Romancing SaGa FAQ/Walkthrough Version 1.0 (Super Famicom) Copyright 2006 TheSpelunker lance3335@bellsouth.net (This guide may not be used for any purpose other than personal use without the written consent of the author, and the only e-mail address that may give this consent is lance3335@bellsouth.net. Those who violate this should know that they are breaking copyright law. If you see this guide being hosted on a site besides http://www.gamefaqs.com/ it is being done so against my wishes. Please contact me if this is the case.) v. 1.0 (6/28/06) - full walkthrough - all sections complete - first submission to GameFAQs - format finished --=============-- TABLE OF CONTENTS --=============-- | 1. Frequently Asked Questions | 2. Creating a Character | 3. Tips | 4. What the Numbers Mean | 5. Planning for a Successful Game | 6. Character Introduction Walkthroughs | 7. Quests | 8. Recruitable Characters -=============-- --=========================-- 1. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS --=========================-- What is this game about? In a time of turmoil there were three evil gods, all of which were related to each other. Having some vendetta against the high god Arol, all three evil gods created monsters with which to attack the high god Arol. The battle came to a head. At the end, two of the evil gods were beaten. The third, Sharuyin, was not beaten, and would not surrender to the high god Arol. Arol, upon seeing this, created ten jewels with which to imprison the third evil god Sharuyin, and enlisted a human warrior, Miruza, to help him in this task. Sharuyin was imprisoned. However, some years later, the need to find these jewels is once again upon certain adventurers of the world. Why can't I read anything on the screen? Romancing SaGa was not translated to English; not by Squaresoft nor by the internet translation community. The best effort by the translation community is found here: http://donut.parodius.com/translations/snes/patches/sagav4.zip but it is incomplete and buggy. There is also a remake on the Playstation 2, but I haven't played that one and cannot vouch for its faithfulness. How reliable are the translation patches that are currently available? The 0.40 one (listed above) would not allow me to leave Izmus castle, and it crashes on certain shop menus. In fact, it once teleported me to a field full of monsters when I tried to buy a magical spell. The 0.10 one (http://www.romhacking.net/translations/snes/patches/saga1e.zip) has menus translated, but it also messes up with shop menus. Keep in mind that this is with ZSNES. Can you read Japanese? No, I can't. I used a combination of NJstar Communicator (http://www.njstar.com/communicator/), the current mini-FAQ on GameFAQs (thanks to Arche Klein), the Animelab.com Japanese-to-English dictionary (http://www.animelab.com/), Babelfish, a wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kana), and the two available translation patches (listed elsewhere in the guide) to play through the game. What is the purpose of this guide? Mr. Klein's mini-FAQ covers the translation well enough. He has translated menus, items, skills, and spells. In time I may ask for permission to incorporate some of his information into this guide. I have double-checked some of his translations, and they are quite literal (hence good). But for now this guide serves to do what his does not, and that is to walk the player through the game. It's realized that having to switch between two guides to play through the game can be difficult, but on the other hand I feel that I have not double-checked nearly half as much as he has written, and would therefore not feel comfortable including his work thus far into my own. What character shall I choose? All of the characters' paths converge. Older characters begin with higher starting statistics; younger characters with lower starting statistics. Most characters also have unique quests available to them. Albert probably has the most story involved in his quest, and I have also put the most time into his walkthrough. Why are the character walkthroughs short? There is only so much that's unique for a single character. The rest of the walkthrough is a compilation of quests that can be solved. It would be redundant to pack every quest into a single character walkthrough (not to mention incorrect, since no character can complete every quest), and limiting to organize each character walkthrough into a set path of quests. So each character walkthrough covers the introductory and unique scenes for that character and nothing more. Visit the quests section to find out what each character can do at all points of the game. Why has my gold stopped at 9999? What are jewels? I can't stress this enough: 9999 is the max GOLD that you can have. Once you have 9999 gold, sell an item at a shop. This gives you a 'jewel'. A jewel is worth 10000 gold, but more importantly it allows you to gain gold again. If you have 9999 gold, and you do not convert it by selling an item at a shop, you will earn no money from battles. In this manner you can never have more than 9999 gold at one time, and thus can't buy critical items like the Ice Sword that cost 30000 gold. Can I use items in battle? Yes. You first have to equip them as you would weapons. Then you can use them in the same manner once you're in battle. --===================-- 2. CREATING A CHARACTER --===================-- -o- The Characters -o- (a character is selected after "New Game", the top option, is selected from the opening menu. The next options for character selection are 'male', at the top, and 'female', below male. On the next screen, each character's age is listed beside him or her. The translation patch also includes a two word description of each character, ex: "Lord's Son" for Albert) MALE (from the top to the bottom of the screen) 18 years old Albert "Lord's Son" 20 years old Jamil "City Thief" 24 years old Gray "Adventurer" 30 years old Hawk "Pirate" FEMALE (from the top to the bottom of the screen) 16 years old Aisha "Nomad" 22 years old Claudia "Ranger" 26 years old Barbara "Dancer" 28 years old Sif "Savage" *(NAME YOUR CHARACTER NEXT)* -O- PARENT CLASSES -O- (after you have selected your character, you must choose you parents' classes. What were the occupations of your parents? Your character is molded by your choices here. Choosing a strictly melee-oriented lineage ensures that you start with a melee character; choosing a strictly magic-oriented lineage ensures that you start with a magical character. Combinations are also possible. The first choice is of your father's class; the second, your mother's.) FATHER (from the top of the screen to the bottom) Soldier (strength, vitality) Paladin (vitality, willpower, love) Martial Artist (strength, speed, love) Magic Knight (love) Monk (intelligence, willpower, love) Thief (agility, speed) Poet (agility, speed) Magician (agility, intelligence) MOTHER (from the top of the screen to the bottom) Amazon (strength, vitality) Paladin (vitality, willpower, love) Martial Artist (strength, speed, love) Magic Knight (love) Monk (intelligence, willpower, love) Thief (agility, speed) Magician (agility, intelligence) Fortune-Teller (agility, intelligence, willpower) Parent classes affect starting weapons and armor and statistics (as seen above) *(finally, 'choose your best hand', the next prompt, is a personal preference. Right or left?)* --===-- 3. TIPS --===-- * Resting at an inn is free. * You can save anywhere. * Talk to everyone in a town (especially if you can't understand Japanese). Even common villagers can open new locations and quests for you. * Meeting a monster face-to-face maintains your chosen formation. Not doing so (and for example having a monster charge you from the side) scrambles it. * I can't stress this enough: 9999 is the max GOLD that you can have. Once you have 9999 gold, sell an item at a shop. This gives you a 'jewel'. A jewel is worth 10000 gold, but more importantly it allows you to gain gold again. If you have 9999 gold, and you do not convert it by selling an item at a shop, you will earn no money from battles. --====================-- 4. WHAT THE NUMBERS MEAN --====================-- -o- WEAPONS -o- - Weapons have levels that raise through usage in combat - New weapon abilities are learned as weapons increase in level and use - Weapon abilities have a set number of uses that increases with proficiency -O- MAGIC -O- - Magic spells have a set number of uses - A character must rest at the inn after buying magic from a new school - Certain magic schools conflict with other magic schools -o- STATS -o- (stats increase as characters fight battles; specific stats increase quicker based on character type) Strength - Increases the damage dealt (except, possibly, by bow-users) Vitality - Reduces damage taken Agility - Increases the damage dealt with bow attacks, higher accuracy Speed - Speed in battle Intelligence - Increases most spell damage (except illusion magic) Willpower - Raises resistance to status effects Love - Increases the effectiveness of healing magic cast on the character Charm - Improves illusion magic, higher resistance to charm effects --=============================-- 5. PLANNING FOR A SUCCESSFUL GAME --=============================-- Romancing SaGa is a bit nasty with its "stat checkpoints". Here there are bosses with very few hitpoints that have unresistable and high damage attacks that hit the party. If you survive the attack you can kill the boss easily, but it's back to leveling up if not. This being so, it's not, regardless of what some quest walkthroughs in this guide may say (hey, they surprised even me!) advisable to skip monster battles. Secondly, it's important to have two characters per row. The next to last boss is a good checkpoint for this; his firewall does obscene damage to a single row of characters, and you have a painful time if your rows are something like 3-0-3 or 3-1-2. Have two axe/sword/rapier/hand-to-hand users in front, two spear users in the middle, and two bow users in the rear. Plan ahead. Always sell an item in a shop when you have 9999 gold. It rolls over your gold to zero and gives you a jewel. Eventually you will want enough money to buy full Garuru armour, and the chestplate alone is 9999 gold. Jewels are worth 10000 gold each. The Elder Dragons questline is perhaps the only essential quest. It awards you summons, one of which is the only effective strategy that I've found for the next to last boss. If you don't plan to veer towards the evil ending, you will also need to abstain from having more than five party members till this quest line is done with. --==================================-- 6. CHARACTER INTRODUCTION WALKTHROUGHS --==================================-- --=-- ALBERT --=-- -o- IZMUS CASTLE -o- First, the game introduces you to the other characters. Then it shows you in your room. Leave the room already and enter the last door in the hallway. Diana is there, and she joins you, after telling you to kill a monster in an east cave. Walk right and down the stairs to speak with your mother and father. Your father orders two guards to join you on your journey to the east cave. Your party now consists of you, Diana, soldier1, and soldier2. The family castle is such a small place that leaving the throne room finds your party outside. A search of the eastern and western towers turns up nothing. You can leave the grounds from the north when you're ready (note: translation patches sometimes cause you to become permanently stuck here). The eastern cave has the monster that you need to kill, but the swelling of monsters against the eastern wall is an obstacle. You must whack your way east and south along the castle wall till you see tiles with pebbles on them. The cave is hidden past these and against the eastern wall. -o- EAST CAVE -o- The thing that stumped me about this dungeon is the number of monsters inside of it. Many are outside, but inside is something else. The boss is not far at the top. Enter the center chamber and walk upwards, ignoring any turns (as you see, all of the side-chambers are dead-ends). When the boss dies, all of the monsters inside and outside die also. The cave is not large. Boss tactics: Definitely heal beforehand. You can do this while paused and use Albert's medicine. The boss throws 50 damage fire spells around, but he dies if you maintain a barrage for two or three rounds. -O- IZMUS CASTLE (and the getaway) -o- Talk to Albert's father to trigger a scene. Prince Neidhart of Rosalia enters to ask for Diana's hand. Afterwards Albert is shown in bed. The background is dark, and Diana enters to tell Albert to hurry. After speaking with Albert's father, a guard to the left opens a secret passage. Walk above him and through the passage to escape. Diana is captured by dragons on the way, and Albert falls down a cliff. -o- LOBAN -o- For better or worse Albert awakens in a bed with a woman beside him (no forms to sign; he's better off than we'd be if we fell down a cliff). He can leave when he wants, though the woman will interrupt him once more. Once outside it is important to avoid the guards. They will only talk to you if you face them while adjacent, but if they do, you have three options. The top is surrender, the second fight, and the third run. Guards are very much beatable at this stage of the game, and if you run you can make it into a house. Surrendering lands you in jail, which has the sort of solution that you'd expect (a secret passage in one of the walls). But avoiding guards saves the hassle. For shops there is a water magic shop, an item shop, an inn, and weapon shop. Here are some basic translations: ----- Weapons ----- Iron Armor 2300g Iron Glove 1400g Iron Shield 800g Iron Sword 180g ----- Items ----- Salve 30g High-Grade Salve 250g ? Cure-All 500g Leave Loban to the south and select the southern town, Bruelle, on your map. -o- BRUELLE -o- More shops here. Some translations: ----- Weapons #1 ----- Iron Helmet 700g Gararu Armor 9999g * Gararu Helmet 3700g * Gararu Glove 5300g * ------ Weapons #2 ------ Gararu Sword 3590g * Gararu Axe 9690g * Gararu Spear 4300g * Gararu Flail 1600g * * - may also be pronounced Gara - LOO (rather than Gara - ROO). What is the significance of the word? Is it a random phantasy word, or does it correspond to something else in the game? ----- Items ----- Salve 30g High-Grade Salve 250g Revive 2000g Refresh 3000g The 0.40 translation patch offers that the the man in blue with the ponytail or queue says, "Ships here go to Obiru in Rosaria, Estameel in Keijarat, and Meilzabel in Barony". This corresponds to their locations at the bottom-left of Bruelle. Obiru is on top, Estameel below Obiru, and Meilzabel below Estameel. Obiru and Meilzabel cost 50g per person. Estameel costs 100g per person. The minstrel in the pub will play various background music from the game, and you can also rest at the inn. The guards won't send you to jail, but they won't move either. Visit the docks when you're ready and send off to one of the places that cost 50g (thankfully no matter how much Japanese there is we can still read the numbers!) It doesn't matter which place you depart for because a storm strikes regardless. -o- ON THE SEA -o- The SaGa series has always had a way with frank surreality, and waking from a tempest to a crew of zombies is well up there on the list. An ice bridge from the south of the boat leads to land. Try to avoid the zombies if you can, and use medicine after every battle if one does occur. TWo monsters at once can mean death and even one isn't easy. Speak to the girl in red with blond hair once you are on dry land. The first option recruits her. Her name is Sif, and she invites you to her village. Fight through the crabs and such as you walk eastward to the location. -o- VALHALLAND -o- I had trouble passing by this guy at first. He matched my steps for a while till I finally entered the village. The dialogue that the 0.40 translation patch offers us here is the blond woman in the red and purple dress, who says, "Monster lately," followed by some gibberish. The boy in green says, "I saw a shipwreck." And another woman that matches the above description, "saw an ice lake south of here." Some translations: ----- Items ----- Salve 30g High-Grade Salve 250g Revive 2000g Refresh 3000g ----- Weapons ----- Iron Sword 180g Axe 490g Bow 260g Bronze Armor 440g There is a fire magic shop here also. My advice rather than to buy magic is to buy two bows. Only buy one if you don't have much gold. And you may be able to sell a surplus weapon of Albert's. I don't mess with magic much at this point, and even if I did, the good stuff is costly. Sif will leave temporarily and the story will advance if you visit the village elder's house in the southeast of the village. You may notice that the conversation drags a bit. The confusion is that Sif called Albert, all of 18 years old, a boy. He was a bit offended (admittedly I may have reacted similarly when someone called me a boy at 18). At any rate you awaken in the inn. Sif is inside the house to the west of the village elder's. Speak with her to accept a quest. She wants you to remove evil magic from the southern cave. Leave the village, cross the western bridge, and walk south and east till you reach holes in the ground. Each leads to a different area of the cave. The top one and two right ones to one area, and the two left ones to a dead-end area. -o- COLD SOUTH CAVE -o- Enter through the northeast hole for the first segment. Fight through to the top chamber where stairs descend. There are dead-ends in this lower area and tougher monsters. The boss is to the left and up. He hits hard, which means that you ought to be at full health even if it means using a salve to heal under 10 health. Every little bit counts. On my game for example he hit Albert for 52 damage in the first round--Ouch! Also, don't forget to open the chest behind the boss. -o- VALHALLAND (again) -o- This is mostly a stop for supplies. You of course need to speak with the village elder, who signals the completion of the cave quest. Everyone seems happy enough. The issue of Rosaria and the whole family in trouble bit comes up, though, which means that you need to pack off to the west. Sif will follow you, but buy some salves first. My preference is also to have a bow for both characters. That way they can fall back and attack if injured or simply attack in quick battles without wasting time advancing. -O- VOYGEN CHATEAU -O- * * - the 0.40 translation patch lists this as Voygen Chateau. A more literal name looks to be 'Oyguru'-something. Oyguru Chateau? I could sadly not read the remainder of the characters nor find their equivalents to translate. Fight through the usual gang to reach this area west of Valhalland. Be mindful not to enter the western ice cave. Voygen Chateau is south of this and through a clearing of trees; and there is nothing to do in the cave unless you want a meager 100+ gold from a chest. Some of what you can buy in Voygen Chateau: ----- Weapons #1 ----- Spear 210g Mace 90g Iron Helmet 700g Iron Glove 1400g ----- Weapons #2 ----- Punch 90g Kick 1000g Spirit 500g Cure-All 500g ----- Items ----- High-Grade Salve 250g Refresh 3000g CureAll 500g GuardianRG 5000g There is also an Illusion Magic shop, but don't waste time there. My suggestion is to buy an Iron Helm or two if you can afford them. Both Sif and Albert can use them, and they are of course useful, and also the first armor upgrade that you've likely made. Heinrich, the man in the castle, will teleport you to Meilzabel once you are ready. -o- MEILZABEL -o- This may be the only town that you enter through the throne room and not the outside gates. It at least saves you the temptation of the armor and magic that you can't afford. Now, speak with Theodore on the throne, who will hold a council on your behalf. What's said is unclear, but the screen shifts to the Meilzabel throne-room again. After a bit more talking, Theodore will prompt you. Choose the first option to start a quest and have Theodore and Rafeal join you. The second option must be a denial of the quest, because afterwards the two leave the room, and you stand there without much of a clue. It's recommended to take the quest. Otherwise the character-specific walkthrough ends, and you can skip straight to the generic quest section below that applies to any character. In addition to a Demon Magic shop, Meilzabel contains: ----- Weapons #1 ----- Bastard Sword 490g Flail 220g Iron Shield 800g Iron Armor 2300g ----- Weapons #2 ----- Punch 90g Kick 1000g Spirit 500g Cure-All 500g ----- ITEMS ----- Salve 30g Revive 2000g ? Mag.Shield 5000g None of this of course you can afford. But don't worry for now. You will earn money in the quest that you took. Leave town when you want and travel to the new waypoint, only marginally to the southwest of Meilzabel. -o- MONSTER -o- This place for some reason is named Monster. For the enthusiast, the PS2 version calls it "Abandoned Keep", which I may altogether choose over Monster. At any rate its music offers a welcome break from the Albert's standard fanfare, which by now must have driven any cautious player mad. The first floor has some treasure: in the far southwest through a door, 40g, northeast of the starting room, 80g, two chests east of the starting room, 120g and a Leather Hat, west of the starting room, 120g. Most of this requires meandering through doors, as walls prevent direct access. If you don't care for treasure or have it all, the stairs down are in the northwest, accessible either through the spider room north of the starting area, or southwest and up through the fairy rooms. Monsters to watch out for are red dogs, which breathe fire for for 80 damage, and the usual Wendigos (skeletons with legs tapered into more of a dangling spinal cord) and sea green fishmen, which still pack a punch from the earlier dungeons. The next floor is three rooms, each with a pen inside of it. There are also treasures in some of them, and the last has a stairs down. The treasures are all gold, but the last one culminates as a 180g treasure. The next is the boss floor. Avoid the right path as it leads outside of the dungeon--not funny after clearing all of those monsters. The left path loops till a brief staircase, which leads to a path underlying the upper level. Take this only if you want a 200g treasure. Otherwise walk right to a similar staircase, this one leading to the boss. You should beat him with no trouble. He is the regularly encountered enemy 'Snake Man'. Loot the two treasure chests behind him, walk back to this floor's entrance, then right, and outside of the dungeon. -o- MEILZABEL (again) -o- I'm not sure what's more amusing, the needing of four people to kill a snake man or the repeated looping of the victory music afterwards. Not sure why the people of the castle leave you after your help either--all that I caught through the Japanese was a "thank you." It's notable that your adventure now opens exponentially here. Instead of one path there are three paths to take. But first buy at least a Bastard Sword if you have a sword-wielder (I had Albert with an axe and Sif with a sword) and an Iron shield if you can afford it. The ships in the east of Meilzabel are your next objective. There are three: one to Obiru (top), Blue Eddy (middle), and Estameel in Barony (bottom). If playing the 0.40 translation patch, there is the amusing bug where the ship pushes off no matter what you say, dialogue bubble remaining and all. To play by the book our next destination is Obiru, then Crystal City. This is the suggested storyline path in any case.Take the upper-most boat from Meilzabel to Obiru, and leave Obiru to the north. Crystal City is at the top of the map. -o- CRYSTAL CITY -o- ----- Weapons #1 ----- Veruni Helmet 2400g * Veruni Glove 3700g * Halberd 590g Veruni Bow 5170g * ----- Weapons #2 ----- Veruni Rapier 1600g * Veruni Sword 9690g * Veruni Shield 1330g * Veruni Armor 4000g * ----- Weapons #3 ----- Punch 90g Kick 1000g Spirit 500g Cure-All 500g * - the mini-faq on GameFAQs calls these Velny. I haven't done the research to say which is more literal. At any rate I suspect that Veruni, etc. is another random phantasy word as I suspect Gararu is. Seems to have no ties with anything else in the game, and to my knowledge isn't a known word outside of it. ----- ITEMS #1 ----- GuardianRG 5000g Mag.Shield 5000g Earth Restore 500g Spirit Restore 500g ----- ITEMS #2 ----- High-Grade Salve 250g Revive 2000g Refresh 3000g Cure-All 500g There's a lot to see and do in Crystal City, but for the poor among us the best place to go is straight to the palace, which is north from the town entrance. I only caught traces of what Neidhart said (use the 0.40 translation patch to see the same, but beware that, at least on ZSNES, it bugs at the end of the conversation). A lot of 'monster', 'albert', 'diana'. Neidhart obviously expresses his sorrow for Albert's losses. Then he gives Albert some time to think over a proposition, which I suspected is to retrieve the Aquamarine from a nearby cave in order to build enough power to fight the evil god or monster leader. It makes sense overall. What is necessary to do to get on with the game is (1) revisit the throne-room, (2) choose the first option when prompted, and (3) leave Crystal City to visit the new location next to the city, "Crystal Lake". -o- CRYSTAL LAKE -o- Didn't see any Jason references here. There are however a ridiculous number of fish that will attack you in the water, and they are the same type that you saw from the boat. Thought that was scenery, aye? The cave to access is a bit off- center to the left if you enter the water mid-beach. If you walk down the center you won't see the land that the cave is mounted on, and you'll have to make another pass. The land must also be mounted from the left, for the right ramp leads down from the land to a small pool where the cave is (meaning that you definitely need to veer slightly left from the beach that you start on). The cave contains a bit of variety. There are more monster types to attack you. There is also a visible chest with gold nearby. Monsters to keep an eye on are mostly the enormous, mean-looking fish that appear. You know them you see them, and if you aren't sure whether you have, you haven't. Treasure chests, again, are everywhere. But they only have gold except the last, which holds the Aquamarine. The boss is nothing more than a pushover. He only managed to cast sleep on Albert before I erased him next round. Find him in the far southeast of the cave and leave after you have the jewel. -o- CRYSTAL CITY (again) -o- Speak with Neidhart. Choose your reward when prompted: (1) "Gold" - 1000 gold (2) ? (showing?) - no idea what this translates as, but the reward is a Great Sword (3) "Protector" - Steel Helmet I chose the helmet because it beats Sif's old one. Afterwards Neidhart doesn't have much to say. It's good to leave. The continent of Rosaria has little left for now. You can presently visit other places to do stuff. Visit the 'Quests' section of this guide to find out what that stuff is. --=-- JAMIL --=-- -o- S. ESTAMEEL -o- Jamil has one quest to perform before the worlds opens to him. In South Estameel (the city that that he starts in) punch down and right through the traffic (incidentally, guards and slaves are in South Estameel, and Jamil must choose a dialogue option if he bumps into one. Pick the bottom one for slaves and the top one for guards.) Speak with the couple to the left of the sewer entrance. Select whatever options till they don't offer options when you speak with them. Now waltz off to the pub to speak with the owner. Leave and return to the couple to find that one of them isn't there. Inquire at the building in the upper-right of S. Estameel. Selecting certain options in here triggers guard fights, but the fights are necessary to receive information. Amusingly after fighting the guy at the table Jamil is no longer man but a woman! This disguise will be necessary in N. Estameel, your next destination. Yet withot money, you won't be making it. The sewers are one option. I actually cheated a bit and sold Jamil's axe to pay my boat fare. Or if you have the 0.40 translation path, select 'No' at the S. Estameel docks and they'll take you anyway(this is a bug). ----- SHOP #1 ----- Wind Restore 500g Spirit Restore 500g Light Restore 500g Magic Restore 500g ----- SHOP #2 ----- Salve 30g High-Grade Salve 250g ? Cure-All 500g ----- SHOP #3 ----- Veruni Shield 1330g Scale Armor 900g Gararu Armor 9999g Veruni Helmet 2400g -o- SEWERS -o- The sewers are arranged how you would think. The southern areas belong to S. Estameel, the northern ones to North Estameel. There are some nasty segments though. You don't want to goof off while you're here. Walk up whenever you have a chance, and one of N. Estameel's three sewer entrances will turn up. -o- N. ESTAMEEL -o- However you make it to N. Estameel, your destination is in the southwest of the city. It's a temple. Like many temples, the priests inside do not say anything. Walk through the secret wall under the first trio of pillars on the right. The man in your way quizzes you on whether or not you're a woman. You get in if you are. There are a lot of women inside that say the same thing, and Farah, the women half of the couple in S. Estameel, is in the lower left corner. She thanks you for saving her when you speak with her. Curiously you can leave now, despite the unconscious woman nearby on the floor? I'm not quite sure what goes on here. It looks like a harem. I never saw the owner, and the PS2 version says that Farah was taken off by loan-sharks, but gee North American translations aren't very trusthworthy with respect to things like this. Recall the 'dancers' and the removed porn magazine in the USA translation of Final Fantasy IV, which was Romancing SaGa's contemporary. Though admittedly game content now is a bit different than it was then. ----- ITEMS ----- High-Grade Salve 250g Revive 2000g Refresh 3000g Fire Restore 500g ----- WEAPONS #1 ----- Punch 90g Kick 1000g Spirit Restore 500g Cure-All 500g ----- WEAPONS #2 ----- Veruni Rapier 1600g Gararu Sword 3590g Gararu Axe 9690g Veruni Sword 9690g --=- GRAY --=- -o- JELTON -o- Gray begins the game with Miriam, a fire magic-user, and Galahad, a swordsman, in his party. With only 100 gold there's not much that he can do (including packing off the dead end island that he starts on), so he'll have to speak with everyone in Jelton to unlock the Jelton plains, then visit them, and get some gold. He can solve quest #2 in the Jelton Plains (see quest section). He gets Egg from this, which sells for 5000gp to a shop owner. That will pay his boat fare to Miribiru then to Weipu, where he may begin work on quest #3. Gray's introduction is very open-ended, and it would not be inaccurate to say that he has none. --=- HAWK --=- -o- CORAL SEA -o- Hawk begins on the Coral Sea with Geraha the lizardman in his party. You need to leave here to advance the story, but if you want you can plunder ships sailing in the sea. Simply navigate your ship onto another ship to see a different screen. You may grab the chest on here, which holds gold that increases in increments of 50. The last ship that you will see holds 200 gold, then you can find no more. To leave Coral Sea, find dry land without coral blocking it and move there. -o- Pirate's Coast -o- A pirate greets you at the dock of Pirate's Coast. Go to the unmarked building north of the docks, where you meet with Butcher. He's not a very kind guy, and challenges you to a duel. What you choose here affects how your introduction goes: 1) Top dialogue option twice: Quick route, you apologize to Butcher 2) Bottom dialogue option twice, then top dialogue option once: Slower route, you accept the duel. Either way you are betrayed. But the second option allows you to sail to a desert island for a neat scene where the empire attacks you. Then you can leave and basically start from the first option, where if you leave Butcher's meeting and return he orders all pirates in the area to attack. In any case you can no longer stay at Pirate's Coast. Fight your way to the docks and Sail to Godongo (can't land at Weipu). Once you reach Godongo, a storm strikes, and you are stranded. Now your options open considerably---try Quest #3 for starters. --=-- AISHA --=-- -o- Glacial Steppes -o- Aisha begins weak, and she doesn't have much gold either. Not surprisingly her earlier objectives are to die, and later, to be kidnapped by slavers. You have a horse, but sadly after a critical fight it disappears. Speak with the people in the village. Visit the steppes (the grassy area outside of the village) when you've done so and pick some fights. Eventually a fight proves too tough for you, you lose, and Neidhart (or Knight Heart) saves you--all of which is necessary to proceed. Neidhart throws up camp, and you come to. He offers you a tour of Crystal City (the first option accepts this and the second declines it). Go ahead and accept it. It's a cute scene, even if you can't read the dialogue. There's a solemn scene with the grandfather and Neidhart afterwards. I can't imagine that this is anything other than a coming of age speech (remember that Aisha is 16). You may leave camp afterwards, where you are promptly attacked by 'Guards', who are are actually kidnappers. When you lose you are taken to N. Estameel. You may notice that this whole bit ovelaps with Jamil's introduction. The PS2 version calls this quest "Wuhan's Secret". Essentially Aisha is kidnapped and taken to a harem, but in no time she's out of there--Jamil infiltrates the area disguised as a girl when you speak with Farrah, the woman in the southwest corner. The owner comes out, and you must take him out before your escape. There are two dialogue options afterwards--I'm not sure which is which, but I know that they either spare the owner's life or kill him, and I suspect that the second kills him. What you choose affects your favor with the gods and what ending quest you take later on. Next, the scene flashes to S.Estameel. Jamil talks for a bit and asks to join your group. Select either the top option to accept or the bottom option to decline. After this your options open up, and you are free to roam the world. --===-- CLAUDIA --===-- -o- LOST FOREST -o- The lost forest is one of the few serene areas in the game, and the birds aren't pesky and hostile here either. That must only be blue birds--I'll remember that! Claudia stays here with her grandmother or protector Eule, a dog named Bruan and a wolf named Sylvan. When you speak with Eule she mentions monsters about, and assigns Bruan and Sylvan to your party. Exit south through the tunnel object below Eule's house. Once outside, go further south to the clearing in the woods, where two ogres dance around a guy named Jean. Though your party may be a bit silly, it gets the job done. Now speak with Eule again. Finally, walk south through the tunnel and leave the forest to the west. Journey to the northeastern map destination, the town Mirubiru. -o- MIRUBIRU -o- Go straight north to speak with the guards outside of the palace. They leave to retrieve Jean, the guy that you rescued earlier. He introduces you to the lord of the palace. Then the two of you walk to the inn, where you sleep automatically. After you awaken, Jean introduces you to Gray, yet another of his friends. But Gray actually joins your party--and now you're free of commitment and can explore the world as you wish. --===-- BARBARA --===-- -o- WEST END -o- Barbara has the shortest introduction in the game. Simply visit the West End pub, speak to the minstrel, and select the bottom option. She does however have a pretty neat carriage. -=- SIF -=- -o- VALHALLAND -o- Sif begins in the distant, icy outpost of Valhalland. It's perhaps the worst place in the game to start, but seeing your footprints in the snow indeed goes a long way towards making up for it. What a cool feature. The house to the east of where you start belongs to the village elder. Speak with him for your first quest--kill a fixed enemy in the south and west caves. The west cave is directly west of the village and on the west side of a plateau. Go northeast when you enter, fight through the slimes, and kill the slime guarding the treasure chest (it's actually 5 slimes in one). Now for the south cave. You must cross the bridge west of Valhalland, walk along the river, and at a lower point recross a bridge to the east, where there are holes in the ground. Enter the hole in the middle-right and notice the fixed demon to your right. This is the second monster that you must kill, and he's rather tough. Use salves to reach full life before attacking him, and save beforehand also. The village elder says something different when you revisit Valhalland. But speak with the people in the northern area of town, and a boy will inform you that he saw a shipwreck. Leave town once again, walk to the west, and enter the wrecked ship. Albert is at the rear of the ship to the left. Select the second option when you speak with him. He joins your group. Now return to Valhalland. There is another scene if you speak with the village elder, and everyone goes to sleep afterwards. You get a new quest in the morning when you speak with the elder. Now grab Albert from the inn by selecting the bottom dialogue option. From here Sif's quest line overlaps Albert's exactly--it would be a bit redundant to post everything again. But here is a repost of at least the quest that you currently have. It once again involves the southern cave. Everything further you can get from Albert's introductory walkthrough, although admittedly after this quest the introduction can be done away with entirely--at least once you reach Meilzabel, where you can decline Theodore and Rafael's request to help. -o- COLD SOUTH CAVE -o- Enter through the northeast hole for the first segment. Fight through to the top chamber where stairs descend. There are dead-ends in this lower area and tougher monsters. The boss is to the left and up. He hits hard, which means that you ought to be at full health even if it means using a salve to heal under 10 health. Every little bit counts. On my game for example he hit Albert for 52 damage in the first round--Ouch! Also, don't forget to open the chest behind the boss. --=====-- 7. QUESTS --=====-- ****NOTE**** I have got most of the mid to end-game quests I think. A few may be missing, and I may know which. To some extent, it's not always easy to say well, here's a quest. If a villager opens a location on the map and I kill a fixed monster there, was that a quest? That was the issue with much of the frontier-- basically a bunch of caves, and I can't read the dialogue at any rate. Reader- submitted quests would be great. So much of the stuff relies on reading what's written in game, and there are only so many resources at hand. What's here will get you to the last boss and all of the fun that is him. If early-game quests seem lacking, it's because 1) much of the early-game is compiled in the character introductions and 2) some introductory quests for certain characters intermix with all-purpose quests for others, but the details are unique--and I haven't got around to sorting everything out. For example, I'm sure that quests such as rescuing Farrah in S. Estameel are all-purpose, but what's the difference between Jamil's version, Aisha's version, and everyone else's? Nailing things down is a chore without completing the same quest three times. ************** QUEST #1 ------------------------------ -o- ESTAMEEL HAREM -o- accessed: early-game difficulty: easy location: S. Estameel ------------------------------ **NOTE*** Jamil and Aisha have unique versions of this quest in their introductions. ********* This needs to be completed very early I believe. Speak with the pub owner and the other guy in S. Estameel's pub. Leave the pub and check the eastern side of town. If a solemn guy in brown is standing fixed there, without a woman beside him, the quest has been triggered. Now take the boat from S. Estameel to N. Estameel. Check out the southwest of N. Estameel, where there is a temple. Enter the temple and pass through the secret wall underneath the first pillars on the right. Speak to the bouncer outside the door and select the bottom option. This triggers a fight. Now enter the door, walk around (the people don't say anything) to speak with the woman in the southwest. Guards and the owner come next. You have to fight them in two waves. Finally you have a choice of whether or not to kill the owner. I believe the first option spares his life. Outside in S. Estameel the woman thanks you. QUEST #2 ------------------------------ -o- RESCUE JEAN -o- accessed: early-game difficulty: easy location: Loban ------------------------------ Walk to Loban, which can be reached from Blue Eddy, the destination of the eastern dock in Obiru. The house where the quest begins is the one at the far left of town. The woman there is Monica, but if you can accept the quest, two other people ought to be there also: Gray and Claudia. Later Jean joins you at the bottom of a cavern. It's first necessary to select the top option twice when speaking with Monica. You know that you have the quest when Monica's two guests disappear. Rather than simply disappearing they join your party, and now you can access the house that was locked earlier at the north of Loban. Pick the bottom two options when you talk to the man in the house. He moves away from a secret passage, but charges to attack before you can enter. He's actually two guys (or at least discovered better illusion magic than that dinky stuff at the shop). With weak characters like Gray and Claudia you may take some casualties, but it's doubtful that your main character will die. It's perhaps time for a bit of pre-quest leveling if so, as certain blue dragons in upcoming dungeons have a ranged frost attack that hits for 120-130 damage. The secret passage is available after the battle. Walk left through the wall and down till you see the jail cell. There are inter-party comments "aha! a secret passage!" and then you enter the jail, instantly to meet a pit trap in the floor. The guy in the cell was Jean, and when the stars fade (never soon enough because there are three fish beside you!) Jean stands alongside the party in a cavern. Once you reach dry land walk left, if desired, for a chest within a sub-cave to the south, accessed through a stair-like icon. Otherwise, the right path is the one out of here. It soons loops down, left (and if you continue left there is another chest with gold) and up into a sub-cave to get on with the main quest. At the end of the sub-cave, a reentrance to the main cave, and a launch into the water. South is a waterfall. Slide down to appear in a small area, and walk left to exit. Jean leaves you outside, saying something regarding Loban and empire. Two new areas may open too: the Lost Forest and Mirubiro, both in the Mirubiro area. Monica thanks you inside of her house, and asks if you are okay. QUEST #3 -------------------------- -o- DINOSAUR EGG -o- accessed: early-game difficulty: medium location: Jelton -------------------------- Speak with everyone in the town of Jelton (accessed from the bottom dock in Mirubiru, which is a town right of Loban) to get the location of the Dinosaur Plains. There is a legendary egg there, which can summon a dinosaur. There is also a bit of treasure (300g from chests,) but it is not worth while unless you enjoy combatting legions of monsters. The point of the quest at any rate is to retrieve the egg. Once you reach the Dinosaur Plains, the first hole that you see has the egg. And yet the dinosaurs, which inhabit the plains and the caves below them, are invincible. They perform up to a x3 attack before you can act, and each hit inflicts about 350 damage. Avoiding them is your best bet (if you're not up to using save states, you can run from a dinosaur battle should you fall into one--if you select run immediately and have three or more party members then dinosaurs can't wipe you). But in the first cave, which contains the egg, there are many dinosaurs to avoid. It takes some strategy. The cave is shaped a bit like this, with E being the entrance, and S the secret passage to the dinosaur egg: ____ ____ |E | | | | | | S| | | | | | | | | | |___| | |_____________| Clearly the choke point is in the center. Luring the dinosaurs to the top, and strafing around them and down (sort of like a running-back against a dumb, slow defense), will suffice in the big rooms. But luck may play a role in the center. Definitely keep a save outside of the hole before attempting this. I used save states on an emulator when I performed it. I also tried it with running from any encounter, and it was obviously much harder. Running pulls you from a battle, and it may allow for a dinosaur 'tick', where all of the dinosaurs move a square before you're at risk of entering combat again. But if you become wedged between dinosaurs, all of the running in the world won't save you. What do you do in the center? In my experience, if you lure the dinosaurs on the entrance side to the top, and strafe past them to the bottom, there is a good chance that you can rush through the choke point and make it to the other side without meeting resistance. There is also a chance that you can't. If you rush through the center and find a dinosaur plowing towards you, with no chance of your reaching the other side where the path widens, you only have one option. That is, you can backtrack, lure this dinosaur into a wider area, and strafe around him too. But obviously this won't work if the dinosaurs in the entrance room are on your tail already. This is why your greatest hope lies in the strategy of luring the dinosaurs to the top of the entrance room, speeding down, and rushing the chokepoint. You ought to have a chance to backtrack if you meet opposition at the chokepoint. Load your save outside of the hole and try again if not. Once you reach the other side, dinosaur footprints lead to the secret path in the right wall. The egg is in a non-descript, gray secret room. And then you have to backtrack, which is harder than the entering part. But the same strategy is used regardless. As said, there is one treasure area with 300g in treasure chests in the Dinosaur Plains. The rest of the holes are entirely useless. If you're up for the trouble, walk north till you reach a flower patch (there are two in the plains, but this one is on the east side of the bridge and to the north). You see a zoomed view once you enter the patch. A hole is in the center. Fall down and follow the path south (past dozens of monsters) to a treasure chest and stairs. Climb the stairs (fight past dozens more monsters) to another chest. Then backtrack and fight through the same dozen monster that you already killed in the first room. It's not worth it in my opinion. Keep in mind that this area is optional, and all that you need is the dinosaur egg. With that you have completed the quest. You can now sell it for an amazing 5000 gold, or use it battle (equip it as a weapon first) to summon a dinosaur, though this is only a one-time thing. QUEST #4 ------------------------------- -o- ENSLAVED GECKLINGS -o- accessed: early-game difficulty: easy location: Weipu ------------------------------- After you have unlocked Mirubiru, and you can travel to Weipu (the top dock in Mirubiru) you are ready for this easy fetch quest, which unlocks two other quests when finished. Start in Weipu. Walk behind the weapon shop to hear some dialogue (these are actually geckling cries). Now leave the town through the path right of the inn. Travel to Godongo to the north. Speak with everyone to unlock the 'Jungle' area. From Godongo, take a ship to Northpoint. You need to recruit Garaha (a lizardman) from the Northpoint pub, or else you cannot speak with a crucial NPC in the quest. Once this is finished, return to Godongo, leave, and visit the jungle. The Geckling Village took me a bit to find, but it's actually right next to where you enter the Jungle. Enter the first hut that you see--you're now in a cave-- and pass through the rear of the first large boulder. The chief isn't hard to spot. Garaha appears at your side when you speak to him. According to the PS2 version the dialogue is that humans have enslaved gecklings, and thus the chief won't speak to you, only to Garaha. This makes the weapon shop owner seem suspicious enough. You need to shuffle back there for an encounter (speak with the weapon shop owner twice), which is followed by a lifeless scene of gecklings marching outside in a single-file line. You freed them (although it isn't much for emancipation). Now speak with the chief and the others in the cave to collect a few more quests (Quest #7 Ancient Texts), (Quest #15 The Blue Dragon). QUEST #5 ------------------------------- -o- CONSTANCE KIDNAPPED -o- accessed: mid-game difficulty: easy location: Meilzabel ------------------------------- Speak with Rafael (who will be in the Meilzabel jail, accessed from the right stairwell in Meilzabel castle, if you can initiate the quest). He speaks of a monster's kidnapping Constance and gives you the location of a tower. This is not where she is, but at the top of it (don't bother with the chests--they're all locked) a person named Flamme tells you Constance's location if you select the second and the first dialogue options. Outside, the map shows a new location beneath the tower: Constance. This is the dungeon segment of the quest. Hop in when ready. The first floor is 'G' or ground floor to avoid confusion. Lower floors are B1, B2, B3 (basement 1, etc.) A sign points you to the left when you enter. This may seem deceptive, but for the quick-and-dirty save-the-princess-and-bail strategy, it is the fastest. When you have a choice take the southwest branch to descend to B1. (treasure on the other hand is accessed from the northeast of where you start and also, after following the sign, the southeast branch, both down stairs and in alternate parts of B1 than the main one. There are stairs to B1 in four different places, and the entire floor is linked, so that when you descend once it's unnecessary to ascend again. But the chests only contain gold.) If you want the quickest way, continue walking down from the quick entrance to B1 (where the sign pointed) to reach the quick entrance to B2. Now you can walk up till the path bends right and more stairs lead to B3, which is the lowest level. There are quick-moving skeletons here. Walk through the left tunnel before the right, since the right leads to a dungeon exit. After you fight enough monsters you will see Constance behind a reptilian guard. The guard himself is not tough. He's the first of his kind and will kill a weaker character in one hit, but he dies in the second round if you burn a few weapon skills. Speak with Constance to rescue her. Now you can raid the treasure hoard in the rear. There are six chests lined up with no resistance. Backtrack and choose the right tunnel this time (still in B3) and not far along it, an upper tunnel, which leads to the overworld. You don't have a chance to do anything before you're in the throne room of Meilzabel. This was a nice touch, and I believe, if the PS2 remake can be trusted, that selecting the first option when Theodore speaks with you causes you to be knighted. Either way there's a horn flourish, but less dialogue if you choose the second option. And neither seems to give a reward--I suppose that asking for one would be rude after such a prestigious ceremony as knighthood. QUEST #6 ------------------------------- -o- CLAUDIA SAYS GOODBYE -o- accessed: mid-game difficulty: easy location: Lost Woods ------------------------------- If you have Claudia in your party you can travel to Lost Woods in the mid-game to say goodbye to a dying Eule, who was Claudia's guardian when she was younger. It's a bit sad, but otherwise there seems not much of a point to it, except that any quest will advance the game, and this in particular is an easy one. Indeed if you are on a quest such as Ancient Texts it is not even out of the way to complete this quest. QUEST #7 ------------------------------- -o- ANCIENT TEXTS -o- accessed: mid-game difficulty: easy location: Geckling Cave (Jungle) prerequisite: Quest #4 (Enslaved Gecklings) ------------------------------- This quest has as a prerequisite Quest #4, Enslaved Gecklings. Its greater purpose is to gain access to the Twin Moon temple in the Jungle, which the symbols that you acquire during the quest will do. A geckling in the cave offers it after Quest #4 (so speak with all Gecklings in the cave before attempting this quest if you don't read Japanese). You must first travel to S. Estameel to recruit Hawk, who sits at the bar. Then you must visit Miribiru's library in the southeast of town and read a book on the left shelves (read all of them to be on the safe side). Next, visit Lost Woods and speak to the tree. Select the second option and the scene switches to night- time. Then, after a bit you are given the Symbol of Aeris. You need one more symbol, this one from N. Estameel. Sail there from Blue Eddy, and walk to the southwest temple. The priest there finally says something (he didn't before) and gives you the Amut Symbol. QUEST #8 ------------------------------- -o- EVIL ISLAND -o- accessed: mid-game difficulty: medium location: Mirubiru ------------------------------- Search the pub note in Mirubiru. If it says something, you may be able to initiate this quest. Speak with the priestess in the temple, found in the northwest part of Mirubiru. Then visit Obiru by way of the upper dock in Blue Eddy. If the old man at the farthest southern pier in Obiru does not offer you two options, you cannot yet intiate this quest. If he does offer you two options, you can, but it is a one-way deal. If you leave after arriving at the island you cannot accept the quest again. That said, selecting the second option when speaking with the old man teleports you near an island. You're on a boat and some cool music plays. Don't leave whatever you do, or you fail the quest. To dock at the island, find a land space with no visible brown rock on it (these spaces are only on the sides of the island), face it, and press (A). There are monsters about the island that will delay you, but the real fights are inside a tower. Find the center path with torches and statues and walk up and through the tower doors. 1F has more of the pens that you may have seen before in other dungeons. Other than that it's a linear path, with one stop on the way for a treasure chest, directly before you pass above the first pen. There is gold inside. If you continue you can ascend to 2F. This floor is much the same, except with a slight snag awaiting the lazy player whose eyes light up at a shortcut. North of a pit with zombies there is a narrow corridor that appears to lead to a chest. Yet if you walk this way you are thrown down once you pass the second stais, unable to reascend then (instead you can ascend the left stairs), and left to deal with 8 or so zombies. Ignoring the zombie pit and taking the long way down and to the left of it avoids all of this. You still arrive at the treasure chest (it has gold) and eventually 3F. 3F is a 'maze' of candles so to speak with an alluring center chest. Sadly the chest only contains a Magic Restore, and at any rate the room and most or all of its encounters are circumvented by taking the north path from the stairway that you came through to the next stairway leading up. 4F has some odd ropes on the left before a set of stairs, which are slightly past the ropes. Flanking the stairwell are two treasure chests in niches, each with 1000g in them. 5F has two gauntlets of running by thrones on which monsters sit. The first gauntlet is easy enough if you pass the thrones on the tiles farthest from them. There is a chest at the end, which you must hurry to collect or face all of the zombies that you just passed. It contains a 'mage staff'. However, the next gauntlet is annoying. There is no way to pass it without fighting every demon on the throne. Thankfully they don't seem to be the harder demons in the dungeon, which hit 2-3 times a round for 100+ damage, but it is a lot of fights. 6F feels like the big end-game, with chests that contain worth while loot and monsters that behave abnormally (the zombies move at 2-3x their normal speed). You can walk directly south and climb to 7F with only a few fights, but that would be a sin. Instead, once you see the stairs, take the new paths that lead both left and right for two chests, a jewel (worth 10000g) and leg armour that I don't have a translation for, which increases your defense by 10. Possibly the best haul thus far. 7f is straightforward. There are stairways that you can't ascend, which you may find yourself at if you're greedy on the next level, where it kicks you back down. But the stairway to 8F is in plain sight and easy to reach. 8F has treasures on the left (gold) and right (3 potions that raise a character's intelligence). But you fall down the ropes each time that you take one of these paths. This means fighting again fairies that have reappeared on 7F, and then fighting fairies that have reappeared on 8F. The pen in the center has a few fairies, but past it is an epic stairway to the boss. No matter what you select, the boss runs. Only in the Wonderswan Color version can you get the Emerald fatestone from him. QUEST #9 ------------------------------- -o- THE ELDER DRAGONS PT. 1 -o- accessed: mid-game difficulty: medium location: N. Estameel ------------------------------- Although the Water Dragon temple is accessible earlier than this quest, I'm not sure that it has a purpose till this quest has begun. If there's a note in the N. Estameel pub that says something other than No News, this quest is available. Check the northeast corner of the city, past the palace/fortress place, after reading the note. A woman is trapped between two shady men, both of whom will die easily to a decent party. Speak with the woman, and she probably says something concerning the palace in Tarumita, which is in the same region as S. Estameel. To reach S. Estameel (and thus Tarumita) pay a fare for the rightmost boat in N. EStameel. Leave S. Estameel and travel to Tarumita, the city in the center of the map. If it's been while, sleep at the inn. The next area is the toughest at this stage of the game, although it is short. Walk to the southeast corner of town. You may have to walk behind the palace for this, but there ought to be a small beach area from where the tide fell. Take the stairs down to enter a secret passage. Walk left out of the passage, and there is a jail cell with several guards outside of it. Try to at least confront them face-to-face if you must so that you maintain your chosen ranks. The guards appear in groups of three-to-four, they kill weaker players in one hit, and can attack the entire front row at once, or also lull it. You will need salves for this. A long staircase sits on the left-side. It ends in the throne room of the palace, which thankfully is absent of any super-powered kings or queens, but has a gauntlet of guards that you can avoid if you're quick. The next staircase to the right (don't exit through the double doors at the bottom) leads to a boss of sorts, whom I found to only be a weaker enemy that I had faced earlier. Decidedly easier than the guards. The same path leads out that lead in. Leave Tarumita and choose the Water Dragon Temple, which is a location in the middle of the southern lake on the map. If you haven't played a character with transportation before you will enjoy the boat segment here. Walk left till the dock and board the boat. You're sailing! Fish will attack you, but your speed is such that you ought to be ashamed if one does. It's easy to reach the water dragon temple (a bit right off of the left shore near the bottom-left corner of the lake) without encounters. Inside is a bit different. Watch for a certain ooze enemy in here that travels in packs. It looks like a brain with an eye, and it is encased in a bubble. Surprisingly it's possible to confuse this description with another enemy, but once they begin their attack you won't any longer. They rain fire on your party with each attack for up to 40 damage each on weaker characters. The temple has some treasure, but it's nothing great. In the first room you only need to reach the stairs at the top. Don't bother with avoiding the oozes immediately above you because it's difficult. On the next level you must walk west (ignoring the easy way out--south--which shows its true colors as a dead- end) and after passing into the western room (identical to the eastern room), south. This long walkway is not a dead-end. You reach more monsters when it widens. A four-way crossing is ahead. The top path goes nowhere; the bottom path goes to a chest (500g); whereas the right leads to more stairs. Take the stairs. again, there is a four-way crossing ahead. Make your way left a bit to reach it. Don't be fooled by side passages on the way, which lead nowhere. At the four-way crossing, the northeast and northwest routes to lead to chests: gold and Water Restores, respectively. The southwest leads to more stairs. This is B3. I thought that I had got lucky by avoiding monsters on B2, but B3 put things again into perspective with many unavoidable encounters. Probably it's best simply to face forward and tough 'em out. There is a treasure if you walk south at the first branch, but it's only gold. Walking north and west from the first branch, however, leads further into the dungeon. Eventually there is another stairwell. This one leads to B4, where there are no monsters. The Water Dragon, Huran the Guard Captain, the kidnapped girl, and two guards await you to the north for quite a showdown, in addition to a pop- quiz of dialogue options. Select the first option once to fight two guards. Select the first option after the battle to fight Huran. Both die easily, but the Water Dragon appears if you walk north again. He offers three options. Select the second to continue the quest, or the third to fight him (and likely die). The first seems to do nothing. If you decide to continue, there are many more steps in this quest's completion. If you don't, the quest ends, and I believe that you receive no credit for it. The girl certainly isn't rescued at least. Proceed to pt. 2 if you continue this one. QUEST #10 ------------------------------- -o- THE ELDER DRAGONS PT. 2 -o- accessed: mid-game difficulty: easy location: Hell Plateau prerequisite: Quest #9 (The Elder Dragons Pt. 1) ------------------------------- The Water Dragon asked for the Raincloud Armlet. However, only the elder dragon Atlas, of Hell Plateau, has it. You may not have the location of Hell Plat. yet; if not, speak with the villagers in Blue Eddy. They reveal it on your map. The plateau is so named because once you reach the top of it there is a vine that leads into a multi-floor area of mnsters and undead. Not quite what I call Hell, but the monster encounters are bothersome after a bit since there are so many. A rule of thumb in this area is that what appears to be the easiest way out is typically the way that leads to a treasure and subsequent dead-end. Reaching the top of the plateau itself requires walking southeast, climbing up to a higher spot, meandering around a ridge (to the right or the left) and finally reaching the plateau's summit. Then you descend. B1 has a bunch of zombies and skeletons. There are more vines here, but again, only the one in the center, which is the longest route, leads out. The other vines lead to treasure, most of which I have collected and found only to be gold. The center vine ends in the lower B2 floor, where you only have to walk down a bit to reach the stairs to B3. The next area is more annoying undead, but eventually there is another stairwell. On B4 there are spiders everywhere, and the first two cage-like areas are dead ends with treasure. The last area has a partially hidden stairwell down. Finally on B5 there is the dragon Atlas. Select the first option twice when you speak with him to be sent on another fetch quest, this time for the Cyclonic Shoes. QUEST #11 ------------------------------- -o- THE ELDER DRAGONS PT. 3 -o- accessed: mid-game difficulty: easy location: Sukabo Mt. prerequisite: Quest #10 (The Elder Dragons Pt. 2) ------------------------------- Atlas wants the Cyclonic shoes, and you need to retrieve them. But first you must convince the giant bird on Sukabo Mountain to hand them over. This involves yet another dungeon crawl before you can speak with him. Thankfully Sukabo Mountain is one of the more straightforward dungeons in the game. Sail to Obiru and travel to the location northeast of Crystal City, which is Sukabo Mountain. The first part of it is a hike to the summit. There are no detours here; you can't become lost. The second part is inside the mountain, which is accessed from a cave at the summit. There are still no detours here, mostly. A few paths are slight dead-ends, and a few lead to chests with gold ( and a Wind Restore in one) but the way is primarily linear. Annoying dead-ends to avoid are at the start of the cave, where you can walk left to a dead-end and have to fight a bunch of spiders while retracing your steps, and after the first flight of steps that loads a new area, where you can walk right and up accidentally and waste a lot of time on a dead-end. When you reach a level with only birds on it you are near the kingpin. Walk right instead of left, since left leads outside. This is a spiral path, which spirals towards the middle where the campfires are visible. Immediately north of them is the great bird. Select the first option when you speak with him; it's unsurprising that he won't hand over his item either. You need to visit a volcano for the Flame Sword (and in case you think I'm keeping you in the dark, yes, the boss of Tomae Volcano won't hand over the sword yet either, but that is the last dungeon in this quest chain, at least till you revisit all of these with the proper items). QUEST #12 ------------------------------- -o- THE ELDER DRAGONS PT. 4 -o- accessed: mid-game difficulty: easy location: Tomae Volcano prerequisite: Quest #11 (The Elder Dragons Pt. 3) ------------------------------- Tomaeo Volcano is located southeast of Jelton, on the same island as the Dinosaur Plains. Jelton is reached from the lower dock in Mirubiru. This one can be difficult for three reasons. First, there is a tough mid-boss in the volcano that may or may not trouble your party based upon your progress thus far. Secondly, it is easy to become lost in Tomae Volcano, which is almost a full-fledged maze. Thirdly, the monsters are difficult, and certain blob enemies are actually fire packs with up to 6-8 creatures in them, hit for up to 140 damage on a single character or up to 50 damage on an entire party. But the mid-boss itself leads to a shortcut, and the shortcut bypasses the maze and quickly leads to the Flame Tyrant, the guy with the Flame Sword. Thus we can dbypass a lot of stuff if we want. To do so walk up and through the archway immediately after you enter Tomaeo Volcano. Walk up through the next chokepoint to meet a blob standing still. This is actually the mid-boss, and he will not let you pass at this point unless you beat him. He's a cerberus that attacks twice a round, once for a nasty ranged fireball that will kill a single party member (roughly 400 damage) and secondly with his claws, which only inflict roughly 100 damage. Yet you can kill him rapidly if you have many tier 2 weapon skills. I beat him in two rounds the first time, but once I realized that he was tough, I went all out the next time that I fought him and killed him in a single round. Both times he only got one turn. Past him and around the lava (which incidentally can be entered in many parts of Tomaeo Volcano and deals no damage when you walk in it) is a stairwell. This leads to another level, on which you only need to access the center lava area, walk down and then up to the center island to meet Flame Tyrant. For such a menacing guy he is actually quite compromising, and agrees to give you the Flame Sword in exchange for the Ice Sword. Is he turning over a new leaf? At any rate if you have saved your game and want a good laugh you can fight him with the bottom dialogue option. I actually performed better against him than the other seemingly invincible bosses in this quest-line, but Flame Tyrant in particular has a flame volley attack, which wraps a fight up instantly if he deems to use it. 600+ damage to all party members, and his normal attack is no joke either, as I have yet to see a character survive it. Now the only step remaining is to find the Ice Sword, for which you thankfully don't have to enter a dungeon. QUEST #13 ------------------------------- -o- THE ELDER DRAGONS PT. 5 -o- accessed: mid-game difficulty: easy location: Allucia prerequisite: Quest #12 (The Elder Dragons Pt. 4) ------------------------------- Once you have 30000g, which is the worth of 3 jewels, you need to visit the normally empty Allucia, which is north of Obiru. The shop master normally sells the Ice Sword, but amusingly he won't have it by the time that you finally raise the funds. A man in town will have bought it. If you don't see the man walking around town, chances are that you either haven't done quest #11 (where Flame Tyrant asks for an Ice Sword in exchange for Flame Sword) or you don't have at least 3 jewels. There are three dialogue options when you talk to the man. The first may be a compliment on his new sword--you can do this of course, but don't expect to be brought any closer to completing this gargantuan quest chain if you do. Either option two or three will earn you the sword, but be warned that option two is remarkably cruel. It kills the man in cold blood (he's too weak to defend himself, as you will see if you select option three, which recruits him) without a battle scene or anything. You get the sword, and the death music plays afterwards. Option three, followed by option two, recruits him into your party. You of course can't do this if you have a full party. But if he does join you can unequip his Ice Sword and give it to Flame Tyrant. Which is still nicer than murdering him. His name is 'Galahad' by the way, or so the translations say. Once you have the Ice Sword, finishing all of these quests is simply a matter of revisiting each boss. The order in case you forgot is Tomae Volcano, Sukabo Mountain, Hell Plateau, and Water Dragon Temple. Nicely by order of their bosses, many of the monsters in these dungeons no longer attack. QUEST #14 ------------------------------- -o- JELTON MONSTER INVASION -o- accessed: mid-game difficulty: easy location: Jelton ------------------------------- At some point you may enter Jelton and find it overrun by monsters. This is the trigger for a quest. Speak with the owner of the pub as you fight your way to the town's exit. Travel to Tomae Volcano. Take the shortest way to the boss of this area, which is up, and through both archways to a fixed slime. The slime will require a fight if you haven't yet spoken with Flame Tyrant in the Elder Dragons quest line. It turns out to be a cerberus, which is a tough enemy, but which is certainly beatable. Past the fixed slime is a staircase. The next area has a lava pool in the center, accessed by a small flight of stairs down. The lava will not hurt you if you stand in it. Walk down through it, left, and up onto the center platform, where Flame Tyrant is. Speak with him to clear Jelton of monsters. Now leave Tomae Volcano through the way that you came. QUEST #15 ------------------------------- -o- THE BLUE DRAGON -o- accessed: mid-game difficulty: hard location: Jungle (Geckling Cave) prerequisite: Quest #4 (Enslaved Gecklings) ------------------------------- If you've placated the apprehensive gecklings in quest 4 they will conscript you to do two more quests for them, one of which is this. It's hard to say that you are really friends with them now, but at least you've been upgraded to quest lackey or whatever. Speak with all of the gecklings in the cave to ensure that you have the quest. Enter the jungle. You have to kill a Blue Dragon. The directions to reach the main cave that the Blue Dragon is in are: Enter the first cave past the hut on the right. You can pass through it to the other side of the rocks. Walk south when you are outside. Enter the next cave. This is one of the jungle's two main caves. It's not difficult, nor is it the main part of the quest (the Blue Dragon's cave is larger). Walk left in the first segment, up the tiny stair-ramp, and find a place to descend into the water. Swim downwards, but do not descend the waterfall. Climb the stair-ramp before it. Walk down and left to find the stairs to a lower cave floor. There are many octopi here. Do not be deceived by these waterfalls, because you can walk under them. In fact, do so as you walk right, up, and up and left to reach the stairs, necessarily fighting octopi on the way. The next floor is simple. Walk up and descend into the water. Descend the waterfall, swim down (but do not descend another waterfall, or you have to start from the beginning of the caverns) and swim left. Find the land access and walk up till you can leave the cave. Outside of this cave and further ahead is a cave with a four-way crossing. The top crossing, which appears to be a dead-end, is of course a hidden door (I think a spider even comes through it at some point to give it away). This is the one that you should enter. Walk up, left, down through the trees, and descend the stair-ramp to reach the lower grass. Follow the straight path up to enter a zoomed area where a hole is. Enter the hole. There is a bit of a decline before you have a choice of what to do. Typically a flower attacks you at the bottom. Then you can move in a variety of directions. No path but the right however leads anywhere special. Others end in chests with gold, sometimes on raised land platforms. But if you walk right and after a while, up, you reach stairs that lead down. The next cave level also has many of those optional paths with gold chests. Some of these paths even lead to three and four chests, especially the holes that the spiders emerge from. But if simply completing the quest is your goal, read on. Travel right, and dip onto the nearby path when you finally can (this is another one of those spiraling rooms). Proceed for a bit to a fixed octopus monster and kill it easily. There are six chests nearby, each with 300 gold, for a total of 1800 gold. Now descend the stairs. Blue Dragon is to the left, through the cave, and up the stair-ramp and land bridge. He guards a lone chest, and he is very difficult. Before you fight him be sure to save, since you will die instantly if he decides to use his rare breath attack. Engage him only once everyone is fully healed. For attacks the Blue Dragon has a single target frost blast (400 damage) and a multi-target frost breath (400-500 damage to all). He also seems to have over 6000 hitpoints. High-damage, single-target skills are key here. Deadeye, the tier 3 bow skill, is great. It fell just below my Bastard Sword user's tier 3 damage (1k for the sword, 900 for the bow). But any skill in this vein will do. You may have to reload if you lose your stronger characters early on, or if you miss much. Eating a frost breath especially guarantees a reload. Behind the Blue Dragon is a chest with the stone Opal inside. You can now return to the stairs on this floor and walk right from them instead of left, as you did to reach Blue Dragon. The exit is at the end and to the far left. Optionally, you may kill Silver Dragon, who guards the next to last passage before the exit. He guards two items, one of which I can't deciper, and the other the translation patch calls 'Mag.Shield', but it actually restores a party's hitpoints to full. Notice that you exit in the same area where you entered. The shortest way out of the jungle from here is by hopping on the river, falling down a waterfall, and swimming down to the beginning. Not far from this area (in fact, just up the ramp and past some trees) you will find a rough patch in the grass from which you can enter the water. Now swim to the beginning and visit the Gecklings. QUEST #16 ------------------------------- -o- CURE THE EMPEROR -o- accessed: mid-game difficulty: easy location: Mirubiru prerequisite: Quest #7 (Ancient Texts) ------------------------------- Read the notice in the Mirubiru pub if it's there. Then visit the upper left of town by way of the dirt path. There is a temple there, with a priestess inside. She gives you the quest if you speak with her. Now you can read the books in the Mirubiru library, one of which describes the Moonstone, which can cure diseases. You must enter the Twinmoon temple to find the Moonstone, which is why Quest #6 is a prerequisite, because it leads to the items required to access the temple (two amulets). If you already have the amulets, visit the jungle. Past the first hut is a cave. Enter it, and you can pass to the other side of the rocks. Walk south when you are outside. Enter the next cave. This is one of the jungle's two main caves. It's not difficult, nor is it the main part of the quest (Twinmoon Temple is larger). Walk left in the first segment, up the tiny stair-ramp, and find a place to descend into the water. Swim downwards, but do not descend the waterfall. Climb the stair-ramp before it. Walk down and left to find the stairs to a lower cave floor. There are many octopi here. Do not be deceived by these waterfalls, because you can walk under them. In fact, do so as you walk right, up, and up and left to reach the stairs, necessarily fighting octopi on the way. The next floor is simple. Walk up and descend into the water. Descend the waterfall, swim down (but do not descend another waterfall, or you have to start from the beginning of the caverns) and swim left. Find the land access and walk up till you can leave the cave. Outside of this cave and further ahead is a cave with a four-way crossing. The top crossing, which appears to be a dead-end, is of course a hidden door (I think a spider even comes through it at some point to give it away). The right path however leads to our current destination of Twinmoon Temple. It's a pyramid, and perhaps they can be temples too (but pyramids are never temples in RPGs!) but you can enter if you have the necessary two amulets. ** NOTE ** All chests in Twinmoon Temple seem to have 500 gold, except the last, which contains Moonstone. Thus chests won't be mentioned in this guide, since it is far too easy to max out at 9999 gold even without searching half of the chests. ********** You begin on groundfloor. Walk straight down to see and descend the B1 stairs. B1 is slightly trickier than groundfloor. You have to circle round the floor by walking up, right, then down, following the outer path as it encompasses the many inner rooms. When you reach the lower side, enter the first door, and you will soon see the B2 stairs. On B2 descend into the right zombie room, walk down through the niche (actually a passage) and left behind the walls. Then walk down to find the stairs. B4 has some elevated walkways and some non- elevated walkways. The actual stairs down are in the southern area of the floor, where most stairs down have been. Yet some pillars block them. Once on the lower level (you start on an elevated one and can access the ramp down by walking right) navigate to the low area in the center of the floor, where you may walk south under an overpass to reach the previously inaccessible B5 stairs. The north of B4 is only a collection of chests, all with, as said, 500 gold. B5 is home to the Moonstone, but it's an even greater display of the two floors within a floor concept. Indeed, you can see an entire layer of enemies below you. And that's where the moonstone is. And the exit from the temple is back on the upper level of B5. Basically, it's worth while to try to avoid some monsters in the area, or else you have your work cut out for you as you navigate up and down on this floor, collecting and exiting. Thankfully this is accomplished easily. The monsters can be lured among the pillars, and you pull the old running-back juke to dash round on the side that they aren't on. Nevertheless, there is one monster you must fight, and she guards the Moonstone. To reach the Moonstone, find the ramp in the center of the floor ( its within its own room) and descend to reach the bottom floor, most of which is concealed by grating. Then find the northern area of this lower segment, where a stationary fairy guards. She isn't a boss. Open the chest behind her for the Moonstone. You will see a set of stairs from here, on the upper level of B5. This leads to the exit. Notice also that the stairs only have a means of travel from the left area of this upper level. Thus you need to ascend the ramp-stairs that you descended earlier, make your way to the left of the B5's upper level, and proceed to the stairs. Scale them, and you are out of here. Finally, leave the jungle, which can be done back at the four-way crossing, slightly left of the pyramid. Take the upper "hidden path" through the rock, walk left till you see the river, and find a rough spot in the grass whence you can access it. Swim down to reach the entrance of the Jungle (well, a bit left of it, but you can find your way!). Back at Mirubiru, speak with the priestess in the temple to be whisked away to the emperor. It perhaps doesn't matter how many events you've done, as the emperor was still alive in his bed after I completed an entire quest line after having accepted this quest. And the moonstone still works. Prepare to be treated to a grandiose scene with soldiers and chancellors and the emperor and his officers before you are offered a choice of rewards: 1) Gold 2) Gararu Axe 3) Gararu Helmet and Gararu Gauntlets 4) Nothing(?) QUEST #17 ------------------------------- -o- THE PIRATES OF MIRUBIRU SEWERS -o- accessed: mid-game difficulty: easy location: Mirubiru Sewers ------------------------------- Want to be a snitch? Enter the Mirubiru sewers near the library (the sewers are accessed from the water canal, and the water canal entrance is a bit south of the docks). The first door on the right opens on a pirate's hideout. Select the second option to force your way in. Fight through the pirates and go straight. A door at the back opens on the pirate's inner sanctum. A chest with 2500 gold is in one room, and two pirate bosses are in the other. Beat them and leave. Back in Mirubiru, visit the Police HQ, which is the unmarked building north of the library. Speak with the policeman at the desk. He heeds your warning and locks all of Mirubiru's sewer grates, orders all citizens off of the streets, and stations guards at the docks. Visit Miribiru again after completing one or two events to find that the town is under attack. Among the monsters invading are two bosses that must be killed before the event will end. The first is in the temple in northwest Mirubiru. But watch out for strong monsters here. I had an Ifrit appear from a demon enemy, and a robed creature on a purple orb (with an attack similar to Ifrit's 600 damage to the whole party) from a enemy. The temple has a secret passage in the far left archway. There are many monsters inside, so do not be discouraged as you walk through (though it may be difficult not to be). Whack them dead, then descend the stairs, and make your way to the altar at the top of the next room. A lot of baddies here--the cyclops and a Sharuyin priest attack you specifically. This is the first boss. Finally, you must walk ALL the way out to Miribiru, which means fighting through the same monsters from before. Then the palace has a boss of its own. Not hard to find the palace. Central- north of town, but there are monsters guarding it and its halls. The actual way to the boss is mostly linear. After two or three stairs you need to walk up instead of right at an intersection. Then the next floor has doorways along it, and the first doorway has the royal family and a boss called Sphinx. Mostly this boss ought to be as easy as the last. It didn't attack me for some reason, and by the second round I had sent it packing. The emperor thanks you in a surprisingly terse scene, and the quest ends (and the guard still won't let you into the palace!) QUEST #18 ------------------------------- -o- THE ASSASSINS' GUILD -o- accessed: mid-game difficulty: easy location: Estameel Sewers ------------------------------- Enter the sewers in the upper left corner of S. Estameel. From here, descend the stair-ramp into the water, walk down for a while, ignoring the first turn- off, and eventually go right to a two-square entryway. Speak with one of the men inside. A great chunk of dialogue is exchanged before you have two options. The second option triggers the quest, which takes place in a different location on the world map. It also authorizes you to loot the thieves' guild's treasure. To quickly do this, walk through the left wall above the bar, around, and open the chests through the upper wall (annoyingly there seems to be a crowd of thieves that idle about in the secret passage). Then exit the sewers and sleep in the S. Estameel inn. While you sleep, an assasin runs from outside of the inn and attacks you. Essentially the fight is the same as any city guard or what-not in S. Estameel if you've had the chance. The players mourn once they beat him, and the sad music plays. But the location of Assassin's Guild now appears on the map, and the quest can be got on with. The guild perhaps not surprisingly is uninhabited by humans. The usual motley crew of skeletons and blobs and dogs mills about. Move right for a bit then move down till you hit a gate. Edge along the gate to the left till an opening. Pass through the opening, walk right, and enter the door. At 1 or 2 o'clock from this door is another one that you should also enter. Move right beyond some beastmen and skeletons, down, and through the right door to the stairs (the left door is stuck at any rate). The next floor has barriers on the ground that you might otherwise think to pass. Instead walk around them. Generally, open the upper door, walk up (don't walk left as it's a dead-end), walk left when you hit a wall, and down till you're against the far south wall. Then proceed along the perimeter, walk up against the far west wall, and find the stairs in the northwest corner. You avoid a lot of monsters this way. Carpets herald this next floor as the last. They roughly point to the boss also. Follow the carpets and pillars north at first. Then you need to go down a bit as the path curves, eventually making your way up again. There are many carpets strung together before the boss. He's in the northwest corner of the floor. Select the first option when you speak with him (this ensures that you maintain your ranks in combat--the second option triggers a surprise attack). The boss is very creepy-looking, but he's a pushover if you can output 1500 damage or so without much trouble. The exit is north of the entrance to this floor. QUEST #19 ------------------------------- -o- GOLD MINE ATTACKED -o- accessed: end-game difficulty: medium location: Mirubiru ------------------------------- During the course of a game you've probably paid a few visits to this gold mine, and there's not been much when you went. Quest #19 is to my knowledge the only quest concerning the gold mine. As a prerequisite it may have Cure the Emperor, quest #16, or simply many quests in general. Calling it an end-game quest is not inaccurate. If you can trigger the event, when you speak with the policeman in red in Miribiru's police station (the unmarked building near the library), and visit the Gold Mine, you will immediately see dead miners or townsfolks at the entrance. The monsters took over the mine, and you must travel through its passages, including the previously off-limits ones, to defeat the fixed enemy at the end. On the left edge of town, walk north till you enter the mine. Walk left again and take the branch upwards once you are inside the mine. Tough skeleton enemies inhabit this area. Again, follow the same directions as last time, only the mine is more linear now. Another room of this sort, and you descend stairs. Now your options of where to go are slightly greater. It's easy to see the sign pointing left as a decoy. But if you completed the earlier quest in Meilzabel rescuing Constance you know that it may tell the truth. Indeed the signs lead almost to the objective of the mines. Walk left from the first sign, up when you can't walk left anymore, and there is another sign that points left (not the sign in the dark tunnel--if you see that you went the wrong way.) You may grab some optional treasure if you disregard the next sign and walk right. A chest with 800 and 900 gold, but there are monsters. Otherwise follow the sign left, where more stairs eventually take you downward. There is a bit of furniture in the next room, and a host of dead-ends if you walk the wrong way (and a hole). Left leads to the next staircase down after a few fights. These final hallways I'm convinced are monster breeding grounds. I've wondered whether the game doesn't exclusively put demon monsters at the end of dungeons to give it an epic or 'levels of hell' feeling. Too bad the encounters are randomized and most are still easy. The path right is your escape path, which is not the correct way yet. You have to kill a dragon at the end of the upward path and can even loot his hoard when he's dead. He's easier than the Blue Dragon on that eponymous quest. I killed him in the first round. Then find the escape path that you ignored previously. After a long climb, you are on the first level of the mines. Humorously, return to the chest that the two skeletons guarded before and now find them missing. There's only 100 gold, but the wait was worth it, right? It would be nice I suppose if dragons all over the world could be killed to eliminate annoying respawning encounters, but overall the amusement perhaps couldn't rival this particular instance. QUEST #20 ------------------------------- -o- THEODORE'S MADNESS -o- accessed: end-game difficulty: hard location: Blue Eddy prerequisite: Quest #5 (Constance Kidnapped) ------------------------------- ***NOTE**** YOU CANNOT COMPLETE THIS QUEST WITHOUT 3 POWERFUL CHARACTERS THAT HAVE OVER 700+ HITPOINTS ************ A guy in fancy blue clothes appears in Blue Eddy at some point. He's not been in the town before; you ought to recognize most of the citizens by now (Blue Eddy's being the only practical hub to Mirubiru and so on), and he sticks out a bit. Speak with him, and you will trigger the quest. First, find a boat to Meilzabel (that would be the southern dock from Blue Eddy). Notice that you can't access the castle in Meilzabel. Now hike to Voygen Chateau, on the southern portion of the continent. Visit this castle instead to find that Lord Heinrich has finally returned, and surprisingly with Rapheal, and upstairs, Constance too. It happens that Theodore has gone insane and taken over Meilzabel castle, populating it with a number of monsters. Speak with Heinrich first. Then walk up the stairs in the leftmost area of the castle to find Constance, whom you should speak with also. Not being sure what she says, know that you can pick both options during the conversation. I ran through two dialogues (and they are long dialogues) choosing each option once. The main goal is simply to acquire a key from her, and following this procedure ensures it. Once you have the key, leave Voygen Chateau and hike back to Meilzabel. Now you must use a secret passage to infiltrate the castle. If you're much of an explorer you may have found it already. It's only slightly hidden through the woods in western Meilzabel, but without a key you couldn't accomplish much before. Now you have one, and at the end of the secret tunnel you can open the door against the castle wall, walk around the castle, and enter the main gate. The first floor is zombies. There are all sorts of annoyances here, especially the shambling red masses with a ton of hitpoints, but you may not encounter them if you have relatively weak characters. Ascend the stairs to the left, and you are on the second floor. This floor has demons. If you're unlucky you may encounter the flame-colored spell-casters that ride on clouds, which are the bane of all-melee parties since each attack is countered with 400 damage fire. There are also other nasty monster possibilities at this stage of the game. The southern room is Theodore's bedroom and contains the only object that you need from the castle. Search the right bookshelf to find the location of a dungeon, which is on the continent's southwest side. You may leave once you get this. As said the new dungeon is in the southwest corner of the continent. It's actually a bit clever so far as dungeons in this game go. It has a bit of overlapping scenery, some doors hidden at odd angles and beneath grating, and in general you may linger a bit beyond the usual killing of monsters and moving on. It's one of my favorite dungeons in the game. The first floor drops you in the northwest corner. Treasure is everywhere, but as you already guessed, it's only gold. At this stage of the game you should have bought the shops out. There's little need for gold (and most dungeons max you out at 9999 gold even without chests). Instead walk diagonally at 4 o'clock. There are two passages here that are hidden by the scenery that I spoke of earlier. Specifically, there is a horizontal stone bridge that appears to be a wall. However at two points you can walk under it. Choose the right side to walk under. Now you have two choices. Both of which are stairs that lead under the grating that you see everywhere. Though it isn't initially obvious, the left stairway is the only one that's not a dead end. There is a one-square corridor in the middle of the southern wall below where you enter. It's another tricky thing to see. Now that you're under the grating and beyond the passage, walk left and meet with the leftmost wall, where there is a stair-ramp that leads to a higher level on this floor. Again, the scenery is deceptive--that random piece of stone does not block the stairs. The elevated level plops you on the other side of the floor. Now go left and up till you meet stairs, where you again descend below the grating. The game plays another card now; the grating looks as if it ends at a certain point, but it's actually broken. The area not covered with grating is still on this lower level. That means that you can walk down, left on the bare area, up, and ascend the other stairs to a new area of the floor. Next, go left till you've cleared the stairs and pretty much walk straight down. Pass under the stone bridge. Walk over the right grating when you have a choice, walk down for a bit, and there are the stairs down. You recognize the next floor if you've finished Evil Island--or at least tried to and had the boss run at the last second. It's a bit of a gauntlet, with enemies in cages that charge at you as you run through narrow corridors with no chance of escape. But it's very linear. The following floor has some phoney treasure that either breaks, contains nothing, or changes into a monster. Yes--even concerning treasure hoards, Romancing SaGa is stingy. The stairs down are straight below where you start. On the next floor you have to find a way to the lower level; once you're there, walk left at the first branch that you see, follow it up, and walk right (the scenery here overlies rather than impedes you) to the stairs. Now you're on the last floor, which is a series of doors. From right to left: 1) Theodore (past Red Dragon boss) 2) Chest with gold 3) Dead end 4) Dead end 5) Exit to overworld If you have any trouble with the Red Dragon, you did not heed the warning given at the beginning of this quest. You _cannot_ beat the next boss without three powerful characters that have over 700+ hitpoints. That said, you are taken to Baizelheim, Flamme's Tower, when you leave the dungeon with Theodore. There is now no way out without cancelling the quest. You must fight the boss Ifrit. You've been to this tower before in the Constance Kidnapped quest. To enter it you have to walk under the towers (more trick scenery) through the woods. There are guards stationed everywhere around the tower. At the bottom is the imposter Theodore, who turns into the demon Ifrit when you speak with him. This boss is absolutely insane. He repeatedly casts a 660-700 damage attack on all of your characters till either you or he dies. There is no skill curve whatsoever against him; if you don't have the raw hitpoints to survive one round and output a good 4500-500 damage in return, you will lose. This is possibly unfair to an extreme, and it's honestly one of the reasons that I ended up disliking RS. No real indications that you needed to be this powerful till a long quest where you fail if you aren't. But on the positive side there are other quests to be done too. Back in Meilzabel select whatever dialogue options you feel best, but make sure that you don't leave without the Ruby (you may automatically get this, I'm not sure). QUEST #21 ------------------------------- -o- JEWEL BEAST -o- accessed: end-game difficulty: hard location: S. Estameel ------------------------------- At some point the minstrel in S. Estameel's pub will tell you of Jewel Beast, a monster found in the frontier. The minstrel will open up the the town 'West End', accessed by way of the road west of Tarumita, and Jewel Beast's Lair, which is far northeast of West End, on your map. Then, if you are very strong, with good armour, at least 300 health on each character, and some high-level single-target skills (for instance, the fourth level skill of Bastard Sword, the fourth level skill of Bow, and the second level skill of Gararu Spear), you can knock yourself out. First, make your way to his lair. There are many monsters in here (watch for a large fish specifically, named Armor Fish, that will kill you quickly), and the chests only contain gold. Ignore the first and second doors as you walk right, down, and left. They only lead to chests with gold. Next is a wooden plank whence you should access the water. Swim down the series of waterfalls till you see the first wooden plank on the left. Dismount here, and walk up through a cave, right along a wall (even under the overlying stone floor) and round to an exit cave. Further down from this exit cave is a stairway that you need to descend. In the next area walk down and fight the flower that blocks the stairs. Descend again. Next walk right, fight through the monsters, and up. There is another chest with gold here. At a fork, walk left, notice the stone enclosure, and enter it to spot a dinosaur. This is actually Jewel Beast. How do you beat him? If you count down your ranks, from the top to the bottom, the even numbered characters are the first that Jewel Beast attacks. He attacks twice a round. He chooses either character #2 and #4 to attack first, or character #4 and #6. The only hope that a character has for survival is to defend on the round that Jewel Beast attacks, which halves the damage that Jewel Beast inflicts. Thus you need to defend with either character #2 and #4 or character #4 and #6. You can defend with all three--true. However, I prefer to reset the game and reload if Jewel Beast attacks a different combination than I expected. Essentially, all characters but the ones that Jewel Beast attacks need to attack. The rest should defend. It seems random whether Jewel Beast will attack a defending character twice in one round. If it wasn't random, you could theoretically continue healing the same character over and over while he defended and Jewel Beast attacked him. But Jewel Beast, especially the times that he attacks new characters, often switches over to attack another character. It would be interesting to try some healing rotation here to see if Jewel Beast will continue to attack characters defending and being healed, while everyone else damages him. As for Jewel's Beast pattern after the first round, he will continue to assault the even characters. Once they are dead, he moves to the odds. If only one even character is left, Jewel Beast will attack the odd character directly above or below the even character. It goes without saying that this battle requires your toughest attacks. Oh, and don't bother with the dinosaur egg. It can survive two rounds against Jewel Beast, but it only inflicts 20 or 30 damage each hit. Your main characters ought to be dealing 1000+ a hit, and using the egg eats one of their turns. Not to mention that you can sell the egg to buy better armour. If you fail, or even if you win, the exit of Jewel Beast's lair is right and up from Jewel Beast. QUEST #22 ------------------------------- -o- ENDING QUEST: GOOD ALIGNMENT -o- accessed: end-game difficulty: hard location: S. Estameel ------------------------------- *****NOTE***** Based on your performance in the game apparently, you are given an ending quest. You receive an evil ending quest if you did evil things (fairly certain that killing Galahad ranks up there), a good ending quest if you did good things (slugging through dungeons to kill Sharuyin's minions--perhaps optionally killing the Sharuyin Priest in the Pirates of Mirubiru Sewers quest), and going by the PS2 version, a neutral ending quest if you by and large remained impartial to either side. In my game I got the good one. Have others found alternate endings? If so send me an email at lance3335@bellsouth.net, and I will include them. Be sure to say how you got the ending, unless you include a walkthrough of the ending quest-- or even better, both. As for now this is the only quest that I am including, but I believe that they are all triggered by the same person: the minstrel in the S. Estameel pub. Thus if you get another quest, you may have to solve it on your own! Or refer to the PS2 Romancing SaGa FAQ for general pointers I suppose. ************** Speak with the minstrel in S. Estameel's pub. At one point of the game he mentions killing Jewel Beast. But if he offers you a choice, and the bottom option triggers more dialogue, you've likely got yourself an ending quest. Keep in mind that ending quests have the prequisite of your having completed many quests already. If you do get one, I know for certain that the evil quest entrance is in Hell Plateau behind Atlas (there's a video on a Japanese site of someone there.) The PS2 FAQ says that the neutral entrance is triggered by speaking with a boy in Uso (which is the town near Glacial Steppes, south of North Point along the New Road). The good ending quest entrance, which is what this quest concerns, is in Glacial Steppes, west of Uso. If you already have Glacial Steppes on your map, you may enter from the same continent that Crystal City is on. Otherwise you need to circumnavigate the game world--Mirubiru, then Weipu, then North Point and down the road to Uso, where you can speak with a villager to unlock Glacial Steppes. In any case the entrance is through a path in the woods, which is in the middle-lower-left of the steppes. The path is aligned with a rock in the center of the steppes if that helps. There's a circular formation of stones and then an altar in the middle. Stand on the altar, use the action button, and select the bottom option. Now you're in heaven! But these are actually trials, albeit with a bit less mindless bashing of monsters and more focus on singular fights. The bosses are rather easy given what previous quests presented (Ifrit for instance). Many are Earth Spirit, Wind Spirit, Water Spirit, Fire Spirit, etc. and have rare magic that can hit your whole party. Typical reload-if-unlucky tactics work well, but with 750+ hitpoints a character can outlast them. The regular enemies are dinosaurs from the Jelton plains--which seems a bit lazy-- and easy kills. There are also three treasures, guarded by bosses. They are: Southwest - Aeris Bow Mideast - Left Hand Sword Northeast - Spear (?) The spear is particularly strong, striking for 1000 at level 0. I never hit for more than 1 damage with the bow, and the sword may have promise. The general idea in this area is to progress to the top. Bosses guard ladders, and you pass to higher ladders when they die. A Fire Spirit is at the top, which may have the most health of all spirits, but whose big magic attack hits for only 300- 400 damage on each party member. Its fire blast is over 999 damage to a single target (insta-kill) but it shouldn't last 6 rounds in any case. Watch melee attacks if it pops self-burning--only use ranged ones in these cases. At the very top is another altar, which the minstrel is on. Talk to him and select the bottom option twice. He teleports you outside of heaven. QUEST #23 ------------------------------- -o- FINAL SHOWDOWN -o- accessed: end-game difficulty: hard location: Izmus Cave ------------------------------- **NOTE** There's no way that you can beat this scenario without being extremely powerful. The last boss has over 85000 hitpoints and single hits for 500 damage, with a magic attack that increases in damage each time it's used, till a final blast of 700 damage against each party member. He also has incredible armour, halving character's normal damage, with an extra ability to halve _that_ damage (effectively cutting damage by 3/4) each time that he attacks with his sword. Adding onto this, if you didn't solve the Elder Dragons quest line, you will have extreme trouble even reaching the boss. There are three minions to fight before him, and at the end they all fight together. Without the ability to summon Flame Tyrant you probably cannot win this fight. This was mentioned in the earlier section in this guide, "Planning for a successful game." ******** Pack a lot of high-grade salves for this one. Though the monsters inside are easily avoided, the dungeon is extremely long. When you are ready, trudge to Izmus Cave to the right of Izmus castle. It's unpopulated, but a teleporter at the rear sends you to the final dungeon. To pass the first area first descend the chute on the left. Notice that they are one-way only. Now hang left, walking down any stairs that you see. Avoiding the monsters is a bit too easy. Then at the bottom, when there is nowhere else for you to go on the left side, walk right for a while to reach a teleporter. The second area has two levels, one hidden underneath a netting of sorts. Make your way to the southeast of it, walk onto normal land, then left, and up to enter the cave, sending you under the netting. Now visit the very northeast (ignore earlier branches to the north that are dead ends) where more dry land is. At some point there are stairs to an exit outside, but you shouldn't need them. Find the teleporter to level three. Level three is cool because it has bubbles all over the ground, and these bubbles block enemies from passing over them. However, the bubbles disappear when you step on them. Level three also has phony teleporters--a bit less cool --that break when you step on them. In general you need to navigate around and find working chutes that plop you in different places, till eventually you find the real teleporter. You are near it when you descend a southern chute and see spider enemies. There is also a room full of fake teleporters before the real one. The fourth level is the boss one. There are no regular enemies left to fight: 1) How do I beat the minions? If you solved the Elder Dragons quest line, you have a stack of three items that summon Flame Tyrant, among other stacks of three items that summon the rest of the Elders. You really need Flame Tyrant for this one. Perhaps if you're at the level of skill required to beat Sharuyin (I don't know, I cheated past him), you won't need any tactics for this battle, but if you aren't cheating, or if you haven't spent tons of hours doing nothing but improving your characters, you will. That said, you need to have two characters per row before you even begin the fight. This is because the minion Strife's Flame Wall hits a single row for 600-700 damage, which means that having more than two characters per row is asking for it. Secondly, whichever character has Flame Tyrant's summon equipped (for the Japanese illiterate try and experiment with all inventory items in stacks of three--if it can't be used outside of battle it's probably a summon, and you can figure which summon is which in battles, then reload.) this character needs to be able to survive a Flame Wall. He can't have low hitpoints. Next, a character adjacent to the character with Flame Tyrant's summon needs to have high-grade salves equipped. This is because there is a chance to heal in the third battle, and because characters can only use items on adjacent characters. Again, without high hitpoints (or in this case full hitpoints) a character may not survive a Flame Wall. There is also the issue of death touch. The minion Hate uses these. If you're unlucky the character with Flame Tyrant's summon will be death touched. This only matters in the fourth battle of course (the character would be revived if it happened in the first and able to heal by the third) If this happens, reload and rearrange your groups. The battles work like so. Each minion is fought individually; the first minion has a death touch, the second has a flame wall, and the third can animate the dead to fight for it. Then in the fourth battle all minions fight together, which is obviously the hardest part. The purpose of summoning Flame Tyrant is to absorb all of the minion's spells (because none except Hate's Black Fire, which is only used once before Hate is out of magic, hurt Flame Tyrant). That means that Flame Tyrant will absorb all death touches and fire walls. And eventually the minions run out of magic and begin to fight Flame Tyrant in melee. Heck, the Fire Wall is even randomly reflected back to the minions, which hurts them significantly. As the minions have weak melee attacks, it is safe for your party to openly assault them when once their magic is gone. The fight is not over at this point, but it's far easier. If you need further help, summon even more Elders. Their regular attack inflicts 200-300 damage on the minions, and they can take a bit of a beating. Otherwise simply knock the minions down. To recap: kill the first two minions with skills, use the third fight to heal whichever character has Flame Tyrant's summon, and summon Flame Tyrant immediately in the fourth fight. Absorb all magic, wait for Flame Tyrant to die, and hop in to finish off the three minions. 2) How do I beat Sharuyin? Unfortunately I'm not sure that I have an answer to this. At least not an answer that 1) isn't in hexadecimal and 2) doesn't reference specific bytes within the save state. I'm not much for cheating in RPGs, but Romancing SaGa asks a bit too much for the leveling up required to beat this boss. Even editing every characters hitpoints to 999 didn't bring me close to a win. By my estimates a lot more is needed. 99 of all stats did the trick at least. Again, as I warned in the notes before this quest, Sharuyin has over 85000 hitpoints. I saw a video on that 'youtube' site. Humorously the video was of a person with his own hacked stats hacking away at the boss. Has anyone actually beaten this boss legitimately? If so email me at lance3335@bellsouth.net with your strategy and I will gladly include it. But Sharuyin is indeed the last boss--I had already seen the ending through a bug, so I didn't need to beat him, but pride nevertheless forced me into digging up the offsets for character stats and he went down quickly. --=====================-- 8. RECRUITABLE CHARACTERS --=====================-- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Albert | Izmus Castle ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gray (sword-user) | Joins on Rescue Jean quest ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Claudia (rapier and bow) | Joins on Rescue Jean quest ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sif (strong sword-user) | Valhalland ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Miriam (fire magic) | N. Estameel Pub ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Soldier1 (rapier) | (temporary) [albert only] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Soldier2 (rapier) | (temporary) [albert only] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jean | (temporary) Rescue Jean quest ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Geraha (lizardman) | Northpoint Pub ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Theodore | (temporary) Meilzabel Monster quest ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rafeal | (temporary) Meilzabel Monster quest ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Daud (rapier) | [jamil only] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hawk (pirate) | S. Estameel pub ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Galahad (ice sword guy) | Joins on The Elder Dragons Pt. 5 quest ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brau (bear) | [claudia only] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sylvan (wolf) | [claudia only] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jamil (thief) | S. Estameel Pub ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Aisha (nomad) | Uso Pub ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elman (dance manager) | [barbara only] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Barbara (dancer) | Uso pub -------------------------------------------------------------------------------