Part 14: Meandering Aimlessly

Chapter 13 – Meandering Aimlessly

Where we last left off, we had just defeated Bubba, who had been left in Darakin to ambush us. After defeating him, he decided he’d rather see us win than Doplin, and gave us the Kravia Pass we needed to move on with the plot.

Now we can finally enter Kravia properly and move on to Tanza.

But you know the drill by now.



“Okay, so turn down the heat…Put in the soy sauce. Got it!”

Leon: “Just a little bit. Too much and it’ll be too overpowering. It’s important not to get carried away with seasonings.”

“What are you doing, Master?”

“Hey there, Lang. I wanted to try my hand at cooking, too. I’m having Leon teach me a dish.”

Leon: “Nothing fancy. Just follow the steps, and anyone could do it.”

“No, you’ve shown me some really great tips. Maybe I oughta think about being a chef someday…?”

Kazan learns to make “Fried Vegetables” here.

And that’s a wrap on side content before actually entering Kravia. I know, not much.

Now Playing – Karavaia



Guard: “No one goes through without a Kravian Pass.”



Guard: “What…? Could that actually be…a Kravian Pass?! Yes, sir! We’ll open the gate right away, sir!!”

Guard: “OPEN THE GATE!”[/b]






“To Tanza for a ship, huh…? And then what? Where are you planning on going by ship?”

We get choices here. Either be honest, make something up, or “Not sure what to tell her”. Lying to her just has her see right through you, and Cocky Lang doesn’t plan on hiding info from Sharon.



“Never mind, Lang. Don’t tell her our plans. She wouldn’t understand.”

“Hey, pardon me!! I’m not blind, ya know!! I know you guys are grappling with something…really big! I can tell that much without being told! Hmph!”



For some reason, Kazan makes a weird gesture, like he’s pouting at Sharon’s reaction.

“It’s like you guys have….oh, I dunno…some kind of huge mission you’ve gotta accomplish…”



“What? R-Really…? Well…I guess I don’t mind…What do you think, Master?”



Again with Kazan pouting like a child at Sharon’s presence.

“…By the way, Master…Exactly how far is Tanza from here, anyway?”

“Once we get through this town, it’s just south of here. But there are lots of shops here. We’d better take a good look around.”

And there the scene ends. Kazan is correct: Kravia is home to a great many shops with a lot of different inventories. Some aren’t as useful as others, however.



This sign is completely irrelevant to anything, but I just want to mention it because having illegal immigrants suggests there’s another government besides Darakin’s but you’ll never see anything resembling a different authority in game.

In the building next to the sign, we find a jail.



Guard: “That guy? He was a newcomer, but he thought he could get uppity with us!! So I threw him into solitary confinement! Had to teach him a lesson. Serves him right!”

Kafil: “Rosemary…Karen…Forgive me…!”

Kafil is the subject of a side quest that is initiated after getting a note from Castle Doplin. If I had remembered to grab it, we could have been doing it right now, but it’s actually a little better to do it later. In any case, I’ll detail this in a later update. Kafil will just have to sit tight for now.

Across from the jail, we find a guild…



Jordan: “We get jobs in here from all over, from as far north as Darakin, to Tanza in the south. If you’re looking for work, you should ask at the counter here.”



Jordan: “You should try it. You won’t be able to get enough!”

Dream Burger is basically like a fast food joint. We encountered them earlier when Nils gave us a Dream Shake.



Unlike other in game restaurants, the items they sell are actual, usable items and not opportunities for Lang to use his hyper gustatory memory to learn new recipes.



Whenever you buy something, Anne tries to push a meal deal onto you. It’s exactly what you’d expect: a slightly higher price to get more items with your meal.



This thing is basically one of those “Gachapon” machines that are common in Japan. Stick some money in, get a random doohickey. You can get some rare and useful stuff, but most of it is common garbage. You’ll go mad trying to get anything useful or interesting.

I did this for nearly half an hour and 500000 gold (end game save) to get the one item I saw mentioned in a walkthrough that sounded interesting to get. It is called “Noa’s Adventure”. If you haven’t played Legaia 1, Noa was the default name for the female member of your party in that game. That would make this item a reference, so I figured it was worth a look at.

Turns out it’s a furniture item so it’s meant to be placed in Maya’s room in Yuno, where we can take a look at it…



It’s…not the best of likenesses. This is what Noa looked like in Legaia 1…


(Image taken from Overrated Sage’s LP)

Her hair was clearly a much darker shade of red/pink. Legaia 2’s image also makes her look like some kind of wizard girl whereas everyone in Legaia 1 was a martial artist. Just another reminder of what a shallow sequel this game is, I guess.

Anyway, on with the game. Let’s find out about the actual meat and potatoes of this guild, shall we?



We can ask for an explanation, but this is all very basic and obvious. We just ask her for jobs and we pick one we like.



We can only pick one at a time. While a quest is taken, it actually disables the presence of your party members in towns and any scenes you might get at that point in time. I don’t actually remember this until after taking our first guild quest, “Tanza Tea Cakes”.

Sonnet: “This is a quest from Yaksha. He runs a junk shop in Darakin. You just buy six of the Tanza Tea Cakes they sell in Tanza and deliver them to him. The reward money is 10,000 G.”

You get an option to turn down a quest after asking about it, but how many people would decide only now to back out?

“I’ll accept the quest.”

Sonnet: “It’s a simple job. Just make sure you buy the right number.”

You can come back and talk to Sonnet if you ever want a refresher on what you’re doing.



We decide to hear her secret.

“A secret? A good one, huh…? All right.”

Myulla: “ Hee hee hee! Wait till you hear this! It’s a REALLY good secret! Come out here so nobody else will hear…”




“WHAT? You’re joking…! NO WAY! I can’t believe it…! You’ve gotta be kidding me!”

Myulla: “And that’s the whole secret! What do you think? Pretty amazing, huh?”



Lang gets the “Alley Cat” nickname, denoting someone who has been in the alleys of Kravia.

No, we will never actually know what Myulla told Lang.



You might not know it yet, but this crater is technically relevant to the plot.



Tokie: “I eat it all the time. That’s why I’ve lived to be a hundred years old! Hyuck hyuck hyuck! How about it? Just 200 G a bowl.”

We will never see anything akin to a Sand Mole in this entire game. But anyway, we eat the stew.



The stew recovers your HP, but when you have the option of an inn or going to either Yuno or Nohl for free healing, why bother with this? You don’t even learn a recipe from it.



The game goes on about Kravia’s famous kabobs, but when you first come here, this dude blocks your way the whole time. When you get the opportunity to buy some, they’re just consumable healing items with no particularly special effects. We have better healing items by the time we get some.



Next to the jail is the Tavern Belisia. This lady offers us a menu akin to the Green Lynx Inn and Chez Snobbe. There’s recipes to learn here, but not from all or even most of the options. Only the Hamburger Steak and Yakitori Skewers are learned by Lang.

If we try everything once, Lang gets the “Gourmet Kid” nickname.



On the other end of the tavern, this guy sells drinks. Lang being a minor, ordering any of the genuinely alcoholic drinks will just have Keiji remind Lang of his minority.

As we try the different items, Keiji will tell us things like an old school Tavernkeep NPC.



Him telling us about Phorchoon makes it appear on the map. We can’t go there yet, but since Keiji told us, we’ll be able to go there before we’re supposed to later on.



You’ll notice Fujima here looks like Kenjiro. Kenjiro has a lot of brothers wearing the same style outfit that will come up later. However, despite purporting to act as a peddler, Fujima doesn’t sell you anything ever. He will come up again, however.



As you wander Kravia, some NPCs will shout things out unprompted. This can happen in other towns too. It’s a neat touch.

Before we leave, there’s one random thing I want to show you.



For some reason, the devs programmed in a short animation for Lang pushing through a small gap between two people. There’s only a few places you’ll ever see him do this. It’s kind of neat, but also pointless, given how easy it is never to see it.

Now let’s leave Kravia.






Yeah, so if you didn’t figure it out already, Kravia is the site of Lang’s dream, which was Avalon’s memory. Kravia is where an anti-Mystic pogrom occurred and Avalon blew a huge crater in the middle of town.




You’re probably wondering, was there a point to that scene?

No.

If we go back into Kravia after leaving, we can find someone new in the Guild.



Stekin: “Huh? Oh, these wanted posters? They show creatures you can get rewards for catching. You know, wanted monsters. Heh heh! Just looking at them gets me all excited! Gets me too scared to even go outside!”

Despite mentioning these, we cannot actually pursue wanted monsters outside of the quests from Sonnet.



Stekin: “His name is ‘Silver Wolf, Stiel!’”



Stekin: “*sigh* He’s too cool! I want to be Stiel’s manager someday! That’s my goal. I’ll be famous!”

Stekin then leaves.



Stiel has a number of things to say, including this…

Stiel: “This town has changed. When I first got here, it was colder, more inhuman. It reeked with the smell of blood…”

Given that the last great bloody event was Avalon’s little incident, that would suggest Stiel was here around or before that time. But Kazan suggested it was a long time ago….

Now let’s finally go to Tanza.

Now Playing Tanza



“Minatochou Tanza”. Exactly as translated.




Macaque: “The ground shook, and a wave hit the town with a huge roar…Look, my house was destroyed, too…”



There were actually multiple NPCs in Kravia that told us about Tanza being flooded, so this only comes as a surprise to the characters, or a player who didn’t care to chat.

“Perhaps….Could this have something to do with the Eclipse that created the black sun?”

”I dunno, man, sometimes these things just happen. Like my Wind Talisman did a sparkly thing and the gales disappeared from Gale Canyon, but I wasn’t sure if the two were connected, you know?”

”Indeed. Correlation does not always equal causation.”



Terao: “Bro!!”




“Do you have any suggestions?”

Vash: “I don’t know if it will help, but…There is a ship…But…”

“What is it?! Spit it out!”

”God, I hate when people add a billion unnecessary ellipsis to their dialogue!”

”Lang…”



Vash: “Rumor says, the pirates’ hideout is called Darek’s Haunt. But I doubt they’ll let you on board…”

“Darek’s…Haunt?”

“It’s a cave to the south of Tanza. Be careful…They’re pirates, you know.”

“What are pirates?”




Vash: “They saved us so many times when we were in trouble. They’re like saviors for us sailors.”

“Well, anyway…Why don’t we check out the pirates’ hideout, Lang?”

“Yeah, let’s go.”

”If they don’t wanna lend us their ship, we can always just take it by storm.”

”HOW DARE-I mean, yeah, I guess we might have to, if they don’t…”

Anyway, now we’re free to go where we please. There’s some stuff to check out in Tanza, obviously.



Buying stuff from this guy gets us this recipe book, teaching everyone Japanese themed dishes.

This game references an “Edo” in a few places, like this book and the “Edo Steel” material. Edo is an old name for Tokyo, primarily from before the Meiji restoration. There is no Edo in game, of course, but to make things doubly confusing, “Edo Steel” is said to come from Kravia, while this book is about dishes popular with “South Edo natives”. But I guess that’s just me putting too much thought into this game again.



Meat Gyoza is a consumable item that is even less useful than almost everything we’ve picked up to date, healing a mere 1000 HP. PaiPai will turn up during a minigame later on, but I probably won’t show you her appearance because I cannot stand said minigame.

But if you buy the Gyoza…




It’s odd how much effort goes into relatively pointless things in Legaia 2.

On the note of minigames…



“Okayyyyy! We pose! My muscles sing! My muscles dances! LET’S MUSCLES!”




“Oooo? You did good! But me Sidejump Hero. I side-smash you! C’mon! Let’s side-muscle! No pain, no muscle!!!”

Do you remember the side-jumping minigame from way back when we first left Nohl? Balzac here is the second tier of that game. Naturally, that makes him a bit harder than ol’ Maxell…



But he’s no match for the power of button mashing. We get the “Sidejump Hero” nickname and a “Rainbow Capsule” item. This is a usable item that gives a “random effect” each time it’s used. Other capsule/pill items like it do things like half/prevent damage or status ailments or boost attack, so it’s presumably one of those. We will never need this, since we have things we can rely on instead.

Moving on from Phanta and Balzac, we enter a house on a hill.



Hugo here will buy any special monster items you’ve found at a higher price than regular merchants, so it’s worth holding onto them all until we reach him. You might have noticed I got items marked with a little white icon in some boss battles? Those are all items Hugo buys.



Satomi: “You! You want to volunteer for my experiment, right? Now I can finally conduct my experiment about death and spirits!“



“What’s a volunteer?”

Satomi: “A foolish…I mean, important person who participates in this experiment to get close to god. Enter the machine, please! A 5000 degree flame will turn you into a spirit in no time!”

“No way! I won’t do it!”

Satomi: “Oh, I know! You came here to try your hand at my pop-quiz, right?”

“Quiz?”

Satomi: I’ll give you a total of ten questions! If you answer them all correctly, you win!”

Obviously Satomi proceeds to give you a little test based on random trivia from the game. They’re completely randomized, so you can be sure to get the same questions every time. There’s more than 10 possible questions, but you’ll only get 10 to answer.

These ones are fairly easy if you’ve been paying attention, and they’re all multiple choice.



Satomi: “You must be an adventurer, too! You might find this item handy!”

She says “item” singular but gives us 7 total: 5 camping kits, 1 Flag of Retreat (for escaping battle instantly), and 1 Hell’s Path (which increases monster encounter rates temporarily).

We also get the “Adventurer?” title, as if the game isn’t entirely sure you’ve earned it yet.

We leave Hugo and Satomi and go to a large building on the other side of Tanza.



This restaurant doesn’t teach any recipes, but eating all the options earns Lang the “Exotica” title.

Our final destination in Tanza is actually the first building on the left from the entrance.



This kid sells the tea cakes we were asked to buy for the guild quest. We can buy more whenever we want, but they’re just HP restoring consumables, and they’re the worst by far. The first healing items you get, Heal Powders, heal 200 damage, whereas Tanza Tea Cakes heal 120. What is it with this game and worthless consumables?



If you give this thing 1000 gold, apparently it can occasionally give you a “Restore Potion”. It never happened for me, and while Restore Potions are useful (full healing for one character), we don’t need them now.



Ah, the staple of any anime media: the hot spring. Using the hot spring in this game doesn’t give any material benefit, but it’ll eventually be home to a scene…you know what kind I mean.



Entering the hot springs right now is pretty boring. The dude just tells Lang to stop moving around, the sign just narrates the hot spring’s history, and the plate doesn’t do anything at all.



No peeking allowed….yet.

Now of course there are actual entrances to the springs we could try to enter rather than talking to Goichi. What happens then?



Try the ladies’ door twice and Lang gets the “Peeper” nickname.

Trying the mens’ door just has Goichi tell you he won’t let you in for free.

We’re finally done with Tanza, so let’s move on. A short trip back to Kravia’s guild reveals…



“Ung…Stiel…He strong! But Balzac have more muscle!”

“What good is that? You big, muscle-bound idiot!”



Remember, kids, it’s always funny when a woman abuses a man.

“If you’ve got time to be pumping up those useless muscles, why aren’t you FIGHTING?”

“Wha-? My muscles is hard like steel! They make me invisible!...Um, no, I mean, invincible!”

They notice Lang behind them.



“Not the kind of quests good enough for OUR skills, that’s for sure! Come on, Balzac! Let’s go!”

And then they leave. Phanta and Balzac are recurring characters in the guild quests. They’ll often show up to either pose some challenge and/or act completely inept. We’ll be seeing more of them for sure.

We head back to Nohl briefly.



Were you wondering who the third and final tier of the side jumping minigame was? No? Well it’s Dein. Bitchass Dein blew off Vigilance Corps work to learn how to side jump real good.

Dein will not only side jump way more than Balzac, but when it seems like you’ll beat him…



He suddenly speeds up and does much better.



Button mashing alone doesn’t cut it for me this time. I can get close, but I can’t beat him. Anyone online insists it’s easy, but either I suck, or playing with a keyboard is making this impossible. Either way, I’m not going to bother beating this minigame. He gives you an endgame item, but I don’t care.

”Congratulations, Dein. You won.”

Dein: ”Yeah! In your face, BITCH!”

”I’m glad you’re so content to be the victor of this pointless minigame. Now I’m going to take my millions of gold and godlike powers and go save the world, mmkay?”

Dein: ”You….you’re just jealous of my crab leg swagger!”

I will leave things here for now. I’ve already stuffed a lot of content into this update, and there’s still more to be seen. At this point, side content will probably take up more updates than the plot, which is pretty lean, as some of you already know.

Join me next time, where we do more side stuff and maybe, just maybe, we go to Darek’s Haunt where the pirates are.