Part 12: (She's in a) Bad Mood

So now you get an upgrade to your damage spells! Oh, that's real fucking useful. Thanks a bunch for that.

Oh, right... now that we've taken care of the fake Dragonmaster, we can go back, soak up some praise, and finally join the Magic Guild of Vane.




"Now, you'll get to enter Ghaleon's elite academy! I hope you've got the toe-jambs for it!"

...what.

Whatever, let's just go and report.


: We always have room for eager, bright students such as yourself. I foresaw your return and spoke with Lemia already. She’s waiting in the throne room…

Hey, we're actually going to get a meeting with her! I guess what we did was sufficiently impressive to get her out of seclusion.

Oh, and Nash leaves the party here. I am so heartbroken.

: You know, one thing’s been on my mind, Alex. Where did you pick up that interesting little ring shaped like a dragon? …from Quark? Hmmm… I can’t believe that old white dragon is still around. I thought… Alex, someday soon, you’ll have to take me to his lair. We have a lot of ‘catching up’ to do… hm, hm, hm...

...okay. We could totally do that. Is Ghaleon completely unable to phrase requests in a non-creepy fashion?

But that'll have to wait until we've met with Lemia. To the throne room we go!



It's all a little... pompous, I have to say. And, if you recall, you could see these sprites were in here before the meeting was even scheduled. Now I know the real reason is that Game Arts probably didn't see the point in adding code to spawn all these guys in at this moment if you couldn't talk to them before now anyway. But I like to think that Lemia just has these guys stand around all day anyway, doing nothing.


"After all, who wants to be rescued by an ugly guy?"

They're so bored they're just spouting off nonsense.




And this guy will play the... drum roll for you. I honestly completely forgot what this is called... anyway you hear this when you boot the game. Neat?

Oh, and there's Mia! Hi Mia!


: It’s as if I don’t even know her anymore! I’m so frightened!

Nice chatting with you.



Wait, she is? Where?



...is there a secret passage behind that banner? Why would you put one there? Or was she just waiting behind the curtain to be unveiled? I have so many questions!

Considering the legendarily bad mood Lemia is apparently in, I don't think it would be wise to ask them (even if we could).



Then again, she doesn't seem so


: He didn’t say what a filthy urchin you are! What will I do with a waif like you? Admit you into the glorious magic guild of Vane? I think not! Guards! ...guards! Send this boy to more appropriate surrounding… in prison!

...



Yes, she is apparently going to send us to prison because Alex probably hasn't bathed in very, very long time. They take hygiene fucking seriously around here!

In the remakes, she accuses you of conspiring against Vane. Which comes out of nowhere and she has no proof of it, but at least it's a sensible reason to throw someone into jail.

But considering how cowered everyone is by her, I'm not sure she needs a sensible reason. Hell, I guess she's arresting the flying cat too, because she doesn't fuck ar-



I guess not.

That traitor.





So... jail. We're in jail. We don't have Nall, so we can't save or load or anything. Shit... and I totally ate that guy's lunch, too! I bet that's going to came back and bite me



Oh hi Mia. Man, that was quick.



So Nall actually got away to do something helpful and useful. That's... unusual.


: To break it, we need the goddess’ mirror from the top of the silver spire! To enter the spire, you’ll need your Dragon’s Ring. Will you help me Alex?

Poor Mia... choosing to believe that her mother is cursed rather than, say, unlimited power over the guild might have taken it's inevitable toll. We really shouldn't entertain her wild fantasies.


: It's okay... <whimper> <sniff>, we can leave my other <whimper> cursed forever!

It's cruel, but we need to make a point.


: Look at her! She's on the verge of a breakdown now!

I'm sorry, but we need to stick by our convictions!

: Alex, I had no idea you were this type of guy!

Look, I'm not changing my-

: I can't believe that you won't help her even though I'm asking you! ...jerk!

...how long are you going to keep this up?

: I'm not going anywhere until you apologize to her and help her out!
: Oh Alex, Mia looks so pitiful. C'mon, help her out... please?
: What kind of a man are you? Toying with the mind of a girl in Mia's fragile state!
: Alex, you are a foolish, pig-headed, self-centered, small-minded, perverse, snot-nosed, egocentric brat! I hate you right now!
: Alex is a girlie man! 'Oh, no Mia, I cannot help you save your mother. The monsters in the spire are too strong! They could flick me across the room with just their pinkies! Then I would be left alone in the dark, crying in my baby poop.'



Oh, so you're done? Okay then-

: Master Dyne would help Mia. I'm sure of that. But then, you're not Dyne...
: This is the last time Alex! Give Mia a hand!

Is it the last time?

: ...who are you? Has your body been snatched? I don't know this Alex...
: Someone I don't know is talking to me... who can it be?
: I don't want to hear anything but yes! Tap me when you want to say it. Lalalalalalalala....
: Luna told me not to talk to strangers? Do I know you?

Okay. Are you finally done?

: Alex, I can't believe

All righty then! Fine, fine, we'll go get this magic mirror.


: Aren't you going to help me Alex?

...you know, I have the sinking suspicion that this girl might be better at crocodile tears than first imagined. But we still have to help her regardless.

: Great! I knew I could count on you. Now then, you're looking for the Mirror of Althena, it’s on the top floor of the Silver Spire. It is supposed to dispel evil…


She also gives us the prison key when she joins.

: That's it, Alex! I knew you'd come around sooner or later... Let's get down to business! Don't worry Mia, we're on the case!

So we have a new party member! Let's check her out!



Or she can check us out. Don't stand so close to me.

After we readjust our party order (which will automatically put Nall behind Alex) we can take a look at Mia.



She's the quintessential mage. Look at that pitiful HP...



She has an interesting spell list. Now we've seen Little Litany and Flamer, and her Luck Litany does the same thing as Luna's Good Luck (makes enemies attack each other for a while). De-protect reduces defense, Ice Attack is like Flamer but slightly more powerful and ice-elemental, and Fullstone is an earth-based single target attack.

Of course, I mention elements, but I don't think elements actually matter at all in this game. I've never really seen enemies resist or absorb certain elements over others. Lunar as a whole doesn't emphasize elemental damage as much as other RPGs, but I honestly don't think they even really exist in the original.



She doesn't come with much, but that Magic robe is actually the best piece of armor mages can have at the moment. Therefore she actually has suprisingly good defense at the moment.

Hey, since Mia gave us the key to the prison, we can free the other prisoners and find out what they're doing here.


"She's replaced me with a new commander. Why?"
: Why ask why?

Did I ever mention this game was made in the 90's? It was made in the 90's.


"And she threw me in here! Can you believe that?"

But that piece of information is quite vital. Interesting....

There's only one final cell to open-




Yes, yes, we're all in awe of your Shatner impression Nall.

In the remakes you actually free this prisoner and bring her along. Although in those games this prisoner has a mask that seals memories on. So whoever this is has some major importance...

Sadly, we'll have to leave her rot for the time being. But for now let's go and-



Oh, right, Alex was kind of thrown in jail under Lemia's order. That might create some problems...

: I'll take responsibility for this. If my mother has any problem, send her to me.
"Uh, Mia... remember, I'm sleeping... zzzzzzz.... I didn't see any of this. zzzzzzzz....."

Oh right, we're with Mia, and everyone else is sick of Lemia's shit too. Fine by me!


"They've also put more monsters inside to guard it! Why was this necessary?"

To make the game more challenging?


"Maybe you should go to the top of the Crystal Tower to find out what's going on!"

Or perhaps she's doing something fishy on one of those towers. Hm.

You know what that means? Right, we should leave Vane.


"You can't leave Vane without your mother's permission!"

Screw your rules man! Come on Mia, let's go-



Damn.

I guess even after all this Mia still can't disobey her mother.





So let's go disobey her mother!

When you enter the tower the ring flashes again, but this time Mia's got a plan...


: Charm of Althena! Hear my plea… open, quickly, open sesamee!

...open sesame. Really?

: Alex, we did it! The Charm of Althena has stopped working!

Guess so.



There's not much to the Silver Spire. Not all of the floor can fit on one screen (unlike the lighthouse) but there's no maze or any real navigation that has to be done. There's only seven floors and it's over pretty quickly. The only real thing you need to concern yourself with is to make sure to get all the treasure.

In the remake, Mia already had the Mirror and instead they head straight to the Crystal Tower. The Silver Spire does exist in the remake, but it's function is very, very different.



The monsters are a bit on the tough side, especially since we've only got two party members. They're mostly susceptible to magic, so Mia is going to be doing a lot of the damage here. Her Ice Attack kills most everything in the tower in one to two hits, except for the Ghosts. Ghosts (the blue wispy things) have surprisingly high HP.



The other new enemy is the Humming... byrd. They do something quite interesting...



Hey, hey, that's Flamer! You biters! It doesn't do too much damage though (especially to Mia, since her anti-magic is ridiculous).



And speaking of anti-magic! Mia won't be needing that, but there are some other mages with sub-par equipment out there hint hint.



This delightful item heals a fuckton of MP, although it doesn't heal max MP. Nothing in the game actually does; this is the best MP healing item in the game. We're obviously not going to be using this for a while.

There's really nothing else to note about the treasure here. There's another Tiara, which if you don't remember is an uninteresting piece of female-only headgear. It wasn't worth a screenshot.



And we're at the top floor already. You can tell it's the top floor because it looks different.


"It will show the true nature of all exposed to it."


I think we can guess where the mirror is.



Hot damn! This is, bar none, the best healing item in the game! It heals all HP. For the whole party. Nice.  And what's better? They're purchasable later on. There's a reason you don't see Herbs of Althena in later Lunar games. 



I don't even know why they put that there. It heals bunch of HP for one party member. Lame.



: This is sure to bring my mother back to normal! Alex, can you help me a little more? They say my mother went to the Crystal Tower. The passage to it is through the Cave of Trial. Can you accompany me to meet her there?

They don't even pretend to give you an option this time. So next time we'll be... wait, Cave of Trial? I don't remember any passage in the Cave of-



Fuck.