Part 11: Lang's DESTINY

Chapter 10 – Lang’s DESTINY

Where we last left off, Avalon’s promised Eclipse occurred, and the world is now showered in the Black Sun’s evil light.

We’re now headed to Maya’s home town of Yuno, where an ancient spirit called “Reym” might be able to help us figure out what’s going on, and how we can stop Avalon.

Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut first!

We’re going back into Nohl.



I don’t know if I mentioned this already, but whenever you go into a town, your party members will go stand in different areas and have things to say. This is distinct from actual scenes as they say these lines every time you go in, and will stand in the same position (although it changes as the story progresses). This is a great way to check if a character has content at any given time, because you’ll figure out they’re not in their usual spot.



In Darakin, Maya’s still standing around on the street, talking about how fun playing hide and seek is.



Kazan stands around in the upper class district talking about the Kabel ruins. Why no one has arrested him for vagrancy I don’t know.

Speaking of Darakin, there’s a new bit of content to be experienced.




We could come into this restaurant much earlier, and we did to get the recipe book from the chef. But we can’t actually use the restaurant properly until after the Eclipse.

“Huh? Okay. Yes, please do.”

Guinness: “Certainly, sir. This way, please.”



As you might expect, all of these options teach us new cooking recipes. But it’s not as simple as other restaurants: here, the staff and clientele of Chez Snobbe will judge us based on what we buy.

We start with the cheap option.



Lang takes a bite.

“The flavour is so….rich…!”






Lang neither notices nor cares that they’re judging him, this is the best food he’s had. This course teaches us to make “Balsamic Veggies”.

But he hasn’t seen nothing yet.



“*crunch crunch* Oops! I shouldn’t make so much noise in a place like this!”

Maid: (Looks like he has money…But he certainly doesn’t have much class…!)

Female Noble: (Well, he doesn’t look like he wandered in here by mistake…But he does look rather out of place…!)

Guinness: (Well! That’s quite an expensive order he gave!)

(This sure is elegant dining! And each bite fills my mouth with fantastic flavour!)

Lang learns “Lobster in Wine” here.



On a random note, the maid’s name is “Neil”. I have no idea if this was intentional or a bad translation.



“*Munch munch* Wonder if I’ll be able to finish all of this myself?”

Guinness: (Well! I guess you can’t judge a book by its cover!)

Female Noble: (Could he be royalty, I wonder…? Maybe I’d better make his acquaintance…?)

Manager Broam: (How can he afford that?! I wonder what noble family he’s from…? I’d better watch myself. Can’t make any social faux pas!)

(This is incredible! It’s so delicious, I’m trembling from head to toe!)

We learn “Heavenly Beef” from this. Heavenly Beef is a fantastic recipe that buffs a lot of stats well and has no drawbacks like Kazan Curry. This will be my staple dish for most of the playthrough.

You might be wondering how Darakin is faring with this freaky supernatural event. Well, they’re doing absolutely fine. Yes, everyone’s commenting on it and being a little freaked out, but aside from that, you’d think nothing had happened. This is going to be a running theme in this game.

With meaningful content in Darakin done, we head to Mt. Gabel.




The terrifying power of the Black Sun: bringing us slightly more powerful pallet swaps of all the enemies we’ve seen before.




Gee, I wonder what could have happened? What dastardly knave could have swept in and taken everything Kazan owns? We’ll have to follow a trail of clues to figure out who took our precious Mizel Red Sand….



No, really!?

I get that some shit has happened in the character’s lives since Kenjiro was allowed to take everything, but from the player’s perspective, this is really tedious. We know Kenjiro was told he could take everything, and if you talk to him, he specifically mentions taking the Mizel Red Sand. The game has marched us up to Kazan’s shack, exposed us to boring pallet swap enemies, all so we could find out what we already knew and proceed with the plot accordingly.

“Ha ha ha! That explains everything!”

“So what are we going to do? We can’t make it through the woods without Mizel Red Sand, right?”

“Hmm…”

“I think the only thing we can do is start looking for Kenjiro.”

“Let’s just hope he hasn’t sold it already…”

“You’re right, Maya. Now where would he go…Somewhere with a lot of people.”

Gee, I wonder where they could be talking about?



Man, who would have thought he was in Darakin? I was so sure he’d be in Nohl….

“Hey, Kenjiro….About that stuff I gave you the other day…Remember that thing called Mizel Red Sand?”

“That was a surprise, Kazan! The town alchemist was just beggin’ me to sell it to him!”

“What!? D-Did you sell it?”

“I wouldn’t let it go that easily! It’s worth a fortune! Why, look, I have it right here!”

“That’s a relief! Kenjiro, would you give it back to me…?”

“No siree! You gave it to me, so it’s mine now!”

”Alright, let’s beat him up and take it.”

”You’ll have to tango with all the guards, kid!”

”Easy, we slaughtered our way through Castle Doplin TWICE!”

”We can’t, Lang! Stealing is wrong!”

”But the fate of the world is at stake! And he took it from Kazan first!”

”Sorry Lang, we have to do this legit.”

”Alright, alright… We really need it. We’ll pay you as much as we can.”

“No! I won’t give this here up, no matter how much y’all pay!”




“Listen up! I’ll give you the Mizel Red Sand!”

“But! I want Lyps’ Tear in return!”

“Lyps….teardrops…?”

“The Lyps are as hard to find as they are famous.”

“They only shed tears from those lovely eyes once a year! It’s incredibly rare!”

First, Lyps don’t appear to have eyes, second, every time you beat one, you get a Lyps’ Tear.

If we didn’t have one already, we’d have to buy a special item from Kenjiro called “Blowfish Weed” that would let us attract Lyps encounters. They’re usually very rare, and you need enough agility to hit them before they run.

However, I already killed a Lyps while grinding in the Forest Maze, so we skip that whole diversion.



“Oooo! Aha!! How’d you come upon that there!?”

“It don’t matter. We’re tradin’!”

You get a choice on whether to trade or not, but why wouldn’t you? You can’t proceed any other way.

“Darn! I was looking forward to sellin’ this baby, but…”

”I just want to take this moment to mention most merchants wouldn’t offer us all that much for a single Lyps’ Tear and we have WAAAAAY more money than it’s worth that you could have extorted us for. So you just lost out big time on this transaction, bitch.”

”Wait, no! Guards, I’ve been robbed!”



We can still use Kenjiro as a merchant. He sells a little bit of everything.

Now, if we leave Darakin and go right back in…



Leon: “You have to do this step quickly. Or else the pasta gets soggy.”

“Maya, what are you doing?”

“Leon is teaching me how to cook.”

“He’s showing me how to make Pasta Carbonara. I’ll make it for you next time, Okay, Lang?”

Naturally, Maya learns the Pasta Carbonara recipe.



Kazan fumes at Kenjiro from the backend of town.

Now, finally, we head to the Forest Maze.

Now Playing – Lost Forest




“…But we should still proceed cautiously. That black sun may have affected this forest also…”

We only get so far into the Forest Maze before we’re faced with a tutorial fight.



Not even bosses are immune to pallet swapping. The Gather Crab is now reduced to a generic enemy in blue.



“Kazan…”

“Maya you just watch. Lang, this will be a good test for the new Art.”

“We will synchronize our moves for a massive attack. Are you ready?”

And so begins our tutorial on Variable Arts.

Variable Arts are by far the most damaging attacks we have available to us except for one set of Arts that I won’t mention for some time (even though we could use them right now). Variable Arts work by inputting in specific sequences with two characters, who will then perform a joint attack. It has to be the exact sequence, and you cannot use any other Arts with them, but they more than make up for that in sheer power.

Each character comes with an A and B type Variable Art. The purpose of this is that one character must perform their A type Art and the other their B type Art. If you use both of the same type, then no Variable Art eventuates and you just perform a few regular attacks. You must also have 80 AP on each character to pull it off.
Click here to see our first Variable Art show.

This attack does 28000 damage to the Loghart Crab. This is far beyond what any character can do individually, and beyond what they can all do attacking in a single round. And of course, Variable Arts only require two characters, so the third can keep attacking or do something else.



“This…I never knew!”

“That’s what you get when you combine our strength! I expect that you can do it with others as well!”

Variable Arts can be performed by every character, and they all have A and B type Arts. I’d show off the others we could do here, but I’ve decided to leave that until we have every character.



So here we have pallet swaps of the Dino Gols and…



Holy shit, that’s a new, unique enemy! How long has it been since we’ve seen one of those? Probably Doplin Castle and Kabel Ruins…

Hanged Snails (how the hell is it a snail?) largely just hit you either regularly or with fire attacks. They can also cause Venom.



Here we are ambushed by Bean Cannons, pallet swaps of Bean Guns. They can shoot out “Mrs. Beans” to attack us, who are pallet swaps of the old Bean enemies. We don’t see this happen despite them getting the jump on us, as they mysteriously decline to act and then get wrecked next round.



Kocus Karacas’ are immune to Origin attacks, and have a suicide attack that denies you any reward for their deaths. But we kill them easily enough with Arts for that to matter.



Pallet swaps from the sewers. Boring.

Anyway, you’re probably wondering about the dungeon itself. The Forest Maze has no real puzzles like any other dungeon, but its mazelike quality might keep you wandering around if you don’t know where to go.

Fortunately, I’ve been through enough times to know exactly where to go.



First we get on this log.



Then have Galea smash this log.



And then it’s an effectively straight path to the exit.

The Forest Maze has plenty of treasure to find. Most of it is unremarkable, but you can get a "Scroll of Water" that teaches Maya a new Hyper Art.

We move on to Yuno.

Now Playing – Everyday Tranquillity






“This is…snow…?”

“It’s colder here than in Lang’s town, but it’s warmer inside! Let’s go in the house now.”

”Lang’s town? I'm right here, you know...”

Maya runs towards her house premptively.




“I don’t…I don’t deserve to enter this village…I bet the other villagers would agree.”

“If only…I had noticed your power a little sooner…”

“Then you… wouldn’t have lost your family and your friends…”



“I think…the village will forgive you, Kazan.”

“Let’s go inside.”



“Wasure Sato Yuno”. Exactly as translated.





“I’m sorry for making you worry! I’m sorry!”

”Shouldn’t I be the one apologising…?”

Ruth: “Maya…You…What happened to you?! I thought you lost your voice…”

Mick: “This is great!! Talk to me, Maya!”

Rona: “Congratulations, Maya!”



Simba: “Didn’t you know how lonely little Maya was without you?”

“I…I don’t deserve to live in this village…”

“I couldn’t save Maya’s family…or the villagers.”

Simba: “Hey Kazan, nobody could have stopped it. It wasn’t your fault…”

Hilda: “That’s right! Kazan! And you saved Maya!”

Hilda’s the woman near Simba.

Hilda: “Nobody blames you! So why should you leave the village?”

Hilda: “You and Maya…And everybody in the village! I feel like you’re all family!”

Hilda: “So what’s the point of being family if we are all separate, huh? Am I right, honey?”

Simba: “That’s right! Isn’t that why you came back, Kazan?”




“No. Um…He’s my…student, I guess. His name is Lang.”

”You guess? Have you NOT been teaching me this whole time?”

Hilda: “Oh! I was shocked. I thought you’d had a kid!”

Hilda: “You’ve had a hard time, haven’t you? We’ve had nothing but trouble since the black sun appeared!”

Hilda: “It’s not an exciting village, but make yourself at home.”

Simba: “Let’s have a drink for old time’s sake! Promise me, Kazan!”

Hilda: “*sigh* Just like a fish!”




“You’re right. I was…being silly.”

I think Legaia 2 wanted to win awards for fastest resolutions of plotlines.

“Let’s…let’s go back home now.”

The screen fades to black as they all go to Maya’s house.



“The house was a pigsty when Kazan lived here!”

“Kazan used to live in this house. I’m renting it now, though.”

”Renting? What, did someone buy your parents’ house and make you pay rent!?”

”Yuno law is…complex…”



“Hey, Maya? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing!”

“The room Kazan used to live in is spare, but…There’s nothing there except a bed.”

“Okay. Lang, go ahead and use the room.”

“What are you going to do, Master?”



“Anyway…Can we see Reym tomorrow? I’ve been invited to Simba’s home.”

“And Maya just came back, too! She needs to catch up…”

“Eh…But…Um…”

“All right, then! The decision’s made!”

Kazan gets up and leaves.



“I guess Kazan is happy to be here, too, though he doesn’t show it…”

“Um…Lang…”

“Hm?”

“I’m going out, too. I want to visit my parents’ grave and tell them I’m back.”

“Oh okay. Don’t worry about me.”

“Okay. See you later!”



We are now left alone to wander Yuno at our leisure.

In Maya’s house, we learn about a new minigame.



We can grow plants and flowers to gain items when they’re ready to harvest. As far as I can tell, all you need to do is use certain methods to grow the plants and then just hit the “check” option. There’s no need to wait or fight battles, you just do it. Some plants respond better to different acts, like watering more (or less) and using fertilizer. It’s all pretty standard.

While there’s probably some nice stuff we can get out of this, I’m not going to do much with it unless I find out there’s some infinity weapon locked behind it. It’s tedious as all hell.

Anyway, now that we can access the Yuno shops, I’m going to detail a really broken accessory you can make at this point. It’s not my original idea, mind you (it comes from Shotgunnova’s walkthrough), but I’ll tell you guys all about it anyway. Follow these steps to make it:

-First, buy a bunch of Passion Necklaces, Tough Necklaces, and Babble Necklaces.
-Combine the Passion and Tough Necklaces to make Assault Bangles.
-Combine the Assault Bangles with Babble Necklaces to make Hero Bangles.
-Combine Hero Bangles with Babble Necklaces to make Bonus Bangles.
-Combine Hero Bangles with Bonus Bangles to make Beggar’s Bangles.
-Combine Beggar’s Bangles with Babble Necklaces to make Power Necklaces.

Power Necklaces give you many useful skills, but chief among them is “Art Attack Up”, which confers a 50% power boost on every Art hit. That means if you use an Art like Wind Blade for Lang, which hits three times, he will have a 50% power increase on all three hits. This applies to every Art based hit you make, so you can wildly increase the damage you do every round, and it will only go higher as you get more Art Blocks.

This skill will trivialise much of the game, more so than it already has. You’ll find out just how much over the next few dungeons.



The woman running the food shop gives you a new recipe book. Like the others, this teaches new recipes to every character we can get.




”Hasn’t she been unable to speak for some time?”

Faldo: ”Yeah, that’s how we hooked up! I said “Say nothing if you want to be my girlfriend”, and she didn’t!”

”Genius.”



If we go to Simba’s house before we’re meant to, we get a brief scene of Kazan knocking them back with Simba.

Simba: “I know. I know! No need to hold back! You’re our guest!”



We learn that Simba was Kazan’s pupil too. For a man who “always preferred to use his fists”, Kazan sure had a lot of swordsmen for pupils.

Anyway, what we’re meant to do is go eavesdrop on Maya.

Now Playing – Maya



“Father…I won’t…run away anymore. I won’t curse myself anymore!”

“This power of mine…It will come in handy some day. I’m sure of it now.”

“So don’t worry about me, mother and father…”



Maya rejoins us. Now we have to go pick Kazan up from Simbacare.





Now Playing – Barracks

Simba: “Ha, ha, ha! Oh, man! I’ll take care of him tonight! I’ll send him home by morning.”

“Can’t be helped, I guess…”



“Wander, wander…O’er the valley yonderrrrr! Ho, ho!”

“Down on the border ‘tween….The north and south…Heeey! Hooo! Heeey! Hooo!”

Kazan keeps drunkenly repeating his little song. There is naught to do but go back to Maya’s place and sleep.”

As we sleep, however…



“If only I had noticed Maya’s power a little earlier…You wouldn’t have lost your lives.”

“All I can do now…is apologize…”

“All I can do…is to watch over that child in your stead…”



We awaken the next day.



Oh but we will have the luxury of time. We will indeed…

“Look who’s talking, Kazan! You were out all night!”

Kazan flinches.

“Hmph…That was then. This is now. Whatever. Let’s go and see Reym.”

We head out the back entrance of Maya’s house and enter the cave.





Now Playing – Title

(Quick note, this theme plays on the title screen of this game and Legend of Legaia)





“No…It looks human, but it’s a spririt.”

“A spirit?”

“Remember the Mountain Morg at Mt. Gabel? It’s like the Morg, a spirit. It can speak though.”



”…you think he’s mad I killed his fellow spirit…?”

“You are…Lang, aren’t you?”

“How do you know my name?”

“Don’t be too surprised. I know almost everything about this world.”

“The roots of this tree spread all over the world. And I can learn what’s going on from those roots.”

“Reym…About the black sun…What’s the ‘Eclipse’ Avalon was talking about?”



“The Eclipse is turning all living things into evil…darkness…chaos…”

“Did that man, Avalon, make it happen?”

“Yes and no…The answer is carved into this monolith. Behold…’The Source Forge.’”

“The…Source Forge?”

“The very creator of this entire world.”

“The creator…The origin of our entire world…Can this really be?”

“I understand how difficult it may be for you to believe.”

“To prove it, I’ll show you a memory. My memory…of this world of yours.”




Now Playing – Beast of Darkness

“It’s the core of the Source Forge. It’s the place where all life is created.”

“The Source Forge wasn’t always here.”

“At first, this world contained nothing. And then, three sources of power were born. They were…”






You know these colours/elements line up perfectly with Legend of Zelda’s goddess trifecta.

“Their power melded together and the Source Forge was born. The stones then created life and the Source Forge sent it into the world.”

“This life that was sent forth continued to evolve and propagate, right up till the present.”

“But the delicate balance of the Source Forge, that source of all life…was RUINED by HIM…!”



“And that man has upset that precious arrangement!”





“So THAT’S what I saw in my dream that time!”

“When the arrangement of the sacred stones was changed, the Source Forge began to run amok.”

“It began trying to create a world full of evil and chaos, covering everything with the power of the Eclipse, born of the black sun.”





“Kazan…It is impossible for you. You cannot restore the Source Forge.”

“Lang…Only you can restore the Source Forge…”

“Me?!”




“The man at the chapel called Lang that, too…Star Shaper? What’s that mean?”

“Power to manipulate the Source Forge. Power to shape the future of this planet…Only you and Avalon possess the power…”

“Where did this power come from? Tell me! What am I?!”



And there it is, dear readers. The ugly truth. Lang is a Chosen One™.

“Born…from the Source Forge?

“The Source Forge was created with the desire to promote life on earth…”

“Or…perhaps it was the will of the sacred stones, the creators of the Source Forge.”

“The life that sprang from it spread across the world, creating more life over the ages.”

“From a realm devoid of time, the Source Forge has stood watch over the cycle of life.”

“But unforeseen seeds formed during the cycle of death and rebirth. I speak of…the Mystics.”

“Beings who were a mixture of the forces of nature and humanity…Were these Mystics born to create a world full of hope, full of dreams? Or…Were they born to destroy the very world the Source Forge had created?”

“The Source Forge became interested in the Mystics. It even hoped…that the Mystics might guide its world to a better place…”

“You and Avalon have the power to use the Source Forge. The future of this world is in your hands.”

“But…Avalon…He has come to hate this world. I think his sad experience of being a Mystic has changed him…”

“This world is being consumed by ruin…And the only one who can stop it is you!”

“You are…the only hope! Lang!”

“I still can’t…It’s hard to believe I was created by the Source Forge…”

“I don’t feel like I’ve got any special power, either.”

”Except for my incredible sword talents and athletic abilities.”

“But…I’m sure about one thing…”



“Lang!

“Lang..!”

“How can I…restore the Source Forge to the way it was?”

“If the Pyrolith, Aqualith, and Aerolith are properly arranged within the core of the Source Forge…You can reset the Source Forge…And remove the black sun as well, Lang…!”

“But to do so…First you must collect these three sacred stones.”

“Avalon may try to stop you. You must resist his limitless power, and win…”

“Reym. Why are we here, then? To fight against him at Lang’s side!”

“Lang…You won’t be alone. We’ll all fight together to save the world we live in!”

“Master…Maya…”

“I knew it…Our meeting was no accident. We were fated! Fated to fight together against Avalon! To save the world!”

“We won’t let this world be destroyed! And I’ll change the Source Forge back to the way it was!”




“The power of the Eclipse…Is stealing life-force from my tree…”

“Reym! Hold on!”

“Forgive me….I cannot remain…In this world for long…I will leave my memories in this monolith.”

“Only Mystics…can locate the sacred stones…by touching this monolith.”

“The Source Forge resides inside…a tower leading to the center of this world. The Demiurge Tower…”

“The sacred stones…Will guide you there…”




“Perhaps we’ll see him again…After we restore the world, Kazan.”

“Master, Maya…Let’s go!”

“Right! We’d better find out where those sacred stones are located. Try touching the monolith, Lang.”








“About the Aqualith, Lang, you…”

“Kazan…"

“Let’s go back to Nohl. We need that Aqualith to save the world!”

And finally, we are done. We can leave.

Holy moly, was that an exposition dump! We learned so much…and god how it all sucks. One of the biggest problems with this game is it’s absurdly cliché plot, and this is the most cliché reveal of all. Lang is the Chosen One, the only person in the world who can stand up to the EVIL Avalon and restore the world to normal. Said world was created by a sentient rock formation that also created Lang AND Avalon because of destiny and balance and whatever. Also Kazan and Maya are here because of DESTINY. DESTINY DESTINY DESTINY DESTINY DESTINY!

…I want to share with you part of an interview with the script writer for Legend of Legaia, Hidenori Shibao.

Shibao: “When I started writing the scenario for Legaia I had several goals. One was the elimination of "legends". Now, there may be people who think, "What?!" Because the game is called "Legend of Legaia", but this title was not my idea…. Personally I think there's a phenomenon called "Nausicaa syndrome", as in Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. In other words…a legend or prophecy is introduced suddenly at the opening of the story. Because it's an absolute story transmitted into the world, it can't be denied. At the game's end, after various twists and turns, the hero who was at the mercy of fate ends up as a form of legend themselves. It's a common theme, right? Using a fixed form of story, such as fulfillment of a legend, I know it's convenient but...don't you get bored with it? So I wanted to avoid it.”

Think on this, and think of what this game has just told us.

Join me next time, where we do something incredibly stupid, and recruit our 4th party member.