Part 24: Sekuhara Ojii-san

Chapter 23 – Sekuhara Ojii-san

Where we last left off, we slew Rauss atop the Wind Tower, Ellsworth, by shooting a laser beam through our sword. With the Aerolith in hand, we now have all three sacred stones, and our last task is to take them to the Demiurge Tower and restore the Source Forge.

But bloody well first, we’re slacking off!

We start this chapter the same way the last one began: finding Maya in the Phorchoon casino.




Cutie: “Ommmmm! Ahem!!....I have seen it. The person you have in mind does not seem to pay much attention to you…If you want to make things work, you must take initiative. Be active, and lead. That is the only way.”

“So I have to be more aggressive….”

No prizes for guessing who she was thinking of.

Our next destination is Darek’s Haunt.



“Whale…? What is that?”

Guntz: “You’re joking, right?! I’m talking about you! You’re huge! You know how to fight, right?”

“I am a warrior.”

Guntz: “I knew it! Say, how’d you like to join the crew? Do a little piratin’?”



Let’s see what happens if we offer to join ourselves.


The nicest option is technically to insist we need Ayne.

“Are you crazy?! Ayne’s our friend and part of our team! We need him!”

(Friend…? Why do I feel all….warm and fuzzy inside…)

“Right, Ayne? We’re friends, aren’t we?”

“Friends….Yes, that’s right. I’m sorry, but I cannot become a pirate.”

Now we go to Tanza. We have a….very special scene to witness here.

We go inside the hot spring bath.





If we say no, the scene ends here. It wouldn’t be very interesting not to find out what’s going on here, would it?

“Sure. What is it?”

“Here. One glance is worth a thousand words.”



(!! That’s…Maya?)



I just want to take this moment to point out that with Sharon only just arriving, Kazan would have been peeping at Maya, who is not only still 14 but also in a pseudo-familial relationship with Kazan. Nasty.

“Hey, Maya! Wonderful! It’s great to see you here!”

(Now Sharon’s in there, too…)



“What do you mean, Sharon? Are you telling me I’m fat?”

“No, not at all! You look sexy! If Lang sees you, he’ll get excited and get a bloody nose right away!”

*COUGH* 14 *COUGH*

“Really? But Sharon, you’re so beautiful….I envy you.”



“What is?”



“Stop, Stop it! Sharon! H-hey! Ah! Waah!”

(It’s getting out of control…)



Look at that face he’s making.

We’re gonna let Kazan go back to peeping. You’ll see why very shortly.

“Darn! Just when it was getting good! But you’re my Master, so I have no choice. Here you go.”

“Your heart is true, kid.”







Oh look, Ayne’s here. With nothing to say, as usual.



“There’s a hole here! Everybody can see inside! Let’s cover it.”



And that’s that. If we hadn’t given up our place to Kazan, it would have played out mostly the same, only with Lang getting caught by Sharon. You would also earn the “Pervert” nickname for Lang.

Way back on Mt. Gabel, I said Kazan reminded me of someone. Can you guess who, after this scene? It should be pretty obvious if you know who I mean.

It’s Master fucking Roshi. There is barely a character trait that Kazan doesn’t share with what might be the most famous martial arts master in anime. Think about it:

-They’re old.
-They’re wise.
-They’re hermits at the time they feature in their respective stories.
-They are martial artists who take students.
-They’re huge perverts.
-Kazan even has a Hyper Art that looks astonishingly like an energy wave straight out of DBZ (you’ll see it eventually, don’t you worry).
-Kazan, on more than a few occasions, counsels Lang not to get too full of himself and be overconfident. Master Roshi participated in Goku’s first Tenkaichi as Jackie Chun just to remind him there will always be a stronger opponent, i.e. to not be overconfident in his ability.

It’s one thing for characters to share similar features, but this….I think this is indicative of a larger problem with Legaia 2 that I’ll lay bare by the end of this.

Anyway, we’re done putting thought into this silly pervert scene.

Let us stop and camp chat.

Rauss



“It had to be done. It was my responsibility, really. This business of life is one hardship after another, I guess…But there are moments of happiness now and then, too. As long as we’re alive, we’ve gotta know there’ll be happy times again someday. We’ve gotta believe in that. Like, if I had died, too, when I killed Rauss, I wouldn’t be here with you now on this journey. You see?”

”Huh? Oh, no, I wasn’t feeling bad about what happened to Rauss. That guy tried to kill me even AFTER I supposedly cured his bloodthirst or whatever.”

”Oh.”

”And I don’t even know why you’re rambling about how you MIGHT have died. What has that even got to do with us beating Rauss?”

Decisions, decisions



Hmm. If I didn’t know better, I’d say this was a choice that ought to affect the ending. Keep this one in mind, since I’ll definitely refer to it again.

Cocky Lang wants adventure, not pissing about with the incompetent Vigilance Corps.

“There are still all kinds of worlds I haven’t seen yet. I think I’ll go out on another adventure!”

“Yeah, that’s the spirit! I know just how you feel! The thrill, the excitement! Nobody can resist the call of adventure for long! And when it comes to adventure, nothing better than a ship! Like MY pirate ship! How’d you like to travel the world together? Like and death battles against unknown monsters along the way! Going to unexplored regions and meeting the people there! Yes! Just think of the thrill! Adventure is the life! Ah, adventure!”

“Hmph! You’re just trying to make it sound good, because what you REALLY want is to rope Lang into being a pirate!”

And we all know being in a pirate crew would be the worst thing in the world, don’t we Nazak? Especially Alphis’ pirates.

“No, that’s not it at all! I’m just saying it’d be fun to follow the call of adventure together, that’s all!”

“Sorry, Sharon. I guess I can’t give you an answer yet. I’ve still got things I’ve gotta do first.”

“Damn! And I almost had him right where I wanted him! Oh, well. I’m still not gonna give up!”

Perverts

“Tch! I never would’ve thought it was YOU guys that were the peepers! If you were REAL men, you wouldn’t be so sneaky about it. If you wanted to see, you’d just SAY so!”

“…Really? And…you’d let us…?”

“Sharon!!”

“Hey, come on! I didn’t say it’d be FREE! Let’s see…I couldn’t POSSIBLY let you gaze upon this perfect, gem-like skin till you gave me at least…..10,000,000 G…”

“What? That’s way too expensive!!”

“’Too expensive,’ he says. That’s not too expensive at all, IS it, Maya?”

“That’s right!”

”It really isn’t, a few round trips from the Secret Market to Jinga would get us that much pretty quickly.”

What was seen



“Hey, Lang…You remember what happened at the hot springs, right…?”

“Oh, that? Yeah…”

“So….what did you see, anyway? I couldn’t see much, what with the steam and all…”

We get a choice. I’m going to go ahead and select telling Kazan we could see “plenty”.

“I could see everything! The images are BURNED into my brain!”

“You…? WHAT?! You mean…? I can’t believe it! Damn! How come I couldn’t….?”

“Nah, I’m just kidding. The steam was so thick, I couldn’t see a thing. I…Hey, what’s the matter…?”



”Yeah? I think it was hilarious! And your freaking out is even funnier!”

Kazan will also freak out if you act like you don’t want to tell him. Creepo wants to perv vicariously via Lang or some shit.

Demiurge Tower



”Didn’t you keep saying it was calling to you earlier?”

”Uh, yeah, I just…wanted to make sure?”

“Yeah. And we can probably count on that guy with the Supreme Origin…Avalon, being there too!”

“So it’s the final battle, huh?”

“Don’t get nervous now! It’ll be all over after this last dance. We’ve gotta jump in with both feet!”

“You’re absolutely right. Yes. The final battle!! We’ve gotta be ready!”

Notice that during this big psyche-up for the final dungeon, Ayne didn’t say jack shit.

Now that we’re done chatting, let us go….do some guild quests.



Our first quest comes from Joe, the information guy in Darakin.



Joe:“I’m asking ya to get me some Golden Groneh from a guy named Rindo in Tanza.”

The hell’s a “Groneh”?



Rindo: “Heh, heh. So you came here on behalf of Joe, huh? Sorry. I haven’t made the Golden Groneh yet. I’m short of some ingredients for it.”

For some reason, they bother making us ask either when it will be ready or what he means by “short of ingredients”.

“What ingredients do you need?”

Rindo: “Golden Apple + Magic Potion. Golden Apples grow on a tree in The Forest Maze, but they’re not in season. Magic Potion is illegal, so nobody else will make it for you. It can also be made from Magic Powder. Hey, maybe you can find those for me! I’ll pay you!”

We get another choice, but who would refuse now?

“All right, then. I’ll find them. A Golden Apple and Magic Potion, right?”

Rindo: “Really? That’s great, I’m counting on you. And hurry, if you can! Golden Apples grow in The Forest Maze, and Magic Powder can be made from Magic Potion.”

Magic Potion isn’t nearly as rare or “illegal” as Rindo suggests. There’s actually legit stores that sell them, and it’s very easy to have one on hand when you meet Rindo. You can also combine for it easily enough.



The Golden Apple is easy enough to find in The Forest Maze, especially since the encounters are non-threats. Just looking at it, you’d think it was ready to take, given it’s a “golden apple”, but you have to ripen it with Rivas first.



Now it looks more like a regular apple. You then have to have Ayne smack the tree to get it down.

With both ingredients in hand, we can return to Rindo.



If we get too greedy and ask for the most, Rindo will balk at the suggestion and give us 1000. Asking for 10000 gets us what we ask for.

You then take the Groneh to Joe, and go back to the guild to get paid.

The next quest we’re doing is called “Reik Flowers”. It’s calling on us to help some guy bid on a painting at the Phorchoon auction house.



David: “What I really want is the painting known as ‘Reik Flowers’. It will be mine! That guy over there! That one! He will not snatch it from me! Do you understand, hmmmm? Here, you take this 50,000 G. If you can bid successfully for cheaper, I shall pay you handsomely….Ah. The auction is about to begin. Let us go and take our places.”



The gist is this is a normal auction, but you have this douchebag with you rather than Sharon.



The game makes it seem like you can bid on the other items, but even if you try, David stops you. Your only choice is to wait for Reik Flowers to come up.



Once it does, it becomes any other bidding match. I’m pretty sure it’s somewhat scripted, as I ended up forced to the 50000 limit no matter what I did.

When you do hit the limit, David simply ponies up another 25000 so you can keep going. We end up getting it for 73300.



David gives us a “Resurrect Bottle”. I don’t know if that’s for getting it for less than 75000 or not, because one walkthrough I looked at reported it going up to as high as 100000. Either way, we’re finally free of this tedious side quest.

Our next quest is “Writhing Monster in the Dark”. Apparently, growling noises can be heard coming up from Doplin Castle. Gee, I wonder where that could be? Somewhere under the castle…



Oh, great, it’s the lunkheads.

“That quest you just accepted…It looks pretty interesting.”

“Huh? You, small guy-you take quest? Oooooooo! Dangerous monsters there! You go, you no come back!”

“Only really experienced Hunters like us would be able to handle it. Right, Balzac?”

“Right! My golden muscles SMASH! SMASH THE UNSMASHABLE! *gunt!*”

“*sigh* Are you even LISTENING? Anyway…Ahem! We’re declaring war on you, right here, right now! We’re going to complete that quest before you, thank you very much! Ah ha ha!”

“Right! Beefy-B use muscles! Muscle always win! MUSCLE!!”



Hmm, wonder who gave them information? Joe?

Anyway, thankfully this doesn’t take place in the sewers, but in the Kabel Ruins. In the chamber we fought Slogar, no less.



Aaaaand that is a pallet swapped Zoan Stoara.



By logical deduction, Kenjiro must have been their secret source. Birds of a feather…

“What’re you talking about?! Pull yourself together! We can’t turn back now!”

“That’s right! I shelled out a lotta money to get the lowdown for ya! Let’s see, with the guide fee…That’ll be 1,000,000 G total! C’mon! Time for ya to pay up!!”

Kenjiro displays his business genius by demanding payment from the only people that could stand between him and a vicious monster right now.

“A, a million G!? We won’t make that kind of money even if we manage to take the monster down!”






Like I said, it’s just Zoan Stoara again, He lasts 3 rounds before we wipe him out.




This one is an extra-non-choice, because no matter what you say, it works out the same. We’ll be honest for Cocky Lang’s sake.

“Yeah, I took him down!”

“That’s impossible! You must be lying!! I’m sure it’s just unconscious or something! I bet it’s still alive!”

“Whoooaaa! Danger! Danger! Phanta, Balzac run!”

And they run.

“Hey!!! Wait up!! Ya still owe me!”

And Kenjiro chases after.

The stupid end.



We get a “Raging Axe” as a bonus. A decent weapon for Ayne.

Now that we’re done wi-



Oh, we’re not done. Well, at least it probably won’t invol-



Fuck!

“Oh, you again? Don’t try to steal our work! Muscles make the REAL man! Hmph! We’ll be waiting for you at the north entrance to Gale Canyon! Make sure you show up!”

And so we go.



“The team that kills the most monsters on the wanted list in the canyon gets the money! Well, time’s awasting!”

“Me kill more. Me smash more! Me do push-ups! Make muscles! Man must be strong. Must smash! Need muscles to smash! Lang! Do push-ups with Balzac! Make more muscles for smashing!”

“Just ignore him. He’ll go on like that for hours if you let him. Don’t take this the wrong way, but that Guild money’s mine! See you at the Guild!”

Anyway, the challenge calls on us to kill monsters running around on the field.




Pretty sure these are just Corroded Tusks from when the Eclipse started in Hunter’s Wood. Also believe they mean “Larva Beast”.



When you kill one, they leave a corpse confirming the kill. You’ll find some corpses that are presumably courtesy of Balzac and Phanta. Anyway, just clear the canyon…



Rather than finding the lunkheads, you just go back to the guild.



And we are finally done for today.

Join me next time, where we brave Demiurge Tower.