SomeColorMage unleashes Let's Play Golden Sun!

Hello! Last time, we solved pretty much every remaining problem in Northern Angara. Today we're going to Fuchin Temple.

Inside the temple, we find a Unicorn Ring. It's use ability is to remove Poison/Venom. Not very useful, as Remove Poison is only 2 PP in the first place.

The guy inside the temple, Nyunpa, is too busy meditating to talk to us, so let's Mind Read him. He immediately gets up, identifies us as the ones using the spell and asks us if we're following Saturos and Menardi. He's good. The guy warns us of the forest we have to go through. It's some annoying maze. He challenges us to go through the waterfall grotto. He then freaks us out by already knowing Isaac's name.

Nyunpa: Just remember, you are not the only ones who can read minds.

Okay, as long as you don't mind read about how I tried to steal Lady McCoy's negligee.

So inside the grotto we go, to the Fuchin Falls Cave. We are given some cryptic advice on entry...

The dragon's flame illuminates the path of truth in darkness.

We ride the logs in the water to a chest. It's a Mimic. Great start to the dungeon. We manage to kill him before he does too much damage. Ivan reaches level 12 and learns Mad Growth and we get a Game Ticket.

And now we have jumping puzzles. Easy enough. More puzzle advice...

Rays of light give birth to shadows, revealing the way.

Dead end. This room is really dark. Oh well, let's take another path.

Further on, we get an Arctic Blade. Finally, an Artifact Long Sword! It goes to Garet.

Even further on, we see a Jupiter Djinn! It fights us, but the weakness to Venus makes it go down easy.

The Jupiter Djinni Zephyr joined Isaac.

Zephyr gives 11 HP, 3 PP, 2 Agility and 1 Luck. It can be used to double Agility.

We also get the Procne Summon. For 3 Jupiter Djinn, it performs an attack at 120 Jupiter power plus 9% of the targets HP, then increases the users Jupiter Power by 60. Graphically, the bird sucks the targets up in a tornado and shoots laser missiles or something at them.

Mia gets Zephyr so I don't accidentally stuff up the classes.

One log puzzle later, and we find the Dragon's Eye. We'll need it for later. In fact we need it right now, to place in a dragon statue in the dark room. It turns the lights on in the room, revealing a secret path. Now we have to backtrack to when we were last in the room and follow that.

We find another tablet...

The secret of Ki shall be revealed to the disciples of truth.

Well, I don't know anything about truth, but we do get the Orb of Force. Force calls the white Psynergy glove to punch the area in front of Isaac. Now we Retreat back out of the cave.

Nyunpa congratulates us, tells us a bit about Ki (i.e. Force) and tells us we can use Force to scare monsters in Mogall Forest into showing us the path through.

Immediately south of the temple is Mogall Forest, and we'll leave it there. Until next time, people.

Stats:

Isaac: Lv 12 Ruffian HP:169 PP:60 Attack:146 Defence:76 Agility:70 Luck:3

Garet: Lv 12 Defender (Mars) HP:180 PP:65 Attack:135 Defence:93 Agility:55 Luck:6

Ivan: Lv 12 Diviner (Jupiter) HP:150 PP:110 Attack:100 Defence:71 Agility:73 Luck:5

Mia: Lv 12 Elder HP:132 PP:118 Attack:88 Defence:74 Agility:78 Luck:8

Djinn: 2 Venus, 2 Mars, 3 Jupiter, 2 Mercury

My favorite thing about the Yes/No thing — even better than how your answers don't usually actually matter — is the icons. For those who don't know, or don't remember, these answers are accompanied by faces: a happy face for Yes, and a sad face for No. Which makes sense... as long as those emotions fit those answers... which they don't always. What was it...

"Do you think we're gonna die?"

• Yes
• No

edited 9th Nov '10 10:58:58 PM by Nyperold

Oh yeah that's always funny. In Dark Dawn, they've taken it even further, you can pick Matthew's emotions at certain points, so every so often you get given the following choices: (angry) for no bloody reason.

I don't see an angry emoticon. Why don't we have an angry emoticon?

Hello people! This time, we're going through the Mogall Forest.

Upon entry, we see an ape freaking out over our entrance and hiding in a stump. We use Force on the stump, and the ape flees south, so we follow him. The next stump, however, releases an Ape that attacks us! That happens sometimes. The Apes are pretty strong too. The next ape wisely tells us to go east.

There are two apes on the next screen, one going east and the other south. Going east first takes us to an Apple. Mia is given the Attack boost from this.

Isaac learns Planet Diver at level 13. Another Psynergy that takes its power from the Attack stat.

We now have to go back a screen and head south. We get given a log rolling puzzle. There's too many of these things in the game. Partially into the puzzle, we find a Venus Djinn that wants to fight. We defeat him with his weakness to Jupiter, Garet reaches level 13 and learns Restore, and...

The Venus Djinni Quartz joined Isaac.

Quartz gives us 10 HP, 3 PP and 3 Agility. In battle, he has a 50% chance of reviving one of our Adepts to half HP. That's an odd mechanic of revival abilities; the hit rate is equal to how much HP is healed.

We also get the Summon Cybele, for 3 Venus Djinn, it attacks at 120 Venus Power plus 9% of the targets HP, then increases the user's Venus Power by 60. Graphically, the... thing shoots seeds at the enemy and entangles it in vines, or something. It's a weird summon.

Ivan gets Quartz to avoid messing with classes.

When we use Force on the tree stump we just got to, the ape jumps into another stump! So we Force that one too. The ape shows us to go west.

Hmm. 3 stumps here. One ape fights us, one goes south and one goes west. Going west gets us an Elven Shirt, which gives the wearer a nice Agility boost. I give it to Mia, as the Defence boost is also useful for her. Going south, we get more log moving puzzles. The ape flees south. Hmm, the stump here is very noisy. That might be because there's a boss inside it!

The Killer Ape is slightly weaker than Saturos and weak to Mars. We destroy him in 5 turns. And for winning, we get a Douse Drop. Douse fills an object with water.

And we're out! I'll leave it there. See you next time.

Stats:

Isaac: Lv 14 Ruffian HP:186 PP:65 Attack:157 Defence:78 Agility:80 Luck:3

Garet: Lv 13 Defender (Mars) HP:189 PP:68 Attack:139 Defence:94 Agility:59 Luck:6

Ivan: Lv 13 Diviner (Jupiter) HP:169 PP:119 Attack:103 Defence:73 Agility:81 Luck:5

Mia: Lv 13 Elder HP:138 PP:112 Attack:95 Defence:80 Agility:126 Luck:8

Djinn: 3 Venus, 2 Mars, 3 Jupiter, 2 Mercury

Sorry guys, this updates gonna be short, the next dungeon will be in the next update.

So last time, we got through Mogall Forest. Continuing down the path takes us to Xian. It's a town filled with kung fu and Engrish. And a woman carrying water. We talk to her, and she spills it. But with the puddle, we can cast Frost, creating a path to a Mercury Djinn!

The Mercury Djinni Mist joined Isaac.

Mist gives 11 HP and 4 Attack. It attacks at 130% of the users Attack in Mercury Power and inflicts Sleep.

We also get the Summon Neptune. For 3 Mercury Djinn, it attacks at 120 Mercury Power plus 9% of the targets HP, then increases the users Mercury Power by 60. Graphically, it's a whale that shoots waterfalls at the target.

It's about time we rearranged classes. Isaac gets the Mercury Djinn, making him a Defender (Venus), Garet gets the Jupiter Djinn, making him an Illusionist (Mars), Ivan gets the Mars Djinn, making him a Wanderer (Jupiter) and Mia gets the Venus Djinn, making her a Diviner (Mercury).

I buy some really nice equipment after unloading my non-artifact consumables (I don't need them and they're cheap) and then head to a kung fu school, where they challenge me to knock over a log standing a certain distance away. So it's time for Force.

PSYCHIC PUNCH!

What did you do, warrior?

I just said, psychic punch. They claim it's Chi, I claim it's not. Someone goes to get the master when a girl runs out the door to him. Her name is Feizhi, and she's worried about this guy called Hsu. She's been having visions after being hit by a Psynergy Stone. Master Feh thinks it's all coincidence, so she runs off to find Hsu without any help.

Feh notices we knocked over the log and asks us to do it again. He points out, however, that it isn't Chi, and then goes into a boring spiel about Chi and Ki. For all we care, Chi is body power learnt at Lama Temple, Ki is mind power learnt at Fuchin Temple.

Anyway, there's nothing else to do, so we leave. North of Xian however, we get into a random battle with a Mars Djinn! We beat it easily.

The Mars Djinni Corona joined Ivan.

Corona gives 12 HP, 3 PP, 3 Defence and 1 Luck. In battle, it increases the parties Defence by 25% when used.

We also get the Summon Tiamat. For 3 Mars Djinn, it attacks at 120 Mars Power plus 9% of the targets HP, then increases the users Mars Power by 60. Graphically, a dragon shows up and blesses breathes fire on the target.

We now have to go back to Xian and head west.

Garet learns Sleep at level 14.

Enough heading west takes us to the Alpine Crossing. It's covered in boulders, and Feizhi shows up and freaks out about it. And she can't find Hsu. We can't do anything about it yet.

Anyway, we can cast Growth and Frost to get up to a higher cliff and a Power Bread. Mia gets the HP boost, and we exit the crossing to the north.

This takes us to another town, and I'm leaving it there. See you next time.

Isaac: Lv 14 Defender (Venus) HP:202 PP:86 Attack:157 Defence:104 Agility:63 Luck:4

Garet: Lv 14 Illusionist (Mars) HP:212 PP:97 Attack:146 Defence:94 Agility:85 Luck:5

Ivan: Lv 13 Wanderer (Jupiter) HP:172 PP:94 Attack:119 Defence:90 Agility:87 Luck:8

Mia: Lv 13 Diviner (Mercury) HP:172 PP:103 Attack:117 Defence:86 Agility:109 Luck:6

Djinn: 3 Venus, 3 Mars, 3 Jupiter, 3 Mercury

Yay! Golden Sun!

When I first played this game, I sequence broke unintentionally. The battle with Saturos was amazingly hard and I loved it.

So...I would give you advice on classes, but what I mostly did was make sure that Ivan and Mia got a class with decent offensive/defensive psynergy, and then offloaded the rest of the Djinns on Isaac and Garret. I also never really paid attention to the class names.

I should probably play this again, but my enthusiasm is lessened by the fact that I don't have the Lost Age, I can't find it anywhere, and am therefore missing half of the story.

I'm not one for the class names either. I just know that a lot of the dual element names are shared between classes. If you want to make suggestions, just give an element setup.

So I have a plan. Using a 4 sided die, I just came up with a random element setup. Feel free to use it if you wish.

Isaac: 1 Mercury, 2 Mars

Garret: 1 Mercury, 2 Jupiter

Ivan: 3 Venus (Yeah, I've got no clue how that happened)

Mia: 1 Mercury, 1 Jupiter, 1 Mars

Ok, I'll just quickly run the game to see what happens

Isaac: Ruffian

Garet: Illusionist (Mars)

Ivan: Diviner

Mia: Pilgrim (Mercury)

I could give it a shot, but I think I'll change back to my setup before the boss, if you don't mind.

Sounds good. I mostly wanna see what kind of lunacy this results in.

OK, before we start, I've gotta switch to Deathonabun's setup. I've listed the classes above. This setup is... less than ideal. We've only got one healer, and Mia's at too low a level to really benefit from the class series she's in Psynergy wise. The other three, however are pretty good actually.

So, today we're going to Altin. Hm, I didn't know there was a lake here. Well, actually the place is supposed to be really, really dry. Monsters have been flooding it.

Inside a hidden cavern we find a Psy Crystal (restores all of an Adept's PP in battle). That's not exactly what we're here for. Outside, we approach one of the monsters. It runs into the mines. So in we go into Altin Peak.

We chase the monster, who uses Frost to create a path for himself to run through. We continue to follow it until we corner it. So of course we have to fight it. The Living Statues are stronger than most of the enemies here, but still really nothing and weak to Mars. We get a Frost Jewel for winning. Frost turns puddles into pillars we can walk on.

The water drains a level and we leave this part of the Peak. The water in Altin has also lowered a level, revealing another part of the town and another part of Altin Peak.

This takes us to a mine cart puzzle. We have to change the direction the cart will take by flipping arrows around. We only have to flip the one to get to the next Living Statue. We kill it and the water drains more.

Before leaving, we take a small detour to another mine cart puzzle. Solving it takes us to a Mimic. We kill it and take another path to another mine cart puzzle. Without making any changes, we get a Dragon Shield. It gives us 30 Mars Resist. I give it to Isaac.

Flipping the switch takes us to the last Living Statue. The water's now completely drained. It's at this point I get sick of having only one healer and go back to the setup I had earlier. Sorry, but there was no way I was going to take on the area's boss like this.

We now head outside. The shops are open, and slightly damp, now. I upgrade my equipment and head for the last part of Altin Peak.

Isaac learns Ply Well at Level 16.

Following the path we are on, we see a Mercury Djinn! It's behind a mine cart puzzle. Yawn. It fights us, and I destroy it with its weakness to Mars.

The Mercury Djinni Spritz joined Isaac.

Spritz gives us 8 HP, 4 PP and 3 Agility. It can be used to restore 30% of the entire party's HP.

We also get the Summon Boreas. For 4 Mercury Djinn, it attacks at 120 Mercury Power plus 12% of the targets HP, then increases the users Mercury Power by 100 (less if it would take the user over 200) Neat, but it doesn't excuse the fact that it's a GIANT. FREAKING. ICE MAKER. I couldn't make that up if I tried.

Isaac gets Spritz for the time being. Another nice thing is that anyone with 4 Mercury Djinn can use Wish, a multi-target healing spell.

Following the path tells us that there may be falling rocks, and not to hit the wall. There is a pillar we can Force here. Guess what we have to do. If we didn't have Force (Yes, it's possible), Garet comes out and kicks the pillar.

So we are now running for our life from a giant boulder that is trying to run us down. We manage to dodge it and it creates a hole in the floor. We go down and reach an area that kinda looks like Sol Sanctum. And at the end of the area we encounter the area's boss, the Hydros Statue.

The Hydros Statue uses a lot of Mercury Attacks, but is pretty weak to Mars, so it's not that hard. It takes me 8 rounds, mainly because I was using physical attacks a lot.

There's a chest behind where the Hydros Statue stood, and it gives us the Lifting Gem. Lift causes a boulder to float in the air so you can walk under it.

When leaving the Peak, we see one of those boulders. Using Lift takes us to an exit to the world map.

Before going to the next location though, I backtrack to where the second Living Statue was fought and find a path leading to a Cookie. Isaac gets the PP boost.

That's where I'll leave it. Next time, we go to the temple right next to the world map exit of Altin Peak.

Stats:

Isaac: Lv 16 Cavalier (Venus) HP:267 PP:90 Attack:193 Defence:139 Agility:81 Luck:4

Garet: Lv 16 Illusionist (Mars) HP:231 PP:94 Attack:169 Defence:114 Agility:96 Luck:5

Ivan: Lv 16 Wanderer (Jupiter) HP:194 PP:106 Attack:134 Defence:102 Agility:102 Luck:8

Mia: Lv 16 Diviner (Mercury) HP:195 PP:117 Attack:128 Defence:95 Agility:130 Luck:6

Djinn: 3 Venus, 3 Mars, 3 Jupiter, 4 Mercury

Sorry, but it's hard to create many truly bad setups until we get large amounts of Djinn. Having less than one healer in a full party really annoys me though.

I must say, reading this LB brings a smile to my face, and I certainly can't wait to see what wonderful comment you'll come up with next.

As for Djinn setups, I hope that this isn't too off-the-wall, but I'd like to see what would happen if you put the majority of them on a single character. Perhaps you should give Issac 3 Jupiter and 3 Mars, dividing up the other seven + whatever you earn in the near future with the others as you deem fit? I'm aware that this will probably lead to balancing issues, and I doubt you'll be using this combination for long. But I think it might result in a couple of interesting battles, which sounds worth it to me.

IIRC, it's not actually possible to mess around with it like that. The game forces you to trade Djinn if the giving character doesn't have more than the receiving character.

Truly? Well, like I said, it probably wouldn't have been a long-lasting setup, anyways. I still recommend giving your leading man the Jupiter and Mars Djinn; perhaps merely 2 of each for now, and whichever ones offer the greatest boost to Agility? Just a thought.

I'll see what I can do. Once again, the truly bad class setups don't start showing up until we get ~ 6 Djinn per element, so for now I can handle most of it.

EDIT: And also, the game does forcibly balance out the Djinn distribution so for now, I can only use 4 on one character, and the others have to use 3.

edited 14th Nov '10 4:14:29 PM by SomeColorMage

Hi guys! First things first today, I take Endark's suggestion and see what I can manage. I give Isaac Forge, Fever, Gust and Zephyr, the Mars and Jupiter Djinn I have that boost Agility. We don't have enough Djinn to use tri-elemental classes yet, and the Jupiter Djinn decide to take priority over the Mars Djinn, making Isaac an Illusionist (Venus). The rest, well, are hard to set up from there. Mia keeps the Venus Djinn, I split the Mercury Djinn between Garet and Ivan, and the remaining Mars and Jupiter Djinn go to their Adept of matching element. This is a good setup, actually, but would be better if I could take advantage of the 4 Mercury Djinn to get Wish. Oh well.

Today, we start at Lama Temple. The master, Master Hama, is the greatest user of Chi. Lets go talk to her.

Hama: So, Isaac, you and your Adept companions have finally come.

...She knew we were coming. Okay, I'm fine with people reading my mind, but I'd rather not have people having premonitions about us.

She already knows what we are doing as well. Turns out premonition is an ability of Jupiter Adepts, like Ivan. Ivan says he isn't a Jupiter Adept.

Wait a second, Ivan. I'm pretty sure we went through all of this back in Vault. Even if we didn't, Isaac and Garet are Adepts and they have similar powers to you. You should have figured this out by now.

Hama then insists that Ivan has the power to predict stuff. Um, we're all pretty sure he doesn't. Either way, Hama offers to teach Ivan Reveal. Reveal lets us see through illusions, and is probably one of the most used spells in the series.

It also seems Saturos and group were the ones who caused the blockages in the Alpine Crossing. Hama says some cryptic stuff about Felix, and then tells us we will need Reveal to cross the Lamakan Desert, as if we can't find the hidden oases, we'll get some pretty bad burns. Saturos and Menardi got through the desert because they are Mars adepts and as such are immune to severe temperature changes.

We ask Hama to teach us Reveal, but she seems reluctant, as she tried giving a different power to someone else, but failed. Turns out that person was Feizhi, who can now manifest her powers after being hit by a Psynergy Stone. More stuff about Hsu being in trouble. Hama decides it's now okay to give Ivan Reveal, and does so, and then goes to find Hsu. We want to go to the Lamakan Desert now, but Mia speaks up and says we should help find Hsu as well. Fine, it's not like it's a matter of trying to stop the world from being destroyed. Oh wait, it is!

But we go help Hsu anyway. We take an alternate entrance to the Alpine Crossing and can see Hsu trapped under a rock! We open a path to him with Reveal, then Lift the rock. And we get nothing except thank yous. Well, that, and it seems than Hama is acting a bit strangely around Ivan now. Garet tries to take the credit for helping, but we completely shut him down.

I'm leaving it there for now. I know it's kinda short, but I don't want to take on the Lamakan Desert right now. See you next time.

Stats:

Isaac: Lv 16 Illusionist (Venus) HP:226 PP:100 Attack:178 Defence:114 Agility:102 Luck:5

Garet: Lv 16 Defender (Mars) HP:232 PP:72 Attack:170 Defence:129 Agility:70 Luck:7

Ivan: Lv 16 Elder HP:160 PP:132 Attack:119 Defence:92 Agility:109 Luck:6

Mia: Lv 16 Diviner (Mercury) HP:195 PP:117 Attack:128 Defence:95 Agility:130 Luck:6

Djinn: 3 Venus, 3 Mars, 3 Jupiter, 4 Mercury

...Wow. All high Luck classes.

Yeah, Reveal !

(Isn't there some stuff that's Lost Forever in The Lost Age if you don't have Force ? Beyond that, it's hardly essential...)

Yeah, if you're doing a transfer it's essential to have the Orb of Force and 24 of the Djinn.

I vaguely recall Lift being useful somewhere the Lost Age, but I might also remember that's possible to get that whether or not you do a transfer.

Also a piece of Fridge Logic: Saturos and Menardi got through the desert just fine because they're Mars adepts, ok, sure, but then how did Felix, Kraden and Alex get through? And why wasn't Garet ok with the heat?

edited 15th Nov '10 4:50:58 PM by Gilphon

Oh yeah, you will also need the Lifting Gem in The Lost Age. Forgot about that.

As for the Fridge Logic, Alex has been seen to be able to float, so as most of the heat seems to come from the sand, he'd be fine. As for the rest of the party, I dunno, Alex casting Douse or something?

And the protection from temperature seems to manifest more in the Mars Clan, not just Mars Adepts, so that allows Garet to be as whiny as Ivan and Mia.

EDIT: Just checked, you will always get the Lifting Gem regardless of the data you transfer. The same applies for Carry, Catch, Frost and Douse.

edited 15th Nov '10 3:42:31 PM by SomeColorMage

Hi guys, today we're going through the Lamakan Desert. As soon as we enter, we come face to face with a temperature gauge. Essentially, if that gauge fills by us walking on sand too long, we lose about half our HP. Ouch. Although, the most annoying part of the desert is that your party members can't shut up about how hot it is. To counter that, we have to use Reveal to find oases that reset the gauge. But, if we Reveal in other locations, we can find items or, if unlucky, Ant Lions. We don't want to fight those.

Isaac learns Haunt at level 17. I won't be keeping this setup for long, BTW. I really want Wish back.We find a Vulcan Axe, an Artifact Axe with a nice Attack boost. It also deals all damage in Mars. We give it to Garet.

This next section is another reason why I really don't like this place. It's huge and it's nothing but sand. So we have to go around and find the treasures and a Jupiter Djinn without getting killed by heat or Ant Lions. The Djinn is just to the north, thankfully. And doesn't fight us either.

The Jupiter Djinni Smog joined Garet.

Smog gives 9 HP and 3 Attack. In battle, it attacks for Attack + 60 Jupiter Power and can inflict Delusion.We also get the Thor Summon. For 4 Jupiter Djinn, he attacks at 120 Jupiter Power plus 12% of the targets HP, then increases the users Jupiter Power by 100. Graphically, he appears out of some symbol in the sky then shoots lightning out of his hammer.

Anyway, I now go back to my intended setup. Garet now has 4 Jupiter Djinn, upping his class to Enchanter (Mars).

The last chest in this huge area contains some Lucky Pepper. We give it to Isaac.

We're now at some sandy rivers. They push us down while increasing the temp gauge. To get past them, we have to run diagonally against them. Thankfully once we use Reveal to open a passageway inside, the gauge disappears. And I was about 5 steps away from getting burnt too. However, the gauge reappears at it's previous value once I step outside. I get burnt.

We find a Mint. Isaac gets the Agility boost, being the only character below 100 at the moment.

Using Reveal on another sand fall, we find the Manticore. The Manticore is weak to Mercury, attacks twice, and can inflict Deadly Poison. That hurts really badly. He can also inflict Death Curse, but that's the most useless ailment ever. Basically it automatically Downs (KO) an Adept after 7 turns. 7 turns to defeat it.

Now I could defeat bosses quicker, but I've banned Summons from boss fights as they are really, really cheap.

Anyway, we follow the path we can now enter because the Manticore is gone, and we end up on the World Map. But before we finish up, we head north to find a Venus Djinn that attacks us. We take advantage of the weakness to Jupiter and...

The Venus Djinni Vine joined Ivan.

Vine gives 12 HP, 4 PP, 3 Defence and 1 Luck. In battle, he halves the Agility of all enemies.

We also get access to the Summon Judgement. For 4 Venus Djinn, he attacks at 120 Venus Power plus 12% of the targets HP, then increases the users Venus Power by 100. And he attacks by shooting a bolt of energy that blows up part of the planet. It's pretty epic.

I give Vine to Mia (for now, I'm reshuffling the Djinn next time) and the 4 Venus Djinn let's her use Wish as well! I love Wish.

And that's it for today. Next time, we should pretty much finish up the Angara continent.

Stats:

Isaac: Lv 17 Cavalier (Venus) HP:277 PP:93 Attack:198 Defence:141 Agility:90 Luck:7

Garet: Lv 17 Enchanter (Mars) HP:294 PP:106 Attack:200 Defence:126 Agility:109 Luck:5

Ivan: Lv 17 Wanderer (Jupiter) HP:201 PP:111 Attack:137 Defence:103 Agility:107 Luck:8

Mia: Lv 17 Shaman (Mercury) HP:236 PP:138 Attack:144 Defence:110 Agility:150 Luck:7

Djinn: 4 Venus, 3 Mars, 4 Jupiter, 4 Mercury

Now I could defeat bosses quicker, but I've banned Summons from boss fights as they are really, really cheap.

My standard boss battle strategy is very cheap indeed : unset enough Djinns to launch the most powerful summons on Round One (except for Mia, where I want to keep 4 Mercury for the all-party healing psynergy), use various attack or support Djinn, and then relaunch the summons (ad infinitum). Not subtle, but it works.

These days I usually only use summon rushing on Deadbeard, Doom Dragon, and Dullahan. Not that I don't use summons at all, it's just that I build up to them by actually using Djinn as needed instead of blitzing on the first turn and usually don't go beyond Eclipse level, since if the enemy manages to survive, it can wreck you if you're unlucky thanks to the stat drop and reduced movepool.

edited 16th Nov '10 11:23:14 AM by ComicX6

Those three fights tend to be my exceptions. For the superbosses, I kill them by whatever means necessary and for Doom Dragon, I tend to have Iris ready on the back up party just in case.

Hi there! Today we have a lot to do. I'm probably gonna split this in two parts; first we have some plot stuff, then a lot of sidequests, First, I'm shuffling my Djinn around. And for once, I'm using mono-elemental classes. On Ivan and Mia anyway. Isaac and Garet both become Venus/Mars classes. Garet becomes a Savage from this, but Isaac is one Mars Djinn short, so is only a Ruffian. Ivan becomes a Mage and Mia becomes a Cleric.We head to the next town over. It's Kalay, that place Master Hammet is from. A lot of people are heading for Tolbi, where a big competition/carnival called Colosso is going on.

When upgrading my equipment, I actually get too many Game Tickets for Isaac to hold (consumables are limited to 30 per character). We'll be using these soon enough. I also finally stop using the Elven Shirt, so Mia's Agility goes way down.

Heading north takes us to Hammet's palace. The guards initially try to make us leave, because Hammet isn't here, but Ivan gets us entry to see Lady Layana. The guards don't think it's Ivan at first. Apparently all this adventuring has given him a tan. I don't see it.

The guards think Ivan was released from Lunpa and ask if Hammet will be freed soon. Ivan is once against oblivious to something he was told in Vault. Um... I think we will need to talk to Layana about this.

We tell Layana what happened. A bit of discussion reveals that the money Lunpa demanded has been sent. Ivan asks about what's been going on in Lunpa, a question that was ALSO ANSWERED IN VAULT. Were you completely ignoring the thieves?!?!?!?!?!?

The money was sent shortly after the eruption of Mt Aleph. That was ages ago, apparently. Still doesn't excuse Ivan seemingly forgetting everything that happened in Vault. We think that Lunpa's leader, Dodonpa, has no intention of releasing Hammet. We try and figure out what to do. The guards offer to send the army.

Layana: I cannot do that... Not without thinking it over carefully...

Come on, from what I've heard that city deserves to be razed to the ground! We offer to destroy Lunpa instead.

Layana: It is too dangerous... If you fail, your lives would be in danger, too.

We have the power to set them on fire. It's not a problem, lady. Layana tells us that we should instead get on with our quest. What does she know about that?

Hammet knew what we were supposed to do. Years ago, when Hammet was adventuring around the world, he hit a slump with his job as a merchant. He nearly got himself killed looking for new ventures in the southwestern section of the world, when some Adepts saved him. They gave him the Shaman's Rod, Ivan, some vague prophecy, some doubloons and business advice. By buying silk in Xian and selling it in Tolbi (using the route now known as the Silk Road), he became one of the most influential businessmen in the world.

Hammet knew Ivan and the Shaman's Rod were important to saving the world, so when the last storm on Mt Aleph occurred, he decided to take Ivan with him on his journeys, so he could help find what would help Ivan with his destiny. Then this whole mess up happened.

We take an alternate route out of Kalay to enter the Kalay Tunnel. The only thing we can do right now is drain a pool to get access to a Mars Djinn.

The Mars Djinni Scorch joined Isaac.

Scorch gives us 8 HP and 3 Attack. In battle, it attacks at Attack plus 50 Mars Power and can inflict Stun.

We also get the final Summon for this game, Meteor. For 4 Mars Djinn, it attacks at 120 Mars Power plus 12% of the targets HP, then increases the users Mars Power by 100. It does what you would expect a meteor to do; fall on your enemies.

We give Scorch to Isaac so he can become a Savage.

That's it for this part. Later today, I'll cover most of the sidequests we can do now. Probably.

Stats:

Isaac: Lv 17 Savage HP:274 PP:72 Attack:215 Defence:128 Agility:107 Luck:5

Garet: Lv 17 Savage HP:291 PP:71 Attack:212 Defence:122 Agility:102 Luck:4

Ivan: Lv 17 Mage HP:213 PP:145 Attack:149 Defence:118 Agility:124 Luck:6

Mia: Lv 17 Cleric HP:237 PP:133 Attack:157 Defence:133 Agility:75 Luck:7

Djinn: 4 for each element