Part 22: The Tournament Arc

Chapter 21 – The Tournament Arc

Where last we left off, we found out that a “Flying Dragon” was being offered as a prize in the Phorchoon arena, and we need said dragon to reach the Wind Tower, Ellsworth, where the Aerolith lays in wait.

Now there’s no great reel of side content for me to show off before we get there, but there is one thing, and it’s technically something of a secret.

Wouldn’t you know it, we learn it from Kenjiro, who we learned all about the Flying Dragon from.



“We peddles have a little shanty between Mt. Gabel and Darakin…They’ve got just about every type of item you can imagine there! That’s where I get a lot of my prime merchandise! You should go and check it out sometime. You won’t regret it!”

The game tells us we’ve gained access to the “Secret Market”. It’s a location we can find on the map.



Kenjiro said it was between Mt. Gabel and Darakin, but I’d say this is more between Mt. Gabel and Gale Canyon.



Now Playing – Barracks

“Gyoushounin no kakure barakku”. I believe it means “Peddler’s Hidden Barracks”. “Secret Market” is a bit of a departure from that, but then again, why the heck would they call this place a “Barracks”?



As you can see, it’s a bunch of Kenjiro lookalikes sitting in tents. Ain’t no barracks about it.

Anyway, as you might expect, the Secret Market sells all kinds of useful things. It doesn’t sell all the useful things in the game, but it sure does sell a lot.



A bloke called Torajiro, not actually pictured above, sells combination components. All handy, but chief among them is the “Earth Dragon Wing”. It’s not that useful on its own, but you can trade Earth Dragon Wings in Jinga for “Sun Faulds”. Sun Faulds can then be sold for more money than you paid for the Wings, roughly 20000 more. You will quickly make millions of gold, and that’s more than you’ll ever need to play through the rest of the game. This is Legaia’s 2s ultimate money trick, coming both when you need it and being very simple to pull off.



Momojiro, the pink Kenjiro above, sells accessories. Many of them are extremely useful, but the most useful of all is the “Tireless Ribbon”. To make it, you need to:

-Buy Winged Ribbons and Healing Ribbons.
-Combine Winged Ribbons and Healing Ribbons to make Muscle Ribbons.
-Combine Winged Ribbons and Muscle Ribbons to make Sagely Ribbons.
-Combine Winged Ribbons and Sagely Ribbons to make Tireless Ribbons.

Tireless Ribbons have many useful abilities, but the best one is “Max AP”. As it says, it sets your AP to maximum forever. Thus, you can use as many Hyper Arts as you want as well as pull off Variable Arts every round. No longer will you have to worry about building AP: just smash the enemy with your greatest attacks!
Of course, it takes a fair bit of investment to actually unlock the Max AP ability, so you won’t see it in action for a while yet. But when we finally get, boy will we be hitting the sweet spot.

Now that we’ve nothing better to do, let’s actually get on with the main quest. Phorchoon is our destination.



We have no real choice but to participate.



Despite seeming like a choice, you’ll be forced to go with Lang. This is despite being able to use all characters in the arena at any other time, but you’ll understand when you see what happens in the ring.

To give an example of the railroading, we will ask the objectively best character, Sharon, to compete in our stead:


But Cocky Lang would volunteer himself for this anyway.

“I’ll do it!”

“Good job, kid! Just as my student should be!”

“Cool! That’s what a man should do! Show your stuff! “

Braujet: “Understood. Please stand by in the waiting room.”

We are then immediately thrust into the arena battles.



Now Playing – Elegy of Battle

As you can see, it has a neat little display where it gives Lang’s current nickname. “Pro Cook” naturally comes from making a lot of dishes using Lang.

Dark Jackal is a totally banal pallet swap that goes down in one round. Moving on.




Every arena battle awards you a certain amount of “recovery” for every victory. Here it’s 80% because we finished Dark Jackal in one go, but it dwindles with every round you take to win. It can go as low as 10%. The coins awarded are of course the casino prize coins. Some events give them per individual win, others pay out at the end.



Another pallet swap. “Dangerous Zone” is fast enough to attack first, but not strong enough to last more than a round.



Wasteland Outlaw lasts two rounds due to Baki-type enemies tending to block hits, but he goes down nonetheless.




As you can see, the Gaia Blade bites us in the ass here.

For the first time in a long time, we actually use Origin powers to get past a tough enemy.



Hellhound lasts two rounds, attacks first, and does enough damage to chew off 1000 HP. There’s the faintest whiff of a challenge here.



Beefcake here takes three rounds to go down, befitting his name.



I bust out the Hyper Arts for Dark Executioner, misremembering him as the final encounter before a story beat. Not that it matters much in the end, it just means I have to build up AP in the next fight.




For some reason, these lines are voiced. Click here if you’re curious.





The crowd goes wild for Demetrius and his gleaming teeth.




Demetrius: “Ladies and Gentlemen! A new champion will be crowned tonight before you! Are we ready? Ladiiiiiiiiiieeeees aaaaaaaand Gentlemeeeeeeeeeeeen!!!! I bring you the Tournameeeeent Championshiiiiiiips!”






Demetrius: “In the blue corner! The newcomer who has crrrrrrrrushed the competition!! Surely you already know who I am about to introduce….Pro Cook, Lang!”




Cocky Lang is loving this.






Demetrius: “And on the other side is the Tournament’s Best, or its Absolute Worst! The fierce savage of the underworld, Gorvaaaaaaaaaaa!!”



….it’s just the fucking Loghart Crab from The Forest Maze.




The most important takeaway from these images is you can see Sharon fell over the railing and is now clambering back into the stands.



So yeah, Gorva. They have no special attacks that the Loghart Crab didn’t, just more HP, which makes killing Gorva tedious, but not difficult.




Demetrius: “I know him! You know him!!! Pro Cook, Lang!!”



You see Kazan give a nod of approval, so the only one being a sourpuss here is Ayne.

Demetrius: “Thank you, thank you. You are a most gracious audience! And now, for the awards…”






If you’ve been paying attention, you know exactly who this guy is. I wouldn’t blame you for forgetting, of course, because the relevant information was seen a while ago and many chapters back. I’ll not name him till the time comes.

Also I just want to say his dinky loincloth is really ruining the medieval Darth Vader vibe he’s going for.






I’ve played enough RPGs…




…to know where this was going.




Demetrius runs for it, leaving Lang with this evil swordsman.

“…So this is the gathering place of the strong and gifted….I was wondering who would win…”



You guys know there’s no saying no here, right? Cocky Lang wants to take a stab at this guy anyway.



“….I like your attitude. This may be more enjoyable than I’d expected!”



You know, you could describe this encounter as a “duel”. Given duelling the MIGHTY Balken was optional, this might be the only duel you have to fight in this saga.

This “Black Swordsman” can actually be rather tough. He can hit pretty hard, and since you’re on your own, you have to have Lang take time to heal when necessary.




Black Swordsman is scripted to eventually hit you with one of these.




This guy’s voice acting is really dinky. From the look of him, you’d expect some James Earl Jones material, but what you get is more like Grima Wormtongue. Definitely not what I would have given to him.



From here on out, he’ll start using other Hyper Arts, like Thunder Fang here. They don’t do anything special, they just hit for varying amounts of damage.

Once you beat this guy down hard enough…






Ah, so his identity is finally revealed!

…actually no, we have never seen this bloke’s face before, so the armour was more of a giveaway.

Click the image below to see the terrible Black Swordsman in action.




Casual reminder that our friends just stood around while this completely illegal fight took place. Even Demetrius’ guards tried to stop this.





“What? So senile you’ve forgotten the student you killed with your own hands?

“Oh….it’s you….Rauss!! But….how….?”

Yeah, this is Rauss, first mentioned by Kazan way back on Mt. Gabel, and identified by name as the Black Swordsman standing by Velna after the Zoan Stoara fight.

“How am I alive?....It’s true. You did defeat me that time, many years ago….But the spirit of my armor has brought me back to life! I will not rest until I have fulfilled my fate…To live out my destiny as a great swordsman!”




Now Playing – Evil Desires






“That woman….!”

“Have you forgotten that you live now only because I gave you that unholy armor?”







And they’re gone.



Gone to the Wind Tower, as it were.



“He will come here. He must. Only here can he secure the last of the sacred stones…”




“That’s right, Rauss….Feel the madness. Let it infect every fiber of your being…And when it does, you will be reborn as the greatest swordsman that ever lived…More than a man and almost as powerful as a god!”



“Yes…Turn your anger and hatred to madness….And then use it to kill that boy, the Star Shaper, for my liege, Lord Avalon….”

Speaking of Lang, we cut back to him.



Demetrius: “I have served as host for many, many years, but never have I seen such an excited audience! I have a proposal. How about working at Phorchoon regularly? You see, between you and me, the contract fee is quite decent!”



Demetrius: “Hm?? To what do you refer, my fair lady?”

“To what do I refer? Pah! I WON! Hello?! Don’t I get something? Huh?”

”You didn’t win, I won!”

”What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine.”

Demetrius: “Oh! Ohhhh!! Yes, yes! You speak of the prize! I will fetch it immediately!!”

Demetrius walks off.



Notice that between images, the woman in the background left and the man is crying. Sometimes I’m struck by the amount of background detail this game has.



“He left the arena lone just a little while ago….I wonder where he went….?”

We are now left to wander, with the obvious goal of finding Kazan.



He’s out on the Blood Hawk.




“I know…The intruder at the arena….Rauss….That’s it, isn’t it?”

”…huh? Master, I never met him before, what the fuck would I know?”



“Tenga-ryu comes from the heart. Therefore its strength comes from the person’s heart also. Do you remember I told you this? The fighter’s inner strength is fused with the sword. That is why daily training, experience and trails are so important….That is the way of the swordsman. This is what I have tried to teach you all along.”



“He used the Ultimate Fang, a move forbidden by the Sky Fang Masters! Ultimate Fang is dangerous….it does not draw power from one’s fighting spirit-it is fuelled by insanity. Use it too often, and it eats away at your very core…And that is why, as his Master, I had no choice but to slay him…”



”Hey, fuck you, I had beaten the MIGHTIEST knight in Darakin by the time I met you!”

“I see room for improvement, but you are a respectable Tenga-ryu swordsman! As tribute to victory, I shall show you Tenga-ryu’s Ultimate Master Stroke! Watch closely!”






So yeah, we’re shooting laser beams out of our swords now. The anime levels just rose by a lot.

If you’re wondering what “Waga Itto Nomi” means, I think it’s “Bunny Fang Blade”.

No, really. When I first tried to get a translation for it, it came out to “Drink my rabbit”, which was obviously wrong, but “Itto” can translate to rabbit/bunny. Couple that with the fact that Lang will occasionally shout “Bunny Fang Blade” when using this Hyper Art, I think that might just be it. Could use some Japanese context if anyone can provide, of course.

EDIT: The user Polsy has provided Japanese context. Turns out this translation is pretty damn wrong.





“Sleeping….Dragon….?”

“Correct. Gather your entire soul and being, and release it through the sword. Nobody can withstand such a blow. ‘Sleeping Dragon’ is not within your reach right now…But I have complete faith that someday, you too will master ‘Sleeping Dragon’!”

What Kazan means here is that while he has shown you the Art, you don’t get to use it until a story event.

“Master…”



“If ever….We meet and must fight again….I may lose my life….”

“You can’t have that attitude before you try! I’ll…We’re all going to fight together! We won’t let you die!”

“That’s true. I guess….I am not alone….Lang……Do not forget the ‘Sleeping Dragon’ that I showed you. You must become the sword….It is not an easy feat to accomplish. But you….you will, someday….”




The game then cuts to the next day.




“Whoa! That’s crazy! Only the best for the best!”

“I…hope it doesn’t drop its riders…”

“You…You ride this? I don’t know about that…”

“It’s fine. It may look scary, but I hear it is a gentle beast.”

Demetrius: “With this, you can rule the skies! We hope you enjoy riding this fine beast! After all, they are very rare, you know!”

And with that, we have our Flying Dragon, and the path to Ellsworth, and confrontation with Rauss, lies clear ahead.

But we shall save that for another day.

Join me next time, where we storm Ellsworth, face Rauss and behold the Aerolith.