Legend of Legaia - Part 8 - Journey to the North

 

Welcome back to more Legend of Legaia.  Last time, we defeated Zeto, and finally freed Drake Kingdom of the mist, at long last.  Today, we are going to explore this mist-free world and head north, where the mist still holds grasp of other lands.

hmm, nice cutoff

 

The overworld theme changed!  And man, does it sound so triumphant.  The mist that has long oppressed humanity is now gone, so let’s explore what this world has to offer now.  Never mind the other monsters roaming the world though.

I like to imagine Maya was strong enough to combat the regular monsters

 

Let’s return to Rim Elm.  We learn that Maya has in fact returned home, as she has said.  Another interesting note here:

As we talk to this elder here, he informs us that Noa sounds like a name from the Karisto Kingdom.  Perhaps we may get some answers there, but it seems like Karisto is a long ways off…

We visit Mei again, but we’re not exactly given a happy greeting as you may expect.

Gala: I'm gonna pretend I'm not here by facing the other way

 

Instead, Mei lashes out on Vahn for hiding the fact that he was looking for her mother the whole time.  With so many conflicting emotions stirring within her at this moment, it must be difficult for her.

 

Noa comes forward and tries to comfort Mei.  She tells Mei she doesn’t need to cry anymore, now that her mother has returned.  She explains that she does not have a mother, but before she could she could go further, she realized what she just said, and starts crying.

 

meanwhile, wolf mom was kinda left out in all of this :(

Well, this reunion kinda turned out a bit of a mess, but as everyone calms down, Maya asks Vahn a favor: to look for Noa’s real parents.  Since we’re heading into the mist, we’re bound to meet them sooner or later.

 

 

With that, let’s depart and check out Hunter’s Spring.  A lady next to Lezam has opened up a new shop.

 

I finally got myself a Defender Chain, which will raise block rate.  I’ll give it to Noa, as her defenses are generally weaker than the other party members.

Made a quick trip to Drake Castle. Unfortunately, nothing new here, so let’s move on.

Zeto, more like DEADto - I'm sorry that was bad

 

We’ll find Zeto’s Dungeon here in ruins.  We can’t even enter here.  Yeah, I think it’s dead.

Our actual next destination is to the north, from the Ancient Wind Cave.  Yeah, remember that place we keep visiting?  That’s where we need to go next.  But before we jump there… now that we got a good feel about our characters, I think we should quickly talk about how they play in battle.

stats in blue are base stats, without any equipment

 

Vahn is our main protagonist, and as you’d expect, he’s got well-rounded stats.  Nothing too outstanding to day about our blue haired hero.  Since he has a fire attribute, thanks to Meta, he can deal extra damage to water based monsters with his hyper arts, and vice versa, as demonstrated in the previous Zeto fight.  Another thing to note about Vahn is that most of his arts are pretty AP-efficient.  None of his regular arts exceed more than 4 moves, so they all tend to stay under 30AP.  Good strength, good defense, good magic, good speed, just good all around.

Noa is SPEED

 

Noa, as I’ve demonstrated before, is fast.  A lot of her stats are very focused around speed (determines turn order) and agility (determines length of attack bar).  Starting at level 1, she can already fit 4 attacks in one bar, which is absolutely amazing.  While she suffers from having the lowest attack stat, I feel that is immediately remedied by her astounding agility.  Essentially, she sacrifices individual attack damage value for number of attacks, and as such, she tends to potentially have the best damage output, especially during early game.  From what I remember though, she unfortunately falls out of that niche as other party members get stronger, but again, her main constant is speed.  She will most likely outspeed almost every enemy in the game and get the first turn before any other party member.  As such, she’s great for emergency healing and/or support.

That said, her other stats suffer quite a bit.  While her low attack stat is covered by her high agility, the others… less so.  Low HP, low defense (both upper and lower), pitifully low MP and intelligence stat.  She is by no means frail as glass, but don’t expect her to take a lot of big damage without going in the yellow HP.  That intelligence though… is pretty terrible.  She can heal a decent amount with healing magic, but I wouldn’t rely on her too much for attacking spells, especially with such a low MP pool as that.  With Terra, Noa has a wind attribute.  We’ll see what that’ll mean for her later.

Physical AND magic tank - you don't see that every day

 

Gala – I feel – is the polar opposite of Noa.  Gala is a complete and utter tank.  But he’s pretty unique from other tanks as he’s not only great with physical attacks, but also with magic attacks.  Gala has excellent intelligence, along with high MP, for magic purposes.  As fit for a tank, he has great defenses.  His lower defense is comparably lower than his upper, but it’s still quite good, nonetheless.

Now, I did mention that Gala is the opposite of Noa, which does mean his speed and agility stats are awful.  Not until level 4 or 5 does Gala get enough agility to fit in 3 moves for his attack bar.  A good majority of enemies will outspeed him too.  Ozma gives Gala lightning attribute, though unfortunately, that did not translate to his speed.

I ragged on Gala quite a bit when we first met him, but from what I remember in past playthroughs, he eventually grows to be an absolute force to be reckoned with.  However, that’s gonna take quite a while to get to.

 

 

Anyway, enough rambling here: let’s head to the Ancient Wind Cave.

 

Now entering: Ancient Wind Cave

It’s certainly a lot brighter than we last visited!  If we head to the door to the left, we find it’s finally unlocked.  An old man calling himself the Old Wizard greets us, and tells us he’s holding a store and an inn here.

 

The shop has new armor for Noa, so buy what you can here.

don't mind me, just lootin from the old man

 

Also, check the barrels here for some goodies, like this Wisdom Water, and this Silver Compass which reduces ambush rate.

We can also stay here for a relatively cheap fee.  Though, we could get a free heal back in the monastery, but let’s stay here I guess.

open sesame

 

To the left of this room is a lever.  By moving it, we finally open that stone door to the right.  As we go through this door, we find a long winding corridor.  No enemy encounters, either.  Wonder if they had something planned with this area during development…  There are some chests along the way, so make sure to grab them.

As we head deeper, we find a door, and find an old lady with some children as well.

 

The old lady introduces herself as the Old Witch, and asks us to stay for the night.

…we already rested with the wizard, but ok I guess.

 

Vahn finds himself inside a dream.  He sees Noa and Gala as well, and realize they’re all experiencing the same dream.  They find themselves in front of a strange building.  Noa notices a voice calling out to them.  At first, she thinks it might be her mother, but the voice corrects her, as it belongs to a being called Hari.  The voice continues to say:

“My name is Hari!  I inhabit a world between the dream world and the human world.  I have a message for those in the human world and who are with the Ra-Seru.  They are the true words of Rem.  Go to Octam, the ancient yet eternal city, far away in the heart of Sebucus.  There, compassionate human beings will learn the true meaning of all dreams!”

By the way: Rem is another god mentioned in Legaia (at least, I believe).

Our heroes awaken, bewildered by the dream they all just experienced.  But it does seem this “Hari” wants them to go to Octam.  Since that place is in the Sebucus Islands, that must mean we’ll find that place eventually.

 

 

The Old Witch also has her own store as well.  We can buy some items and accessories here.  Most of the accessories we’ve seen already, except for the golden compass, which raises pre-emptive attacks.  

 

 One child here informs us of a town named Jeremi, close to where we are.

 

Before we head out, check this barrel for a magic water.

As we are about to leave, the Old Witch stops us and gives our heroes a gift.

 

We receive 2 Doors of Wind!  This item allows you to instantly travel to a town you’ve already visited.  Now we have our fast-travelling item.  Nice!

 

We open the door leading to outside.  From here on, we will be approaching the Sebucus Islands.  And I think I will stop here for now.  Next time, we venture forth onto new lands!