Part 30: Supplementary to Excess

So, everything's done now but there's still a few things left to do... if that makes sense. This is pretty much just the last few demonstrations of the Legend Sword being useful (up to Zorgia; everything from him onwards takes too long to warrant prioritising it over magic), the non-Spirit Wand versions of Dragon and Melzas, as well as a few other things.

Might as well do it in a chronological order, so the best place to start is back near the very beginning. Just after Tarn's Manor, but before Wendell's Dream, there's a whole one thing of note involving Nadia.



And that's how that happened.

The next thing is but a mere alternative boss fight, wherein she wasn't taken down in a single shot with a bomb (after missing incessently that is).



Not that hard, sure, but considering how early it is, how little damage the Dagger deals and how bloody fast she is compared to you Sara is one of the harder boss fights in a relative sense.

The next thing is just an interesting typo I'd never noticed before and occurs during the events immediately after you acquire the Power Glove. If you head to the Cemetary and speak to Lutas before talking to both Fein and Rumi in Sierra's house, he has this to say.



Everything else from here is just alternative boss fights. The first one isn't "alternative" so much as it is "now with less God Mode."



And that's why it was cut out when I was using Nava's Charm. He's not a threat without it, and you're completely unkillable with it. That wouldn't have been very interesting to see. The only "hard" part about the fight is learning how to dodge his one actual attack if you need to... and even that isn't hard.

Straight after Wilda, you're effectively thrown into the twin's dream which has the last boss that is truly cut to shreds with the Legend Sword. It's still somewhat effective for Ronan, but the problem there is that you're infinitely better off using magic.



Speaking of Ronan, since now we'll be meleeing him it's a good idea to grab that Silver Armour just as a precaution.



Naomi: I want you to have it. Just promise me you won't scratch it up too much, okay? I'm gonna have to pass this down to my kids someday, you know?

And with that, she gives you it for free. Yep, the best armour in the game costs you nothing no matter when you get it. Let's put this thing to the test, shall we?



This is where the Legend Sword starts to fall behind magic spamming, but at least it has one last dungeon to go after this before it becomes truly obsolete. You'll notice that even like this, Ronan didn't really get much of a chance to show off his whole two moves. You're not exactly "supposed to" have the Legend Sword until after you acquire the Holy Sword so it still manages to be somewhat effective here. The way you're expected to take down Ronan is with the Willow Bow's charge shots but that takes far, far too long to be anything other than boring and tedious.

Speaking of boring and tedious, Zorgia manages to come in at such a place as he always fun no matter how you fight him. You don't have quite enough MP to destroy him easily, the Wind Book doesn't tear him to shreds because it has to hit him in a specific manner (it does drag him in though!), meleeing him is risky because his attacks are fast and hard to dodge... Zorgia really is the best fight.

The three final boss fights done in a convential manner, however...

First, though, let's go speak with Cephas one last time. This can be done any time between beating Zorgia and entering Melzas chamber after unlighting the giant circle things.



: You truly overflow with kindness, friend. If you go to the basement of my house, there is a treasure Nava would have wanted you to have.



: I'm certain you'll be quite pleased with the fruits of your labour...

That's how you know how to acquire Nava's Charm. The only thing at this point it's useful against is the Dragon... and even then it's not actually all that useful.

So, let's say for the sake of argument that at this point you've managed to get this far and you lack either of the super weapons (though by now the Legend Sword is actually pretty crappy). If you want to stand a prayer of a chance, realistically you will want Nava's Charm to beat Dragon. It only negates two of its attacks, but those two deal the most damage... though they aren't the biggest threat. It will drop itself onto you most of the time and that is damn near impossible to avoid, even when running. You'll want to magic spam at some point against this thing just to abuse invincibility frames but that leads to the problem of not being able to do so against Melzas. This isn't that big a deal, since the first form is a joke and the second form only takes about 10 hits with the Fire Book to die (that works out as 5 castings though, since each will hit it twice). In theory, this leaves you free to magic spam against the Dragon. Let's say you don't though. Let's say you want to fight it the way you're "supposed to." By meleeing it with the Holy/Legend Sword. That... won't go as well as you'd think. Observe;



Using the Holy Sword here, because that's what I went through most of the times I managed to get this far. Note how for most of the duration of the fight I'm stuck playing defence and having to hope I can even dent it that much. Then note that before I get bored of that and spam magic that I take off less than half of its HP in the short time that I do get to actually hit the damn thing.

Following that, you get fully healed and get to take on Melzas which is a much easier fight if only because you should never really get hit by him.



I wasn't paying that much attention which is why I got hit, and it's really the only reason anyone should ever get hit.

Followiing that you get to take on the giant disembodied eyes, hands and brain with whatever HP and MP you have left.



The eyes are unkillable and hit you constantly, whilst being very hard to dodge. The hands are killable but respawn eventually and don't do much and the brain is what you need to hit to take him down for good. Of course, things don't quite go so smoothly when you're not spamming magic. If you were to come into this fight without enough MP to deal over half his health in damage with the Fire Book you're in for a long fight. The swords don't deal anywhere near enough damage to make this go by quick, you're getting knocked around quite a lot by the eyes and the hands get in the way constantly.

But wait, there's more! The EU version of the game had a pretty crappy disc art. The US version of the game, however, had no less than 9. Some of them are just a character and Melzas; Bonaire for some reason, Jess, Kline and Septimus. Another is just Alundra and Meia next to each other. The others, though, are something else.


Full size


Full size


Full size


Full size

I'm quite fond of the first and the last, personally.

As you're no doubt aware, the game came with a copy of the world map. It's... pretty useless;


Full-size (pretty big for some reason).

There's no real difference between the US and EU copies here, other than the EU one is an obnoxious orangey-red colour.

Giles reason for being massively religious actually never comes up during the entire game (I made sure to speak to everyone at every opportunity and no one ever mentions it). It is however mentioned in the manual and on the map of Inoa (which is on the other side of the world map).


Full size (also really large, but not AS large). The word cut off from Kline's description is "archer."

That obnoxious colour is what the European copies of the maps look like, but the Inoa map is amazingly bad when you read the descriptions. It's like a fun game in and of itself. A game... of Spot the Fuck Ups! The ones I've noticed before are (from the top, going clockwise):

1. Beaumont is the Village Mayor, not the Village Elder. They might be the same in principle, but the two are still different.
2. Jess does not operate the local store. Naomi does.
3. It's not his fatherly nature that moved him to make weapons and items. Not to mention that's a pretty big thing to spoil in something you're likely to look at before ever getting that far.
4. Grammatic error in Naomi's description. "Her husband Yuri spends..." should read "Her husband, Yuri, spends..." I'm well aware that this is a minor thing but it still counts.
5. The entire latter half of Elene's description.
6. Kline's skill as a fisherman is... completely made up. If he was truly the best fisherman AND hunter in the village, he wouldn't just be referenced as being a bitchin' hunter in-game.
7. Yustel's name.
8. Bonaire does not ever seem to lack an interest in girls.

I want to call bullshit on Lutas ever wanting to fight. On the one hand, he did come with Jess and Kline to the Coal Mine exit near Murgg Woods. On the other hand, he was with Kline and the only other time him being involved directly in combat gets referenced it's by him. Worrying that he's not going to be able to protect Fein.

But wait, there's more! At least 5 different wallpapers were made by Working Designs too. There may be more, but I've only ever seen these five;


Full size (1024x768)


Full size (1024x768)


Full size (1024x768)


Full size (1024x768)


Full size (1024x768)

And that, as they say, is that.