The Let's Play Archive

Seiken Densetsu 3

by ddegenha

Part 3: She's Just Bad Luck



Rabite Forest is a pretty peaceful, fairly easy introductory area that lets us really get our first experience with the combat system in this iteration of the Seiken Densetsu series. The rabites are sleeping at the moment, which almost makes you feel bad about murdering them for gold and experience.



The forest is also home to ambulatory mushrooms, which have gone from being called mushbooms to the far less charming name of myconoids. You can see on either side of Lise's portrait a series of currently yellow(or green) bars that were dark in the previous screen shot. When they're all yellow like this it means that we can use a special technique, like Lise's Whirlwind Lance.




There's a helpful series of signs pointing us along the right pathway to Wendel, but nobody ever got anything done by going straight to their destination so we'll be stopping at Astoria first.



Also, the cave to Wendel is sealed with some kind of mysterious power that we can't get through at the moment.



Thanks for the tip.



"Considering the utter lack of guards or any kind of defenses, I'd say you're pretty much screwed."

Also, people shouldn't ask these kinds of questions. It never ends well.



"The long face is because the Navarre Army murdered my father along with all my friends and relatives except my brother, who they kidnapped. But thank you for saying I'm pretty."



We can get a nice new spear upgrade here, which is worth the cost for what's essentially a 33% increase in our attack.



No such luck on the armor front, however, as the shopkeep is taking a nap.



"Maybe we'll see it again tonight!"

Well, this suggests what we're going to have to do to advance the story, but in the meantime let's keep poking around.



Animals going nuts isn't a sign that something unnatural or terrible, right? Okay, off to the inn to see about this magic light.



It turns out the mysterious light is one of the glowing orbs from the beginning, ghost-lighting over the town for some reason.



It's bright enough to turn night time into day, and to wake our sleepy heroine. Naturally, the only sensible thing to do is give chase.



Which takes us through the rest of the Rabite forest, giving plenty of opportunity for more wanton slaughter and experience getting.



It was too quick to get a screen shot of, but these little springs send you soaring into the stratosphere.



It doesn't do much at the moment other than give us a nice birds eye view of the surrounding area. It's likely that the village off to the side is Astoria, with the lights at the very top being Jad. Looking at how thin the river is, it suddenly makes sense why we stopped there instead of sailing to Wendel.



Weird statues this far into the forest, with no explanation as to their origin.



Lise also gains her first level up in the course of the pursuit. The leveling is reminiscent of the first game in the series, but instead of choosing a general trend you now have to pick a stat to increase. I'm not sure if I should leave that up to goons or just pick myself based on the character's roles.




The light makes its way to an isolated meadow in the forest and presently collapses into an utterly exhausted fairy.



"And why did you feel the need to chase me through an entire forest until I collapsed from exhaustion?"



"Amazoness? How is that a thing? Are you twice as feminine as a regular Amazon?"

"Hey, do you see me mocking you for being a pixie?"




"What?"




"If you were going to Wendel, why were you going this way? This is the complete opposite direction from Wendel."

"Hey, listen! I'm not good with directions okay? And it was windy."


"I'm going there too, so I don't mind. But there's a seal on the Cave of Waterfalls…"




"Yes, major bad news for the world. Now, let's hurry and get over to Wendel before things go even more to hell."



Not captured: a red flash of light all over the screen.

"Welp. Too late."




It's kind of a violation of Lise's personal space in the most profound way possible, and it's a bit too quick to do anything about it.




"Oh, quit whining. It's not like I'm the first voice you've ever had in your head."

"Yes! Yes you are!"

"Really? Humans are WEIRD."



"It's just a guess, but I think someone showed up and completely wrecked the place."





Luckily, Wendel has that whole magical forcefield thing to keep people out, right? As long as nothing happens to that..



The town is completely changed at this point, by the way. You can't enter any of the buildings, and everything is pretty much gone. There's literally nothing else to do but leave and go to Wendel.



"That's okay. You seem alright, so I'll let you in on a little secret. I've got a magic fairy inside my head that will open up the seal."



"I'm Lise, an Amazoness.. I mean Amazon, from Rolante. I'm going to Wendel to ask the Priest of Light to help me find my brother, who honestly believes that strangers have the best candy."



"And something tells me you're about to tell me all about it and there's no way I can avoid that."