Part 6: Life in the Big City

Last time, we finally left Caldor Isle but had to say a painful goodbye to Alex's life-long friend.

In the remake, you can explore the ship during the boat ride, and Luna has a big musical number on the ship's mast about her conflicted feelings. As opposed to here, where I imagine everyone spent the trip in dour silence.


: I’ll be staying in Meribia for awhile. If you need to find me, I often hang out on Black Rose Street. So long, then!

But, hey at least, there's some good news.


"I'm dying to see how rich it will make us!"

Also we're in the largest city in the game with a shiny... rock. So let's explore around a bit.

And when I say "a bit" I do mean a bit. Meribia is huge, probably the largest city in the game. As you can guess there is a ton of a dialogue of varying shades of relevance. In order to keep focused, I will have to skip over a fair bit. But that's what the side updates are for.


"go to Black Rose Street where the magicians assemble. It's not like Vane, but they can solve most any problem..."

If you're curious where exactly Nash ran off to, well there you go. We will go there later, but at the moment there's not much to do there. First, let's go look at what they have for sale-



Or get distracted by... red bunny-people?


"But Master Mel is the wisest and strongest of all mixed races!"

Or rather beastmen. Meribia is the first city we ever see beastmen in. In every Lunar game, quite a few major and minor characters are beastmen (who usually are not quite as... red as this one) and while there are hints there was of some sort of racial tension, it's never relevant to the plot.

I said it's never relevant to the plot. Don't you dare correct me.

Anyway, as I was going to say, let's look at the shops.



The first item is the herb, which we've seen before, and right beside it is the Jasmine. For whatever reason, it costs less and it heals more, so there is no reason to ever buy Herbs ever again (not that I ever was). Right next to the Jasmine is the Calm Herb, which costs twice as much and heals about twice as much as the Jasmine. It's pretty good, but at the moment it's overkill. Next to that is the Meal Rations, which we've seen, and the last new item is the Headband. It's actually a piece of equipment; it only gives one point of defense, but it also only costs 12 silver. You could spend your money on worse, I guess.



Oooh, that's a lot of money. Half of these weapons we've seen before, which are the short sword, the axe, and the poison darts. The new items are the Saber pictured, and the Claw and Bow. Alex can equip all three, but the Saber is the best of them. We also can't afford it. The Claw is affordable at 1000 silver, but the upgrade from our current weapon is pretty minor. There's no point in buying any weapons at the moment even if we had money, for reasons you'll see later.

Now the Bow... this game handles attack power from projectile weapons differently. Instead of adding the weapon's attack power to your own (which most weapons do) it sets your attack power to a static number. I literally did not know that until I played through this game specifically for this play through. I feel a little stupid not realizing that before



Armor would be a decent investment, but again look at those prices. The first two are the Heavy Clothes and Leather Armor, which we've seen. The Leather Armor is a decent upgrade, but it's too expensive, and the Caparce Armor to the right of it is an even bigger and more expensive upgrade! The Helm and Leather Gauntlet after that are quite affordable, 120 silver and 90 silver respectively, but I... just forgot to buy 'em.

Since stores in Meribia are apparently rich and all that, we should try and sell our Diamond there.



But they won't buy it. As you can guess, going to the jeweler will move the plot along, so let's not do that.



Instead we're invading the house of the mayor for some hero worship!

Mel apparently has a free-access policy. Doesn't seem all that wise for the leader of a city to allow people to walk into his house whenever, but he does have guards so I guess it's okay.


"She's at the shrine of Althena to the east learning to be a priestess."

He also has a daughter that we're (sadly) not going to be meeting yet. There's a lot of talk about this Jessica.


"When he's around, she puts on airs and acts very ladylike."

Mostly along those lines. A secretly rebellious daughter of a rich, prominent man combined with a church setting doesn't seem like the best combo to me, but what do I know?

But it wasn't her we actually came to see, was it?



No, we didn't come to steal his food! For some reason there are treasure chests in his kitchen and they have food. The Special Rations are quite good, as they heal a large amount of the entire party's HP. The Smoked Fish heals for next to nothing, but it doesn't sell for much so... whatever.



But more importantly, here's Mel, one of the legendary Four Heroes. It's actually completely optional at this juncture to talk to him; the only time we are required to is muuuuch later. In the remake, you have to meet him and you have to meet him before selling the diamond. He'll actually challenge you to a duel, which is optional to win but nets you some nice EXP if you pull it off.



: My name’s Mel De Alkirk! But just call me Mel. What’s yar business? ...I see, an adventure! Ho ho ho! That's rich!

Here, though, he just makes fun of us

: You know lads, I've got a daughter not much older than ya! The girl's got a heart o' gold, ya should meet her sometime!

And then tries to set us up with his daughter. I don't think that's a good idea. Alex doesn't need another girl with whom he has a confused, indeterminately romantic relationship. As for Ramus...

: The man Jessica chooses ta marry had better be a brave soul! I won't be allowin' any wimpy lawyer or accountant types ta take her hand!

Yeah.

All right, let's just go and get this moving along.


“I don’t think he’s a very reputable guy... In fact, honestly, I think he’s a crook! The next time someone has trouble with him, I think Master Mel will beat him!”

...we all know this going to be a bad idea, right? And we have to do it anyway.



Now Dross (that's a name I trust!) does have some stuff to sell, but what he sells is completely useless jewelry. So let's just finally sell this thing.



4000 silver is a pretty decent chunk of change. All right then!



So he walks off and we wait.



And wait.


: Alex, I’m starting to get a bad feeling about this whole situation... I think we may have been scammed!

Gee I didn't see that coming. Well, let's go and fetch this guy. With our fists, preferably. I mean, how far can that passage behind him go?




“He’s got a hiding place deep within these sewers, so keep searching…”

It's a sewer level. Great.


“This place is overrun with monsters that ordinary weapons can’t touch! You better get out of here while you still can!”
: Hm... I wish Nash were still with us. That’d make this alot easier... I guess we can go get him if we really need to...

And it's a sewer level with super-powerful monsters. In the remake, the monsters are not immune to physical attacks or anything. But in the original, we're going to have to ask for help.




Seriously, it went all the way up- no, wait, got that mixed up.

: If I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times! That Dross is a crook! But, since you’re trying ta become adventurers, I think I’ll let ya solve this on yar own... I think I’ll let ya solve this on yar own... Test yar strength, but trust yar heart, lad! Ya said ya wanted an adventure, and here's one for ya!

Of course we can't actually expect the authority figures to be useful. Black Rose street it is.





You think this place is full of mages? It might be full of mages.

There's only two places that are open here, but in the remake Black Rose street is a little larger. Also, here we meet the first new character the remake introduces.



This is Royce, a fortune-teller. She mainly just spouts some cryptic dialogue at you. And apparently willingly associates with Nash. Weird lady.



One of the places open is a regular shop. The first two are the Starlight and Silverlight, which are MP healing items. In most Lunar games these things are stupidly expensive, but in the original game Starlights are dirt cheap, and Silverlights are only slightly more expensive. Silverlights don't restore all MP like in other Lunar games, just a bit more than the Starlights, but it still is weird to buy them so cheaply. The big circle with a triangle is a Light Barrier which prevents one enemy from casting magic, the robe is the Cool Robe, which is basic magician armor that many of them will come with anyway, the blue vial is, again, the useless Holy Water, and the last is the Charm, which is an accessory that gives you some Anti-magic.

Out of all that, I'm going to stock up on Starlights. I just... have a feeling.



The other building on Black Rose street is- oh hey Nash.

: Hey guys! Do you need help with anything? Hmmm... I see. Well, this shop can draw out your magic power if you have it within you...

Let's give it a shot!


"Some nuts get really carried away."

I swear I didn't cut anything out. Now, if you talk to him before talking to Nash he does introduce himself, but the dialogue he has is from before the theft. Trust me, it'd be no less disjointed if I put it in here. I'm not sure if this a mistake on someone's part or just a defect in the script.



Of course not, that would just make Ramus useful.

But at least Alex does have some magic.



It's just the simple Flame spell, but that'll do for the moment. By the way, it doesn't actually matter what level you're at when you get to Meribia, you'll only get this one spell. If some deranged reason you grinded up to level 50, he'd only get Flame.

None of this is the remake at all. Alex's skills are all sword-based abilities (they basically stole half of Hiro's skill set from Lunar 2) and he doesn't really gain traditional magic spells. Between the original and the remake, Alex's skillset is probably the one that was changed the most.

Any way, now we can have some way of hurting the monsters in the sewer, let's go find Dross and make him pay... us.





And here are the super-tough monsters we were so scared of. The Gurglers are really nothing special. Their speed and attack are pretty much average, and they can waste a turn poisoning you. Nothing much to say about them.



These guys, on the other hand, are bastards. No, not the snake-slugs, they're so slow that they're completely harmless. No, I'm talking about the aquatic bunnies. They are super fast and they do a fuckload of damage. I'm talking about thirty to forty worth. Like everything else in the sewer it dies to one cast of the Flame spell, but it'll probably hit you at least once before it goes.

Mostly, though, your biggest concern in this dungeon is running out of supplies. Flame is cheap but Alex doesn't start out with much MP and every battle requires it. And since we don't have Luna, we have to use items to heal ourselves. Fortunately this dungeon is really, really short and many of the chests have Starlights in them.

In the remake, this dungeon is much longer, and requires you to run around lowering bridges. Although you still do have Luna, so at least you have someone who has healing magic.



But in the original, they give him healing spells to compensate. Power Litany doesn't cost much, but it doesn't heal much HP either. Now this is an interesting spell, as you are scripted to get the next level up after getting magic. If you arrive at Meribia at level 3 (which is the lowest level you be at that point) he will learn the spell at level 4. Every other spell after that you learn at a specific level (unless you first gain magic at a level higher than 10, which screws with the level you get certain magics). The developers really wanted to make sure you can get a healing spell as early as possible.



We're already pretty much at the end of the dungeon. It's only one floor, but you know what we haven't seen in this game so far?





Bosses.

The Water Dragon is the first boss of the game. There's a certain strategy you have to use to beat him. Let me show you.




There you go.



The dragon responds in kind, but he only does about 20 damage to you, so as you have Power Litany and remembered to equip a starlight, it's a damage race you can easily win. There are only two interesting things about him. One is that he will not attack the character closest to him like nearly every other enemy in the game, and the other one is that he is literally immune to weapons. The other sewer monsters merely have an absurdly high defense; if I got the best weapons I could and was stupidly over-leveled I could potentially hurt them with physical attacks. The Water Dragon just can't be hit at all. The only thing that Ramus has contributed in this entire section is being a meatshield, and here he can't even do that reliably.



One interesting feature that you might see during this fight is that Nall sometimes will help out in battle. He will heal a critical character for a small amount. And I do mean a small amount, in the range of 5 HP. It's pretty much useless. He certainly got an upgrade in the remake where Nall would randomly revive teammates. Actually, he does do something for dead teammates in the original.



He removes them from the battle. The other Lunar games do let you revive fallen party members, but in the original once someone dies, you cannot get them back until the battle is over. So don't let anyone important die, dummy!



Fortunately, it was only Ramus so Alex gets all the sweet, sweet EXP for himself.

Although it occurs to me... how the hell did Dross actually get down here? Was the Water Dragon there when he came down here, or did it arrive later? Is it his pet? All those questions and more will not be answered.


“Uhhh, heheh, I’ll pay you 1000s for the diamond now…”

We could just accept that offer, but we can also... negotiate with him.



That's still half of what we were promised. Don't think so.



Well, guess we'll have to just take it-




Sadly you can't actually get the amount you bargained for. Ah well.


“Nothing but honest business for me from now on…”
: All right Alex! We finally got some hard cash! Give me my half, and let’s get out of here…

And we have to give half of it to Ramus. So this whole venture paid us... 1500. Plus whatever the monsters dropped. That's barely enough for a Carapace Armor.

: Isn’t this adventure turning out great?! We’re loaded! Yahoo!

Woo.



On the way back Alex hits level 12 and gets the far superior healing spell. A little late, I guess, but late is better than never.



But at least it's over and for a sewer level it was weirdly painl- oh hi Nash.

: It's about time! Good you finally made it. Alex, you know, you’re really quite talented. You should study magic... Alex, I’ve got an idea. Why not come with me to Vane and study magic?

That's, uh, kind of out of the blue. Nash's... amiability is concerning to me.

On the other hand, Alex really didn't have any plans on what to do after this, so it's not like he has anything better to do.



And with that he joins your party again.



But it seems like Ramus may not be interested.

: I’m not sure what’s in my reach, but I intend to find out on my own! Alex, buddy, please continue this adventure for me. See you later...



So we part ways with the one that convinced Alex to start the adventure in the first place. Now, in the later versions Ramus actually managed to get Dross to give him the shop in exchange for the Diamond (and get the diamond back anyway, because Ramus is one smooth mother) so one can assume that he stays behind to tend to his new store. Here, though, we're not sure yet.

Next time, we head to this magic city to see what the fuss is about.