Legend of Legaia - Part 18 - The Soul of Sol

 

Welcome back to more Legend of Legaia.  Last time, we set foot into the Karisto Kingdom and found out way to Sol, a city that has survived through its sheer height.  Today, we are going to climb up the roof and find the Genesis Tree that’s said to be up there.

First off though: you might be wondering where I am from this screenshot: this is the elevator room, and they’re in every floor.  You can quick travel from floor to floor with this obviously, but also: you’ve got save points in each elevator.  Something I forgot to mention last time.

 

Anyway, past the dayschool, we can reach the roof of Sol.  Here, we see some familiar looking people.  Biron monks are training up here!  There are treasure chests around here as well, so don’t forget to check those.

 

One monk at the corner here can teach you new arts, but left a book teaching those moves in the lower floors.  He doesn’t want to talk about the book’s name, however.  That doesn’t narrow our search for that, does it…

I swear this game's a meme prophecy

 

At the north side of the roof is a small temple.  As we enter it, an old man by the name of… Old Deez?  First Pepe, now Deez???  Okay this is getting real silly.  Anyways, Deez stops our heroes from entering, as seru-wearers are barred from the temple.

not shown here: gala leaping into the air doing cool moves

 

Gala stops Deez, and tells him that he was once a student of Zopu.  Having recognized the name, Deez stops and watches Gala’s fighting prowess as proof of having trained under him, and decides to let our heroes in.

 

Inside the temple, Deez learns of our heroes’ journey thus far.  As for the Genesis Tree, Deez brings up a small pot with a sapling on it.

 

This is Sol’s Genesis Tree!  Or, what’s left of it.  The tree used to lie in Warrior’s Square underneath Sol, but it has wilted since then and has transformed into this seedling we see before us.  Deez entrusts our heroes with the Genesis Seedling.

 

While we’re here in this temple, you can talk to this Biron monk and he’ll fully restore your HP and MP.  We’re gonna need it; we’ve got a boss incoming.

 

As we leave the temple, we are interrupted by Gaza.  He wants to stop our heroes from reviving the Genesis Tree!  What’s going on?  Other Biron monks try to approach him from behind, but they’re immediately knocked away by Gaza’s sword.

I like how noa can casually call someone weird

 

Noa calls Gaza a weirdo, as she doesn’t understand what he’s talking about, and Gala tries to talk some sense to him.  If Gaza’s fighting off seru, he and our heroes share a common goal, right?  Well, turns out that Gaza’s killing off seru for the sake of killing.  To revive the Genesis Tree and remove the seru from here would remove his purpose in life.  Noa still doesn’t understand a thing Gaza is saying, but he’s not budging from his stance, so we gotta fight him off.

 

Gaza’s our next boss, and he’s gonna show us he’s not just some feeble old man.  Plain and simple: Gaza hits hard.  His regular attack can easily shave off 600+ HP, and his special attack Astral Slash can do damage as high as 1200!

ouchie ouch

The good news is that all of his attacks are single target.  That said, his Astral Slash can easily outdamage your healing, even Spoon.  Keep an eye on everyone’s HPs, and make sure they’re over 1200 HP.  Shield Elixirs can reduce damage a bit if you find Gaza’s attack too hard to survive.

Deez: who put up this wall?!

 

Some other good news is that Gaza doesn’t have that much HP compared to Dohati, so this fight should ideally go quicker.  Astral Slash has no tell, so you’re gonna have to take it whenever it comes up.  Hit with your usual spirit-and-attack strategy.  If you’ve got Kemaro and have been leveling it up, I recommend using that on him; the damage output should be really great.  Spoon should be your best healing option, given you have that seru, but again, keep an eye on your HP; chances are that Spoon may not be able to completely restore HP from that Astral Slash.

perfect block!

That said, I was super stoked to see Gala do a complete block on Gaza’s Astral Slash!  That was super rad.

 

Eventually, Gaza will fall.  He’s still alive, and Gala suggests that we heal his wounds.  That’s when we hear the all too familiar voice.

 

It’s Songi, and he appears with his own personal flying seru.  He taunts our heroes, saying how they’ve senselessly beaten up an old man.  The sheer hypocrisy on this guy, I tell ya.

Songi's dialogue here is gold, I can't not share it in full

 

Songi is delightfully awful here.  He decides to take Gaza and “heal” him up himself, and drags him off into a warp.   

 

This can only mean bad news, but all we can do for that matter is to wait and see.

Meanwhile, we have the Genesis Sapling, and we need to bring it down to the Warrior’s Square at the bottom of Sol.  A problem though, if you remember from the previous part: 

 

there’s a dog statue blocking the path downwards.  The elevators only go down as F4, just above the mist infested floors, so that’s a no go.  If you recall the clues you’ve been given throughout Sol, you’ll know about the Sage’s Treasure Chests.  They were the brown colored chests we encountered back at the lower floors.  In order to move the statue out of the way, we need to satisfy the sage’s chests.  Another clue we’ve been given is that the chests have a favorite food: Soru Bread.

To move the dog statue out of the way, we need to feed the 8 Sage Treasure Chests a Soru Bread each.  Now, how do we get Soru Bread?  Well, there are 2 ways.  We can buy it off the Soru Bakery.   

 

The problem is: one bread is 6000G each.  If we’re gonna spend money to buy enough bread for the chests, we’ll need 48000G in total!  I could buy a Life Grail with that much money!  Unless you’re hard pressed for level grinding or something, I wouldn’t suggest paying for all these breads from the bakery.

Instead, we’re gonna buy it off from the Muscle Dome!   

 

Instead of G, you need to spend 100 coins to buy a Soru Bread.  Meaning in total, we need 800 coins to get enough bread to satisfy each chest.  This is where the Baka Fighter minigame comes in.  

 

At this point in the game, this is the easiest and most consistent way to make a lot of coin, given that you know how it works as well as how to deal with each enemy ai.  The following is a list of each enemy’s attack pattern and how to counter:

X = X button, O = circle button, [] = square button

Round 1: Piura – X repeatedly
use: [] repeatedly

Round 2: Gobu Gobu – O repeatedly
use: X repeatedly

Round 3: Skeleton – [] repeatedly
use: O repeatedly

Round 4: Wolf – XO XO XO…
use: []X []X []X…

Bonus Round: Xain – OOO[][][] OOO[][][]…
use: XXXOOO XXXOOO…

Round 6: Warman – O[] O[] O[]…
use: XO XO XO…

Round 7: Shadow – OOO[][][]XXX OOO[][][]XXX…
use: XXXOOO[][][] XXXOOO[][][]…

Round 8: Ogre – O[]XXXX O[]XXXX O[]XXXX…
use: XO[][][][] XO[][][][] XO[][][][]…

Round 9: Twin Tomb – [][]O [][]O [][]O…
use: OOX OOX OOX…

Round 10: Golem – XO[] XO[] XO[]…
use: []XO []XO []XO…

Round 11: Bison – XX[]O XX[]O XX[]O…
use: [][]OX [][]OX [][]OX…

Round 12: Grude – [][]OX [][]OX [][]OX…
use: OOX[] OOX[] OOX[]…

Round 13: Berserker – OOXXOO[][] OOXXOO[][] OOXXOO[][]…
use: XX[][]XXOO XX[][]XXOO XX[][]XXOO…

Final: Songi – XXO[][][]O XXO[][][]O XXO[][][]O…
use: [][]XOOOX [][]XOOOX [][]XOOOX…

Even in an arcade game, Songi’s out there to ruin your game.  

 Some notes: as I said before, enemies can deviate from their regular pattern.  Don’t get thrown off if they do that; just keep using the attack on the move they’re supposed to use until they actually do it.  In my runs, I find some enemies don’t always start at the beginning of the attack pattern I’ve given, so you kinda need to figure out where on the attack chain they’re at.

You’ll also notice that Xain is marked as a bonus round.  I believe he’ll appear based on how many perfects you get, though I’m not too sure how many is needed.  If Xain does appear, he’ll interrupt the result screen and won’t give you a choice to continue or pay out.  But if you do beat Xain, you get even more coins out of it, so definitely go after him if you can.  Songi does the same thing by interrupting the result screen after beating Berserker.

By clearing all rounds, you can get a net profit of 329 coins (449 if you encounter Xain), so it should only take 2 or 3 full games to get enough coins to get all the Soru Bread.  But while we’re here, we can also go grab ourselves a Gold Card here.  It’s only 50 coins.

 

With our newly acquired Gold Card, we can now enter the Dance Club.  Quite a flashy place we got here.  We can talk to the Disco King and he can teach Noa how to dance.  

yes this screenshot is the contest and not the training, same difference

 

We got another minigame here!  As Mr. Disco explains, you need to press the buttons with the right rhythm shown on the bottom bar.  It’s very lenient on the timing, so don’t worry too much.  However, to score big, you have to use the triangle button to pull off a super move.  When given a single or string of inputs, press triangle on the last input and your score will jump up.

 

If you manage to score over 400 points in Disco King’s training, he will reward you with a Speed Chain.  This is a great accessory that will always make the wearer go first.  The Speed Chain was mainly the reason why I came here, but while we’re here… we can take on the Dance Contest.

 

We play the same minigame, but there are other contestants we gotta compete against.  The first round’s easy; just score high enough to be in second place or first.  The next round is for all the marbles, as the Dancing Queen herself comes up in the finals.  What I usually do is use up my first 2 supers at the beginning so I can quickly get up to lvl 3, and save the last super till near the end.  I can usually get the best score out of that.

\(^o^)/

 

If you win, Noa gets crowned as the new Dancing Queen, and is rewarded with 10000G and a Swimsuit!  That’s some good money.  You can use a Swimsuit for the Stone Camera to take some pictures.

plus, we got to make someone salty

 

But with all those distractions out of the way, let’s do what we’re supposed to be doing: head to the bottom floors of Sol.  The 8 Sage Treasure Chests shouldn’t be too difficult to find.  Just check each room you find.  Some rooms will connect to other rooms in different floors.

dunno about you, but I'd freak out if a chest talked to me

 

Once you find a chest, it will start talking and ask for a Soru Bread.  Yes, the chest does speak.  Anyway, feed it the bread, and it will glow, indicating you did it.  Once you deliver every bread to each chest, the screen will shake a bit.

 

Head back down to floor B1 (the floor below the entrance to Sol).  There should be a door you can enter before the dog statue.  In there, we find a strange contraption before us.  By examining it, it checks if we have satiated all 8 chests.  And since we did, the machine starts working.  From outside, we see the dog statue move out of the way, giving us access to the lowest part of Sol.  But before our heroes could go check it out, a man appears in front of them.

 

Except… the man is not really there; it’s a hologram!  The man reveals himself as Dr. Usha, and congratulates our heroes for solving his puzzle.  He asks the heroes to deliver the Genesis Sapling to the Warrior’s Square.  Something we’re already in the middle of…

But with that, we head downstairs and see that the dog statue is indeed moved out of the way, and we can delve deeper into the base of Sol.

 

The depths of Sol looks a bit unnerving.  Look at that green light coming through the door.  As you’d expect in a new area, we’ll be encountering new monsters.

the good boy returns!  Also aluru's there I guess

 

Kemaro makes its proper appearance in this dungeon.  This is your chance to capture it for all your party members now.

 

A new enemy we’ll be facing is this Mage.  A bit of a weird foe, this enemy will toss out random weapons and even a pair of cymbals to attack.  Who does he think he is, Hsien-ko?  It can cast white shield to buff its defenses, and it also has void accessory, which unequips one accessory on one party member.  A bit annoying, as you have to re-equip it after the battle.  Again: flying monster, so no low attacks.

I like how each screenshot I've got also has kemaro

 

Warhalf is much like the Warman you’ve faced before.  Nothing too different from before, except its ultrasonic move attacks twice.  This sure is a brief description.

and again!

 

Another monster you can encounter here is Medusa.  This monster does what you’d expect out of a monster named Medusa: it can turn party members to stone.  Stone’s a nasty status problem in that there isn’t much recovery options outside of Medicine.  And stone can act as death in that if all party members are stoned, then it’s game over.  Aside from that, this monster’s not too strong.  Just deal with it quickly before it has a chance to petrify a party member.

 

The bottom of Sol is a pretty linear dungeon, as you just travel around its circular path.  The first thing of notice you’ll probably find here are these bookshelves.  It seems that this room was once a library.  However, take a look at the middle bookshelf from the right side.   

oh my~

 

You’ll find… an erotic book!  Rated E for Everyone!  Seriously though, this will play in for later.

Past the library is some kind of storage room.  There are some chests here you can pick up.   

 

This chest contains a Wonder Amulet, an accessory that nullifies all status ailments.  A pretty good accessory.  Another chest here contains a Golden Book, which raises money drop after battle by 25%.

 

Past this room, we find a room with a monolith.  It reads:

“Genesis Tree Monument
The construction of Sol began in the age of the legendary Emperor Etora I.  It is said that Etora I chose this site because of the Genesis Tree.  Since mystical times, the Genesis Tree has been considered the guardian tree of Sol.  For some unknown reason, the Genesis Tree withered in the age of the Holy Emperor Etora IV.  Etora IV moved the Genesis Tree to Biron Temple in keeping with the prophecy of Hari.  This monument is dedicated to the memory of the Genesis Tree.”

So basically, they built the city of Sol around the tree.  I just had an image in my head as they kept building higher and higher around the tree.

Anyway, you’ve noticed the save point next to the monument, so save your game and head back to rest if necessary.  There are stairs heading downward, so let’s check that out.

no, that's clearly a circle

 

Our heroes find themselves in a circular room with pillars encircling the center.  This must be the Warrior’s Square!  …looks more like a warrior’s circle, but eh, details.  We need to lower the pillars so we can plant the Genesis Sapling in the center.

 

There are 2 levers we can flip to lower the pillars.  The first one is right in front of us, while the other is on the other side of the room.  You’ll have to navigate a small maze to get to it though.  It’s pretty straightforward; just flip the colored levers to deactivate the electric barrier of the same color.  Eventually, you should make your way to the south side of the room where the second lever is.

 

With both levers flipped, the pillars drop, and we can head to the center of the circle.  Er, square.  Uh, circlish square.

 

Our heroes try to hurry, as they’re worried about what Songi has cooked up for them.  As if Songi is a magnet for bad luck, we hear that all too familiar voice.  Songi appears in front of us once again.  Our heroes ask what happened to Gaza, and Songi is more than pleased to show them exactly what happened to him.

 

He brings forth Gaza, and what’s worse: he brings along a new Sim-Seru.  Our heroes don’t like where this is going, but before they can do anything else, Songi leaves them with Gaza.  The Sim-Seru attaches onto Gaza, transforming him into a creature more terrifying than their previous foe.  Our heroes have no choice but to fight!

 

Gaza’s back, and he’s got a new Sim-Seru this time.  Just look at that imposing armor he’s got now!  His regular attacks do about the same as before, but he’s got some new moves now.  Astral Wave is an attack Gaza uses pretty often, and it does about 800 damage to one party member.  His more dangerous move is Neo Star Slash.

 

He pierces his Astral Sword to the ground, causing blades to pop up on our party members, dealing about 1000 damage to everyone.  Keep everyone’s HP high at all times, as there’s no tell when he’s going to use this devastating move.

I like how the sword is floating like that

 

The usual spirit-and-attack strategy works as usual.  If you got Kemaro, this is a good seru to cast on Gaza, thanks to its high damage.  I tossed a shield elixir on Noa to up her defenses.  But honestly, I found this fight a bit easier than his first form.  He does have access to an all-targeting attack that does heavy damage, but I personally didn’t find his attacks as overwhelming as his Astral Slash in the previous fight.  Despite that, keep everyone in healthy condition, and you should do fine against Gaza.

 

Gaza finally falls, and the Sim-Seru detaches from him, disintegrating before our heroes.  Gaza regains his senses and realizes what has happened.  However, it’s too late for him – the battle (as well as the sim-seru probably) left Gaza gravely wounded.  Noa begs Terra to do something, but not even a ra-seru can perform a miracle like this.  Or so they thought; in order to have the seedling to grow into a fully grown Genesis Tree, they need a strong spirit to do so, and Gaza seems to fit that.  Gaza will die, but his spirit will live on through the Genesis Tree.   

ExDeath: the good version

 

Gaza accepts this, and offers his body to the tree.  Our heroes plant the seedling right next to Gaza, and send their balls of light toward the plant.  The seedling glows, and grows into the Genesis Tree we’ve become familiar with.  The radiant light illuminates all of Sol, reaching to the roof, pushing the mist away from the vicinity of the city.

RADIATING TREES, LET'S GO

 

With that, our heroes’ ra-serus level up.  Our heroes spot a sword floating next to the newly grown tree.   

It’s Gaza’s weapon, the Astral Sword!  It seems that Gaza wants us to keep it for our journey.  And with that, Sol should be free from the mist.

Whew, we went through a lot this part, didn’t we?  We fought 2 bosses this part, I think that’s a good stopping point.  Next time: we explore the rest of the newly freed Sol and embark on our next journey!