Legend of Legaia - Part 4 - A New Hope

 

Welcome back to more Legend of Legaia.  Last time, we climbed up Mt. Rikuroa, awakened the Genesis Tree on top of it, and met Noa, our new party member.  Oh yeah, we also fought off an angry cat at the top.  Today, we head down back to Drake Castle and meet the people we’ve saved from the mist.

You can head down the mountain with a Door of Light, but I decided to go down by foot.  Unfortunately, we cannot explore the mountain side we crossed as Noa (as the cave with the golem closed up before), so that’s not accessible.  I believe we can explore that side later as we progress through the story, in the case that you somehow managed to miss the treasure chests (on a linear road, no less!).

 

Oh yeah, this is still blocked off

Another thing I wanted to point out while travelling down the mountain; you may notice that Vera will no longer appear in battle!  Makes sense, right?  Since we drove the mist away from the mountain, seru creatures won’t attack us.  But unfortunately, that does mean we cannot capture another Vera for Noa here in the mountain.  Don’t fret though; Vera will appear again in later dungeons (along with other serus you may have failed to get), so you’ll get more chances to get it when the time comes.

 

Returning to: Drake Castle

Once we’ve exited the mountain (via door of light or walking down), let’s make our way to Drake Castle.  There, Noa hears voices coming from below the stairs (wait… how is the castle constructed?  How does the topography work?).  The voices are likely the people free from the mist, so let’s head down to meet them.  Vahn and Noa are greeted by King Drake, who thanks our heroes for what they have done.

 

Noa pls

Noa notices the moustache on the king’s face and points it out, like a child.  Well, to be fair, Noa was raised by a wolf.

The king invites Vahn and Noa to the throne room, and listens to their stories so far.  In order to cross the river to reach Biron Monastery, the king gives Vahn the water key, and asks the 2 to awaken more Genesis Trees to end the suffering caused by the mist.

It's made of solid water!  Keep away from warm places.

And with that, let’s explore the castle and meet with everyone, now that the mist is gone!  We can head back to the safe room (to the right of the throne) and talk to the soldier to rest there.

yay free healing

 

By talking to the people around, we learn that there is a place that has been making mist to the northeast from here (something we’ve already learned while travelling with Terra).  It seems that Drake Castle had been surrounded by mist for 10 years, according to the people.  Those possessed by seru have not aged at all, though some people describe the experience as if they were dead.  That’s a little bit creepy to think about.

That sounds painful

 

An interesting bit of lore here about the Genesis trees is explained here: one of the more interesting tidbit being that they serve as “cradles for the holy seru”.  We’ve met Meta from within the Rim Elm Genesis Tree, and Terra mentioned she was awakened from inside the Rikuroa tree by Noa.  Perhaps we’ll meet another Ra-seru this way as well?  Another lady explains that aside from the 2 Genesis Trees we’ve found, there are 2 more that exist around here, and they are both in the forest near Biron Monastery.  All the more reason to go there, it seems.

Might as well have a sign that reads "GO TO BIRON MONASTERY" at this point

 

In one room, we find someone who can teach us new arts.  Yes – occasionally, we’ll find people who can teach party members new moves, given that they haven’t learned them yet.

 

Of course: if you’ve been looking up a list of moves, this is kinda useless to you, but it’s there.  This guy will teach Charging Scorch for Vahn and Swan Driver for Noa (moves I’ve already learned…).  It seems he can teach a new move for a Biron warrior, but we don’t really have someone that matches that description.  Hmm…

While exploring the castle, don’t forget to pick up the treasure chests that we couldn’t get before.  There are a couple of pretty good items you wanna pick up.

such as this stat boosting item

 

We exit the castle, and find a marketplace open.

 

Noa, excited like a kid in Disneyland, rushes ahead to talk with the people there.  Here, we can talk to everyone here, but we should talk to Noa to progress with the story.  She spots a Fighting Robe for sale in the equipment shop, but learns the hard way that you can’t just take whatever you want.  She asks Vahn “what is money?”

I'm almost tempted to respond with this

 

I respond "what you need to buy things", but Noa doesn’t really get it.  She decides to give it back, and run to another merchant.  After having a chat with the item merchant, Noa decides to quiz Vahn.

got this from wolf mom, I see

 

I’d like to talk about this quiz a bit cause the questions are pretty mean.  You don’t get anything super special by answering them all correctly, but these questions can catch you off guard.

 

The first question she asks here is super mean.  She asks which of these items heal the most HP.  At this point, we have only encountered 1 of these items: a healing leaf.  We’ve yet to encounter a life water, but considering the pattern we’ve seen from the stat boosting items, we can assume that life water only increases max HP.  But despite that, we’ve yet to see a healing flower or a healing berry, so unless you’ve played the game before (or by looking up a guide), you’re still left with guessing between the 2.

 

The next question is simple enough.  If you’re having trouble with this question, think back to what I said near the beginning of this part!

 

Last question seems pretty rude at first, but is solvable through process of elimination.  You could make the mistake of calling him Lezam, but remember: Lezam had different clothing from this merchant.  By the way, Noa… how the heck do you know these other names?

If you just want the answers: they are in this order: Healing Berry, Escape from the dungeon, and Wats.  Answering all 3 questions correctly will get you 10 Healing Shrooms.

Noa, where did you get these shrooms

  

Noa then checks out the inn.  I like this little exchange.  They charge you money for a full heal, but you can do exactly that with the safe room back in the castle for free.  

 

Had a good chuckle here

Here, Noa asks Vahn what an inn is.

 

I couldn’t help it this time; I went for the weirder response and said “it restores HP and MP.”  Somehow, I think Noa understood that more than she did with money.  Hmm…

And with that, Noa is done her little adventure, and joins back into our party.  Oh, by the way, noticed how Noa has been real chatty?  Back when she was introduced, she was also kinda a silent protagonist, but now that Vahn’s here to fill that role, Noa is now her own character.

Anyway, let’s actually check in with the shops.

 

The equipment shop has armor for Noa (and I managed to buy them all!  Nice).  Nothing new for Vahn, so buy whatever you need for Noa.

 

At the item shop, they’re selling a target chain (raises hit rate) and defender chain (raises block rate).  Defender chain could be useful for Noa, but I’m out of money at this point, so I’ll keep a mental note of that.  Cure Amulet was an accessory we could've bought back at Rim Elm, but I didn't really mention at the time - it protects you from poison, if you're wondering.

With all that done, let’s continue on with our journey.  Buuuuuut, before that...

 

heck yeah, reusing screenshots

Let’s make a quick detour back to Rim Elm!

Now with Noa in our party, we’ll get some new dialogue from the villagers.  Nothing too substantial, just some new fluff text.  There is a new cutscene when talking to Mei, as Noa introduces herself to her.

she says, with a death glare

 

By talking to Tetsu with Noa, he can teach Noa the Acrobatic Blitz art.  Though… I’ve already learned this move for her. 

Alright, back on track.  Let’s head on over to the water gate near Drake Castle.

 

Yeah, we're gonna leave the river dried up like that

By using the Water Key the king gave us, the gate closes, cutting the river flow.  Now we have free access to the other side!  But more importantly, we can finally reach this treasure chest sitting in the bottom of the river!

 

In it, we find a Wind Book I; just like the Fire book we found for Vahn, we can give this to Noa and she will learn Frost Breath, a new hyper art.

While travelling across the new area, new enemies will come across our way.

Green and Green, together at last

 

Lippian’s a weird looking monster.  While not too strong, be careful of its Kiss of Death; it has a chance of paralyzing a party member.  The generically named Frog is a bit more of a hard hitter; it can do quite a number of attacks, including a poisonous tongue which has a chance of causing poison (hence the name).  High attacks also won’t do anything (at least for Noa?).

No, you cannot ride the ostrich

 

One more monster we’ll find is an Ostrich.  Yup, just a plain ol’ ostrich.  Not too much to discuss with this enemy, just hit it enough times and it’ll go down.

Close to the water gate, there’s a valley up ahead.

 

Just like the valley we visited as Noa, it’s dense with mist, and Meta and Terra cannot get any closer without the mist sapping their energy.  We’ll head back, but before that; much like the previous valley, there’s a missable item here, so don’t forget to pick up the phoenix.

 

There’s another valley to the east of us, and there’s another missable item there: a life water.  Definitely pick this one up!

 

Head further east to a building across a river.

 

This must be the Biron Monastery we’ve been hearing about.  Didn’t make too much progress this part, but I think I’ll stop here, as we spent a bit of time with Noa.  Next time: we visit the monastery and see if anyone’s there.

 

T-POSING NOA CALLS YOU WEIRD