Legend of Legaia - Part 9 - The Sky Garden of Jeremi

 

Welcome back to more Legend of Legaia.  Last time, we’ve taken our journey into a new land, and now… here we are.  Welcome to Sebucus Islands.

 

A quick look at the map shows us that we are in a brand new overworld.  It seems there is a place for us to visit to the west, so let’s check it out.

As we explore this new area, expect stronger monsters:

And the award for "best monster name" goes to...

 

Hell’s Trigger is an absolutely metal name for this ostrich.  Unfortunately, aside from its name, it doesn’t really stand out.  It’s essentially a stronger ostrich we’ve encountered before.

Kabuki Rat is a new monster.  I would prioritize fighting off this monster, as it can steal your items, like the gobu-gobus.

 

Death Wings is much like the Evil Fly way back at the beginning.  It can poison you with its phosphor attack, so be careful of that.

look at those barely attached arms

 

Ogre is a new face.  It’s surprisingly not that strong, but it can take quite a few hits to take down.  It can also buff its attack power, but I can usually beat it before it gets a chance to attack after that.

 

Now entering: Jeremi

 

We approach our next destination.  If I recall, one kid back at the wind cave mentioned a town named Jeremi nearby, so this must be the place.

the rare slightly raised bottom text

 

Like everywhere else in the islands, the town is covered in mist, and the people around are already possessed by the seru.  Luckily for us, Terra senses a Genesis Tree nearby.  According to our Ra-seru friends, the tree seems to be somewhere high up.  Well, there does seem to be a tower in this place, so that might be the most likely place to find it.

 

I'd freak out if I found fish like this flying in the air

 

As for monsters, we’ve got ones we’ve found back in the overworld, and we also have these spikefish.  We got fish flying in the air.  These enemies can hit pretty hard and can poison a party member, but they don’t have much HP.  One combo usually takes them down.  Again: flying monster, so no low attacks.

less plum flavor, more... grape flavor I guess

 

Nighto returns in a lvl 2 form.  Aside from its normal attacks, it’s got a new ultrasound attack that can cast curse on a party member.  Curse is a pretty nasty status effect, as it prevents you from casting magic.  It also seems to reduce your hitrate from what I’ve experienced.  Aside from that, it’s nothing much to worry about.

As we explore the town, we find an item and weapons store, but as we go inside…

 

I don’t think they’re open for business.  While we’re here, let’s take any items from treasure chests we can find.

I'm sure they won't mind

also: hidden item downstairs

 

At the other side, we find a café.  Not much here, but there is this guy playing on the piano.

 

But if we want to rescue the people from the mist, we gotta revive the Genesis Tree, and it’s most likely going to be at the top of this tower.  Head to the north end of this town to enter the tower.

BRICKS

 

As we enter the tower, we are greeted with a darker look with a brick interior.  We see what appears to be an elevator in the center of the room.  However, by examining it, we find it is not operational at the moment.  Looks like we’ll have to take the long way around the tower.

Meanwhile, new monsters roam this tower:

must be hard to not have a bottom half

 

This Guardian, for example, is an upgraded version of the Drake Ghost we’ve encountered back at Drake Castle.  It has a new attack it can brandish: V-Windhash, which can do quite a bit of damage to one party member.  This enemy is flying, so again: low attacks do nothing.  A lot of flying monsters in this area, now that I think about it…

those look more like scythes than swords to me, but eh

 

Another enemy we’ll find here is Swordie, and it’s totally not related to a certain enemy in Megaman Battle Network.  But more importantly: it’s a seru, and of a different element, as well!  It’s not particularly dangerous to deal with, but it can take a couple of hits.  Take this opportunity to capture this seru for all your party members, especially for Noa – she’ll make the most out of Swordie.  Remember: once we revive the Genesis Tree here, the seru won’t appear here again.

Another quick note of Swordie: its magic has an extremely fast growth rate.  One cast against a regular monster and it immediately jumped up to level 2.  This seru will be real helpful in an upcoming boss.

While the center elevator is out of service, there are other elevators that can climb us up in the corner of the room.

 

As we climb upwards, we can see the tower overrun with vegetation.  They did mention a Sky Garden on top of the tower, so it’d probably make sense for plants to start growing from the top.  You know, when I was young, I’d gloss over such detail, but now I can really appreciate all these little stuffs.   

Though, the fact that there are no stairs in this tower at all that connect these floors does lead to some questionable safety design if you ask me 😛

It's a shiny golden ring!

 

In one area here, I found a Speed Ring, which raises speed by 20%.  I’ll give that to Gala.  It won’t completely fix his speed issue, but maybe he won’t be such a sitting duck most of the fight.

 

Another room here has a switch for the rapid elevator back at the bottom floor.  By turning this on, we should activate that elevator.  The good news in doing that, the bottom floor elevator will serve as a shortcut to the top floor!  Definitely look out for this one.

As we reach the top floor, there’s a door leading outside to the roof.

 

Outside, we see the Sky Garden, encompassing the entire roof.  Within the garden is a hedge maze we’ll have to navigate through.  Before we head in, take the save point and save.  There’s also a hidden item if we take the right opening.

delicious invisible fruit

 

Since we made a shortcut to the top floor, we can quickly head back down and fully restore back at the Ancient Wind Cave.  I would highly recommend doing that – we’ve got a boss incoming, and it’s pretty tough.  And while you’re there, I would also suggest buying an Earth Jewel.

Back to the Sky Garden, let’s head through the hedge maze.  It shouldn’t be too hard to navigate through.  Once you reach the opening to the Genesis Tree, you’ll notice something clinging onto it.  Let’s ignore that thing for a second and head to the right.  There, you should find a treasure chest containing a Forest Amulet.  This accessory protects the user from rot status.  We haven’t encountered that status problem yet, but we’re gonna be seeing it very, very soon.  Equip the accessory onto one of your party members, and head toward the Genesis Tree.

 

Our heroes approach the Genesis Tree only to find a green, giant gangly creature wrapped around it.  The Ra-Seru explain that this was a seru, and long exposure to the mist has mutated it into a monster like this.  It seems this seru is trying to absorb the Genesis Tree.

Noa clearly has learned from Wolf Mom

Noa tries to pull it away from the tree, but quickly gets knocked back.  It seems we got its attention, so let’s fight!

 

This boss – Berserker – is a pretty nasty boss.  Not only does it hit hard, but it also likes to hit with status ailments.

QUALITY SCREENSHOT

 

One attack it likes to use is Spore Gas, which causes rot on one party member.  Rot is a nasty status problem that nullifies one (or oftentimes, more) of your attack commands.  You can easily see why this not a good status to get hit by, and this boss uses this often.  This is why it’s very important to pick up that Forest Amulet before we head into this fight.  Berserker also has poison gas, which – as you’d expect – casts venom on a party member.

not what I expected these stone pillars would do

 

Berserker’s most dangerous attack is Stone Circle, which does earth damage on everyone.  No telegraphing, so it comes when you least expect it!  It only starts using this move when it reaches low HP.  You can usually tell when an enemy or a boss is reaching low HP when they start falling from a regular attack.  I gave an Earth Jewel to Noa just for this devastating attack.

Now, here are some strategies I’ve got for this fight.  Berserker is earth elemental, so wind-based attacks will do good damage on it.  Swordie can do good damage, as it’s a wind seru.  Noa will make the most out of Swordie, due to having matching attributes.  Her cast can outdamage Gala’s, despite having such a weak intelligence stat.  I guess element affinities make a huge difference here.

 Also, to my surprise: I managed to get a speed debuff on Berserker!  I guess bosses are only immune to specific debuffs.

As said before, Forest Amulet will block rot status, so give it to someone that’ll benefit most out of it.  If someone does get hit with rot status, heal it off with a medicine or with Vera magic (if it’s at a high enough level).

I say that, but Berserker ended up spamming Spore Gas on Noa.  That was rather mean...

Otherwise, spirit up, unleash your best moves, heal when necessary till you beat down the green menace.  You’ll get a Fire Book II after defeating it.

 

With that, the Berserker is done for, and we can revive the Genesis Tree.  Our heroes reach to the tree and send their balls of light into it.  The tree glows its radiant light pushing the mist away from everywhere near Jeremi.

RADIATING TREE ON TOP OF BUILDING

 

The people start to awaken from the mist, and find our heroes.  They learn that we were responsible for pushing the mist away, and thank us for doing so.  All in a day’s work!

 

I think I’ll end things here for now, but before I do so, I’d like to talk about something about this game.  Something that’s been on my mind about it but I feel I haven’t gotten the right chance to discuss it till now.  With all this talk about the mist, and how much of an evil force it is, this game reminds me a lot of another RPG I’ve played.  Another RPG that was on the same system, released not too long apart from this game either.

 

I am, of course, talking about Final Fantasy IX.

Final Fantasy IX also uses the mist as a force of evil, much like what Legaia did.  In FF9, the mist was used as a tool to propagate aggression and seeds of warfare among the world's inhabitants, as well as it was the main ingredient for black mages.  In Legaia, the mist was a force that caused seru to turn against the humans, bringing about a ruin in civilization.  Another interesting comparison I’ll make here is the role of trees in both games, though both of them seem to be opposite to each other.  The Genesis Trees in Legaia have the power to push away the mist, while the Iifa Tree in FF9 created the mist.

I just find these comparisons neat.  At first glance, it would seem Legaia is referencing FF9, but upon looking at their release dates, Legaia came out before FF9.  Though, I’m not claiming whether or not there were any relation between developers (honestly, I don’t even know myself) – I just think this is something interesting to think about.

Anyways, I’ve rambled here enough.  Next time: we explore the now restored Jeremi and see what the rest of the world has in store for us!