Part 20: Actual Gameplay. Finally!

Where were we?



Oh yes! Progress! Damon's Spire, we're finally here!



For once, those trees at the base aren't strictly for show. We have to walk through a small (very, very small) forest area before reaching the spire. The monsters here are just the ones on the world map. Not sure why this is here, but it is.




The Spire proper is another one of those tower dungeons with an uninteresting layout. But it's fancy!



And has a permanent defense increasing item! Nice. (Went on Jessica, because I do not want her to die)



These aren't as nice. Despite the fact it sounds like one of those cheap "fruit" drinks you had as a kid, Sun Drops is just an attack item. Like most attack items, I end up selling it because MP is plentiful and Silver Lights are cheap in this game.

Speaking of which, the other chests contained Silver Lights.

Switching gears for a second...



There are some interesting new enemies. These guys... are fuckers.



Yeah, that's pretty nasty, but they only get one attack, so that's not too bad.

No, what's annoying is that they take forever to kill. Their anti-magic isn't impenetrable, but it's high enough to discourage magic.



The Pious Reapers are pretty much the exact opposite, though. Attacks do nothing to them. The solution is, of course, magic. Their HP is very low and their anti-magic is pathetic so you can kill them before they do anything.



If you don't, they like to cast spells a strong single-target spell on you. It can do a fair bit of damage, even to characters with strong anti-magic like Mia. (As a matter of fact, this attack ended up killing Mia. Oops.)



In comparison, the Vicious Vegetables aren't really worth talking about. Except they don't really look like vegetables...



On the third floor, we find Damon's suspiciously empty library.



It still has a fair bit of text, and most of it pretty heavy on the foreshadowing. So I'll just copy all of it out here.

Volume 6: Dragonmasters
Dragonmaster Dyne once pulled the world back from the brink of disaster. But there is another green eyed master that will rise to save the world again...

Volume 2: Dragonmasters
There can only be one Dragonmaster in the world at any given time. He is appointed by the Dragon Tribe...

Volume 8: Dragonmasters
When the last member of the Dragon Tribe dies, the world will lose its magic power. From then on, there can be no more Dragonmasters, and the world will grow dark.

Volume 11: Dragonmasters
The Darkness that envies pure hearts will try to hasten the end of magic. But the power of good will shine forth to overcome it. ...at least... we're pretty sure it will...

Volume 12: Dragonmasters
The time is coming when it will be difficult to discern good and evil. Friends will turn evil, and enemies will become friends.

Volume 14: Dragonmasters
The legend of the Blue Star says that the light in our sky gives hope to us all. It says that one will arise to save our world from total destruction.

However, one of the shelves has a very, very different book in it.


"Shine, burn, shine! Fulfill your destiny!"

It's a full heal... for Alex only. Eh, okay. You take what you can get.



Next floor there's a neat piece of swag. The Ice Cane, like the Fire one, casts a spell when you use it. It's still not a good spell, and this one only targets one enemy, and... okay, it's completely inferior to the Fire Cane Mia has equipped right now. You could possibly equip this on Nash (the Ice Cane slightly more powerful in attack power) but why the hell would you?

(Alternatively, sell both Canes because neither contribute anything but a shitty spell and attack power, and Mia doesn't need either.)

But that was it, surprisingly! We're right next to Damon's door!


: How are we going to get this open? And don’t even tell me we have to fight our way back downstairs to find the key to open this door! I don’t want to hear it… Have you ever heard of planning? Did you expect all the doors to be open? Sheeesh! Some leader...

No, of course it's not that easy. The rest of the tower is straightforward; there's nothing hidden there. But I neglected to mention the basement. There's a basement. We're going there. (And we're hoofing it, because for whatever reason Mia's warp spell is disabled here!)

Now, this entire dungeon is quite different in the remakes. It's pretty linear, but also very gimmicky. In each level, enemies can only be hurt by specific attacks. In order to ascend a level, you have to answer Damon's riddle. It's... not very thought-intensive, really. Although you do learn Mia's dark secret.

_{She find monsters adorable.}

But in the original, there's a brain teaser of a different sort.



Looks boring enough, but if you go left.



A door blocks our path!



Puzzle solved!

Well, not quite.



There's a treasure chest that's surrounded by the raised walkway. We have to make our way over there (I wonder what could be in there). So we have to walk over on the raised path, but they're not all connected together.



However, if the doors are closed, we can walk on top of them!

So you have to figure out a way to make a path to the chest. It's actually not difficult at all. First of all, the door you see is the the bottom most one. You can pretty much ignore it.



You do, however, want to close the very first door you saw. All three of the doors have two switches to open and close them. This switch here is directly down from the first door. Make sure you close the first door before moving on.



At the top left, there is the third door. One of the switches to close it is up and to the right. Once you close it, you can ascend the stairs that are to the left. (The stairs are really close-by, but I just didn't get it in the screenshot) From there, just go right, down, and left until you reach the treasure chest I showed earlier.



Yay.

Time to trek back up the stairs. Again.

Before we meet up with Damon's, let's look over what our party has learned today.



Cascade Litany is her version of Luna's Cascade Song. So we finally got our attack boosting spell back! Sadly, it only works on one person, but it's still nice. De-Heal is just Drain. And Thunder Wall is an upgrade to his multi-hit spell. I'd make another joke about how useless Nash is, but it's a really good spell and it's actually better than Mia's best all enemy spell at the moment. That's pretty sad...

But enough time wasting. Let's finally meet this Damon.



I hate you Nall.



More books! Unlike the previous library, these are less interesting, but I'll include a couple for completion's sake.

Volume 10: Wisdom
If you trust your friends, the way to the frontier will open.

Volume 9: Errata
In a shimmering fountain the lovely maidens play like dazzling young fish.

Volume 15: Common Sense
Video games will eventually rot the minds of all that they enslave. At least... that's what they're saying now...

Volume 4: Common Sense
If you put your hand in the fire, you'll get burned.

Volume 1: Prophecy
The world will be pressed between light and dark. Many will suffer. But a girl's love, and a boy's shout, will determine it all.



In case you were wondering, he also has a treasure chest. Vigor Peaches, if you recall, restore a butt-ton of HP.


"I am known as Damon. I am the guardian of the collective knowledge of our world. So, you're looking for the sorceress Xenobia... without guidance, you'd never find her."

Oh, and this whole thing has been to find Xenobia. That's why we've been searching for Damon. Okay, admittedly this is less out of the blue than I presented it, as a couple of NPCs do mention Xenobia and trying to find her. But considering finding Damon has been our goal for the last two updates, the game reaaaally should have made it abundantly clear why we were doing this. Furthermore, it just seems like there'd be better things to ask the guy. Especially since we can't really stand up to Xenobia right now anyway.



Regardless, this is probably information we should act quickly on. Fortunately, we can use the Wings in his room, so to Reza!




Just in the nick of...

Uh, lady...



Nevermind.



: We’ve finally caught up to you! Return Luna to us immediately!
: Sorry, I can’t do that, you little flying freakette! I’ve disposed of her! She’s at Master Ghaleon’s lair. Relaxing, I’m sure! As soon as I take Lily here, my job will be completed! See you on the frontier!

So then Alex rushes forth to-



Or they do nothing at all. Okay.



Yeah, you suck at your job, lady. Although considering Alex didn't really do anything either... let's just say we all kind of dropped the ball here.

And we should probably let her grandpa know.


"My granddaughter has been kidnapped by Xenobia? This is terrible! How are we going to get Lily back?"

There's really only one way. Head to the Frontier and see what we can do from there. One can presume all of the singing girls were brought there, not just Lily and Luna. We already kind of knew that we'd probably be confronting the Vile Tribe on their home turf, but this confirms it. So our end goal is making it to the Frontier while stopping by the Dragon Caves along the way.

Speaking of which, we're still not 100% sure on how to get to the Red Dragon Cave. Maybe Damon can give a hint! We can, after all, warp right into his room. If I was Damon I'd be thrilled about that. Anyway, let's see if he can imbue us with any more wisdom!


"Unless you can find a way to become Dragonmaster, Alex, we're all history! And, now that Quark's dead, how will you become one?"

...this was a waste of time, wasn't it?