Legend of Legaia - Part 17 - The Towering City

 

Welcome back to more Legend of Legaia.  Last time, we said goodbye to Sebucus Islands and have departed to our new destination: the Karisto Kingdom.  Today, let’s explore this new area and see what’s in store for us!  And I think we will start… by heading back to the station!

now entering- oh wait, we're already here

 

There isn’t too much to check out here in the station, but there’s one thing I did not point out upon leaving here before.  Just by the stairway to the station, there’s a little stand here.

No one will abuse this gullibility, totally!

 

On there is a mannequin with a sign that reads “Honest Person’s Store.”  It’s selling a travel kit for 3000 G, containing 5 Healing Blooms, a Door of Light and a Door of Wind.  Considering their usual prices, that’s a 400G discount.  Healing Blooms at this point aren’t going to be that useful though.  Despite that, I suggest taking the kit and leaving the 3000G.  There’s a reason for this – don’t worry.

An interesting note as we explore the station: there are no enemy encounters here, despite the mist being here.  I guess they didn’t want to bombard you with enemies at this point.

 

Anyways, there’s a poster next to the stairs detailing the main sight seeing points of Karisto.  Places include Sol, a large city known for their entertainment; Buma, a town known for their Genesis Trees (note the plural); Uru Mais, the mysterious construct that spawns seru from within; and Nivora Ravine, a cliffside area north of Buma.  Spoilers: these are all places we will be visiting later.

 

As we take a look at the overworld map, we can see a path spiraling in the north leading to some kind of tower.  Let’s head there.  But as we head there, get ready for some new monsters!

BEEEE

 

Moldy Worm is another recolor of the worm monster we’ve faced.  True to its name, it has a special attack that can cast rot on a party member.  Well, I say that, but I’ve yet to give it a chance to use it.  Otherwise, it’s the usual worm monster you’ve faced before.

Queen Bee makes its proper introduction here.  It’s fast, and its toxic sting can cast toxic on a party member.  A bit resilient, but nothing out of your league at this point.  Again, floating monster, so no low attacks.

that monster looks rather beefy

 

Grude is a new enemy.  It likes to land multiple hits, and can buff its agility.  About as strong as the ogres you’ve faced, Grude isn’t too much to write about.  That said though, its right arm looks like it could be a seru.  A small detail I didn’t really think about till now.

Acid Slime is another recolored monster we’ve faced before.  Like its other forms it can divide into 2.  I believe it also has a move that can cast rot on a party member.  Aside from that, it’s the usual slime, just a bit stronger.

now entering: Sol

 

We finally reach the center of the spiraling pathway and find a tower before us.  This is the city of Sol.  Noa looks with wonder as we walk across the walkway to the tower, and she runs ahead of us.

 

We catch up to her as we enter the tower, and find that Sol is built upon a giant spiral staircase with houses and buildings placed in the tower’s walls.  But as you’d expect from a mist-infested area, the seru have taken over the humans here.

The Ra-Serus inform our heroes of some surprising news: they sense humans on the upper floor!  It seems that the mist have only reached the bottom of Sol.  With that, let’s explore this tower.

spooky monster time

 

As usual, this tower has monsters we’ll encounter here.  Such as this Shade.  We’ve encountered a version of this monster before, and not much has changed with this enemy, aside from being a bit stronger.  It still has its Fatal Decision move where your status condition is determined by a roulette.

Ghost Knight is much like the enemies we’ve fought back in drake castle or jeremi tower.  However, this version is more annoying to deal with if you ask me.  By personal experience, Ghost Knight seems to have a higher block rate than usual.  Along with its usual Windhash and V-Windhash attacks, it has a new Neo Windhash, a much stronger version of its special attack that can cast curse on a party member.  Hit it with your best moves, and keep your attacks high.

 

Dead Bone is another monster recolor.  A lot of undead monsters here, now that I think about it…  This monster has a new attack: Curse All, which – as you can tell from its name – casts curse on all party members.  You know, I commented way back on how curse is a status problem you don’t see too often?  I’m not sure I stand by that statement now; I’ve been seeing a lot of monsters of late being able to cast that status ailment, and it’s kinda annoying!

Another observation I’d like to point out: this is probably not true, but I’d like to think the sword on the skeleton’s arm is actually a seru.  There’s something about the armguard on the sword that makes it look like such.  And if that’s the case, that implies that the seru have the ability to reanimate the dead!  And that’s a bit frightening.

SPOON

 

Last enemy we’ll encounter here is a seru: the almighty Spoon.  It’s not particularly strong, but make sure to catch this seru; it arguably has the best healing magic in the game.  The MP cost is quite high (45 vs Orb’s 18 MP), but this healing magic will carry you through the rest of the game.  Remember to equip Ivory Books when catching this seru; the catch rate is pretty low.

 

Let’s look at the tower of Sol.  If we try to go down, we’ll be blocked by a statue.  There’s probably some kind of puzzle involving this Sage’s Guard Dog.  We can enter the buildings in the walls and find some treasure chests.

 

What you’ll notice about these chests are that some of them are different colored!  They appear to be called a Sage’s Treasure Chest.  Make a note of these different colored chests; they’ll be important later on.

 

As we climb up the tower, our heroes notice a sound coming from upstairs.  A monster must be attacking someone, so our heroes head up and see what’s going on.

(Surprise)

 

From the door, they see an old man in a suit of armor.  He spots our heroes, and readies his blade at them, thinking that they are serus.  Gala manages to convince the old man that they are not enemies, and he finally drops his weapon.  The old man introduces himself as Gaza, a warrior that has been fighting seru after seru ever since the mist came.

 

Gaza looks at Noa and his expression changes as he utters a name: Mar.  Who’s Mar?  Regardless, Gaza tells our heroes to head upward to see the people of Sol.  With that, Gaza heads downwards, most likely to fight off more seru.

 

We climb up to the next floor and indeed, there are still people here!  The mist is nowhere to be seen on this floor, as well.  While the bottom half of Sol is flooded with mist, the upper half is still filled with people.

Alright, there is a LOT we can do and check out in Sol, just from this top half.  I don’t think we’ll go through everything in this part, but we’ll go through most of it.

Right at the floor you came out from, there’s an inn where you can spend the night to restore HP and MP.  I would suggest spending the night here, as it was probably quite a trip to go from the station to here.

 

As we head up the tower, we can hear a familiar voice coming from the bar.  It’s Cara, and she seems to be yelling at someone.  Noa decides to run straight inside, and our heroes follow.

 

It seems that our heroes came in the middle of a drama.  Cara is lashing out at a man named Grantes.  It seems that she went out stealing to help him out.  Grantes doesn’t seem to reciprocate, which leads to this… memorable line:

 

Ooooh dang.

NOA PLS

 

Noa asks Vahn what Cara meant.  Noa please, don’t make this awkward.  No matter what you answer here, Noa decides that Grantes is a bad person and kicks him across the counter!  Cara calms Noa down, and Gala drags her out of the bar and scolds her for a bit.

Well that was an awkward everything.  Let’s head back in!  In the Jazz Club (yeah that’s what they call it) we can get some info.

 

This lady will offer Vahn a drink (it’s actually milk – no underage drinking in my rated E game, thank you very much!) and she’ll spill some info about the treasure chests we’ve been seeing in the lower floors.  Apparently, we can make the chest happy by giving it something good in return.  There are 8 chests there, also.

 

Another lady here tells a story about the Soren, a tribe that can fly with seru wings.  However, one Soren fell in love with an earthbound human.  It was considered forbidden for Soren to fall in love with those without wings, however.  But this young Soren lost a valuable flute while flying.  While trying to find it, he heard his flute played by a girl in Buma, and they seemed to fall in love with each other.  Wonder if that will have anything to do with our journey?

 

Another man tells us that there is a Genesis Tree somewhere on the top floor.  Well, this is good news!  If we can revive the tree there, the rest of Sol will be free from the mist.

 

One kid here mentions how Sol is safe up here due to the fact that the mist is heavier than air.  While we’re on this subject, there is something I’d like to ask: How is Sol safe up here?  The Floating Castle spews out mist while flying, so what’s stopping it from parking it on top of Sol and spraying the mist from there?  I guess an argument you could make is that it wouldn’t be as efficient as spreading it across the kingdom, but I don’t think this argument is really brought up.

And for those who have played through the game before will know the secret behind the mist generator, but my argument still stands, as no one would know regardless.

 

Anyway, as we head up, there’s the Muscle Dome.  Remember how I said there’s a better place to make more coins instead of the slots?  Well, here it is.  I’m just gonna be visiting here for now, but here, along with the slots, there are some other minigames we can play to get more coins.  One such minigame is by playing the machines in the middle area.

Stupid Fighter!

 

It’s Baka Fighter!  In this game, you get to play knockoffs of our heroes fighting against waves of enemies.

 

In a fight, you and the enemy attack at the same time with one of 3 attacks: low (X), middle (circle), and high (square).  They have a rock-paper-scissors rule (high<mid<low<high).  This game seems to also be luck-based like the slots, but each enemy has a certain attack pattern they’ll follow.  One enemy for example will only use low attacks.  That said though: enemies can deviate from their pattern and use a different attack, but they mostly stick to their usual pattern.  I’ll come back here and discuss what attacks to use for each opponent, as this is a great place to make some good coin.

 

And of course, you can trade in your coins for prizes.  There’s a lot of stuff you can get here!  Again, I’ll come back here later.

 

Going up the next floor, you’ll find a dance club.  However, you need a Gold Card in order to enter.  Now, wasn’t there a place where we can get a Gold Card…?

 

Further up, there’s a broadway theatre.  Nothing too important here, but let’s check it out anyways.  Apparently, the show they’re doing on stage is pretty terrible.

 

We can spend some money to check it out and… uh, yeah, it’s something alright.  Going backstage, we can talk to one of the performers and he’ll notice Gala.

show this to your friends with no context

 

He says that resembles a lot like his former partner, and asks him to come up on stage.  Gala reluctantly agrees, and the 2 do an act together.  Their act is met with resounding laughter!  Turns out that Gala’s deadpan attitude worked in their favor.  Gala acts all flustered over all this.  But anyways, that was a nice diversion.  Let’s keep heading upwards the city.

 

There are quite a number of shops in Sol, and we should be seeing one pretty soon.  Here’s a bakery that sells bread.  Apparently, the Soru Bread they sell is a favorite food for sages.  That could serve as a clue for later… We check the shop here and we find all they sell… is Soru Bread.  Another shopkeeper next to the baker sells items and accessories.

 

The pricey Stone Amulet is an accessory that protects the user from petrify status.  Petrify does exactly what you’d expect; turns a character to stone.  A terrible status effect, but at the same time, a fairly uncommon one.  I wouldn’t buy it now, but I’ll make a mental note of it here.  Meanwhile the Nature Amulet is the Forest Amulet under a different name; it prevents rot on the wearer.

 

Another shop up ahead is a weapon shop.  They got some new equipment for our heroes.  I’m gonna save my money just for a little bit longer, as there’s another shop that will open up soon, but you can buy whatever you can if you need.

 

Up ahead is a warehouse with some kids holding a shop.  They sell some pretty rare items for a hefty price.  The kid on the left will sell a Life Grail.  This is a really great accessory that grants restores HP on the wearer after every turn.  The kid will offer this accessory for 90000 G, but you can haggle with him and drop the price to 40000 G.  Again, I’m going to save my money for later.

 

Meanwhile, the girl on the left will sell Healing Fruits and Magic Fruits for also pretty high prices.  From what I remember, buying from these shops do not add to your Point Card, unfortunately.

 

Heading up, we can see some people in the community hall.  The people there tell us about Gaza, the old warrior, and his backstory.   Apparently, Gaza had a son and grandchildren, but they were murdered by the seru in front of him.  This drove Gaza mad, and he took his sword and made it his life mission to slay any seru he sees.  Mar also happens to be the name of Gaza’s granddaughter, so seeing Noa seemed to remind Gaza of her.

 

Another elder says something scary to think about: the seru that Gaza has been killing off may have been human at one point.  She tried telling Gaza that, but he wouldn’t listen.  His fall to madness also blinded him of discerning friend from foe.

 

Another elder explains to us that there was once a Genesis Tree in Sol, in the Warrior’s Square underneath.  However, it has died and was moved to the roof.  Well that doesn’t sound good.  We should check the roof then.

But before that, there’s one more place we can check out.  Near the top floor is a dayschool for children.

 

A little bit of more backstory here, as we learn that Cara has been coming here often.  The children say that Cara is a nice person and gives them nice gifts.  An interesting contrast to the Cara we’ve seen.

Well, that was a lot of stuff we covered in this part, wasn’t it?  Next time: we head to the top of Sol and see what’s going on with the Genesis Tree!