Life

I forgot my mom's birthday. Yeah... Women. That's all you can say about it.

It's just that I haven't played a proper game since PTG ended. And Smogon keeps not letting me join the really cool games. Dear people, I know I like to pronounce myself "God of Serenes Forest Mafia". This is a joke. And in all seriousness, I'm not perfect and if you think properly, you can easily outplay me. Please stop holding me up on a pedestal. If you have a crazy idea that you think might benefit, go ahead and do it. I've always said that the joy in Mafia games comes from TRYING TO WIN, not actually winning. And I stand by that thought. That's why I do certain stuff. I try to help my team win (I'm actually not a sore loser and I think there's sufficient proof in past games). So once again, don't hold me up on a pedestal. But don't kill me on N1 because I'm Life (even though it's an anonymous game). Just view me as a statue that you need to topple over and come up with cool ways of doing so. You'll enjoy it, trust me.

You forgot "good looks" too.

FE9 is the game to start with. Not FE7. FE7 gets too difficult for a new player very quickly. FE9 has a nice slow learning curve. Of course, I'm talking about Easy Mode for both. The first time I ever played ENM, I thought it was tough. Now it's just boring.

Serra 7 35 21 7 8 12 10 2 9 Serra. 7 Mag. At level 7. wat is this i dont even

Hide And Seek: Head back to Tonfon. The Emperor mentioned something about an Echo Gem and his sister will do the same. To get it, signal an attack is going on by slapping the gong outside and when Lady Hinechou runs out, grab the Echo Gem in her drawers. Use it to see it pointing to the northwest. That's where Ryu Koh is. Follow the signal northwest to the top of the map. There you'll find a sunken boat. Find a way through the rocks to reach the Iceberg Outpost. In the house, you'll find... Ryu Koh and Hou Zan! Hou Zan is badly hurt and ends up dying in Ryu Koh's hands. Before leaving, take Rime with you. Karis will draw approximate spots on the map for where the rest of the Umbra Gear is. If you having gotten the two that I have, don't worry. She'll put those on the map. Kraden suggests heading back to Tonfon but there's a piece of Umbra Gear very close to where we are right now and heading back towards Mercury Lighthouse after visiting Tonfon is a pain. So sail west and land on the shores of northern Angara. In the Snowdrift Shrine, grab the Umbra Goggles, Geyser and the Phaeton's Blade before getting out of there. Next stop is Tonfon. For returning the kids, you get the Lady Moon's Ring and Unan wants to talk to you some more. Or actually, another present! It's the Blue Orb! And Alex wanted us to have it? I don't like this idea anymore considering the last time Alex "helped" me. It kinda involved a fight with Karst and Agatio on the top of Jupiter Lighthouse. So now we have two Orbs and we need a third to open up the Endless Wall. Third one is... yep, Umaze's grave back in Izumo. Go back to the grave and talk to the red gravestone to start the dungeon. Make sure that you pick up Hemlock inside. Other notable grabs are the Masamune (you can get this as soon as you get Himi), Thunder Crown, a Water of Life (same as the Masamune) and a Cookie. At the end, you'll get the Yellow Orb as your prize. Now Tonfon. Again. This time we're going for the Umbra Gear and the Endless Wall. Grab the Umbra Cowl from the Lonely Island Ruins and we're done! Head for the Endless Wall afterwards and climb it until you reach a gate. The gate needs the three orbs, which you have, so you're good! Apollo: Climb to the Apollo Sanctum. It's a long ass climb filled with lots of puzzles but when you get to the top, you'll be happy to know... that there's MORE puzzles! Yay. Also, let's make a rule here. When in doubt, never mess with ancient machinery that is behind pretty intense locks. AKA puzzles and that sort of stuff. Just don't do it. It cannot end well. Anyway, light it up and Alex comes along. Perfect... Matthew actually swears at the sight of him. And then Kraden. Kraden: "Hello, Alex." 'BOUT FUCKING TIME. Crown: "Alex?! The Mercury Clan's traitor? My mother's betrayer? THAT Alex?!" No Crown, the Alex that you went to school with. Of course it's that Alex. And so, Spade and Heart drop in and we get Alex betraying them for whatever the hell he wants. Great! Infighting! Let's let them duke it out and then pummel the winner! We try going for the switch, that fails and we get a fight. A rather epic one too, mind you. Boss: Heart, Spade and Chaos Hound Spade and Heart are back to their old tricks. It's exactly like the battle in Luna Tower except they do a little more damage. Our new friend is the Chaos Hound. Deadly Gas does shit damage but sets Venom which is actually bad. Dark Blow hits pretty hard and that's never fun to see. Firecrackers hurt pretty badly and target more than one person. Shadow Shield is the usual "cut damage in half" move. Punish and Scornful Caress are nothing new at this point. Take out Spade first and Heart second. Even though Venom will knock off 20% of your HP every turn, Shadow Shield will prolong the battle much longer than you want it to go. Samurai is a godsend in this battle, along with White Mage. Aim for unleashes since both the Sol Blade (takes a while) and Phaeton's Blade unleash Centurion for amazing damage. If someone gets poisoned and you don't have a healer with Cure Poison or Revive in the front 4, do not be afraid to gimp your offense to switch that healer in. The battle is over if you kill them and not their pet. After the battle, shit will happen and Spade and Heart will get absorbed into the Chaos Hound. Welcome to the final boss battle of the game (I think). Final Boss: Chaos Chimera Here we go. Chaos Chimera has three attacks a turn and all of them are going to hurt. Djinn Blast is his most annoying and is a throwback to the Doom Dragon. It sets all of a person's Djinn in Recovery, sending that person back to their base class. Retribution hits the entire party for serious damage and will OHKO someone at random (this is not a maybe, it will inflict an auto KO 90% of the time). CC will also toss Psy Grenades (at you) and Vials (at himself). Shadow Shield is the same from the last battle. Shadow Clash is the new Outer Space move, doing incredible damage to the party. Darksol Gasp won't appear until the battle is close to over but it hits hard and sets Haunt. Vicious Embrace is the same without Haunt (appears late, hits hard). Chaos Upheaval is basically Charon. If he hits you with it, say goodbye to your sanity. Wicked Howl will make one of your guys flinch which is not that fun. Do not fuck around in this battle. If someone gets hit by Djinni Storm, sit them in the back row until they recover all or most of their Djinni. Make sure that your damage output is beating his Vial throwing (Impact boosted Samurai Quick Strikes help). Stella should use Beastform right away since Maul with a 50% boost can take off about 500+ damage in a hit, more than what the CC heals with a Vial. If and when Retribution kills someone, get them healed right away. When the four big moves appear later in the battle (Darksol Gasp, Vicious Embrace, Chaos Upheaval and Wicked Howl), hope and pray that you live since they are pretty cheap. He will go down eventually so just keep plugging away at him. EDIT: Forget pretty cheap, make that fucking stupid. Seriously Camelot, did you test this guy before you created him? Getting hit by Vicious Embrace, Shadow Clash and Chaos Upheaval in a single turn will kill the party. While I did have a bad set-up (wasn't exactly anticipating the end of the game here), it's still a nightmare to fight against My team for beating this guy was: Samurai!Matthew Samurai!Eoleo Wild Beast!Stella Guardian!Himi Sage!Karis Pure Mage!Harmony Berserker!Tyrell Ascetic!Crown With the exception of Crown, everyone saw action and was vital to winning. Go figure that the last boss in a pretty easy game (battle wise) turns out to be a fucking nightmare. After beating Chaos Chimera, congratulate yourself on beating the game and one of the hardest Golden Sun bosses of all time. Seriously. Deadbeard and Doom Dragon don't make me restart the game. This guy did. EDIT: I finished the game missing 8 Djinni. This doesn't happen... EVER. I'm also positive that I missed a bunch of summons too.

HHM Geitz. Personal weapon (shut up, he uses the Brave Bow better than anyone else) and access to Killer Axes. Sick stats. What more do you want?

Well geez, you pick then.

Wrong. He says that Harmony has the same... I think it was aura, as the other 4. Which would make more sense if his father was Piers for 2 reasons. 1. Piers has been going around the Eastern Sea and helping people/chatting to others. The proof of this is that Piers gave Briggs some Hermes Water. And that stuff is incredibly rare (you can't access Imil in this game). Not to mention that we're talking about Alex and while it was part of his goal to start the Alchemy Well, the guy never turned it on all the way which makes no sense if it was Alex. That's the problem that I have with that scenario. 2. Piers got hit by the Golden Sun exactly the same as Isaac, Garet, Ivan and Mia. Alex got a much bigger boost thanks to actually being on TOP of Mt. Aleph when it happened. I'd liken Piers' powers to be closer to Mia's and that is what Tret was referring to.

That was me who said it. And I stand by it. But good luck!

Outside contact! I'm in!

Character time! My reflections on the party: Matthew: Yeah, he's your only Earth Adept for half of the game. His midgame is horrible and the fact that he's the only Venus won't give him a pass. He starts to shine again once access to Ninja comes but that doesn't happen for a long time. Tyrell: The opposite of Matt. He starts off powerful, gains Arid Scorch before Harmony even joins and will always be in the party until Eoleo joins up. Problem is, he starts to drop off after that since Eoleo has much better bases (didn't think it was possible but it is) all around. Keep him in the physical classes though. Karis: Decent. Not your best character but hands down not the worst by a mile. She's got a lot more durability than it seems. Crown: Water Seer. That is all. Ice Queen solves offensive problems but he's fighting for it with Harmony. White Mage is an option later in the game if you want to swing it. Harmony: Crown but better thanks to access to bows (he gets the Yew Bow from Kolima Forest and keeps it for a long time). If you have the Djinni to make it work, stick him and Crown in the same party for lulz. He actually works quite well as a Cavalier through midgame but after you escape Belinsk, the weaknesses show. Stella: She can be fantastic in the right classes and shit in the wrong ones. The problem is that the right ones have her fighting for Djinni (Beastling and Brawler) since Ninja/Samurai!Tyrell/Eoleo want both types of Djinni. Beastform is her saving grace though, no matter what. Eoleo: An improved version of Tyrell. Big physical warrior who loves Ninja and Samurai. Himi: Most broken thing since sliced bread. Seriously. If Curse Mage didn't have Fear Puppet, she's be just good thanks to regular Earth classes but a Zol Ring and Fear Pupput immobilizes 90% of the enemies that you face. Try it out for yourself if you don't believe me.

Jailbreak! Run for it! As soon as we get to Belinsk, it's the evening of Eoleo's execution. First things first, get the band to play Arangoa Prelude. Everyone starts going crazy thanks to the music and... a passage opens up below the center statue? Huh? Stella then starts chatting to us psychically. She tells us to enter the ruins before the music ends via the stairs under the statue. Go through the ruins to meet up with Stella who will join you after you explain how everyone got tricked by Spade and Heart. Gotta hurry since if we don't, we might have Champa soup for dinner. Moving on makes you run into the pair from Te Rya. Everyone will realize how they're screwed but the only path for now is forwards. Continue into the ruins and grab Chasm after he puts up a fight (Venus). After traversing the ruins, we finally get to the end. Alex, Heart and Spade show up to... congratulate us, I guess? Alex wants us to start up the Alchemy Dynamo, we don't want to, standoff occurs... Wait, I forgot that we're dealing with bad guys here. There is no standoff option. Boss Battle: Spade & Heart Here's your usual 4 Adepts vs. 2 bad guys that was so popular in the first two game. Time to beat up Spade and Heart! Let's start with Spade. Spark Shuriken does weak win damage and stuns. Shadow Shield reduces damage for the turn, similar to Granite and the like. Punish does decent damage to one person but it can randomly OHKO a person which is annoying to say the least and a nightmare if you can't reverse the effects right away. Heart has Scornful Caress which is slightly powerful but only hits 1 person. She's also got access to Shadow Shield which just makes the fight annoying. Illusion Perfume sets Delusion which is nothing. Psy Grenades should spark your memory but at this point, losing 15-30 PP isn't so bad. Once again, like Saturos/Menardi and Karst/Agatio, it's a really idea to take out the woman first. However, Heart doesn't heal so if you want Spade gone ASAP, that works too. Heart has less HP so the quicker that you're only dealing with 1 person, the better. If Punish OHKOs someone, make sure that you have a way of reviving them. If not, switch them out. Stella got OHKO'd early and since I had 1 Water of Life on her and 1 on Harmony with no Revive anywhere, I had to play around with my guys to get Stella revived at the right time. After you defeat the bozos, they'll bitch about how you had numbers on them (you were fighting 17 year old kids and you two are commanders of an army) but how they won the war. Ryu Koh will then activate the Dynamo. Shit. Alex blasts away Tyrell and gives himself a new name, Arcanus. LIKE HELL I'M CALLING YOU THAT, ALEX. Anyway, escape Luna Tower and go up to the top to gain the Eclipse summon. Head out on the first floor to find yourself in Belinsk. Go to the castle and get to the jail to chat to Hou Ju and rescue her. Volecheck (king of Belinsk, Stella's brother) appears and unlocks the cage and... what the... KRADEN?! FUCK, I WAS HOPING THAT YOU DIED! Anyway, Kraden pisses off Volechek by telling him that activating Luna Tower was a mistake and Volechek kicks us out, his sister included. And lets us take Eoleo with us! Eoleo is... well, Eoleo. He insults Harmony's clothes... or the fact that he's wearing some. Then he recognizes Kraden even though he was a toddler the last time he saw Kraden. Well shit, he's got a good memory. Suddenly, an eclipse happens and shit goes down at the Opera House. Time to save Volechek's tail! Once we get to the stage, the chandelier turns into a dragon and this game is weird. Mini Boss: Dark Devourer and Dark Scuttler x2 Another boss and this one is with limited PP thanks to the recent Spade/Heart fight. Dark Scuttlers go down easily but the Devourer has a bit of HP and puts up a fight. Really, just use EPAs and this fight will be over quick. Stella's Beastform with a couple of Impacts makes it a joke. Toss in Ninja!Matthew and Ninja!Tyrell for added lulz. After the battle, the Opera House dragon decides to aid Matthew in the form of a new summon: Crystallux! 3 Venus and 2 Mercury are needed to summon him. Get to the pier to escape Belinsk. And... Rest in peace, Briggs, the greatest pirate of all time. Felix would be quite upset to see you go. Honestly, I feel bad for Eoleo. Eoleo now joins the party officially and I GUESS WE CAN SAY GOODBYE TO TYRELL'S SPOT. And Stella also loses her brother. Geez, this game is a lot more mature than the last two. Oh yeah, stats! Eoleo - Level 32 Pirate 312 HP 96 PP 132 Att 57 Def 107 Agl 2 Luck Fireball Thermal Keelhaul Flare Flare Wall Flare Storm Fume Serpent Fume Beam Cycle Beam Guard Protect Impair Debilitate So he's a Fire User/Guard hybrid. Also, note the description of Keelhaul, an EPA. "Damages foes with a war cry of "Hyaa hooo!"" Wow. Nice. Eoleo uses axes and blades which is nice. I'd Rather Be Sailing... This title is actually a song from a play called A New Brain. Little bit of trivia for you guys. Anyways, we get the boat and Eoleo. And enemies get a ridiculous boost in power. Like Shade Skorpnas can and WILL OHKO your guys with Drag Down whenever they feel like it. To avoid this, stay out of the dark areas on the water. The nearest island contains Harun Village and Spring, a Mercury Djinni. The storyteller, Ikun, won't do shit until his son and grandson are back home. The son's broken his leg and the grandson is just waiting for help. Crown will heal it and the party will start chatting to Ikun back in Harun. Apparently, there's this tower called Warrior's Hill where warriors who weild "weapons that are not weapons" must go. Sounds like us, eh? Once you get to the final room in the Watchtower, use the key and swipe the rock that's inside. After that, sail down south. Our next stop looks vaguely familiar... could it be Izumo? Actually, it is but there's a city named Yamata here. Takeru (son of Susa and Kushinada) has gone off because his sister (Himi and our last adept) had a vision of the world ending. So I was right. Himi IS royalty! Fuck, everyone in this game is either the kid of a legend or of royal blood. I liked it when we were 8 nameless people walking around. Oh shit. According to one of the kids, Himi keeps saying "Isaac is in danger". This might be a good time to speak to her, in that case. And then book it back to Mt. Aleph. And... hi there, Kushinada! Still haven't been eaten, I see? And Kraden says hi to Susa since the last time we saw the guy, we had beaten the Earth Serpent in Gaia Rock. And Piers is STILL sailing the seas. Man, I wanna find him now. Anyways, here's the story. Himi's been knocked out since the eclipse. Kushinada is positive that it's a demon of some sort, considering the last time weird shit happened to her was almost getting eaten by a bigass dragon. Suddenly, Kushinada passes out too and we're left to investigate. Kushinada's just tired but Himi is stone cold... out? And this is when the rock comes in handy. It makes a weird mark on her forehead and Himi ends up coming to... not before Susa yells at us. Weird but... OK. Now we have to find some Umbra Gear, using Himi. Himi joins the party as Golden Sun's first magic based Earth Adept and... yeah! Himi - Level 35 Miko 217 HP 201 PP 87 Att 54 Def 175 Agl 6 Luck Search Move Weapon Grace Roaring Dragon Thorn Briar Growth Mad Growth Wild Growth Cure Cure Well Potent Cure Revive Miko is exactly what you think it is. Magic based Earth Adept. It's actually probably the third worst mono elemental class in the game (Water Seer and Aqua Squire will always be worst) since she has meh healing moves, meh attacks and Revive. That's about it. As for class changing, YES HIMI CAN GO NINJA EVEN THOUGH SHE WEILDS STAVES. She can hold Light Blades though. However, Himi does get a fantastic new class of her own, similar to how Stella did. Welcome to the Curse Mage class. It's got the usual terrible shit of Haunt and Curse... along with some pretty sweet moves too. Like Fiery Abyss, Toxic Grit, Fear Puppet (stuns, great if Himi moves first) and Undead Gloom (an EPA). Not to mention incredible stats for the most part. Also, Uzume (Susa's sister) is unfortunately dead. Kinda sucks. And that stupid dancing doll is still there. Behind her is a dungeon... that has be stumped at the first room. Oh well, I'll return to it later. Set up your Djinni and your team however you like and get moving. Here's my set-up with my reasons. Front 4: Ninja!Matthew Sage!Karis Curse Master!Himi (with Zol Ring) Cavalier!Harmony Back 4: Ranger!Stella Savant!Crown Ninja!Eoleo Dragoon!Tyrell The front 4 are designed to have a great balanced team. Ninja!Matt is pretty much a given, Curse Master!Himi w/ Zol Ring gets first move and can pretty much stop enemies dead in their tracks with Fear Puppet, Sage!Karis is the firepower in the team for multiparty attacks and Cavalier!Harmony exists because of the lack of Revive, despite 2 Earth Adepts. Head east to an island to grab the Umbra Cloak and then west to the mainland to Tonfon. A little bit of info for the listeners: - A strange ship just sailed in from Lemuria. Probably Piers so we better go look for him. Anyway, chat to Emperor Unan and he'll give you the Lord Sun's Ring and Umbra Gauntlet. Head south along the coast to hit the Champa Camp. Geez, Champa is doing even worse than the last time we saw it. I didn't think that was even possible. But... Obaba is still alive? what is this i dont even... She's Briggs' GRANDMOTHER. Anyway, slap Fugue off of his coconut and snag him. Head out west to Champa properly to find Obaba. The old hag is still living. Kinda funny how Briggs kicked the bucket before her but yeah. She works the forge now so if you get a forgable item, hand it to her. To the south is an island with another Umbra item. I don't think I've mentioned it but the Umbra items are all equips for only Stella. Interesting. Time for some more Djinni finding. Grab the Venus in Kaocho that should have been snagged a long time ago (grip the flagpole). And Soul Siphon!Himi is broken. Her Fear Puppet works almost 100% of the time on enemies and with a Zol Ring, she acts first. Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot.

Briggs, We Have A Problem. I have a bunch of places where I can go. I'll probably have to go to all of them and end up overleveled so I'll just follow the story for right now. But I will go to Bilibin before Kolima, that is a given. Want to catch up with McCoy. Anyway, the first town that you will see is Belinsk. Finally. God dammit, that took a long time to get here. Let's find some stuff out from the locals! - Eoleo has been captured! OH SHIT, I WANT TO SAVE HIM NOW! In all seriousness, Eoleo's taken over from Briggs and is known as the scourge of the Eastern Sea. Man, I loved Briggs and Eoleo... - Sun Saga 4 is in the basement of the Sanctum. I was worried that I missed it in Ayuthay but nope! There's also an Assassin's Blade in that room. - A little bit of nostalgia here but Briggs is still kicking. He's also got a gentle side since he still has his favourite old ship. You know, the one he stole from Alhafra right under Felix's nose? - Belinsk isn't friend with ANYONE around them. They had a war with Sana and Bilibin is... well, yeah. - THERE'S A DRAGON IN THE OPERA HOUSE! LET'S GET THE IMPRESSARIO AND MARIA! AND FLOAT RINGS! To be honest, the dragon is a chandelier and isn't attacking anyone. So no, this is not Final Fantasy VI. - Torrent's in the harbour. Grab him to make 8 Mercury Djinni. - Oh and there's the girl from Te Ryu here. Forgot about that. And Kraden's not here. Geez. He's been kidnapped by Alex... AGAIN! How do you do this to yourself? - Beastmen are actually animals who got transformed into humans thanks to the Golden Sun. So for the record, they have nothing to do with Maha's clan. So yeah. Kraden's not here and the Arangoa Prelude (a song that Stella will use as a sign to rejoin) can't be played. The party decides to go to Bilibin (FUCK YES, GOOD) to try to intercept the bastard but my money is on the fact that he isn't there. So we arrive at Border Town on the way to Bilibin and... wait, why do pirates know my name? I'm going to take a page out of Madra's book... ARE YOU CHAMPA?! Actually, they are. Sailin' under the command o' Captain Briggs. IS THIS WHAT I HOPE IT IS?! JAILBREAK TIME AGAIN?! Anyways, Briggs heard from Piers that Kraden was in Bilibin. Briggs sent two guys to look for him (Kraden) to help because Eoleo's supposed to get executed soon. They hand us a letter which is from Briggs to Kraden. I hope everyone here knows what this means. Champa is actually an ally in this game. This is REALLY good. Except the kids are now acting stupid. Karis: "This Briggs fought Felix and his friends... Do we just forget that and risk our lives to help him?" Karis, did you forget that without Obaba, Felix and co. wouldn't have made it to Lemuria? And without going to Lemuria, they wouldn't have gotten Grind and been able to make it to Jupiter Lighthouse? I say help. NOW. So with that, we scrap the idea of finding Kraden and go looking for Briggs instead. Before leaving, take Sirocco with you as well for another Jupiter. Port Rago is at the eastern edge of Angara. Head there and sneak through the tunnels to get to the docks. Grab the Planet Armour while you're here too. And OH WOW. Briggs, I love you. Grey hair, mustache and you still look cool. And he whips out the fact that Matthew has Jenna's eyes. OH YEAH, JENNA FOUGHT BRIGGS AND WAS IN FELIX'S PARTY. Speaking of Jenna, she lives in Kalay now. Strange, I figured that she'd be living with Isaac. Anyways, Briggs sends me out to talk to... Tret? Really, you know Tret? Apparently, Tret doesn't like chatting to Briggs and... knows a lot about Belinsk? THE GUY'S A TREE, REMEMBER?! Tyrell: "I feel like we just fell into a trap." Briggs: "I prefer the term 'volunteered.'" Amazing. Briggs also gives us an early reward. Hermes' Water... wait, you went to Imil? When? Oh... Wait a second, Briggs doesn't know that Tret's a tree! And one of the NPCs has a great line. Repairman: "The great pirate Briggs. Supposedly a sailor without rival, yet his ship is this broken-down tub." I love this game. Tret The Treeman, CAN HE DO IT?! Head north and you'll enter Saha Village. Kolima is actually right behind it. Yeah, Kolima kinda moved since it used to be right near Bilibin but I'm not going to argue the semantics of it. And the people STILL turn into trees. Great. Tret, do you need ANOTHER healing? Actually, there's a different sick tree here. And it's not Tret or Laurel. Goes by the name of the Dream Tree. Weird but OK, I'll buy it for now. Leave Kolima through the north exit and enter Kolima Forest (still northwest of the village). And... oh shit. Gaia Rock all over again. If you've played GS2, you know what I'm talking about. Either way, I can't get to Tret yet so I'll head back to Kolima. Maybe the Dream Tree has something to do with it? So we're going to have to save Kolima. Again. Great. But we're so good that we can do it in our sleep! Literally! That's right, this is a Freddy Krueger style dungeon. So we wake up and suddenly, there's a lizard trying to Pound our guts into submission. Great... Traverse the dungeon until the lizard traps you. Let's pound it back with some punishment! Boss: Sludge Sludge decides to bring his friends along, a Haunt Skull and a Shield Skull. Similar to Star Magician back in GS2. He can also call more skulls which kinda sucks. Haunt Skull can use Witchlight to attack and do some damage while inflicting Haunt on the target. Shield Skull will use Sludge Shield to protect Sludge. Curse Skulls just die. Tail Slap does some hefty party damage too while if he heals himself, the bastard adds 300 more damage that you have to do to him. And lastly, he's got Crush which doesn't do much. The thing is that he's weak to Wind and strong against Water. Which sucks when you bring in 3 Water users (Crown, Harmony, Elder!Karis). Get rid of his skull buddies and try to get Thor and Procne summoned quickly. It's not a hard battle but it can get annoying if Sludge wants to keep himself healed. After beating Sludge, you'll be rewarded with the Crush Tusk. Heal the tree with Hermes Water like your dad did 30 years ago. You'll also chat Pewter who decides to insult you for a bit before leaving. He says that Laurel sent him. Head for Kolima Forest but not before grabbing Garland, a Venus Djinni. Once in the forest, Pewter will direct you to Tret and Laurel. And yeah, party's a bit surprised. Karis: "You're... a talking tree?" Laurel: "Ahem. I am usually referred to as a 'holy tree.' On my better days, even a 'tree of wisdom.'" Looks like 30 years must have given her lessons in sarcasm. And then Harmony bows down to her and Pewter calls him a fishbrain. This game is hilarious. Also, Sludge was created as an afteraffect of the Golden Sun. Note the fact that Isaac has now fucked up Kolima TWICE. Once by going into Sol Sanctum and once by bringing the Golden Sun. Tret must hate his guts. Speaking of Tret, the bastard forgot about Garet! And... wait, Harmony is NOT related to Mia! He's Piers's son! Or is he? Whatever. Also, to save Eoleo, we gotta wake up the Mountain Roc. And to wake it up, we gotta get Slap. Two options: Option 1 is grabbing Stella who said that she wasn't gonna help. Option 2 is the Slap Glove, underneath Belinsk Castle. Great... We also get Pewter which is 2 Venus in a very short while. This is actually good. Djinni Time! 6 Earth means that a Water Adept can go Cavalier, one of my all time favourite classes. Harmony has dibs on it because he's much more physical than Crown. Crown can go Savant with 6 Jupiter anyways, so he's fine too. The problems arise with the original 3. Cavalier!Tyrell's best with 5 Mercury (he's got Arid Scorch which is STILL besting Eruption even on a bad day) meaning that Karis and Matt have to battle it out for the Mars. The thing is, Ascetic!Karis and Barbarian!Matthew don't have much going for themselves except for the obvious stuff (Karis has Eruption, Matt has Planet Diver and Clay Spire but horrible PP). Since Matt just sat out a couple of dungeons, I'm going to bring him in while letting Karis rest her heels. Anyway, I end up meeting the two guards from Te Rya Village, Ryu Kou and the old guy (forgot his name). They offer the Slap Glove if we in return take them along to the Belinsk Castle Raid. Except that the Slap Glove was UNDER Belinsk Castle which makes no sense unless... yeah, Stella gave it to them. And Stella is apparently the king's sister... Huh. Really. Let me get this straight. Matthew - Son of Isaac the Legend Tyrell - Son of Garet the Legend Karis - Daughter of Ivan the Legend Crown - Son of Mia the Legend Harmony - Royalty Stella - Royalty Eoleo - Royalty Himi - Probably Royalty Really? What the fuck? I liked it when my last party were unknowns in the world... Anyways, grab Teardrop (Mercury) from behind the waterfall in the next screen and then turn around and head for the Mountain Roc. Big Birdie! Nice Birdie! Welcome to Talon Peak, home of that bird you've been chasing for. It's about time that we finished our mission for Isaac and Garet, even if we still gotta get Eoleo out of the brig afterwards. Get to the top and wake this bird up. Slap it once to wake it up, slap it again to put it to sleep. The Roc Feather is your prize. And then... shit. Spade. Great fucking timing. And Heart. This is lovely... These two bozos are starting to get on my nerves. Anyways, they want the Magma Orb, something that starts the Alchemy Furnace. And Laurel doesn't want me to start it up. But if I don't, Eoleo is probably going to boil... Shit. Played into their hands. Spade and Heart then leave and I have to fight a pretty angry Mountain Roc. Boss: Mountain Roc This guy is big. He can shriek to drop your attack and hits the party for damage at the same time. Upward Blast has a really cool animation but the thing to note is that it hurts. Fire Breath is fire elemental and hits your party for a decent amount while Stone Molt ups the Mountain Roc's Def by quite a bit. The move that you HAVE to look out for is Seismic Stomp. This one can take out half your party if you're not careful. Despite Stone Molt, I'd say that EPAs are the way to go in this battle. Tyrell, Matthew and Harmony should all know EPAs (Cavalier!Harmony has Cutting Edge) while Savant!Rief uses High Impact to boost their attacks. If someone goes down, revive them ASAP and restart the assault. Mountain Roc recovers 150 HP a turn but you should able to override it with a properly Impacted Cutting Edge or Planet Diver, never mind having 3 of them a turn. Afterwards, Ryu Kou steals the Magma Orb. As Crown said, I'm going to make you regret this. Instead of racing him back to Belinsk, book it to Port Rago. It's time to have us another chat with Briggs. Wake the pirate up, berate him for not having his ship repaired in time and leave without him. Get Coral (Mercury Djinn) before you go by draining the water. Class switch time! We now have access to the better classes without killing everyone else. This is my set-up for right now. Cavalier!Rief - 6 Venus Cavalier!Tyrell - 5 Mercury, 1 Mars Ninja!Matthew - 3 Mars, 3 Jupiter Ranger!Harmony - 3 Mars, 3 Jupiter Savant!Karis - 5 Jupiter Karis, Rief and Matthew are in some of their best classes while Cavalier!Tyrell and Ranger!Harmony are nothing to sneeze at. Instead of heading to Belinsk, we're making a stop at Saha and Kolima. Saha has a Jupiter Djinni previously inaccessable but now that we have Crush, we can grab it. Kolima has what we're looking for, the last band member needed to summon Stella. Grab Wisp nice and quicklike and then chat to Vande. He'll head back to Belinsk, making 6 musicians. Now you can summon Stella back to the party!

More updates! An A-maze-ing Mask! First things first. Grab some outside treasure with the lowered water level. AKA the Glittering Tiara and Breath, a Jupiter Djinni. Then raise the water and get out of Ayuthay. Remember where Kaocho was? Try northeast. There's two Djinni here and I can't figure out how to get EITHER of them. Wait, maybe the Mars. There's a person standing in the way who wants some Kaocho Dumpling. I know this because of Insight. So Insight works like Mind Read apparently. My reward for feeding this poor shmuck is Lava, a Mars Djinni. There's also a Sanan Dress for the picking. Anyway, head to the cave that we used to escape the blasted maze in the first place and play the flute in front of the door. Once inside, remember to grab the Ixion Mail (+20 Water and Wind Resist is nice), Vulcan Axe and Vortex (a Jupiter Djinni). Djinni time! If I check my Djinni guide (1 of the ingame encyclopedias), I see that I'm missing the first possible Mercury Djinni. Sucks but oh well. However, I can still go with Defender!Tyrell and Elder!Karis. Since we now have 4 Jupiter, Scholar!Harmony has dibs on them, giving him Wish along with being in the best class possible. Karis is toss-up between Elder and Diviner (before Harmony got Wish, Diviner was a no contest since otherwise, Defender!Tyrell would have been the only healer and he's got the best psynergy move so far) while Matthew decks himself out in the Ruffian class. Activate the Temple and grab the Sol Mask as your reward. About freaking time. But it's a rule of RPGs. Whenever you have a seemingly simple task to do (meet Kraden), you can be sure that you'll have to go to Kingda Ka and back just to restore the status quo when something goes wrong. Whatever. Retreat out and head back for Passaj. Once there, make a beeline for the Alchemy Forge and replace the Sol Mask. And shit, I hope I haven't brought the town to apocalypse by doing that. And wow, the land instantly goes green. Shit, did I do that? Oh and water flows into the Harapa Ruins. Better check them out. Harmony: "The children of the Warriors of Vale?!" Umm yeah... About that... You're one of them too. But I like the idea of not turning down a reward. The shops finally work so upgrading time is upon us. And I get a free Zol Ring. It multiplies Agl by 1.8 so it works great with the Safety Boots (they lower Agl). Supplies: Harmony can equip Bows too! Get both him and Karis Composite Bows. The Psynergy Rod should go to Crown. As for armour, upgrade the best you can. I'm Walking On Sunshine, WHOA OH! Grab Brand, the Mars Djinni, from outside of town (must be revitalized to do it) and do a little bit of Djinn changing. Since Tyrell has the best Psynergy move of the bunch right now (I know I've been singing Arid Scorch's prayers but I'm doing 125+ to everything I see and it multihits), Illusionish is a fantastic class for him since it gives him a giant pool of PP. Four Mars on Ascetic!Harmony still give him access to Wish and Karis stays as an Elder. The only change is that Matthew is now a Defender but it's certainly an upgrade from Ruffian. He knows Briar, Cutting Edge and Ply Well along with having some quite good stats. I can't believe I'm saying this but Elder!Karis is the weak link in the party and that's saying something. Now just wait for when she gets Wish. As for the strongest, it's a toss-up between Harmony and Tyrell. If Tyrell didn't know Arid Scorch right now, I'd say Harmony hands down. Anyway, turns out that we need to toss the Forge into reverse so that it doesn't fuck up on us. Which means... GOD DAMMIT, LET ME GET TO BILIBIN ALREADY. Anyway, turns out that the Sand Prince's opposite, the Ice Queen, is in the Harapa Ruins. Yay. Get to the middle of the giant ice room and you'll find... shit, that's creepy. Nyunpa of Fushin Temple has been turned to stone. Turns out that the Ice Queen tricked him into taking her out of Passaj. And now, we're going to have to make her come quietly. Oh well... Boss: Ice Queen Let's see... Icy Kiss does some water damage to one person and Ice Horn can do some heavy party damage. Illusion Veil sets Delusion and... yeah, that's it. She's got some power behind her moves so make sure that she doesn't catch you napping with a surprise Ice Horn. Basically, plan an all out assault with Matt and Tyrell. Hit Matt twice with Impact and watch him lay on the hurt with the Vulcan Axe. Tyrell should just stick to Arid Scorch since you will be seeing 165+ on the Ice Queen. As for Harmony and Karis, they can do whatever, just need to make sure that the party stays healed for the most part. And... Nyunpa lives! And he remembers Isaac and the gang pretty well too. We get the Ice Queen which bestows Cold Snap to Water Adepts. And if it's anything like the Sand Prince, Harmony is about to get really freaking strong. You can retreat out but you'll miss out on some good stuff like the Mystery Blade and Serac, a Mercury Djinni. Time to head back to Passaj to finally get to... oh. That wall in front of the exit could be a problem. Apparently this happens all the time so might as well just sleep the night away in the inn. The next day, we head back to Passaj and reverse the flow of the forge. The thing is, this is a point of no return so I better hope that I'm ready at this point. The Zodiac: Once you ride the cloud, you're forced to make your way to Craggy Peak. Once you do, head down into the building to find a circular room with 12 doors. And yes, there are Zodiac signs above every door. Little subtle, aren't we Camelot? Anyway, solve each room's puzzle with your available psynergy. Grab Doldrum (Jupiter) while you're at it. Once you've finished Sagitarius (the last room), head back up to the outside and start up the clock. Our reward is safe passage down onto the ground and into the World Map. Finally! Ok. Question. Where did the Lamarkan Desert go? And Kalay while we're at it. Head west and north to find another summon: Moloch! Except that I'm missing both Megaera and Flora and I've kept my eyes open for everything. Afterwards, head back east to Te Rya Village. WAY TO GO TYRELL. SHOW OFF YOUR BULLYING SKILLS! We chat with two guards to the village and then enter. Apparently, one of them was worried that we might be spies from someplace. Walk through the village and you'll see a shadowy figure run away from you. Grab Fury before you chase after her. And she's not here. But in a house, you'll find some wounded mercenaries. Then the two guards will show up and "kindly" direct you out of the city towards Belinsk. As Karis says, "we can take a hint". To the north are the Teppe Ruins. Buy a Trusty Staff and give it to the fisherman. Then Fireball Dewdrop (the Mercury Djinni) and the fisherman will hook him for you. Inside the Ruins, the girl will run off. AFTER HER!!! Eventually, you'll reach a dead end... and how did that girl get behind me? And it's... FUCK NO, I AM NOT CALLING YOU SVETA. Anyway, Stella appears and claims that she's a beastman. If you check Stella's entry in the encyclopedia, she's a true Jupiter Adept. AKA she can read minds ala Ivan and Sheba. Tyrell calls her a "kitty-dog" and Stella responds with Psynergy. She's the one who got Mind Read and not Karis but apparently, Karis is happy that she didn't inherit it from her father. And I'd like to know how to rename my people in the party. I can't stand the horrible names at this point. Rief, Amiti and now Sveta? Tyrell: "I knew it! She's a spy or something!" Crown: "Yes, Tyrell. This is where she just volunteers that she's a spy." Anyway, Stella's found a bag and she offers to be a guide if we return it to the owner. I vote yes! Doing so has Stella joining the party as soon as you return to the Teppe Ruins. New unit, new stats. Stella - Level 22 Beastling 212 HP 102 PP 74 Att 39 Def 103 Agl 3 Luck Beastform (8) Spirit Sense (1) Slap (4) Track (1) Ray (6) Storm Ray (10) Whirlwind (5) Tornado (14) Slash (4) Wind Slash (9) Boon (4) Nature's Boon (8) Cure Poison (2) Restore (3) Beastling is Wind Seer on steriods. Also, Stella uses her fists to attack so her weapons are knuckles, similar to monks. Boon heals 1 target and Beastform is some sort of transformation thingy. The only bad thing is Agl since Stella actually gets no bonuses in it from her class. So go figure, a Jupiter Adept has speed problems. Djinni time! In the last party, Matthew was actually the weakest unit. He's getting the switch right now so my party is now Harmony, Stella, Tyrell and Karis. As for the actual Djinn, I can't believe that I'm saying this but until I get more Venus and Mercury, Shapeshifter!Stella is a fantastic class for the moment. It has power, durability, healing... I'm telling you, it IS Wind Seer on 'roids. It's not Lord!Isaac/Felix great but it's nice. Alternatively, Enchanter!Matthew has some nice stuff going for him. Astral Blast is combined with a good PP count and high Att (highest in the group) but his durability is exactly the same as Shapeshifter!Stella while she has real mob control (Enchanter!Matthew only has Gaia at this point and that stopped doing good damage in Ei-Jei) with Tornado and Storm Ray. Agl is a major problem for Stella but it's doable. Continue through the ruins using Track and Slap to move on. Grab Vine for another Venus Djinni and switch your classes if you want. Brawler!Stella is a new class. It turns Stella into a Wind version of Brute. She loses a lot of PP in return but gains the Speed Punch EPA along with a lot of Att. She keeps Boon and Nature's Boon though and gains Revive. Ascetic!Stella is probably your best choice now. All around good stats, Volcano series (Stella joins at 22, giving her Eruption ASAP), Plasma series and Beastform for a more physical option. At this point, a Matthew/Tyrell/Karis/Stella party looks fantastic. Sorry Harmony. But don't worry, Tyrell WILL lose his spot to Eoleo. Because Eoleo is that cool and 33 years old. Respect your elders. And now, we are finally in Morgal. Obviously we need to go to Belinsk but we can't forget about Kolima. I bet Tret and Laurel will be happy to help. And... Ok, getting this stupid feather just got harder with Stella in the party. The bird's sacred to her people. NO WONDER WHY ISAAC AND GARET HAD A HELL OF A TIME TRYING TO FIND IT! And fuck, Stella leaves the party. She's not going to help with the feather BUT SHE BETTER NOT TAKE MY DJINNI. Well... she takes hers, not mine. So I'm back to having to choose between a weak Defender!Matthew and Shaman!Crown. Since Crown knows Froth Sphere and Wish now, I'm going to take him along instead of Matthew.

Do the S Ranks. I'm still trying to get through LNM and ENM again (not that it's hard, it's just boring) to access EHM to try it again. Some tips for S Ranking the Normal Modes. - Watch out for Tactics. I'm serious. Exp is piss easy in Normal but Tactics may bite you in the ass on some maps (Night of Farewells is a 10 turn clear). - Funds is the rank that you have to constantly worry about. Don't leave yourself with barely any money to use nice weapons. Just promote like 5 people including Hector and/or Lyn and use Harken/Karel, Pent, Marcus and Geitz.

Craggy Peak is what I've dubbed Zodiac Tower. Should seem obvious why. Kaocha was on top of the Ouroboros. It's the city where King Wo rules and there's 2 Djinni just sitting out in the open (one requires clairvoyance or Insight Glass to be more precise to get). I covered it in my last post (speaking to Colonel) but I'll give you the rundown now. You know how I've been singing Arid Scorch's praises (120 Dam attack at level 16 or so for me)? Well, there's an item that you get soon after called the Ice Queen. Yes, it is EXACTLY like the Sand Prince but it teaches the Cold Snap series. Which is Frost but whatever. You get the 3rd psynergy in this series as soon as you equip it. That would be Frostbite (20 PP). And it's only equipable on Water Adepts. Bye bye offensive problems for Harmony!

I wrote all of this in the moment. And I can't believe that nobody caught the fact that Piers HAS to be Harmony's Dad. Also, Colonel, are you on the Japanese version or American version? Since I downloaded the ROM on the 1st and have basically been playing non-stop and I only just beat the Cloud Passage (fuck, these puzzles get hard). Also, couple of Djinni questions. 1. How many Djinni did you have walking into Craggy Peak? I have 3 Venus, 4 Jupiter, 5 Mars and 6 Mercury. The game claims that I'm missing the first possible Mercury (before Crown joins apparently) along with the 3rd Jupiter (Jolt is found in Konpa Ruins while Breath is outside of Ayuthay). And I've been looking around on the paths which have made me stupidly overleveled (Harmony joins at 14 but all of my guys were level 17 at the time). 2. Did you get both of the Djinni in Koacha or just the Mars and not the Venus? Uh... no. True that Harmony (and Crown) are useless for a while but Frostbite does incredible damage and Harmony will have it if he equips the Ice Queen. All you have to do is then stick him in a class with high PP and healing moves (Ascetic - 4 Mars or Scholar - 4 Jupiter). He's the strongest guy in my party, hands down. As cool as the name Aqua Squire is, it's Mariner all over again. And Mariner stank. Decent moves... but low stats and nothing to back it up. Not to mention that everyone wanted Mercury in GS2. This game is allows another person to deck themselves out with Mercury as soon as Harmony joins so it is a possibility. But Ascetic and Cavalier (once I get 6 Earth, I'm going this route since Mia was epic with it) are probably his best classes. Don't get me wrong. Mercury Adepts have always sucked and will always suck. But Harmony's higher base physicals might make him the best one yet since he's already got a problem fixed that Piers could never do (his offense).

Shittier character means nothing. Thought you of all people knew that. How about... Oswin vs. Lowen in terms of ranks? Take your pick of which one you want.

Shoot The Shit With Kraden... Again. On the path south, you can actually run into a Mars Djinni! Nice! Gust will actually OHKO this guy if Matt hits twice. Pick up Fever as your prize. I'd go with with Wanderer!Karis since she gets a significant Attack boost from two Mars and make Tyrell a Brute. Run back north to Carver's Lumberyard to create a permanent path between Patcher's Place and the Konpa Ruins. Solve the puzzle in Carver's Lumberyard to get to a cave with... the Zagan summon? Hell yeah! Time to continue the quest. On the World Map, head south and around the mountain to get to Konpa Gate. Ring the bell to wake the old man up and pass through. The stairs behind the cabin actually lead to your 2nd Venus Djinni, Flower. Make Tyrell a Ruffian and move onwards. Once you get to Konpa Ruins, time for Djinni switching. As a Wanderer, Karis' big move is Whirlwind (about 20 Dam) which fails to impress me anymore given that the enemies can now survive your basic attacks. Wind Seer gives her access to both Plamsa and Fresh Breeze but enemies aren't doing enough to warrent serious healing concerns. Diviner's her best class at the moment, giving her Flash Bolt and Cure just in case. Matt can actually work well as a Ruffian since enemies are Fire weak right now but Page!Tyrell is actually the kicker here. Tyrell is your damage dealer and while he doesn't have Flare Wall and Starburst for party killing, he now has the PP and Agl to back up Fireball and Volcano (level 8 like usual) spamming. If Matt needs some extra OOMPH, he has Fever to unleash. Traverse the dungeon (this isn't a guide, it's a playthrough) and for the love of all that is good and holy, get the Elvan Shirt since it is one of the best earlygame armours around. 1.5x boost to Agl will make you hold onto it for a long time. I put it on Tyrell to give him first shot in battles. Figuring out the puzzle grants you the Glyph Book. Pretty cool. The next puzzle raised the center platform to the 4th floor of the Konpa Ruins and make you start fighting monsters (monsters don't appear on the first 3 floors). The next important room will give you the Grip Crystal, a hybrid of Lash and Catch. Literally. Using Grip, snag the Jupiter Djinni that's chilling on the ruins. Kill it and claim Jolt for your own. Jolt is a new Djinni that revives fallen allies since the rest existed in the previous games. This guy should be your 6th Djinni at this point. As for fighting, Fever trivilizes everything, especially once Jolt joins the party. Had I bought a Battle Axe for Matt also back at Carver's Corner, I'm sure that I could be seeing 100+ damage from Matthew. If Gust connects on its 2nd shot, you can also see high damage numbers but trust Illusionist!Tyrell's Volcano to be more reliable. Wanderer!Karis can control big mobs with Flash Bolt which is quite nice. Skeletons should be your first concern since even though they're slow, they can hit for quite hard with Bone Charge and are NOT Fire weak. Everything else (Spiders, Amazes, Zombies) are typical cannon fodder. In the cave below the ruins, grab the Elven Rapier. It is a LOT stronger than anything you have and will give a major boost to Matt's Fever unleashing. There's also a BIGASS vortex with Nowell and Kraden looking at it while waiting for Matt and co. Nowell is Crown's (Reif) sister and studies under Kraden along with her brother. And Crown is Mia's son. No... No... Crown, don't touch it... Crown, you're turning into Tyrell... Crown stops being stupid, good. And Kraden mentions hearing a machine from inside of the Vortex. Curious. If he hears it, I bet someone's behind these things. And... oh shit. Surrounded by soldiers?! Let's take them out! Boss: Stealthy Scout x3 These guys are actually a bit of a pain. They love throwing Psy Grenades which... drain a shitload of PP from the entire party. Like about 15-30 PP from each person. They also have pretty strong physicals and toss Herbs every now and again. A high HP count doesn't help too. The best way to beat these bozos up is to spam Djinn and Summons. Seriously. Karis will lose all of her PP after 4ish Psy Grenades so use Flower to heal. Unleash Forge before the party runs out of PP completely and concentrate on taking these guys out one at a time. And Kirin is sick. After the battle, Crown goes missing. And we meet... yep, it's official. Ace = Alex. And now I know WHY he doesn't look much older. Apparently, those who got directly hit by the Golden Sun (both parties, Kraden and Alex) don't age so fast anymore. Toss in the fact that Piers doesn't age... period and yeah, he's gonna outlive a shitload of people. Ok, so we have Spade (Blados but FUCK THAT) who decides that he's going to toss Crown to the wolves. Literally. Alex (masked man but he's already said that he knows Kraden and I'm not going to be oblivious about it) tells us to go to Harapa, a new town in the south, if we want to save Crown. Since I want another party member, fine. And Spade is ready to chop Karis into little bits. I can't wait to do the same to him. And goddammit, Kraden, of COURSE you know his voice! It's fucking Alex! So Kraden and Nowell go north while the three of us head south. Let's find Crown! Thing is, we can't follow Kraden afterwards so we'll need to cross the Khiren Mountains... yeah, rock climbing. We're going to meet in Belinsk, the capital of Morgal. And this is strange, Morgal is the country of beastmen. But I just beat Briggs in a GS2 run and I know that there's NO way Maha moved up to Angara with his clan. So what gives? Anyways, we're heading for southeast Angara, known as Ei-Jei. It houses 3 new nations and a golden oldie, Champa! Hope Briggs is still alive, I loved Briggs in GS2. As soon as we hit the southern exit, Spade's men seal it off. Ok, I'm starting to get pissed now. Spade taunts us a bit and then tells us to run off. And since there's nothing we can do, might as well oblige. And we have a Crown in the box! But wait, if Kraden and Nowell went north but we were directed south to Crown for a reason... I know what comes next, don't I? But Spade made a bit mistake by claiming that we're stuck. THIS IS GOLDEN SUN, BOY! WE NEVER GET STUCK! And thank god that my party isn't stupid because Spade mentioned that we'd be pawns for him somehow. I just don't want to know how. And Crown joins the party! Let's check the guy out. Crown - Level 10 Water Seer 91 HP 70 PP 37 Att 22 Def 33 Agl 6 Luk Douse (5) Ply (4) Cure Poison (2) Ice (5) Excuse me while I start swearing. FUCK. It's Mia all over again. He also comes with Sleet, another old Djinni. Trivia: Remember how Tyrell arrived at level 4? Well back in GS1, Ivan joined up in Vault at level 4 while Mia was level 10 in Mercury Lighthouse. That being said, most people need to grind to match Mia's level even after Kolima Forest while Crown's now a level behind Matt, Karis and Tyrell on a blind run. Djinni switching time! Crown is in his base class which still looks like it sucks. Trading Djinni with Matthew will actually put in Wanderer which is fantastic for him. Matthew then becomes a Crusader (they changed it to that from Swordsman), giving him Cutting Edge and Thorn. At that point, it's a toss-up as to if you want Crusader!Matt or Swordsman!Tyrell. I'd personally go with the 2nd option with Tyrell now holding onto the Elven Rapier to counterbalance damage problems. Not to mention that Gaia hits multiple targets while Volcano doesn't. Before leaving the Konpa Cave, grab the Cookie. Meet The New Shit, Same As The Old Shit. The town down south is Harapa, city of ruins. Time to shoot the breeze here! Weapons: Witch's Wand unleashes good ol' Stun Voltage. Give it to Crown since... well, he's Crown. Karis is similar to her dad in the fact that she can actually hold onto Light Blades so I would in fact give Crown the pick of the litter when it comes to Staves. Skip the Magic Rod for Karis and just buy the Longbow. It's a bit pricey but Karis enjoys Snipe Shot. She's also the only person in the party who uses arrows. Matthew can grab a Hunter's Sword for a nice upgrade in attack. Armour: Just get the best stuff possible. If you can't afford everything, beef up Karis and Crown before Matt and Tyrell. Tyrell: "A Fire Adept can start fires. But we can't put them out. It's a sore subject for us." Bullshit, you have a Mercury Djinni on you. Maybe no Douse but just use Cutting Edge or something. Basically, going south gets a cutscene where Crown shows that he's a Water Adept but hell, we knew that already. And Tyrell is... well, rash. Oh and if you go into the fortune teller tent, you get some gold. Literally. Apparently your future is bad enough to have one of the forture tellers on the ground in fear. And I need to go beneath a tree for... something while two vicious generals try and stop me. Spade and Alex anyone? Also, some people speak of a monk who came to help out. Checking out the Sanctum bookshelf gives you his name: Nyunpa. I remember that guy! He's probably dead, though. Also, the ruins to the north yield a Mars Djinni! Cinder joins if you take the path along the 2nd level of the Sanctum. He's basically Jolt, though since he also revives the dead. Other hidden items include but are not limited to an Apple, a Sacred Feather and coins. Now, we should be going to the mountains but screw that, I want to go exploring and find another Mercury Djinni. So we're off! Go past the mountains and south to reach Ayuthay which is being taken over by Kaocho as we speak. And Ayuthay should sound family to anyone who read about Harmony. To the northeast is Kaocho. It looks a LOT like old Xian used to. And the ruler, King Wo is looking for eternal life. A library mentions Babi of 30 years ago and Nyunpa but this guy is looking elsewhere for it. I also have to take a gift of some sort to Sana as per request. Supplies: Get the Blessed Ankh for Crown. He likes it. A lot. Upgrade Karis to the Witch's Wand and get Matt a Broadsword. That should work for the most part. Time to check out the palace. Apparently King Wo wants Adepts. Why don't we drop in then? But wait, he was expecting Adepts today? This is weird... and it kind of reminds me of speaking to Lord McCoy 30 years ago. And... hi Heart (Chalis). Looks like she's Wo's adviser. And her soldiers... look like Spade's. Thank god that we actually NOTICE this since I'm so used to stupid RPG parties. Then Tyrell does the unthinkable. He mentions Spade. At least it gets us into Wo's good graces since he also knows our man. And they think we're going to help them... yeah, like the game gives me another option. So I now have to help Kaocho with their war against Ayuthay. Or not since I end up falling through a trap door. Great... I escape easily with a bit of Psynergy and wind up back in Kaocho. And there's a Venus AND Mars Djinni I can't get. Either of them. Goddammit. Time to recheck out Ayuthay. I can probably use the letter that Wo gave me to sneak past the guards and whatnots. Whirlwind lets the raft move across the water and snag a Cookie from a chest. Head to the palace to chat to Tweedle A and Tweedle B. They want us to clear out the place of... spirits? Sure? The place isn't that interesting and Crown suggests going to Passaj, a village in the middle of the Khiren Mountains... hey, don't I have to cross those to find Kraden? I guess it's time to get going! Mountains, Mountains, Everywhere! After the detours to Ayuthay and Kaocho, it's time to meet up with Kraden. Spade insulted me by saying that we can't make the climb so let's prove him wrong. Start climbing up the inside and soon you'll run into a Venus Djinni. Pound him to aquire Bark, a new friend to Granite, Shade and Torch. At the top, welcome to Passaj. And nice name. Basically, there's apparently a way to cross the peaks from the highest point in Passaj. But Kraden has no idea how. Not surprising but yeah. There's also apparently some sort of a machine in town that's not working but might help. And the machine turns out to be Kibombo like. Remember the power lines in the Great Gabomba? Yeah, this is similar. After connecting up the power lines and turning it on, some old geezer named Bogho runs in and starts berating the party. After Crown explains the situation, Bogho calms down big time. The thing is... it needs a part to work fully. And this part is... wait for it... in that maze under Kaocho Palace. FUCK. Backtracking ahoy! Crown: "Kraden's quite proud of the role that he played." What role did Kraden play in GS1 and 2? Be that old fart who slowed the party down? Aside from that, WE did all the fighting. Anyway, Bogho invites us to the town hall to learn more but basically, we have to get back to Kaocho and evade Heart and King Wo. Fun stuff. Oh and there's a Sun Saga 3 in the bookshelf in Bogho's place. Just in case it sounded like I was missing it. Now, I'm guessing that you weren't supposed to visit Kaocho and Ayuthay until now. I guess I jumped the gun a bit. So now, we are Ayuthay bound to find Harmony (Amiti). I'm Not Going To Write You A Harmony. After quickly making my way to the tree in the courtyard, Matt plays the Tree Flute that Baghi (Bogho's grandson) gave us. And we meet Harmony! And his uncle is one hell of a king. Makes me want to see Briggs again. And... wait, Harmony thought he was Jesus since he didn't have a father? Do I know who the father is...? So the father was an Adept. A powerful one. A Mercury Adept... Fuck it, just say Piers' name already. But nobody has seen his face... We're so going to look for Piers at some point, aren't we? And we find about the Insight Glass. Which sounds like a fancy way of saying Reveal... Oh yeah, Karis doesn't have Mind Read! Forgot to mention that. Harmony joins us to get the Insight Glass but he doesn't join the party... yet. So we go to the Alchemy Well and Harmony goes a bit psycho. He hears these voices in his head about a Sand Prince. And the room behind has a lot of sand in it. If you play the Tree Flute, a battle will start. Boss: Sand Prince Contrary to popular belief, this guy is actually weak to Water, not Wind. Strange. But what's even more strange is that he's strong against Fire and not Earth. Huh. He's got some heavy attacks but nothing really to be scared of. Arid Blast might hurt a bit though. Gust is probably the most useful Djinni in this battle. Unleash Gust, summon Jupiter, rinse and repeat until Matt has a lot of Wind Power and then stick to Astral Blast. Karis is your healer, Tyrell wants to do the same thing as Matt but with Sleet and Crown is... utility? I'd go with Drench for the most part. Summons also work nice but I'd stay away from a summon rush in this battle. After you win, you gain the Sand Prince. Equip it on Tyrell to gain Arid Heat. Works like Parch except that it's Fire based. And guess who had Parch? Anyway, make your way to Barai Temple and go down. Once you get to the bottom, some thing in a waterfall grants you the Insight Glass which is less like Reveal and more like Hint. You know, Hint when you're playing Solitare? Oh and Harmony is the only one who can use it, mind you. On the way, the group passed a Mercury Djinn with no way of getting to it. Well, not anymore! Drain the pool, cast Fireball on the sucker and fight it to own Surge. Tyrell's Arid Scorch will knock off a good 175 damage, making him your best magic caster in the party. Go figure. The thing is that Arid Scorch costs 15 PP but this game goes easy on the PP for the most part. Leave the Barai Temple ASAP since it's got nothing else for you aside from the Storm Brand. And Harmony joins the group! Sick! Since I swear that his dad HAS to be Piers (too many clues for it not to be), we now have 5 kids of the original 8 in the group. Harmony runs out to change clothes and we get to explore the rest of Ayuthay before we set out for Kaocho. Wait with supplies until Harmony is a real party member. Harmony - Level 14 Aqua Squire 151 HP 60 PP 59 Att 30 Def 54 Agl 4 Luk Douse (5) Insight (1) Diamond Dust (6) Drench (10) Cool (6) Ply (4) Cure Poison (2) Restore (3) Shit. Name of the class might be different to his father but Harmony's Psynergy is almost a carbon copy of Piers'. He also comes with new Djinni: Claw, Mellow and Mist. I'm also missing a Mercury Djinni which sucks since I can't backtrack. Walk outside... and the fatass generals stop us and claim that we're traitors by not ridding the place of laughter. Oh dear... Boss Battle: Ku-Tsung and Ku-Embra Ok, these guys are pretty dangerous. They have the power to almost OHKO any of your weaker guys (Harmony, Rief, Karis) with a berserker style move that damages them too. Zealous Fury can also put some serious hurt on a weaker guy. Gong of Battle is Protect but if they use Fireworks, be prepared to kill them in return. Fireworks will put a random Djinni on Standby. While this is no Djinni Storm, it may mess up a strategy if you need all your Djinni set. That being said, they'll actually go down pretty quickly if you know what you're doing. Tyrell's Arid Scorch will do massive damage to the pair along with an Impact Boosted Planet Diver from Matthew. I'd bring in Harmony and Karis too for Impact and then unleashing/summoning right afterwards. If Harmony gets off Nereid, she can do some heavy damage. Same thing with Karis about Atalanta. Keep your HP up and the battle should over soon. So after the battle, Paithos will drag the two generals into Ayuthay and we're off to Kaocho.

Battling Blues: Matthew runs with his arms outstretched! Cool! You look like a dork, kiddo. A chest in the attic yields Padded Gloves (2 Def). Isaac's study has a book about Psynergy I can use out of battle (Move and Growth specifically). I'm still quite surprised about having Growth as a Squire but I guess it means no Djinn switching for it. There's also a Sun's Saga 1 that you can pick up from the bookshelf, detailing the chronicles of Isaac and the gang during the first 2 games. Sun's Saga 1 starts with Isaac, Garet and Jenna going into Sol Sanctum up to Isaac and Garet accepting the job to stop Saturos and Menardi in the Vale Sanctum. After raiding the house, Karis joins Matthew and we get our second Adept. Karis - Level 1 Wind Seer 28 HP 36 PP 10 Att 5 Def 19 Agl 4 Luk Whirlwind (5) Shit. Wind Seer and Squire are almost identical to thier original counterparts. Which means that Harmony's probably going to be a Mariner... fuck my life. Anyway, we meet Isaac and Garet at the bridge. And Karis whips out a great line after we overhear Isaac and Garet deciding to let us (Matt and Karis) take the front lines. So Goma Plateau time! Gotta rescue Tyrell. The battle screen also does something amazing. It actually shows my Power levels in each element. This will come in handy in the future by a mile. Anyways, Karis basically one hits everything with Whirlwind and she's got the PP and agility to cast it, making this dungeon cake. Matt has to shove a rock out of his way to move on while Isaac and Garet look on. So after getting through the Goma Plateau, it's time to pass through the Tanglewood, a pretty evil forest. Nothing like Mogall but still... But we're gonna get slaughtered by the animals! Never fear, Isaac is here! Isaac actually lends us some Djinn (I bet it's Flint!) until we find Tyrell. And Isaac calls out... FLINT! YAY! I like Echo too but Flint's much cooler. Note: Djinn are actually different in this game. Not only do they each give out specific boosts like the last two games (each Djinn had it's own natural boost), they now have physical looks. Like Echo and Flint look different. Which is pretty cool, mind you. I also mentioned earlier that a Djinn raises Power and Resist. 5 each. I won't explain how to use Djinn since that's gameplay. But the important thing to note is that if Karis has a Venus on her and has access to something like both Gaia and Plasma, Gaia may be stronger damage wise (I think it was in GS2) but her Earth power will only be 82 at that point (77 base Earth on a Wind Adept). Wind Power will be 104. Which affects damage a lot. It's a lot more noticable with stronger moves so the differences between Grand Gaia and Spark Plasma will be quite something before considering enemy weaknesses. Most people just play with each Adept wielding only their own element. Which is fine but I like abusing the game. Similar to Narga with FF5 (apparently Syldra is Wind!). Hence just using Whirlwind to destroy Goma Plateau. And Ramses looks SICK! Seriously. He shoots out his fist for miles to punch the brains out of enemies. Anyway, Garet and Isaac send over 6 Djinn for temp use (6! I'm summoning Cybele ASAP) and Felix gets a mention. The guy's been missing since everyone returned to Vale. What gives? Anyway, Isaac and Garet join the party but I really only control Karis and Matt. Eh, that's fine. Can't wait for Garet to clean up shop. Anyway, Djinn time! I have 3 Fire (Torch, Spark and Shine) and 3 Earth (Sap, Ground and Granite). Time to quickly check out the new classes! Brute: Brute has always been a problematic class in Golden Sun. It's great for dealing damage but when you need it the most (earlygame damage for the most part), there's never enough PP for the moves. Lots of HP and Att, very little Agl and PP. Probably works better on Matthew than Tyrell since Matthew will definately have more base PP than Tyrell. Brute also gets the Fireball series in this game, something that used to be Guard exclusive. Suddenly, I'm not too worried about Mariner. Seer: Welcome to destroying shit 101. Seer now has the Whirlwind series, along with Cure. Stats are all around good especially since they help Def and HP (a known problem for all Wind Adepts in this series) without crippling the strengths. Pretty good for right now. Pilgrim: Eh... probably Wind Adepts weakest double element class. It now has Whirlwind along with Slash but Fire moves will take a long time to appear (only has access to Volcano and its offspring). Right now, the best set-up is Torch, Spark and Ground on Ruffian!Isaac and Sap, Granite and Shine on Diviner!Karis. Karis has 70 HP and 21 Def while Matthew sports 18 Agl and 27 PP to cover the weaknesses in their classes. Too bad that Fireball costs 6 PP and not 5. Umm... holy shit. Isaac and Garet wield bigass weapons while Matt's blade is kinda puny. Also, Torch destroys everything in Matthew's way while Karis has Whirlwind, Sap and Shine to play with. She also learns Bolt at level 2. Garet and Isaac will do massive damage to enemies... if they attack. Garet's unleash does upwards of 200+ damage. Now while he was doing that much about 30 years ago in Venus Lighthouse, he also has 17 year old kid to look after and he's 47 years old. So that's pretty good, I'd say. So passing through the forest is easy. Chests give off a Herb and a Bramble Seed. Garet will burn way the roots for you to continue... or not. After 2 fails, he'll aim at a giant flower which will remove all of the roots in the way. Nifty. Mine if I clean this place up? Further into the forest, we find the cave and the Soarwing. or what's left of it. No Tyrell though. Time to go inside the cave to find the bastard. And... oh shit. There's a blackish ball of... stuff floating in the cave with Tyrell passed out beside it. That can't be good. Isaac and Garet mention the Lighthouses (please don't make me climb them AGAIN) and we're off to save Tyrell. And if you burn the plant beside the Vortex... Boss: Tangle Bloom First boss of the game and he's pretty easy. A summon rush will 1 turn him (but that's for pussies) while Torch, Blaze and Kindle (one of Garet's Djinn) can allow you to summon Tiamat on Turn 2 for lulz. I don't think it's possible to lose the battle, though. So yeah. Kill the Tangle Bloom and Isaac and Garet will heal Tyrell. And then it's time for an adventure! We need to travel to Morgal, a new country that's popped up on the other side of Angara, to get a feather from a special bird to fix the Soarwing. It contains Kolima (loved that place, hope Tret's still kicking) and a new place called Port Rago. Not to mention that the Bilibin Crossing has now turning into Border Town. Wow, Angara's changed in 30 years. So, just like 30 years ago, a little mundane thing (climb Mount Aleph, get a feather) starts a nice big adventure. YAY! Oh and... fuck, Kraden's not dead yet. Karis tags along because she wants to join in and... yeah, we're missing a Mercury Adept. What else is new in Golden Sun? We're Off To See The Wizard! So apparently, we're meeting Kraden at Carver's Camp, somewhere west of Bilibin. It's not that far away so let's get going. Sadly, we can't keep any of the Djinn from Isaac and Garet so we have Squire!Matthew, Guard!Tyrell and Wind Seer!Karis. And speaking of Guard!Tyrell... Tyrell - Level 4 Guard 70 HP 24 PP 28 Att 15 Def 14 Agl 2 Luk Fireball (6) Flare (4) Not bad. Matthew is Level 5 and Karis is close to leveling up so they have a bit of a lead on Tyrell. Matt also knows Quake (4) and Earthquake (7) while Karis is still stuck with just Whirlwind. Strange, I thought she'd know Ray by now... Anyway, time to set off. If you walk south a bit, Flint actually comes to join you. Pretty cool, to be honest. Flint actually works best on Seer!Karis, giving her a significant stat boost along with Cure and Growth. She loses 6 Agl but she's still got more than double Tyrell's base at this point. Alternatively, Tyrell could go Brute at this point but the problem is the low PP count. And we arrive at a small hamlet called Patcher's Place. Apparently, all the Vale refuges moved here after Vale got... well, flattened. And Patcher apparently has a bone to pick with none other than... Tyrell, what did you do to Patcher? Oh wait, you almost burned down the shop. Good job. And did Karis make a very subtle sexual joke about Tyrell's fireballs? I bet she wants them too. Treasure time! There's an Elixir in a barrel outside on the 2nd floor, an Antidote in a jar in the house right there and a Mars Djinni near the top! To get to it, you need to go to the Psynergy Training Grounds, a place dedicated to GS1/2's exploits. And I refuse to say "Warriors of Vale". Climb down a Growable Vine (push some logs to get to it) to pick up Forge. Put him on Tyrell since making Matt a Brute will actually cripple him for right now. Sun Saga 2 can be found in the house on the left of the ladder to the Psynergy Training Grounds. There's a Smoke Bomb in the barrel outside of the Sanctum and 11 Coins in a dresser in the bottom house. 3 more coins are just above the growable vine in town. A house in Patcher's store has a Herb in a barrel and the treasure chest has Power Bread. That's everything, I think. Aside from that, I stocked up with weapons and whatnots. There's a new weapon type that can be used... Bows! Karis can use them and apparently quite well. Now, time for the main attraction. The Psynergy Training Grounds. Isaac wanted us to visit here so we'll do that. You can learn a bunch of stuff from the signs such as... - Tret's still going strong and he's still friendly with Isaac. Apparently he knows about the birds that we're looking for. Great, Kolima Forest AGAIN... - Gondowan is no longer connected to Angara. And the Karagol Sea is now part of the ocean. - Jupiter Lighthouse is now in Western Gondowan. I have no idea how this one happened. Mars Lighthouse has also moved but now to North Angara. - Lemuria still exists. Piers now sails the seas in his ship, looking for strage stuff. When you get to the end of the Psynergy Training Grounds, you find yourself in a battle with... Boss: Dim Dragon Yeah, this guy is a cardboard cut-out of the Doom Dragon. He can actually do some nice damage with Pebble Breath and another attack which I've seem to forgotten. That being said, he's weak to fire and you just got Tyrell. Pound him into oblivion with Fireball and a Mars summon. Earthquake will also do some nice damage. There's two chests behind Dim Dragon after you kill him. At least one of them holds the Gate Card for getting through the Konpa Ruins. Then head south out of the hamlet towards your destination. Something cool has been added to regular weapons. Unleashes! Matthew and Tyrell both have access to Spin Strike (hits both enemies) and Critical Strike with thier Long Swords while Karis gets Double Shot with her Short Bow. To access these unleashes, you must level up your Weapon Skill which comes from using the Attack command. There is also a new Wind Healing series which starts with Fresh Breeze (learned at level 6 and is a weak Wish) that is exclusive to Wind Seer. Somehow, I get the feeling that Page/Apprentice is finally going to be better than Hermit. Carver's Camp is just to the north, over a stone bridge. As soon as you walk in, a Jupiter Djinni appears! Get it! Make sure to grab the Mint after the goldola ride first. Then we have to save a kid... all in a day's work. However, the bridge is out thanks to a Vortex so we need to take another route. Hence why we went and did the Psynergy Training Grounds for the Gate Card! Talking to Carver enables a little cutscene which unveils some new Psynergy. Grip! It grabs a faraway object and brings it towards you. Head behind the house to Move a log in order to access a gondola in the previous screen. This will take you to the Jupiter Djinni we saw earlier. And I'm happy to say that the puzzles look harder in this game than previous ones. Grab Gust after pounding the shit out of it (Growth on Karis will do more than Flash Bolt, proven fact) and put him on Isaac for WTF Gaia, my personal favourite earlygame Psynergy. Fun fact, Gaia pounds the shit out of Goma Cave, Kolima Forest/Tret Tree, Dehkan Plateau and Air's Rock from the previous games. We're talking 40+ damage on Earth Resistant monsters. And for the first time ever, I am stumped by a puzzle in Golden Sun to try to get a treasure chest. In any case, shoot for the Konpa Ruins to the south of Carver's Camp.

A little bit of backstory might be needed for those of you have haven't read any of the "Golden Sun" thread that are probably on the next page. I personally have been waiting for this game to exist since I finished Golden Sun: The Lost Age. Which was grade 8 if I recall correctly. I am now 2 years out of high school so yeah... As for the style of run, I'm going to try getting everything. Classes, Djinn, Items, Equips, you name it, I'll get it. Trust me. I'm also going to be messing with my Djinn a LOT and will periodically comment on certain classes. Especially if the Power/Resist system works the same as it did in the first two games. Oh and spoilers will be abundant since the game came out 2 days ago. So here we go... Introduction: After downloading the ROM and opening it up, I get to the Start screen. Awesome. This game now allows for 7 character names but I shall be using the given name for our main character, Matthew. I think it's safe to say that Matthew will probably be a silent protagonist. And the Yes/No options are back and look as cool as ever. Now we get an introduction to Weyard, the world of the Golden Sun. I'd like to point out 2 things here. 1. The irony is quite amusing in how saving life fucks it over in the long run. 2. The Golden Sun doesn't happen until the end of the 2nd game. The END. I bet people were confused why the first two games were even called Golden Sun until they beat the Fusion Dragon on top of Mars Lighthouse since the term Golden Sun isn't actually used in that game. So the scene changes to a futuristic ship thingy hovering over a mountain. Weird. Then more dialogue. 2 things wrong with these lines. 1. 7 heroes, not 8. Piers was a useless fuck who ran utility for most if not all of the second game. It's like crediting Cyan for beating Kefka when he's sitting in the 14th slot, the useless prick. 2. Isaac and co. were busy trying to stop Felix and the gang during the first three lighthouse. I wouldn't call that "taking part in the quest to light" the lighthouses. Aren't we forgetting about the other 4 that, you know, weren't from Vale? Like 2 aliens, a cleric and a pussy? Yeah. The goal was to NOT light the lighthouses. Great job, guys. The Wise One must have been PISSED at Isaac and Garet specifically. Aren't we forgetting the fact that Saturos and Menardi kidnapped Jenna and Sheba and had Felix under their thumb before dying? Wasn't the World of Balance in FF6 a lot nicer and brighter than the World of Ruin, even with Empire problems? Just a question. Vale was boring anyways, aside from Luff living in that cave behind Kraden's house. At least I think it was Luff. So nobody missed it. *prays that there are no more tidal waves bringing fucking useless Water Adepts to the party* Seriously. Crown and Harmony better fucking be good. Or I will rage. We need a decent Water Adept and while Mia was OK, Piers was pretty shit. OF WHAT?! Mount fucking Aleph and Sol Sanctum are gone. What the hell are you praying to now, a big ol' oak tree? God damn it, Sol Sanctum was only important because it had those 4 stars. Even the monsters on northern Indra were stronger than the ones in SS and must I remind people of how much of a joke the Punch Ants were? And I thought that goods going from Bilibin to Vault had problems in the cave. I can't wait to see Silk Road. Garet? Study? Are we talking about the same kid who used to drink stagnant water? Oh and I bet Jenna's dead. Serves the player right since Jenna should have hooked up with Garet in the first place. And yes, Isaac and Garet DO live together. Matthew had better use axes. That's all I'm gonna say on the matter. As the text was going up, we were following a seagull to the lookout cabin. Pretty cool. And here we go, Golden Sun THREE! Wouldn't it be easier for Tyrell to throw himself at the ground and miss? Fuck, my ROM is buggy. Might have to start it over. And ISAAC LOOKS BADASS! Matthew looks like Isaac from 30 years ago, mind you. Also, GS3 uses a similar system to FE12 in the whole name map thing. AND THE HEAD THING IS BACK! You know, the teardrops, angry faces and all those? They're back! I love this game. So Isaac basically sums up what I just read to Matthew (like Matthew hasn't heard this shit every day of his life). Isaac also likes praying the Wise One (you defied that fucker, remember?). And... Oh wow. Garet has a mustache! A FUCKING MUSTACHE! This game is going to be epic. They should have shown him in the spoilers. Garet also calls the Wise One a hunk of rock and insults Isaac for praying to him (good). Apparently, there are these things called Psynergy Vortexes that have appeared since GS2 ended. They're distortions in space that suck energy out of the world and Adept too. Hence being called vortexes. Also, there's a bigass one in the middle of Angara called the Mourning Moon. I'M SURE WE'RE NEVER GOING TO HAVE TO CHECK IT OUT. Luckily, Ivan's built a... mini pair of Icarus Wings called the Soarwing. And if you don't know who Icarus was, go read some books. Speaking of Ivan, he now lives in Kalay with his daughter Karis. NOT Contigo. Did I mention that Garet's a bit fat? That's probably his sprite but still... Oh and I know Matthew's HP and PP counts (I've seen them on the top screen since Isaac and Matt appeared, but I'll give them when I get to the stats). Anyway, Karis is giving Tyrell (Garet's son) Soarwing lessons. Which aren't going so well. I smell a Garet tribute since Tyrell is on a roof... Also, Karis is good friends with Matt and Tyrell and apparent visits often. No clue if Ivan tags along though. Oh and Tyrell's bio: "He has a reputation for being a troublemaker, but Matthew is still proud to call him his best friend." YEP, HE'S GARET'S SON ALRIGHT. Also, a new feature allows us to choose Matt's emotions. Pretty cool since he's silent. Whatever you choose actually has implications on the text afterwards but I'm not sure if it affects the game in a bigger way. So Matt, Isaac and Garet go onto the roof to convince Tyrell not to do anything stupid (we are so getting the roof broken) and... yeah, like that's gonna happen. Tyrell soars off the roof and gets stuck in a spiral. Isaac yells to Tyrell to land on the other side of a forest and Garet tells his son to man up. And Isaac speaking is the best thing that happened to him. He has gotten so cool since GS1 ended. First lines and now a real personality. Can't wait to see Felix and Sheba now. Mind you, both him and Garet are 50ish now and can still probably kick ass. So as it turns out, the 4 of us are going to look for Tyrell. That's Garet too. I don't remember seeing pictures of him in a party... So anyways, Karis teaches me to equip items and wow, this screen looks cool. She also teaches me how to save. So the nearby chest in Matt's room has a Short Sword (8 Atk). And Karis gave me a Leather Cap (3 Def) so time for base stats! Matthew - Level 1 Squire 42 HP 19 PP 20 Att 9 Def 12 Agl 3 Luk Move (2) Growth (4) Retreat (6) Cure (3) A quick glance at the Elemental Levels means that the system hasn't been changed. PERFECT. For those who don't know, hitting Level 99 isn't going to mean squat-diddly do when it comes to using Psynergy or Summons. In fact, Matt at level 1 will do the same amount of damage with... say Quake as Matt at level 99 without any Djinni. This is because every adept starts with 104 Power in their home element and this only goes up thanks to equips (not many power boosting equips in the last game, mind you) and djinni (mostly only thanks to djinni). GS1 had a max of 7 Djinni per person while GS2 added 2 more. Each Djinni adds 5 Power and 5 Resist to that element meaning that the max Earth Power that Matt will ever have is 149 (assuming a max of 9 per person). It sounds complicated but it's quite well thought out. If you didn't understand what I just said, think of it like this. All of your adepts are equally good at casting psynergy spells. How strong the spell will be depends on their elemental levels. This means that if Tyrell has Flare and Matt has Quake, they will be equally strong if Flare and Quake have the same base power. Note: While Flare and Quake are strong in FF, they're weak in Golden Sun. You learn them both at level 2 in this game (I think). Had to point that out. Also, it should be pointed out that Matt knows Growth and not Quake. Which is strange since the Squire class never had the Growth series. As long as Squire gets earlygame Gaia, I'm happy. And that's all for now!

2 things. 1) Original Super Smash Bros. on the N64 was much better than Brawl by a mile. 2) Tournaments = Social suicide. That is all.

Since Red Magister is taking on Snowy, I'll take you on. FE7/8/9 OK?

Jews - 214,347 people like this. Geez... And we have a holiday starting in less than 24 hours too...