Part 28

The name of the final area is Dazzling Space, appropriately enough, and there are two main enemy types we’ll deal with here. The first, the Cyclops, shoots projectiles at you and is often hidden behind barriers. They’re easiest to deal with using magic arrow, since we don’t want to get too close. The second enemy type are Bugs, which vanish from time to time only to reappear and attack. You can actually see their hidden markings to the left and right of Metatron in the first screen shot. Cyclops have almost twice as much HP as Bugs, but they’re only worth 2700 EXP to the Bug’s 3000 EXP. Obviously, considering that two enemies are worth more experience than the boss of the last section we’ve reached another jump in leveling.



Gargoyle statues are one of the two passive enemies in the area, shooting a ball of energy that pauses and then chases after you in a straight line. Clearing the two lairs opens another lair to the south of us…



Which contains a bunch of Cyclops that are easily dealt with now that we’re up close and personal. Defeating this lair will remove one gargoyle statue to allow us to proceed. And as for those chests, one is 200 gems while the other holds a medical herb.




The next string of lairs is pretty similar, with Cyclops on the side, Bugs down the center, and gargoyle statues at the end. Clearing them all out opens a path forward and a portal back to the Sky Palace. That seems a bit early, but as you can see we’re taking a lot of damage here.



Despite that, we can still go a bit further. This is one of the other Cyclops formations we can see, with multiple members in tiny areas so that they can easily shoot magic along the path we’ll have to use approaching them. Because of this, though, magic can tear through them several at a time.



After that we can move along a bit, seeing another passive hazard of the area. Flares only occur along the walls and are fairly easy to dodge. Alternatively, you can just stay away from the walls.




The final enemy type is the Roller, which is a kind of non-lair enemy with 10 HP that is still worth a staggering 4000 experience. We’ll be exploiting this later, but you need the final sword to kill them. In the meantime it’s a matter of dodging them or just pushing through and accepting the damage. Sometimes they’ll come as much as three at a time, which is again a future goldmine but currently an inconvenience.



One more Cyclops lair and we find 100 Gems lying around, after which it’s time to head on back. For some reason that was far more difficult than it should have been.



More to the point, after a quick trip to the Sky Palace we find ourselves with the third treasure. This is a pretty important milestone, as we quite literally couldn’t finish the game without the Phoenix magic. We have to go back to the Gnome King in order to get it:



“Is it me, or is it a bit warm in here?”



“I am the Phoenix. I live on the Mountain of Souls. I will help you revive the world and protect the peace. As soon as I was called, Deathtoll moved into position.”

“I guess I appreciate it, but did you have to let him know I was coming?”

“He’s an ancient being of darkness and destruction that requires literal divine intervention to defeat. You weren’t exactly going to sneak up on him.”

“…just so you know, I’m supposed to be the sarcastic one.”

“I’ll try to remember, but we won’t be talking much.”



“If you equip SoulBlade and Soul Armor the Phoenix will be able to help you. This is the final battle, the battle with Deathtoll.”

“Just two probl.. y’know what, never mind. I’m sure it’ll all work out.”




Sure enough, almost immediately after returning to the final dungeon we can find the Soul Armor. It’s got the best defense in the game, and another major benefit…



The final area is extremely hostile, and if you don’t have the Soul Armor you’re going to receive damage every few seconds until you die. You’re pretty much forced to use the new armor, not that it’s much of a hardship with that defense. On, and there’s also some Rollers right on top of the portal into the area just to make your escape a bit more difficult.



Moving on, we’ve got a Lightning Bug lair with corridors surrounded by Rollers. Clearing the Lightning Bugs won’t remove any Gargoyle Statues, but it removes a nuisance and that’s fairly important. Instead, navigating off to the right side gives us our final real treasure:




The Soul Blade is the strongest weapon in the game, and you can’t use Phoenix Magic unless you have it equipped. It also requires level 24 to use, which we got a few moments ago. I missed the screen cap, but the results are there. Because of the level requirements for the game this is the absolute minimum level to finish the game.



The Soul Blade also enables us to kill a few previously invisible enemy types, including Rollers, Spears, and Snowballs. Since Rollers are worth 4,000 experience each the other two are pretty much irrelevant. Rollers also respawn when we leave an area, allowing for easy grinding.



For the curious, this is what the Phoenix Magic looks like. You have to have the Soul Blade and Soul Armor equipped as well as the Phoenix Magic. Instead of casting like a normal spell, Phoenix Magic goes in a straight line when you swing your sword. Oh, and clearing out the last enemy lair here gives us a portal back to the Sky Palace to enable refilling of HP.



Rather than continue on to the ominous building in the middle of Empty Space, I decided to level up one more time before finishing up. It’s been mentioned before that the maximum level in the game is 50, but the plain fact is that your strength and defense stats don’t go up any further after level 25. From level 25-47 you don’t get more attack or defense, just 2 more HP per level. HP tops out at level 47, which means that levels 48-50 don’t give you any benefit other than a higher number. Some people have mentioned leveling up to that point, but I don’t see any point if the game is easy enough to finish at half the maximum level.




Entering the mysterious building gets us along hallway, with no additional enemies. We’ve only got one more enemy to fight at this point…



“The what now? I think you might be a bit confused about what’s happening here.”

“I will put you in a deep sleep.”

“And send me to a nice farm up country? I’ll have to pass.”



And with that, we begin phase one of the fight against Deathtoll. In his current form he flies around the room and shoots energy balls at you. Two will circle around to attack you, while the other comes right down the center. You can dodge around them and attack them with the Phoenix, but another option is just to find a corner and start swinging until the fight ends.



The first form of Deathtoll isn’t that impressive, and you should be able to finish it in short order. He’s got 125 HP, 20% more than the Dragon Bird or Tin Doll, but against the Phoenix and the final equipment that doesn’t stretch very far. Defeating him leads to a villainous monologue:

“Some people believe being constantly reincarnated means everlasting suffering. Being alive is suffering for some creatures.”

“That doesn’t help much.”

“Oh for… will you just give up?”

“Nope, can’t do that I’m afraid. We’re just going to have to settle this here and now.”

“If that’s the case, you asked for it.”



So for his second form, Deathtoll turns into a large ram horned skeleton thing that starts off by sending our four projectiles that settle into pillars of flame. You have to attack the pillars with your sword to clear them, which incidentally releases a few gems with each pillar. You really can’t run out in this battle.



Deathtoll will also shoot crisscrossing laser attacks from his hands,but the main point in dealing with him is lining up a shot and just sticking to it. During this attack his head will move and you have a window of time where you can attack his head with the Phoenix Magic, so the goal is to get as many attacks in that brief span of time as possible and then try to stay out of the way of his attacks until you get another window.



Eventually the second form of Deathtoll will bite the dust. One note is that he doesn’t get a life bar. You don’t know how far or how close you are to finishing Deathtoll, and when you strike the final blow he’ll vanish. Until then, you don’t really know how close you are to the end of the battle.



“Metatron, we decided to stay here and seal the World of Evil. The World of Evil is a dark world that exists in the back of creatures’ minds. As long as there are inventions in this world the same thing will happen.”

“Not following, but…what’s going to happen to you?”

“I will stay and try to stop as much as possible. You are still young, you should experience more.”



“You will be wise like the Master.”

“HEY! What do you mean by that?”

“That’s all it takes? Well, in that case..”

“Oh, we’re going to have words about this.”



And with that, we’ve completed the gameplay section of Soul Blazer. As for what comes after…

Next update: The Epilogue. We’re going to finish this by 2015!