Part 17: Interlude: Odds and Ends

Interlude: Odds and Ends



In an alternate universe, Shrug is taking his time before fulfilling his destiny and going on a quick tour of the World.

We’re going to be hopping around a whole lot today but it shouldn’t be too hard to remember where we’re at considering we’ve seen everything for the most part.



Inside this house is something a little interesting. We’re all familiar with these warp squares...



but this one takes us here. Where is here?



Why, it’s the Mega Grenade guy’s house in Fireburg! There are several of these “fast transport” teleporters scattered throughout the world. Their usefulness is questionable. This one especially because we needed the Mobius Crest to get here and by the time we get that we literally have no reason to ever return to Fireburg.



There tend to be at least one per town other than Foresta which doesn’t have any, to my knowledge. This is the Battle Axe lady’s house.



It’s sort of appropriate that we need the Gemini Crest here...



because it sweeps us away to the Steel Helm lady’s house in Aquaria. There is absolutely no reason to ever return to Aquaria once you’ve restored the Crystal of Water.



I don’t think I’ve ever gone back to talk to the NPCs here after saving them. This girl raises an interesting point that’s kinda sorta tangentially related to something TooMuchAbstraction brought up in the thread:


I guess maybe Captain Mac discovered the armor and was going to bring it back to Spencer? But because Mac was stuck on a cliff for who knows how long, Spencer didn’t know and pretty much just assumed his friend was dead?



I know it’s dumb to be and shit when pointing out inconsistencies within the game but this isn’t going to make a lot of sense once we actually reach the top of the Focus Tower.



Near Fireburg, the Sealed Temple will teleport you to...



This section of the Wintry Temple. If you want to stock up on Cure/Heal Potions fast, this is the place to do it.



The first suspicious tree in Alive Forest needs the Mobius Crest.



All of the teleporters here lead you to an area reminiscent of Foresta. There are only Cure and Heal Potions here, which begs the question: why do I need the last crest in the game to access this?



If you try to find the Giant Tree where you first do, you’ll see that he’s no longer there. I mean, obviously, but hey.



This warp square in the Kaidge Temple is sort of unique, I guess?



It’s the only way to reach the Light Temple.



Hey, look who it is! Full disclosure here: I’m not sure if I just didn’t remember this or never knew it existed.




You’ve shown great courage in saving the Crystals.



And then he flies away. Shrug doesn’t even react.

I suppose you’re intended to find out about this after you save Mac and hear about the Dark King but there’s literally no point to going to any of the temples. At this point in the game, you’ll have probably realized that there’s nothing good in them.



This as good a time as any to share the European artwork of the old man. I’ve never actually referred to him as White during the playthrough but there you go. He, uh, looks pretty weird if you ask me.



Here’s where the Light Temple is on the world map. I can’t help but feel that the temples were meant to serve a much more important purpose because they don’t really do anything as is.



Here’s the Rainbow Road Machine. I don’t know how it works other than



Here’s another curious thing, at least for me: does everyone just know who Captain Mac is? It’s weird little things like this that make me think Mystic Quest was originally going to have more to it but then it got dumbed down.

The chance of that being true is so miniscule it’s practically nonexistent but still. And actually, TheFattestPat also had a similar idea:


I dunno!! On one hand, the game doesn’t seem balanced for that at all. On the other, there’s nothing to say that didn’t just change at some point and the game was balanced around it which would explain why the game is a little too easy in spots. There is like a 99.9% chance I’m just talking out of my ass though.



By the by, you can’t enter the Rope Bridge again after Reuben falls off of it. Not like there was anything there but maybe I wanted to see it with all of the water, game!



You’ll get this dialogue if you try to purchase anything past the “max” amount and the way the vendor says it makes it seem like Shrug might have a problem. In any case, alternate universe Shrug still has to do the whole world saving thing as well so let’s get on that.



Uh...? I don’t recall these guys.



Oh, they’re merchants. The other one sells seeds. They really make it impossible to lose, don’t they? You could just go back to Windia for both of these and it’s neither a far walk nor do you have to deal with any enemies.



But this Shrug has a revelation—maybe he shouldn’t go take on the Dark King willy nilly at level 25. So he decides to go crack a few skulls before saving the world. Here’s one of the battlefields near Windia with its second background.



While leveling, I had a pretty obvious revelation. The little tornado symbol from the Gaia Armor means that Shrug has a resistance to both thunder attacks and wind attacks. ...so I guess that’s like storm resistance or something?





Anyway, after hours of training, Shrug rams into the level cap like a brick wall. I’m not completely sure why the level cap is 41 of all numbers but there it is. Remember the double level glitch that I made use of way back in the day? You can’t use that to bypass the level cap.

Fun fact: the Excalibur still can’t oneshot some of the enemies in Pazuzu’s Tower.



Last but not least, this is the Heal spell when used on an enemy. Sorry I neglected this since the Ice Pyramid. This isn’t a very good spell because it only inflicts one status whereas the Dragon Claw lays down pretty much every single one.


Next time: okay, no more messing around, let’s really go save the world


I think that's more or less the entire game but let me know if I'm wrong! I'll edit it into this post.