Legend of Legaia - Part 30 - Stairway to Hell

now entering: endgame

Welcome back to more Legend of Legaia.  Last time, we explored the world one last time and saw what the world has to offer.  Today, we will be entering endgame and head on to Rim Elm to stop Juggernaut before it spreads any further.

Before we go however… the next area we’re about to head into is the final dungeon.  The last area is huge, and filled with pretty strong monsters, and as such, it would be wise to prepare accordingly.  Bring as many Healing Berries and Magic Fruits as you can, and more importantly: bring a Door of Light!  I cannot stress bringing a Door of Light enough; this dungeon goes really really deep in, and being stuck at the very end with no way back out except going the long way is just asking for pain.  Once you’re set and all ready, let’s head in.

that's redundant; vahn is always silent

Our heroes head toward the flesh infested ground, but Vahn stops for a minute.  Gala realizes what’s going on in Vahn’s mind.   

Even if we destroy Juggernaut, this won’t necessarily bring back the people of Rim Elm.  If anything, it’ll be just like Conkram, where everyone will die along with the Sim-Seru.  Noa empathizes with Vahn, and she says she’ll wait until Vahn is ready to do what must be done.

Vahn is actually given a moment of silence at this point, and to that extension, us as well.  A nice little gesture.  Once you’re ready, press X to move onward.  Gala tries to comfort Vahn and says that they have witnessed and made many miracles throughout their journey, so perhaps… maybe we can hold out for a miracle here as well.  Noa and Gala regroup with Vahn and our heroes head to the head of Juggernaut.

The deformed head of Juggernaut stands from where they last saw it.  Songi’s barrier still stands, but now that the Ra-Serus’ powers have strengthened thanks to the Great Genesis Tree, they can now do something about it.  The Ra-Serus tell our heroes that they must attack Juggernaut from the inside.   

Our heroes focus their powers into orbs of light, and toss them right into the barrier around Juggernaut.  The barrier shatters before them, and Juggernaut’s head opens, letting loose (probably) an indescribable stench.  Gala tells everyone to brace themselves for a ride.  I’d say so as well!

Well… there’s nothing left to do… but to jump up.  And enter through the mouth.

This is the inside of Juggernaut, or rather, as the game calls it: the Bio Castle.  This is the final dungeon of the game.  Much like Conkram, it is a horrific landscape of flesh, blood, and many other bodily insides.  Though… funny enough, now that I look at this place again, I’m not as bothered by the looks of this place than I was with Conkram.  Back when I first played this game, I was truly terrified by this place, and this was what ultimately stopped my first playthrough.  But I’m not sure what it is, but Conkram had this truly unsettling scenery of a mishmash of a ruined kingdom covered in what looked like rotting flesh and tissue.  Here, it’s a bit more of a traditional flesh dungeon.  It’s still an unnerving experience – don’t get me wrong – the music that plays here adds to the horror elements as well.  It even plays through random encounters!

 

Speaking of encounters: remember when I said that you’ll always get another opportunity to get serus that seem “missable”?  Well, outside of Gimard, Vera, and Theeder (which we can encounter outside), the final dungeon’s monsters comprise of every single seru we’ve fought before in our journey, except now, they’re all at their lvl 3 form.  What seru you’ll encounter will vary depending on how deep in you are, so I’ll mention what we’ll encounter as we go on.

The early area has Zenoir roaming around.  Most of the serus here are huge HP sponges, and Zenoir is no exception.  It’ll take a couple of combos to take them down.  It has a new Grand Claw attack which deals fire damage to everyone.

A side note: I won’t go into much detail on every seru unless they have something worth mentioning.  We’ve seen them all before, so you’re not missing out too much.  

Gizam and Nighto also appear in the early areas, but I don’t think they have anything too noteworthy.

 

Anyways, head down and we’ll find a stairway looking area.  The first areas are pretty linear so there’s not much to miss out here.   

Eventually, you’ll reach deep enough to head into an area with an intestinal path.  Outside of the path is covered by what look like oversized villi.

 

In this area, we’ll be encountering Swordie and Nova again.  Not much significant change from their previous forms though.   

won't be showing the stats for all of these

This area also holds a couple of treasure chests.  The first one you should find is a Ra-Seru Armor!  This is the ultimate armor for Vahn.  Throughout this dungeon, you’ll find Ra-Seru equipment for everyone, so make sure you get them all, as they’re the best equipment in the game.  I like to imagine that these were remnants of Ra-Serus devoured by Juggernaut.  Perhaps when making Mist Generators, they only used a component of a Ra-Seru, and tossed the rest to Juggernaut like food?  I’m probably thinking too much into this.  Also placed in this intestinal labyrinth are Ra-Seru Robe and Ra-Seru Plate for Noa and Gala respectively.

The next area is a corridor covered in the giant villi we saw back in the previous area.  Here, we’ll encounter Gola Gola.  Fortunately, this seru doesn’t have a ton of HP, so it should go down quickly by Noa or Gala.

Follow through this corridor and we’ll enter this dark tunnel.  Another seru here we’ll encounter is Freed.  Still the same as before.  The tunnel itself is pretty linear so just head to the end of it.

We’re greeted by an open area with a river of… blood?  Whatever that is, it sure doesn’t look healthy.  There’s a small appendage jutting out over the river, and you can jump from there and swim through the rapids.  You’ll find another appendage you can grab on the other side; push up on the D-pad when you hit it.  

Once you get up, there’s a chest waiting for you containing a Crimson Book.  This accessory raises the user’s EXP gain.  That’s kinda rude, waiting till the end of the game to drop this accessory!

sometimes I wonder... how does Juggernaut's anatomy work?

The next area’s a long winding tunnel covered by what looks like a ribcage.  Here, you’ll start to encounter Mushura and Viguro.  Not much to mention about Mushura aside from it’s high HP, but Viguro has a new attack: Thunder Burst, which deals lightning damage to everyone.

 

Follow through the tunnel to find another open looking area.  This place also has large bloodstreams you can swim in.  Not for pleasure (hopefully!), but there are some treasure chests here to grab.  There are a couple of places where you can dive to grab the chests, and in them are Ra-Seru Seal, Ra-Seru Plume, and Ra-Seru Helmet.  

Also in this area, you’ll encounter Aluru, I guess.

At the end of this area, there’s a save point you can take.  Make sure you got a Door of Light before you save your game.

 

In the next area, there are platforms that rise up that you can jump onto.  Here, you’ll encounter Spoon and Barra.  The same enemies as before.  If for some odd reason you STILL haven’t gotten Spoon, you can get it now.  I’d be impressed if you made it this far without Spoon’s magic!

But more importantly here in this area: this is where the people of Rim Elm are.  And just like in Conkram, they’re all fused to the ground.  Some people tell us how painful it is, while others borderline blame Vahn for this outcome.  There’s a chest here containing a Lost Grail, so don’t forget to pick that up.

On another platform, we find Maya, and… well, she's been better, to say the least.  She says she’s still hanging on, but who knows for how long.  Our heroes tell her that they’ll stop Juggernaut and rescue her and everyone else from this situation.  Right next to Maya are Ra-Seru Boots.

Mei can be found on a platform close to Maya.  She tells Vahn to not look at her, as she looks so awful.  But despite that, our heroes tell her that they’ll get her out of this.  Mei will give Vahn a Life Armband for talking to her.

Nene is also there.  Man, even after all the things she did, I can’t make fun of her.  This whole place is nothing but suffering.  Next to her is a chest containing Ra-Seru Shoes.  

Near the exit of this area is Val, Vahn’s father.  By talking to him, he’ll give you a Miracle Water.

Let’s head into the next area, and- eugh.  You know, I said before that this place wasn’t as unnerving as Conkram, but this weird mishmash of colors is making me real uncomfortable.  It’s one of those weird things I can’t really explain.   

Anyways, in this area, you’ll be facing Iota and Slippery.  Again, not much has changed with these enemies.  Though, beating the Iota managed to get me a Spirit Talisman, an accessory that halves MP cost!  That’s a nice rare drop.

Fire Droplet, you have returned to me!

There is a well hidden item in this area as well.  Follow the corridor up, then right.  Examine the right wall going upwards to find a Mettle Goblet.  This is a god-tier accessory that gives the user infinite AP!  The Fire Droplet comes back to us once again!  It took the entire game to get this back, but man, is it good.  Don’t miss this one!

Follow the path and you should find a chest containing a… Ra-Seru Thongs?  And it’s for Gala??  Well now.  Let’s proceed onward.

The next area is a small tunnel leading downward.  Here you’ll encounter Kemaro again.  

The next area is another tunnel, much like the previous one, except it’s a different color.  This tunnel in particular is very dangerous, because here, we’ll encounter Pueras.   

SOMEONE'S gonna die here

At their lvl 3 form, their Death Game move is at its most dangerous: 3 out of 4 cards will result in instant death to your party member!  You absolutely need to pay attention to where the cards land, or else your character’s gonna die.  They’re also incredibly fast so you can’t really outspeed them outside of giving someone a Speed Chain.  This is also why I said it’s easier to capture Puera back in Jette’s Fortress.  If you’re trying to hunt for them now, you have to deal with their Death Game.  Since the “Puera Dies” card nullifies your chance of capturing it, you must sacrifice a party member if this comes up.

Well, I talked extensively about that seru, but there’s another enemy you’ll encounter around here: Gilium.  It’s not that different from its previous form, but it does have a lot of HP.  Also, it gives away the most EXP out of all regular monsters in the game.  Much like trying to capture Puera, capturing Gilium at this point in the game is kinda risky, because they’re in the same area as Pueras are.

Anyways, back to this tunnel.  This tunnel is a bit of a maze, but I find that the paths that go “outward” lead to treasure chests.  The chests you can find here contain a Ra-Seru Club, Magic Armband, Ra-Seru Fangs, and Ra-Seru Blade.  

If you’ve collected every treasure thus far, those should be all the Ra-Seru equipment.

Follow the rest of the tunnel to find another area.  Once you jump down, the platforms will retract and the hole up ahead will close up.   

There are 2 bulbous parts on the ground.  Step on both of them, and the platforms should return along with the hole.  However, you kinda need to be quick with them; if you take too long between bulbs, the previous one you stepped on will rise back up.

the final save point

There’s a save point right next to you.  But again, I must stress: do you have a Door of Light?  If you don’t, you must go back the LONG way if you wanna exit this dungeon.  And up ahead through the hole is the Point of No Return.  And I have a little story relating to this: I mentioned before that this dungeon was my stopping point in my first playthrough.  Yeah, RIGHT at the end of the game, no less!  But it wasn’t just the dungeon’s gross design that turned me off.  It was also the fact that I was stuck here.  I had no Door of Light.  I was far too weak to fight the final boss up ahead, so I wanted to go back and restock on items.  But the tunnel before this place had those Pueras and their Death Game move.  And my young self wasn’t good enough to keep track of where the cards landed.  Meaning: if I headed forward, I’m dead; if I headed back, I’m dead.  That was not a fun time.

But yeah: through that hole is – as I mentioned – the Point of No Return.  Past this area is the final boss of the game.  Make sure you have a Door of Light to ensure an easy way out, then save your game.  This is your last chance to save your game.  If you’ve been using up your MP on the way, heal it up with Magic Fruits, or toss a Door of Light and heal up outside.  You can rush back here using Incenses or a Good Luck Bell and minimize your MP use, now that you’ve gotten every chest in this dungeon.

And we will deal with the final boss in the next part!  This part has been going for a bit, and I feel the final boss and ending should have its own part.  So next time: we put an end to Juggernaut once and for all, and save the world of Legaia!