Legend of Legaia - Part 5 - The Great (?) Gala

 

reusing screenshot count: 2

Welcome back to more Legend of Legaia.  Last time, we met with the people of Drake Castle as we freed them from the mist, and finally ventured forth to the eastern side of the world map.  Today, we have finally reached Biron Monastery, so let’s not waste any more time, and head inside!

 

In the place, we head through a corridor and find 2 large set of fans, with a locked door behind.  We knock on the door and hear a voice on the other side, exclaiming to his surprise that there are humans on the other side.  He asks us to flip the switch in the middle of the room in order to open the door.  As we turn the switch on, the fans start turning, blowing the mist away, and the door leading outside closes shut, while the other opens.  A pretty effective mechanism for keeping the mist out, if you ask me!

Gasp technology exists in this world

 

We enter through the door and find a group of Biron monks in the middle of training.  The master stops them, and greets the new visitors (that’s us!) to the monastery.

 

Noa pls

He introduces himself as Zopu, and wishes to host a party for us.  As he leaves, a Biron monk in red approaches us, and says that he noticed the seru on our arms.  He introduces himself as Songi, and blatantly tells us that he wants one too.

Hi I'm Totally Not A Bad Guy

 

Well put, Noa

You may also have noticed another Biron monk in blue, who is referred as “Master Teacher.”  I’m gonna jump the gun a little and tell you guys right now that this guy is named Gala.

 

Quite frankly, I think “Master Teacher” is kinda a dumb name and quite a mouthful to say (and type out), and the other characters will be referring to him as such for a while.  So when I refer to Gala, you’ll know who I’m referring to.

NOW I'M THE MASTER

 

We can now start exploring the monastery.  One monk here tells us that Biron monks renounced the use of seru, even before the mist.

 

This is something we’ve already learned before, but it serves as an interesting reminder.  Now, what was that Songi looking for again?  Anyway, if we head to the next room, we can see a giant statue in front of us.  Apparently, it represents the god Biron.  Examine it to find a Power Elixir.

Totally not stealing from an offering

 

As we head up the stairs, we hear a voice.  It’s Maya, Mei’s long lost mother!

Hard to forget your anime green hair, tbh

 

Just as we were told back in Rim Elm, Maya was stuck in Biron Monastery ever since the mist rolled in.  Fortunately, she seems to be doing well.  She leaves us as she prepares for the party.

T-POSING NOA APPROVES OF THE ACOLYTE

 

As we explore the monastery, we learn a little more about Gala and Songi.  It seems that Gala is considered the strongest monk here, while Songi is just below.  We also learn that Songi actually despises Gala (which may correspond to what he asked us in the beginning).  That envious character also caught the attention of Zopu and Maya, and that’s been causing them to worry about Songi.

 

Meanwhile, Gala lost his parents from a seru attack, so he’s held a deep hatred to the seru, and – by extension – those who would use them.

 

There’s a shop here, but there is a partially hidden chest to the bottom right, so pick up the medicine there.  You can also check the urn to find a phoenix.

sneaky item get

 

As for the shops, we got a new armor for Vahn, but nothing new otherwise.  Pick this up when you got enough cash.  As for the item shop, they’re selling these jewels that raises specific elemental resistance.  There aren’t any jewels we need immediately, but let’s take a mental note of them here; it may prove to be helpful in the future.

 

To progress with the plot, we should head to Zopu’s room and talk to him there.  We head there and Zopu asks to tell us our story about the seru.

 

sudden awkward segue

Then, sudden cut to the party!  That’s an awkward segue.  Even more awkward as we see that Maya has learned of Juno’s death.  She leaves us as she needs to take the time to grieve.

Well this is awkward.  Let’s talk to everyone while we’re here!  Gala gives us the stink eye as we have Ra-seru on us.  Well, this party ain’t going well…

We talk to Zopu, and asks us for a favor.  To the north of the monastery are 2 forests housing a Genesis Tree each.  Zopu wants Vahn and Noa to revive the Genesis Trees in the forests and push the mist away.  Of course, we agree to do this, and everyone rejoices upon hearing this.

 

Zopu asks us which forest we will head to first.

 

Spoilers: your choice doesn’t matter here.  Despite that, let’s pick the east side.  Songi interrupts us and says it would be better for us to investigate the west side first, while he takes the east side.

Songi very sus

 

Convinced, Zopu asks us to reconsider and take the west side.  He also asks Gala to assist us in our journey.  Gala reluctantly agrees to this.  And with that, everyone heads to bed for the next day.

Meanwhile, we see Songi in the middle of the night, plotting…

"Now I can take ALL the cookies from the cookie jar!"

 

The next day comes, and 2 teams are prepared for the trip to the 2 Voz Forests, with Songi and some other monks taking the east side, and Vahn, Noa, and Gala taking the west side.  It is here where we are properly introduced to our third and final party member: Gala.

Yes, I agree, Noa

 

Still reluctant in trusting us, we will now have to work together as a team.  Despite being the strongest fighter in the monastery, Gala starts off at level 1.  Gala, you butt!

I mean seriously, are the Biron monks THAT much weaker??

 

We take the door to West Voz Forest, and find a room similar to the entrance of the monastery.  We flip the switch, and head outside.

 

In the overworld, the monsters we fought are going to be the same as the ones we fought before reaching the monastery, so I don’t think I need to go over them again.  But, what I would like to mention is that Gala – at his current level – can only do 2 attacks!

Gaze upon that minuscule attack bar, and cry

 

TWO.  ATTACKS.  Gala can’t even fit in a regular art without spiriting!  What is this, Gala?!

So yeah, don’t mind me: I’m gonna take some time to powerlevel Gala till he’s a bit less of an embarrassment.

Now entering (for the fourth time): Misty Valley

 

To the west of us is yet another misty valley that we cannot cross.

 

As expected, Gala doesn't approve of seru communication

But just like all the other misty valleys we’ve come across, there’s a treasure chest we can pick up.  It’s an Ivory Book, and man, is this a good find!

Definitely worth getting this one

 

This accessory increases the success rate of capturing serus.  From what I read, it’s an additive 30% increase, so it’ll come in real handy, as the capture rate for some seru can get ridiculously low (some as low as 1%!).

Further north and to the west, we’ll reach the West Voz Forest, our next destination.  But let’s make another detour and check out even further north!  Up ahead is a cave.

Now entering: Ancient Wind Cave

 

The Ancient Wind Cave is dark inside, but we’ll see soon enough that there isn’t much exploring to do here; there’s a door to the left that’s locked.  We can knock on the door, like we did back in Biron Monastery, but we’ll hear someone desperately saying that no one’s here.  Another door on the right side is also locked, with no way to open it.

pretty dark in here

 

But before we head out, let’s check out the monsters here:

Palette swaps, ahoy!

 

I mentioned before that we’ll get another chance to catch seru if we missed them, and here they are!  Theeder is back, and it’s stronger than we last encountered it back in Snowdrift Cave.  Theeder has a new thunderbolt attack that can do quite a bit of damage, but otherwise, it shouldn’t be a problem to take down.

Gimard returns, at a higher level, no less.  Aside from having higher stats from its predecessor, this is pretty much the same enemy.  Catch it for Noa, if you want.

Also, another note: you do not get a higher leveled seru by capturing the level 2 forms of them, sadly.  Catching a lvl 2 gimard is the same as catching a lvl 1 gimard.

 

If you need to heal, there’s a room back in Biron Monastery where you can rest.  And with Gala being so low leveled, I suggest coming back here to keep his strength up during the grind.  You may also get another dream sequence from Noa.  In the dream, Noa’s mother tries to make contact with her again.  She says she’s in the deepest part of the mist – the source of the mist.  Makes you wonder exactly where she is…

 

Alright, with some exploring done, let’s head to our actual destination: West Voz Forest.  We should find the Genesis Tree here.  There are a bit of branching paths in this forest, but you shouldn’t get too lost in here.

Now entering: West Voz Forest

 

As for the enemies we’ll encounter here… there are the Frogs and Lippians we’ve encountered in previous areas.  Also: Vera returns!  I’ve gone over this one back at Mt. Rikuroa, so I don't think I need to elaborate on this one.  Definitely get this one for Noa.

You're a weird looking one

 

A new seru will appear in this area: Nighto.  This… plum looking seru isn’t too much to worry about.  Its drill attack can do some damage, but nothing to write home about.  By capturing it, it will use Hell’s Music, which has a chance to either confuse or 1HKO an enemy.  It isn’t a seru I played around with much in past playthroughs, but there is a certain exploit I’ve heard about for a future boss that I wanna try out…

 

In a next area of the forest, there’s a trunk like this you can travel inside.  This one for example will take us to some treasure chests containing a Shield Elixir and a Fertilizer!  The fertilizer seems pretty important, so we’ll take it along with us.

Sweet, free stuff

 

You are now immune to swear words

 

In another chest here, we find a Magic Amulet, an accessory that protects the user from curse.  We haven’t come across this status ailment yet, but curse prevents you from casting magic.  It’s not a good status to get hit with, but from my memory, curse status is very, very uncommon, and no boss from what I can remember uses this to their advantage.  So I don’t think magic amulet is a particularly useful accessory, due to how rare the status problem it protects you from is, but it’s there, I guess.

As we continue north the forest, we come across a river we cannot pass through.

Darn, another impassable river

 

However, we spot a small plant on our side.  Gala explains to Vahn and Noa that this is Bridge Grass, and it will eventually grow into a bridge for us to travel through.  Noa has an idea: why don’t we use the Fertilizer we found a while back?  We use the fertilizer on the bridge grass, and it immediately grows into a bridge to cross the river.  Nice!

must be the same fertilizer from SMRPG

 

In the next area, we can find a Noa Feral in a treasure chest on the far north area.  It's a new weapon for Noa!

 

Yes, just like the Vahn Fist, the Noa Feral can be renamed based on what you named Noa.  Yes, you can get yourself a Butt Feral, I suppose.

Close here is a save point.  That’s usually a sign of something big coming.

 

Save your game, and head through the trunk.  Past the tunnel, and we finally reach the Genesis Tree!  Although, something seems off about it.

it's transparent - that must mean something

Noa, now's not the time to Y-pose

 

As we take a closer look, Terra and Meta tell us some unfortunate news: the tree is dead.  Not even their powers can awaken it at this point.

 

Their mission a failure, our heroes start to leave, but just then, Gala notices something glowing inside the tree.

 

It’s a Ra-seru egg!  It managed to survive.  Vahn and Noa call out to the egg, as the tree opens (or slightly deforms based on the cutscene), and Vahn reaches out to collect the egg.

We need a healthier Genesis Tree for this egg to hatch.  But as our party begins to head back, they hear an explosion coming from the south...

 

Biron Monastery is under attack!

 Let’s rush back to the Monastery and see what just happened.  And I think I'll stop right here (right in the middle of something happening!).  What new danger awaits our heroes?  We'll have to find out next time!