Part 23: They'll Sing Any Song but Randy Newman's

Now that we finally found that damned Red Dragon Cave, it's time to move on and look for another. As soon as we walk out of the right exit of Meryod, you may notice that the world make looks different. In fact, this next zone does use a different, darker color palette. As we head through this zone, the color is going to get darker and the landscape more barren. It's a neat touch.

And of course, with unexplored land comes new monsters!



Mage Goblins are pretty goddamned weak and easy.



They can, however, cast freeze on the whole party. Honestly, though, I had to intentionally let them do it. Their HP and defense are so low that they fall pretty easy. And the freeze spell isn't all that threatening; it barely seems to work.



The Monster Wasps are surprisingly sturdy (they have more HP than the Ogres for as much sense as that makes) but does mediocre damage. The Ogre can attack twice but does even shittier damage. If either enemy casts magic I didn't catch it.



Oh, hello random teleporty place. There aren't any floating cities nearby, so what are you doing here?


"But it hasn't been used in over 10 years! No one 'round here knows how to operate this spring anymore... So leave me alone!"

But it's a moot point anyway. As you can guess we'll be coming back here to actually operate this Transmission Spring. I wonder where it goes....



What a pretty river.



Now more enemies! That was quick. And yes, these guys do not spawn until you've reached said river. Which is not that far from Meyrod, especially since it's a small, linear path here. I'm not sure why the enemy zones are coded that way, but okay. Nightmares are stupidly weak. I think they may cast sleep or something, but I never saw them do it. If not for their odd design, they're completely forgettable.



Oh god more Lunar 2 flashbacks. And these are decisively less pleasant...

But in this game they're uninteresting pushovers. Next!



And we've reached the next town already!



It's the town of little people and tiny hats!



And music.

Everyone in Lyton sings instead of talks. Therefore, every has kind of a flowery way of speaking, plus their dialogue is littered with musical notes (and you can see here). I can't really replicate the latter, so instead I'm going to format their dialogue a bit differently.


"The Black Dragon split the land
And burned people with flames"

Again, we hear mention of the Black Dragon and its insanity. Considering these people are way closer to the Black Dragon, it's probably pretty fresh in their mind.


"It's east of Lyton
I'm sure."

Especially since the Black Dragon's rampage had a significant effect on the geography.


"Why her? Why now? Oh gee!
I can't sleep at night,
She's gone, she's gone!
Why did this happen to me?


"It pains me, can't you see?"
: Luna must be feeling deserted by now! We've got to rescue her soon!

Sadly, Xenobia got here long before we ever could and already made off with another singer. Although, considering the town, one would think she'd kidnap a lot more than just one girl...


: I can sing if I really want to, here... listen to this:
I'm Kyle of Nanza, you know
my looks are as great as my bow!
The women all love me
But who could resist?
I'm a great lover, yet
Great with my fists


: Hey, who are you to judge? At least I sorta rhyme!

Rhyming your words don't make it a song, buddy.

Speaking of bad music, in the remakes there's a bit more going on in Lyton. When you first arrive, the town is fucked up. You have to go through a dungeon to fix the music. This dungeon was added for the remake; it has no equivalent in the original. But there is still something to do in this version's Lyton.


"No one can cross it
So no one will become a Dragonmaster"

What? The river looked perfectly fine to me. Not sure what this "curse" stuff is about...


"A mage came along
and broke the curse
So the river could recede.
The way was then opened
To get to the Dragon blue."

I guess high water level counts as a curse? Hm, but it is apparently the way to get to the next Dragon Cave.

Guess we're going to be searching for this mage. I wonder where he could be?


"I had a dream about a boy
A boy, that would become Dragonmaster...
That boy's name was Alex
And he had green eyes...
What is your name, lad?

Oh, well, there he is. That was easy. Tell him that your name is Alex and then...



Now, in the remake, there is no river to cross or magician to find; the Blue Dragon Cave is pretty much in Lyton. After you fix the music, you have to sing in order to make the Blue Dragon Cave appear. (Well, more like play ocarina/psychic singing, but whatever.) But I don't have to bother with any of that. Time for the Blue Dragon Cave!

Yes, that's all you have to do in the original. Talk to this one guy. And then we're gone. Nothing else to do. Okay, there is an item shop. Let's at least check it out.



Run by the only non-midget in town, apparently.



As you can see, it's run of the mill stuff-

wait.



Helloooo. Do you remember the super-rare (we've only been able to get two so far) and powerful healing item? Yeah, we can buy 'em now. They are quite expensive, but the thing is...

Meryod had the last equipment shop of the game. Those weapons? They were expensive because they're the last purchasable tier of weapons. And for those who are unfamiliar with this game; no, we're not in the end game. I suppose that the designers didn't expect you to buy the equipment as soon as it was available, and that you'd go back to Meryod to purchase what you missed. Regardless, if you don't feel like saving up to buy what you missed, then you can feel free to spend the rest of your money on Herbs of Althena if you want.

 Actually, I'm lying slightly. There is one more piece of equipment to buy. But that's muuuuuch later, and by that time things are... different. 

But that's it. Let's go to the Blue Dragon Cave!



By "break the curse" the mage meant "make shoals appear." That's a bizarrely specific curse, I must say. At least now we can easily cross the river.



That seems slightly excessive. There is an MP shrine to the left, but heading to the right we see...



The entrance to our next dungeon!



The Blue Dragon Cave isn't really as interesting as the Red Dragon Cave. The first three floors are very straightforward, and each floor only has one descending staircase.

But it's not all boring. If you head directly left from the entrance...



Another set of Sage's Clothes! I put it on Nash, although it's probably better served on Mia, considering how fragile she is.



And if nothing else, the enemies are little more interesting. The Dragonfish (the grey things) are another one of those "immune to physical attacks, weak to magic enemies." The Ghoul Fish are fairly weak, but have one nasty trick of their sleeve.



A confusion (or rather, Daze) spell. It generally won't afflict all of your characters, but remember that Kyle has low anti-magic. And high attack. This can really fuck you up if you're not careful or just unlucky.



It can also set up some... interesting scenarios.



Water Elementals are comparatively uninteresting. They have a bit more HP and are very resistant to magic. That's about it.



This is found on the third floor, waaaay to the left of the descending staircase. Now, the Light Barrier has showed up in a previous update. It's sold in Vane and Black Rose Street. I said that it prevented one enemy from casting magic. That's what the guidebook says. However, after testing it... that's clearly wrong. It protects one character. I think it protects one character from magic spells, but I'm still not 100% sure.



The fourth floor is a bit more complicated. There are far more branching paths, and you might, maybe, get lost on this floor. It's not likely though. You keep heading down and right and you'll find the exit eventually. The only thing you'll have to worry about is treasure.



Speaking of which, this Power Barrier can be found if you head directly south of the entrance, and then up to this alcove.

Again, you can buy this in Vane. I said this item protects the whole party from magic. That seems closer, although the animation that it does is the same one as Kyle's Sidestep. I suspect that the Light Barrier and Power Barrier do the same thing. That'd make sense.

Other than that, there's only one more piece of worthwhile treasure on this floor, and it's right by the exit. You can't miss it.



And thank goodness it's hard to miss, because the Holy Shield is Jessica's best shield. Alex can equip it too, but why the hell would you do that?



The gang didn't learn too many new spells. Thunder Shot 1 is just another multi-target attack spell. Mia's still waiting for something better than Flame Bomb while Nash got two new attack spells. Girl's slacking. Luck Litany makes all the enemies attack each other for a round.

Well, that's that. Time to go and finish the dungeo-



Wait, is that...

A boss?

How long has it been since we fought a boss? Not since Ghaleon turned. And it's been even longer since we fought a solo boss. Last one was the Trouble Truffler. Oddly enough, while the remake adds a boss to the Red Dragon Cave, it takes a boss out of the Blue Dragon Cave. For pacing reasons, maybe?

Since we haven't had a boss in so long, we haven't really had a reason to use our super powerful Dragon Magic.





That does a whooping 170 damage! For comparison, Mia and Nash are lucky if their best spells break 100. Kyle comes the closest with a cumulative 140 damage.

Well, unaided. If you recall, Jessica has Cascade Litany, which increases attack power. And Mia and De-Protect, which decreases defense power. Combined, Kyle does a fair bit more damage than Alex does with his mega-power Dragon Fire. Alex himself will do even more damage (since I chose to upgrade his weapon and not Kyle's). So... is Dragon Magic useless? Maybe. But keep in mind that Dragon magic a) can be combined with the AI bug, making Alex attack after his spell and b) even if you choose not to abuse the bug, it keeps him away from the boss. This makes it so Kyle bears the brunt of the Brainiac's attacks, since enemies will always attack what's closest to them.



And Alex definitely wants to steer clear of that.

The Brainiac will also cast a spell on the whole party (I could not for the life of me screencap it), which can do fair bit of damage. Interestingly, Brainiac will attack after using the spell, since he has two attacks. So I'm guessing the AI bug stems from an ability the coders wanted the bosses to have.

Still, the Brainiac can't do much to you. I beat him in five rounds. And I'm not over-leveled. The Brainiac is pretty forgettable all told. But at least we finally got to find another boss and reap the spoilers of battle-



Oh come on! Yeah, I know I don't need the money, but it's the principle of that matter!

At least the experience is nice. Alex and Mia even learn two spells after the fight.



Both are all-enemy attack spells. Alex's is kind of pointless considering that he has two Dragon spells and is going to learn a third, but Mia's is overdue. Of course, she only learned it towards the end of the dungeon.



Again, no sign of a dragon...




"My power is fading as the world descends into darkness... Take my helmet, and remember this: evil cannot stand before one who remains true to their heart..."

Once again, Ghaleon beat us here. Probably beat us here by a loooong shot. The remakes have you actually meet with the dragons before one of Xenobia's sister captures them. But here, we don't even have a sliver of a chance of saving them. All we can really do is take our helmet and wonder if the crazed Black Dragon is even still alive.





We also got our new Dragon spell: Dragon Tear.

All right, time to get searching for the next cave. We can always hope things will finally look up.



Wait a second, I don't have six party members-

Oh shit.

: Alex! I didn't think you'd make it here by yourself. I guess you do have a few surprised left in you, dragonboy! Nash, grab the helmet and bring it here!

Oh come on! Nash may be a twit, but he's not so loathsome as to betray us!


: ...uh, yes Mistress Xenobia! As you wish...



Nevermind, he totally is.


: I'm happy that I have served you well.
: Oh... you've served us well alright! These unsuspecting fools actually trusted you! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!

And with that, the two teleport away.

: I can't believe it! Nash was a spy for Ghaleon all along?
: If I hadn't heard it right from Xenobia's mouth, I never would've believe it!

Now, those you who played the remake might be in even bigger shock. Because in the remake Nash does not betray you here. At all. Nor does he take your bitching new helmet. This ties into a lot of other changes the remake has, but we'll talk about them later.

For now, all we can do is keep going forward. Next time we'll be seeing more of this area, and maybe we'll get revenge on the big-haired jerk.