Playing Treasure of the Rudras - Square's forgotten SNES RPG

[Garlyle]

Have you heard about Treasure of the Rudras or Rudora no Hihou? It'sa Super Nintendo game developed by Square in 1996, the time when Playstation was getting popular, and SNES was being forgotten in the west. This was only released in Japan, but Aeon Genesis made a great translation for it, so everyone can enjoy it. People say it's hard and it requires grinding, but I'm going to play it WITHOUT grinding just to show you it's far from the truth.

The interesting feature of this game is that you can select multiple stories to play, and if you saved your game, you can continue on another route. At some points, characters from different stories will cross paths as you'll see. I'm going to start with the warrior Sion here.

Sion part 1

Spoiler

DAY 1

Early on we get a party member, so we don't need to be alone.

In our house we also find a Logical Cap, which is very useful to lower damage from Wind based attacks.

First business, heading to the Tower of Giants to find our friends.

But first, I'm going to change our starting mantras to speed things up. You can type in any word as your mantras, and if you know what you are doing, you are going to get some powerful ones.

Perfect, hope I didn't forget anything.

This will make battles much easier throughout this dungeon. As long as you stay in the back row, you won't take more than 1 damage here.

There's also a chest (snes blinking made it invisible here) which only Sion can open. Giant Robe will be an equipment for a future party member.

Outside the Huey's Ring, good against fire based attacks.

I decided to give them to Foxy.

Jar heal HP and MP, never miss one of those if you want to survive in the long run.

The small Danan statue let's you save inside dungeons. This tower is quite a tutorial already.

A discovery at the top of the tower...

...before falling down

Found the giant of our team, and Ture is a very useful team member, but she's going to have her unique equipments only.

For example the Giant Robe that we just found in the dungeon earlier.

And here's our first boss fight. He looks tough, but he's actually not that tough.

What you really need to do is keep your units in the back row and cast your strongest spell on him.

And down he goes.Ture gets a new toy for your victory.

Don't worry about this chest, that translation is a bug, and this is probably the only chest that cannot be turned into a mantra.

While falling down the holes, you'll find a hidden chest with a petty 120 Ragu (our currency).

Anyway, we're bringing the giant home. Read if you don't do this, later you need to pay with Ragu to access some boat.

After that we can head back to the castle for some cutscenes. I didn't pick up the locked chest here for Sion, but it contains an Alarum.

DAY 2

The enemies on the world map are quite easy. Axis Knight might drop an Axis Shield if you are lucky, which is strong against fire, or you call sell it for 200 Ragu. Since you won't get much gold in Sion's scenario for a long time, this could be a way to grind money.

IMPORTANT: In the shops of Danelf buy the Gra Shield and a 1 handed weapon for Sion - this'll make the battles in the Tower of Valiant much more easier.

You can also find some Dirty Shoes in the southeast houses.

Anyway, heading for the challenge.

To get the most out of your victories, you need two 1-on-1 matches here, and in the first you fight with Foy.

Just stay in the back and attack, mantras aren't more effective against them. so just use it for healing, and use Medical Herb if you run out.

This might be a tough at first try, but defineately beatable on low levels.

Next is Sion.

If you have the Gra Shield and stay in the back, he can't do much damage to you. Sion should not have any Wind or Thunder based armor and he should be fine.

Nergal Lords strongest attack is Thunder Sword, which he signals before. It won't do too much damage to you if you are well equipped, so don't worry about defending it.

Oh wow, first time I gained 2 levels here I think.

Something is happening in the world, as the sunlight hits us. We'll find out more about this in the other routes.

Sion gets the Storm Blade for defeating the Nergal Lord.

Pretty good weapon, only problem is that it's 2 handed.

Anyway, going forward in the story - to the Mantra Peak!

Oh yeah, friendly reminder - it's probably a good time to unequip Huey's Ring, because there's an enemy in the dugeon who can 100% freeze you if you have that equipped.

Reemon can cast fire and water status effects. The fire damages you when you take an action, but the ice prevents you doing anything. If everybody is dead or frozen, it's game over.

Sol deals only 1 damage if you are in the back row, so nothing to worry about.

Meet the old lady, and get out of here. That's all you have to do.

But before you leave, there's a Moon Ring that you can pick up on the way out. Good to defend against dark based attacks and pollution. It only appears after you met Zora for some reason.

DAY 3

Anyway, back to Danelf where we can take a rest. 24 Ragu only? That's cheap.

Normally I'd advise to Fight using Mantras here so you can use mantras to heal and attack, but I'm going to go on the other route this time.

Even in the front row, Sion takes half the damage as the others in the back row; if he still has the Gra Shield equipped. Just do normal attacks, and use a Medical Herb if your health goes too low.

Foxy gets a Thorn Whip for fighting the Nergal and the Amatistas.

This is going to be her main weapon for a looooong time.

Anyway, now back in Cryunne Castle there's a cutscene I can trigger.

This gives me one of the missable swords, which is pretty nice compared to my current swords.

The cherry on top: it's a 1-handed weapon.

The priest in the church at the other end of the island also gives me this. Very nice.

This box here gives you a mantra, but the result might be different at times.

I'm pretty sure we can't get a key for this door, so don't worry about it.

Anyway, going for our next destination.

In Ompross we meet Surlent's party for the first time. Actually there's a different route that you can take in Surlent's path, but I'm not sure if I can trigger it anymore.

Outside the town we can find the Brasnir. Always a welcome sign, so you can go in it.

The only good thing you can do in the Brasnir is that you can get some healing.

Anyway, Delphi Mountains gives us some new challengers. Rocknapock should be taken care of first, because their AoE attack deal the same damage if you are in the front or in the back row.

Kul does only 1 damage if you are in the back row, but the Bumber here does 10, so better take care of that first.

Your lucky word is ESPIRI. Useful, but I'm not sure if I'm going to use it anytime soon.

Anyway, on the top of the mountains we find our final party member, Ramyleth. Just keep him in the back row and let him use mantras.

You should come in here with an AoE water mantra, because these guys take almost no damage from your weapons.

Anyway, grabbing the couple of meh loot before heading home.

Unfortunately, some people stole our ride.

Also, Ompross has probably the cheapest inn in the entire game. Use it.

DAY 4

Anyway, heading back to Danelf, and on the way we meet Riza's party. As you can see, Garlyle is referring to me - I mean to my Sion.

Anyway, now if I talk to this soldier 3 times in the Tower of Valiant and just say Not quite, he gives me a Meio Shield. How nice of him.

Strong against Wind, we'll probably make it useful at some point.

Also I decided to give Sion a Life Leaf before the next fight. Maybe I don't need it, but it'll speed things up for sure.

Yep, it's just Sion vs the Monk.

Good thing the random encounters dropped a lot of Medical Herb and I didn't needed to use it so far. I'm going to use them when my health drops too low.

Ooops, miscalculated.That 37 damage and the 18 damage from Middle Kick after killed me.

Next time I'm going to defend that attack. Also equipped Huey's Ring too, because I think that can reduce the damage.

Yeah, now it's better.

On low health he can heal himself, which can be annoying, but luckily he doesn't use it too often.

As our reward, we're heading to the floating islands.

A little rest after the big fight here.

And a couple of items I can pick up around here, very nice.

DAY 5

This forest here have an interesting encounter, but first I need to prepare for it.

Apsorou gives you a guaranteed critical on your attack, and Powerup raises your attack. These birds tend to run away when you damaged them, but sometimes they run away just when they feel like it. This tactic will make sure I one-shot them, and hopefully they drop some Beze Wing for me. (they didn't)

These enemies are water based. Use mantra, or attack from the front row.

Once this place is visited, Ramyleth leave the company for a few days, so better unequip anything useful from him.

Anyway, back to the castle and to the story.

Oh, this is going to be a tough fight.

The merchant sells Flat Shields, and there's a Danan who also heals the party. That's all we need from the train.

Preparing some more mantras. OKURI makes the whole team float if I don't have wind-based armor, and PEWARLUCGIL is a powerful lightning mantra that deals a lot of damage to this boss.

Yep, that's a lot.

He went down so fast, I didn't even need the float in the end.

Another nice armor to collect from the Garal tunnels here.

And I forgot to prepare fire mantra for this place, and having an AoE water spell instead. Don't fall into my mistake - still, I survived easily.

Outside found the Brasnir again, so you know what that means...

That's it for now, next time I'm heading into the Clock Tower.

 

[B.Leu]

Oh hey, I know this game ! It's good stuff !  I had a hard time at Surlent route, even with the best spells.
Man, this spell system... real cool. Never seen something as similar.

 

[Flee Fleet!]

ew Sion

Good luck with the game. I personally found Sion's route the hardest, mostly early game. 

4 hours ago, Garlyle said:

This box here gives you a mantra, but the result might be different at times.

Are the results you get random or does it change after a specific amount of time? I think I only ever got SUKA from the box.

Floating Islands were probably the most interesting part about Sion's route. Too bad it doesn't last for long, but oh well.

Edited July 24, 2019 by Flee Fleet!

[Garlyle]

Well, the 2nd part is here, this time I'm going to play as Surlent. After some thinking I decided to do the early days first, because they give less challenge, and then we can get to the exciting part. But first

Feedback

Spoiler

8 hours ago, B.Leu said:

Oh hey, I know this game ! It's good stuff !  I had a hard time at Surlent route, even with the best spells.
Man, this spell system... real cool. Never seen something as similar.

Rudra is a lot of fun, and I love the music and animations in it. We'll figure out how to beat the Surlent scenario if you stick around long enough. Mantra system is indeed very cool, but in the translated version the game is more difficult, because you can't create mantras as powerful as in the original, so there's the challenge.

Destiny-Decider made a great guide for this game on gamefaqs, but I'm also going to include hidden things in my playthrough which he didn't mentioned in that, so stay tuned.

4 hours ago, Flee Fleet! said:

ew Sion

Good luck with the game. I personally found Sion's route the hardest, mostly early game. 

Are the results you get random or does it change after a specific amount of time? I think I only ever got SUKA from the box.

Floating Islands were probably the most interesting part about Sion's route. Too bad it doesn't last for long, but oh well.

One for Sion, one for Surlent I see from you guys. Personally I think Riza's scenario is the hardest, so it's even now. If you plan to pick up the game again, I hope you found some things in my playthrough to add to your strategy.

About the box, I remember when I checked the box over and over again with Riza in a previous playthrough, it gave me the mantra HAHAHA and KABOOM as well. Haven't played around with it too much, so I have no idea how it really works.

And now where we left off

Surlent Part 1

Spoiler

Honestly the Surlent route is my least favourite, and I remember feeling lost in it long time back. But considering the difficulty curve, I think it's time to put his scenario to the block first.

DAY 1

Good thing we start right off with an ally Legin, who can do some work with guns and rifles from the back row.

Oh what is this mess? One moment, I need to organize my starting mantras for this first.

This'll do. Looks expensive? Well, I'm actually preparing for something here.

Also I'll take the Logical Cap from Legin and put it on Surlent. I could buy more from Oriab early on, but one will be enough for now.

So this is the Sakkara Desert right next to the Dragon God Ruins. It's an excellent source of early Exp, Ragu, and you can also get one of Surlent's best weapon, the Red Eagly - dropped by the Paymon with a low chance.

Casting WARLUCTOUMEL on them twice or SH on one of them will kill them.

As you can see, I can easily grind in this area, up to Lv20 if I want. But I don't want to do this, so I'll do a few resets until I get my Red Eagle.

5 levels? Now that's what I call efficient.

Oh for the love of... Instead of the Red Eagle from the Paymon, I got the Medical Herb from the Sand Vandal. Another reset...

And another

And another

And now I'm ready to go.

Got it pretty early on, so I didn't had to grind too much in the desert. But as you can see, this could actually take a while.

Was it worth it? I think the picture speaks for itself.

Right, we have a story going on.

I actually skipped this one in Sion's scenario, but when he reached the top of the tower it was raining. Appareantly when these boys dropped the Grail, it started raining everywhere.

Still, more story - now telling the doctor that we failed miserably.

In the northwest house downstairs there's a Purifier. Always good to have one around if you get pollution.

Now taking the boat of Legin's dad to the Thor Volcano.

Going to use some cheaper mantras in this area when needed. Adding TOULUS and TOUMEL. ~NA spells are usually cheaper than ~MEL, but lately I prefer using them for more power.

Now this is important, REEM can create anti-mantra barriers, so when you combine it with an element, you'll get extra reduction from attacks of that element. ~NAREEM costs more, but it'll work on your entire party.

Gulg Rock can be dealt with normal attacks, but Thorsnaught should be dealt with mantras instead. I keep the AoE mantra for encounters like this.

And after all the walking, we get a 3rd party member. Welcome Sork!

Yeah, honestly I usually grind in the desert, so this party looks pretty underlevelled for me. Comes with the playthrough now...

Oh, our master pal Solon can also work as a Jar and a Danan statue. Excellent.

DAY 2

And back to the doctor for more talking.

Sunlight and butterflies? Seriously, where are they coming from?

Anyway, going further to the Great Forest.

Here's a very useful mantra, PEACE. It not only let's you escape from battles, but also from some of the dungeons as well. Speedrunners absolutely love this one.

Tail Dogs can be dealt easily with physical attacks, and so does the Smal Vitas.

Rhea is weak to fire attacks, so some fire mantras could also work. Anyway, this is the easiest place to go through, so let's continue to our next area.

But don't forget the Ragu from the top of the screen. You can reach it from the right side of the bridge, but the text box decided to censor it. Not cool textbox, not cool...

Horn Cave! During the night the water is up, but during the day you can go downstairs. After you finish here you can come back here for 2 Horn Waters, which I forgot.

Encounters are also easy here, just go with physical attacks. Hornbats can run away though.

Now we have what we came here for...

...and now we don't. Out of nowhere the thieves strike again.

DAY 3

A little hint about where the scenario is heading after all this.

But first, we need to report to the doctor again about our failure.

We also meet Riza and Garlyle in the docks. Since I already passed their encounter in the Sion scenario, the story will automatically advance from here and takes me to Ompross. Otherwise I'd had the chance to ring the bell on the other side and take a ship to Avdol. It doesn't make much difference, but it's interesting to know.

So yeah, we just came here for the boat.

Next destination, Fahl Ruins. The only time when we are going to visit this place, and noone else can get in here.

For safety, I decided to switch my mantras to water based, because I remember that they have a lot of fire users in here.

But the enemies here are still weak against physical attacks, so I didn't really use them.

STELLA let's us steal Hp from the enemy. Sounds great, but I didn't use it much. You can call it the Nosferatu spell of this game.

IMPORTANT: if you don't get the Fahl Stone now, you'll never see it again. One of the missables, but it's actually very easy to get in here.

Oh, and it's finally boss time. How long did it take to get here? Couple of days at least, right?

The Kukuros are strong against mantras, so let's take them out with normal attacks instead.

Wait a second, I can do enough damage with my weapons to this guy as well. Let's stick with it.

Yay, still an easy boss fight!

And now we'll have no encounters in this area. We could go back for the Fahl Stone now for free, but it's also very useful against the boss guy to be honest. Also I found it weird that we're going to Avdol, when the kids were kidnapped from Oriab and we came through Ompross. Oh well...

DAY 4

And now we are talking to the doctor again, before watching the eclipse.

Aaaand now the doctor is dead...

Aaaaand we're also dead! Yay!

Which also means I can't use my hard earned Red Eagle for a very long time.

DAY 5

So going down to the Netherworld and now we're trying to resurrect.

We just freed the Rudra of the humans, which was not a very wise choice.

We've been tricked, we've been backstabbed, and we've been quite possibly, bamboozled...

DAY 6

Now we meet Gomorrah, who's also an excellent healer when we need one.

So because I like Rostam's style, I decided to start with him. If you get here after you saw a cutscene with Riza, you'll only be able to pick Rostam anyway, so the game also wants you to go down this road.

I kinda forgot about getting some equipment for myself though, so preparing some mantras for the road.

SOA spells works really well here, also Zombie Axis drops Axis Shield for me.

Now I just spent all my money on Avenger and Gregory Armor. (not sure if the Gregory Armor was the best choice to buy here)

After all that's done, it's time to head back to the realm of the living.

Not great, nobody knows who am I now.

Only Lolo, so at least I have one person who believes in me. Or maybe he's just incredibly stupid.

Ok, the next boss battle is in Eremia's Manor, and it's one of the tougher ones, so I need to prepare.

Btw, forgot to mention that you should probably talk to these Mistress of Mantras, because they always tell you new mantras. They usually hang out in bigger cities around the inns and bars. What they are going to tell you depends on the combined passing days of all the scenarios.

I for once feel like I was scammed here.

Decided to sell a few things to get Ragu.

Regulus is a much better weapon for Lolo at this point, and Lemnos Mail can combine with Logical Cap, so they raise my stats and block out each other with the elemental protections.

I'm also going to try out a discount GENE skill, which regenerates health after each action. I feel like I'm going to need this for the next fight.

All right, heading out.

A gun for Legin and an armor for Sork.

One final check on the inventories before the fight. I think I'm ready to take him down.

Well, he's hitting hard.

Honestly I was expecting this to heal much more. Maybe the discount from TE~ also reduced the effectiveness that much more. I need to check this later.

Doing physical attacks, healing with Lolo at some points, and Surlent is down. But wait, there's more...

Lazm Thunder here means...

Game Over.

OH NO, I FORGOT TO SAVE!!!

Ok, before I'm heading back to the boss fight, I remembered that there's one thing I really want to do in Surlent's Scenario right now. And that is...

Dragon God Ruins!

The top enemy is weak to physical and water attacks, the bottom one is strong against normal attacks. They shouldn't be a problem at this point.

This fight cannot be started until Surlent gets his Jade, which just happened when he and Doctor Muench died.

The only dangerous attack from this guy is Phoeni Wave. After seeing Lazm Thunder, this feels like nothing.

Just do the healing with Lolo when needed.

Went down with Normal attacks. Unfortunately Lolo went down in the end, so no exp for him in this fight.

Now Surlent opens up the door of the Reptiles. He can access the other doors once Sion and Riza also visited the ruins.

But now everyone who comes to the ruins get a Moon Ring in this chest, which is honestly the best thing you can find in this place.

Ok, back to business.

This time Lolo will have the Moon Ring as well.

Normal attacks didn't work, I'm going to check my mantras now.

Screw GENE, I'm going in with SH and PEWARSOALUS this time.

You know what, this deals more damage. I think this is going to work now.

All right, he's almost dead now... I can feel the victory.

Big oof! If Lazm Breath wouldn't be Wind based attack, I'd just give everyone thunder defense for this fight.

Oh thank God! He's finally dead!

My reward is a Rem Herb and the fact that the story can continue. 

Anyway, I'm Huey now, but the rest of the scenario is going to be for another time.

 

Edited July 24, 2019 by Garlyle

[B.Leu]

8 hours ago, Flee Fleet! said:

ew Sion

Good luck with the game. I personally found Sion's route the hardest, mostly early game. 

Yo you take that back, my boy Sion not only have a eyepatch he gains one ! He doesn't have one at first. 😛
Kind of surprised you had a hard time with Sion, he was the easiest to me.

Ahaha. The REEEEEEEEEEEEEEE attribute.
Surlent have such an interesting gimmick... and it's the path that kick your ass hard, how 'happy' am I to see it's not just me. 😛

[Garlyle]

Getting to the interesting part, today I'm taking on Riza's scenario.

Feedback

Spoiler

19 hours ago, B.Leu said:

Yo you take that back, my boy Sion not only have a eyepatch he gains one ! He doesn't have one at first. 😛
Kind of surprised you had a hard time with Sion, he was the easiest to me.

Ahaha. The REEEEEEEEEEEEEEE attribute.
Surlent have such an interesting gimmick... and it's the path that kick your ass hard, how 'happy' am I to see it's not just me. 😛

True, true. Honestly I have less practice with Surlent's scenario, and for me the hardest boss in his route was Lazm for sure. Glad it's down, but there'll be interesting things in his future as well.

Up next

Riza part 1

Spoiler

DAY 1

As I mentioned, I find Riza's scenario to be the hardest for a couple of boss fights, and I'm going to show 2 of them in this part.

But first, I can't go out with a mantra list like this. Let's fix this first, and then go.

With Riza's mantra list, I'm taking no chances. She relies a lot on her mantras.

We can also get an early Moon Ring in her town, but won't be very useful until the Great Forest.

Other loots are meh, but Purifier can be useful for her as well.

This statue is not well explained on gamefaqs. If I pray for the villagers, I can go behind this statue on Day 12 to fight ZombieSurt and get 2 fantastic weapons, the Romeo and the Juliet. If I choose good mantra, I can get some mantras from the big tree plus Zora and her mistresses, but only after the bio tanks are stopped. If I ask for valuable item, I can get a Meio Shield in Cryunne Castle and Meifa's Robe in the Hidden Village.

I prayed for the villagers a lot, but since Juliet is a rapier, and my Riza is always in the back row for me, I'm going to pray for a valuable item in this playthrough.

The barkeep in this village is more interesting than other barkeeps when it comes to mantras - I mean drinks.

Enemies around here die to cheap mantras.

If you lie to the guards that you saw the man running right, you'll not get the Babel Key. The loot you can get from that is not amazing, but you shouldn't pass that one.

No matter what you choose, you'll fight with them once you meet Garlyle. Just attack from the back row with AoE mantras and the T-Decline.

The MP version of STELLA is called PULMORA. Can be very useful, but not every enemy has MP to steal from. If you are wondering, enemies don't waste MP when they are casting mantras.

240 Ragu and an Alarum that can be turned into Ragu if needed.

Remember the rain? Riza and Garlyle noticed it too, and they are not impressed by how it tastes.

The same strategy can be used against these guards as well. If things go south, heal with Riza.

Good news is you can always take a rest for free in this inn.

The shop is kind of expensive, we're not going to buy anything here.

The password is easy to guess, but if you watched the intro it already gave it away for you.

This will make a fine addition to my collection!

Once all done, it's time to head back to Garlyle to discuss the plan for tomorrow before going to sleep.

I was always wondering how could I turn this scene funnier by changing her name. Didn't you?

DAY 2

So let the mission begin, by going and collecting all the loot first.

As I said, the reward from the Babel Key is nothing special, but it can be useful.

The good stuff is outside in these 2 barrels.

I am turning Garlyle into a dirty man.

Regulus is a great weapon for Riza at this point. Same damage from front and back, and you want to keep her in the back all the time. Later there'll be better bows, but this'll do for now.

Oh look, butterflies!

Anyway, I'm heading for the first boss, and I died to him a lot in the past. I consider this to be underlevelled, but I have a strategy to deal with him even with these stats.

In your first playthrough, you're going to hate this guy for sure. Battle will be fought strictly from the back row.

The damage will come from normal attacks. Garlyle does 30+ damage when he doesn't crit, so he's going to be the main source of damage.

If someone is not all full hp, Riza will heal. AoE heal might be the safest choice. Keep an eye on her MP.

So his regular attacks wouldn't kill Garlyle just yet, but I'm going to defend here - I am expecting something already.

 This might be enough to heal, but don't defend though. If Garlyle dies, it's probably a reset.

Yep, this is what I was afraid of. This attack is nasty. He can use it on the turn after too, but luckily he's going to be so slow, you can heal up before he does that. If you are lucky, this attack will miss.

Also since his attacks only target one, when Riza goes low on health I'm defending her with Garlyle while she's healing.

Keeping an eye on those MP points, I'd say this is going pretty well for me.

Defeated without resetting. Feels good.

After this fight, it feels so rewarding just to see these butterflies cleaning the sky and bringing us some sunlight. Sure the cutscene takes a while, but honestly: just enjoy it.

Btw, thanks to this the prices dropped back down to normal in the local shops. I'm still not going to buy anything from them though, I need my money.

Back at Rem Forest, Remflower drops Rem Herb with pretty good odds. This is your best source of Rem Herb honestly, so kill all of them.

Also I forgot to open this chest earlier, it also contains a Rem Herb. I found quite a few of them, so my stock is looking pretty good.

Anyway, final talk with gramps before heading out.

And paying another visit to our lovely barkeep. Why thank you very much, I might use it in the future, who knows.

And that's it for this island. Heading back to Babel and taking the first boat, where Garlyle will rejoin our party.

DAY 3

You ever get the weird feeling of deja vu? Probably nothing.

Now that we are in Oriab, we could head out to the Sakkara Desert to grind money and exp after equipping a pair of these lovely Logical Caps. Nah, I'm not going to do that. (but maybe I should've bought them for future battles)

Anyway, there's a Purifier in the northwest houses and that's it. We picked this up with Surlent earlier, but the game let's you open chests on different scenarios.

Riza is the only lucky one who can get in the Dragon God Ruins without fighting the Fire Lizard. You can fight with him after Pipin joins your party, but that fight is completely optional.

So here we go, a gift from Surlent - a Moon Ring.

Thanks to Riza now we can get a Horn Water and a lot of money. Horn Waters are always welcome.

In the Great Forest there's this must collect armor for Riza in a sealed chest. You might miss it if you don't look around.

This boss is easy. The first few turns are not very important, but once the Reptile leaves, you can start casting Fire magic on it. Toxic Mushroom can be nullified if your party wears the Moon Ring (which I already have 2 of, lol)

After a couple of Fire spells Setaviza quickly goes down. The attacks are water based, so if it's too tough an AQUNAREEM could help in.

After that, Pipin joins the party. He can do quite the damage from the front row, so he'll be there a lot.

More money to collect right here.

Visiting the Horn Cave during the day let's us go to the lower levels.

As I said, Horn Waters are always welcome. Not going to waste them in the early game, but they are much needed later on.

If you need some mantras, read from the beginning. Reading from the end will skip everything and let's you go onward the journey.

Have to catch these 2 boats, we're heading to Danelf.

DAY 4

You ever get the weird feeling of deja vu? Probably nothing.

Now here's something I'm trying to do very precisely, otherwise I might miss out on an equipment for Garlyle. First I exit the town then reenter to watch the eclipse.

The I walk all the way here until it turns into night, then go all the way back to the small church.

Thanks to this we run into the dorky duo. The first options only gives money, but the 2nd one gives us the only copy of the Strangler.

Now we can turn Garlyle into a frontline warrior.

After talking to Miller, we can talk to Doug. We can go to the castle now, but first I'm going to rob his house (because I forgot to buy Logical Caps)

To the castle.

Since I prayed for a valuable item, I'm getting a Meio Shield. Also Tybalt Mail is a must to collect, it's one of the better armors in Riza's scenario.

Now this is turning into something really powerful right here.

DAY 5

There's also the Dirty Shoes to collect back in Danelf. I didn't collect it earlier, because I was too busy getting the Strangler.

Heading into the Temple here, but first we need to convince the guards.

Here is another choice in Riza's scenario. Depending on your choice you can fight different Guardians for different loot. The Earth gives Life Leaf and the only Jackal Nail, while Water gives Horn Water, Antares and a Magic Leaf. I'm going with Earth, I know another spot where I can get the Antares if I really have to.

So we have to fight these Earth Guardians to get the loot, but they are not very difficult.

Water based nails for Pipin. Now that I think about it, this weapon could've been better for earlier boss fights, not so much for future boss fights. Oh well, it's still the one and only I can have.

Life Leaf is still a good item.

This is the big boss here. We're not going to fight him just yet, but that's going to be a battle to remember.

Also there's another free inn here. I love those.

I'm going to buy these 2 for an upcoming boss fight. VERY important.

I know it quickly replaces the Strangler, but oh well. I love collecting unique equipments.

Our next area to cross is the Sacred Forest. The enemies here can be dealt with physical attacks easily. When needed, heal with Riza. This is soon going to become a pattern for her.

Anyway, these are best collected from here for Garlyle. DOA is a dark-based gun, so it's for future use.

You shall not pass! - she said, but we're going to try it anyway.

Preparing Light mantras for the upcoming fights.

With the Moon Ring equipped there's not much to worry about. Since I only have 2, I didn't equip on Riza, because she had the highest magical defense.

I dealt with them one by one with strong light mantra.

Yeah, she's looking fine. Nothing to worry about, really.

Ok, maybe not. But it's another easy boss fight, just cast Light magic on her.

The recipe is the same as for the previous fight.

She'll start using AoE mantras once low on health, but LUCSEREMEL is the only one that deals more damage. Keep an eye on your health, and heal with Riza when needed.

Aaand down she goes. One more boss for this part.

DAY 6

Heading back to Danelf real quick.

Decided to do some shopping.

Updating my mantras. MEGAMI will be my AoE heal from now on. APSOROU and POWERUP is my strategy for the boss, it's similar what I had against those Beze Birds.

The equipments are also very important. Instead of the Gra Shield, I decided to go with the Meio Shield. I also used the Life Leaf on Riza for the extra HP.

Now I just need to kick the ass of these guardian ninjas before getting to Soma. The first is an Earth Guardian, and the second is a Water Guardian. Pretty easy fights.

The third fight is where it can be tricky, becaus ethey are faster than you.

I went with AoE water mantra COAAQUMEL, and I had to watch out for the Flying Bird rounds.

Now for the boss battle I died to most of the time. I am hoping to kill him on my first try. He has an attack that can wipe out my entire party, but hopefully if I do things right, I don't even need to see that attack. The scary part is that he can use that attack two turns in a row as well.

First I'm going to restore some MP, I'm going to need it. The guys are going to be on the offense the whole time, but from the back row for safety.

When I see a chance, I'm doing some attacks with Riza as well. Pipin and Garlyle will do more damage with their thunder based weapons, because he's weak against that element.

But mostly Riza will just do healing.

Ok, this is it. Any more attack from here on is dangerous, so I need to use my mantras.

This is why Logical Cap and Meio Shields are ideal here.

Casting APSOROU and POWERUP on the guys in 2 turns. 

NOW THAT'S A LOTTA DAMAGE!

Oh thank god, he went down before he used his ultimate attack. First try. Soma's Boots is a nice reward too.

Anyway, taking a break on Riza's scenario for now, I think she deserves it.

 

Edited July 25, 2019 by Garlyle

[Flere210]

On 7/24/2019 at 1:00 PM, B.Leu said:

Oh hey, I know this game ! It's good stuff !  I had a hard time at Surlent route, even with the best spells.
Man, this spell system... real cool. Never seen something as similar.

 

Honestly, just use swearing, memes, and inside jokes. It worked perfectly for me. 

Edited July 25, 2019 by Flere210

[Flee Fleet!]

23 hours ago, Garlyle said:

Personally I think Riza's scenario is the hardest, so it's even now

I remember the first boss of Riza's route being hard

then I later found out I just had to keep both on the back row and it becomes much easier to handle, as you said.

1 hour ago, Garlyle said:

In your first playthrough, you're going to hate this guy for sure. Battle will be fought strictly from the back row.

I think I also had Defenseup and OffenseUp for mantras for this battle, so that helped a bit.

 

Anyways, I always liked the Babel section of Riza's route. I guess I also just like how the city looks, and I was kind of surprised how Babel's dictator (what was his name again) came to be relevant later on in Surlent's route.

 

[Garlyle]

So yeah, I was a bit away when my copy of Three Houses was ready, and now I took Treasure of the Rudras again as a break from it. There's still much to do, and hidden stuff to reveal to you guys, so here's another part for Sion. Sorry for the waiting.

Feedback

Spoiler

On 7/25/2019 at 8:34 PM, Flere210 said:

Honestly, just use swearing, memes, and inside jokes. It worked perfectly for me. 

Someone probably already beat the game that way, but is it possible to create powerful mantras that way? I have yet too see a playthrough like that, lol.

On 7/25/2019 at 9:16 PM, Flee Fleet! said:

I remember the first boss of Riza's route being hard

then I later found out I just had to keep both on the back row and it becomes much easier to handle, as you said.

I think I also had Defenseup and OffenseUp for mantras for this battle, so that helped a bit.

 

Anyways, I always liked the Babel section of Riza's route. I guess I also just like how the city looks, and I was kind of surprised how Babel's dictator (what was his name again) came to be relevant later on in Surlent's route.

 

Those mantras are a bit expensive this early on, but they can defineately help you. But yeah, Babel is a great place, and very fun to play through it.

And finally

Sion part 2

Spoiler

I actually went back to the Garal Tunnel to get these Flat Shields for Sion and Foxy, better be safe while my levels are low.

So it's time to go into the Clock Tower.

Collecting this money right at the start, I'd say perfect timing to give it to me right after shopping.

Btw, I updated my mantras to be wind-based, because this dungeon is heavily thunder-based. Flat Shields will make this a walk in the park.

Dartry is quite sturdy, but a few magic and normal attacks will take care of him, just watch out for his attacks. Rarely he drops a White Bag, which I never used.

These 2 are just scrubs, get rid of them with COATEOMEL.

A new powerful weapon for Ture is in here early on, also note that it's fire based. This could be useful against later bosses, like Opsis.

There are 2 chests which contain a Life Leaf and a Magic Leaf. If I forget to open them, there'll be an event and after that I can't get them. This does not affect the other routes, they can collect it regardless.

A nice new armor for Foxy, it's going to be on her while we are on the floating islands for sure.

Btw, it's boss time. Once I cross this point I'll fight him, but then random encounters will cease to exist in the dungeon.

Preparing TOUNAREEM for safety, some attacks can hurt from this boss.

Monju is simply the same as the rest of the dungeon, heavily focused on thunder spells. If you are not prepared, they hurt a lot.

But if you are prepared, it's not a problem.

Looks like I found the spell to counter him. It's quite a common spell in this game honestly.

Lmao, that's going to help somebody. But it only halves physical attack power and not magical attack power, so I'm not interested.

Oh, he's preparing his special. I'll however go and boldly attack him, since my health is looking fine.

Defeated before his special was activated. Nice.

So Ture says we should leave this lever be, but...

I'm always going for it. So I'm not sure if it's mandatory or not.

The loot for it now and later on is just too good to pass on.

Ah, the chests with the Life Leaf and Magic Leaf. Looks like we got ahead of these folks. This is what I was mentioning earlier on.

Anyway, they get away with the Ark... again. (and spoiler alert, not for the last time)

So we're done with the Clock Tower and going back to the train.

There's nothing in this town for now, so we can just head out.

This place caused me a couple of Game Overs as well in my early runs, but now I'm ready to take on it's boss.

Get rid of these guys when you can, sometimes they are dropping Kemp Boots, which is good against Fire.

Looks like Valkyrie has already been replaced. Oh well.

There's a switch that opens the way down to the healing jar.

Also next to it there's another switch that triggers something upstairs.

Meanwhile I was able to obtain a single Kemp Boots. Couldn't get more of them, but it's still nice.

Ok, one final switch, and the path to my treasure is ready.

Ture is just getting better and better equipments all the sudden. No wonder Ture is always so good.

Oh, and this is the only other encounter besides the Kemps. They got some endurace and some AoE mantras that can hurt you.

Your lucky word is CORBOLIS. It raises your physical defense by a little.

There are also a Gregory Armor and an Aegis Shield, which is also anti-fire. A very nice loot indeed. If someone needs another one, these can be purchased in the Ruined City, but these alone should suffice.

Ok, preparing for the next boss. You should not take him lightly, or he'll annihilate you.

He has some fire and wind based attacks, so I'm adjusting my equipments to halve the damage against those.

Also this battle should be fought entirely from the back row.

That's a lot of damage for the back row. He's also fast, so healing every turn might be needed.

I just couldn't remember what dealt extra damage to him back then.

Oh, I think water will do nicely.

Rex Air is wind based AoE, even more reason for the heal every turn.

TOTONNEB is the same deal, but fire damage instead. This one is less threatening btw.

This is a bit unusual, but I used a Magic Leaf on Foxy in the middle of the fight. It not only increases her Max MP by 10, but completely refills her MP pool. Same goes for Life Leaf and HP, just so you know.

Well, it went pretty smoothly, but Foxy is close to death. I decided to defend her with Sion.

And look at this guy defending the lady. What a gentleman.

After that, the boss was already down.

The reward is the Gram. It's not that great, but we need to collect it to advance the story, so whatever.

And now it's time to go to Roma.

Montano Guard can be useful if you need a wind based shield for Sion or Foxy. I'm just here to get Sion a Sultan Helm to protect against water based attacks.

All the sudden the Earth has been purified while we were hanging out in the sky. Wonder what happened, it's probably Surlent messing around again, right?

Anyway, the Frey ruins have some easy encounters. They all have wind based attacks, so adjusted my equipment and mantras to that beforehand. No need to use mantras on these enemies though.

I... can't recall what this mantra is actually. Never used it, I memorized something from the gamefaqs walkthroughs instead.

Opsis Boots is another great collection to our elemental defenses.

Thorn Whip has been finally replaced. That extra attack is very good for her.

Btw, a few things before the next fight - Ogre Shield MUST be unequipped, and I also prepared a fire mantra called BIT. It's not cheap, but it does quite some damage. Also I completely forgot to use the Power Mace in this fight, oh well.

Opsis is not as difficult as Marica, you just need to defend his mantra attacks.

BIT does enough damage for the cost against him.

His attacks are wind and water based, so naturally he's weak against fire.

Uh oh! This looks bad. My main healer just got frozen solid. What am I going to do now?

Well, I keep attacking.

This does lower my magical power, but as you can see, I keep Sion in the frontline for physical attacks as well.

Another one bites the dust.

The rewards for this battle are very good on the MP department.

Ok, one final station in this post and on the floating islands.

This time it's a temple filled with light based enemies who are weak against dark magic. SEREREX was the main weapon against the boss, COASEREMEL did well against random encounters. But there's actually quite a number of things to do at this place.

There's a not well known secret that triggers when you walk over here.

Then you can walk to the woods and - despite what the game says, you need to pick the second option here. It's translation thingie, I swear.

Meet Triffid. His physical defense is impenetrable, but luckily mantras do very well against him. He has around a 1000 health.

And he drops possibly the only Dark Sword that can be obtained in Sion's scenario with a 100% drop rate. It's easier to obtain in the other scenarios.

It's also very useful in this dungeon.

So now we're going in.

EXPIA is probably one of the most useless mantra in the entire game. Kill yourself to heal a friend, no thank you.

Lemna drops the Pure Ring, which is also amazing in this dungeon and against the upcoming boss.

The best thing is, Ture can also wear this Ring.

To find the healing jar, you need to step on the switch over here.

By dropping down into this part, we find the Great Mace and the Gigas Robe for Ture. The other 2 chests are monsters, they have complete opposite elements compared to the entire dungeon, and the loot is also not worth it, so I'm not going to fight them.

Just look at this giant now.

Anyway, decided to deploy SOANAREEM and a stronger AoE heal, MEGAMI for the next boss. I feel like I'm still underlevelled, so those 2 might be very useful against her.

I also dumped my stock of Magic Leafs and Life Leaf on Sion and Foxy for safety.

So here we go. This is why we needed all the Jaques Mail, Pure Rings and Dark Sword, not to mention the safety mantras. The final boss on the floating islands.

After some quick consideration, I decided to go with SEREREX as the main damage source in this fight.

Don't be fooled, these are halved damages, and it's not even her strongest attack.

Ready to keep on going.

Yeah, I think we don't need to worry about the first part of the fight.

But after this, the cycle begins.

In the upcoming turn and every 4th turn after she uses Star Thrust, which deals a ton of damage. You WANT to defend against this attack.

Constant healing is becoming a thing now.

As you can see the other attacks are also not jokes. Whenever possible, Sion must attack with his sword and Foxy must spam SEREREX. Or Ture. Just make sure to heal whenever needed.

Every 4th turn... this must not be forgotten.

And that is the key to defeat this boss fight (honestly I remembered this fight to be much tougher. Maybe SOANAREEM made it easier)

Finally we had to escape the collapsing temple to find ourselves on the floating island becoming the falling islands.

Luckily Ramyleth returns to the rescue.

And we are back to the Len village. More bosses are coming soon, but for now...

It's time for Sion to take a break.

 

Edited August 10, 2019 by Garlyle

[Flee Fleet!]

On 8/11/2019 at 1:32 AM, Garlyle said:

Rarely he drops a White Bag, which I never used.

I don't think I ever used any of the bags.

 

On 8/11/2019 at 1:32 AM, Garlyle said:

Roma.

Roma was one of the other cities that I thought looked pretty cool. It just looks really nice, with all the clear looking water.

 

On 8/11/2019 at 1:32 AM, Garlyle said:

I... can't recall what this mantra is actually. Never used it, I memorized something from the gamefaqs walkthroughs instead.

Its called PATEIE iirc.

 

On 8/11/2019 at 1:32 AM, Garlyle said:

and a stronger AoE heal, MEGAMI for the next boss.

I always have Megami as a mantra. Its a nice all target spell that heals a lot.

[Garlyle]

The more I play it the more I see how my Surlent run is still not very well planned.

Feedback

Spoiler

22 hours ago, Flee Fleet! said:

I don't think I ever used any of the bags.

 

Roma was one of the other cities that I thought looked pretty cool. It just looks really nice, with all the clear looking water.

 

Its called PATEIE iirc.

 

I always have Megami as a mantra. Its a nice all target spell that heals a lot.

Roma and the Ruined City is where I spent the least time, so the Hidden Village is more memorable for me. When it comes to water cities, Lyla is also very nice.

PATEIE? That could be it. I just used PIKUGAZERO when I needed to reduce magical defense. Also yeah, MEGAMI is a very efficient midgame healing spell.

Surlent part 2

Spoiler

Since we are back to the realm of the dead, Surlent took a new body. And just trying to advance through the story for now.

This those tree roots just talked to me?

Also I'm in the uncomfortable position of not having a weapon on Surlent right now. Have to cut my way through by using Mantras only.

Back to the Thor Volcano.

Ooof, looks like the guys didn't even heal after the fight of Lazm. Not very wise.

So now we are travelling through portal gates, with not much results. Btw if Riza was here first, Surlent would had no choice over which body he gets first and second.

On the last stop we found a new sword for Sork. Nothing special, but at least it's somewhat stronger.

Found the warp energy, now back to do some more warping.

That one I need reach through the Netherworld, so...

Wait, did I just forgot to Rest? My memory is getting old.

Thanks old man.

Anyway, back to business. No matter how many times I step through this portal, it's always drained from this side. Nothing we can do about it.

Heading to the Hidden Village. Just have to go left and then clockwise.

Shop has little interest for me right now, but this Bow might be useful.

Anyway, more story time.

Remember the floating islands falling from the last part? They are now part of the mainland, and that opens up new paths for us. Thanks Sion.

Also, I feel kind of underlevelled.

Since the Garal Tunnel was right next to me, I went to pick up the Garal Armor. Not very useful though, since only Sork can wear it.

Then I decided to go to the Clock Tower. First I went all the way to the top to pick up the Magic Leaf and to disable the encounters for this area. Next, looting.

The word is KOWTOW. I'm pretty sure I forgot to check this in Sion's run. How useful it is? : ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Aside from the Power Mace this was very fruitful. I'll sell that one later for the extra money.

Back to the Garal Tunnel there was a chest with PHEMEL. If I can get the AoE version of it, it might be interesting.

Went down to the Horn Cave to pick up 2 Horn Waters on my way to the Great Forest.

Got a rare Peschel Boots in the forest first. Not bad, and good for Thunder defense.

Also preparing my mantras, because it's boss time.

My focus was to defend against dark mantras.

It's not a difficult fight, but it's best to be prepared. He can cast some AoE Dark mantras.

So without further ado, I raise my dark defense with SERENAREEM

Looks like this is going to be my main source of damage.

Honestly, I start to feel like that ~NAREEM strategies are cheap.

Yeah, I just casted YOUWARSOALUS and healed. Another Moon Ring, nice.

The story is still trying to advance, but first I'm going to collect more stuff.

Gram's Tomb is just nearby, so why not pay a visit first. I didn't spend too much time here, so I didn't even get a Kemp Boots.

Sleipnir has been quickly replaced.

All right, that's it for this place.

In the Ruined City the Rinon Helm is for Ture, but Ture is in a different party. Sells for good money actually.

Now that the floating islands fell, the locked doors opened up in this city, hiding these items behind them. 

I decided to use them right away.

Oh wow, 4090 Ragu for the giant items? Suddenly we have money again.

Yet all I'm going to get is a Varro Mail for Legin.

And now heading to the Sakkara Desert for the next boss fight.

Still no weapons on Surlent, and quite a few slots are empty. I focused on equipping no wind-thunder equipments, because...

This guy has earth mantras. Earth mantras hit hard, so we need to defend against them. I couldn't show it off against the fight with Bhadra, so let's check them now.

This pretty much sums up the main strategy against this boss.

MOENKUE is also an earth mantra, it's one of those that can hit you even when you are floating, so have to watch out.

Ok, here's the plan. I'll heal up Surlent, and keep hitting with magic.

Oof, it's actually less than what I expected. What the hell Legin?

And it looks like I made a bad decision with the healing, Sork is already down.

But mantras like this is what I actually planned to counter.

Crap, I though he'd live another turn. Sorry Sork.

Next stop is Avdol. Place is kinda dead right now.

Gloucester and Aroma ZZ can only be bought here and only by Surlent. Once he regains his body, the shop will not be accessible. As an equipment collector, I decided to buy them both.

Have to pay a visit to this Lago Stone first.

This guy is offering us free Rest in his Inn. Dude, just get out of the town, why are you still here when the town is dead and you are not make a living from your inn?

Thor Volcano now have Flame Swords, which sometimes drop as weapon items for you. I didn't get one, but they are nice for Sion and Sork.

Oh crap. Master is dead, no more free Save and Rest in the Thor Volcano. We need to avenge him.

Picked up the Antares and the Dagda Armor in the Observatory. They could've been better if I came here earlier, not very useful anymore. Dagda Armor is rare though.

Checking equipment for the next boss, preparing my wind defenses.

Oh, I forgot to make a round to get the Grail earlier. That's not good.

I need to get it while I'm alone with Surlent. If you have a chance, get it before this boss battle to save yourself.

Behind the Clock Door there's another Bow and a Horn Water.

Story aside, it's boss time again.

Kurgan mainly uses Wind magic, but don't let that fool you - he's more vulnerable to Light magic.

Better heal Sork next turn.

Mmmm, at least I think he's weak to Light magic.

Ok, we should be fine.

Weapons are also doing good damage.

Right, here's the thing. Kurgan can cast REEM spells on himself to halve the damage taken from mantras. Tricky little bastard.

Slowly we're getting there. MP is still looking fine.

If wind mantras don't work, he'll just try beating you with stronger wind mantras. Genius plan.

Oh, now I can use Light mantras again. He switched to Lightning defense.

And here we go. Weapons and a few mantras to take him down and finally get our body back.

Now Surlent is back with the Red Eagle and full equipment. I think this is a good point to take a break, so let me just escape from this dungeon and save.

Oh crap, it's one of these dungeons.

VIRUS is very good against mantra using enemies.

Picking up more consumable just by the door.

And suddenly even the water is purified by someone. Lots of things are going on, I'm going to take a break here.

Surlent, it's good to have you back.

 

[Garlyle]

Got some time to catch up with Riza. Got some nasty bosses left in her route to deal with.

Feedback, ummm...

Huh, looks like it's getting a bit quiet in here.

Riza part 2

Spoiler

So after I defeated Soma, I finally got through the forest, back to the adventure.

Reached the Brasnir, where Dune and Cid gave me the Holy Grail and the Holy Robe. I guess it's an ok item, but Riza needs more Mag. Defense to be honest - she's a real back row unit.

Riza's route is different through the Mantra Peak than the others.

Items are mediocre around here, but Horn Water I can never have enough of.

The goal was to reach Zora, and talk her into opening the gate to the Netherworld for us. We can do that right away, but there's a couple of things we can do. There is a waterfall that brings us back down the a green monster chest, but the reward is once again not good enough to fight for.

So if the bio tanks are stopped and we come back here in a run where Riza picked good mantras for the prayers, these ladies give some interesting mantras. But once you learn these mantras, their role is meaningless. Pure Ring is always nice though.

Got a little story time in there.

This fight is a no brainer luckily. Water mantras and physical attacks will do the trick.

This is important. If Riza gets up, the reward is missed out. But if she doesn't move...

This is a very good bow for casual runs. This weapon is effective against Drolls, the biggest exp pools you can find from enemies. Later I talk about them.

We also get our final team member, Marina. She'll be our 2nd big mantra user, her MP pool will be next to Riza.

Next it's boss time. Most important thing is to not equip wind-thunder defense against him. Don't take this guy lightly, as he has serious attacks.

As I was saying... (and he got a pre-emptive too)

Physical is not very impressive on him.

Wait a minute, he's not weak against thunder, he's weak against wind. I said you should take this guy seriously, and here I am messing it up.

Time to reload.

Oh for the love of, I didn't even save before him????

Yes, wind is more effective. Now this fight should be easier. I didn't capture how his earth-based mantras missed on me, but try to imagine it with a grin on my face.

But seriously, this guy really hurts first runs.

I think this is a good sing of an underlevelled party.

And just before I had a chance to take a break, here's the next boss. It's not mandatory to win here, and Karla heals my party completely if I lose against her, but she drops a Moon Ring once defeated, so it's time to get her.

Strategy is much similar to the previous fight, but I'm going in with physical attacks this time around.

The power of Float in this game is invaluable.

Though she has this attack that cancels float status. Her other earth mantras can also reach me in the sky.

Well, Marina fell short, but overall it was an easy fight.

Our reward is the Moon Ring as mentioned before and the GURAKARA mantra, which I'll probably won't use at all.

Oh, this place looks familiar. There's a certain condition to fight Culgan/Surlent here, but I'm not 100% confident on how it works. I don't need to fight him anyway.

Horn Water still good, and it looks like I got too many Rem Herbs from the Rem Forest early in the game.

And we finally arrived to the place called the Internet.

And now Riza finally did it again, she's cleansed the land. All that's left is to clean the water and our quest is complete.

This is probably the scariest random encounter around here. Their AoE attack hit me as hard as a boss, and I couldn't run away from them a couple of times.

A small but useful Quarantine Camp is here for casual runs.

Drolls are a joke. They give the highest Exp you can get, they are slow, hardly do any damage, and they take extra damage from Fongoose. The only downside is that they drain your MP and they can cause pollution on you. If you have a Moon Ring though, it's not a matter at all.

This place also has a free resting place too. Not the most welcoming, but Riza is not very picky.

By checking out this skeleton, that ghost boy will unlock the door, so we can get the final Moon Ring we need.

Who needs Purifier anyway. Not to mention an upcoming boss battle will be much easier with all these equipments.

There's a little story cutscene at Sodom castle before the next big dungeon.

Hmmmm, this mantra sounds awfully familiar. I feel like we already used it somewhere before.

Also, the floating islands fell here too, so we can explore new areas.

I was actually a bit tired, and forgot to check the Frey Ruins this time, but maybe next time when I play with Riza - if I don't forget again.

Once I enter this village, Marina will leave the party temporarily. It's not required to enter to this village, but...

Those Flat Shield look veeery interesting for me right now.

Next up is Gomorrah City. One of the most memorable places in Riza's scenario.

Did I mentioned how much I need Purifiers?

I think this mantra is also broken, but I am not sure what is the correct for this one. If you figured it out though, let me know.

The only other place where I can get these is from Nurk. Also the price tag on this is really weird, as it increments with each purchase.

And a collector's new toy for Garlyle. I think that's all the interesting loot lying around here.

Huh, what was that? Btw, I think Marina gets captured by the computer at this point if she's still in the party.

And this is the spot for Pipin.

The main reason to have thunder defense is these guys. Mad Sounds confuse all the party members who don't have it, which could turn things into a messy Game Over.

They are not very difficult though, thank god.

So the boys are stuck in the computers now - just like everybody else in these days.

Oh my, I have too many items in a Square game? Let me fix that real quick.

To save Pipin from the VR, we just need to pick all the first options.

If a different choice was made, the game throws you out, but you can retry as many times as you want, so there's nothing to lose.

One boss fight is pretty close which I'm not looking forward to.

Oh crap, I pressed the button and I can't quit from here. I forgot to check my inventory and my mantras!!!!!

Ohboyohboyohboy...

This boss is a test of endurance. He has some hard-hitting mantras, and also an AoE lightning attack. Sometimes he can heal himself, but you'll quickly recognize a pattern he's using. Paying attention is key.

So I already made a mistake, but how can I salvage this?

Well, there might be some mantras that I can use, especially POWERUP is a good one. I know my Thunder equipments are still on from the Mad Player battles. I am still not feeling truly confident on this.

This damage is not enough. I need to get more out of the guys.

Let's see how they perform after this.

The AoE shouldn't be the big concern here I believe. I can just use Riza to do the healing, I also have MEGAMI ready.

Oh, that's his signal. Next turn he attacks Riza with a strong mantra.

Well, the POWERUP did help somewhat, but it's still going to be a long fight.

Generally good strategy to defend with the unit after Laumen scanned them. Riza is pretty lucky, she only get hits from thunder mantras.

Considering that I have 9 Horn Waters in my inventory, this should last for a while.

Aaaand, I forgot to defend. I shouldn't play this game when I'm tired.

Next is Pipin, I'm defineately going to defend with him.

Oh joy, he's weak to wind - and dies even if he defends. Well, at least I know that next time I can just attack with him. Laumen is very slow, so 90% of the time the party just acts before him.

You know what, I'm going to try and speed this up. Worked like a wonder against Soma.

Oof, didn't get so much stronger as I expected. Is my POWERUP running out already?

Defending IS the key with Garlyle. Riza can patch you up from that.

Lucky. Sometimes when Laumen uses LEFLUS, doesn't heal anything. Consider it as a free turn, but the amount he heals is random.

Some POWERUP and critical did help out to deal damage.

Of course Riza hardly do any damage, but at least I can see him going down slowly.

LEFLUS failed twice in a row? I think luck is on my side.

Meanwhile the cycle continues. Whenever Pipin dies, I just need to do an Alarum + MEGAMI turn to get back up.

Come on Riza, you can do at least some damage with mantras - even when that's not a lot.

Ok, he's going for Pipin. Time to do another one of those yolo all-in attacks when the boss is low on health.

Although I feel like I could do another buff turn on my team.

Crap, it wasn't enough..

Talk about an overkill on a lizard with 120 Max HP.

So, back to the boss pummeling part.

Whoa.

He's finally dead! Didn't had to do multiple runs. I'm probably not doing the right strat for him, but at least it's satisfying to see him go down.

Again with the double level ups. This was a low level play for Pipin.

So all that's left here is to get a Harvest Seed from the new dog. If lost, I can always go back to the talking tree to get a few more.

But I think we have to agree that it's time for another break with Riza.

The real feeling after all this:

Spoiler

 

[B.Leu]

Avdol ? Muhammad AVDOL !
is this a jojo references.

Some names of the equipments are really, really badass, like Dagda Armor, Babel Coat, the guys knew some good stuff, but some lose some of their superb then, well.... A sword called Hamlet or Sleipnir. Didn't knew that Hamlet was in truth a sword created by Shakespeare, or that Odin's beloved horse was actually a sword that he rode to the battlefield. 😛

I exagerate, kinda, it's not rare to see Sleipnir become a ring or an amulet in RPG a sword called that is just new. But a sword called Hamlet is really new. Could be a references to the poisoned sword in the piece... but well, "blood and thunder".

I said it before, and I said it again, I love how you encounter the others team and the consequences of their actions, it really add something great to the game.