Part 5: Lead Zeppelin

"We can now teach them how to produce wheat."

"Oh, that's… uh.. that's great. You're just not allowed to ever meet the leaders of Fillmore in person. For reasons, that I won't go into, because I'm the deity here and you're not."

Due to the connection between the two towns, Fillmore will actually convert to "wheat" automatically without you lifting a finger. This will raise the amount of population Fillmore can support, but we're not going back quite yet.



"Hey, quit dodging you little bastard!"

"Master, I know you're frustrated but I can handle those without you trying to smite them with lightning. It's much faster."



"Huh, so that's where they were hiding… Angel, do humans know how to swim?"

"Some of them, but I don't think there's any way it'd be healthy for them to swim in that water."



"Wait, fortune teller? When did you get a fortune teller? And why wasn't I told about this?"

"More importantly, Master, I think this is the answer to our problem with the Red Demon lair."

"It's just that the last time there was somebody who could see the future, it really didn't work out so well."



"Huh. That was quick."



"You can't be serious. I refuse to admit that that idiot kid was right."




"Y'know, if you'd figured out that whole boat thing a bit earlier we could have skipped the whole business with the magic skull."

"Some time ago while fishing on the lake, we found a magic scroll caught in our dragnet. We present this to you as an offering. Please accept it."

"They're quick on the uptake about when to make an offering, at least. Can't ask for more than that."



"Master, what are you doing?"

"Making sure the rest of the poison gets flooded out… and sometimes I just like to make it rain."



"Bullshit. You knew this was going to happen."

"What's the point of being God if you don't take advantage of it from time to time?"



"The rising water revealed this strange jewel which we found on the lake shore. Please accept it as an offering."

"Don't mind if I do!"



More! More HP!

Next level: 1200 total pop.



"Just don't build a road to nowhere. I promise, there aren't any more towns around here."




"Great. Thanks. I'll put it on the shelf with the rest of the collection I'm starting."



"I think that might have upset them a bit, Master."

"Oh, come on. I'm pretty sure they can't even hear me. Alright, what's wrong?"



"I'm sensing a pattern, My Lord."

"A monster appeared from the old castle by the lake and demanded a sacrifice of us."

"Oh no no no no. I'm the only one who gets sacrifices and offerings around here!"



"Unfortunately, one of those to be sacrificed is my son, Teddy."

"Well, maybe that's just what he gets for being a smartass and being right?"

"My Master, please go to the old castle and save our son and our land!"

"What the hell? Last time he was late for dinner and you came to me to bring him back. This time he's off to be a human sacrifice and you wait until he's already on his way over there before you think to ask for help?"

"Maybe we should have put in a bit more intelligence into the mix when we were creating them?"

"Whatever. They can wait a bit before I go bail them out. Put the fear of Me into them."



Of course, this is the real reason. We're at about the max population we're going to get before finishing the second action stage right now, but it's just enough to push us over another level. Every little bit can help when you're dealing with slightly clunky controls in the action stages.

Next level: 1500 total pop.



"Master, I think we've about run out of time.

"I suppose… which one is Teddy? That's the only one they wanted back, right?"

"Master! I can't even tell, I already told you they all look the same to me."

"Fine, fine, I'll just save them all.



Before that, it's pickup time. The Source of Life is just what you'd expect: from now on, we have 4 lives instead of 3 in action sequences. Since your remaining lives are worth 1000 points each at the end of the level, this makes getting a higher score a bit easier.



Our second item is a new magic spell, but it's actually not that useful for this battle so we'll be seeing it next time. This is one of the best spells in the game, however, being very effective on four of the remaining five second stage bosses.




For this particular level, I like the thought of GodJesus just smashing right through the roof of the castle and starting to wreck shit. Unfortunately, that's not to be.



"Really, Angel? You couldn't put it anywhere further in that the outside ramparts?"

"It's not like I had a set of blueprints for the castle, My Lord."

Have fun storming the castle!



This castle is a pretty fun stage with a few of these moving chain platforms to spice things up a bit. It can be a bit difficult to time your jumps between the chains, but because there are a constant stream of them you'll usually land on something further down… or fall into some spikes and die.



A bit further in we have this room, which dims and lightens on a regular schedule. You can move around if you remember where you're going, but when it's pitch dark you can't see any trace of the platforms. This was probably a lot more challenging in the Japanese version, where getting spiked would kill you.



The boss is the bizarrely named Zeppelin Wolf, who resembles neither of these things… at the moment. He's a teleporter who moves between platforms flinging skulls at you. You pretty much have to chase him around the room and take a swipe at him when you can. It's easier when he's on one of the bottom platforms.



His other attack is shooting bolts of lighting down from on high, although it's a bit hard to capture in a screenshot. It's just a matter of timing to come in and attack once the lightning is grounded.



Halfway through the fight he'll shape shift and live up to the wolf portion of his name, at which point he's mostly going to come directly at you and try to rip your liver out. He switches in his first teleport after being brought down to half health, so if you can push him over that threshold and get a few more hits in before he teleports it'll make things easier. This is a good time to use your magic to speed up his demise. Since he's a small target, Magical Stardust isn't really all that useful here.



"Now for my favorite part.



"Oh, it was nothing… just another day, you know."

"My son, Teddy, has returned from the old castle, carrying a precious scroll. We present it to you as an offering."

"Kind of glad I rescued the little bugger, then."

"Thank you very much for taking care of us, my Master. We can now look after ourselves. Please help make other lands as peaceful as Bloodpool."



"Well, that didn't last long."

"The explanation for this is going to be golden."



"If only I could believe that… alright, let's hear it."



"Our people have become bitter and selfish. We have so many quarrels and fights."

"What happened to making other lands as peaceful as Bloodpool?"

"I'm afraid I worked them too hard in building our town and have caused them too much stress. My Master, have you anything that will calm the people?"

"For the love of… I'm a God, not a therapist! Calm yourselves down!"

"Maybe we should come back to this instead of encouraging them to solve the problem themselves, Master? When it comes to calming fights down, humans tend to do that through murdering the other half of the fight."



Which brings us to our second significant town status. Stop means that there's some problem in the town that has to be addressed before it will grow any further, with the means of addressing it usually located in another zone. We'll have to come back to Bloodpool later.

Next update: Sun and sand and skeletons.