, in fact, exist. All of the choices are pretty much irrelevant, they just affect little pieces of dialogue, no biggie. In the end, you're accompanying Xelha to the ancient ruins deep in the forest. Kool. Head towards the light, to enter the ruins. Check Xelha's deck out, if you haven't already. The way around here can be kinda confusing, because the path isn't very distinct. There's a path to a chest with a Flame Sword, under the arches, with a Shawra guarding it. Back around, there's a narrow path to the right, going around the tree, with another Shawra and chest in it. Take the Fire Burst, fight the Unuk. You can save at the red flower, before heading up the ramp and north off the screen. Is this the place?, Kalas asks. Must be, Xelha's doing all weird ass freaky stuff. And she summons another creature, oh great! ~~~~~ ----/ Lord of the Spring /---- HP: 300 ELE: Fire(+80%), Water(-80%) DROP: Scale Buckle, Wild Strawberry First thing to note, well, you will as soon as Xelha starts weaving elemental spells, is that this guy is reversed from the Sabre Dragon - fire good, water bad. Not much else to note - it's a fairly simple fight even at level 1 still. If you do get stuck (say, after one of his four-hit combos), you should have some bananas and bamboo shoots in stock. Just use them on yourselves to stay healthy. It might be drawn out a bit, but you shouldn't have a lot of difficulty... ...unless you decide to go through the deck twice to get to a Camera Magnus, to take a photo, like I did... ~~~~~ The time has come, the gate to Ar is opening... The blessing of Malpercio... a special card!? And one feather falls... But before Kalas and Xelha can make heads or tails out of all of this, an airship appears... and big tough (read: obviously evil) guy appears to 'take what has been stolen'. Meet Giacomo. No-one likes Giacomo. Especially not Xelha, after Kalas gets knocked out and Giacomo whisks her away. Ick. Meemai's back again, to rescue Kalas. And the shining Magnus is gone! And a revelation that Giacomo killed Kalas' family. Good reason to hate the sumbitch, in my book. Cmon, let's go after him, make him pay! Yeah! So Kalas decides to go back to the village to find out about the airship, taking Meemai wih him. And you're back on the world map. If you're really an item perfectionist, you'll note that you missed a treasure chest in the spring there, so you can go back and get it. It's an Escape Magnus, which may prove useful for tough battles :P Once you've got it, head back to Cebalrai. ~~~~~ Cebalrai, the Farming Hamlet ~~~~~ Items Gained: Mountain Apple, Ice Dagger, Pow Milk, Puppis, Maynee's Pendant Larikush is there to greet Kalas upon his return, and he drags you off to talk to the village headman. Of course, Kalas spills his guts about everything that happened, including Xelha's kidnapping. And you'll find out that the ship was headed for Sadal Suud's capital, Pherkad. Off we go! ... but first, stop off and see Larikush. On the way, use the flower and visit the church. You can class up to level 2, and may be able to level up to 3. ^_^ Bigger deck and hand for you! Make sure to fill up the extra deck spaces with more Magnus. Anyways, Larikush tells you that the road to Pherkad has become impenetrable, and he gives you some explosives to clear the landslide in the valley. But wait, you can't carry explosives! You can now, with the new Blank Magnus Larikush gives you. We're going to use these blank Magnus for a whole range of other things too, but for now, just explosives. And to get the hang of it, Larikush asks you to bring him some mountain apple essence. The mountain apples are in the crates just outside the hut, at the far side of screen. Press A, and you'll be asked if you want to trap the essence. Do so, and take it back to Larikush. He'll reward you with an Ice Dagger! Then grab the explosives, and head out. There are a few things you can use your blank magnus for, here in town. In the stables, take some of the Pow Milk from the crates on the right side. Take it to the house on the left, to the girl in pink, who wants some pow milk for one of her recipes. Grab another lot of pow milk too... just in case >.> Near the entrance to the town, you'll find Maynee, in pink. She's looking for her husband Aljeemo, who's been gone for three days... She'll give you her pendant, to give to him if you see him. Don't know why, but she just does. Well, okay. And if you feel like it, you can also trap the Stoked Flame from the fireplace, and use it to burn down the log you couldn't get past at the start of Moonguile Forest. The one with the chest behind it? Hell, it's only an Ice Dagger if you do. And you've already got several of those... Okay. Once you've done some or all of that, feel free to head out of there, to clear the landslide and go to the Nunki Valley! ~~~~~ Nunki Valley ~~~~~ Items Gained: Frozen Shield, Flame Shield, Secret Recipe 1 OK. Lots of bad guys crawling around, chests to open, all that sort of stuff. For now, I still recommend fighting every battle you see, to get practice. When the game gets hard, it gets hard quick (that sounds so wrong) and it's best to be prepared. Having the extra card in your hand and deck will help make these solo battles easier. Cross the bridge to your left, and grab the Frozen Shield from the chest. To get to the one below it, to the right, you'll need to cross back across the river, then jump across the waterfall on the lower level. You'll be told to time your jump right - press A when the water stops gushing over, it's pretty obvious. Then jump across on the stone, and grab the Flame Shield. Head up to the next screen on either the left or right, it doesn't really matter. Either way, the landslide's blocking your path. Examine the rocks, and use the explosives when prompted. Move along, killing everything in your path, to the next screen. Here you'll find new types of enemies - the Doomer. Think bombs. Fire elemental. Ice daggers work really well. If you enter from the left side, kill the two Doomers then grab the chest behind the waterfall - Secret Recipe 1. Ignore the guy standing IN the waterfall, and head back around to the right hand side. A guy sitting there will tell you more trade battle secrets - about prizes, straights, pairs, deck shuffles, and defense. Learn, do whatever, then move on up the ladder and keep going. Behind the waterfall, then back out onto the Sadal Suud map. Almost to Pherkad! Note that you can now run straight through the Nunki Valley (on the map) to get back to Cebalrai and Moonguile. Just for reference. :) ~~~~~ Pherkad, the Ancient Capital ~~~~~ Items Gained: Pebble, Pyxis Upon entering Pherkad, Kalas will immediately spot the airshop, docked high above the town. Guess where we're going! (No, not Australian Lighting... curse you people...) The little girl in the street there is always wanting Mountain Apples, and her mother is frustrated. If you have a Mountain Apple Magnus (from Cebalrai), give it to her and she'll give you a Pebble Magnus. Get the hang of how this swapping of quest Magnus works? You'll be doing it a lot :P One of the two girls studying the ground will give you Pyxis, another Constellation Magnus. I'm going to be detailing my explorations in each town before I start on the rest of the action, just so you, dear reader, know :) In the bar to the left, one of the women at the tables will tell you about a country bumpkin that lost his savings and got arrested... sounds a bit like Aljeemo, the man we're looking for. Anyways, he's in the Lord's Mansion, ie. the big tower thing we're also going to soon :) There's a house to the right, and a tunnel leading to a pavilion with a blue flower, out-of-order transportation to Diadem, and a Magnus shop. Shop if you like :) The second tunnel is guarded by a snot-nosed kid, and there's another house further on. In the house, examine the pot plants close to camera to find a Pine Tree Magnus. I think that's all to see, move along to the next screen :P In the house on the right, you'll pick up the start of one of the major side- quests of the game. Speak with the man on the bed, and agree to do him a favour. He'll ask you to travel the world and find all the members of his family. If you can do it, he'll reward you with some rare Magnus. Hey, sounds good to meeeeeee! He'll give you his Family Tree Magnus, to start getting his family members to sign. And he'll sign it first with his name - Quzman. He'll give you a hint - most people wearing bracelets will belong to his family - so everywhere we go, we should be checking people with bracelets. Right. Start with his wife, Taymiya, and hand over the Family Tree. She'll sign it, and off we start on the quest. I'll name drop throughout the walkthrough, of family members you should get to sign it. A complete list and details will be at the end of the walkthrough, in the Side Quests section :) After that, feel free to head up to the Lord's Mansion. But you won't get far - the guards on the door won't let you in. What, you expected a welcoming party? But your saviour will appear - in the form of little Palolo III, aka snot-nosed brat from before. He snuck into the Lord's Mansion? Ah-hah, we shall enlist his services! There's only one place he hasn't managed to break into, in Pherkad... the house on the right, closest to town entrance. So that's where we're going, aye. Enter the house, and a scene will take over. Why do you want to break into the Lord's Mansion, anyway? For a laugh, tell him about Xelha, and Kalas will get all pissed ^_^ Anyways, he'll tell you how to get in, but only if you bring him some loot - a Rainbow Spider's Web. Uh, sure. Whatever. He suggests looking on the banks of the river outside town... so back to the Nunki Valley we go! ~~~~~ Nunki Valley ~~~~~ Items Gained: the ones you didnt grab last time you were here >.> Okay. There are three screens to Nunki Valley, so how do you know where to look? And what exactly are you looking for? Well, if you head to the centre screen, it'll become pretty obvious - there's a big-ass weird looking spidery creature that just wasn't there before. That's where we're going, folks. It's a Rainbow Spider! Attack! *insert battle music* ~~~~~ ----/ Nunkiratula /---- HP: 350 ELE: Fire(+50%), Water(-50%) Wind (+30%), Chronos(-30%) Well, this isn't really a boss, but we have some trippy boss music so I'm assuming it is. We'll go with that. It's on about the same difficulty as the others so far though, ie. 0/5. The only move he seems to use with any frequency is Hardening Wax, which raises his own defense. Big deal, that doesn't hurt YOU! So just attack him. One strategy I used accidentally on purpose was to start using Ice Daggers, and they froze the bugger. Frozen spider = no attacks and zero defence, so just pepper away with attacks while he's frozen. It should only take a couple of turns. ~~~~~ Once you've beaten the spider, the Rainbow Spider's Web is yours. Back to Palolo, whose hideout is behind the snot-nosed kid in Pherkad. ~~~~~ Pherkad, the Ancient Capital ~~~~~ Items Gained: Aquarius Because you're now 'Palolo's friend' (uh yeah whatever), the snotnosed kid blocking the second tunnel in Pherkad's main street will now let you through. Whee. The little girl in the hideout, Pilulu, is another source of battle information, about choosing spirit numbers, defense, choosing a character, recommended digital, Magnus changing with time, and special combos and their hints. If you're new to the game, I recommend reading all the tutorials, even if they don't make much sense. They will soon :) When you're done reading, speak to Palolo. He'll take the web from you, and show you the well - apparently there's a secret passage that leads into the mansion. Trippy. If you're ready to sneak in (might be an idea to save first), talk to Palolo again and in you'll go. And now we're in... ~~~~~ The Lord's Mansion ~~~~~ Items Gained: Frozen Shield, Stagnant Water, Nameless Flower, Shadow Wings, Chain Mail, Wind Blow I, Mink Coat, Voice II, Shrike Statue, Chronos Blow I x2, Fire Burst II, Sparkle of Life Giacomo's on the ship, we already know that. So what's our plan of action? This time, if you mention Xelha, no funny scene, she'll just have to wait >_< Ick. So to the roof, we're going! The fountain in the centre of the room there serves as your exit point - if you want to leave at any time, examine it. But we're not leaving just yet, so head into the mansion. New types of enemies here, obviously - all Imperial soldiers. Examine the stained glass in front to grab a Frozen Shield. Now, there are four doors here - two guarded, two not. There are two people we need to find here, Xelha, and perhaps Maynee's husband Aljeemo... two people, two guarded doors, coincidence!? I think not!! So let's explore. Kill all the bad guys on the level, because even if you don't, they'll lay chase. Starting from the room on the far right... there's a Stagnant Water and Nameless Flower quest Magnus to obtain. Also an Ice Dagger, on the bedside table. Second room has a female locked inside... Xelha! Need key... On the left, the unguarded room has a Shadow Wings Magnus in the treasure chest. Kalas' next finishing move! Suh-weet. The maid working there will also give you a tip about Xelha - the lord keeps the keys, and they may be in his room. Right. And the far left room has a man locked up - obviously Aljeemo :) But we do need those keys... time to explore... Heading up the left stairs (because they're closest), fight the guards then take the Chain Mail from the chest. Head through the doorway, and there's the big shiny key on the table! Grab the Wind Blow from the chest, then take the key. All easy so far. A scene will commence... Kalas hides behind a couch as Lord Rodolfo and his lackey chat about what to do with Xelha. They agree to get rid of her tomorrow... Bah, we'll be saving her long before then. You can pick to go after either Giacomo or Xelha in speech... but either way, it would be nice to save Xelha :P Use your brand new key to unlock both doors. In Aljeemo's room, grad the Mink Coat from the bedside table, then speak with him. You were supposed to give him Maynee's pendant remember? So do it! And as a reward, you'll get a Voice II. And he'll leave to go back to Cebalrai. Whee :) Next, for Xelha. Unlock her door, and another scene. She's injured, so Meemai decides to help her. And of course, now that you're here, you're going to help her retrieve the shining Magnus from Giacomo and his goons. Such a do-gooder, you are. *snicker* Once the scene's over, empty the chests for a Shrike Statue and Chronos Blow. Leave, and take the other stairs up. Blue flower! Enter the church and see what you can do. You can now class Xelha up with the Shrike Statue, so do so. Bigger deck and hand for her, whee. And a few levels for her... maybe one or two for Kalas, as well. Make sure to fill Xelha's extra deck slots with the new spell Magnus you've been picking up :) In the kitchen, which is the door to the north of the save flower, a woman is despairing because she's run out of the lord's favorite yoghurt. If you picked up another lot (or more) of pow milk from Cebalrai... one may just have aged into Pow Milk Yogurt by now. (You may have noticed other Magnus aging too, such as bananas and bamboo. Such is life.) Or further into Pow Milk Cheese. The woman with the bracelet (note: Family Tree!) at the central island is looking for cheese - so hand over Pow Milk Cheese if you have some. (I'm playing slow as I type, so I have both cheese and yogurt >.>) She won't reward you, but the yogurt lady will give you a Fire Burst II. Outside the kitchen, examine the two statues and Xelha will unlock the passage through for you. Save if you haven't already, then head on up to the roof. A short scene, in which Kalas confronts Giacomo. This is for his grandfather, and for Fee! ~~~~~ ----/ Giacomo /---- HP: 750 ELE: Water(+30%), Fire(-30%) Light(+30%), Dark(-30%) DROP: Sparkle of Life, Chronos Blow I Bloody awesome battle music. Get used to hearing it >.> This is the toughest fight we've had so far. He's pretty strong - a basic three-hit combo will do around 60 damage (without defense). End Slasher is also particularly nasty, doing 30 darkness damage - in my first playthrough, this was the first boss I actually died on >.> Luckily, you can start off the bat exploiting his elemental weaknesses. Xelha has both water and light spells, including level 2 ones, along with the Dance of Light finisher. Kalas has ice daggers to help, but Xelha is obviously going to be your main attacker here. Here's where you'll start grasping the real importance of elements. If a defensive turn comes up, and you've got nothing suitable to use, go through the cards you don't want. ie. waste Fire Bursts on Xelha's defensive turns if she has no armour, just so she can use the good water ones on her offensive turn. Use Kalas and his bananas (you have some in his deck, right?) to heal if health gets low. It's not that difficult. He'll even drop Xelha's next finisher for you. ~~~~~ After Giacomo calls off the battle, kicks Kalas and Xelha off the ship, then you get chased out of town... You'll hear a bit more about what's going on. Emperor Geldoblame, trying to revive an ancient and cursed power... The evil god, Malpercio! Do you want to help Xelha? Kalas doesn't, but I do. Either way, Kalas gets huffy, refusing to die a glorious death, and stomps off.... before Xelha reminds him that the only way off Sadal Suud is via liner to Diadem, and thats where she's going, too. So begrudgingly, the two of you will travel together. There's a few more things to do in Pherkad. The house with the painting of the woman... When Palolo broke in, he destroyed it, painting a mustache on it. The woman could clean it, if she had some fresh water... You can obtain Pristine Water from the waterfall in Nunki Valley, and if you give it to the woman from the portrait, she'll give you the constellation Aquarius. Collect all the Quzman family members in Pherkad - you won't be back here for a long time. When you're ready, talk to the liner operator and agree to go to Diadem. ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- [4.2] Diadem, Land of Clouds ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- Mmmm... Diadem pretty. Purple clouds everywhere. You'll get your first view of the world map here, as well. ~~~~~ Nashira, the Fishing Village ~~~~~ Items Gained: Salty Water, Salt, Stagnant Water, Carina, Feathered Hat, Fire Burst II, Scale Shield Nashira's just a small fishing village, as all the little villgers milling around inside the warehouse will tell you... Yes, apparently there are rivers running through the sky -_- To get closer to the Empire, the liner guy will tell you that you need to get to the port town of Sheliak. Hey, Xelha's going there too. So again, you're travelling together :P Explore the warehouse, you can get Salty Water and Salt here if you like. Head down the street to the main part of town... and you'll spot a guy in Imperial uniform. Zuh! Apart from that, not much to see here in Nashira. A Fire Burst II from the container in the close right corner of screen. A Scale Shield from the container in the close left corner. In the first house to the left of the open Magnus shop, constellation Carina in the laquered chest, and Stagnant Water in the barrels. The fortune teller will tell you about what happened to the ocean, and the 'whale' living in it - swallowed by Malpercio, who then drowned under the weight of all the water. The irony is delicious :P The house to the right of the Magnus shop has a Feathered Hat on the top bunk. Enter the room to the right and speak to the man at the table, and you'll learn a little about Lyude, the Imperial 'spy'. In the tavern to the right of screen, speak to Anna the barkeep and she'll confirm what everyone else has suggested - that the roads to the city have, in fact, flooded -_- One of the fishermen by the name of Gibari might be able to take you to the city in his boat, she suggests... but he's not here now, check back later. When you've finished exploring, try talking to Lyude, at the dock. He's the Imperial Ambassador to Diadem, but it's just a name, an excuse to send him away from Alfard, the Imperial capital. When you're done, head back to the tavern. Gibari hasn't showed up, but a grumpy man shows up to get in your business. His name is Reblys, and he claims to be the head fisherman of the village. Reblys doesn't seem to like Gibari much, saying he's always following his own rules instead of the village rules. So we should just take the liner back home to our mommies. Oh REALLY? Punk. Before Kalas and Reblys come to blows, Gibari decides to show up. After scaring off Reblys, he agrees to take you to the city - if you'll accompany him to the Lesser Celestial River, on the way, to see why it's flooding over. Sure, why not? Agree to do it, then head over to his boat, the middle one at the docks. ~~~~~ Lesser Celestial River ~~~~~ Items Gained: Chaos Edge, Mana Stone, Stream Blade, Camera I, Fire Burst II, Century Veil, Energy Wave, Silver Anklet, Pisces, Heron Statue, Thunderfish Bone, Hemp Creel, Stream Blade, Cloak of Dark Knight And now Gibari's in your party as a playable character. Kool. After oogling at his initial Magnus, and paddles for weapons, we can start. Take the Chaos Edge from the chest, and equip it in Kalas' deck. If you need to return to Nashira at any time, just go to the ship and you'll have the option to leave. New enemies - Litte frogs, basically. Generally come in packs of two, but if you kill one, the other will escape :P You can't get to the chest to the bottom left of screen yet, so just leave it and jump to the rocks on the north side. You'll be ambushed by another new type of enemy, the Cancerite, not much harder :P But if they get to use Ice Cold Liquor, they'll start putting characters to sleep! The two chests on the next rocky outcrop hold a Mana Stone and a Stream Blade. Mmmm.... Kalas class up item. At the next blue flower you see, make sure to level his class to 3. Jump across the river again, and into the blue light. There, you'll find another frog, as well as a chest with a Camera I. Just to remind you to take photos of all the different enemies and characters, otherwise no moneys for you :P There's two paths to take, left and up - the up path leads to a chest with a Fire Burst II, and the left path leads to the red flower. The trick is to run through when the waterfall isnt gushing - there's three lots of water, alternating closer to you. When the closest one finishes, run through to the middle one, then when the third one finishes, run through. If you mess up, you wont die, just be sent back and you'll have to fight the Cancerites again :P Empty the chest for the Century Veil, and put it in Xelha's deck. Save, jump across again, and head through - now you'll be at the source of the overflow. Something's moving in there! And of course, it wants to fight. ~~~~~ ----/ Thunderfish /---- HP: 1000 ELE: Fire(+50%), Water(-50%) Dark(+50%), Light(-50%) DROP: Energy Wave, Silver Anklet, Pisces Okay. If you weren't clever enough to heal up at the red flower, you might be in a spot of trouble for this one. I know I am >_< It's weak against dark and fire, so Kalas (dark) and Xelha (fire) will be your two main attackers here. Gibari, being mainly wind and water, isn't much good so stack his deck with healing items, if you haven't already. Mineral Waters will come in very handy - the Thunderfish has an attack called Venomous Droplets that inflicts no damage but will poison one character. Not fun. For this fight, if you can start making straights with your cards, you might find it a bit easier. ie. using three cards with the numbers 4, 5, and 6 in order (or in reverse order). This will get you a nice little percentage bonus. If you combine this with say, 2x Fire Burst, or a dark weapon and Shadow Wings, you can possibly do up to 300 damage in one hit ^_^ Makes things a lot easier, no? ~~~~~ Apparently, according to Gibari, Thunderfish died out ages ago! (I wonder what we just fought then...) As Xelha freaks out and runs off to go tell King Ladekahn of Diadem what's happening, the Thunderfish begins to float downstream. Follow it, and keep pushing it downstream, until it lodges next to the chest we couldn't get to before, blocking the rushing water and giving us access to the chest. Empty the chest to find the Heron Statue, and you can also get the essence of the Thunderfish Bone from the head of the thunderfish as well :) There's another section of the Celestial River to explore - that past where you fought the Thunderfish. Battles get tough in here, and you might be a bit overwhelmed, but there are good goodies to be found. Such as the Hemp Creel, Gibari's class 3 item. If you go further, you'll be under the Cloud Passage (which was previously flooded by the river). On the little lower section of the first area, there's a boy with a bracelet who claims he's drowning. Save him, then get him to sign the family tree :P If you jump across the row of stones directly below the right of the cloud forks, you'll find a chest with a Stream Blade in it. To the very left of screen, in another pool, you'll find another drowning boy. Save him, get him to sign the family tree too. :) After that, there's not much else to see. Before heading back to the Celestial River, jump across the rocks to the south (near the first Striper) and you'll find a chest with a Cloak of Dark Knight. Once you've got that, THEN head back to Nashira the way you came :) ~~~~~ Nashira, the Fishing Village ~~~~~ Items Gained: whatever you missed before Straight away, someting's different about the town of Nashira... Imperial soldiers, everywhere! They'll shut you in the town - no-one's allowed to enter or leave. Well, that's just great, we wanted to go to Sheliak -_-; Use the blue flower in town to class Kalas and Xelha up to 3, and level up what you can. I have Kalas at 8, Gibari and Xelha at 9. (Xelha was forced to do a lot of solo battling in the River after I ran out of Wheat Crackers >.>) Once done, save and look around. Not much else to see... But Reblys is in the pub, and he's a tad ticked off. The soldiers have arrived, but they're not here for Kalas and Xelha... because a larger squadron went off to the castle. Whatever they're looking for, is in the castle. Of course, the two of you are off to the castle then... And Gibari too, because he wants to know whats up and promised to take you there originally anyways. (Weak excuse.) But how are you going to get out of town, it being so heavily guarded? Well, apparently there's a secret path out... but only Anna the bartender knows where it is, and she's gone walkabouts. Argh. Time to go find Anna! After consulting a few villagers, they'll point you in the direction of the fish warehouse, near the liner dock. Go to enter, and you'll hear Anna inside. She's arguing with an Imperial soldier - the Empire will never win the hearts or minds of the Diadem people! Good for you luvey, stand up for yourself. Anyways, once inside, Anna is quick to agree to show you the secret passage in the pub, so meet her there when you're ready to go. In the pub, speak to her and she'll open the secret passage. When you enter it, you're out on the world map, so move to the only place you can - the Cloud Passage. ~~~~~ The Cloud Passage ~~~~~ Items Gained: Cygnus, Aqua Burst II, Soul Flash, Shark Tooth If you didn't visit part of the Cloud Passage in the Celestial River... meet the Stripers. The main enemy of this area. They are tough. And you'll often meet them in groups of three. They're Wind-elemental, meaning unless Xelha has a lot of Chronos Blow, you'll be relying mainly on physical rather than elemental attacks -_- And starting from class 3, your IT (time you get to choose your first move) is no longer infinite - it's 30 seconds and will fall with each class up you get. Here's where the challenge begins! In this first part of the area, it's just one straight path with three sets of Stripers on it. Next is the screen you may have visited before, except now you're on the cloud paths instead of the rocks below. If you can see green treasure chests below you, come back and get them later in the game :P On the left path is Qutayba, another Quzman relative, and if you came here earlier and saved his two sons in the water below (getting them to sign), he too will sign. If not, never fear, they'll still be here drowning later. Head up on the right, to the next screen. This one also splits into two forks. Take the right fork, and you'll find a cloud machine. Turn it on, then grab the magna essence of the Cloud. Once you've got it, head back and up the left fork. It's a dead end... but you've got the Cloud to fill the gap in the path, now! Once you've recreated the path, grab the constellation Cygnus and the Aqua Burst II from the chests. Save at the red flower. Follow the path along, then realize it doesn't actually lead to the wooden bridge :P To get to the wooden bridge, head back past where you put the Cloud and down, and across to the left. Try to cross the bridge. Uh oh. ~~~~~ ----/ Iron Beetle /---- HP: 1500 ELE: Water(+30%), Fire(-30%) Light(+30%), Dark(-30%) DROP: Soul Flash, Shark Tooth OK. This battle sucks for several reasons. Firstly, his first move is pretty much always Nitro Boost, which boosts his attack. As if he wasn't formidable enough. It's no Orb of Magical Offense, but still. Secondly, his next turn AFTER a Nitro Boost will generally be a Voldocannon. Which is painful. Very painful. Even if you luck out with the right elemental defense, you're still looking at 200 damage. Ugh. And you know what he has every chance of doing? Repeating those two moves, over and over again. See what I mean? So, what can you do to stop this? Several things. For starters, if you've walked into the battle and made a meal of it, as I just did, it might be an idea to stop and start thinking about deck strategies, ie. customizing your deck for a specific battle. All of these here boss battles are designed to teach you individual things while the going's easy. And here's what I would do. ~~~~~ You need one dedicated healer out of your three. Choose whoever has the worst elemental weapon selection - either Kalas or Gibari. Take everything out of their deck and replace it with every healing item you have. You would have been collecting things like grapes, milk and honey, which are great on their own, even better when combined to get prizes such as pairs. For Xelha and your other attacker, remove the elements the Beetle is strong against (dark and fire) and replace them with every strong element you have, even if it's sacrificing a Fire Burst II for a Water Burst I. Xelha is doubly good because of her Light elemental finishers. Then attack, attack, attack. Have your defender heal as much as they can. After every Voldocannon, you want that recipient to be at least over half health before the next one comes around. You shouldn't have too much trouble once you work out the fine art of deck tailoring. Once you're done, head out of the Cloud Passage and back onto the area map. You have access to the Lesser Celestial River again, just in case you wanted to collect the items you missed, or perhaps rescue the two Quzman quest kids. Or you can just head to Sheliak, to go to the castle. ~~~~~ Sheliak, the Castle Town ~~~~~ Items Gained: Clock Shield, Red and Blue Pencil, Voice II, Fading Notebook, Calm Helmet, Ray of Truth Very strong military presence here too. Go to pass the first house on the road, and Kalas will overhear Lyude, the Imperial ambassador, in discussions. King Ladekahn, plotting against the Empire? Well, of course not, but they'll say anything to draw attention away from what they're REALLY doing. The Imperial commander completely disregards everything Lyude has to say, warning him that he was exiled here for a reason, and not to make it any worse. Hmmzorz... Gibari speaks to a man coming out of the Magnus shop, about the situation in town. It doesn't sound real good. Doesn't sound like Kalas has a lot of respect for Lyude, either. Check out the Magnus shop after the scene - only a handful of new items, the most interesting of which is a weapon, the Shadow Cornet, that none of your party members can use. Double hmmzorz... Head through the town and start exploring. In the first house in the main area of town, check the display cabinet between the windows for a Clock Shield. You can use the blue flower near the boat to go to the church, class Gibari up to 3, and maybe level up one or two. For the record, all of my characters are now level 10. In the second house in the main square, where the mayor is holding a meeting, grab the Red and Blue Pencil from the dresser. Talk to the mayor and you'll find out more about the situation in Diadem - it isn't good. In the third house, take the Voice II from the dresser, and from the corner near the chests, take the Fading Notebook. How to get to the chests? Easy. Go back to the second house, and you'll notice the bookcase has moved. Get behind it, in the corner, and run into the side of the case - Kalas will push it out of the way, revealing the door. Then you can take the Calm Helmet and the Ray of Truth. Once you're done looting, head through the archway to the castle. It's on fire! Holy shit. Kalas is his usual pessimistic self, ready to run with his tail between his legs because he doesn't care about this, all he cares about is avenging Gramps and Fee. However, Gibari has other ideas. Sleeeeeeper hold! Cop that, Kalas. No-one seems to be too concerned about the fires, oddly enough. Could have used some awesome 'hurry' music here, or something. XD I so use that line 'if you get me killed, I'll come back as a ghost and haunt you forever'. This is priceless! Anyways, the plan is to steal a boat and fly into the tower from above. This game defies reality so much, it isn't funny. Steal a boat and...fly? But anyways. Save at the blue flower again, then grab the boat. It says to wait for an opening, but you don't have to. And then you're off to Castle Elnath. ~~~~~ Castle Elnath ~~~~~ Items Gained: Infinity Mask, Dark Sword, Butterfly, Dark Flare II, Light Flare II, Dark Yell I, Chronos Aura I, Fire Aura I, Light Aura I, Aqua Aura I, Light Yell I, Pebble, Wind Aura I, Dark Aura I, Wheat Crackers, Crescent Buckle, Shadow Cornet OK, first things first. Let's find King Ladekahn! In the chest on the far left of screen, you'll find an Infinity Mask. Inside, speak to the Head Knight in front of the staircase. Here's a little mini-game of sorts for you... with unique Magnus as a reward. Unique in meaning if you want to collect all 1022 Magnus, you better get this right. You get four knights, a blank Magnus, and a Royal Crest. If you want another Royal Crest to make sure, go to the wall hanging and grab another. Speak to the guy on the left and he'll teach you what to do with the four knights you just received. You can dispatch them to existing battles between Diadem knights and Imperial knights, in the hope of overcoming the Imperials and winning the battles. If you win the battles, you'll be rewarded. If you lose, you'll have to fight off the knights yourselves. You can also use the Crest to inspire fallen knights, ie. get more knights to join you. Sound simple enough? Hope so >.> I'll be giving instructions to make sure you get it right anyways. :) Take the Dark Sword from the chest, and start arranging decks to make sure everything new goes in them. If you didn't re-arrange back after the Iron Beetle battle, please do so ;) Head down the stairs and we'll find our first battle. One Diadem knight vs. two Imperial knights. Not good. Examine the battle and add some knights. A Knight and a Squire should be sufficient - and as a reward, you get a Butterfly. Check all the statues in the area - the Foot Soldier on the very right near the rubble will give you a Dark Flare II, and the centre one on the left hand side will give you a Light Flare II. Give these to Xelha immediately, then head down the stairs. Two battles here. One on the left, which you can't add knights to, you can just fight yourself. Make sure to take a photo of the Imperial Elites, if you're a completist. Then around on the right, fight the lone Blackhelm standing over the soldier's body. Take a photo of him too. At the battle on the right, add a Senior Knight to the mix and the two Imperials will fall. Fire Aura I as a reward. Check the painting on the right as well, to get a Dark Yell I. Now head left on that screen, to the room behind the two Diadem knights. This is the infirmary. Lot of wounded knights here. However, if you show the crest to any of them, they'll get up and join you. What we want right now is one Senior Knight - Uki sitting on the floor near the door fits the bill, so show him the crest. Then head out, back up the stairs, and through the door on the left. Three Elites vs two Diadem knights, in here. So send out your new Senior Knight. After the three Elites collapse, you'll be given a Chronos Aura I. Grab the Magical Anklet from the chest (put it on Xelha straight away), and the Fading Notebook from the urns at the back of the room, then head back to the infirmary. Now we need one normal Knight - Rikmi sitting up against the bed will do. Take him, then head out and down the stairs on the right. Here, some Diadem knights will fight off a wave of Imperial Elites, and Kalas will walk right into a battle. Dispatch the three Elites. Then, you'll see two Blackhelms and two Diadem knights going at it. Unleash both your new Knight and your Squire on them, and the Blackhelms will fall. Whee! Light Aura I as a reward. You're advised that the path behind the door has already been lost, so to take the stairs on the right around. We can dooo that. But firstly, we have no more knights. So we must go get more. Back to the infimary we go. Grab a Senior Knight, a Knight, and a Squire. Head back to the main room where you were before, and down the stairs. There's another swordfight going on - one Diadem knight vs an Elite and two Blackhelms. I do NOT like those odds. So send your three knights out there. You'll get a Dark Aura for doing this. Save at the red flower... we're ALMOST done. Either side of the jade statue on the centre of the room, you'll find a Flash Armour and a Shadow Suit. Light and Dark, I like it. Anyways. Back to the infirmary. Yes, this bit is hella complicated. Grab a Knight, an Apprentice Knight, and a Squire. Yes, we're leaving the Senior Knight there for a REASON. Take your three new knights, head back down the stairs, and across to the right like the knights suggested. Four Elites vs two Diadem knights? Eep! Put all three of your new guys out there to do some slaughtering. Five against four, better odds... and the Elites will all fall. Take the Aqua Aura I as our reward. Check the painting to the right of the staircase to grab a Light Yell I. You can even extract a Pebble from the debris on the stairs if you like. Then head back and get some more knights. Take as many as you can - well, as many as there are. Last one. From there, heac back past the main room, past the staircase with the debris, and through to the room on the right at the bottom. Set out all of your knights, and as a result, the Elites will fall and you'll get a Wind Aura I. Check your Gathering screen, or Magnus inventory. Make sure you have ALL SIX AURA, AND pictures of both the Blackhelm and Elite soldiers. You will NOT get another chance to get any of them. If you've collected all eight, congratulations. Head back and save your game... because I don't think you want to be going through all that again. Then come back here and climb out the window, to get to the floor above. On the top floor, take the Wheat Crackers from the pottery urns at the back of the room, then head out the door. Kalas will rush over to the balcony... because something major's happening downstairs. The king is still okay! But the Empire is declaring war on Diadem unless Ladekahn gives himself up! And Lyude stands there and does nothing... Ladekahn decides that for peace, he will go with the Imperial troops and discuss the matter with Emperor Geldoblame personally. But the troops have other plans... one of them, Ayme, Kalas recognizes. And she's the one that takes the shot at Ladekahn! Now Lyude finally speaks out against his commander... and before Ayme can do any more damage, your party jumps down to defend Ladekahn. So now it's Ayme and the Imperial commander versus Kalas, Gibari and... Lyude!? Not quite, because Ayme has another trick up her sleeve.... ~~~~~ ----/ Iron Beetle /---- HP: 1700 ELE: Water(+40%), Fire(-40%) Light(+30%), Dark(-30%) DROP: Crescent Buckle, Shadow Cornet Gee, THIS guy looks familiar. He's almost an exact carbon copy of the LAST Iron Beetle we fought. With a few different attacks, and with a new character, the principles are slightly different. But we'll see how we go. Note that like Xelha, Lyude's finishers are all light-based. (For now.) And it's he that uses the musical instruments as weapons, like the Shadow Cornet we saw in the Sheliak Magnus shop. He also comes equipped with some weird other things, like a Dark Yell I, and a Pretty Flower. But we'll ignore those for now. As for the Iron Beetle... no Voldocannon this time, but a rather annoying maneuver called Self-Repair which... yup, you guessed it, completely recovers his HP. And he'll follow this up with a five hit combo and Diving Drill that has the potential to do 200 damage, just like his predecessor did. The good news is, you have a lot better equipment this time. You've picked up a lot of bits and pieces around the castle, and you can put them all to good use here. WHen his five hit combo comes around, if you have five pieces of armour, USE THEM, ignoring elements as there's only a small percentage of elemental attack. You just want the physical defense points. Sometimes he uses single attacks, which are a nice reprieve for you to get a lot of damage in. Overall, more HP, but nowhere near as challenging as the last Iron Beetle. Make sure to take a few happy snaps during the battle. ~~~~~ After the battle, the Imperial soldiers retreat. Everyone rushes to Ladekahn's side, where Xelha asks the question of the day - is there something hidden here to draw the Empire's attention? Something to do with an ancient god? Ah yes, the Shrine of the Winds. Mere legends, but they're actually true. Word. Save your game at the blue flower. The two knights to the right of the blue flower are a shop and a rest spot, so buy anything you might need, rest, then make your way down the stairs behind the right column. On the world map, Xelha and Kalas will discuss Xelha's pendant, the one she stole, and the copy of it she had made. When it's done, head over to the Shrine of the Winds. ~~~~~ Shrine of the Winds ~~~~~ Items Gained: Coral Plant, Magic Pen You were expecting another big dungeon? Fooled you! Xelha's pendant goes nuts, just like it did in Moonguile Forest, and a really big... thing... appears... ~~~~~ ----/ Lord of the Winds /---- HP: 1900 ELE: Chronos(+80%), Wind(-80%) DROP: Coral Plant, Magic Pen Okay. No prizes for guessing this guy's elemental weaknesses. Strong against wind, weak against chronos. If you were smart enough to put Xelha back in your party (this game only does three person parties, and the addition of Lyude pushed Xelha out) this battle will pretty much be a cakewalk, with her Chronos Blow. Because Gibari's weapons are primarily wind based (with a few water exceptions), I would swap him out for Xelha before the battle. That being said, there are really only two things that you need to worry about in this battle. One - poison. He uses Venomous Powder, so make sure each character has a Mineral Water or two to counter it. And two, Slashing Winds. Gee, who woulda predicted he has a massive wind attack? By itself it only does about 50 wind-based damage, but it generally comes at the end of a four hit combo that can do nearly 200 damage (sounds familiar...) Like the last battle, when a four hit combo comes around, its not the elemental damage that hurts most, it's the physical. So just block with anything and everything. Because you've probably levelled up since the last boss battle, and have your choice of characters, this one is significantly easier. ~~~~~ After the battle, the second shining Magnus appears. Lyude seems captivated by it... and the second feather falls... And WTF does Lyude do with that End Magnus!?!?!? Bastard... After the battle, we'll be back in Sheliak, in the castle. ~~~~~ Sheliak, the Castle Town ~~~~~ Items Gained: Tempest Shield, Hydra, Glass Earrings, Savings Book, Butterfly Speak with Lyude - he seems to be pretty depressed. GEE I WONDER WHY. You just literally handed an End Magnus to the enemy, dumbass. Apparently it was a strong form of hypnosis, and he's perfectly fine now. Baha. I don't trust him. We'll find out a little more about the End Magnus, how they came to be, and why they're buried underground. Xelha's story of how she found the pendant. About how it's now YOUR job to go to the other nations and track down the other End Magnus. Next stop, Anuenue! It's my favorite island ^_^ Go to exit, and yo'll automatically have a nap. Leave the room and speak to the supervisor, and agree to help him clean up. (There's Magnus in it for you.) Cleaning up is pretty easy if you "Magnatize" it, as the supervisor says. What he means is, collect the rubble in the form of Pebbles in your Magnus, then empty them. Easy. Pick up Pebble. Get rid of it. Release process until the area is clean. Then speak to the Head Knight, at the top of the main stairs, to get a Tempest Shield. You can do the same on the west side, speak to the supervisor and clean up there too. This one's different, you need to organize the rubble by pushing it to the top and bottom of the room. This will take a while and be very frustrating (and you'll be asked a million times if you want to quit, if you accidentally move too far away from the supervisor), but the pieces do slot nicely into a complete row at the top of screen, and half a row at the bottom. Good luck... As a reward, you'll get the constellation Hydra from the Head Knight. And if you do both, you'll get Glass Earrings as well :) If you want to head back into town, you'll have to do it via the front doors, not the roof. If you've missed anything at all in Diadem, might be an idea to get it now because you wont be back for a while :P For example... You can now enter the house in Sheliak where Lyude and his commander were talking. There you'll find a Savings Book on the dresser, and a Butterfly from the treasure chest. Head up the the dock to leave, and you'll be told the boat isn't ready, so why not go check on Lyude? Head back downstairs. Lyude is up and at the window, so talk to him. He's all sooky-sooky, can't go back to the Empire, why would he even want to, etc. So Xelha suggests he joins you on your quest. Kalas doesn't like it, but Gibari makes him tap out and agree to have Lyude back. And if Lyude plays up again, Gibari will pop him one in the jaw :P Ok. Once you've got Lyude, head back up to the ship, and set sail. You'll cross the Taintclouds, a noxious mix that the fisherman refer to as the 'pit of hell'. Fun, really. On to Anuenue! ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- [4.3] Anuenue, The Rainbow Nation ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- Let me just say now - Anuenue is beautiful. Lush and green and pretty. Possibly why I love it so much :) I'm sure you got SO sick of the clouds everywhere in Diadem. And Sadal Suud was just boring. But Anuenue is great! Plus it has a kick-ass name. And it's led by a female. What's not to like? Let's go! We have a letter to deliver to Queen Corellia! ^_^ ~~~~~ Anuenue Port ~~~~~ Items Gained: Auriga, Bamboo Grass Creel, Snake Tuba, Explosive Paddle So let's start with exploring, as always :) Climb the nearby ladder to find the small house, and in between some books on the bookshelf, grab the constellation Auriga. Also take the Bamboo Grass Creel from the chest. Outside, to the left of the ladder, there's a hidden stairwall in the plant that lets you walk along the top ledge... and at the end, you'll find a chest with a Snake Tuba :) If you take the ladder down from the main ledge, just to the left of the orange Greythorne, you'll find a chest with Explosive Paddle, Gibari's level 3 finisher. From there... that's all to see. If you talk to the few townspeople, they'll tell you all about the Thirty Year Festival in Komo Mai, which starts soon. So let's go there! Head out of town to the right. ~~~~~ Komo Mai, City of Flowers ~~~~~ Items Gained: Stagnant Water So, what's happening in this here town? A massive party! The Festival of the Celestial Tree - a tree that blossoms once every thirty years. All the innocent people, with no knowledge of whats about to come. Hmmzorz. Let's explore! :P All of the people dancing around don't have a lot to say. The house to the north has a well with Stagnant Water in it, and a woman and child with a flock of ducks. Ducks inside? Stranger things have happened. Like, you know, boats that fly. Anyways. On the main area screen, at the very bottom near two laughing people, grab the Bananas wedged in between the baskets of bananas. There's a save flower to the north, and a Magnus shop through the open doorway. Once you've scoped the place out, head up the spiral path in the centre of town. First time I played this game, I seriously didn't see the path >.> Spent forever here in Komo Mai wondering what to do next... When you go to climb the ramp, you'll witness an interaction between a mysterious woman and a shop owner. She brings in top quality monsters, and he forgot to pay her all the money he owes her. Sounds like a top chick, in my book. Up the ramp, you'll find even more people and festivities going on, making things kind of confusing. An old man tries to give you some Komo Mai cookies, but Kalas isn't interested. The large portable shrine on the path will block the way to Queen Corellia's castle, so you've got no choice but to explore the School of Magic, up the stairs to the left and right of the path. ~~~~~ School of Magic ~~~~~ Items Gained: Black Scepter, Secret Recipe 3, Silkworm, Chronos Blow II, Sweetheart Picture The game lists it as a seperate area completely, and so will I :) I've started with the right hand side, before exploring the left, though you can do it either way. In the first classroom, you'll interrupt a class learning about the mysteries of the world. The Taintclouds we heard about before, and legends of a kingdom of ice far to the north. Once she's done, you can investigate the room. The lockers on the left will give you a Black Scepter, and the bookcase on the right will give you Secret Recipe 3. In the second room, you'll see a bunch of kids studying. This is also the principal's room - she's the little girl to the right of screen o.O There's a big conical flask of green fluid at the top of the room that the woman nearby reckons no-one has the balls to smell or tarse...Well, we can just prove her wrong, now. Examine the flask, and smell it. Hey, it doesn't smell half bad! So taste it. Baha, Kalas falls to his knees, groaning. But the woman nearby is impressed enough to give you a Silkworm for making her laugh so hard :P In the left half of the School of Magic now... you'll come across another class in the first room. A lecture on the five continents - and let us pray that the peace between them will last forever. Uh, no. It isn't going to. Sorry dude :P From the lockers on the right, take the Chronos Blow II. In the second classroom, on the far left, a teacher is giving a lecture on the Ocean... but where are the students? Oh, who knows, just listen to the lecture! Examine the three oil paintings nearby to find the Sweetheart Picture. When you've finished exploring, the portable shrine will have been moved out of the way, giving you access to the castle outside. ~~~~~ Corellia's Palace ~~~~~ Items Gained: Deluxe Bananas, Flower Bud, Strawberries, Hair Dryer, Mattress, Celestial Flower Seed OK, let's see what we can find here before we deliver this letter from Ladekahn to Corellia. Take the path to the left and enter the small room - there you'll find Deluxe Bananas in the pot plant near the door. In the first room on the right, grab a Flower Bud from the same pot plant near the doorway, and Strawberries from the platter of fruit on the table. The second room on the right is Queen Corellia's room. We're warned not to touch anything, especially the shelf, but meh. Take the Hair Dryer from the dresser, and the Mattress from the bed. (o.O). To the right of the bed, you can trap the essence of Celestial Flower Seeds from the shelf. Once you've looted her room, head up the main staircase to the Throne Room. A scholar currently has audience with the Queen. Xelha interrupts (how roooode) and hands over the letter from Ladekahn. Just as she's trying to explain the urgency of finding the End Magnus to Corellia.... guess who decides to turn up! None other than clownface Geldoblame himself! Oh, this IS rich. However, Corellia doesn't seem to believe you, and asks Geldoblame directly about the End Magnus. Oh, gee. Like he's going to admit to invading Diadem looking for it. Gibari does his nut, but Geldoblame is quick to shut your party down - after all, it has an Imperial traitor, and a thief. Good point. Geldoblame was just leaving, in fact - he came to bid farewell. He recognizes Kalas, as does his cronie. Outside, Geldoblame can't believe Kalas is alive... and sets a target on his head. He didn't actually find the End Magnus, as Anuenue's magical field is too strong... but his main objective now is to see Kalas dead. Interesting... Back in the Throne Room, Corellia is sympathetic towards your plight but won't help you. Seems like Anuenue is the Switzerland of their world - always neutral, no matter what. So she's no help. And she doesn't know any legends that would help you locate the Mangus anyways. Boohoo. Tail between your legs, out you go. But she'll stop you on the way out. Your name is Kalas, right? Well, yeah. Hmm, she knows something about you. But won't say. So you leave. Walk away, and a scene will take over outside. What to do now? Xelha suggests that they could look for it themselves, but Kalas doesn't like the idea. Agree with him, to get brownie points. A court lady interrupts - if you're looking for something, maybe you could try the Ancient Library of Magic. Apparently a witch went back there, so maybe you could ask her to point you in the right direction. At the end of the scene, you'll see the huntress from before... she's following you! Leave town, and you'll get a glimpse into Corellia's private thoughts. Anuenue is faltering, slowly but surely. ;_; And we're back on the world map. We now have access to both the Ancient Library of Magic, and Holoholo Jungle, but we're more interested in the Library, so head there. ~~~~~ Ancient Library of Magic ~~~~~ Items Gained: Zeit Robe, Sforzando, Will-O'-Wisp Hat, Falcon Statue, Scarlet Shell, Deluxe Cookies, Silver Sword, Ruby Earrings, Kite Shield, Fruity Gelatin, Taurus, Deluxe Bonbon, Deluxe Shortcake, Heartlight Candle, Devil Eupho, Water Mirror Anklet Now, the first time I played this game, this place was the death of me. I spent hours wandering around not knowing what parts I had done and what I hadn't. I'll try and get through it and organize it properly and direct you through it properly this time >.> Okay. On our first screen here, there's several things to note. Two bad guys walking around. A treasure chest. Something glinting on top of the shelves. Two seals. And a stairwell on the right. The glinting thing is a key on the shelf, labelled "Geography Section", so take it, and the chest holds a Zeit Robe. Now let's check the seals. The one on the right is labelled "History Section". No dice getting past it. However, the one on the left is the Geography Section, so you can get past it with the key you found. And what do we have in here? A bunch of bookcases, with red ones that can be pushed. Get the Skeleton Warriors out of the way first, then push on the red bookcase all the way in. Then, move around the back of the far bookcase (you can even read about the disappearing plants if you like), then push the next bookcase... just enough to get past it. Then you can collect the treasure chest, which you couldn't if you pushed too far :P Take Sforzando, Lyude's next finisher, from the chest. Then grab the next key, the Philosophy Section key, from the floor in the corner. See how this is going to work? -_- Also of note is the hidden Will-O'-Wish Hat, in the top- left corner of the room, but facing right, behind the two vertical bookcases. Grawr. If you push the second bookcase the rest of the way in now, you can get to the last section of bookcases, one which holds a book signed by the Head Librarian - valuable item Geography Book. Time to find where to use the new Philosophy Section key. Head up the staircase on the right of the entrance screen, and grab the Wave Blade from the chest at the end of the hall. There's two doorways there, take the left one as the right one is blocked. :P There's another key on the dresser, but dont grab it yet. Make your way directly to the north of the red case, and examine the shelves there. There's a gap on the shelves that can fit one book, and you're prompted to put your Geography book in. So do so. Now to find the Philosophy Section. Save at the red flower at the top of the room if you like, and take the Falcon Statue from the chest. Xelha's class up item! Yay! If you examine the door at the back of the room, you'll be told that to gain entrance, you need to collect four books written by some guy. Well, we've already done one. The Philosophy Section is on the far left side of the room, so push the red case out of the way to get there. Note that if you examine some of the bookcases that come up with !'s, you'll be thrown into battles against mutant books - two types, and if you're a completist, you'll need to photograph them both. Now, ignore the red case for a moment. See the ladder on the side of the bookcase, on the close right corner of screen. Climb it, and jump across to grab the Scarlet Shell from the treasure chest. Gibari's class 4 item! Whee! Next, jump two bookcases across to the left and grab both the Deluxe Cookies from the chest and the Literature Section key from the floor. But we still haven't got the Philosophy book, and you can bet your bottom dollar its in the closed off section in the left corner. But how to get there? Can't jump across from the big shelves near the door, because the bookshelf isn't stable according to Kalas. How to make it stable? Push another case against it! Like the red one there ^_^ You need to push it down, so do so from the top side, ie. go to where the chest was and come back to push it down. Then jump across and climb down. Take the Philosophy book from the shelf, and the Magnum Cornet from the chest, then head back out. Save again. And where does this Philosophy book go... on the bookcase in the corner right next to the exit door. So put it there. Next, Literature section! The Literature Section entrance is right below the Philosophy one. Inside, take the Silver Sword from the chest, and use it to whoop the butt of the Skeleton Warrior. Then head around the back of the room to the red case on the left - push it just far enough to sneak into the gap on the right. There's a hidden ladder here, on the top bookshelf, so climb up then jump across to the bottom bookshelf. Climb down, and take the Ruby Earrings from the chest. Then, push the red case all the way back up into the gap. Climb back up on the top case and run across to check what book it is on top of the bookcase against the wall... hey, it's a the Literature book :P Take it and head out, pushing the second red case out of the way to create an exit path. Now for the final key, on top of the red case in the main hall. Examine the case, and it will fall down, knocking the key on the other side. No drama, it created a path across to the other doorway which was previously blocked. Take the Kite Shield, then unblock the right doorway by pushing the case out of the way. Head out, then back in the other door to grab the History Section key. As there's nothing else to do there, head out and down the stairs to the History Section. This room's the easiest of the lot, no red cases or anything. Just collect the Fruity Gelatin and the constellation Taurus from the two chests on the left side of the room, then take the History book from the case in the bottom left corner of screen. Also take the Deluxe Bonbon from the case in the top right of screen. Then head back to the main hall. Where do these two books go? Well, if you examine the left of the two bookcases on the right hand side of the room (closest to camera) you'll get a Deluxe Shortcake. But no, thats not where the books go. One goes right below where you put the last one - below the top right corner of screen. And the last goes just to the right of the standing red case, on the left side of the room. When you're done, save your game, then head through the door. Is there a witch here? Well, no. It's only Folon, Geldoblames cronie from before >_< We took the bait! Now, Folon knows exactly who Kalas is, he's a leftoever from the attack on Georg, Kalas' grandfather... And all of today's lucky winners receive a one way ticket straight to hell! ~~~~~ ----/ Folon /---- HP: 2300 ELE: Water(+30%), Fire(-30%) Light(+50%), Dark(-50%) DROP: Heartlight Candle, Devil Eupho Been a while since we had one of these boss-type things. And the kick-ass music is back. Now, with elemental weaknesses like that, Gibari's pretty useless in this battle, being wind and dark based. So bring in a party of Lyude, Kalas and Xelha, all whom have strong light-based moves, including finishers for Lyude and Xelha. Folon has several annoying maneuvers. One, Energy Injection, raises his own attack, like your own Cucumbers and the like. And he'll generally follow it up with one of those annoying multi-hit combos with the devastating finisher, Chaotic Flames (which also inflicts Flames status for good measure). Grrrrrrrrr. My Xelha just got hit for 180 damage. And it is just me, or is Folon a lot faster than any boss we've had so far? Less time to make your defensive moves. Either way, it's frustrating. Luckily, HE doesn't actually defend much. You'll need several strong healing items, such as Strawberries, and if you can combo them together for prizes you can completely recover your HP in one fell swoop. I'd ignore the Flames, as theyll only deal 25-ish damage each turn, and concentrate on strongest attacks. ~~~~~ After the battle, Folon decides to show you the power of Malpercio, and what it's gonna be like when they finish awakening his power. Scaaa-reeee. But just as he goes for the final blow... random special attack from unknown person! Party escapes! Whee! And we'll find out who it is... huntress chick from Komo Mai! She has a name, but until she gives it to you, I'm not saying what it is :P She wants to meet you at the village by the waterfall, so that's your next stop. Note there was a treasure chest next to Folon in the room. When you're dumped back on the world map, go back into the Library to get it - a Water Mirror Anklet for Xelha. There's also a journal on the desk which makes for some interesting reading, about the old head librarian... Now, before heading onwards, into another bitch of a dungeon called the Holoholo Jungle, I'd recommend going back to Komo Mai and resting at the shop. Then use the blue flower to class up the rest of your characters, and do what levelling you can. All of my characters are now level 14 ^_^ You're gonna need it... ~~~~~ Holoholo Jungle ~~~~~ Items Gained: Silver Earrings, Ice Crystal Buckle, Brave Knight Helm, Equuleus, Heat Paddle, Fire Burst III, Smash Tackle, Wind Yell I Now, this place is a complete bitch. For one main reason - you cant see where in blazes you're going! On the first screen, you'll meet a small man, who is whining because he forgot to bring a Landmark Stone to get through the jungle, and it's impossible without one. He wanted to get a stone from the principal of the School of Magic... but didn't. You can try and ignore his pretty blatant hint, and get through without one, but I'm here to tell you it seriously won't work. So, guess where WE'RE going? :P Head back to Komo Mai, to the School of Magic. On the right side, second classroom, speak to the principal. She'll hand one over just like that, so head straight back to Holoholo. It's still a pain in the ass dungeon. You still can't see where the hell you're going. And so, I might miss a few items in it >_< The first screen remains the same, just the one path. On the second screen, there's one path with a ladder coming off it, near the first blue butterfly. At the bottom of the ladder, grab the Silver Earrings from the chest (which is near the other blue butterfly). From there, then head down to the left, and off the screen - follow the path to come to another chest with the Ice Crystal Buckle. Then head back and back up the ladder and across to the third screen. On the third screen, there's another ladder right near the blue butterfly at the start. Head down, then around to the right at the bottom of the ladder, to find a whole slew of chests. Brave Knight Helm, constellation Equuleus, Heat Paddle, Fire Burst III, Smash Tackle, and Wind Yell I. Nice lot of loot there ^_^ From there it's just one straight path to the end, with a few enemies on the way. Take a few photos, kick some bum, and soon you'll be back on the world map. So save, then head down to Opu, the Waterfall Village. ~~~~~ Opu, the Waterfall Village ~~~~~ Items Gained: Boiled Egg, Lupus, Ice Knuckles, Perseus So we were here looking for the mysterious huntress, right. Feel free to rest your wings at the Magnus shop right near the entrance to town first, though. Check out what's for sale, as well - a pair of knuckles and a barette for absolutely no-one in your party.... gee, I WONDER... :P Now time to look around. The little girl on the bridge is trying to fix the water wheel, but it isnt working. Cross the bridge, and you'll meet Mayfee, one of the Keepers of the Celestial Tree. She knows you're here to meet the huntress, and the huntress told her to tell you to wait until she gets back. Uh, right. OK. From the house on the right, you can grad a Boiled Egg from the stove, and the constellation Lupus from the flower pots right next to it. Also take the Uncooked Rice from the tub next to the door. Then head to Mayfee's house. There's not much to see, except Mayfee and her grandmother. Speak with her grandmother, and listen to her story of when she was a Keeper for the tree. When she leaves, you can leave too and keep poking around. At the bottom of the long path, visit the church, save, and grab constellation Perseus from the girl standing next to the save flower. Then enter the huntress' house. Grab the Ice Knuckles from the plants on the left (so the knuckles in the shop were for her, eh? ;) ) then head back up to see Mayfee in the waterwheel house. Speak to her, and she's praying for her grandmother's wellbeing. She'd offer Komo Mai cookies... but doesn't have any. The person near the stove also talks about Komo Mai cookies... what on earth are they? Apparently if you offer them to the Guardian Angel, she'll grant your wishes right away... hmm.. Outside, Gibari declares that they must go find some Komo Mai cookies to help Mayfee out, seeing as you've got time to kill. Kalas doesn't like the idea, and neither does the little kid trying to fix the wheel, but Gibari's mind is made up. Back to Komo Mai we go! ~~~~~ Komo Mai, City of Flowers ~~~~~ Items Gained: only what you didn't pick up before Now, remember there was a guy just outside the School of Magic talking about the wonder of Komo Mai cookies? Sounds like he might be the guy to go to about them. So ask him, on the right side of the path leading up to the palace. He's a bit huffy we ignored him every other time we've been in town, but he's willing to make you Komo Mai cookies as long as you can find him the ingredients - he needs a seed from the Celestial Tree. They're not called legendary cookies for nothing, you know! Now, you might have a Celestial Tree Seed already, or remember where to get one. Corellia kept some, on the shelf next to her bed in her palace, remember? I did tell you to pick one up when you were there last >.> If you didn't pick one up, go get one. Then hand it to him. After a bit of wizzle wazzle hand waving, he'll hand you a valuable item - Komo Mai cookies! Take them back to Opu. ~~~~~ Opu, the Waterfall Village ~~~~~ Items Gained: Flash Explosion Back in Opu, enter whe waterwheel house, and Gibari will give the Komo Mai cookies to Mayfee. She'd never actually seen them before, and doesn't recognize them, heh. But she offers them to the guardian angel, to make her grandmother well and to make the waterwheel work... And wouldn't you know it! That darn water wheel actually starts spinning! OK, it wasn't the cookies, it was actually Mayfee's little friend >.> After he leaves, take the Flash Explosion from the chest behind him. Oh, and you can now go and see the woman in her house. So save again, then go there. She seems to think you have a death wish for taking on the Empire, and I'm inclined to agree with her. But regardless, she'll take you to the Celestial Tree to get the End Magnus - that's what you're here for, isnt it? o.O.o.O How does she know!? And only now does she tell you her name - Savyna. Once you've got Savyna in your party, feel free to change her equipment, then head on down to the Celestial Tree. ~~~~~ The Celestial Tree ~~~~~ Items Gained: Crater, Wild Cherry Bud, Gold Beetle Carapace Yes. Pretty tree. We get it. Savyna wants to climb the tree, but the Keeper is turning her back. Mayfee's caused enough trouble, apparently. Oh? Mayfee's already climbed the tree! The Keeper tries to keep all of you back, but your party won't have a bar of it, brushing right past. Before climbing the tree, though, head into the hut on the right and take constellation Crater from the boxes. Once you're done, start climbing the tree, on the left hand side :) Take the Wild Cherry Bud from the chest (class up item for Savyna! Whoo!) Seeing as to get any further you have to climb back down to the bottom then take the right path anyways, I'd almost recommend going back to Opu and using the blue flower to class Savyna up to 4, just to make her even with the rest of your party. If you plan on using her right now >.> Either way, climb back down to the bottom and climb up on the right side. When you reach the ledge, Kalas will spot Mayfee, sitting on the ledge. Let's go get her! Climb up the right hand side, because the left is a dead end. At the top, ignore the red flower, then head down on the right to get to Mayfee. Unfortunately, you'll have to fight to get to her >_< After the scene, in which Savyna scolds Mayfee for wanting to be just like her, you'll have to babysit Mayfee to the top of the mountain. No big deal, she's just tagging along. So head back up the mountain. You can avoid the circling Blood Fangs if you time your movements right. And on the next ledge, fight the Devil Fangs and save at the red flower. Take the path up on the right and enter the cave, to trap the Beetle Carapace. Then climb back down, save again for good measure, and head up again on the left to get to the top of the tree. Examine the doorway, and Mayfee will unlock the seal with her special Keeper power. Make sure you're well healed and cured and whatnot, then enter the core of the tree. ~~~~~ ----/ Tree Guardian /---- HP: 2700 ELE: Fire(+50%), Water(-50%) Dark(+20%), Light(-20%) DROP: Freezing Axe, Dancing Flames HP: 500 ----/ Tentacle x2 /---- ELE: Fire(+30%), Water(-30%) Ewww.... three targets in this battle. Two pussy Tentacles, and a Tree Guardian. So let's look at how to set up our decks. Seeing as this is a water -based boss, fire would be a VERY good idea. If you're anything like me, Savyna is several levels higher than everyone else - and she's fire/water based. Take everything water out of her deck, leaving her with fire weapons, fire armour, and non elementals. Likewise, take everything water out of Xelha's deck. And seeing as Gibari and Lyude have little or no fire whatsoever, Kalas better be your third. With such a strong assault, you can simply ignore the Tentacles if you wish, because most of their attacks are weak, with no more than about 50 damage. However, they have this annoying tendency to heal the Tree Guardian, at 540 HP a pop. Alternatively, if you take out the Tentacles, the Tree Guardian will take the time out to revive the Tentacles, with 250 HP each. So you can pick which way you want to take the battle. If the Tentacles attack you, don't bother with your specially selected fire armour, just regular will do. If the Guardian attacks, thats when you use your fire armour, and even a Fire Aura if you have it to stop the devastating water attack at the end of the chain. If you're well prepared, the battle isn't too difficult, even with the multi targets and the high HP. Just make sure you keep Savyna, as her fire attacks are deadly :) ~~~~~ At the end of the battle, the third End Magnus appears... and Celestial Flowers, that look like shooting stars! Take your battle spoils, and celebrate. The tree is blooooooooooming! And Komo Mai goes wild! And the third feather falls... Finally, an End Magnus that YOU get to keep :P But wait, there's controversy... Savyna, an Imperial soldier??? Lyude is SURE of it. And she's not denying it! Argh! Savyna will NOT get her hands on this End Magnus! ~~~~~ ----/ Savyna /---- HP: 3300 ELE: N/A DROP: N/A Much, much easier than the last fight we had. If Savyna was in your current party, she's obviously not in it anymore, so the next person in line will move up (Lyude, in my case). Whichever person it is, doesn't really matter, because Savyna has NO elemental weaknesses or strengths. Rather odd, because I had her set up for fire, but anyways :P So just pummel on her. She doesn't defend a lot, but she does have a few multi-hit attacks that sometimes end with her Burning Arrow finisher - her only elemental attack. 10 bucks says you have no defense for Burning Arrow, being all prepped up to fight water enemies, but it makes little difference. If you could handle the last fight, you won't even need healing items for this one. Oh, and you start back with full health, just to make it even sweeter. Just attack, attack, attack, and she'll fall. ~~~~~ Eventually, she'll call off the battle, citing 'enough sparring'. And she even claims she DOESN'T work for the Empire, you guys just jumped to the conclusion that she did and attacked her. Heh. When the scene's over, and your party has decided to trust Savyna again, head back to Komo Mai to see Queen Corellia. ~~~~~ Komo Mai, City of Flowers ~~~~~ Items Gained: whatever you didn't grab before Queen Corellia is in her throne room, so visit her there. She'll study the End Magnus there... and collapse at the things she sees inside it... As your party waits for Corellia to recover, Gibari approaches Savyna and asks her about her past. She used to wander around as a travelling mercenary, until a strange old fortune teller told her about the Celestial Tree, and the evil dwelling within... After the scene, you'll be told that Corellia has regained consciousness, and wishes to see you. So head on over to her room. She'll be amazed at the power of the being in the Magnus, but still doesn't quite believe that Geldoblame is trying to unleash such a monster... But regardless, she'll contact King Ladekahn to discuss what should be done. In the meantime, you've got two more Magnus to collect - in Mira and the Empire itself. Mira is your next destination, but it's a tricky place, shifting dimensions, apparently. So you'll need to take the Trail of Souls, the road between dimensions, to get there. Make sure you've collected everything you need from Anuenue, because you won't be back here for a while. And if you're a completist, for the love of God, SAVE before leaving Anuenue. When you're ready, head back to the port and catch a ride off the island :D ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- [4.4] Mira, City of Illusion ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- Well, isn't this just the trippiest looking place you've ever seen! Looks like one of my pieces of equation art. Anyways. Kalas is a bit thoughtful about Mira... it's been a while since he left. He's from Mira? Hmmzorz. He's getting restless, so decides to go talk to everyone. Gibari's busy navigating, so suggests you go talk to others. Xelha's worried about you and Kalas getting seasick. Lyude is questioning everyone's loyalties. And Savyna issues a threat to anyone who stands in her way. Fair enough. There's a red flower, but please, take note of this -> the upcoming sequence is tricky, and there are a lot of one-chance Magnus to be obtained. If for some reason you need to go back to Anuenue to get something you missed, that you need for this sequence... save in a new save file, if you must save here, okay? Speak to Gibari again, and he'll have a few thoughts on the trust issue. But then, jsut when Kalas starts to say his piece... the ship is under attack! It's the Goldoba! Giacomo and co.! They've come after all! But Giacomo is cautious, don't attack, the Divine Child is on that ship. Guh? Divine Child? The plot thickens... When Kalas comes to, after your ship (the Mindeer) crashes out of the Trail of Souls, wake up the rest of your party members. What to do next? Sit... and wait, and contemplate. Head outside to do your own contemplating. "Cast light upon the darkened earth, Save those lost in despair, O Mighty Ocean, guide us as we journey through, The darkest pit of night..." The prayer Kalas offers. It's also the prayer of Xelha's nation. What IS Xelha's nation, anyways? Uh.... best not ask that question yet >.> A bit more on Kalas' family history... before Meemai spots something off in the distance... Best. Scene. EVARRRRRR. Meet the weirdest little creature, introduced with a cute little song. What the hell is it? WHO the hell is it? It's the Great Mizuti, of course! What are we doing here? Well, we took a wrong turn at Albuquerque... so did Mizuti, apparently. She (yes, Mizuti is a she) is on the way to Mira, and yes yes she definitely knows the way. So she'll take you! Yay! Speak to Xelha inside, and away you'll go! ~~~~~ Portal to the Outer Dimension ~~~~~ Items Gained (For 100% Completion): Secret Recipe 4, Zelmer, Ghost Claw, Diminuendo, Frost Cap Now, if you intend on getting 100% Magnus collection, this is the part where you need to pay the most attention. No coming back here when you're done, so if you want to collect everything, PAY ATTENTION! Ahem. Now that I've got that out of my system. There are two unique enemies here, so to round off the picture collection, you need to take pictures of both. One of the two, the Zelmer, also drops a unique Frost Cap Magnus. You'll also get Diminuendo, Lyude's level 4 finisher, and Secret Recipe 4 here. Alright. Got all that? Let's go! If you let Mizuti stray too far away (ie. she goes off screen in your mini HUD here) you'll get sent back to the start and start again. You can use this to your advantage. My method for this is, fight as many battles as you need to fight to collect all the cards you need, if you intend on getting the unique ones. Place as many cameras as possible in one person's inventory, to ensure multiple battles aren't needed to take photos. The enemies are actually pretty easy... they'll defend a lot, but be 60% weak against ALL elements. Anyways... when you've got all the items, then go hell for leather shooting enemies. The last waves are the ones with the important drops, the recipe and Diminuendo. The first three waves will appear to your left and right, then they'll appear staggered across the screen (ie. spread out from left to right). The sixth will provide you with a speed up, in case you need it to catch up. From them, they'll appear two on one side, two on the other. As soon as you see the first appear, start moving in the OTHER direction, shooting all the while, so you get the other two then are in line to get the Magnus. At the end of the shooting sequence, Mizuti will drag you off the map and you'll get the rewards you picked up off the map for shooting. For the record, I just got nine Magnus (and only took one pass through the Dimension) - Half Plate, Aqua Burst III, Crystal Edge, Shish Kebab (Large), Green Oak, Kite Shield, Diminuendo, Camera II, and Secret Recipe 4. Phew! After the sequence, Kalas will be REALLY annoyed to find that Mizuti is, in fact, still lost. Never mind that... something's coming! ~~~~~ ----/ Gnosis /---- HP: 3600 ELE: Dark(-100%), everything else(-50%) DROP: Andromeda, Brave Knight Helm, Ancient Branch Hrmm. An annoying one. For starters, it's elemental strengths and weaknesses SUCK. No dark attacks? Cross Lyude off your battle list. If you're like me, you forgot this battle was coming, so didn't have time to fix decks... So we'll have to make do with what we have! The only time you should use a Dark attack is if you're using it to get one of the combo prizes. That being said, if you can effectively (or luckily) make nice full house prizes by now (3 cards/2 cards with the same number) you can add 31% damage to each turn. Which makes this battle a LOT easier, and almost negates the elemental strengths. Of course, it attacks with Dark attacks, so if you have light armour, use it. If you don't, focus in blocking the non-elemental damage that goes with it, and just put up with the elemental damage. If you see Dark Force - you'll probably be paralyzed... if you have cure paralysis items, use them, else hope that that character has enough HP to wait out the turns to come back to life. It's not THAT difficult a battle if you don't see Dark Force too often... just stressworthy due to what's come before it >.> ~~~~~ After the battle, Mizuti tells you to fly through the hole and back to the Trail of Souls. After that whole debacle, you'll arrive in Mira :) Am I the only person that looks at the map of Mira and sees a skull? Anyways, now after Mizuti leaves, now you can FINALLY save on the Miran map. There's only one possible destination at this point - Parnasse. ~~~~~ Parnasse, the Confectionary Village ~~~~~ Items Gained: Mira Cream, Frozen Tangerine, Mira Chocolate, Chronos Armour, Fresh Beef Um, yes, it appears this is a village made completely out of confectionary. Yum. Kalas walks in to see two villages arguing over whos sweets are best... oh boy, it's gonna be one of those days. The fighting will be interrupted by a young woman... Lady Melodia! After settling the arguing, she goes to leave, but trips and stumbles, only to be caught and rescued by Kalas. Awwww, what a nice guy. Turns out Melodia is grand daughter of Duke Calbren, ruler of Mira. Kool. Tha man sitting at the entrance to town, Nubata, is one of Quzman's relatives, but he might not be ready to sign the Family Tree just yet (if Sabin's already signed, from Pherkad, Nubata won't.) So come back to him later. Feel free to use the blue flower to visit the church. Hand over your latest constellation/s, and class Kalas up to 5. Everyone should also be able to raise a level or more, as well. For the record, I have Savyna/Xelha/Kalas (my party) at 19, and Lyude/Gibari at 18. To the left of the blue flower, you'll find the Magnus shop. Some good stuff on offer there. Opposite that, up the ramp, you'll find Trill in Master Tisocco's shop. She's an apprentice pastry cook, and really needs some Mira chocolate for the latest recipe. Could you go to Donella's bakery and ask if anyone there will spare you some? Donella's bakery is the next door up the road, so head over there and ask the guy with the chocolate if you can have some. He won't give you any, but will swap for some Mira cream from Tisocco's shop. Damn you people, you're making me crave sweets! Head back to Tisocco's shop, and take some of the cream from the pots to the left of the store. Also take the Frozen Tangerine from the front of the fridge. Head back to Donella's and give it to the guy with the chocolate, and in return you'll get some chocolate. Take it back to Trill. After she takes the chocolate, she'll tell you a story, about the Empire's arrival and a strange, shining Magnus. Uh...oh. She saw it in the Mystical Garden, when she was there looking for Clemon. But the Empire doesn't know about it yet! Off we go to the garden! ... after we explore the rest of town. In the house on the very end of town, grab the Chronos Armour from the dresser made of chocolate, and the Fresh Beef from the sideboard on the right. Melodia doesn't even have anything interesting to say, bollocks. Once you've got the scoop, head out of town towards Detourne. ~~~~~ Detourne, the Mystical Garden ~~~~~ Items Gained: Mirage Weed, Silver Barette, Whirlwind Hit When you enter the Garden, and see a save flower upside down, you just KNOW things are going to go a tad screwy, now. So, where do we start, looking for this Magnus? Well. All we can do is jump across to the right on the red block, so do so. You can ask the woman there kneeling in the corner for information on various things about the garden - the garden itself, the red and blue stones, the scales, the Mirage Weed, and the Golden Hero. Ask about any and all if you have zero idea what you're doing. Seeing as I recall hating this place last time I played, I'm checking out her information :P Of particular interest is her note about the red and blue stones - the red are heavier than the blue, and so they sink. Prepare yourselves, and head through the doorway now. No, you haven't just taken a big whiff of happy juice. You're in a 2D platform game. Well, Kalas is, anyways. If you run into the slimes, you'll have to fight. Oh boy. There's really only one way through, and then you'll have a choice of the three doorways, or heading further to the left to find another one. Now, the doorways have rather different effects. The bottom door will take you out to the area you started in, but behind the red block on the far side of screen. Pointless for now. The middle will take you to a set of scales... ahh, interesting. Remember the lady said the weight of the blocks was important? Well, here we can change the weight of the red and blue blocks. First, take the Silver Barette and the Whirlwind Hit from the two chests. To get to the scales, you need to jump across on the far side, on the red block. Then, to adjust them, take two lots of Pristine Water from the lake and dump them in the blue side of the scales. See, the blue block will fall! Jump back across on the blue block. Now head out the top door, and you'll be able to detach the chain holding the golden key in place. If you listened to the lady talk about the garden, you'll realize the golden key is important :P Head out and back through the bottom door, and the world will crazy shift again. Grrrr. This time, you can jump across to the left on the blue blocks and talk to the guy that identifies himself as the Golden Hero. Heyyyyy, we've heard about him! Talk to him enough and he'll hand over three valuable items - the Jet Boots, the Red Necklace, and the White Sword. OK cool. Now, to get the key, we need to tinker with the scales again. So back to Crazy Map, and through the middle of the three doors. Change the scales back to make red heavier, then head out and back through the bottom door. Lo and behold, key is yours! Now go back and through the top door. Head across to the right on the red block. The Golden Hero has nothing new to offer, but the doorway leads to a different area of the Crazy Map! Defeat the slimes there, and note the two new crazy blue things floating around the map... that we can't get to. Head back to the main part of the map. Time to move the scales AGAIN! Yes, I know you're getting sick of it. But change the scales, then head through the bottom door. Across to the left, and through the doorway there. Lo and behold, what can you grab there? The Golden Pick Axe! Which you can use to break through the golden walls you've seen on the map! Doooo eeeeeet! After you break the walls down, head through the door into the quarry. There's no End Magnus here, but there is a... ~~~~~ ----/ Magnus Giganticus /---- HP: 4000 ELE: Everything(-50%) DROP: Emerald Earrings, Gleaming Helm Mmm, yup, as the name would suggest... It really is a giant Magnus. With an elemental affinity almost as bad as that last pesky boss! And this one comes with two NASTY attacks - Chronos Cage (inflicting paralysis) and Dark. If you don't have light and/or wind armour, you're looking at about 200 damage a pop, which isn't really nice. Apart from those two attacks, there isn't really a lot to be worried about in this battle. Sure, it will be a long one because of his HP, and your attack power which doesn't seem to be growing at an equally exponential rate. But as long as you keep a decent supply of healing items in your inventory, it really should not be a problem. You can use any elements you like (and any characters, really, because all elements are the same strength), just pummel away at him because his actual defence moves are weak as. Also good to note is that the Magnus' physical appearance will change as his HP goes down - it'll lose its corners, one by one, and in the end you'll be fighting a diamond-shaped card. So you can see how well the battle is going. Neat-o! ~~~~~ But this wasn't actually an End Magnus - a mere shadow of one. The real one may have been kept here at one point, but it was obviously moved because this just isn't it. Or was it already unlocked some time ago? Gibari has the idea to ask Duke Calbren, Lord of Mira, to see if he knows what's up. Back to Parnasse you go! ~~~~~ Parnasse, the Confectionary Village ~~~~~ Items Gained: N/A Uh oh... strong military presence in Parnasse. Seems Lady Melodia has been kidnapped by a group of suspicious looking strangers... And you dont see strangers in Mira often... Must have been the lot of you guys! Zoinks. We're in trouble! Trill steps in to defend you, but gets shot down (not literally). And your group is captured. Poopy. So, what to do? Obviously it's the Empire's work, and the Empire is getting desperate now that Anuenue and Diadem have both taken up arms against them. So what are you guys going to do? If you select to save Melodia yourselves, you'll get Xelha's approval. OK... now how to get out, to go rescue her? Well... you're locked up in a house made of candy... are you thinking what I'm thinking!? Speak to Gibari, and you'll find out he's thinking the same thing. Eat your way out! :D In the end, the actual eating gets left up to Gibari, so he starts munching through the wall... and finds a very surprised Trill on the other side! She believes you, and was coming to break you out! The people that took Melodia were heading towards the Picture Book Village! (Don't ask how she knows...) But that's where we'll go too! ~~~~~ Reverence, the Picture Book Village ~~~~~ Items Gained: Monolith Pen, tri-Crescendo Pen Now you might see why I dislike Mira so much, it's just TOO weird -_- After listening to the clairvoyant, you can examine a lot of things to hear about this weird-ass town. Like the moving face on the rock. o.O Through the doorway to the right, you'll find a lot of weird-ass dancing things that are supposedly releasing stress. Err... ok then. Across the bridge, the woman sitting at the base of it is a Quzman relative, but she won't sign just yet. North of the bridge, following the path on the left, enter the house and grab the Monolith Pen from under the left chest of yellow drawers, and the tri-Crescendo Pen from the chest on the right. (If I use them both, will I get a Namco Pen? Geez...) Once you're done, save at the blue save flower outside. If you speak to the... machina... thing... just to the left of the bridge, he'll offer to tell you some secrets in exchange for a Mirage Weed. Hmm. Where can you get a Mirage Weed? Back in the weird-ass garden of Detourne. So go and grab one, and give it to him. And he'll offer to open the path to the fortune teller's house for you. Cue weird-ass sequence. Uh. Right. Enter the newly revealed house and speak with the fortune teller there. Hmm, how very strange... she senses no Magnus with you. Every object in the universe supposedly has its own Magnus... but Kalas seems not to. Huh? Then he is not of this world... And someday you will know, who you really are. That line should be familiar from the opening sequence to the game. Hmm.... Head outside, and Kalas will observe a conversation about Lady Melodia. A group of strangers entered the Shrine of Spirits, and were spotted by a group of villagers! One was a young girl wearing a hood! Could it have been her? Of course, you're going off to the Shrine of Spirits too, so leave town. Nekton now appears on your map, in the dark blue sphere. ~~~~~ Nekton, Shrine of Spirits ~~~~~ Items Gained: Wind God Blade, Corona Borealis, Water Blade, Golden Buckle, Dark Embrace, Virgo Wow, apparently you and Kalas originally met here, young Guardian Spirit. Remember? Nah, because you have amnesia, you woke up when Kalas did, in Cebalrai. Anyways. Into the Shrine, take the top path and follow it along to find a chest with a Wind God Blade. Then head back, and take the bottom path twice to find a chest with the Corona Borealis constellation. Head back one junction and take the top path (towards the blue light) to find a chest with a Water Blade, and continue on to find a red save flower. Short dungeon. Really. Save and continue on. Ah-hah, it IS the evil trio of Folon, Ayme, and Giacomo. (Haha, that abbreviates to FAG...) And Melodia. The trio just wanted to talk to Melodia in private, they're not here to wage a war on Mira, after all. They just want to ask about the shining Magnus, or perhaps an old family treasure or two. Melodia assures them, if such a thing does exist, she doesnt know, but her grandfather, Duke Calbren, might. Hmmzorz. But Kalas just has to spoil the party. And a surprise appearance by Sir Lyude, backstabber extraodinaire to the Empire! Yay! But before they get the chance to come to blows... the Tree Spirits! You're stirring them up! The boundary between dimensions! Argh! And a giant thing appears... so what do the FAG team do? Disappear, of course. Leaving you to deal with the creature. Gee, thanks guys. ~~~~~ ----/ Sikri /---- HP: 3000 ELE: Dark(+80%), Light(-80%) Wind(+50%), Chronos(-50%) DROP: Golden Buckle, Dark Embrace, Virgo Hmm... this isn't a bad fight, not a bad one at all. Sikri's Unholy Symbol move sucks, because it has the chance to paralyze a character. Not fun at all. However, it only lasts a couple of turns so you can easily wait it out, if you don't have paralysis-resisting equipment on. But thats really about all you need to worry about. The boss has pretty good weaknesses, so a party with Lyude, Xelha and Gibari shines right here. If you keep attacking, and have a good bonus or two (making four or five of a kind and so on), you can deal in the vicinity of 1000 damage per hit. (I did, anyways.) He goes down pretty quickly when you're doing this. Towards the end of the battle, he'll start to use Life Drain, sucking 200-ish HP or so from a character at the end of an attack sequence. You'll probably only see this once or twice though, so it isn't much to worry about. Just keep attacking, but do remember to stop and cure if necessary. I walked into the battle with my characters all at half health, healed once or twice, and walked out in better condition than I started in, with zero deck preparation. Not a hard one at all. ~~~~~ After the battle, Melodia will coax the Sikri back into the Outer Dimension from which it came. Nice of her, but she could have done that before it attacked us at all >:( Now the Guardsmen are here, and they'll thank you for protecting Melodia. She welcomes you to visit her grandfather's manor, before departing. Gibari draws up the plan - visit Duke Calbren, show him the End Magnus you have from Anuenue, and see if he recognizes it or knows anything about any similar. Kalas checks for the End Magnus... umm... it's gone! SAY WHAT!? Do you know where it is, Guardian Spirit? Well, I do indeed know, having played the game before, but I don't get the option to tell Kalas exactly where it is -_- So you're going to retrace your steps back to the ship, looking for it. ... After they finish their search, there's still no sign of it, no sign at all. If anyone else had've found it, they would have heard the fuss made about it, so that really isn't an option. If you didn't drop it... it must have been stolen! Badum tish. So who? The group mull it over for a while, and achieve absolutely nothing. Anyways, you still have to go to Duke Calbren's manor, in case Giacomo is there scheming something. So off you go, to Balacoire! ~~~~~ Balancoire, Borough of Illusion ~~~~~ Items Gained: Sugar Cane, Millinery, Cedar Tree, Pot of Air, Deluxe Cream Puff, Deluxe Red Wine, Bacon, Scorpion Barette As soon as you enter town, a random person walks up to you, they recognize Kalas! Seems Kalas used to live around here. First of all, you'll note the whale in the river. Er. Can't do anything about it yet. So do a bit of shopping, in the store near the save flower. Save, hand over all your new constellations, level up if you like. All my characters are now level 20, for reference. Enter the house just near Kalas' old friend (kinda hard to see the doorway). From the pots on the right, take the Sugar Cane. The man on the bed will talk about the day Kalas arrived in town, with his grandather, and your brother Fee... and the accident, and the doctor that saved you... hmm. Grab the Millinery from the dresser to the left of the stove. Cross the bridge, and enter the first house, south of the path. Take the Cedar Tree from the shrubs to the left of the entrance, and a Pot of Air from the shelves also on the left. Talk to the old lady, and agree to hear her tale. More about these powerful wizards, named the Guardians, and them saving the land of Mira from the abyss. And they still cling ot the faith that the ocean will save them. Find them, O Mighty Ocean, and forgive them. Outside, the two people leaning over the river will tell you about Melodia's family, and how she nearly herself succumbed to the fatal illness that claimed her parents. Poor child. Inside the next building, the bar, the woman to the left will give you a Deluxe Cream Puff if you show her what gold looks like (ie. give her a Gold Nugget, if you have one). Alternatively, if you give one to the man instead, he'll give you a Deluxe Pastry. Take the Deluxe Red Wine from the barrels near the bar, and the Bacon from the stove behind the counter, then head out. Talk to the guy outside the bar, and you'll see what a terrible barker he is. So go inside and talk to Trill's father behind the bar. He'll ask you to do him a favour, teach the barker how to do his job properly! Errr... ok. Go talk to him, and let the lesson begin! I don't think what you tell him matters, but I told him that his voice should be a shout, and the pitch should be great tasting food. As a reward, Trill's father will give you a Scorpion Barette. After all is said and done, Melodia will arrive back in town. If shedoesn't come back, check you've seen all the above little scenes - Kalas' friend, the old man, the old lady, the barker, the two near the river. When Melodia returns, head over to her manor to see her. You'll see another scene, in which you'll find that not everyone likes Kalas being back in town. Malformed wings are the direct result of a malformed heart, apparently. ~~~~~ Duke Calbren's Manor ~~~~~ Items Gained: Jill's Jewelry Box, Piscis Australis, Secret Recipe 5, The Silent Woman, Tearless Mermaid, Sleet Shawl, Robe of Firelight. Inside, Calbren and Melodia will greet you warmly. Your other friend arrived earlier, it seems. Guh? Other friend? Either way, the Duke wishes to meet you upstairs. Meh, explore first! :P You can get Stagnant Water from the two little water features in the back of the room. In the museum, through the doorway to the left, take Jill's Jewelry Box from the case in the top left corner of screen. You'll find the constellation Piscis Australis in the drums to the south of the room (so keep misspelling that as Australia). At the top of the stairs in the main hall, enter the study on the right. There you'll find Secret Recipe 5 in the bookcase, and The Silent Woman behind the portrait on the right. In the room on the left (Melodia's room!) take the Tearless Mermaid from underneath the mattress on the bed, and the Sleet Shawl from the oh-so-comfy chair. Then you can go meet Duke Calbren :P Heyyyy, THERE's your other friend! :D The Great Mizuti! :D :D :D :D! I so like her. Mizuti is here to protect Bo, because you have the Earth Sphere... and what is Bo? The End Magnus in Mira! A historian discovered in the Mystical Garden and unsealed it (ah, the shadow Magnus we found there), which is what caused Mira's dimensional shift. It's now here in the manor, in the basement! And guess who's here to spoil YOUR party this time -_- Damn Giacomo. He heard Calbren say where Bo is, and he's here to take it! So head after him. The entrance is back in the museum, so head down there. You're too late, he's already inside! A bright light... they're trying to awaken the Magnus! Mizuti must hurry. And she'll join your party to do so! YAY! After you've finished sorting her out (adding her to your active party if you like), descend the stairs into the sewers. Take the Robe of Firelight from the chest on the right, then head left. Into... oh, Christ. ~~~~~ Coccolith, Labyrinth of Mirrors ~~~~~ Items Gained: Heaven's Pillar, Corona Australis, Pinecone, Vanish Grenade, Capricornus My head, it HURTS. OK. Let's take this one step at a time. Literally. If you look at the third mirror piece in the bottom row, you'll see Kalas' legs - this reflection actually follows Kalas, unlike the rest, and is probably your best method of navigation through this crazy place. The layout's really simple, but direction is hard! We start at the star, top right, and we're trying to get to the moon, top left. Right. Head left slightly, and you'll see yourself on multiple fragments, most importantly the bottom left corner. At that intersection, head up (on the controller), which is the left side of the intersection. Then you'll come to another junction, head up and grab Heaven's Pillar from the chest. Back down and keep heading left, then left again (on controller) at the next junction and you'll find the moon. Examine it to teleport to the second section. Again, going from star to moon. This one's slightly different. Try to ignore your reflection running around, and just follow the path. In the top right corner of screen is a partially hidden chest, containing the constellation Corona Australis. Apart from that, it's not too tricky, but if you do what I did and get to the moon, but can't examine it, check to make sure it's you at the moon and not your reflection :P Onto the third screen... Similar layout to the first, except this is two interleaved oval paths. And this time it's the diamond shaped piece on the left following Kalas' feet. Even I'm getting confused trying to find my way through this one. I just say, wipe out the enemies then run around until you find the red flower. Save, then run around some moor until you come to the moon. Warp out. There you'll find Giacomo. Grawr! Breaking the seal... finding the Phantasm. And of course, he summons it for YOU to fight, not HIM! ~~~~~ ----/ Phantasm /---- HP: 3000 ELE: Dark(+80%), Light(-80%) Wind(+50%), Chronos(-50%) DROP: Pinecone, Vanish Grenade, Capricornus Hmm. Even though it looks like there's multiple targets, the Phantasm and the little flying doohickeys, there's just the one. And it's a pretty easy one, just like the Sikri. In fact, I could probably copy and paste the info for the Sikri, change on top, and it would be equally as relevant. The elemental strengths and weaknesses are even IDENTICAL! Eyes of Terror is the main attack here, at the end of a five hit combo, and it'll put one character to sleep. Occasionally you'll get Lightning instead, but this rare, and occasionally the hit combo will stop at 4 instead of going for the fifth. Like before, I'd suggest Gibari, Xelha or Mizuti now, and Lyude because of the elements - Savyna isn't much good because she's fire/ice, and Kalas is good but the others are better. It's pretty much the same thing. Stock up on attacking items to get the fight over quickly, make sure to get a photo, then take your spoils. ~~~~~ However.. it's not over yet. The Magnus is unsealing itself, and even Giacomo doesn't like this idea just yet. But Mizuti will take control... she is invincible, or so she claims :P Use the Shadow Magnus, while Mizuti distracts it... and it'll stabilize the End Magnus... just long enough for Giacomo to take it. Blargh! Pipped at the post again! According to Calbren, the five End Magnus are the parts of a deceased god's corpse. That would explain the names, symbolizing Arms, Legs, Chest, Body... what's left? The Head, of course :P And it's buried somewhere in Alfard, Empire of the Flame... You're gonna have to take Giacomo out on his own turf! After Kalas welcomes Mizuti into the party, Melodia offers to take you to Alfard on her ship - it's well known, and should be allowed into port easily. So the group agrees to rest, and set off tomorrow. Cue mandatory late-night chat between two party members with a tension filled relationship. It happens in every freaking game I've played, and Baten Kaitos is no exception. This time it's Kalas and Xelha, out overlooking the river in Balancoire. She seems on the verge of divulging a secret to him... but stops at the last second. Gah. More scenes, between Savyna and Gibari, and Lyude alone. Calbren alone, wondering about Xelha's pendant. The fourth feather falls, and that damn voice again. Is it starting to sound familiar yet? :P It just might... Ladekahn and Corellia, discussing what to do about the situation. War must be avoided, yet if the End Magnus do get unsealed, it will be too late to stop everything from happening... Tricky situation at best. Once the scene is over, you're told to visit Melodia in her room when you're ready to leave. First, visit the church, and class Mizuti up, most importantly. Level up what you can, drop off your latest two constellations. Then talk to Melodia in her room. Agree to leave, and you're off to Alfard! And you'll be prompted to insert disc 2 into your GameCube. JOY! We're getting there! ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- [4.5] Alfard, Empire of the Flame ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- See the ship fly over to the last of the five major continents, Alfard. Melodia disappears off with a guy named Fadroh for a cup of tea, and your group decides to make its way over to Lyude's residence. ~~~~~ Mintaka, the Imperial Capital ~~~~~ Items Gained: Secret Recipe 6, Pickled Eggplants, Viking Helmet, Apple Pie (Slice), Sleet Shawl, Coffin Shield, Scale Mail, Ara There's a lot of weird people walking around in Mintaka, people that just want to talk up the Empire and Geldoblame's greatness. Well, we're kinda here to shatter that illusion, guys, but we won't tell them yet :) Just to the left of the ship, on the walkway, you'll find a Quzman relative, Qasim. He'll sign the tree immediately. Whee! From there, we can start exploring. You can walk around to get to the long metal spokes jutting out from the walkway, and if you walk onto the second from bottom spoke and examine the end of it, you'll grab Secret Recipe 6. Enter the building closest to Qasim, the door under the small canopy. Grab the Pickled Eggplants from the weights on the right, and the Viking Helmet from the chest in the corner. I want one of those fluffpups, they're soooo cute! Outside and on the next screen, Gibari will accidentally bump into a little kid... and you'll see just what sort of elitist snobs live in the Empire. However Lyude isn't like that, he was homeschooled. Thank the lord for small favours. After that, visit the shop just there. Head left and you'll see another scene with a speech machine. It's Geldoblame, being all tyrannical and dictatory. Fun. Not. Where to next? Try to door just right of the crowd there. There you'll find Scalla and his mother... and they're worried about what's going on in Mintaka lately. No items though. Pooey. Try the road between Scalla's house and the shop, and there you'll find one more house. Take the Apple Pie (Slice) from under the window, and Sleet Shawl from the chest. Then speak to the man there. Apparently a world-famous doctor used to live here, a man that designed the first Imperial Winglet and the Battleship Goldoba. But he got too caught up in research, and late one night his lab exploded. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm. The road out to the south of the speech machine leads out of town, so we don't want to go there just yet. But enter the building just behind it. From the two chests, take the Coffin Shield and the Scale Mail. The two soldiers sitting in the corner will tell you about Operation Azha, and a killing machine by the name of Lady Death. Hmm. From the pots in the bottom left corner of screen, take constellation Ara. Go to head up the stairs, and you'll hear about a ruckus in Diadem. The kid who got exiled to Diadem because of a muckup at Azha. Lyude! And Savyna knows about this mission to Azha, Operation Sweep... Follow the balcony, and cross the bridge to find Panaway's house. Methinks Panaway is the elite child from before, from the way he talks. Eh, nothing much to see here, I'm just exploring :P Head back out the bar the way you came, and follow the road north. There you'll find a big and important looking house... Lyude's old house. Uh oh... You're welcome to enter, so do so. And we'll get a little bit of backstory on Lyude - the death of his parents, and his nurse/foster mother Almarde. And speaking of.... here she is! And Lyude's brother and sister, Skeed and Vallye. And the guards outside... double uh oh. They want the foreigners, and if Lyude hands you over, he'll be welcomed back into the Empire. Like hell he will. As the family feuds, Vallye tries to shoot Lyude, but gets stopped by Almarde. Guh!? Almarde is a warrior type person? Either way, she knows where Giacomo and his goons are - on the Battleship Goldoba, high above Mintaka. And she tells you to go! But before you can go, Vallye shoots Almarde, and the two run off... bloody wimps! Argh... Sad scene >_< And then you'll sneak out the back door. But... I wanted what was in the chest inside Lyude's house ;_; You can't go back for it yet, either. Poopy. So just head towards the ship. You're going to go after the Goldoba! Now, you'll start getting into battles on the way, with the Imperial Guard and Elite Imperial Guard. These are one-shot battles, so if you want to take photos, now's the time. Head over to the ship, SAVE in a DIFFERENT save (please, please), then head off. As soon as you land on the deck of the Goldoba, you'll be thrust into a battle with three Imperial Walkers. These guys do pack a fair punch, but nothing you shouldn't be able to handle easily (otherwise you may be screwed, for what's to come). Take your spoils, and enter the Goldoba. ~~~~~ The Battleship Goldoba ~~~~~ Items Gained: Rainbow Straw Hat, Sleet Shawl, Grace Shield, Robe of Firelight, Cetaka's Sword, Rice Paper, Crystal Nails, Hermit's Creel, Rarebird Statue, Oil There's a red save flower here, but if you're going to use it, please save in a DIFFERENT save from the one you last saved in Mintaka. A LOT and I mean a LOT of people have trouble with this part of the game, and if you save over your old game here and gets stuck... there's no going back to Mintaka. If you keep your Mintaka save, and get stuck here, then you can go back, level up, whatnot. So keep it. PLEASE. Anyways. What do we have here? Not much. No sign of everyone. So let's explore. Save if you like (heeding my words), then check the top door leading out to the bridge. Locked! Nuts. And the terminal to unlock it is in the main communications room. Right, head down the dark path (avoiding the Walkers if you don't want to fight more.) From there, in the first small room on the left, you'll find a Rainbow Straw Hat. On the floor, if you examine when the ! appears, you'll also get a Sleet Shawl. In the room on the right, grab the Grace Shield, and the Robe of Firelight from the !. There's also a room on the far right (kinda hard to see the entrance) with a few chests in it. Two more Walkers, but I'd be avoiding those to save your energy. Grab Cetaka's Sword and Rice Paper from the chests there. Back out and in the horse-shoe shaped room, take the bottom right exit to find a chest with Crystal Nails. From there, head up the stairs in the horseshoe room to find the main terminal. And it will ask for a password. If you've been fighting Walkers (which I have not), you'll have been collecting passwords for the terminal. If you haven't, here's a nice list ;) 0429 - enemy attack 0819 - Assassin's Hood 1004 - enemy attack 1342 - Goldoba cannon fire 3291 - Viking Helmet 4649 - Goldoba cannon fire 4653 - unlocks Bridge Once you've got the Bridge unlocked, save again and head up there. Before going through the door, make sure your decks are set, your best characters are in position, etc. (Not that there's like, anything major coming up >.>) See, the Bridge is empty! Not for long though... the FAG team have arrived! The Emperor's not here, he's gone to the Lava Caves to get the final End Magnus... But they'll keep you company! Your team knows, you're not after these goons, so you don't want to fight. But Kalas does. And after he rejects Giacomo's proposal to join them, the fight is ON! ~~~~~ ----/ Giacomo /---- HP: 3800 ELE: Water(+50%), Fire(-50%) Light(+30%), Dark(-30%) DROP: Hermit's Creel, Rarebird Statue ----/ Ayme /---- HP: 2400 ELE: Light(+30%), Dark(-30%) Chronos(+50%), Wind(-50%) Fire(+30%), Water(-30%) ----/ Folon /---- HP: 2700 ELE: Water(+30%), Fire(-30%) Light(+50%), Dark(-50%) Wind(+30%), Chronos(-30%) Yes, you have to fight ALL THREE AT ONCE. No, it's not fun. Not fun at all. I've spent a long time analyzing this battle and it still sucks >_< One thing to note, while reading the above list of strengths and weaknesses, is that all three bad guys are susceptible to light damage. Because of this, either Xelha or Mizuti is a must, with their light magic. Kalas is most likely your strongest character, and class 5 while other characters are all class 4, so he is worthy of inclusion as well. For a third, you can pick between either attack (Lyude and his light instruments) or defense (Gibari with paddles that can be used both offensively and defensively). I'll opt for Gibari, though Lyude is a viable alternative as well. This will be the biggest and definitely the hardest battle to date, so let's take a look at deck preparation for it. One option is to completely clear all the Dark cards out of your deck, because all three are strong against darkness. One thing you should definitely do is create the best possible decks, ie. if you've been swapping Xelha and Mizuti every so often, take all the best Magnus from one and give them to the one you're using for this battle. Why waste half of your high powered light Magnus on Mizuti if she's not part of the battle at hand? Also, take all the best armour from your inactive characters, making sure to have a good sprinkling of light and water armour (you'll see why to keep water armour in a sec), and put it on your current party. Same with healing items - you've probably picked up a lot that you haven't even been using because you haven't needed them - well, now you will. Take the old Honeys and Milks out of your decks and start putting in the Eggplants, the Persimmons, and the Red Wines. Now, for the battle itself - you can use multiple strategies for it. There are good arguments to focus all your attacks on either Ayme or Folon, but I'll pick Folon. Folon is the biggest immediate threat in the battle, because he likes to use Energy Injection, ramping up his attack. More attack for him = bad news for you. Luckily, he only uses Energy Injection on himself, so throw all your major defense cards at him after he does it. If he doesn't, you can relax a little easier, but you might see it up to three times if the battle drags on. Ayme likes to have massive combos, up to eight or nine hits each. However, she is like Savyna in terms of hits - many hits, not much power behind each hit. For an eight hit combo, you could probably negate the entire lot with three well chosen defence cards. This is why I would leave her alone as she isn't much of a threat, and focus on Folon first. Giacomo will be a major problem in this battle, as he takes double-turns. Even worse when he uses them both on the same character >_< Therefore, you could probably make an argument for taking him out first, if he wasn't the hardest to kill because of his HP. But once you get to know his elements, he's easy. When he attacks, he'll do physical and fire damage in four hits - so if you defend with two physicals and a water Magnus, you should almost completely negate his attack. When Giacomo gets down to low health, he'll add two new moves into the mix - Imperial Force and End Slasher. Both are darkness based, but if you're keeping light armour as was suggested earlier, it shouldnt make that much of a difference. Instead of just using the three defence cards, use four and add a light armour in there if possible. Once you've got a strategy worked out, and a bit of luck with the right cards coming your way, you can go on the offensive. The defense is more important than the offense in battles like this, because even with the best attack Magnus in the world, the battle is still going to be LONG. So set up camp with good defense, drag it out just a bit longer, better to be safe then sorry then whittle down their HP, one by one. ~~~~~ After the battle, Kalas is triumphant, we did it! You avenged Gramps and Fee! WHEEE! But wait a sec... Georg's research... the power of the Divine Child... eek. Georg is Giacomo's father? SAY WHAT!? And before you can come to grips with this, he activates the self-destruct sequence on the ship. Gee thanks. One way ticket to helllllllllll.... And you've got five minutes to get off this ship before it goes down in flames. Great. Luckily, it's pretty simple. Remember the hangar where we found the Crystal Nails earlier? Well, it's full of all sorts of aircraft that we could possibly use to escape. Awesome. Head there :) In the hangar, start checking things - the two at the left and the right, and the weird goldy things along the bottom wall. Kalas will tell you, all of them are dead, keep looking... except the second goldy thing from the top. (Dude. I got no idea what it is. Are these things supposed to fly?) But the aircraft has no fuel. Let's go find some fuel! Just to the left of the row of goldy things is a fuel container, so examine it and you'll be prompted to trap the essence of the Oil. Do so, then empty it into the goldy aircraft. And off you go! I still had nearly 4 min left on my timer, geez >.> Anyways, you'll land in the desert with no injuries other than wounded pride from the big fall. Of course, like anyone would actually die falling from that height >.> So time's a wastin, you're off to the Lava Caves to see the Emperor! They're just to the south, through the town of Azha. Funny, Azha was mentioned earlier... Famous for its iron mines, apparently. And the name Georg... Lyude knows the name Georg, he was the doctor you heard about in Mintaka, who developed most of the technology driving the Empire. Ahhh, the plot thickens... .... damn that voooooooooooice.... Anyways, to Azha! ~~~~~ Azha Village ~~~~~ Items Gained: Green Tea, Sculpting Knife, Crimson Oak Blossom, Lepus, Mephistopheles Cloak, Secret Recipe 7 What a dreary looking place... the results of Operation Sweep, which you heard about earlier. Used to be a big mining village, but then the miners protested over poor conditions... and the Empire killed everyone that went on strike. Yikes. That was Operation Sweep. And... wait a sec, Savyna led the operation? Savyna WAS an Imperial soldier? Aw, geez... Anyways, after the scene, you'll get control of Kalas. You can visit the church, and level up (all of my characters are now level 24). Class Xelha up with the Rarebird Statue, too. The little kids in the main street will follow you around, begging for stuff, and you can give them any of your quest Magnus. If you can find a source of endless quest Magnus, such as water (or lava inside the nearby Lava Cave), you can bring some to the kids, rinse, lather, repeat. If you bring 15 Magnus for them, the woman sitting on the right will reward you with Mephistopheles Cloak. Bring 20 in total, and you'll score Secret Recipe 7 from her. You can't enter the caves just yet (where the flags are), so look around. The woman near the laundry on the clothesline is in despair because it won't dry. The main to the right will give you stuff if you give stuff to the kids. There's a shop at the end of the long road where you can pick up a Aqua Burst IV, alright! In the house on the left, the little girl runs away from Savyna... why? Everyone's so depressed here. Take the Green Tea from the barrels to the right of the stairway, then head up. There's a Sculpting Knife in the machinery to the left, at the top of the stairs, and a Crimson Oak Blossom on the shelf on the right. The people there won't talk to you, so keep heading upstairs. At the bend in the path, head right, and you'll find a secret path leading to a chest with constellation Lepus :) At the top of the staircase, you'll be confronted by some children who just won't let you pass, they're convinced you're here for another massacre ;_; So go to leave, and a scene will take over just as you leave the house. Savyna here as part of the mission, the indecision she faced, and some of the things she did anyway. Outside, Savyna forces the guards outside the mine out of her way, gaining you entrance. ~~~~~ The Lava Caves ~~~~~ Items Gained: Dream Blade, Serpens, Grumble Pen, Lava, Shadow Thruster, Catfish Whiskers, Gold Earrings, Solar Saber, Shadow Gate, Power Snow Anklet Kalas gets a bit mushy inside the mine, thanking you for your help. Aw, no time for that, we've got an Emperor to annihilate! Move along to get to the door... but you can't even move it. Nuts. As Kalas tries to work out how to open the door, an old man approaches, asking about his winglet. Now is NOT the time, old geezer. But Kalas indulges him anyways. Ah, and the bribery of getting the door opened if you stop by his place. Heh. So follow him off to the right of screen. And we'll learn a bit more about Georg - Azha was his hometown. He was always the whiz kid at mechanics, and then was seduced by the Empire. And he did indeed have a son named Giacomo. Argh! And yes... that makes Kalas... Giacomo's son! And Larikush... any news on him? Do you remember him? He was the doctor that found Kalas in Cebalrai, right at the start of the game :P So yes, you do remember him now. :) Afterwards, he'll go off and open the door, and we can loot his little room. Whee! Take the Dream Blade from the chest, and constellation Serpens from the drum behind the bed. There's also a Grumble Pen underneath the blueprint on the table. (I'm still waiting for a Namco Pen.) When you're finished looting, head back to the door and speak with the man, and he'll unlock it for you. Yay! Now, inside, aint this a scary place. Complete with creepy music. Fun. You can take the essence of Lava if you like, it will prove useful shortly. From the chest, take the Shadow Thruster, then follow the path to the left. Err... no dice this way, the path is blocked by lava. Oh yeah, the Emperor conveniently left a lava flow in his way to stop you pursuing >.> Anyways, your group decides to backtrack, to ask the mechanic how to stop the lava flow. Sounds fair. Speak to him, and he'll be so annoyed... but he reckons you can stop the lava flow with something called Flame Ice, and you can find it in the cave. Find it and bring him some. Guh... Flame Ice? Isn't that like... an oxymoron!? Anyways, back in the cave, if you take the path to the right at the junction, you'll find some suspiciously icy looking stuff. Guarded by two sets of... Lanocaulis... things... which you will have to fight, unfortunately. Once you've defeated them, examine the ice to get the Flame Ice, and take it back to the mech. Apparently this ice is so special that even lava can't melt it. Errr.... k. And he puts it in the machine, which makes something like a snow cone. You're given a new blank Magnus to trap the stuff coming out of the machine, named Sparkling Snow. Ooooook then. Take two of the Sparkling Snow. Take the Snow back to the lava flow, and it'll freeze it solid. Cool. If you go down the lava flow and off screen to the right, you'll find two chests containing Catfish Whiskers and Gold Earrings. Head back up and across to the right, where you can use the second Snow to stop the second lava flow. Down again, and you'll find a Solar Saber and a red save flower. Save again. On the main path... something white and glinting on the ground. Wasn't that the pendant Xelha wore? Finding it here on the ground must mean they don't need it anymore... They've already summoned the guardian for the final End Magnus. Uh oh. Head through. There you'll find Geldoblame... but it looks like you've made it in the nick of time! No, no you haven't... The gate to He has been opened... Behold the power of Malpercio... "We lost? Wait a second, we're not supposed to lose, let me check that script..." Xelha's pendant shatters, as the five End Magnus fuse together... And the void appears... With the storm castle of the ancient gods within it... Cor Hydrae! And Geldoblame... he has the power of Malpercio... and turns into... ugh. ~~~~~ ----/ Geldoblame /---- HP: 5500 ELE: Water(+20%), Fire(-20%) Light(+80%), Dark(-80%) Wind(+30%), Chronos(-30%) DROP: Shadow Gate, Power Snow Anklet That is one ugly mofo, I have to say. There's one major, major sucky thing about this battle, one devastating attack, and it's called Forfeit Your Life. Instant death on a character. You probably haven't had to deal with reviving characters much during battle, and probably haven't done so much at all. It'll most likely be the first move you see, and it will suck. If you have Magnus like Japanese Rice Wine and Holy Grail, these can cure Death. Mizuti came with a Holy Grail, and you should have one or more JRWs (I have three). If you're lucky enough to get these in your hand at the start of the battle, you can revive the dead character... or hope that the attack misses, it sometimes does. The arguments for characters to use in battle are the same as for the last major boss battle, due to the light weakness. Kalas and Xelha should both be level 5 now, so include them, as well as either Gibari (wind) or Lyude (light). You'll need to rearrange your decks from the last major boss battle, as you'll need a lot less defense cards and a lot more offensive cards. Similarly to Giacomo, Geldoblame does take double turns, but the first of each turn is always Divine Seal, to recover 110 HP. Just serves to prolong the battle a little bit -_- What attacks does he have that you need to worry about? He favours five or six hit combos, five of just normal hits (physical and darkness based, plus sometimes fire) but sometimes tacks a sixth finisher on the end, either Seal of Evil (major darkness damage + paralysis) or Venomous Pollen (poison). The paralysis can be a problem if he attacks that character while they're paralyzed - two long combos with minor defence can whittle down your HP fairly quickly. If you're keeping items like Green Tea, this is when you use them. The battle isn't too hard, if you avoid using dark attacks like the plague (or only use to make up a prize bonus such as pairs or three of a kind, which I sometimes do). Careful not to overload with the defense cards, as having no offense is what can drag the battle on and spell doom. Pray you only see Forfeit Your Life once... he tends to use it close to the end of the battle as well, so if you can, finish on a big combo so he completely bypasses the low- health stage. I pulled a 1223 damage combo out of my ass with Kalas to finish things off. Geldoblame pwned. ~~~~~ And Geldoblame loses control of his body... And the voice is here! If you haven't worked out by now who it belongs to, prepare for the shock of your life... Melodia is here! MELODIA, with Fadroh as a sidekick, was behind the plan to unlock the End Magnus, using Geldoblame and the Empire to do the grunt work! Unbe-freaking-lievable! And with that, Melodia's men kill off Geldoblame, pushing him into the lava below. But wait, the plot twists aren't over... here's another for you. Enough deception, she cries. You have done well, so step forth and claim your reward. Uh, who? ........... You can pick yourself up off the floor now. Of course, you, as the Guardian Spirit of said traitor, had absolutely no idea this was coming (if you haven't played the game before). And so, Kalas takes the power of Malpercio... and decides to kick you out of his life. Well, poopy. Err, ok, what now? >.> A woman and a greythorne, in the darkness. Xelha and Meemai. And you, calling out to them. The feathers symbolizing that you are now the Guardian Spirit of Xelha! Yay! But she's all alone, in a prison cell. Head out the door, and you'll be in... ~~~~~ The Imperial Fortress ~~~~~ Items Gained: Fire Burst IV, Spark Hat, Whispering Wind Mmmmm, and you have to escape all by your lonesome. Not cool. In the cell left to Xelha's, you'll find a Fire Burst IV. Equip it immediately. Head left, ignoring Xelha's spasticated running style, past the lifts, and you'll find two more cells. At the end of the path is a desk and a chest with a Spark Hat, and in the left of these two cells you can get a Whispering Wind for Xelha. After you explore the second cell, you'll hear a loud crash bang, and Xelha will want to go investigate. Back near your cell, someone's punched a huge hole in the wall! Three women outside, and a dragon. And guards behind you. No time for questions, time to escape! Wait... QUEEN Xelha? -_- ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- [4.6] Party Regroup ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- It seems Xelha was taken to Anuenue, because she meets with Ladekahn, Corellia, and Calbren. Poor Calbren, his only granddaughter's gone ape and has the world hostage. Speak to the three of them, and then you'll be prompted to rescue your friends, the sooner, the better. The appearance of the Cor Hydrae has created five interdimensional cracks, one near each island, and Corellia believes the rest of your party is being held near the cracks. So you're going. Solo. To rescue them. For the first time, you have complete control over your destination. So if you missed anything on islands you visited before, now you have the opportunity to go back and get it. Me, I'm collecting little things like the Will-O-Wisp Hat I missed in the Ancient Library of Magic. :) Once you've done all that.... five islands, five interdimensional cracks... five End Magnus, even.... No prizes for guessing where exactly on each island you have to search. The cracks have sprung up exactly where you found each End Magnus! So one by one, it's your job to visit the cracks, and regain your party members. We'll start with Sadal Suud, as it might be the easiest to tackle with just one party member >_< ~~~~~ Sadal Suud Frontier ~~~~~ Sadal Suud was the first continent you visited, way back at the start of the game. This is where it all began - Kalas waking up in Cebalrai, meeting Xelha. The End Magnus there was found in Moonguile Forest, so head over there, to where you originally fought the Lord of the Spring. There you'll find the first of the five cracks. Make sure Xelha is well- equipped, and examine it. ~~~~~ Interdimensional Crack ~~~~~ Something strange in the air... Xelha feels it... can you feel it? It doesn't really matter what you say. She gets dizzy, and collapses, but recovers. There doesn't seem to be anything here. So let's move onto the next island. ~~~~~ Diadem, Land of the Clouds ~~~~~ Diadem was the second continent Kalas and Xelha visited. They met Gibari in Nashira, visited the Cloud Passage, and fought off an Imperial invasion in Castle Elnath. A shrine high above the castle was also found to be the home of the End Magnus residing on the island. In the Shrine of the Winds, you'll find the second interdimensional crack. Examine it, and you'll enter it. However, there's a wall inside this crack... and it demands 'a white Magnus, the symbol of freedom that flies in the sky'. Let's see, you're in Diadem, Land of CLOUDS, and you want a white object that flies in the sky... Remember the cloud-making machine in the Cloud Passage? Head over there :) Take the essence of a Cloud from the cloud machine, and put it in the wall in the interdimensional crack. The wall will vanish... but a new challenger appears. ~~~~~ ----/ Naiad /---- HP: 1400 ELE: Water(+30%), Fire(-30%) Light(+50%), Dark(-50%) DROP: Spiraling Gale, Goldfish Bowl, Ophichus A solo boss fight? Less intimidating than one might think, just looking at its stats. Weak against light, so you've got the right person for the battle. A nice spellcaster with Light III to spam. It's weak, as well - it'll do about 100 damage with each hit, undefended, mostly physical and darkness with a touch of fire thrown in. Really easy to defend against, you shouldn't have a problem with this fight at all. A handful of turns, and the boss is history. ~~~~~ After the battle, move up to the imitation crucifix.. and hanging there is none other than Gibari. You've rescued him! Yay! The crack closes, and now you have a party of two! Yay! Head out. At a blue save flower, you can now class Gibari up to class 5, and level him up to be equal with Xelha if you so desire. I could have them at level 30 lol, but I'm leaving them both at 25 for now :) Next stop... Anuenue! ~~~~~ Anuenue, The Rainbow Nation ~~~~~ Anuenue was the third stop in your world tour. Led by Queen Corellia, the island was just beginning its Thirty Year Festival when your party arrived, celebrating the blooming of the celestial tree. Here you also met Savyna, in the waterfall village of Opu. The celestial tree was also where the End Magnus was found, so head towards there. At the very top, you'll find the interdimensional crack. Inside, the wall has an opening for 'a Magnus of life, the seed of life from a glorious tree'. Could that be, a Celestial Flower Seed? If you remember when you were here in Anuenue, you needed a Celestial Flower Seed to make some Komo Mai cookies for Mayfee. And you obtained the Celestial Flower Seed from Corellia's bedroom, in her castle. So head over there, and you'll find the seeds just to the right of her bed. Take one and head back up the tree. Inside the crack, enter the Celestial Flower Seed into the wall and another battle will ensue. ~~~~~ ----/ Thalassa /---- HP: 2300 ELE: Fire(+30%), Water(-30%) Light(+50%), Dark(-50%) DROP: Hurricane Blade, Golden Barrette, Cancer Double the party members, less than double the difficulty. This battle isn't really that much different from the Naiad, except with fire and water elementals swapped over. The Thalassa has one finishing move to speak of - Tears of Destruction, which deals about 50 points of dark-based damage. Really, really, not scary, especially with how beefed up you were after a couple of hard boss battles in Alfard. You can completely negate his attacks with one water and one light based armour, and then just pummel away until the thing dies. ~~~~~ And now you've saved Savyna. And look, the two drops from Thalassa were both for Savyna, as well :P I sense a pattern... Once you've collected her, and set her up properly for battle, feel free to proceed to Mira. ~~~~~ Mira, City of Illusion ~~~~~ Mira is Kalas' homeland, and the fourth pit stop in your race to secure the End Magnus. On the way here, through the treacherous Trail of Souls, your party took a wrong turn at Albuquerque and ended up in the Outer Dimension. There is where you met the Great Mizuti, and she led you back to civilization safely. Upon reaching Balancoire, Duke Calbren finally admitted that the End Magnus was buried underneath his manor, in the mirrored maze of Coccolith. Thankfully, you don't have to maske your way through that nightmare again, but the entrance to the interdimensional crack can be found in the sewers underneath the museum. Enter and examine the now familiar wall to read the engraving. Set here the illusory Magnus, the plant which listens not to the reasons of this world. The word 'plant' should give it away right away - you need a Mirage Weed, found in the mystical garden of Detourne. Grab the Mirage Weed and put it in the wall... to reveal yet another boss. ~~~~~ ----/ Despina /---- HP: 3700 ELE: Wind(+30%), Chronos(-30%) Light(+50%), Dark(-50%) DROP: Mega Flood, Tearful Birdie, Lyra Well, we've got the two best characters for a chronos-based boss... right here in our party. Gibari packs a lot of wind strength (man, that sounded wrong) and so does Xelha. If you play this one right, it can be over in just a few turns. Not to say that this boss is as much of a cakewalk as the last two. Three words - Hour of Reckoning. The Forfeit Your Life of the regroup part of the game -_- Yup, instant death, it's not something you see often but it's something you'll see here. As soon as you see it, it's gonna basically be a race to see who will be killed first, your party, or him using Hour of Reckoning. If you're lucky enough to have only Savyna killed off, it's still a fairly easy battle as you can spam his weaknesses with Gibari and Xelha. Overall, again a pretty standard battle with just the one added twist. ~~~~~ No prizes for guessing who you've rescued here. Mizuti! Hehe, she scolds you, telling you you're late, when you came as soon as you could. Anyways, onward march, to our last character... in Alfard. ~~~~~ Alfard, Empire of the Flame ~~~~~ Mmmmm... home of the Empire. It was always going to be risky, your party coming here, to search for the final End Magnus. And draining for Lyude, to face the ghosts of his past, Operation Sweep, and his family. Not all bad news though, because Kalas got his much needed revenge on Giacomo and his team... only to betray you at that last moment and side with Melodia on the side of Malpercio. So, what do here in Alfard? First, you can get the treasure chest in Lyude's house that we saw before but couldn't access. It's Lyude's level 5 finisher, Intermezzo. Once you're done there, it's time to head to the location of the End Magnus, the Lava Caves. Make your way through the cave again. When you reach the wall in the interdimensional crack, it'll tell you to provide it with a 'blistering hot Magnus, an all consuming, fiery heat found in the infernal cavern'. No prizes for guessing it wants a piece of lava, so backtrack slightly to get one. When the wall vanishes, you'll have the final boss of this section on your hands. ~~~~~ ----/ Galatea /---- HP: 5600 ELE: Chronos(+30%), Wind(-30%) Light(+50%), Dark(-50%) DROP: Crescendo, Amethyst Earrings, Libra That HP is a tad scary. Geldoblame didn't even have that much HP. Gulp. And this guy hits HARD. One four hit combo will knock you for over 500 damage, before defense. If he adds Heart of the Maelstrom to the end as his finisher, change that figure to about 800. It's largely physical damage, though about a third of it is wind and darkness elemental, so with the right defense, you can get it down to a manageable number. It's still tough. The good news in this one is, he doesn't defend a lot. I would avoid darkness based attacks because that's a hefty strength to them, but any other element, combo it up and just let loose. Even though my lower levelled Savyna got killed off early in the battle, I still managed to survive because of good defense and well-timed healing items. You can get to low health, but a Green Tea and Deluxe Pickles will fill it right back up again. And I believe Xelha has the edge over Mizuti for this fight, now that you have them both back, because while Mizuti does have a good chronos-based finisher or two, Xelha's light ones dominate it right here. ~~~~~ Lyude's thankful to be saved, but Xelha's quick to tell him she'd do anything for her friends. Awwwww. Now you've got everyone back together! Where should you go? Xelha wants to go back to Corellia in Anuenue, to let her know you've put the band back together, and to see what the latest developments are. Sounds like a plan. ~~~~~ Komo Mai, City of Flowers ~~~~~ Back to Corellia's castle, in Komo Mai. She doesn't have much new information for you - Cor Hydrae is still silent. The Empire has been launching attacks on every other island, but their defenses are strong. So what exactly can you do next? Can't go back into the Empire, you'll fall prey to Melodia and Kalas. But you need to do SOMETHING... In the end, it's Mizuti who has the answer. The ice lands. The Kingdom of Wazn. Apparently the queen of Wazn is a great witch with tremendous magical power... maybe they can seek her assistance? I have to tell you, I don't like the way the game just throws a sixth continent in here. But Wazn may just be their last hope. Xelha volunteers to go, of course. And so the rest of your party will tag along too. Whee! I don't like the idea, but anyways. So head back to the Mindeer, and your party will automatically depart for Wazn. ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- [4.7] The Ice Lands of Wazn ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- ~~~~~ The Ice Cliffs of Gomeisa ~~~~~ Items Gained: Leo, Forseti Robe, Aqua Burst IV, Tower Shield, Deluxe Pastry, Shepherd's Purse And the Mindeer will dock at the ice cliffs. Slow going here, because it's so cold and Xelha's still only in those little shorts, I guess. There's a chest to your left, with constellation Leo in it, then head on up the snowy hill. Intruders beware... barriers must be passed. The witches of Wazn... they MUST be real! Up the hill, you'll find another chest with a Forseti Robe. And a strange glowing light to the left... Head over slowly and examine it. It must be the key to breaking the barrier... There's another just above it, so you'll have to go back down, around, fight the grey cancerite -_- and go up the hill. Once you've touched it, move up to the next screen. There you'll find some flashing stars, and a chest off to the right. The chest contains an Aqua Burst IV (yeah great, in the snow where everything is ice elemental, thanks), but grab it for future reference. The stars are actually indicating Sparkling Snow, which you're obviously gonna need at some point... so you may as well grab some, eh. If you head further upwards on the right path, you'll find a snow junction - there's an orb down each of the two paths, left and right. Grab them, and upon touching the second one, you'll see the large barrier disintegrate. Once it's done, head back down to the sparkling snow. To the left, you'll find another chest with a Tower Shield. Keep heading up and you'll find where the seal was, next to a chest with a Deluxe Pastry. Further up on the left is a Shepherd's Purse, which will raise Mizuti up to class 5. Yay! Keep on moving up. So the rumours were true... Wazn really does exist, as you can see the ice palace in the distance. But it's a dead end... not if you're Xelha, and know the key to unlocking the path. The mystery deepens, as the snow clears and Wazn officially appears on your world map. Like you didn't already know that something was going to fill the gap there, really. But Xelha knows... how? ~~~~~ Kaffaljidhma ~~~~~ Items Gained: Light Flare IV, Young Wasabi Root, Dancing Flames, Shortcake (Large), Phoenix Helm, Birdie Fatale, Full Helm or Golden Bugle, Snow Inside the ice castle... Xelha is still behaving strangely. She just walks on ahead, like she knows where she's going, leaving your party even more confused than they already were. Eventually she meets up with some servants... who welcome her home, Your Majesty. Say WHAT? Uh huh... Queen Xelha, so that's what the three women meant -_- Xelha fills Barnette in on the story of what's happened in the world, and seeks her advice. The only idea Barnette has is to use the Ocean Mirror, an artifact passed down from generation to generation... And using it to reflect the wicked god's power should give you enough time to either reseal the End Magnus, or destroy them. Man, things are starting to sound even flakier. So Xelha decides to go down to the Lake of the Dragon and get the Mirror. But apparently, this is not a good path to take. While Barnette gets things ready, your party decides to stop and take a look around town.... Errrrrr... ok. In the room you're in, search the far dresser for a Light Flare IV, and the near one for a Young Wasabi Root. There's also a Dancing Flames in the bed, even though you're scolded for searching a lady's bed :P Outside, there's a red save flower on the right side of the hall, near the door to the ritual room. You can't get in yet, but save anyways. The throne room is to the north, but there's nothing to see there. Down one level, you'll find more living areas. On the left in the court lady's room, grab the Shortcake (Large) from the ice pot in the bottom right corner. You can also start the animal side quest here if you want, she'll give you directions. In the right room, you'll find the grieving widows of Gram and Leon, the two men killed in Sadal Suud. :( The two chests in their room hold a Phoenix Helm and a Birdie Fatale. Once you've grabbed them, talk to the wives. Xelha is upset, but they reassure her that their husbands died fighting for their cause, they wouldnt have wanted it any other way. If you speak to the wives again, you'll be prompted to hand over a quest Magnus. But which one? Do you remember picking up the Warriors' Mementos way back in Sadal Suud, after they died? If you still have them, there are two options. If you're going for 100% Magnus collecting, you need to let the Mementos age for 50 hours to become the Warriors' Memories. If you've got over 55 hours on the clock, they've probably aged already. You can hand over either the Mementos or the Memories to the wives - and they'll reward you with a Full Helm for the Mementos, but an awesome Golden Bugle for the Memories. Keep exploring the castle, down one more level. In the room on the left, you can take Snow from the pot in the bottom-left corner, and a Green Tea from the table near the woman on the couch. In the right room, you'll find a white dragon - the one Xelha escaped the Imperial Fortess on. Wow. Down one more level and you'll be out of the castle, and into... ~~~~~ Cursa, the Snowy City ~~~~~ Items Gained: Cloudy Emblem, Dark Flare IV, Soybeans, Ursa Minor In the main square of Cursa, Xelha will begin to tell you her tale. Nine years ago, Barnette felt that something strange was going on in the outside world, so she sent three witches out to keep an eye on things. Kodelle, Glamyss, and Catranne. You actually bumped into these three sisters a couple of times - the fortune tellers in Nashira, and Reverance. So from Wazn, Xelha went to the Empire, got a job as a maid, and found out about the secret plans of Geldoblame - and so she stole the pendant and fled to Sadal Suud, where she met Kalas. And the rest, as they say, is history. A knight will come up to you and tell you that preparations are ready. Stuff that, we want to see Cursa first. I'm going to start from the very left hand side of town and work right, so head left :) The snowman in the back left corner of the city is holding a Cloudy Emblem, and in the house just right of it, you'll find a Dark Flare IV and some Soybeans in the two bins. In the next building, which looks more like a fishing shop, you'll find the constellation Ursa Minor tucked up against the big frozen fish on the back wall. Save in the main square if you want, and class Mizuti up to 5. To the right, you'll find a shop, as well as a woman with a bracelet who isn't part of the Quzman clan :P Once you're done shopping, head back up into Kaffaljidhma, to the ritual room. Gulp. Inside, Barnette will send your entire party off into the Lake of the Dragon. ~~~~~ Lake of the Dragon ~~~~~ Items Gained: Ocean Mirror, Sacred Wine, Holy Grail Ah, you've been expected, apparently. You must pass the test to prove yourself worthy of receiving the Ocean Mirror... I don't like the sounds of this. A lone Xelha battle... Which may just be the weirdest one ever. The Goddess will show an elemental Magnus, and you have seven Magnus to choose from, all face down - one of each of the six different elements, and a camera. You have to correctly guess the right element to match the one she shows - you miss, she hits you, you get it right, you hit her. Just a game of luck, really, but the hits from the missed Magnus aren't hard. Four hits, and she'll allow you to proceed. I guess you could call that a boss battle? o.O After the battle, you'll be rewarded with the Ocean Mirror, and warned that this means the time is near when the Ocean must be released. (Guh?) Xelha understands, but I bloody don't. Anyways, take your battle spoils, and your photo if you were lucky enough to get one, and you'll be sent back to Kaffaljidhma.... only for Xelha to collapse on arrival. ~~~~~ Cursa, the Snowy City ~~~~~ Items Gained: Sagittarius Back in Xelha's room, you'll get a bit more backstory. After Xelha awakes, her first question to Barnette is whether she thinks the Ocean Mirror may be able to save Kalas from the darkness. Ooooooh-er, she likes himmmmm! Xelha and Kalas, sitting in a... err.. Now we're wondering about another never-before-heard-of race of people, Children of the Earth, those who sealed away Malpercio. Bahhhhh, no time, we're going back to the rest of civilization now. But we're going to take the long way to do it -_- Head back to the ritual room. On the pillar at the back of the room, you'll find constellation Sagittarius. Then ask Barnette if you can ride the White Dragon back to civilization... what, the Mindeer's not good enough for us anymore? :P Barnette will agree... but you must do her a favour first. You must look after the White Dragon as the Knights of Wazn would, because the Dragon isn't yours, it gets passed down through the generations of queens. So for the ice statues of the Knights in this room... They were veterans in the field, but they're missing their weapons. So you have to make their weapons and return them to the statues, before you're allowed to ride the Dragon. O... K then. There's an ice sculptor living in Cursa, who can fashion weapons for you. You might have seen him inspecting pillars in the guest room of Kaffaljidhma. He lives in the left-most house of town, where we raided the bins. Speak to him and Xelha will ask him to make the sculptures for her. He's too busy... but his son Junior will do it! All Junior needs is the material... Sparkling Snow, I told you we'd find a use for it sooner or later :P So where can you find the Sparkling Snow? Back down on the ice cliffs of Gomeisa, at the junction of the paths. Head there, and grab some - one is enough - then you can meet Junior in the ritual room. Give him the Sparkling Snow, and he's right. Now you just need to decide which weapon goes where. * Top left sculpture - "My philosophy: deliver a finishing blow with precise aim. Nothing has escaped from me. This strained string is my heart and soul." String? Sounds like a bow to me, so select bow. * Bottom left sculpture - "I can take any attack. Guarding and protection are my forte. This piece of steel is my life." There's only one guarding apparatus on the list, that of the shield, so pick it. * Top right sculpture - "Millions have fallen before me. I slash, stab, and bludgeon. This long spear is my best friend." Well, out of what we have left, even if you didn't know what a halberd was, an axe ISN'T a spear, so a halberd must be (and is), so select it. * Bottom right sculpture - "There's nothing I can't cut. Even a wall of a thousand soldiers is nothing to me. This thick blade is my heart and soul." Well, there's only one option left, so select axe. Junior reckons it will take him overnight to make them, so we should go rest. You can't rest in Xelha's room, so go rest your wings at the Cursa shop, then return here. OK, Junior did a pretty cool job on those ice sculptures. Barnette reappears, to tell you that yes, you are now allowed to ride the White Dragon, which has been moved to the Cursa port. She recognizes the Mindeer as being Ladekahn's ship, and will arrange it's return. So now, to the White Dragon! The Cursa port is just near the shop, so traipse back there AGAIN. As you ride off into the sunset, Barnette is wishing for your forgiveness... for nothing can save someone tainted by evil such as Kalas, not even the Ocean Mirror... Anyways, the White Dragon will set sail back for Corellia's castle, in Anuenue. ~~~~~ Anuenue, The Rainbow Nation ~~~~~ Corellia is understandably a little ticked that no-one told her Xelha was the Queen of Wazn. Ladekahn just can't get used to the idea either :P After a bit of laughter to liven up the mood, Xelha locks herself away, thinking to herself... The burden she carries as the Ice Queen... Tomorrow they'll know if everything will be ok... right? Anyways, your team is now off to Mintaka, to try and reclaim the End Magnus from the clutches of Melodia. Leave Komo Mai, because the Dragon is docked at the port. When you leave, everyone will appear to bid you farewell, and you will automatically be directed towards Alfard. ~~~~~ Mintaka, The Imperial Capital ~~~~~ Items Gained: Girl's Thoughts As soon as you arrive in Mintaka... dead bodies. Creatures taking over the city. What on earth is going on!? The creatures are Gagareks... supposedly Imperial soldiers that have been touched by the power of Malpercio and turned into demons. They give nice EXP, so if you feel like levelling a bit, here is the place to do it. In the little girl Scalla's house (to the left of the Magnus shop), she won't be as snobby to you as she was last time you were here, mainly because she's scared of the Gagareks outside. Now she'll even let you read her journal... and you can take the essence of Girl's Thoughts from them. What can you do with Girl's Thoughts? Well, if you head back to Azha, and speak with the little kids blocking the way on the third level of the house, if you give them Girl's Thoughts they'll not only give you a Red Oak but also let you pass. Once they've let you pass you can grab a Sunflower Coin from the bookcase on the left, Pork Ribs from the shelves north of the table, and a Jumbo Pastry from a pot to the right of those shelves. Anyways, that's all side stuff >.> Your real target in Alfard is Melodia's base, the Imperial Fortress. Outside Mintaka, you'll have access to the fortress for the first time. ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- [4.8] The Imperial Fortress ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- Yes, I'm putting it in a section by itself, this is such a major section of the game. If you don't like it.... well, tough titties :P ~~~~~ The Imperial Fortress ~~~~~ Items Gained: Light Flare IV, Wave Cutter, Fire Burst IV, Aqua Impulse, Phoenix Helm, Aqua Yell I, Deluxe Cream Puff, Wolf Fangs, Dark Flare IV, Scorpius, Inferno Fists, Efreeti Suit, Dragonfly, Asura Tuba, Blood Sword, Full Helm, Aqua Burst IV, Golden Bugle, Birch, Crown of Bubbles, Cute Doll, Picture Book As you enter the fortress, a soldier will stop you. Weren't you at the Lava Caves on that fateful day!? He was too! And Melodia and General Fadroh are in the fortress, cooking up some plan... can't we stop them!? We're going to do our best... To the right of the entrance, you'll spot two treasure chests in the distance, holding a Light Flare IV and a Wave Cutter. Grab them, and approach the fortress - whose gates will open wide just for you. Errr. Now I'm a tad worried. But enter anyways. Inside, Xelha is still insistent on saving Kalas at all costs. Feh. We'll see what we can do. Anyways, you'll come to an elevator with two corrupted walkers walking around outside it... battles get rather tough in here >_< The EXP is killer though. I'm trying to keep my characters at low level for the purposes of the walkthrough but finding it tough, with so much EXP for the taking >.> Anyways, pass the elevators for now and you'll come to what looks like a dining area of sorts. The chest in the corner holds a Fire Burst IV, whee. If your decks are still set up the same as they were in Wazn, might be an idea to change them back now :P Now check out the elevators. The ones with the flashing arrows are the usable ones, and signify which way you can go, up or down. No, you don't get to choose which floor you go to, on any of them, they're all predetermined :P So head up the elevator, and you'll get to the second floor. Let's explore around a bit first, and the battles are pretty easy to avoid :P Head right, then north to find a man with his head in his hands. Talk to him, and he thinks he's pretty much done for, he just wants someone to look after his Whiskers. If you've accepted the Animals for Wazn quest, you can take Whiskers as part of it. Grab the Aqua Impulse from the chest as well. Head back down and all the way to your right, and you'll be in a bathroom. Check the cubicles, just because you can, and in one you'll find a soon-to-be- unconscious man ;) Take the Prison Cell Key from his belt. You'll also find a chest with a Phoenix Helm in another cubicle. And a guy sitting down reading what looks like a porno in another. XD! In the third urinal, you'll find a Aqua Yell I. To finish looting the second floor.... We'll need to go all the way across to the left of the floor. Past the elevator you came up on, and past another going up, you'll come to another room. There's a Deluxe Cream Puff in the drawers just right of the big chest, and Wolf Fangs in the chest itself. Up one more floor. I'm doing this slowly and methodically so I don't miss a thing :P The fifth floor (accessible from the right elevator, near the bathroom) is out of bounds right now, without an elevator key. So up to the fourth floor we go, in the elevator just outside the bedroom with the Wolf Fangs. There, head left to continue the exploring, and you'll come to some prison cells. These cells look familiar? Were you on the fourth floor when Xelha was imprisoned here earlier? Yes you were :P Is there anything new on the entire floor? Well yes, the elevator key on the desk on the very left of the level. Grab it! And the platform through the hole in the wall where you were picked up by the Dragon earlier... two chests, containing a Dark Flare IV and the constellation Scorpius. Once you've got it all, there isn't much to see here, so back down to the second floor. Now that we've got the elevator key, we can head up from the second floor to the fifth floor on the other elevator, near the bathroom. Because we're near the right side, may as well start exploring from the right side. Head right on the third floor, and you'll come to a locker room. Making your way around the room starting from the left wall, grab the Inferno Fists, the Efreeti Suit, the Dragonfly from the chest, the Asura Tuba, and the Blood Sword from the next chest. Quite a haul here ^_^ This floor has the same layout as the second floor, so it has the T junction and the northern room. The northern room on this floor is just an operations room, with a nonfunctional security center, unfortunately, so once you've cleaned out the locker room, head all the way left. There you'll find the throne room, and a scene will take over. Lyude remembering Geldoblame ordering Operation Sweep. Set fire to their houses! Unleash the Mad Wolves! He's insane >_< And he just confirms it more and more, every time he opens his mouth. But the Emperor is gone... and so is the coward Lyude once was. Amen. Take the Full Helm and the Aqua Burst IV from the chests, and the hidden Golden Bugle behind the throne itself, and save. Now we can use the elevators just outside to go down to the third floor. SO much confusion... I hate this place. Examine the barrier on your right - you can't get through right now, but Lyude can disable it from the operations room on the 5th floor, ok then. First head left and loot the room there (wtf a nursery!?) - a Birch under the rocking horse, a Crown of Bubbles in the chest, a Cute Doll in the chest behind the revolving bed (...), and a Picture Book on the dressing table. Once you've got it all, head back to the operations room, which was the northern room on the fifth floor. Once there... Lyude notes that the security system still isn't working... so how is that barrier up? He doesn't know... but to disarm the barrier, they'll have to fix the machine. How can they do that? Fill the big blue ball there with water, for starters. Ooooookay.... where can you get water? Closest place I can remember to get water was in the bathroom, back down on the second floor. So go there, down on the elevators on the right, then right again. Fill up with as much Stagnant Water as you can - it'll take four quest magnus worth to get the machine up and running, so you might need two trips two and from the bathroom. When the ball is full of water, the machine will spring back to life, and deactivate the electronic barrier on the third floor. PLEASE go back and save again. Save save save in a new save because what's coming up freaking sucks ass. Then head back down to the third floor, and past where the barrier once stood. Halfway down the next hallway, you'll be interrupted. You knew something was going to happen when the camera angle changed :P A voice from the darkness that soon reveals itself... it's General Fadroh! Well, he was once a general, now he exists to serve and honour Malpercio and Melodia. Ugh, gimme a break. Anyways, because you've gone against the god's will, you must be eradicated. Or something. ~~~~~ ----/ Fadroh /---- HP: 7000 ELE: Light(+30%), Dark(-30%) Wind(+80%), Chronos(-80%) DROP: Camera 3, Freezing Axe This battle is universally one of the most hated in the entire game. For one reason - the Orb of Magical Offense. There's a high probability he'll use it on his first turn, and if you see it, it's pretty much guaranteed Game Over unless you know EXACTLY what you're doing. It ramps his attack up to INSANE levels, so much so that a six hit combo from him with a finisher will do an incredible 1500 damage before defence. That's a very large portion of, or possibly be even more than, any character's HP at this point, unless you're doing some serious powerlevelling. And guess what? He takes DOUBLE turns. See what I mean yet? :P However, not all is lost even if he uses the dreaded Orb on the first turn. With the right deck preparation, this battle can become manageable... difficult still, but rather manageable. And as such, I'll spend most of this here description talking about deck preparation :P First things first - looking at his weaknesses and deciding on characters to use. Massive wind weakness? Gibari is an absolute given, given that the vast majority of his weapons are wind ones. Depending on how much battling you've been doing, you may have a fair stock of Dragonfly weapons, kick-ass wind weapons for him. If you need more, the guys up on the 5th floor drop them. A mage is also essential - go with whoever is better levelled out of Mizuti and Xelha. If you're like me, keeping people equally levelled (all of my chars are level 27), go with Mizuti as her defense is significantly higher and you'll need ALL the defense you can get. For a third character, I would select Lyude. It's really a toss-up between Lyude and Savyna (don't need two mages after all), and Lyude has the masses and masses of light based weapons. OK. That's party. Now for deck. Going on his strengths and weaknesses again, take out EVERY chronos-based item from your deck. I mean EVERY one. (Minus maybe your Deluxe Pickles because you won't be using them on him :P) Add EVERY wind based item you have, even shitty little ones that have like 15 defense points. For Gibari, this isn't a big deal - he only has like half a dozen chronos Magnus. For Lyude, even less of a big deal, as he has none. For your mage, take out all dark and chronos spell Magnus, and replace with wind, even level 1. Empty out the characters' decks that you're not using, so you can put all the best armour and spells on your active characters. Now. For the battle itself. You're hoping and praying he doesn't use the Orb on the first turn. In my first attempt at this battle, he used it on the second turn and I still got royally ass kicked. On my second attempt, he did use it first turn (used it twice over the course of the battle) and I still won convincingly. But if he does, and you're following my directions, all is not lost. The biggest problem is his massive attack. And so you need an equally massive defence. The easiest way of reducing it is via bonuses - straights, 2x 3 cards, etc. All of Xelha, Gibari and Mizuti should be class 5, so can use 6 cards in one turn. Therefore, your best defense bonus is a straight of 6 cards , ie 1-2-3-4-5-6, 8-7-6-5-4-3, or something similar.If you can pull one off, it'll reduce damage sustained by 46%. Similarly, other big bonuses are 2x 3 cards (ie. 4-4-4-6-6-6) or 3x 2 pair (eg. 4-4-6-6-2-2). You NEED to be doing things like this to counter the massive attacks, to stand a good chance if he uses the Orb very early on. If you can pull off something like this, you can reduce a 1500-damage combo to as little as 400. You can negate up to 500 of the damage with good armour (wind and physical based defense), and the rest via the bonuses. If you can do this regularly, the battle becomes pretty standard. You'll still need to heal every so often, but now you're starting to get some really good healing items - the Ocean Mirror, Green Tea, Eel, Apple, etc. So if you can reduce the damage so much, you don't need to heal so often, every second round of turns, have two characters heal. Now you need Gibari dealing out some massive attacks of his own. You've got decent wind weapons, they're doing +80% damage.... if you can make a few combos such as straights or three-of-a-kind on the offensive turns, with a lot of wind in it, you can easily do over 1500 damage per hit. And he has no uber skillful defense like you do, so you can make him hurt :P Hopefully, if you can follow most of the above advice, the battle shouldn't be that difficult at all. I've tried to be clear on how to get through one of the hardest bosses in the game. I managed it pretty easily with this strategy. ~~~~~ And with that, Fadroh kicks the bucket. Bye now. He says something about your power being a tribute to the god... oh, who knows, the ravings of a madman. Onward march, and you'll find another red save flower. Please, for the love of God, save again :P I can't stress it enough, because there's more ass-sucking moments coming up oh, about as soon as you walk forward another handful of steps! Guess WHOOOOOOOOOOOO! It's Melodia! And Kalas! And this is the sanctum of Malpercio, apparently. After mumbo jumbo talk, about how Melodia is redeeming the mortals' selfish act in destroying Malpercio on the first place, the fight is on! Melodia sends Kalas out, like a dog, to attack... ~~~~~ ----/ Angel of Darkness /---- HP: 9000 ELE: Light(+80%), Dark(-80%) Chronos(+40%), Wind(-40%) DROP: nothing (how rooode) Oh, spew. Spew spew and double spew. I hate this fight. It's Kalas! Xelha <3's him! And we have to fight him! ;_; If you found the last battle easy, you're going to find this one tough. If you found the last battle tough, you're going to find this one a nightmare. If you just scraped through the last one by the skin of your teeth, you're going to find this battle IMPOSSIBLE. It'll start off deceptively easy. I went into this one on a first attempt with the exact same set-up I had from the previous battle, didn't stop to heal, anything. I reckon I probably got him down to about 2,000 HP before he totally creamed me. Two reasons why - one, Fangs of Darkness. His first finishing move, usually at the end of an 8 hit combo, is worth 596 points - 298 physical, 298 darkness. And whatever you don't defend, he'll absorb. So if you can't defend it, he'll regain nearly 600 HP. Just like that. Second reason - Fangs of Darkness usually always follows Binding Wind, his second finishing move. It does exactly what the name suggests - paralyzes you, binds you to the spot. And when you're paralyzed... you can't defend. So when he hits you with that Fangs of Darkness combo next, you're not only losing nearly your entire HP, you're giving it straight to him. You won't see Binding Wind much early on, which is why the battle seems easy to start. You can defend a significant portion of his Fangs of Darkness attack with a lot of armour and a light piece or two thrown in there, but the Binding Wind makes it difficult. Of utmost important for this battle, consequently, is paralysis-resisting equipment. Xelha has the Golden Anklet, which is 90% resistant, Lyude has the Amethyst Earrings (100% resistant), Gibari has Bamboo Grass Creel (50% resistant), Mizuti has Birdie Fatale (90% resistant) and again you're not even worrying about Savyna. Equip it, and you've got a good shot at resisting every Binding Wind that comes your way. Now for attack. You only need a minorly modified setup from the last battle - put all your chronos elements back in, and take out every dark card. Gibari has few chronos Magnus, so just use him to bash Kalas with wind magnus - even with the strength, if you can pull off a good bonus, they'll balance each other out and Gibari hits hard with his wind paddles. Xelha has the edge over Mizuti for this battle because she has a lot of light- based finishers. Take the Dark Flares out of her deck, and add the Chronos Blows back in. Lyude is a given, because of the light weakness, you just can't use any of your awesome Asura Tubas on him :( This battle relies a little more luck than the Fadroh battle did - it's going to drag on a bit longer if you're unlucky. Luck that you can resist Binding Winds; luck that if he's going to kill you, he does it on a damage turn rather than an absorption turn... but overall I think it's easier than the Fadroh battle because you're not relying so much on prizes. Yes, tougher, but easier because the set-up isn't so intensive and it can actually be pretty easy if the Magnus fall your way :P ~~~~~ Melodia is disappointed in Kalas... but she has you to thank, for finally releasing the End Magnus. Uh, oops. Turns out your party is the key to ressurecting Malpercio, the whole five End Magnus, five islands, five mortals things. Sorry bout that, world, didn't mean it >.> But it's not over yet... Xelha pulls out her trump card, the Ocean Mirror. Melodia's a bit frazzled by this, but it's ok. She shines it on Kalas, who turns into a writhing heap on the ground... yeah, Barnette lied to you just so you'd go along with HER plan. Dammit. Xelha is undecided, what to do? Oh, just use the damn mirror again, and Kalas will actually agree with you, use it before it's too late! But she's weak... she can't do it. Gotta love Melodia "are you finished yet?" And she shatters the Ocean Mirror with a single shot. There goes that idea. So, this isn't looking like much fun right now. The darkness... a growl... uh oh. He's baaaaaaaaaaaaack! -_- Kalas tries to resist the darkness, and stop Melodia, but once he's gone black, there's no going back, apparently. And so Melodia sends Kalas after you again... Xelha seems pretty much resigned to it, and starts praying... which seems to be enough to tip Kalas over the edge. It was his wings controlling him... the wing Malpercio repaired on his back... and so he tears it off, effectively removing the power of the god. But without the power, he can't stop her... So as Malpercio gets ready to annihilate you, Mizuti rushes forward with some serious magical power... enough to stop the newborn demon right in his tracks. How the... But with that, they escape, to the inner sanctum of Cor Hydrae. Take your Broken Ocean Mirror. I would have preferred the intact one, personally, but that's just me. A flashback of Kalas', how Fee wanted to find the Ocean and ask the whale a question, seeing as lore says it's all knowing. Georg's death. Fee's death. And Savyna was there! She saw it all! And now, Kalas is awake, and asking for your forgiveness. Well, no, not your forgiveness, but your assistance in stopping Melodia and Malpercio, and hopefully the forgiveness will be a nice side effect along the way. And after we embarrass the hell out of Xelha, she agrees to give possession of you, the Guardian Spirit, back to Kalas where you belong. Aww, ok. So what's the plan now? Well, Savyna wants to know about the strange figures that appeared and saved you from Malpercio. Oh, they're just Children of the Earth, who live below the clouds. .....Bah, I told you they'd come into things sooner or later :P Why didn't she say that earlier? Because no-one asked her, obviously ^_~ So, how did she get up through the Taintclouds, seeing as it's all poisonous gas? Well, just like there is the Trail of Souls leading to Mira, there's a Trail in the Clouds where the gas is thinnest, and they just... dive right though! Well, that makes perfect sense :P Mizuti's mask acts as a filter, but the rest of you will just have to hold your breath while diving, lol. And that's it, you agree to leave! Before you head off, however, make sure to visit the church via the blue flower near the Dragon, and level Kalas up. I know my Kalas is lagging three levels behind the rest of my party, so I levelled everyone up to 28 including him. When you're done, get on the White Dragon, and you'll automatically depart for the Taintclouds. ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- [4.9] Duhr, The Earth Nation ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- The White Dragon is smart, it won't go anywhere near the Taintclouds... but this is close enough anyways. What now? You bloody JUMP! Errrrrrr... jump?? Yeah, jump. No-one likes the idea, but you're all here, so you may as well do it anyway. Cowabunga! ~~~~~ Labyrinth of Duhr ~~~~ Items Gained: Cinderella Birdie, Pristine Water, Fangs of Light, Metal Knuckles, White Ash, Sun Coin, Hamelin Cloak, Pegasus, Air Slash, Bells of Fate, Sunflower Barette, So much for not getting lost... seems the Great Mizuti took a wrong turn. Just a little one. And we've been dropped in the middle of a labyrinth. Oh, whoo. No map. Just find your way out. Lucky you've got me here to give directions :P I'm going to go the really long way, because I like collecting Magnus and like fighting things. If you want to get straight out, just go right here, at the next intersection turn left, then follow the path straight out, ignoring all intersections. But that's really no fun. From where we start, head towards the camera. On the next screen you'll find a Baruganam, may as well fight it :P Behind it, you'll find a chest with a Cinderella Birdie, for Mizuti. From there, turn right and head to the very end of the path, around two corners, and you'll find a Mad Cancerite walking around. Kill it, then take some of the Pristine Water in the pot (you'll see why) and the Fangs of Light from the chest. Is that anything like the move from the last boss, Fangs of Darkness? :P Now follow the path all the way straight back, ignoring the intersections, through the weird archway, until you find two Bar-Mools hopping around. Take the Metal Knuckles from the chest, avoid the fights if you can, and follow the path to the left. Hey presto, you're back where you started, with the red save flower, albeit from a different angle :P Save again, and head through the archway. Head straight at the next intersection, ignoring the empty pot, and around the corner, and you'll come to a small shrine. The man standing there is Battuta, a Quzman relative, so get him to sign the Family Tree. Take the White Ash from the chest as well. Head back. This time when you get to the intersection with the turned over pot, turn right. There's one long path for a while, with a smattering of enemies, chests with a Sun Coin, a Hamelin Cloak, constellation Pegasus on the dead body slumped against the wall (charming), and Air Slash. Then you'll come to someone lost in the maze, but unfortunately you can't help her escape :/ So just keep going. On the next screen you'll find a new enem, and hang a right past it. There you'll find another mini-shrine and a monster, but this monster is harmless. It's covered in sores... poor thing >.> If you did pick up some water somewhere like I asked you to, give it to the monster... its sores will clear up and it'll reward you with Bells of Fate, Xelha's level 7 chronos finisher! Well, that was kinda cool. After it leaves, head back up and take a right. Follow the path, and when you get to the next intersection, turn left and follow it along. There you'll find a chest with a Sunflower Barette, and furhter along, a chest with Platter of Parting. A class up item, for Lyude! Yay! Once you've got it, head back to the intersection where you found the spinning-top lookalike, the Mafreega, and hang a left. There you'll find a big bunch of clouds - just head left and you'll find the exit. We escaped the Labyrinth! Yay! Now you've got two options on the map - Gemma Village, and the Garden of Death. Um. I'll go with the village. ~~~~~ Gemma Village ~~~~~ Items Gained: Oakwood, Large Teamug, Adventure Novel, Slight Debt, Broken Earth Sphere, Bootes, Peanuts, Earth Buckle, Siegfried, Power Blade, Sacred Helm This is Great Mizuti's village! She wants to go to talk to the village elder, so follow her. But the Great Kamroh is having a very important meeting, so you'll have to come back later. Pooh. Navigating around town is done via the weird-ass teleporters around the place. The one at the bottom of the stairs will move you to the ground, so take it. There's no-one in the Magnus shop, in the middle of town, unfortunately. One of the women walking around is Wahshiyah, a Quzman relative, so get her to sign the tree. Save at the blue flower if you like, the head up the stairs on the left. There you'll meet Kee... Mizuti's brother? And this is Mizuti's house! Enter, and watch the scene with Mizuti and her parents... tee-hee, she gets in trouble for calling herself 'great' again. Her father, Koh, thinks you should go see the Great Kamroh... but he's busy, because Sir Krumly's in town. Hehe, Krumly apparently won't be staying long, so you can go see Kamroh now. Speak to the child on the left of the fire, and he'll tell you that the last Person from the Sky here was a man named Calbren, who stole their Earth Sphere. Calbren, eh? Like, Duke Calbren from Mira? :P Interesting... In the fire itself, grab the Oakwood. In Kee's treasure box, just left of his mother (ok so Mizuti and Kee aren't related), grab the Large Teamug. You can also get the essence of the Adventure Novel from the greenish bookcase on the very left of the house. Outside, the only other house in town is a barn. Speak to the woman next to the Cluckers, and if you're doing the Animals for Wazn quest, she'll let you have one. Examine the green counter on the right, and Kalas will read that it's labelled "DO NOT OPEN". Hehe, so of course you're going to open it - and inside is a Magnus, Slight Debt. Eek! Speak to the man near the fire, and he'll want to see Xelha's pendant. He thinks that the pendant is actually the Earth Sphere, stolen from the Children of the Earth centuries ago... And now you can use it as a Magnus! Speak to him again, and he'll also give you constellation Bootes as a welcoming present. Cool. The man standing near the green lights is the shop owner, but he can't use the shop because it's too rundown. If he had some Rubber Mud to fix it...then you could shop there. Rubber Mud is found at the Garden of Death, so if you wanted, you could just pop over and grab some even though you're not supposed to go there yet :) Take the Peanuts from the shelf on the left of the barn. If you bring the clerk the Rubber Mud, he'll reward you with a Power Blade and a Sacred Helm. He'll then open the shop for you, where you can get a LOT of healing items - some good, some bad, most pricey. Now, for that mystery chest on top of the building there.... the only way to get there is light transportation, and if you ask arond town, you'll be told to follow the twinkling lights. OK then! This has to be done in very specific order, in quick time before the twinkling stops. The first twinkling teleporter is the very top one, on the left side of town. Jump on it, and you'll be sent one floor down. Now, run over to the twinkling teleporter above the shop. Jump on it, and you'll be sent across to in front of the barn. Now, run across to the second teleporter on the left, on the middle floor. Jump on it, and you'll wind up above the shop again. Now the last one is to your right, in front of the barn - jump on it, and you'll be sent up to where the chest is. And what's in the chest? An Earth Buckle! Yay. There's a guy on the top level just left of the treasure chest, thats been apparently trying to reach it for ages. Once you've opened it, talk to him, and he'll want to know what was inside. Meh, it's no big deal, so tell him, and he'll reward you with a Siegfried. Cool. When you're done exploring town, head up to Kamroh's house again. Krumly doesn't want to just rot down here in the Taintclouds, he needs to do something now that the evil god has been awakened! But the conversation is now over. And you can speak with Kamroh. That Kamroh's a really weird looking bloke. Anyways, he'll tell you about the sealing spell the villagers cast on Malpercio, saving your bacon earlier, but they no longer have the power to do such magic regularly. Centuries of living under the Taintclouds have weakened them :( But Mizuti is different, Mizuti is special, almost like one of their ancestors reincarnated. Note that the game highlights the word 'her', informing you of what I've been saying all along, that Mizuti is, infact, female :P Xelha knew, but everyone else is shocked. Haha. Anyways. Last time Malpercio was sealed away, they needed three artifacts to do it - the Sword of the Heavens, the Ocean Mirror, and the Earth Sphere. Well, the Earth Sphere is no longer intact, and neither is the Ocean Mirror... but they have the Sword of the Heavens locked away here in Duhr. It's in the Garden of Death, north of the village... he's even nice enough to give you the key to get it. If you talk to each of the guards in Kamroh's house, you'll hear parts of a story that you can piece together about ancient times. You don't get anything from doing so, it's just interesting to hear about the old times and what happened way back in Malpercio's day :P Once you've got the key, and finished exploring, head out of town towards the Garden of Death. ~~~~~ Capellia, Garden of Death ~~~~~ Items Gained: Flashy Earrings, Whitecap Shield, Full Plate, Purple Rose Sounds... icky. And muddy. Well, it doesn't sound muddy, but it is very muddy. Movement here is a very slow process. There's nothing up the left path, so head up the right path.... slowly slowly... take another right turn, because it will make your travel a bit quicker :P There, you'll find a chest with Flashy Earrings. Head on up, and onto the next screen... and you'll find the source of the mud, or not. Looks really weird, all this mud, then a little island with water and sun. Anyways, there's a couple of chests around to the left of the house, empty them to find a Whitecap Shield, a Full Plate, and, half hidden behind the house, a Purple Rose, Savyna's class up item! Yay! Save, and head inside. The Sword of the Heavens be here.... but wait, NO ITS NOT. Someone's already been and taken it! I call shenanigans. Anyways, you'll be dumped back on the Duhr map, and a few new places have opened up to visit. Algorab village, run by Sir Krumly. Zosma, Tower of Stones, and Duhr Port. Might be an idea to see if Krumly knows anything about the missing Sword. ~~~~~ Algorab Village ~~~~~ Items Gained: Aries, Cherries, Curry, Divorce Papers, Cassiopeia The people here don't seem to be too fond of those from Gemma, who still cling to the idea that they can still use their powers. The idea here seems to be apathy and depression... very boring. Visit the church and class Savyna up. Now all your characters are class 5, whee! Through the door to the left, you'll be asked what your business here is - you want to speak to the mayor. But he's not here! He's gone to offer the Sword of the Heavens to a god! So HE stole the sword! And he reckons he's going to go to Zosma Tower, disperse the magical enchantment surrounding Duhr, and allow Malpercio to enter! -_- My God, he's been breathing Taintclouds for far too long... Anyways, from the pot along the close wall of the room, grab constellation Aries. From a bookcase along the back wall, grab the Cherries (right next to the self-publication of "How to be a Good Mayor" :P). Back in the main square, there's a shop to the right, so check it out. There's a chest down the back corner of the main square, but for now it's being blocked by the two talking biddies. At the back of the square, there are two doorways. In the left house, check the pots to the left of the stove for some Curry, and the book on the bedside table for Divorce Papers (talking to the two of them, thats pretty easy to understand). In the right house, you can find constellation Cassiopeia on the small desk near the beds, and thats about it. I guess you're on your way to Zosma Tower, to stop this madness from taking place. ~~~~~ Zosma, Tower of Stones ~~~~~ Items Gained: Firedrake Barrette, Burning Shield, Rhapsody, Prominence, Poseidon's Creel, Gemini, Sword of the Heavens You'll learn to hate this place. You'll learn to despise this place. Give it time. Just inside the doorway, two men are arguing - should they have followed Krumly up? No way, this place is full of monsters! They'll let you pass, if you agree to go up and stop Krumly. Well, that's kinda what we're here for :) After you agree, one guy will leave, and the other will start teaching you how this forsaken tower works. The most important thing is the lamp. Once you light the lamp, you can begin the level. You can't move the blocks while the lamp is out... important to remember. Follow the tutorial, and push the block in the hole. The blue blocks, you push them into the wall. The yellow blocks are elevators. If you need more fire, come back down here and get some. And now you're on your own. * First Floor Start by climbing the bottom level of the staircase on the left. He said blue blocks could be pushed inwards, and there's one next to the second level, so climb up and push it in. Hurrah, block rises. Push the new red block into the wall. Block extends. There's a blue block just to right of you, so push it in. Bam, chest appears on the other side of the elevator. Yay! Cross the elevator when it comes down, and grab the Firedrake Barette from the chest. Then head up on the elevator. * Second Floor Start by lighting the lamp. You'll see a Mysterious Shellfish, a blue block, a red block, and several holes in the floor and walls. Right. Start by climbing up and defeating the Shellfish. Then push the blue block in - another block will come out of the wall as a result. Now push the red block in the hole... and three red blocks will fall down in a very weird arrangement. If you push on these red blocks, they'll go flying in the direction you push them in, even through the air. So there's three red blocks, three holes in the walls. Coincidence? I think not. You can climb on the red blocks via the brown block in the bottom left corner. So climb on it, then climb up the red blocks. You're going to start from the top red block, and push each one moving down the pile. So stand on the second red block, and push the top one across to the right so it slots neatly into the hole. Climb down a block, and push the second one upwards into the next hole. Be careful not to accidentally push them while you climb up, or you'll have to extinguish and relight the flame and start again. Once its in, climb down again and push the third block to the right again. Once all three blocks are in position, another staircase similar to the last level will appear on the right hand side of the screen. Climb it, then onto the elevator to go up again. * Third Floor On this floor, your first step is to find the freaking lamp :P It's on the second block up, next to the elevator, so climb up and light it. I bet you didn't know there was a blue block there in that top left corner, you can't get to it yet though. Anyways, you can push that red block off the edge, and note that it falls down next to the hole. So climb down, and push the red block up into the hole. This creates a path for you to get to the blue block in the corner. Push the blue block in, and another block will turn into an elevator block of sorts, moving back and forth. Now you have access to the red blocks in midair. Like before, we want to start pushing from the top down. So from the elevator, climb up on the first red block, and push the second one to the right. Then you'll need to climb down onto the elevator (and time it well so Kalas actually touches down while the elevator is in the right position, otherwise he'll climb back up). Once back on the elevator, time your push on the bottom red block so it slots in the second slot on the right. This will cause another elevator to start moving on the ground. Head back down, and climb on the second elevator moving up. When you get to the top, push the red block at the top across and down onto the ground. Back down on the ground, you can now push this red block into the hole by climbing up and over and pushing it from the back. This will fill the bridge up top, so head back up on the elevator and across. There's another elevator moving from left to right, way up high, and a blue block in the wall. So jump on the elevator, and push the blue block as you go past it. Pushing it in will make a chest appear down on the ground, containing a Burning Shield. Once you've got it, head back up, wait for the right timing to jump on the yellow block, and head up. * Fourth Floor Light the lamp and look at the weird arrangement of blocks. Straight away you can see that the two red blocks can be pushed down into the green holes against the walls. However, you're not going to do this just yet because then you have a third red block that can't get anywhere near a third green hole :P From the start, climb over the top of the diamond divide and into the space where the third red block sits in the middle. Push this red block towards one of the other two up high. Then climb on it, and push the top red block off its ledge, and onto the ground. Now you can maneuvre all three blocks into gaps. Push the red block still on the ledge, into the gap right next to it. Push the block you knocked off, into the position at the top of the diamond. And push the bottom block into the remaining gap. For doing this, a lot of block movage will happen, a chest will appear, and a red save flower will appear. Empty the chest for Rhapsody, another finisher for Lyude. Save, then had up on the yellow elevator block. * Fifth Floor Finally, a nice easy one with a couple of blue blocks and that's it >.> Light the lamp, then had up on the elevator. It's as simply as pushing the blue block in, moving around to the next one, push it in, move around, etc. The further you get down, the more you'll reveal two creatures just waiting for you to get back to the bottom. When the red block comes out, push it towards the hole in the centre of the room... And then the fight is on. ~~~~~ ----/ Agyo /---- HP: 7000 ELE: Fire(+80%), Water(-80%) DROP: Prominence, Poseidon's Creel, Gemini ----/ Ungyo /---- HP: 7000 ELE: Water(+80%), Fire(-80%) Two of 'em! They almost look like giant dogs... but just a bit meaner. And more deadly than a damn American pit bull. And those things are ferocious. Guess what elements they are, just by looking at them and their colours. You guessed right! Fire and water. Agyo, the red one, is the heavy hitter - similar to Fadroh, he has Seal of Agyo, which will boost his attack up to insane levels. I'm talking about 1600-1700 damage, mostly fire, per hit. As well, he has the finisher Pillar of Fire, which will give one character Flames. Flames aren't so bad - Flames you can deal with, they're like poison, just whittle away a bit of HP per turn. Ungyo, on the other hand, is the defender. In a normal attack, he'll do about 600-700 damage, same as Agyo (minus Seal), but mostly water based damage (obviously). For his special maneuver, he'll use Seal of Ungyo, which boost defense massively. But defense you can handle - just means the battle will take longer. His finisher is Column of Ice - and this is the one you DO have to worry about, as it will freeze a character. So who are we taking into battle? Savyna, obviously - her equipment is half water, half fire, so she can target each of the two dogs with ease. If anything, I'd load her up more with water equipment than fire, because she'll need the water first. If you picked up the Firedrake Barette earlier, equip it now - yes she'll suffer from Flames automatically, but it's 100% effective against freezing. That's what you should base your other choice of characters on, their ability to resist freezing, because that's what will kill you in this battle. Watch Ungyo freeze you, then Agyo blast you into oblivion with a six hit undefendable attack. Sure it'll unfreeze you, but it'll also kill you. Mizuti should have the Cinderella Birdie, which is 90% freeze-proof, Kalas has the Earth Buckle, which protects 50-50 against flames and freezing, Xelha has the Golden Anklet which is 50% freeze-proof, Lyude has the Flashy Earrings which are 70-70 against flames and freezing, and Gibari has nothing which protects against freezing at all. Based on that, I'd go with Mizuti and Kalas as your other damage-dealers in this battle. I think it's pretty obvious that you need to load the two of them up with as much fire and water Magnus as you can, to do maximum damage. In battle, your aim is to target Agyo first - he's the one that will do the most damage, especially if he uses his Seal. And his defense is lower, so if you unload on him with everything you have, you should be able to deal with him fairly quickly. Don't get me wrong - this battle is the one that's had me tearing my hair out the longest. 5th attempt and climbing as I write this, for my level 32 characters. This battle tends to rely a lot on luck - that you'll draw your water Magnus instead of your fire Magnus when trying to deal with Agyo ASAP, that you'll get a handful of the right elemental Magnus to defend with. Once Agyo is down, Ungyo by himself is pretty easy - one attack per round, ample time to defend heal and attack. I survived Agyo with one character hanging onto life and made it through the battle on a seventh attempt with all characters at half-health. ~~~~~ Whew. Pat yourself on the back for surviving that one, because it majorly sucked. And the worst is yet to come... though not as soon as the gap between Fadroh and Angel of Darkness, thankfully. Head up on the escalator, and you'll be on the roof. Krumly is to your north, so head over and stop him. Bah, he's here to join up with Malpercio - and the Sword of the Heavens will be his offering. Noob. Because the Children of the Earth have lost their powers, they can no longer defeat Malpercio... and as the saying goes, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em! And he's always wanted to climb up to the Sky and live a free life... And just like that, he disintegrates the forcefield surrounding Duhr. You're in deep shit now. A bit of sunlight comes through the clouds, bringing Malpercio and Melodia with it. However, they're not as accomodating as Krumly would have liked. Told you he was a noob. The Children of the Earth will perish, as revenge for your deeds one thousand years ago! But Kalas won't have a bar of it, and he picks up the Sword of the Heavens. And so the two disappear - they're heading off to Algorab village, to start their path of destruction >_< I TOLD you you were in deep shit now -_- Take the Sword of the Heavens, and now you'll see that Duhr is a travellable place on the world map. Err, cool, but we've got more important things to do right now. If you want a blue flower to level up, you'll have to use the one at Duhr Port. The EXP from that battle should be enough to level all of your characters up at least once - 120000 EXP is pretty nice no matter how many ways you slice it. Prepare for another massive battle - make sure Mizuti is in the active party. When you're ready, head for Algorab Village. ~~~~~ Algorab Village ~~~~~ Items Gained: Broken Heaven Sword, Sun Anklet, Inferno Cannon When you arrive in Algorab, you'll see the village in tatters. Buildings on fire, people wounded and dying. Kalas wants revenge on Melodia, but Kamroh and the other Children of the Earth tell you that you're not strong enough to take on the evil god. Take the Sword of the Heavens back to the sky, get stronger, etc. Mizuti wants to stay and fight with her family and her people, but her parents say she must go up to the Sky. It's kinda a mushy scene, but Mizuti finally gets approval from her parents. Awwwwwwww. Group hug!!!! Your party leaves, to head through the clouds and back to the Sky. But Kalas stops... even if they do save the world, but everyone they left behind dies, how could they possibly live with themselves? Even if the future of the world depends on them and the Sword of the Heavens, its not worth it if it means innocent people have to die... besides, he doesnt intend on losing to Malpercio anyways :P And just like that, you turn around and run back to Algorab. And Malpercio is there, waiting... ~~~~~ ----/ Malpercio /---- HP: 10000 ELE: Water(+20%), Fire(-20%) Chronos(+30%), Wind(-30%) Light(+80%), Dark(-80%) DROP: nothing (stingy bastard) Straight away, you'll notice something important - Mizuti has so much power at this emotional moment, her mask has broken clean off! We can actually see her face! And hear her normal, non-garbled voice! Aww, she's kinda cute! She'll even battle without her mask on too, which means one thing - if you're going for a complete Magnus gathering, you've GOT to take some pictures of Mizuti here without her mask. There's two up for grabs - Maskless Mizuti and Mega-Rare Mizuti Pic. Make sure to grab them, as well as a pic of Malpercio if you're a mega-completist :) Now, let me say this really quickly. If you could survive the Agyo/Ungyo fight (and you obviously did if you've gotten to this point), this battle is a cakewalk. Yeah, he hits a bit harder than they did (minus the Seal of Agyo). His darkness damage will be a killer - up to 500 at any one time. But it's just... not that hard. I went in with unchanged decks and unchanged characters from Agyo and Ungyo, and cleaned house, never even came close to dying once. The only thing you really need to worry about is his lone finisher, the dark- based Soul Drain. If you see it, chances are one character will be hit for about 800-900 damage, a fairly hefty amount. So be sure to keep your character's health up, but with the healing items you now have (should have a handful of Cherries as well), it shouldn't be a problem. Apart from that, it really is easy. ~~~~~ But of course, you haven't killed the bastard. Killing a god just isn't that easy! He will, however, take your nice new Sword of the Heavens, and shatter it. What is it with people breaking our artifacts!!?!? All three artifacts, Ocean Mirror, Earth Sphere, Sword of the Heavens... broken. We're screwed. If you took any photos during the battle, collect one now. If you've got the Mega Rare Mizuti Pic, keep it as it'll be worth a packet soon :) Duhr isn't safe for the Children of the Earth anymore, not with the magical barrier gone. Lyude suggests that everyone move up into the Sky, to Anuenue... wonder how Corellia will take that one!? o.O Krumly wants to stay behind, self-serving bum, but Savyna convinces him that if he is sorry for what he's done, then he should go into the Sky and fight for what is right. Fair reasoning. Outside, talk to a man walking up and down the stairs on the left to get the Sun Anklet for Xelha. Then once you're done in Gemma, head over to Algorab Village - the chest that the women were blocking before is now accessible, and contains an Inferno Cannon for Savyna :) Now visit Duhr Port and the White Dragon will now be there, to take you to Anuenue. ~~~~~ Anuenue, The Rainbow Nation ~~~~~ In Anuenue, you'll be in Corellia's Palace. Speak to all three island leaders, and a scene will take over. Kalas wants to launch a full-scale attack on Cor Hydrae, but it would be foolish to throw away your lives like that. You couldn't do it anyway, according to Kodelle, because they've put a big-ass shield up around the place. Well, bugger. There goes that idea. As you go to leave, Catranne will give Kalas a letter, from Larikush, back in Cebalrai. Seems he wants to talk to Kalas about something, hmm. And Kalas decides to go solo, without involving Xelha and the gang. Haha, that lasts about five seconds. When the rest of your group joins you, head off to Cebalrai, in Sadal Suud. ~~~~~ Cebalrai, The Farming Hamlet ~~~~~ Outside Larikush's house, the rest of your party will wait, sensing that this is private business. Kalas will head inside, and Larikush will settle in to tell a long story... Starting with the experiment he and Georg were working on... The secret of the Magnus. Georg had actually succeeded in storing a living creature into a Magnus, then being able to recreate it later... They did so using as much of the power of the sealed End Magnus in the Lava Caves as they could, without breaking the seal. The results of these experiments were Giacomo, Ayme, and Folon. But then he went one step further... and created Kalas artificially using this new technology. Badum-tish. The penny drops. But the Emperor was unsatisfied with the results of the Kalas experiment - Kalas was human, with flaws, and only one wing, and Geldoblame wanted a perfect creature. And a few years later, another soul was born from a Magnus... Fee! Later on though, Georg began to get remorseful. He had created human lives, and got a tad clucky, it seems. Wanting to look after the children, instead of subjecting them to experiments. And so he and Larikush decided to burn down their laboratory, fake their own deaths, and the four of them escape to Mira. And it all went perfectly... until two years ago. Larikush doesn't know exactly what happened in Balancoire when Georg was killed, but he does know that Georg left you something - something you can find in a cabin high on the Celesial Alps. Georg and Larikush built the cabin there as a holiday resort when they escaped the Empire, and that's where Georg saw fit to leave your birthright. Before you leave... who gave Kalas his name? The Emperor did. It means Raven in a long lost language... because Kalas was impure, flawed. Eek. Anyways, outside the rest of your party agrees to accompany Kalas to the Celestial Alps. If you're ready to go there, you can make your way there - it will become available on your world map as the small island near Wazn. ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- [4.10] The Celestial Alps ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- ~~~~~ Celestial Alps ~~~~~ Items Gained: Canis Minor, Apocalypse Sword, Air Slash, Chaotic Illusion, Efreeti Saber, Void Phantom, Silk Veil, Avocado Yeah, this too gets its own section because it is its own island >.> The annoying thing about this place is that it takes a lot of backtracking and a lot of climbing up and down. But we'll get through it. From the chest just above your start point, grab the constellation Canis Minor. From there, you can't head up that path, because you'll be blocked by some weird tentacle, but a Rylug will appear on the path below. Hmm. Kill the Rylug, and the tentacle will disappear, letting you go on up the high path. You won't get far before another tentacle appears. See how this evil place is going to work? -_-; There's a ladder just under you there, so climb down, jump off the little cliff where the signpost is, and fight the next Rylug. Forced battling. Forced levelling. Something big is coming up soon. After you've killed the Rylug, the second tentacle will disappear. To get to it, head left, then back up the hill. Across where the second tentacle was, then jump down the small cliff and head along to the next screen. If you climb down the ladder there and head back to your left, you'll spot a treasure chest. But another tentacle will block it, and the Rylug will appear below you! Grr. This is getting frustrating. To get to that Rylug, head left to the previous screen, off the edge, then right, off the next edge, then right back to the other screen and fight the battle. Then head right, up the ladder, and across and around again to get back to the chest >_< Mmmm... Apocalypse Sword... Head left and back up the ladder. You won't get far before being confronted by another tentacle, though. So head back and back down the ladder... left off the edge... If you head left again, you'll see a chest but it'll be guarded by another tentacle, whos Rylug will appear just past the first tentacle XD Grrrrr.... Anyways, head right over the edge, and defeat the next Rylug. Then head right again, up the ladder, and back across to your left. This is getting annoying. Past where the tentacle was, climb down the ladder to find the chest (baha, don't even need to fight that Rylug), which holds an Air Slash. Onto the next screen. Here you'll find the cabin Larikush spoke of. You'll also find a bunch of suspiciously sheep-looking white Caplins, and if you're on the Animals for Wazn quest, you can take one. There's also one lone black Caplin hiding off to the left - you can take it too. Empty the chest to the right of screen for Azure Sand, Kalas' class up item! (Class 6. Whoa.) And there's also a chest right next to the red save flower, with a Chaos Mail. Save. Please, save. Prepare Kalas especially, for battle. Then enter the cabin. Guess who's here as well, looking for his father's legacy! And we thought we'd killed this bastard in Alfard. Giacomo! And of course, he's not complete without his sidekicks! Ayme! And Folon! The trio are back >_< More backstory about Georg, the Empire, and the experiments that went wrong. Kinda interesting, but I'm not going to transpose it all here :P And then again, the fight is on... ~~~~~ ----/ Giacomo /---- HP: 7000 ELE: Water(+50%), Fire(-50%) Light(+30%), Dark(-30%) DROP: nothing (poopy) ----/ Ayme /---- HP: 5000 ELE: Light(+30%), Dark(-30%) Chronos(+50%), Wind(-50%) Fire(+30%), Water(-30%) ----/ Folon /---- HP: 5500 ELE: Water(+30%), Fire(-30%) Light(+50%), Dark(-50%) Wind(+30%), Chronos(-30%) Before the fight even starts, Giacomo's got a trick up his sleeve - a device he stole from Mintaka, causing Hypertoxic Soundwaves! Ok, it sounds complex, but all it means is, for now, you'll have zero access to spirit attacks. Ugh. Kalas is also necessary for this battle. If you're like me, you weren't using him before and he had an empty deck, in which case he'll have 50 PASS Magnus in his deck :P If this is the case, either restart or wait to die, then retry the battle. Overall, this battle isn't too different from the first time you fought these guys. Back then, I recommended Kalas, Xelha/Mizuti, and Gibari - and I'll do the same again now. The elemental strengths and weaknesses of all three are exactly the same. So, what exactly is DIFFERENT this time around? Well, for starters, these guys can now heal themselves and each other - Ayme has Healing Salve, and Giacomo has Healing Potion. And if one member of the trio drops to low health, the next member to take a turn can and will heal them twice. Very annoying. Ayme's attack has been boosted, while Folon's has been dropped. All three are now about equal in attack power - roughly 600-ish of different elements before defense, per combo. However, Folon still has Energy Injection, and he likes to use it on himself and others now. The boost isn't great, but it's annoying. And it seems to be not just an attack boost, but a speed boost as well - Folon gets very quick and you literally get only a second to pick defense cards. As a result, I'd still target him first. You could also make a decent argument for taking out Giacomo first - he still takes double turns, so double the damage, for less than double the HP. However, he is easy to defend against, as he still uses the same physical/fire damage combo - two pieces of water-based armour and you've almost completely negated his attack. Whichever you decide to take out first, Folon or Giacomo, you should take out the other second :P Leave Ayme for last, because she likes to use Rough Em Up Drink, boosting defence, on herself at regular intervals. The more she boosts it, the longer she'll take to beat, so no point trying to beat on her while you have other opponents around, especially when those opponents are attacking too as well as healing her! This battle isn't too hard if you're completely prepared, to be honest. You should have a handful of level 5 spells and a lot of level 4, a lot of Dragonfly paddles and other paddles left over for Gibari from the Fadroh battle (which was a lot harder than this, I mean, cmon, he had more attack power than these three put together when he used that Orb, and that was some time ago when your characters were a lot weaker), and you've just started picking up great weapons for Kalas again like the Apocalypse Sword, as well as Dimension Blades and the like. However, if you are still having problems, there are several things you can do. First, track out of the Celestial Alps, back to a blue flower, and use Kalas' class up item that you picked up outside. This will give Kalas a maximum combo of 9 hits - and you can make some insane prizes with that, as well as just dealing out more damage in a shorter period of turns. Like Agyo and Ungyo, these guys DO have the ability to set on flames/freeze, so equipping the same equipment from that battle may help to prevent that. If you're still in trouble, just level up around the Alps as the monsters do give good EXP, for not being that tough. However, excessive levelling really isn't necessary - I'm level 34 and doing just fine. So pummel away on Folon, then Giacomo, then whittle down Ayme's HP slowly. Significantly easier than the last time we fought this trio. ~~~~~ Giacomo is impressed... but that doesn't mean he's going to let you live. More flashbacks... of the night Fee died, and how Kalas survived... Kalas absorbed Fee's Magnus! Kalas is the Divine Child, not Fee! And Georg's gift to you... is another Winglet, to replace the one Giacomo just stomped on! And, just in case you weren't already sick of these goons, guess what, you gotta do it all again :P Yes, you have to fight those same three goons again. I'm not repeating the strategy again. It's exactly the same, except they'll refill your health for you between battles :P If you lose the second battle, you won't have to repeat the first again, either. After the second battle, Giacomo finally decides that it's over. On his death bed, he asks Ayme and Folon to join Kalas, help him stop Melodia. Still no rewards from the battles though >_< Afterwards, you'll immediately be transported to Komo Mai, to Corellia's castle. There have been various reports coming in from different islands, however.... And here's where we start our sidequests. * The 'Master of the River' has been spotted near Nashira, which Gibari has heard of, * A Forbidden Book of Magic has been rumoured to be hidden in Anuenue, and Xelha thinks it might help in attacking Cor Hydrae, * A floating ship similar to the Battleship Goldoba has been seen floating through the Trail of Souls. And the ghosts that seem to be on board, are calling for Lyude! * The Mad Wolf Unit are protecting hideous monsters invading the villages in Alfard, which is right up Savyna's alley, * And Kee has gone back beneath the Taintclouds... which sparks Mizuti's interest. Does that sound like one sidequest for each character, excepting Kalas (who one could argue already did his in the Celestial Alps?) I think so. Anyways, there was a chest in the cabin of the Alps as well, head back there to grab it - it's an Efreeti Saber :) Feel free to explore the cabin, too... There's a room to the right with a Void Phantom in it, and in the main room, grab the Silk Veil from the statue at the back. In the back left corner, there's an Avocado hiding in the containers. And there's a room on the left too, with chests with a Skull Buckle and a Holy Armour. There's also Milk in the containers between the two chests, and if you climb the ladder, you can take Straw. Worth the effort of coming back here, I'd say :P Anyways, from here you can start on your sidequests. There's no particular order to do them in, and you don't even have to do any of them at all. If you wish, you can now talk to Corellia and skip straight ahead to Cor Hydrae. But for the sake of completion, I'll run through all the side quests :P ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- [4.11] Xelha - Forbidden Book Of Magic ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- I'll start with this one just because I can. There's rumoured to be a Forbidden Book of Magic in Anuenue, which could be immensely useful in attacking Cor Hydrae, so Xelha decides to track it down. This is her side quest :) Where would one start looking, on the island of Anuenue? The School of Magic might be a good guess, so head there :P ~~~~~ School of Magic ~~~~~ Items Gained: Adventure Novel If you speak with the principal, on in the second room on the right side of the school. She'll know exactly what you're looking for, but won't let you have it, as she exposed herself to considerable risk, retrieving it from a monster-filled library. If you want to borrow the book, you'll have to swap it for the Adventure Novel she was reading. Where could you find such an Adventure Novel? It couldn't have gone far, so start exploring the School of Magic... In the left room of the left side of the school, speak to the woman sitting at the desk and she'll tell you a student came in, clutching a book, and put it on the left bookshelf. Examine it, and you can take the essence of the Adventure Novel. Give the book to the principal, and she'll let you borrow the Book of Magic. Speak to her a couple of times after she lets you read it, and a scene will takeover. Kalas and Xelha aren't sure what's so special about the book, but then a mysterious white light appears... ~~~~~ Illusory Fortress of the Book ~~~~~ Items Gained: Apple Pie (Full), Aqua Truth, Bloody Vortex, Linnet Statue, Skull Anklet, Silk Veil, Galeos Fangs, Aqua Burst VI, Seal of Water A dungeon... hidden inside the secret book. Or at least, the illusion of one, as the name of the place would suggest. Wonders never cease! But let's explore it! There's a lot of doorways here - some hold monsters, some hold treasure chests. I remember this being a good place to loot. Let's go! Every single one of these doors holds a compulsory battle, with either an Alavarum or a Varalba. Every door that is, except one. Fourth room on the left (from the front) - two chests with an Apple Pie (Full) and an Aqua Truth. Examine the doorway, and Xelha will note that it is sealed with the Royal Seal of Wazn. What's the Royal Seal doing here in Anuenue, in a magic book? And a scene will take over, involving a flashback with Xelha and her mother... Like that, the seal will warp you to another part of the Fortress. That looks exactly the same as the first part. So trial and error again, I'm betting every room except one is another fight. If you're running low on health, you can always exit the Fortress and come back, or exit and save then come back. This is what I did before tackling the second part of the dungeon :P Indeed, every room in the second part is another fight. In the second room on the right, you'll find a Quzman relative (Tumart) being attacked by said monster - rescue him by killing the monster and you can get his signature. The safe room in this area is the last door on the right. There you'll find two chests with a Bloody Vortex and a Linnet Statue, Xelha's class up item :D Examine the door, and Xelha will get another flashback when she destroys the seal. This one's an interesting one... the Queen of Ice, protecting the Ocean? And if the world shall be reborn, the Queen will return the Ocean to the people? Hmmmmzorz.... Anyways, now we're in a third room identical to the other two. And, like the first room, all rooms are filled with enemies... except one, the fourth door on the left again. Enter, and you'll find two chests with a Skull Anklet and a Silk Veil. And a red save flower. Boss coming up, I presume :P Save, then examine the doorway. Should the prophecy be fulfilled, the Ice Queen will be no more... Xelha's mother gets all melancholy, supposing it may be her to fulfill it. Hints are being dropped here as to what this prophecy is... Anyways, we've found the book, and there's something sealed inside it. Is Xelha really going to release it? Eh, why not, we've come this far, eh. Five Magicians... all in a circle. Is Xelha the last of the Ice Queens? She is. So lets see what a thousand years has brought you... ~~~~~ ----/ Kulcabaran /---- HP: 10000 ELE: Wind(+80%), Chronos(-80%) DROP: Galeos Fangs, Aqua Burst VI Ahhhh... I like this guy. For starters, you have an IDEAL person for this battle, with tons of wind-elemental equipment (in Gibari)... Xelha is compulsory for the battle, so there's your mage, loaded with wind spells... and pick a heavy hitter for your third, as elements really don't matter. I picked Lyude. So you have masses of masses of wind equipment. Against a boss that.... doesn't defend? Or defends very little, like less than 100 points total per combo. And little of that is chronos elemental, to negate your wind onslaught. Okay. What may be slightly worrying is his attack, and your defence. He'll deal out about 900 damage per turn, undefended, made up of physical, fire, and chronos damage. When he gets to low health, he'll start using Soul Illusion, a darkness based attack that also absorbs the damage. Be sure to keep your characters over 1000 HP just in case he does this attack... but that's really the only thing you need to worry about. A pretty simple boss. ~~~~~ And you also get Xelha's level 8 finisher, Seal of Water, for completing the Fortress. Yay! That's also the end of the sidequest. Pretty simple. ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- [4.12] Gibari - Greater Celestial River ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- Next up on the sidequest list... Gibari. Apparently the Master of the River was spotted near his hometown of Nashira, whatever the Master of the River is, and he's worried. To start this sidequest off, just head to Nashira, in Diadem. ~~~~~ Nashira, The Fishing Village ~~~~~ Items Gained: N/A In Nashira, the town has been overrun with monsters, and the guards are having trouble fighting them off. Kablam! Pow! Smash! Splat! Monsters dead :) One of the Knights wants to ask Gibari a question - why did he leave them? He used to be a Knight, and would have made a fine Head Knight.... He can still fight, and is putting his skills and power to good use, so why leave? Eh, he's not going to get into his story yet, either with the Knights or with Kalas. After the scene, explore the village. In the second house, between the shop and the bar, a scene will take over - Shorty's grandmother wants Gibari to go help Anna and Reblys! What's happened? They went to the Greater Celestial River... to gather Pekusa seaweed to help Shorty get well. But that place is dangerous! So Gibari, being the good Samaritan he is, decides to go look for Anna and Reblys, make sure they're okay. Oh, and while we're there, we may as well pick up some Pekusa seaweed and check out the Master of the River, just because we can :P The Greater Celestial River isn't actually in Diadem, it's accessible from the world map. All the way on the other side, between Anuenue and Mira. Head over there, and we'll begin our search. ~~~~~ Greater Celestial River ~~~~~ Items Gained: Power Blade, Buoy of Light, Battle Suit, Skull Creel, Corvus, Nemesis Fall, Dragoon Gale, Eridanus, Balgora's Paddle Yup, looks exactly like the Lesser Celestial River. One might wonder why it's on the other side of the world map, but questions like these invariably go unanswered. Along the bottom of the screen, you'll see a chest on a lower ledge. There's a ladder down just near it, so look along until the icon appears, and climb down to find a Power Blade. Head back up and up the ramp, and you'll find another chest with a Buoy of Light, Gibari's class 6 item! Yay. The battles around here aren't too hard either, especially if you did a bit of fighting looking for the right rooms earlier in the Illusory Fortress >.> On the second screen, you'll find Reblys. But no Anna! Hmm... she went on ahead, it seems. You'll go look for her, and Reblys claims he'll catch up and pass you on the way, he'll be the one to save her. Baha. Anyways, along the bottom left of screen, you'll find a chest with a Battle Suit. Top left, behind the two Maw-Maw-Goos, a chest with a Skull Creel. The Skull equipment is like the ultimate armour in Baten Kaitos - 99% resistant to everything, only problem is, it really screwes up your prize-getting abilities by inflicting perma-Confusion >_< Up to you if you decide to wear it or not. Collect the creel. On the bottom level of the screen, if you follow the path between the two high cliffs, you'll find constellation Corvus at the end. Then head up to the top right of screen, and jump across to the red save flower. Prepare Gibari for battle. Save, then head through to the next screen. These 'dungeons' are so short -_- Here you'll find Anna, and Reblys will come join the gathering. The River is completely flooded... no getting the seaweed in these conditions, unfortunately. We've seen this sort of flooding before, we know what sort of things cause it >.> But Reblys has an idea to get the seaweed - fish! Some fish is bound to have Pekusa seaweed in its gut, so it'll be there for the taking. Whee! What follows is another amusing little banter session between Gibari and Reblys, man these two are such typical blokes >.> And so the two decide to fish. And they sit. And they fish. And they wait. And they sit. And they wait. Eventually, Reblys snags a fish, and the two together struggle to bring it in. Ten bucks says they haven't actually snagged a fish, they've managed to catch... ~~~~~ ----/ Brokolis /---- HP: 13000 ELE: Fire(+80%), Water(-80%) DROP: Nemesis Fall, Dragoon Gale, Eridanus Yup, it's the Master of the River, alright... it's got Balgora's paddle sticking out of its back and all. Logic dictates that this should then be a hard battle. It's not, really :P Yes, the boss does do a lot of water and physical damage. So if you stock your party characters with a decent-sized set of physical and fire armour and no other type, you'll be right because you will come close to negating both in one fell swoop :P Also of note is that the boss likes to use Venomous Droplets, to poison you, and a finishing move that has the ability to freeze you. You should have decent equipment to protect against freezing, because you used it in the Agyo/Ungyo battle :P It really goes without saying that he's water elemental, being a sea creature, and tremendously weak against fire. However, by the same reasoning, his water defense is so strong that using fire attacks (to try and take advantage of the weakness) can be impractical. It's hit and miss - I hit him with a six-hit fire combo and did zero damage on one turn, yet did over a thousand damage with nearly an identical combo on the next turn. Because of the unsurety there, I'd advise to steer clear of fire attacks, or at least, not rely on them to deal out all your damage. I'd sit Savyna out of the battle because most of the damage she has the ability to do is fire damage. I'd go with other elemental damage - light, dark (because he is strong against neither, you can build up some big combos with someone like Lyude, if you pick him to focus on one of the two elements), or wind, because you're forced to use Gibari. As always, a mage is essential, and useful because they can focus on any element they like. Overall, it's not really a tough battle. If you do get stuck, remember, like any of these side quests, that if you go back and find a blue flower, you can class your compulsory character up to class 6, which does make it a lot easier. (9 hit combos instead of 6? I'm there!) ~~~~~ And you've killed two birds with one stone! The Master of the River... and the Pekusa seaweed in its mouth! Whee! After the battle, the two fishermen seem to have a bonding session... And so you decide to just leave them there. It's the laughing scene from FFX all over again! Noooooooooooooooooo! >.> As a reward for doing so well, Reblys will give you the paddle in the Master's back - Balgora's Paddle. Apparently you'll need it if you're ever going to beat him ;) And then we're done here with Gibari's sidequest... another pretty short one. At least we're picking up some decent items from them :P Onwards march to the next one! ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- [4.13] Savyna - Mad Wolf Unit ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- Time to work on Savyna's sidequest. The Mad Wolf Unit, Savyna's old squad, those responsible for Operation Sweep in Azha, is now in a bit of trouble in Alfard. They're protecting some of the smaller villages against the onslaught of monsters, and need your help! Upon arrival in Alfard, and checking out the area map, you'll notice a new location - Nihal Desert. ~~~~~ Nihal Desert ~~~~~ Items Gained: Skull Barrette, Centaurus, Pristine Water, Dragon Plum Bud, Twinstone Compass, Red Impulse, Chaos Mail, Holy Armour, Hellblood's Hammer, Green Light, Phoenix Crest The soldiers on the door will be rather startled to see Savyna, Lady Death, as is Azdar, inside the cave. She's curious, why are the Mad Wolves there helping the very people they once set out to kill, those being the Azhani villagers? Well, then they were on a mission... Now they just want to do what they can to save lives. Fair enough. Outside, your party camps. Savyna has a lot on her mind, Operation Sweep, and her last mission, two years later - to assassinate a man named Georg, in Mira. We already knew she was there, but apparently Kalas didn't. All Savyna was ever taught how to do was fight... and that night in Mira, when she realized she couldn't, she was completely lost... Don't think I've ever heard Savyna talk this much. I suppose, it is her sidequest, after all :P Anyways, inside the next day, Azdar and his men are going to lead the way, and you guys are to follow at a short interval. Sounds like a plan. But first when you get control, you got some looting to do :P When you arrived, you probably saw the half-buried chest on the hill behind the entrance... empty it to find a Skull Barrette. Inside, where the people are concentrated at the bottom left of screen, you can find constellation Centaurus in the barrels, as well as some Pristine Water. This water will come in handy rather shortly. Don't forget where it is :P On the right side of the room, examine the crate behind the seated man to find a Rooster. And the chest holds a Dragon Plum Bud, Savyna's class up item! Yay! Seeing as we've barely even left yet, feel free to backtrack to Mintaka or Azha and class Savyna up. Wheeeeeee! When you've done that, return here and talk to the man guarding the ladder. He'll tell you that this is the way Azdar went, and also give you a Twinstone Compass to help you in navigation. Apparently, it will also help you with locating water, because you'll need water to survive out there (oh duh.) So go get as much of the Pristine Water as you can carry. Don't empty any of your important quest Magnus though :P Once you're ready, head up the ladder and out. Out here in the desert, there are two indicators on your compass. The arrow indicates the direction you should be going, to find Azdar, and the blue light indicates other important things :P Also of note is that each screen you cross (every time you change screen), you'll use one Magnus worth of Pristine Water. Run out of Pristine Water, and you'll get dumped back at the cave. Okay. Let's follow the light and see where we end up. Head left, and you'll use one water. On the second screen, you can give the man walking around a water and he'll ask you to find his friends, and also give you a Red Impulse. Head left again, and you'll use another water, so that's three. But here you'll find the source of water that the light was pointing to, so fill up again. For the record, I'm carrying five Pristine Water. Head left again and at the bottom of the screen you'll see a woman curled up, she's a Quzman relative! Give her some water, then talk to her again, and she'll agree to sign the family tree. Her name is Zuhr, for the record. :) Head left back to the water source. Fill up, and note that if you're doing the Animals for Wazn quest, you can also pick up an Oliphant to take back. :) From the water screen, head up and left... and your compass will go nuts. There you'll find another woman wandering around - give her a water and you'll be rewarded with a Chaos Mail. Return to the water source and fill up. From there, head up, then right because you can't go any further up... up again and you'll find another person in the sand. Give them a water, and you'll be rewarded with a Holy Armour. From there, if you head north and right again, you'll come to another water source, so fill up. From this second oasis, head left twice.... you'll find a mirage (ooh, sneaky), and a red save flower. Urgh. Save, and head down, following the arrow. There you'll find bodies in the sand - Azdar and his men >_< Something got the jump on them... And that something is here to play! ~~~~~ ----/ Sowzana /---- HP: 12000 ELE: Water(+80%), Fire(-80%) DROP: Hellblood's Hammer, Green Light Hey, I know who THIS guy looks like! It looks like Fadroh! Hey, the Kulcabaran looked like the Sabre Dragon, the Brokolis looked like the Thunderfish, and this guy looks like Fadroh.... I sense a pattern. Anyways. He's another fairly standard fight that by now you should just be able to walk into and win, it just might take a while. I did, so I reset and tried again :) He even works similarly to Fadroh - except instead of the dreaded Orb of Magical Offense, he has the Orb of Magical Defense :P And like Fadroh, he has massive Dark based finishers - Hyper Wicked Light, which'll hit you where it hurts, and also has the ability to Paralyze you. Apart from that, it's just a standard boss fight. He hits softer than Fadroh, and you're a lot stronger than you were when you fought Fadroh. Already now, from your desert battles, you should have a party completely equipped with water weaponry and water armour, as everything is 80% weak against it, and Sowzana is no exception. Like the last battle with the Brokolis though, he can sometimes defend against water attacks very well, especially after using the Orb. So you can either go non-fire/water (though for your compulsory fighter, Savyna, this isn't an option, so get out those Freezing Nails) or all out on the water attack. A spellcaster is good, because they can unload Aqua Bursts like there's no tomorrow (including a level VI one you got from a previous side quest). For your third character, just grab a heavy hitter and pummel him down. This isn't such a tough battle. None of these sidequest bosses are, really. All of the hardest boss battles of the game are behind you :P ~~~~~ After the battle, Savyna goes to strike the finishing blow, but a little child recognizes this creature as... its father!? It attacks Savyna again and again, but Savyna, realizing who it is, and knowing she can't go through that sort of cruelty again, doesn't fight back... until Azdar makes the girl see that the monster isn't her daddy anymore, and should go to sleep. For Savyna's restraint, the girl will give you a Phoenix Crest. It's an Azhani design, a weapon for Savyna, most likely the girl's father's. Aye. And we're done here. Savyna wishes Azdar luck, and you're on your merry way. ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- [4.14] Lyude - Phantom Goldoba ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- Number four, coming right up. Apparently, according to Catranne, a floating ship similar to the Battleship Goldoba has been seen floating through the Trail of Souls, on the way to Mira. And the ghosts that seem to be on board, are calling for Lyude! What possible connection could Lyude have to a ship of ghosts? We're about to find out... Starting this sidequest is very simple... just head toward Mira. On the trail, you'll be approached by the ship, which does indeed look like the Goldoba. If you just want to visit Mira, not do the sidequest, elect to Run. If you want to do the side quest, choose to see what's going on. Kalas wants to know, where are you? Simple, you're on the... ~~~~~ Phantom Goldoba ~~~~~ Items Gained: Hades Horn, Jasper Gem, Skull Earrings, Agni Tuba, Mithril Helmet, Vishnu, Apple Pie (Full), Presto It's like... a dark creepy version of Giacomo's Goldoba. With the exact same layout. ie. very small. For starters, empty the chest at the top of the stairs for a Hades Horn, then head left into the horseshoe tunnel. The ghosts here are battles with Master Revenants, and they are unique to this ship. If you're going for 100% Magnus gathering, you'll need to take a photo of one of them while you're here. There are a lot of them, but they don't respawn when you change screens like most enemies do. Luckily they're fairly easy battles. In each of the small rooms, you'll see a scene. One with the Imperial Commander, calling Lyude a traitor, one with Lyude's brother and sister... Apparently Lyude was the only one to hear the voice... You'll also find chests with a Jasper Gem, Lyude's class up item, Skull Earrings, an Agni Tuba, and a Mithril Helmet, in front of the door to the bridge where you fought the trio on the real Goldoba. Once you've visited all the rooms, head back to the horseshoe shaped tunnel and another scene will occur... oh no, with Almarde >_< Poor Lyude, so much torment for him here. Seems like Almarde's trying to talk him into suicide... or at least, someone pretending to be Almarde. Someone like the thing it turns into! ~~~~~ ----/ Rampulus /---- HP: 13000 ELE: Light(+80%), Dark(-80%) Wind(+50%), Chronos(-50%) DROP: Vishnu, Apple Pie (Full) Continuing the trend of sidequest bosses... this one looks like something we fought in the Outer Dimension >.> Or that thing that Melodia vanquished in Mira. I can't remember which :P Anyways. This guy's actually pretty similar to Sowzana and Fadroh, in that he likes to spam his defense boosting attack, Golden Symbol, endlessly. All it means is that the battle gets dragged out further and further... and it means there's more of a chance of seeing his other two finishing moves, Symbol of Slumber and Death Count. Symbol of Slumber, as the name suggests, will just put you to sleep. You can either wear sleep-protecting armour, or just wait it out, it's not that bad an ailment. Death Count will hit you for even more darkness damage than his regular attack, but still not much to worry about, maybe a thousand points maximum. Like the other sidequest bosses, this is a relatively easy one. I had the same party as I did for Savyna's boss, swapping Savyna for Lyude, and passed easily. Unlike others, you can't use Lyude's class up item before the battle, but you really don't need it. Just give him lots of his light equipment, such as Glint Cornets. Also keep a mage with a lot of light and wind spells, and you'll do killer damage (especially if you can combo it together nicely... I had Xelha perform a final straight sunrise attack with wind and light attacks... over 4000 damage wakawakawaka!) For your third character, a good choice would be Gibari because of all of his predominantly wind based weaponry. Equip all your best light armour, plus wind if you think you'll need it, but you really shouldn't. ~~~~~ And you also get Presto, Lyude's level 8 dark-based finisher. And with that, you'll escape the Phantom Goldoba, and watch it sink into the depths of the Trail of Souls. And proceed to Mira. Like you were even going to Mira anyways :P But that's the end of the sidequest. These are pretty short... I thought they'd be longer, for the rewards you get. Or did I save the longest one for last? ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- [4.15] Mizuti - Zosma, Tower of Stones ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- In Anuenue, when you first started these sidequests, Mizuti was stunned to hear that some of the Children of the Earth had returned to beneath the Taintclouds, as they didn't feel comfortable in the Sky. She was even more shocked to hear that Kee was one of them! So that's when she decides to investigate. To Duhr! Upon arriving in Duhr, you'll be greeted right off the Dragon by a child who is frantic to talk to Mizuti. Krumly and the Great Kamroh, went into the depths of Zosma Tower! And Kee followed them! Kamroh said he was trying to restore the Ring of Stars, and the children just couldn't keep Kee back... Looks like you're going to Zosma Tower to rescue them! ~~~~~ Zosma, Tower of Stones ~~~~~ Items Gained: Delinquency Stone, Tradescantia Petals, Aquila, Skull Birdie, Wizard Robe, Fire Burst VI, Cream Puff, Alias Fall You either love this place or you hate it. The first half of it, going up, was easy. This part, going down... it sucks. Enter, and Mizuti will sense movement below, and so another elevator appears, going downwards. Like before, stock up on fire quest Magnus, to light the lamps, then head down on the elevator. The man near the door will give you a piece of advice - think about using multiple red blocks together, watch their movements closely, and time your actions well. Eek! * First Floor Here, to get to the lamp, you'll have to climb across the row of red blocks to the right. This screen looks really really confusing... Too many red blocks and too many gaps on weird levels, sometimes I can't tell which level a gap's on. Anyways, the right most red block, you can push it across to the right when the elevator's up, to fill the gap there. Another red block will fall. Here's the tricky bit. You need to push the top most red block (ie highest, two right of the lamp) across to the right... when the elevator's down. If you do so, it'll stop at the same position the first red block was in before you pushed it. Once you've done that, you can then climb up (around the Breacher) and push that same red block up, into another gap. May as well kill the Breacher now because you need to, to progress, and note that he was sitting on a Delinquency Stone :) Take the essence of it, you'll need it. Now, from there, right block across to the right. Now you'll raise a stone platform, and this is exactly what we need. For the last two red blocks, you have to time it well again. Like before, you need to push the left one across, so it pushes the second one and both stop at the elevator.So when the elevator's in the right position, stand near the lamp and push to the right. If you do this right, you can now climb the newly- raised stone platform. Push the right block up first, then the left. Doing this will reveal a chest up the stone staircase with the Tradescantia Petals, Mizuti's class up item! Yay :) You'll also get a new elevator going down another floor. I recommend heading up, using the class up item and saving, then coming back down and moving onto the second floor. * Second Floor And it just gets worse, the further down we go. On this level, the elevator stops at two parts of the level - top where the lamp is, and two blocks down. Two red blocks on the two levels, two holes very top and bottom of screen. Interesting. Stop and light the lamp, then go down and to the right on the elevator. There you'll find two blue blocks - push them in. They'll move a block around, and make a few monsters appear. No big deal. Now head back up and to the right, and push the red block off the edge to the right. Head down one level and to the right again, and push the red block off again, but this time to the left, so it falls next to the other block, and not in the corner. I bet now you could see how to put that block on the floor into either of the holes. But then how the hell are you supposed to push the other in the other hole? Hehe, this is where it starts getting tricky. You can use the red block on the floor as a stepping stone, to get to the second red block up high to push it down. Align it next to the two-high platform on the left, but not in a corner or along a wall (so you can push it back again). Climb up, then push the top block along and down into the top hole. Then, just push the second block into the bottom hole. That took me SO long to work out. Moving right along... * Third Floor This one just looks... weird. You're dumped into the bottom corner of the map, inside a cross of raised platforms. Three holes, one in each of the three corners you're not starting in, and lots of raised sections. And a couple of bad guys around the place. Where to start? Well, you can probably see that you could easily slot the red block on the ground into two of the holes, however, that doesn't help you with the other two holes. But if you think along the same principles as before, using that red block as a stepping stone... Start from the left corner, near where the chest is, where the raised block is two blocks high. Follow the climbable path along, mentally. You could climb up on the red block, down on the other side of the corner, and push the red block into the hole... if that thing wasn't in the way! So use the red block as a stepping stone on the right hand side, two blocks right of where it started. Push it over to form a staircase, so you can climb up and kill the Gul-Bar-Mool there. Then push the red block across to the left, where the raised platform is two high, and climb up. Climb up on the red block, up again, down on the other side, and push the red block (near where the Gul-Bar-Mool was) across and down into the hole. Now for the second red block. Awfully tempting to just push it up and into the top corner... don't, because then you're stuck for the last block :P Instead, climb all the way down and move the block on the ground over, so you can climb up between the red block up high and the top corner of screen. Then push the red block downwards, into the gap on the very left of screen. Once all that's done, just push the block on the ground into the hole in the top corner, which you're right next to. Presto, the two chests fall to the ground, and they hold a Skull Birdie and constellation Aquila. Take them, then head down again. * Fourth Floor At least we're dropped right near the lamp this time, except one floor down. This map's got a different vantage point, we're looking from a higher angle. Anyways, climb up on the left and light the lamp so we can look around and play. There's a lot of gaps in the middle of the room... lot of red blocks on ledges surrounding them. However, once you've looked at the setup for a while, you might work out the trick to it. Both the top half and bottom half are done exactly the same. I'll start with the top. Push the block closest to the lamp left, so it falls in the hole. Then push the one on the ledge next to it, right, over the top of itand further, so it stops below the lamp. You can then push both blocks downwards, to fill two of the gaps. Do the same for the bottom, except the other way around. Push the left block to the right, down into the gap. Then push the right block over the top of it, all the way to diagonal to the elevator. Then you can push both blocks upwards into the holes. A save flower will appear. Head up on the elevator (but not all the way up), to save. * Fifth Floor No puzzle, but I'll list it separately anyways :P Krumly and the others are down there, disturbing an ancient wizard from his slumber. As you do. They're there to ask for the Ring of Stars, which the wizard wielded against Malpercio in the past... but are they worthy of recieving it? Obviously not. Mizuti steps in to save the day, but has eyes only for Kee. The Great Mizuti was in the sky fighting for everyone, so he wanted to fight down here... but he didn't have to, Mizuti would have fought everywhere. And so Mizuti decides to take the Ring of Stars for herself, for Kee! Another strange battle like the Goddess of Ice was for Xelha. A solo Mizuti battle.. Pick a card, and try to match the element. And she's fighting against a... large mutated version of herself? o.O So just pick a few random cards, trying to match the right elements. All luck. Hope that you draw a camera as well, if you're a completist, to get a photo. Four hits, and the battle is over. For that tough... err, battle, you'll get a Wizard Robe, a Fire Burst VI, and a Cream Puff. And afterwards, Alias Fall, Mizuti's level 8 finisher. Yay! Once you're done, and you've completed all of the side quests, head back to Anuenue and speak to Corellia in her castle. Ready to invade Cor Hydrae now? Shit yeah! You'll be told about the direness of the situation - food and medical supplies running low, etc. Not good. Now, your plans for Cor Hydrae? Corellia thinks that using the power remaining after the End Magnus were released to attack the shield might work, all five islands working together... but Kamroh dismisses it as folly. Someone likes the idea... thought it was funny that you had four non-Imperial islands, but only three leaders here? Lord Rodolfo, from Sadal Suud, has come to join the party :P Lyude has some interesting theories on Georg and Melodia, two people seemingly both influenced by the power of Malpercio but for seemingly contradictory reasons... and Kalas and Malpercio, who may be destined to fight each other as a result. Kooky stuff. After Kalas has his D&M session with you, and the dawn of battle rises, head back the audience room (Corellia's meeting room) for a few final words. After the scene, you'll be off to Cor Hydrae Castle! Watch the islands and their powers converge.... and by your powers combined... HE IS CAPTAIN MALPERCIO! >.> ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- [4.16] Cor Hydrae Castle ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- Yeah it gets its own section too :P Upon arrival in Cor Hydrae Castle, you'll find ghosts of the gods... and Gibari isn't impressed. Five End Magnus, five ghosts to find throughout the castle.... urgh. No time for ghost stories though, so you're going right in :P ~~~~~ Cor Hydrae Castle ~~~~~ Items Gained: Fire Burst VI, Chronos Blow VI, Desperda, Dark Flare VI, Light Flare VI, Finale, Wind Blow VI, Ultimate Geyser, Shield of Hope, Mermaid Nails, Wind Blow VI, Wheel of Light, Brahma Eupho, Firefly, Voice VI, Deadly Heat Scythe, Venus Garb, Chronos Blow VI, Sybil's Crown, Planet Soul No official declaration of where we are, but gotta keep my formatting consistent :P On the left and right of the big room you start in, you'll find two chests with a Fire Burst VI and a Chronos Blow VI. If you want to leave Cor Hydrae at any time, doing so is as simple as heading towards the camera in this room, and Kalas will prompt you if you want to leave. If so, you can easily do so - some people seem to think that Cor Hydrae is an inescapable dungeon, but its not :P There's only one way to go in that room, so head up and up the hall. There you'll find the main hall of the castle - a room with five branching points, and a blue save flower. Right! In the centre of the room is a graphic on the floor - this is the key to moving on in the castle, but it's not lit just yet. Visit the church if you need to, then we can start exploring the paths. There's no prizes for guessing that each of the five paths leads to one of the five ghosts of the gods, because of five islands, five end Magnus, blah blah :P If five is such a sacred number, why do we have six party members? Anyways. I plan on starting with the bottom-left fork, and working around clockwise, finishing on the bottom right, so thats the way I'm going to do it :P I'll even label the forks to separate the sections, because I'm just too nice. * First Fork - Bottom-Left First up is a path with some Demonic Hands crawling all over the place. Mucho EXP can be gained here, so if you think you need a few more levels (I'm level 40, but with a decent Magnus stock, for the record), any place around the castle is a great place to level up, and you'll score some neat high-end Magnus, too :) Next screen you'll find your first teleport puzzle, similar to the teleporters in Gemma Village, in Duhr. Take the one on the path to the right, then the one in the corner of the L shaped bend, and you'll wind up at the top of the screen. If you take the teleporter you just stepped out of, you'll wind up near a chest with a Desperda. Follow the only path you can until you wind up near the L again, take the same teleporter in the corner, and this time take the teleporter on the right. Again, take the teleporter you just stepped out of, and you'll get to a chest with a Dark Flare VI. Head back to the start. Now take the teleporter at the end of the L-shaped path, on the left. You'll wind up near a glowing orb - examine it and a chest will appear in the next room. Wicked. Head back to the start again. (There's probably an easier way to do this, but this is the way I did it and collected everything >.>) We want the teleporter in the corner of the L again, and the path on the left of the W path. This'll take you to the exit of the teleporter maze. You'll spot a chest below you, but you can't get to it yet, so just head out to your left. In the next room, empty the chest you revealed for a Light Flare VI. Through the door there, you'll find the first of the ghosts... ~~~~~ ----/ Sibling God: Bo /---- HP: 14000 ELE: Fire(+100%), Water(-100%) DROP: Finale Mmmmmm, water boss. Completely water elemental. Absorbs every single water elemental attack you can throw at it, also dishes out over 1000 points of water elemental damage in one combo... and freezes you on top of things! What can we do to stop it? We've dealt with freezing a bit before, but now (if you've done all the sidequests) you've got all the skull equipment for your characters, so status effects are no longer an issue (if you choose to wear them). If you don't have this equipment, look at a similar setup that you used for Agyo and Ungyo, protecting against freezing there. Moving on... Savyna would be a good choice to use as she has a lot of fire attack/defense, and as always you need a mage (I pick Mizuti for her defense), and you can pick a third character, whoever you like. I'm using Kalas, as I've picked up a few Kusanagi Blades and Efreeti Sabers for him... Gibari would also be a decent alternative simply because he packs such a wallop, even if he doesn't have quite the right elemental mix. If you want brute force, Gibari is always your man. Once you've negated the freezing and have a lot of fire stuff to throw at Bo, the battle isn't really that tough. He does do a lot of water damage, but you can negate a lot of it with any armour, fire even better. A fairly standard fight... these bosses may have a lot of HP, but I'm finding the random battles in the castle more difficult than them :P Just throw everything non-water related you can at him, making sure to keep items like Japanese Rice Wines on standby (or anything that cures death, I'm using Wonder MOMOs) just in case, and you really shouldn't have that hard a time. ~~~~~ After the battle, head back to the main chamber of the Cor Hydrae and save. One line of bright light shining up through the chamber, several to go. Pick your next fork, you know what it's going to lead to, eventually... * Second Fork - Top-Left More EXP farming can be done here with the Demonic Hands... tough fights, but maybe some much needed levels. Either good levels or good decks (or a combination of both) are a necessity for the bosses here... I fall into the second category, being level 40 but having some decent decks and Magnus such as the Wonder MOMO. In the second room, grab the Wind Blow VI from the close-left corner. All of the fights here are avoidable if you run around in circles a bit :p Through the top door and you'll find... ~~~~~ ----/ Sibling God: Che /---- HP: 14000 ELE: Wind(+100%), Chronos(-100%) DROP: Ultimate Geyser Well, that was a short path now... Anyways, you'll soon find out within a turn or two that Che is heavily chronos-based, doing a lot of chronos and physical damage. If you turn the elements against him, you can turn a somewhat daunting battle (though not as hard as some of the previous bosses, coughFadrohcough) into a pretty easy one. Firstly, if you want to use wind against Che, Gibari is easily your best bet, as we know that a majority of his weapons are wind based. For your mage, again, pick between Xelha and Mizuti, though Mizuti has a brand spanking new Alias Fall Magnus, 235 Wind power, so it may be reason to pick her (if you leave her other chronos finishers out). Pick whoever you like best for your third character, there is no real advantage once you take out all of Kalas' chronos weapons. In fact, take out EVERYTHING chronos - it's kinda pointless to hold seeing as it gets completely negated. In terms of offense, he has his hard chronos attack, plus two attacks that inflict status abnormalities - Spark of Time, a finishing move that hits you with paralysis, and Seal of Sanity, a single attack that inflicts confusion. You can pick to either use the same equipment that you did against the Angel of Darkness, which was mostly paralysis protecting, and try and weather the confusion if it hits you, or.... you can go all out with skull equipment from side quests. They'll protect you against the paralysis completely, but inflict confusion as a result. If you're relying on combos and prizes to do a lot of your damage, the skull equipment is a no-no (confusion = numbers rotating on spirit cards, making combos near impossible), and you'll have to make do with paralysis equipment. When defending, don't be afraid to mix things like light and dark armour, and fire and water armour - he won't touch you with any of those elements, so the physical component is all that matters and that won't get cancelled out. Lastly, he has this annoying habit of healing himself once he reaches critical health (you'll see him stoop close to the ground), with Seal of Health (2100 HP recovered). If he's still stooping after he does it, that's pretty much all the health he has left, and will only last a couple more attacks. Altogether, if you go in prepared, strong in wind, no chronos, it shouldn't be too difficult. ~~~~~ And another line of light appears. Head back to the main chamber and save, then pick another fork. * Third Fork - Top Up here, be prepared to be ambushed by Diabolos, the weird hovering creature things. And I mean, ambushed by a fair few of them. Levelling central! If you can get past them, there's chests with a Shield of Hope and Mermaid Nails, then head on. Next room, there's a chest on the left with another Wind Blow VI, hidden behind the patrolling creature. Examine the bright light on the right hand side of the room and a treasure chest will appear... but where, you're not exactly sure. We'll find it later. You know what's coming up next, don't you. Prepare for another boss fight and head on up. ~~~~~ ----/ Sibling God: He /---- HP: 14000 ELE: Dark(+100%), Light(-100%) DROP: Wheel of Light Though it's kinda hard to prepare when you don't know what's coming... so I'll tell you. A light based boss! You just don't see many of them around. So here's where you wanna pull out all your dark based attacks. Though, truth be told, I didn't change my decks from fighting Che and scraped through this battle regardless, even though I threw a ton of light at him because I didn't have anything else. The strategy for this battle is much the same as the last two, with some elements changed around, I'm sure you're figuring out how it works. Give Lyude all his dark-based weapons, give Xelha/Mizuti every Dark Flare you have, and go for either Gibari or Kalas as your fourth. Savyna isn't much use here, with fire and water, obviously. What does he have to throw at you? A lot of light and physical attack, obviously... 702 points of each in a six-hit combo. Apart from that, the only status attack finisher he seemingly has is Flash Attack, which will hit you with sleep and (you guessed it) even more light damage. Not much to worry about, if you've gotten through the last two battles, you can get through this one fairly unscathed. If you do find it tough, there's always levelling to be done outside with the Diabolos or Demonic Hands, and deck arrangement to be done, the more darkness in your deck, the better. Lastly, he has this annoying habit of healing himself once he reaches critical health (you'll see him stoop close to the ground), with Seal of Health (2100 HP recovered). If he's still stooping after he does it, that's pretty much all the health he has left, and will only last a couple more attacks. ~~~~~ And a third beam of light appears, pointing straight up. Like we didn't expect that to happen >.> Anyways, head back to the save point (note that the swarming Diabolos are now gone), and save. Now, that chest from before that appeared when we examined the ball of light, where is it? Head back up the top-right path, past the Demonic Hands, and you'll see the chest at bottom of screen. Open it, for a Brahma Eupho. Yay! Now head back and head towards the next fork in the path. * Fourth Fork - Top-Right Another path with falling Demonic Hands to maneuver... this is getting repetitive, aye? Avoid as many as you can (two out of three ain't bad), and make sure you examine the ball of light. A path to another chest will be created, but in a place we havent seen before. (Guess which fork it's along!?) Moving right along. In the next, also familiar, square room with enemies circling, you'll find a chest with a Firefly in it, for Gibari, and another with a Voice VI. Make your preparations, then move on up... ~~~~~ ----/ Sibling God: Ar /---- HP: 14000 ELE: Water(+100%), Fire(-100%) DROP: Deadly Heat Scythe HOLY CRAP it's another boss! Whoever woulda thunk it! Sorry if I'm sounding a bit sarcastic, but the game keeps throwing spectacularly average bosses at me with easy-to-exploit elemental weaknesses -_-;; Anyways, Ar is a fire-elemental boss, so that means you'll be bringing Savyna along for company, loaded with water elemental weapons, as well as your standard mage, as well as another heavy hitter such as Gibari or Kalas. For this battle, I chose Gibari (minus his brand new Firefly). He's elected to take flames and confusion out of the status pool, to use against you. (A fire elemental enemy? Using flames? omgnowai.) The best bit about all this though, is that both flames and confusion are non- incapacitating, ie. you can still take turns while inflicted with them (just becomes a tad more difficult). And if you're using skull equips, you're already under confusion anyways, so it's hardly a worry. I wouldn't even bother trying to deal with the flames, just concentrate on negating the fire damage, of which there is again 702 (and 702 physical damage) per combo. It's like the He fight, only easier. Take your Deadly Heat Scythe, Savyna's level 9 finisher, and move right back to where you came from. ~~~~~ Save again, and it's time to attack the last path. FINALLY. * Fifth Fork - Bottom-Right Easy to avoid the Demonic Hands in this section... move into the centre of the room, one will drop the right and lay in wait for you... but you can just move to the very top of screen and walk past it. Now we're in the section we saw before, where we uncovered a path to a chest with the second light ball. Here, the little green pillars act as controls for miniature lifts, moving their respective platforms up and down. Try the first one, and you'll be moved up to the chest to get a Venus Garb. Head back down and across to the right. The red pillars work similarly, except when you raise one red pillared platform, you raise them ALL. Try the first one, behind the next green pillar, and watch three red platforms raise. Either way, grab the second chest, with the Chronos Blow VI, and move back down. Use that second green pillar now, and if you touched the second light ball on the fourth fork, you'll be on a platform with two green pillars (including the one you came down on) and a red pillar. Touch the second green pillar to get access to another chest off to your left, with an Esperanza. Grab it, and head back down. You may be able to see another white glowing ball, at the very top of the screen to the right, near the exit. How to get all the way up there? It's actually rather simple - toggling different red pillars keeps making the platforms go up, but once you go up, you can't seem to get to another one to keep going up towards it. Solution - start alternating between red and green lifts, in the following pattern, from where you are, on the three-pillar platform: * Touch the red pillar, and you'll go up. * Head across and touch the right-most green pillar, and you'll go down. * Touch the red pillar to go up. * Touch the green pillar right next to you to go up. * Touch the red pillar right next to you to go up again. And when you examine the ball, another chest appears, back in the hallway leading from the third, top-most fork! If you head back there, you'll find no Diabolos (yay) and a chest with a Sybil's Crown. Ooh, pretty. Anyways, head back, save again if you like, then proceed through the pillar maze to the very right of screen, and through. There you'll find another typical square room, a chest with a Aqua Burst VI, so grab it and then head up to find... ~~~~~ ----/ Sibling God: Le /---- HP: 14000 ELE: Chronos(+100%), Wind(-100%) DROP: Planet Soul Yup, the fifth of the Magnus ghosts, the bosses that pervade yet protect Cor Hydrae and it's evil owner. And just for a change, it's wind based... so get Gibari and his wind paddles out of there. As you have no real chronos based person to attack him full force with, you can pick whoever you like as long as you keep a mage with a lot of chronos spells. Although chronos is the rarest element to find in the game (none of your characters really have a good chronos setup, unless you've been farming Spatulas here for Gibari), the battle is about the same difficulty due to the fact that this ghost puts up very little defense. Even if you hit it with a 9- hit combo, it'll still only put up 57 points physical and 57 points wind defense, ie. nothing that you cant overcome with one strong chronos weapon, plus whatever else you use in the combo. Again, he favours the traditional 702/702 attack, and for his status goodies, he picks poison, with Winds of Terror, and confusion, with Seal of Sanity. Again, like the statuses inflicted by Ar, these you can simply ignore and fight through, stopping to cure only slightly more often. Like the other bosses, he still uses Seal of Health to recover himself, but by now this only serves as a warning to let you know that you're kicking it's butt and it's nearly dead. Ho hum. ~~~~~ All five paths complete, and the beams of light turn into a pillar, leading upwards! Whoo, cool. Head back to the main chamber and save. Aw thanks Kalas, just in case we weren't sure we broke the seal, you'll let us know. Take the platform up, then head north, the only way you can go. If you're clever, you can avoid all the Demonic Hands that circle the path endlessly, and at the top, you'll find... Melodia, welcoming you to the Throne Room of the Gods! After a bit of chat chat, in which she says she's tired of playing games with you (yeah well... we're tired of playing games with you too, wench), she'll sic Malpercio onto you... oh, here we go. ~~~~~ ----/ Malpercio /---- HP: 16000 ELE: Wind(+20%), Chronos(-20%) Light(+50%), Dark(-50%) DROP: nothing (stingy bastard) Ding ding, take two, fight! We last fought this guy way back in Algorab Village, Duhr... so let's see what's changed. His elementals, for starters... though not much, but he's slightly less resistant to dark and wind than before, which makes things a tad easier. Like Le before him, he'll use a Seal of Venom to randomly inflict poison on your party, which is usually followed by a Seal of Awakening, to put that same character to sleep. (Awakening... asleep? Guh?) Can be minorly annoying, if not wearing skull equipment or something to protect against sleep. What makes him different from the bosses before him, however, is his heavy eight hit attach that finishes with Divine Doom. Undefended, this attack will do something in the vicinity of 1150 physical, 600 dark, and 200 chronos damage - nearly 2000 altogether (which goes straight to him, as an added bonus), so as you can see, this is where your defense needs to lie. Gibari is a must for the battle, with his wind equipment (you may have been picking up Mirage Blades from all the Diabolos around the place, this is where they come into play), as is a mage (as you've gotten several Wind Burst VIs as well), and as usual, the third character is up to you. Overall, this battle also isn't very difficult with a good setup, same as the ones before it. If you need to, go back and farm more Mirage Blades, or Avocados from the Demonic Hands for healing if you don't have anything better. (Beer also works well.) While the Divine Doom is annoying, it's defendable and manageable with prizes, so overall, not too bad. ~~~~~ Did you get him? Somehow I don't think it was that simple. And Corellia and co will confirm it... and Duke Calbren is here with some shocking truth for Melodia. It was not she that summoned the power of the Malpercio using the End Magnus... it was he that used the End Magnus to revive her from a deadly infection, and now they have come to claim her back... creepy. Mucho, mucho creepy. However, instead of being stunned by this, Melodia thinks its absolutely hilarious, thinking it was all predestined by the gods over a millenium ago, her dying and being brought back to life, so that they too may live. Freaking psycho chick. But the empty vessel of Malpercio now has a soul... that of Melodia! I just knew it was gonna get even screwier, I so did. Anyways, after Melodia/Malpercio punches a hole in the wall and leaves, you're free to follow them. There's a final red save point, so make sure you save, then prepare for what SHOULD be the toughest fight yet. Head up the stairs, grab the Golden Helm from the chest, and keep going up. Ready? Here goes! ~~~~~ ----/ Malpercio /---- HP: 20000 ELE: varying >_< (+80%/-80% to two opposing elements at a time) DROP: nothing (stingy bastard) Pretty soon you'll work out that yes, indeed, this guy is worthy of being a final boss :p He packs a punch unlike anything we've ever seen, has a wide range of varying elemental weaknesses, and inflicts a couple of bad statuses at the same time >_< Because this is indeed a final final boss, I'll go over strategy in some detail. What's really annoying here is that he has two big elemental strengths at any one time, and no weaknesses. What's worse is, when he uses Seal of Entropy, as he will several times during the fight, these weaknesses randomly change! So even if you stack a deck full of Light Flares, one move and he suddenly has an 80% strength against it, and you're shit out of luck. Annoying, I know. And on top of that, you can add on his finishing moves - Dark Arrow, at the end of a nine-hit combo, a massive dark-based attack which will also inflict any or all of sleep, flames, poison, and paralysis. That's just NOT COOL! One could make a case for using skull equipment here if you have it, just to protect against Dark Arrow - because if he hits a character with it, then hits that character again, that character is as good as dead. If you don't want skull equipment because you like your combos and prizes, equipment protecting against the paralysis is a MUST, we did that before for the Angel of Darkness fight most memorably, we can do it again. So what can we do? Some very one-sided deck stacking, for starters (ie. stock up on one element, and none at all of its opposing element). Because it's guaranteed that he starts with a light weakness, focussing on that might be a good place to start. Cases could be made for taking Lyude, with everything dark taken out of his deck, or Xelha/Mizuti with an array of Light Flares (amongst other things), or Kalas, if you stock up on Durandals. Durandals are great light-based weapons dropped by Demonic Hands, and they'll come in a treat here. If you don't feel like taking light, make sure you do focus very strongly on something else (such as taking Gibari and packing a HELL of a lot of wind.) I have a party of Xelha, Kalas, and Gibari (with what I mentioned above, as I have more dark weapons for Lyude than light.) No matter what you do, this fight is going to be long, you're going to be shuffling the deck numerous times, and you're going to be getting KOed a lot (whereas before you probably weren't getting KOed much, if at all.) So packing Cure Death items is a necessity - Holy Grails at the weak end, Japanese Rice Wines, Sacred Wines, Wonder MOMOs at the strong end. (If you really want Wonder MOMOs, the ultimate healing Magnus, heal 2800 and cure all ailments, try aging a Peach Boy, which you obtain from aging a Peach.) Other curative items are also a must, as you don't want to have to face two hits without curing in between - each character should have more curative items than usual (mine have five each), things like Avocado (drop from Demonic Hands) and Beer work well, as do Green Tea or Deluxe Green Tea (combo of Green Tea + Large Teamug). Once you've got everything set up, and you've prayed for a lot of luck (cuz believe me, you're gonan need it, no matter what your setup) it's time to start the assault. Hammer him with everything light based you have, watching carefully for Seal of Entropy. When he uses it, you'll see the colour of the element his strength is changing to - if he radiates green waves while casting it, his strength is going to be chronos, for example. You can then (hopefully) change your strategy accordingly. When he gets to low health, Malpercio will start using Enchanted Blade - a six hit combo that ends in him draining whatever damage you couldn't defend, from a base damage of 1700. Yeah, that's a lot. Expect to have him drain about 1000HP every time he casts it, and what's worse is, he'll usually use it three times running, once for each character. If he does, stop and heal, but you know you're getting close to the end. Once you're all cured up, hit him with the strongest Magnus you've got, pray he doesn't use Enchanted Blade right before all three characters need to shuffle their decks (as happened to me twice -_-) and hopefully you'll scrape through. For the record, I was level 42 during this battle and it took me four attempts to make it through. ~~~~~ After the battle, Mizuti will use her special Children-of-the-Earth powers to bind Malpercio back to the darkness from whence he came, while Kalas struggles to save Melodia. Aw, ain't he a nice guy. More flashbacks - Kalas being saved by a dying Fee, and what happened that fateful day he met up with Melodia, Melodia's 'coming of age' (way too much info there)... and sealing away Malpercio for good, with the help of a newly blue-haired Melodia. Yayzorz! (Look! That little blue glowing light! That's YOU!) And what's happening to the world? The Taintclouds are gone, and the islands are falling... ~~~~~ The Victory Banquet ~~~~~ Gibari is trying to cheer Kalas up, but Kalas won't have a bar of it. And so our story wraps up, Kalas asking each party member what they will do now... including Savyna becoming a... cook!? o.O But there's one still secret left to be revealed... about the long-lost Ocean... And a joke of a boss, but he doesn't even count :p ~~~~~ Congratulations! ~~~~~ You just beat Baten Kaitos! You clever person, you! =-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=- [5.0] SIDE QUESTS =-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=- Okay! Now that that behemoth of a walkthrough is out of the way.... phew. That sure is a lod off. But the information overflow isn't done just yet, oh no. Now we have side quest stuff - several major side quests span the space of the entire game, or large portions of it, and so they don't exactly fit into the walkthrough neatly. So they get added in here. Oh, and random little tidbits like a shop guide. Where else should I put the thing? ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- [5.1] Quzman's Family Tree ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- Quzman is an elderly gentleman who lives in Pherkad, on the island of Sadal Suud. You can visit him the first time you visit the city, or any time after that, in his house just outside Lord Rodolfo's mansion. When you talk to him, he'll tell you that he is dying, and ask you to please travel the world and collect his family members all over the place to come visit him before he passes on. (I'm paraphrasing, but you get the idea.) You can identify his family members by the fact they wear a bracelet - if you ever see people identified as 'Woman with a Bracelet' etc. they're a relative of Quzman. To aid you in your quest, Quzman will give you a Family Tree quest Magnus, to get all of his family members to sign it. He'll sign his own name in the centre, and you can see several sub-families below it - his four wives, their children, and their partners and families. If you get an entire subfamily (enclosed in a square) to sign the tree, Quzman will reward you, as well as rewarding you when you complete the entire tree. So without further ado, on with the list of Quzman family members, and where you can find them: Notes: * X marks deceased relatives - one of their family members will sign the tree for them) * Family members in subtrees are arranged top to bottom, left to right, in rows. Because of this, Quzman's children will be separated from his grandchildren in the ordering, but it makes sense. * Some names and descriptions are duplicated because they appear in overlapping families of the tree. ~~~~~ Bloodline of Usaybia - Left Subtree ~~~~~ X Usaybia (passed away at age 29, female) - Quzman's first wife. Passed away a long time ago. + To get her signature, examine the picture on the dressing table of Quzman's house, and he will sign the tree in her name. Surayj (47 years old, female) - Her husband works in the city, and her child wanders the world. She awaits their return. + To get her signature, speak with her in the farmhouse in Cebalrai, Sadal Suud. Qasim (53 years old, male) - Left his wife at home and went to work in the city. Is he doing well? ...Hmm. + To get his signature, speak with him near the airship in Mintaka, Alfard Empire. Yamin (50 years old, female) - A hardy Northerner mother, not overprotective of her children... unlike her husband. + To get her signature, speak to her near the shop in Cursa, Wazn. You must have already obtained Usaybia's signature. Gabirol (55 years old, male) - Over-protective of his daughters, hardly cares about his wife anymore... + To get his signature, speak to him in the fields of Gomeisa, Wazn (out in the snowstorm). You must have already obtained Yunus' signature. Battuta (27 years old, male) - Born Battu-Batturum, lover of freedom and solitude. A master of the harmonica. + To obtain his signature, speak with him in the Labyrinth of Duhr, on the island of Duhr. X Bajja (passed away at age 8, female) - Yamin's daughter, killed in an accident... hence the over-protectiveness of the father... + To obtain her signature, speak with Yamin at Quzman's house in Pherkad. Obviously, you must have already obtained Yamin's signature for this. Yunus (8 years old, female) - A regular girl, the apple of her father's eye. A strong girl, able to travel on her own. + To obtain her signature, speak with her in the fields of Gomeisa, Wazn, just left of the junction with the arachnid. You must have already obtained Yamin's signature. Reward for completing bloodline of Usaybia - Aurora ~~~~~ Bloodline of Misjah - Bottom-Left Subtree ~~~~~ Misjah (83 years old, female) - Quzman's second wife, a self-proclaimed abstractionist painter of dubious talent... + To obtain her signature, speak to her at the base of the bridge in Reverance, Mira. Initially, she will refuse to sign, but if you bring her a Terrible Painting (found in Quzman's house in Pherkad) she will sign the tree. Hawqal (48 years old, male) - Speaks with animals, befriends them, catches them and stuffs them. So much for trust... + To obtain his signature, speak with him in the Moonguile Forest, Sadal Suud. Kemal (55 years old, female) - Tumart's wife, passed away 10 years ago. A truly likeable person, according to Tumart. + To obtain her signature, speak with Tumart at Quzman's house in Pherkad. Obviously, you must have already obtained Tumart's signature for this. Tumart (60 years old, male) - An absent-minded ex-librarian at the Library of Magic. Musth ave lost his way. Seriously. + To obtain his signature, speak with him in the Illusory Fortress of the Book. He can be found in the second room on the right, in the second area of the fortress. Tufayr (28 years old, male) - Works at the School of Magic. Lover of ancient tomes. A firm non-believer in ghosts. + To obtain his signature, speak with him in the Philosphy room in the Ancient Library of Magic. You must have already defeated Folon there for him to appear. Tulun (26 years old, female) - Works at the School of Magic. Very pretty, yet a married mother of two. Such is life... + To obtain her signature, speak with her in the classroom on the right hand side of the Library of Magic. You must have already obtained Tulun's signature. ~~~~~ Bloodline of Wahshiyah - Central Subtree ~~~~~ Wahshiyah (76 years old, female) - Quzman's third wife. Likes to wander around. Tactically feigns memory loss when cornered. + To get her signature, speak to her wandering around in Gemma Village, Duhr. Sabin (43 years old, male) - Quzman's adopted son, full of worries lately. Does he take after his adopted father? Hmm... + To obtain his signature, speak with him on the launching platform in Pherkad, Sadal Suud. You must have already obtained Rushd's signature. If you have obtained Nubata's signature already, you will need to bribe Sabin to sign the tree, with a Naughty Novel found in Quzman's bedside table. Reward for completing the bloodline of Wahshiyah - Silver Ash ~~~~~ Family of Sabin - Bottom Subtree ~~~~~ Tulun (26 years old, female) - Works at the School of Magic. Very pretty, yet a married mother of two. Such is life... + To obtain her signature, speak with her in the classroom on the right hand side of the Library of Magic. You must have already obtained Tulun's signature. Sabin (43 years old, male) - Quzman's adopted son, full of worries lately. Does he take after his adopted father? Hmm... + To obtain his signature, speak with him on the launching platform in Pherkad, Sadal Suud. You must have already obtained Rushd's signature. If you have obtained Nubata's signature already, you will need to bribe Sabin to sign the tree, with a Naughty Novel found in Quzman's bedside table. Al-athir (24 years old, female) - A pretty young lady with excellent cooking skills but pathetic luck with men. + To obtain her signature, speak with her in the kitchen of the Lord's Mansion, in Pherkad, Sadal Suud. She will initially refuse to sign, but if you bring her some Pow Milk Cheese, she will agree and sign the tree. Sallam (5 years old, male) - Quzman's grandson, as mischievous as his grandfather. Shy around others, though. + To obtain his signature, speak with him on the launching platform in Pherkad, Sadal Suud. If you have not already obtained Rushd's signature, agree to take Rushd home to Quzman and he will sign. Rushd (6 years old, female) - A curious little girl who believes in the Bluebird of Happiness. + To obtain her signature, speak with her on the launching platform in Pherkad, Sadal Suud (she'll be hanging on the rail). To make her sign, you'll have to bring her a Bluebird, which can be obtained in the Moonguile Forest. Completing family of Sabin - Voice 4 ~~~~~ Bloodline of Maja - Bottom-Right Subtree ~~~~~ X Maja (passed away at age 68, female) - Quzman's fourth wife, already passed away. They say she was overweight, too. + To obtain her signature, speak with Asakir at Quzman's house in Pherkad. Obviously, you must have already obtained Asakir's signature to do this. Asakir (50 years old, male) - A massive man whose passion is working out. Never misses his push-up and sit-up sessions. + To obtain his signature, speak with him under the waterfall in Nunki Valley, Pherkad. You must have already obtained Zuhr's signature. Zuhr (48 years old, female) - Plain and simple, a stark contrast to her husband, though she was once massive too. + To obtain her signature, speak with her in the Nihal Desert, Alfard Empire. You can find her on the third screen left of the start point. Nubata (45 years old, male) - Ate a lot, grew a lot... which leaves one wondering why he refuses to stop... + To obtain his signature, speak to him sitting near the entrance of Parnasse, in Mira. If you have already obtained Sabin's signature, you must bribe Nubata to sign by bringing him a Roasted Bluebird (obtain a Bluebird in the Moonguile Forest, Pherkad, and use Trill's oven in Parnasse to roast it.) Al-rumi (40 years old, female) - Always has room left for sweets. A plump matron with a voracious appetite. + To obtain her signature, speak with her in the Celestial Alps after your first visit to them. She'll be at the base of the mountain with her daughter, Al-khatib. Reunite the two women at the top of the hill, and Al- rumi will sign the tree. Al-athir (24 years old, female) - A pretty young lady with excellent cooking skills but pathetic luck with men. + To obtain her signature, speak with her in the kitchen of the Lord's Mansion, in Pherkad, Sadal Suud. She will initially refuse to sign, but if you bring her some Pow Milk Cheese, she will agree and sign the tree. Al-khatib (16 years old, female) - The resemblance is unmistakable. Well-built, to put it in polite terms. + To obtain her signature, speak with her in the Celestial Alps after your first visit to them. She'll be at the base of the mountain with her mother, Al-rumi. Reunite the two women at the top of the hill, and Al- khatib will sign the tree. ~~~~~ Bloodline of Taymiya - Top-Right Subtree ~~~~~ Taymiya (55 years old, female) - Quzman's fifth and current wife. Looks much younger than her actual age. + To obtain her signature, speak with her in Quzman's house, she's right next to his bed :p Maymun (33 years old, female) - Daughter of Quzman and Taymiya, mother of two. Obsessed with her children's education. + To obtain her signature, speak with her on the top floor of the warehouse in Nashira, Diadem. Qutayba (34 years old, male) - Quzman's daughter's husband. Lacks the guts to stand up to his wife. + To obtain his signature, speak with him on the higher levels of the Cloud Passage, Diadem. You must have rescued his two children on the lower levels and gotten them to sign, else he will refuse. Rustah (12 years old, male) - A smart and cheeky little boy, no doubt the product of his mother's education. + To obtain his signature, speak with him on the lower levels of the Cloud Passage, in Diadem. Rescue him and he will gratefully sign the tree. Hisham (11 years old, male) - No less smart than his elder brother, though he akways wants to prove himself better... + To obtain his signature, speak with him on the lower levels of the Cloud Passage, in Diadem. Rescue him and he will gratefully sign the tree. Reward for completing bloodline of Taymiya - Sorcerer's Seal After getting everyone to sign the tree, return to Quzman and show him the completed Family Tree. Only then will he remember another relative... his long lost brother Rabbih. And another space will appear on the tree for him to sign. X Rabbih (passed away at age 99, male) - An eccentric old man who hated people and loved stones. Passed away happily... hopefully. + To obtain his signature, speak with him on the fourth floor of the Zosma Tower, in Duhr. He will only appear after the family tree has been fully completed! He will request a Delinquency Stone, which can be found on the first underground floor of the Zosma Tower. Bring him one and he will agree to sign, and then pass away :( As a reward for completing the family tree, return to Quzman's side with Rabbih's signature and Taymiya will also give you Platinum Earrings, Endeavouring Woman, and Fairy Shield. Yay! ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- [5.2] Completing the Star Map ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- Another biggie but goodie quest, that will take you all over the world in search of mysterious star fragments. Let's get to it! When visiting the church via blue save flower, you may have noticed a man at the bottom of the screen gazing off into space. (I like to pretend he is, anyway.) Speak to him, and he'll tell you about the star map in the roof. It got broken, and the pieces spread around the world, or something like that, and he'll ask you to retrieve them for you. Well, we can try. For every one we retrieve, we'll get rewarded, as well as bonuses for milestones and completion. Sweet! That's pretty much all of the background info out of the way, so now for the loooong list of different constellation pieces, where you get them, and the rewards for them! It's a pretty self explanatory list, so here goes... Notes: * Constellation Magnus are listed in the order they appear in the Magnus list - which is *not* the order you'll find them in in-game, if picking them up as you proceed from start to finish. Dunno why it works like that, but it just does, unfortunately. However, if you've got a gap in the Magnus list, it's much easier to find what fills it, if I arrange them this way. * Draco Drop from Sabre Dragon boss Location: Moonguile Forest, Sadal Suud Reward: Shish Kebab (small) * Vela Random drop from Shawra Location: Moonguile Forest, Sadal Suud Reward: Flame Sword * Puppis Recieve from girl in left house after bringing her some Pow Milk Location: Cebalrai, Sadal Suud Reward: Nixie Garb * Aquarius Recieve from woman with painting in house in main street (may need to bring her water to clean the painting) Location: Pherkad, Sadal Suud Reward: Green Bananas * Pyxis Talk to girl studying ground in main street Location: Pherkad, Sadal Suud Reward: Aqua Burst II * Carina Open lacquered chest in a house Location: Nashira, Diadem Reward: Fire Burst II * Cygnus Open chest after using Cloud to construct path Location: Cloud Passage, Diadem Reward: Shish Kebab (Medium) * Hydra Clean the western passage after visiting Shrine of the Winds Location: Castle Elnath, Diadem Reward: Shawl of the Goddess * Pisces Drop from Thunderfish boss Location: Lesser Celestial River, Diadem Reward: Secret Recipe II * Triangulum Random drop from Albireo Location: Cloud Passage, Diadem Reward: Pegasus Cloak * Auriga Examine bookcase in house in Anuenue Port Location: Anuenue Port, Anuenue Reward: Chunk of Ice * Taurus Open the chest in the History Section Location: Ancient Library of Magic, Anuenue Reward: Voice III * Equuleus Open chest on the third screen, after descending the ladder near the blue butterfly, and following the path Location: Holoholo Jungle, Anuenue Reward: Camera II * Lupus Examine the flower pots in the right-hand house Location: Opu, Anuenue Reward: Maple Leaf * Perseus Talk to the girl next to the save flower Location: Opu, Anuenue Reward: Bomb * Ursa Major Random drop from Devil Fang Location: Celestial Tree, Anuenue Reward: Unicorn Horn * Crater Examine inside of tent at base of Celestial Tree Location: Celestial Tree, Anuenue Reward: Fruity Gelatin * Andromeda Drop from Gnosis boss Location: Outer Dimension, Mira Reward: Deluxe Bananas * Corona Borealis Open a chest in the Shrine of Spirits Location: Nekton, Mira Reward: Robe of Firelight * Piscis Australis Examine the drums in Duke Calbren's Manor Location: Balancoire, Mira Reward: Brilliant Horn * Corona Australis Open chest in Labyrinth of Mirrors Location: Balancoire, Mira Reward: Wheat Crackers * Virgo Drop from Skiri boss Location: Nekton, Mira Reward: Gladius * Hercules Random drop from May-moo Location: Nekton, Mira Reward: Burning Arrow * Cepheus Random drop from Filler Location: Nekton, Mira Reward: Light Yell I * Capricornus Drop from Phantasm boss in Labyrinth of Mirrors Location: Balancoire, Mira Reward: Frozen Tangerine * Ara Examine a pot in the bar in Mintaka Location: Mintaka, Alfard Empire Reward: Magic Beans - Death * Lepus Open the hidden chest in the treehouse Location: Azha, Alfard Empire Reward: Voice V * Serpens Examine behind the bed in the Lava Caves house Location: Azha, Alfard Empire Reward: Jumbo Pastry * Ophichus Drop from Naiad boss Location: Diadem interdimensional crack Reward: Light Flare IV * Cancer Drop from Thalassa boss Location: Anuenue interdimensional crack Reward: Dark Flare IV * Lyra Drop from Despina boss Location: Mira interdimensional crack Reward: A Good Fortune * Libra Drop from Galatea boss Location: Alfard interdimensional crack Reward: Explosive Paddle * Delphinus Random drop from Flobo Location: Gomeisa, Wazn Reward: Sforzando * Sagitta Bring a guard in Corellia's Palace some Pow Milk Yogurt Location: Komo Mai, Anuenue Reward: Aqua Impulse * Leo Open a chest in the snowy fields Location: Gomeisa, Wazn Reward: Birch * Sagittarius Examine the pillar in the ritual room Location: Kaffaljidhma, Wazn Reward: Sugar Cane * Ursa Minor Examine the frozen fish in the Cursa fishing shop Location: Cursa, Wazn Reward: Charred Fish * Scorpius Open the chest out on the landing of the fourth floor of the Imperial Fortress Location: Imperial Fortress, Alfard Empire Reward: Tower Shield * Pegasus Examine the dead body propped up against the wall Location: Labyrinth of Duhr, Duhr Reward: Camera 3 * Aries Examine a pot in the left-most house in the village Location: Algorab Village, Duhr Reward: Girlish Birdie * Cassiopeia Examine the desk in the second house in the village Location: Algorab Village, Duhr Reward: Hair Aftercare * Gemini Drop from Agyo and Ungyo bosses Location: Zosma Tower, Duhr Reward: Shortcake (Large) * Bootes Talk to the man near the fire, in the barn Location: Gemma Village, Duhr Reward: Secret Recipe 8 * Centaurus Examine the barrels in the Nihal Desert main cave Location: Nihal Desert, Alfard Empire Reward: Dragon Claws * Canis Minor Open a chest in the Celestial Alps, right near the start Location: Celestial Alps Reward: Ometeotl Gear * Canis Major Random drop from Badwin Location: Celestial Alps Reward: Kusanagi Blade * Corvus Examine the end of the path leading between the two cliffs, near the save flower Location: Greater Celestial River Reward: Devil Knight Shield * Eridanus Drop from Brokolis boss Location: Greater Celestial River Reward: Mature Birdie * Aquila Open chest in the Zosma Tower basement Location: Zosma Tower, Duhr Reward: Rare Action Figure * Cetus After collecting all the other star map pieces, ask the quest giver at the church for more info Location: Church Whew! That was a long list. There's also a few extra rewards you can pick up along the way, and they are as follows: Reward for collecting all 12 astrological constellations - Pendulum Blast Reward for collecting 10 constellations overall - Conditioner Reward for collecting 20 constellations overall - Golden Anklet Reward for collecting 30 constellations overall - Crystal Helm Reward for collecting 40 constellations overall - Pegasus Cloak Reward for completion of star map - The Fool And that's it! Moving right along... ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- [5.3] Animals for Wazn Campaign ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- This one isn't available until quite a ways into the game, due to its location. Yup, it's located in the icy land of Wazn, in the palace of Kaffaljidhma. In one of the rooms on the left side of the palace, you can speak to a woman who despairs because Wazn is completely devoid of wildlife. (Well DUH! It's an island made of ice!) Anyways, she wants to change this, and she asks you for help in recruiting animals to come live in Wazn. (Ignore reality for just one more second here.) And to make it sound appealing, she labels it the 'Animals for Wazn!' campaign. Originality +10. So what you have to do, is 'talk to' (examine) certain animals all over the world, and you will be prompted to pick them up. They'll actually sit in your inventory, in the Valuables section. Then bring them to the lady here in this room, where they will proceed to sit and make a complete racket, all these animals cooped up in the one room o.O Strange quest. Anyways, onward march with a list of all the animals to collect, and the rewards for them. * Bunnycat On the second floor of the Imperial Fortress, speak with the man in the locker room and agree to look after his Whiskers Location: Imperial Fortress, Alfard Empire * Caplin (black) Examine the herd of animals outside the farmhouse in the Celestial Alps (the black one may be slightly hidden behind the house) Location: Celestial Alps * Caplin (white) same as Caplin (white) except not so hidden * Cloudgull Speak to the man outside Quzman's house in Pherkad Location: Pherkad, Sadal Suud * Clucker Speak to the woman looking after the cluckers in the barn in Gemma Village Location: Gemma Village, Duhr * Fantail Duckling Speak to to the little girl near the duck herd in Cebalrai Location: Cebalrai, Sadal Suud * Fantail Duck (regular) same as Fantail Duckling * Fantail Duck (white) same as Fantail Duck (regular) * Fluffpup Speak to the little girl in the house closest to the landing port in Mintaka Location: Mintaka, Alfard Empire * Hograt Examine a Hograt in the sewers under Balancoire Location: Balancoire, Mira * Koa Monkey Speak to the woman cleaning in a room of Lord Rodolfo's Mansion Location: Pherkad, Sadal Suud * Oliphant Examine an Oliphant at a watering hole in the desert Location: Nihal Desert, Alfard Empire * Pigeon Examine a Pigeon at the base of the Celestial Tree Location: Celestial Tree, Anuenue * Pollywhale Examine the whale in the river in Balancoire... he's kinda hard to miss :p Location: Balancoire, Mira * Pow Speak to the man looking after the pow in the stables of Cebalrai. You must have already obtained a Prancer, left, and returned. Location: Cebalrai, Sadal Suud * Prancer Speak to the man looking after the prancers in the stables of Cebalrai. Location: Cebalrai, Sadal Suud * Waterlark Climb the ladder near Mayfee's house, and examine the waterlark hiding behind the waterfall Location: Opu, Anuenue And as a reward for collecting all of these animals and bringing them to Wazn, the woman will reward you with Endeavouring Woman, and Pegasus Anklet. Koolies. ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- [5.4] Aging Magnus!? ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- Say WHAT now? Magnus are just cards, cards don't age.... or do they?? *hears the X-files theme playing somewhere in the distance* Unfortunately, in the Baten Kaitos world, Magnus do age, and as they age, they can change. Fruit ages, ripens, and goes rotten, while some weapons lose their power over time. Both Quest and normal Magnus can age over time. It's a tricky little concept. And so, I have put together a small list of aging Magnus, what they start off as, and what they age into. By no means is the following a comprehensive list (I just wrote it up from memory >.>), but aimed to give you an idea of what kind of Magnus age, and what they become. Green Bananas -> Bananas -> Blackened Bananas -> Rotting Food Bamboo Shoot -> Young Bamboo -> Fishing Rod Nameless Flower -> Pressed Flower Pow Milk -> Pow Milk Yogurt -> Pow Milk Cheese Warriors Mementos -> Warriors Memories Pristine Water -> Stagnant Water Stoked Flame -> Weak Flame Shampoo -> Splendid Hair Salty Water -> Salt Solar Saber -> Saber Mountain Apple -> Mountain Apple Wine -> Apple Vinegar Fading Notebook -> Blank Notebook Savings -> Savings + Interest Milk -> Cheese Uncooked Rice -> Japanese Rice Wine -> Vinegar Jill's Jewelry Box -> Jack In The Box Cedar Tree -> Cedar Tree Sap Peach -> The Peach Boy -> Wonder MOMO any Aura I -> Aura 2 -> Aura 3 etc. For a more complete list, feel free to check out the following guide (not written by I, but hey, a free plug for it and its author): http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/gamecube/file/baten_kaitos_aging_magnus.txt ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- [5.5] Shop Selections ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- The omnipresent shop guide. For Magnus not easily available through normal battling, you want to know if you can buy them, where, and for how much, right? Well, this section will give you all the info on that... for there just aren't that many shops out there. Do shops restock their items after purchase? Survey says... no, unfortunately. :( Buy everything from a shop, and it'll put a figurative 'Sold Out' sign in the window, to buy no more :( ~~~~~ Cebalrai, The Farming Hamlet ~~~~~ Bamboo Shoot x1 160 G Wheat Crackers x1 300 G Long Sword x2 200 G Safety Hood x1 40 G Shish Kebab (Small) x2 30 G ~~~~~ Pherkad, the Ancient Capital ~~~~~ Shish Kebab (Small) x4 30 G Wheat Crackers x2 300 G Flame Sword x2 250 G Chain Mail 120 G Light Flare I x2 230 G Wind Blow I 260 G Mink Coat 350 G Bananas 180 G Chunk of Ice 100 G ~~~~~ Nashira, the Fishing Village ~~~~~ Power Helmet 30 G Shish Kebab (Medium) x2 75 G Wheat Crackers 300 G Chestnut Truffle x2 100 G Silver Buckle 2500 G Flame Sword x2 250 G Duel Sword 900 G Frozen Shield 700 G Fire Burst II 950 G Aqua Burst II 950 G Mineral Water x2 50 G Honey x2 200 G ~~~~~ Sheliak, the Castle Town ~~~~~ Shish Kebab (Medium) x2 75 G Wheat Crackers 300 G Chestnut Truffle 100 G Ray of Truth 1200 G Mosquito 250 G Stream Blade 520 G Shadow Suit 300 G Clock Shield 1000 G Light Flare II 1050 G Dark Flare II 1050 G Century Veil 550 G Milk 250 G Rooster 150 G Shadow Cornet 1600 G ~~~~~ Castle Elnath (knight shop in main chamber) ~~~~~ Wheat Crackers x3 300 G Chestnut Truffle x3 100 G Shish Kebab (Medium) x10 75 G Cypress Creel 350 G ~~~~~ Komo Mai, City of Flowers ~~~~~ Shish Kebab (Medium) x2 75 G Wheat Crackers 300 G Chestnut Truffle x2 100 G Fruity Gelatin x2 200 G Dark Sword 2600 G Marvelous Sword 4000 G Shadow Cornet 1600 G Black Scepter 2300 G Shako 1250 G Light Flare II 1050 G Dark Flare II 1050 G Peach x2 600 G ~~~~~ Opu, the Waterfall Village ~~~~~ Shish Kebab (Large) x2 250 G Wheat Crackers 300 G Chestnut Truffle x2 100 G Fruity Gelatin x2 200 G Wave Blade 3000 G Flame Sphere 2400 G Feathered Barrette 5000 G Light Yell I 1600 G Dark Yell I 1600 G ~~~~~ Parnasse, the Confectionary Village ~~~~~ Shish Kebab (Medium) x2 75 G Shish Kebab (Large) 250 G Fruity Gelatin 200 G Chestnut Truffle 100 G Wheat Crackers 300 G Moonlight Creel 12000 G Half Plate 8500 G Brave Knight Helm 7300 G Plain Pastry 2200 G Aqua Burst III 7000 G Flame Sphere 2400 G Bacon 580 G Chunk of Ice 100 G ~~~~~ Reverence, the Picture Book Village ~~~~~ Shish Kebab (Medium) x2 75 G Shish Kebab (Large) 250 G Fruity Gelatin 200 G Chestnut Truffle 100 G Wheat Crackers 300 G Pegasus Cloak 6700 G Millinery 5100 G Silk Robe 9800 G Shortcake (Small) 2200 G Sculpting Knife 450 G Uncooked Rice 120 G Brilliant Horn 8800 G Light Flare III 8000 G Chunk of Ice 100 G ~~~~~ Balancoire, Borough of Illusion ~~~~~ Shish Kebab (Medium) x2 75 G Shish Kebab (Large) 250 G Fruity Gelatin 200 G Chestnut Truffle 100 G Wheat Crackers 300 G Apple Pie (Slice) 5000 G Mini Cream Puff 2200 G Mayfly 8500 G Tekken (Iron Fists) 4800 G Dark Flare III 8000 G Chronos Blow III 9000 G Persimmons 1800 G Skipjack 10000 G Chunk of Ice 100 G ~~~~~ Mintaka, the Imperial Capital ~~~~~ Shish Kebab (Medium) x2 75 G Shish Kebab (Large) 250 G Fruity Gelatin 200 G Chestnut Truffle 100 G Wheat Crackers 300 G Tongue Birdie 6000 G Deluxe Red Wine 17000 G Arm Bomber 6200 G Blue Sky Mail 9500 G Wind Blow III 9000 G Dark Yell I 1600 G Light Yell I 1600 G Magic Beans - Death 8000 G Chunk of Ice 100 G Bamboo Shoot 160 G Uncooked Rice x3 120 G ~~~~~ Azha Village ~~~~~ Shish Kebab (Large) x2 250 G Wheat Crackers x2 300 G Fruity Gelatin x2 200 G Chestnut Truffle x2 100 G Death Pendulum 10000 G White Scepter 9200 G Panther Claws 7500 G Blue Sky Mail 9500 G Coffin Shield 2500 G Chronos Blow III 9000 G Aqua Burst IV 13000 G Mohawk Birdie 9999 G Apple 1000 G Red Pickled Veggies 380 G Soybeans 20 G ~~~~~ Cursa, the Snowy City ~~~~~ Shish Kebab (Large) x2 250 G Wheat Crackers x2 300 G Fruity Gelatin x2 200 G Chestnut Truffle x2 100 G Wave Cutter 17500 G Saxoflare 15800 G Aqua Impulsa 13500 G Wind Blow III 9000 G Grace Shield 7700 G Battle Hood 13800 G Wheat 1500 G Apple 1000 G Beef 3800 G Soybeans 20 G ~~~~~ Gemma Village ~~~~~ Egg 800 G Peanuts 1500 G Salted Sweetfish 7500 G Wheat 1500 G Eel 8500 G Soybeans 20 G Beef 3800 G Squid 2500 G Sugar Cane 800 G Frozen Tangerine 400 G Cedar Tree 2100 G Persimmons 1800 G Custard Pudding 2700 G Strawberries 3800 G Peach 600 G Deluxe Bananas 6800 G Shrimp 13500 G Skipjack 10000 G Mattress 4000 G Green Plums 100 G Grapes 950 G Uncooked Rice 120 G Milk 250 G Flower Bud 850 G Chunk of Ice 100 G Cucumbers 700 G Rooster 150 G Pine Tree 1700 G Green Bananas 500 G Bamboo Shoot 160 G Forlorn Woman 70000 G ~~~~~ Algorab Village ~~~~~ Shish Kebab (Large) x2 250 G Wheat Crackers x2 300 G Fruity Gelatin x2 200 G Chestnut Truffle x2 100 G Fire Yell I 1500 G Aqua Yell I 1500 G Light Yell I 1600 G Dark Yell I 1600 G Chronos Yell I 1700 G Wind Yell I 1700 G ~~~~~ Nihal Desert ~~~~~ Shish Kebab (Large) x2 250 G Deluxe Shish Kebab 1000 G Wheat Crackers x2 300 G Fruity Gelatin 200 G Chestnut Truffle 100 G Shampoo 1500 G Salted Sweetfish 7500 G Eel 8500 G Squid 2500 G Skipjack 10000 G Shrimp 13500 G Young Wasabi Root 7100 G Deluxe Pastry 10000 G =-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=- [6.0] OUTRODUCTION =-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=-=-=+=- I never understood why a lot of people write up huge 'closing' sections in their guide. People read for the game-related info, right? Why include a 'closing' section? I've fallen victim to the 'closing' curse before, and I vow NOT TO DO IT AGAIN! .... oh wait.... ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- [6.1] Revision History ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- ~~~~~ Version 1.0 - 25th February 2007 ~~~~~ * The first submitted version of this guide * Started 14th April, 2006. Yes it's taken me nearly a year -_- * Walkthrough complete! ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- [6.2] Credits and Shameless Plugs ---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=---=---=*=-- Hehe, final few words from me. There were a lot of people instrumental in me creating this guide, it would not have been made without them, so a shout-out goes to them: * All of my friends and family Who put up with me when I go crazy obsessing over one game for weeks on end. Next is Oblivion, that will test you lot >.> * The fine folks at the GameFAQs Baten Kaitos board All of you, for answering my silly questions, and generally being pretty darn informative. Hats off to ye. * tri-Crescendo, Monolith, and Namco For all taking part in creating this mammoth beautiful game. It's simply amazing. * CJayC and GameFAQs.com For hosting all of my attempts at well-written guides. Thank you! And thats all from me. Peace out! Feel free to check out some of my other guides: http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/recognition/22431.html , _ /| / | | |__/ __, ,_ _ __, | | | \ / | / | |/ \_/ | |/ \ | \_/\_/|_/ |_/|__/ \_/|_/| |_/ /| \| ~~~~~ Rebecca Skinner AKA Karpah ~~~~~ ~~~~~ faqs(at)karpie.net ~~~~~