Grandia Part #126 - Cafu Village and Petrified Forest 1

Part 126: Cafu Village and Petrified Forest 1

Welcome back!

I'm no geography expert or anything, but, uh.... Can you really have a desert that borders two oceans and is adjacent to a forest?

And here's our introduction to Cafu.

: Huh? Didn't Nicky tell ya that I've got a couple of guests?

: We heard that you have guests, but we sure didn't hear about them being short-eared guests. You'd never forget it's against village law to allow outsiders in, would you? After all, you're the elder's grandson. You've known that for ages.

When Rapp decides he likes someone, he is behind them 100%.

: OK, calm down, Rapp. I understand. OK, I'll trust you. We will consider your guests as our guests. I don't suppose we have a choice, since you're so adamant about it.

: That's right! So, would you mind goin' to hear what my grandpa has to say?

The sad part is, that's a warm reception, by Cafu standards.

Anyway, new town means a whole bunch of people to talk to. It also means new things to buy.

A lot of interesting toys available here. The shock knife can paralyze, the shadow sword can cause instant death, at the expense of a lower attack and a move penalty, the tree root can cure magic block when used as an item, the snakeskin whip there can inflict poison, the catfish whip is crazy-powerful and deals water-elemental damage, and the boomerang is just an upgrade over the Cafu shuriken.

Justin picks up the stick, and Feena goes with the poison whip.

Armor-wise, the chain mail is just your basic defense-boosting torso equipment. The chameleon armor, which can be dropped by the chameleon enemies, gives less defense than the chain mail, but has the same "may warp when attacked" property of the odd clogs.

We've picked up a leaf shield already, which gives a decent defense boost and poison resist, but the Lafa Flower Shield there not only gives more defense, but buffs the power spells. Specifically, it's a "+1 magic power level", which seems minor until you realize that it's going off the same seven-point scale that stat buffs do.

Yeah, stacking +magic equipment is a way to hilariously break the game wide open.

Swallow hats we've seen, and the footwear is just the usual "+defense, +move". Winged boots, fittingly enough for their greater cost, are better than the ninja sandals in both respects. Feena picks up the warping armor, Rapp gets some chain mail, and they both go for the +magic shield.

The item shop has a few interesting things. Most of these we've seen before, but the iridescent amulet give a whopping +10 defense, and the black belt gives a +2 to skill powers.

And yes, you can stack a bunch of +skill gear and destroy the game with techs as well.

Cookies and honey are HP restoratives, whistles cure sleep for the party, antidotes cure poison for one, and the books cast Howl for 50, Tremor for 70, Crackle for 120, and Zap! for 180 power, respectively.

The resurrection potions for sale here are three times the usual cost, for whatever reason. I pick up two of them and give 'em to Rapp, along with an iridescent amulet.

Rapp also heads over to the stashing place and swaps out his Cafu shuriken for the Angel's darts we picked up way back at the Twin Towers. Slightly weaker than the boomerang, but the HP restore effect should make up for it. Hopefully?

Cafu is a really interesting place, and we'll be seeing a lot more of it in the NPC chatter updates.

Dear lord, those eyebrows!

: Oh. This here's Justin and Feena. They've been a big help for Nicky.

: Hmm... now I can see how folks might mistake you for those people in the tower. You look a lot like them. Those abominable people in the Tower of Doom....

: What's the Tower of Doom and who are these people?

: The people of Cafu have not always lived in this area. The forest where we used to live has been turned to stone and destroyed. It happened right after those evil people finished building the Tower of Doom near that forest.

: That's terrible.

: And they stole forty cakes.

: We must stop those vile creatures at all costs!

: Yes. Rapp, are you going there today, to Old Cafu and the Petrified Forest?

: Yeah, of course. You know I go there every day, so they don't get too lonely.

: ...

: Rapp, could you take us there, too? To the Petrified Forest?!

: Huh? What do you plan to do over there? That forest is dangerous, ya know.

: I've just got to see it with my own eyes! Please, Rapp?!

: OK, have it your way. You adventurer types sure are weird.

: All right! So, let's go! The Petrified Forest is north of here! Everyone, follow me!

: We've made a special exception for you as Rapp's guests. So please do not cause any trouble.

Ahh, yes. Standard fantasy racism, here; instead of skin color, they discriminate by ear length and shape.

: Hey, I'm going with them. They got nothin' to worry about!

Hmm. The Tower of Doom? Sounds kinda dangerous. Should probably grab some of my restoratives out of storage.

Yeah, like that one.

Also, a small glitch. The thick armor's short name has an extra 'f' on disc 2's version of the file. The name displays properly, but that r on the end isn't cleared until you exit the menu entirely.

It gets sold so that I don't have to deal with that again.

Oh, this place doesn't seem so bad.

... Oh.

: When I was Nicky's age, those guys showed up in that cursed tower. Then the village was turned to stone. Those who survived that time built the current village.

: Since I was a little kid, I couldn't do much work.

: But I became absolutely determined to destroy that tower when I grew up.