Part 4: Forbidden Tower

When we left off last we'd just rescued Lara and given Dogra a well deserved boot to the face. Now, time to take her back.



to our Elder.

When was this decision made? As of right now we have no indication what-so-ever that there's any reason to take Lara to the future. They haven't mentioned that they need a magic user to protect the town, or that monsters in the past are going to keep hunting her, or that she's an old flame of the Elder's or anything else that would explain this. Anyway, continuing with the discussion...

But he's on a journey.

No, the Elder in our era.

Time travel, remember?



Of course!

Granny's fine with this, evidently...but something is striking me here.






Granny explains.


facing the water and you'll go in. Facing the shore, do you hear me?

What happens if we don't face the shore? Something horrible?

No, you just look like a dumbass.



Trying it out north of Elan, we can see that Dive creates a bubble of air or something like that which can travel on water. This wouldn't be terribly special, but if we press A...



We dive underwater. Fortuitously enough there's a town directly north of Elan!



No, we're a group of traveling pearl divers.



Nothing new in the magic shop, but there are some new goodies in the weapon shop.


grows in Ripesoil. Find it somewhere.

That's nice and helpful.



Well, that didn't take very long at all.



There's also evidence that a building is being constructed. We'll have to check this out later.


stop the water from the Entity!

If he ever gets off his lazy rear end.



There's a few armor upgrades available, once again with two versions of the same armor piece for sale. Normally this would be done to cater to people who can't afford the best items, but this game is very generous with gold. Look at my total, and I haven't been really stopping to grind.



We've seen this first hand. Does the water get Lae first, or the disease?



Well, we made it here just fine...



If there's one thing kids agree on, it's that sunken ships full of treasure are awesome. Note to self: look into wreck diving certification.



That's nice. We had to kill a monster for it, rescue a wanna-be kung-fu girl, and talk it out of an absent-minded old woman.



We go ahead and plant the recently found Ifram seed.



Rover will eventually allow the Talon to move on land only. We'll talk more about Cannon in a bit. You didn't miss me finding this one, by the way, it's been in the Talon from the outside.



To the right of the main room is the Flushex, which will return the lead character to being human. You can chance the lead character with select.



As soon as we try to exit in the present, we get whisked away.



It's not even my birthday!

What?! This is Lara!

Lara!



our children, too.

Thanks, Elder.


You should go there.

We'll do that, but first a moment to talk with everyone...



Lara's grateful, but this brings up a point. This is about the first thing Lara has said since we've rescued her. We've carted her all over the place, taken her through time away from everyone she's ever known, and plopped her down to stay with an old man she doesn't appear to know. Her only comment is to thank us for it.

The Elder has a prophecy for us:


someday.

Before hitting up Elan, let's have a look around. Where the cave used to be...



There's a giant tree and a tower. Chrono's reaction strikes me as fairly sane.



You can talk?





Are there Units around here?



Hmm. That places it fairly close to the tree...let's see what Cronos has to say.



On the way, we can see the scooped our bay where Lae used to be.



Really?

A monster called Ashura in South Tower has it.

Before he can explain more, we're interrupted.



Okay, you guys come with me!



A perfectly sensible reaction, once more.


monsters, either Chaos or Maitreya so hurry!

Wait, the four what? Why have these not been mentioned before now?

And for that matter, who are the other two while we're on the subject?

No time, hurry!



Naturally, we walk all the way back to Elan so he can hand us a key.



I'm trying to remember is keys count as inventory items. If they do, they disappear when you use them.



Something in this whole process has tripped a flag to make the overworld enemies tougher. The scorpion enemies are particularly well designed.



Might as well check on Muu while we're here...



The first thing we're told is that WaterHags are former humans. Makes that first boss take on a whole new light, doesn't it? Evidently in the intervening time since we were last here, the disease has made its way here. Refugees from Lae?



Unlike all the others towns in the present, Muu actually has a better inventory than it did in the past. Cure2, which restores 60% of HP, is a must have. Lit1 completes our elemental set.



Being a WaterHag might override normal human social conditioning.



The partially completed building now has a Water crystal in a treasure chest.



Five minutes after our last visit to the armor shop, there's a whole new set of stuff to buy. Hope you didn't spend all your cash.



Some people seem to view becoming a WaterHag as a beneficial change.



Another building in progress gives us a reason to look forward to visiting this place again.



Eh, there's about a 50/50 chance one of them will snap first and eat you.



Evidently becoming a WaterHag also allows for some of the higher monsters to control you. So, our first boss... willing servant or mind-controlled victim?



Time to go in.



The first couple floors of the tower look very similar to the North Tower. Evidently the same architect was used in both cases.



The B-Jack is actually a pretty good weapon, better than what we've got.



There's some really huge groups of enemies in here, some of which are quite annoying. Busybodies, for example, have a confusion attack that they love to use.



The next floor up has an Air crystal and some TNT (It's dynamite). We don't have a use for the crystals yet, but eventually they're useful. Right now they're just taking up space in our inventory.



Another amusing enemy type, the Ghost enemies are weak to fire, leave meat, and are rather humorous with the way they have their tongues out.



The top floor is a radical departure in design, but it's quite impossible to fall off. More's the pity, as that would have been an interesting thought. I really miss the large icons for the bosses at this point.




Might be just a bit underleveled at this point, but I think it'll work out okay. Unfortunately Ashura has way too much defense to use weapons against, so Marle and Chrono are going to end up healing more than anything else.



We'll repeatedly electrocute you and flay you with a whip. A vague disclaimer is nobody's friend.


Chaos' Castle. I'll give you something else!



Boss Fight: Ashura

Ashura's another step up again from Dogra, and his attending helpers are more powerful as well. It's not a bad idea to focus attacks on them for the first round or so in order to reduce the number of attacks coming your way. Once that's done, you can turn lightning or whatever spell you choose on Ashura. Luckily at this point you don't have to worry about elemental resistances on bosses, so you're free to use your strongest spell. He's got a great defense, however, so magic's the best option. He's got a fairly beefy 3,600 HP to chop through before you're done with the fight, and can do as much as 200 damage to any character with an attack. I rather like the sprite for him in this version, although I'm not sure if I like it more than the previous ones.



I can't help but feel a bit cheated by this. Oh well.



Next time: The first of the Four Water Entity Monsters and going back... to the future!