--------------------------------Character Test--------------------------------- SAGA FRONTIER EMELIA WALKTHROUGH Ver 1.5 Algus Sadalfus Endlessinstant@gmail.com ******** Bulletin ******** Feel free to email me general SaGa Frontier queries, I'd love to be of assistance. It doesn't have to be specifically about Emelia's scenario (or the Debug Room if you're looking at my Debug Room guide as well) though if its something I already answered in my guide I may not respond. This is my first guide to fully incorporate a search function, yay! (?) ************ Version Info ************ 05/05/06 - Added a 'Basics' section explaining quite a bit about some of the mechanics of the game for beginners. Revised portions of the Recruiting Suzaku Quest. Added stats for the Save Data Stat Bonus and Kylin. Various smaller changes. 05/04/06 - Initial Release (Project Begins 05/03/06) ************ Introduction ************ Algus, you say, isn't it a little late to be writing a FAQ for a game like SaGa Frontier? It came out in 1998! Well, maybe it is, but SaGa Frontier is one of my favorite video games -ever- despite its lack of popularity. I've always been a fan of the franchise, starting with Final Fantasy Legends back before I knew it was a SaGa game! Plus, even after all this time there still isn't a dedicated FAQ fore Emelia's scenario besides Kain's quickie help guide for the Japanese version. Plus, I've managed to beat all the scenarios and unlock everything with relative ease so I figure I've got to have SOMETHING to offer amidst the charges of this game being to difficult. Now, let's get on with the show. What this guide is ------------------ This guide takes a very in-depth look at Emelia's scenario. It provides strategies for powering up and successfully defeating the final boss and completing the scenario with, what I hope is, relative ease. The strategies I use can be employed effectively in other scenarios as well. I also detail (in-depth) how to acquire all possible recruits for Emelia's scenario and do so in such a manner that it's part of the walkthrough so you don't have to check a lengthy appendix or just look over a short list. What this guide is not ---------------------- This guide is NOT a storehouse for every possible thing that can be done in the game. While MANY of the sidequests are discussed, I do not talk about several of the side areas (which I consider nonessential) or extra bosses (which are irrelevant to completing Emelia's scenario) If you follow my guide you should be strong enough to tackle the biggest of these extra bosses, but there are plenty of things I will not cover as I don't want to tread old ground (which in some ways I feel I have) If you are looking for more content I recommend the following FAQs: FAQ/Walkthrough by MHobbs Monster FAQ by Oulak Skill FAQ by ABrea All of these guides can be found at GameFAQs (http://www.gamefaqs.com) ******** Contents ******** About SaGa Frontier................................SAG00 About Emelia's Scenario............................SAG01 Basics.............................................BAS00 FAQ................................................FA00 Mastering Magic....................................FA01 Party Strategies...................................FA02 Walkthrough........................................WAL00 -Part One - Despair Prison.........................WAL01 -Part Two - Gradius................................WAL02 -Part Three - The Martial Arts Tournament..........WAL03 -Part Four - Baccarat..............................WAL04 --Baccarat - Good Ending...........................WAL04-1 --Baccarat - Bad Ending............................WAL04-2 -Part Five - Trinity Base Part 1...................WAL05 -Part Six - Trinity Base Part 2....................WAL06 -Part Seven - Yorkland.............................WAL07 On the Side........................................SID00 -On the Side - Character Recruitment...............SID01 Addendum - Luminous Labyrinth......................LUM00 -On the Side - Where to Level......................SID02 -On the Side - Recruiting Mesarthim................SID03 -On the Side - Acquiring Kusanagi..................SID04 -On the Side - The Runes...........................SID05 --The Runes - Vitality Rune........................SID05-1 --The Runes - Hide Rune............................SID05-2 --The Runes - Victory Rune.........................SID05-3 -On the Side - Errands.............................SID06 --The Time Lord - Overdrive and Asura..............SID07 --Arcane Tarots - IRPO.............................SID08 ---Recruiting Suzaku...............................SUZ00 ---Arcane Tarots - Finishing IRPO..................SID08-1 --The Space Lord - ReverseGravity!.................SID09 -On the Side - Arcane Tarots.......................SID10 --Arcane Tarots - The Gold Card....................SID10-1 --Arcane Tarots - The Saber Card...................SID10-2 --Arcane Tarots - The Grail Card...................SID10-3 -On the Side - Finishing Up........................SID11 Appendix A: Powering up for Baccarat................ADXA Writing the Guide..................................WRI00 Credits............................................CRE00 ******************* ***** About SaGa Frontier SAG00 ******************* ***** SaGa Frontier is the seventh game in the SaGa franchise by Squaresoft and was released in 1998. The SaGa franchise has since expanded to include several more games and while it is unquestionably popular in Japan, it's reputation in America has been dubious at best. The game has a poor reputation, known for its lack of cohesiveness, high difficulty level, and other poorly constructed elements. Despite that, it has been remarkably successful in attracting loyal supporters who love the game to death. People like me. Something to keep in mind while you're playing SaGa Frontier - the enemies scale but the bosses don't so the enemies will never accurately reflect the difficulty of the boss in whatever dungeon you're in. It is also not a game that you will be successful at unless you don't mind spending some time leveling. Personally I find the stat building system and combat to be very enjoyable so I don't mind power leveling but if that sort of thing bothers you then this may not be the game for you. *********************** ***** About Emelia's Scenario SAG01 *********************** ***** Emelia's scenario is one of the more plot intensive scenarios in the game, though it is not very linear at all. You have a set of missions that you must complete in a specific order but outside of that it is pretty much free reign. Completing one mission with ease does not mean the next mission will be easy - though in my experience all of the missions up until the second Trinity Base can be completed without spending time leveling up. Mechs cannot be used at all in Emelia's scenario but she seems to make up for this by the ability to recruit a number of Mystics that no one else, save Asellus can recruit. In addition she can acquire Roufas, Liza, and Annie much more easily then other characters which means she has very powerful characters right from the start. All in all, I'd say it's if not the most interesting scenario, the most enjoyable scenario. Of course, she also has one of the most difficult final bosses to offset the advantages she enjoys. Also, you should note that if you've already beat at least one scenario and have that file on your save game data then when you start a new Emelia file she'll have a bit of a stat boost. This isn't enough to make it worth skipping her scenario, but you might want to note it. ****** ***** Basics BAS00 ****** ***** I didn't want to include a section like this when I first wrote the guide since many other guides covered things like how to gain skills and so forth very well but I've since decided to talk about some of the basics of the game just in case this is the very first scenario you've ever played and you don't know anything. Races ----- SaGa Frontier has four different races: Humans, Mechs, Monsters, and Mystics. Unlike other games in which races might at best have only subtle differences the four races in SaGa Frontier each work in very different manners. Each race is good, it's simply a question of knowing how to use that race. Humans ------ Humans are the easiest race to figure out. They can equip up to four weapons and four different pieces of armor. If they attack with a sword or fist then they have a chance of learning a skill with each attack. Fighting tougher monsters means they have a better chance of learning skills. If they use guns or magic, they have a chance to learn a new gun skill or spell at the end of the battle. For magic, the character must have the gift for that type of magic to learn new spells. Humans are the staple of the game and are the type of character you're most likely to build a party out of. They are the easiest to develop. In addition to learning skills, they will experience stat growth depending on what type of attacks they use. If a human equips six attack skills and no magic he will get a "physical" crown which will reduce the cost of all skills by 1 WP. This is useful for things like DoubleSlash which only costs 1 WP as now you can make a stronger attack for no WP! The same is true of magic - if at least six spells are equipped and no combat skills then you get a "magic crown." This lets your spellcasters use basic magic attacks (which can become about as strong as an ordinary attack if not stronger) every round. Mechs ----- Mechs can only learn new skills by fighting other Mechs. At the end of any fight in which enemy mechs were fought, you will have the chance to "download" data from one of the defeated Mechs. This usually results in your Mech being fully healed but sometimes they will download a "program" which is basically a skill. They do not increase in stats from battle but rather their stats are based on what items they have equipped. Items boost stats differently then they do for other races, so giving Mechs multiple pieces of strong equipment can make them VERY powerful. You should note that Emelia CAN NOT recruit any mechs in her scenario without the assistance of a Gameshark. Monsters -------- Monsters are just that - monsters, the enemies you fight turned to your side. Each monster character can equip up to four accessories to help boost their stats. Their base stats are based upon their "form" which can be anything from the puny Lummox that Riki starts as to the impressive SuzakuJr form that Suzaku has. At the end of battle if you have a monster it will have a chance to "absorb" an enemy monster. This may result in learning a new skill. If you have the right set of skills you will evolve into a new form. Note that whatever skill is in the eighth slot on the monster's skill list will be replaced by a newly absorbed skill (this slot is colored red to help you remember.) If you are interested in using monsters I recommend looking at Oulak's monster FAQ at http://www.gamefaqs.com as he explains monsters and how to get different forms very well. Mystics ------- Mystics are very tricky to use in comparison to the other three races. In battle Mystics will gain no stats no matter what they use to fight. The only stats they can gain are HP, WP, JP, and Charm. In addition they can not learn any combat skills with weapons or their fists. What they do have are four slots they can use for spells. Spells for them work just like spells for humans - they can gain gifts and learn new spells. They also will develop three "special Mystic abilities: MysticSword, MysticGlove, and MysticBoots. If they attack with these, they can sometimes absorb monsters. Absorbed monsters will give the Mystics special abilities and stat boosts. For instance if a "Xeno" (a very common starfish like creature) is absorbed into a MysticSword then that Mystic can use the BloodSuck ability. All Mystics also have some sort of armor permanently attached. For most MYstics this is a pretty junky breastplate type armor, though there are two exceptions - one of which is recruitable in Emelia's scenario. If you know what monsters to absorb then Mystics can get much higher stats then the other races very easily. Skills ------ As I mentioned in the description for the human race there are several different types of skills. Some characters are better with certain types of attacks then others. In general a character will come equipped with weapons and skills of the types they're good at. You can equip a certain number of these depending on what race you have: for humans there are eight slots - mystics have four slots (*for magic only*) and mechs have variable numbers of slots depending on how they're equipped, their default type, and so forth - fortunately that won't come up in Emelia's scenario :) You can use the "Seal" command on the Skill list to seal unwanted abilities. These won't be deleted, just stored in the folder for that type of skill - you can have literally dozens of different abilities if you spend the time building so have fun with your skills! Sword ----- Only humans may learn sword skills. If you attack with a sword, anything from the puny knife to the Golden Lion you have a chance of learning a new sword technique. A number of variables go into determining what this chance is but the best way to ensure you will learn new skills is to fight stronger enemies. There are some skills that require two weapons to be equipped at the same time. Other skills include automatic defensive skills such as deflect and selectable defensive skills. Most of these skills are attack skills though. There is a subset of sword skills known as the "katana skills" If you have a sword that has "Katana" in its stats (examples include the SamuraiSword which one of the characters who joins Emelia starts with) then you might be able to learn a katana skill with it. You should note that there are a couple special swords (Asura and Kusanagi) which do not have a regular attack - their basic attack costs WP and is a little more fancy - they are both high end swords that you WILL WANT (And I will show you how to get) but their basic attack will not help you learn new skills so when you do get these high end weapons make sure to have a "training" weapon equipped as the character's second weapon. Gun --- Guns are slightly different from Sword and Fist skills in that you have a chance of learning a gun skill at the end of the battle if you attack with guns in that battle. There are also gun skills that require you to have two guns equipped at the same time. Also note that some types of guns will not allow you to use gun skills. These weapons are easily recognizable in battle as they have a "special" type of attack instead of the standard single shot. These special guns include lasers, rocket launchers, rapid fire weapons and some other neat toys. Only humans may learn gun skills. Fighting -------- These skills can be learned with the basic punch ability. They work like sword skills except you don't need any weapons equipped to use them (Though you can equip weapons if you want to - fighting abilities will always be available to you) Don't neglect fighting skills - while a strong sword may seem like it does superior damage to fighting skills - only through fighting skills can the best attack in the game be unlocked. Magic ----- Only humans and mystics may learn magic (There is one exception but in that case the spells Kylin knows function exactly like monster skills and they can be forgotten in the same manner) There are several different schools of Magic in the game as seen Below: Light <-> Shadow Arcane <-> Rune Realm <-> Mystic Time <-> Space Evil <-> ???? Mirage <-> ???? Revive <-> ???? Mind <-> ???? Each school has an opposition school so a character that knows light magic can NOT learn Shadow magic. If a character does learn a spell of an opposing type (by buying it from a store) he/she will lose ALL the spells of the original type. Note that there are some special magics: Evil, Mirage, and Revive. Of the three only Evil is available in Emelia's scenario. The character Zozma has evil magic. There are several other things you should know about magic. Gifts ----- If a character has the "gift" for a certain type of magic then he or she can learn new spells of that type by using that magic in combat. For instance a character with the gift of Light Magic can use the basic Sun Ray spell to learn all the other Light Magic spells! This is the only way to learn the high end spells of a certain type. In general you only have ONE SHOT at attaining gifts and once you do the quest that earns that gift you can not repeat it so any characters who aren't with you will miss out. In the case of Light/Shadow this means a one shot dungeon and anyone not with you will never be able to get that gift. In some cases this is good (You dont want your Shadow Magic users to be able to get Light Magic after all) but in other cases this is bad (If you're planning to recruit someone down the road and you do the gift before you get them they WILL NOT be able to get the gift) Note that if you have spells of the opposing type then that character can't learn that gift. For instance, characters with Shadow Magic will not be able to enter the Light Magic dungeon and therefore won't be able to get the Light Magic gift. For the Arcane/Rune gift you must have the character that you want to have that gift for with you when you collect EACH Arcane Tarot or Rune - if they miss out on collecting just one Rune or Tarot then they can't get the gift. The nature of Emelia's scenario means that only Emelia, Annie, and Liza can earn the gift for rune magic in her scenario. Remember that. Mind Magic can only be used by humans. And for some reason (that you'll find out about in Blue's scenario) Rouge can not earn the gift for Mind Magic. Other types of magic you will not be able to earn the gift for this includes Realm (only Rouge has the gift) Mystic (Only Mystics have the gift) Time (only TimeLord has the gift) Space (Only Kylin has the gift) Evil (no one has the gift!) Mirage (Only Rei - whom you cant recruit - has the gift) and Revive (only Blue can get the gift for this type in his scenario) Anyway, as you can see Magic is VERY complicated - but also very fun to use. You'll note that my walkthrough stresses optimising how to acquire magic so that no one misses out on anything. Special ------- This is generally the Mech skill type. Any "programs" you earn will be of the special type and only Mechs can use them. Humans can't learn any sort of Special abilities. The exception is Asellus (who is actually Half-Mystic) Her Mystic abilties (the Sword, Glove, and Boots I mentioned) are considered special abilities and unlike regular Mystics she does not have to have them equipped. Asellus is recruitable in this scenario and I explain much more about her and her special properties in the walkthrough. Dodge ----- Dodge skills are very interesting. You may play an entire game and never see your character earn one. Other times you may not STOP learning them. In general Dodge skills aren't very useful unless you specifically know that an upcoming enemy has a certain type of attack and you just happened to earn the dodge ability for that type of attack from somewhere else. Anyway, if a human has at least one free slot on their skill list (you should always keep at least two slots free for Sword and Fighting users) and an attack that they can "dodge" is used on them they have a VERY SMALL chance of learning the dodge ability for that attack which causes them to spin out of the way and be totally unaffected by that attack. Only humans can use these - they don't affect crowns so you can have them with combat skills or magic - but they do occupy a skill slot. Don't count on trying to learn these by the way but if you do earn one or two enjoy them. Battles ------- I love this game but it ~IS~ broken. There is no balance in it whatsoever. Enemies you fight in random battles scale to your character's levels. In some areas the enemies will naturally be "weaker" then you while in some areas they will be "stronger" but as you increase in power so do they. The trouble is bosses DO NOT scale so fighting through a dungeon full of weak enemies may end with you being slaughtered by an Uber-boss while barely surviving to the end of another dungeon may result in you killing the boss in a single blow. So what is a gamer to do? Well, my theory is to just power-level and in the guide I show you my favorite spot. Don't worry, the final boss will still be suitable epic as it would take many hours to get your stats high enough to be able to whip the boss without being touched yourself. This does mean you'll have to do a little power-leveling but don't worry, it isn't anything to serious. THE GOOD NEWS is that if you know how strong a certain boss is going to be (For instance by fighting and DYING on it) then you might have a good idea of what you need to do to power up. In this game ~equipment~ is VERY important. My guide points you in the direction of most of the better stuff (Though not the best stuff as it can be very grueling to get that) You can be leveling in an area and then all of a sudden the enemies will get an "upgrade" and slaughter you because your equipment is now substandard. So stay on your toes. This game is not difficult if you know how it works. And one last thing - Quicksave - hold R2 and Press Triangle to do a quick save. Do this frequently, it only takes like half a second to quicksave and if you die then you can restart right where you last quicksaved. If you're anal and leveling among really tough enemies do this after every fight. Get used to it and it becomes old hat. *** **** FAQ FA00 *** **** Q: What was that stat boost you mentioned? A: For some reason I had it in my head that if you had system data with at least one cleared game then Emelia got a little stat boost at the beginning of her scenario. Actually I was wrong, Emelia doesn't get any sort of stat boost - but Annie and Liza do! The bonus is actually pretty good insofar as it gives them a bunch of extra skills. However, it isn't anything that should make you "save" Emelia's scenario for later. It's just a nice reward if you've already completed a scenario. Note that other characters do get some stat boosts in their scenarios as well - just one more reason to keep system data. Also, Liza will START with Suplex which is fairly helpful if you get the stat boost. Q: How strong is strong enough to kill Diva? A: I always base my stats off the max hp of my team - anyway, when your characters have around 700 hp and high end equipment they should be ready to take on Diva. Diva is one of the harder end bosses in the game so the more you prepare the easier it will be. I'd definately make sure to have at least one character with the DSC - more if you really like to level. Don't be dorky and save over your one file after you've started the Yorkland mission as if you aren't good enough to tackle Diva you'll want to head back to the Bio Research Lab and level some more. Q: Will you write a FAQ for Scenario X? A: Probably not, there are already great FAQs for the other scenarios. My strategies for mastering Emelia's scenario can be applied to the other scenarios as well as far as I know. If I DO write a FAQ for someone else though it will probably be Blue or T260 but don't count on it. Q: Your description of the Ingot and Scrap tricks sucks! A: Yes, I just wrote hasty explanations of both tricks. If you need a more detailed explanation check some of the other guides on here. By the way, that wasn't a question :) Q: In your walkthrough, you dont list all the items that can be found in a dungeon, why? A: SaGa Frontier is not a dungeon crawling game. Yes there are dungeons and yes there are treasures but rarely are these goodies better then what you have elsewhere. In fact, there are only a couple instances where you can find good treasure - and those instances aren't in Emelia's scenario. I leave exploring up to you, my goal is to show you the easiest ways to power up and get through the scenario and running around grabbing worthless junk in the Owmi Manor is not the easiest way Q: What do you mean by Emelia's dresses and their "supposed" benefits? A: If you haven't heard this before, let me explain. Emelia's dresses are supposed to give you benefits whereby Emelia becomes better at a certain thing if she has a certain dress on. See the following chart Regular Emelia - nothing PinkTiger - fighting Bunny Emelia - magic Dancer Costume - swords Commando Emelia - guns WeddingDress - nothing/unknown I say supposed because in my experience these effects are not noticable enough to be worth worrying about. In other words, just use whichever outfit you like the best. Heck, it could be my leveling up strategies that negate these bonuses. Everyone else seems to know about them *shrug* maybe its just me. Q: How do you suggest equipping characters? A: Gunners/Swordsmen should have two weapons, a shield, and a healing potion for emergencies. Fighters should have three healing potions and a shield, the same for magic users. One person should have the backpack (I prefer a sword user or gunner) and another person should have the healing spells. This should make it very easy to keep your characters alive. As far as armor goes, I leave that to your discression - suits can offer higher DP overall but armor, helms, and boots can offer other boosts that you might like. Q: How do I get 7500 credits? A: If you collect all your paychecks from Roufas you'll have quite a bit of money. You should be able to beat the first four missions: Koorong Sewers, Shingrow, Baccarat, and Trinity Base Part 1 with relative ease - the money from those missions will put you close if not at 7500. For the rest, if you don't want to use the Scrap trick you should be able to find the money around Koorong, there's a bunch of credit drops. There's also 400 credits in the Luminous Labyrinth. Q: You don't seem to like monsters, why? A: Monsters can be very powerful, Im not arguing that. I personally do not like to use them because I think they are too much trouble. There is a great FAQ by Oulak on GameFAQs that is all about monsters. If you want to know more about them I suggest you use that guide. Q: Can I get mechs in Emelia's scenario? A: No - unless you have a gameshark and can get to the debug room. Emelia doesn't like mechs. Q: Wait, so you endorse the Scrap Junk Shop trick and the Gold Ingot trick? A: I dont endorse them, I just tell you how to do them. Its your game, you ought to be able to play it however you damn well feel. If you feel they are bugs to be avoided, dont do them. If, on the other hand, you dont want to sit around for hours farming for credits, then feel free to use them. For the record I usually avoid the Scrap trick until later on when I want to get LethalGuns. And the gold trick was left in by testers if the rumors are true so its not really an exploit just an exercise in Taconomics :) Q: Well, how do I get money if I dont want to use those stupid exploits that only people who suck at video games would use? A: Grinding. Yes, grinding. There are some drops, but hardly enough to give you enough money to buy the equipment you will need. Prepare to spend more hours then my best save file sitting around fighting crap monsters for chump change. This is one of the reasons I do support Taconomics - its just not worth it whether or not playing without the ingot trick is "legit" Q: Am I just stupid or can I not find actual shops in this game? A: Shops are actually few and far between. You'll be primarily spending money on magic actually. There is a potion shop in Koorong to use liberally as well as some armor to be bought there. The most interesting place to buy things is Nelson where you can pick up Zero Swords and Warlord Armor. There are also some other shops (even one in Omble!) So look around. Q: I have a lot of junk, how do I sell it? A: There are "shops" that are meant just for selling things. One place is in Nakajima Robotics in Shrike where they buy swords. There are some armor buying places in Koorong. These are rarer then real shops though and most things you find can't be sold. Q: Those skills you list for Liza to have equipped, why are they important? A: Sliding, Suplex, BabelCrumble, and GiantSwing when all equipped on a character will unlock a special attack called the Dream Super Combo or DSC which can inflict close to 20,000 damage (The attack randomly uses 3-5 moves and can do significantly less) at full power. In other words, its the best single attack in the game and Liza just happens to be able to learn it faster then anyone else. Q: You seem to place a lot of emphasis on magic, it's not that important is it? A: For the most part you only have one shot at acquiring the gift for the different types of magic. And for some kinds of magic you only have one shot at acquiring the basic spells. So there are parts of my walkthrough written specifically to emphasis collecting all the spells. I am assuming that you don't want to miss out on anything. Again - this is not needed to beat Emelia's scenario but is just for the type of person that likes collecting abilities. Remember, everything in the side section is just that side stuff. Q: You're always talking about TimeLord, isn't he a boss from Blue's scenario? A: I'm actually surprised by how often I see stuff like this. Yes, TimeLord is a boss from Blue's scenario but in every other "human" scenario (including Asellus) TimeLord is a recruitable character. Once you've acquired two of the lesser Magic Gifts (Shadow/Light and Rune/Arcane) you can do the TimeLord dungeon in the same manner as in Blue's scenario. When you meet TimeLord he offers to sell you low level time spells (stupid) Or join you (good) He comes with Overdrive (WIN!) and is an all around decent Mystic. I'll explain how to get him in detail in the sidequest section of the guide if you're interested. Q: Why don't you like Space Magic? A: Are you joking? I ~LOVE~ Space Magic, I love it so much that I want characters who are actually good at casting it to use it. Yes, I know Kylin has all the Space spells, but he'll never be as good at it as a pure mage. If you want all the Space Magic, play Blue's scenario otherwise buy your characters some wicked ReverseGravity/VaporBlast action. Q: You refer to certain characters as sword-users (Gen) or gun-users (Mei-ling.) Why is that? Can't any character learn any type of ability? A: Yes! See the question below as well - but I will say certain characters have certain tendancies. I.e. Gen learns sword skills very easily making him a good sword-user. But if you want to make Gen a spellcaster then you can. That's one of the reasons I love this game. Q: You seem to insist on recruiting a bunch of characters that you don't even recommend using! Why? A: Ahh yes, enough to form a whole party: Gen, Fuse, Fei-on, Mesarthim, and TimeLord. To do the Arcane Quests you'll have to recruit Gen and Fuse, you CAN pass on Fei-on, and Mesarthim and TimeLord are completely optional. Each character is VERY good however. Gen is pretty much the top sword user in the game, Mesarthim is probably the best Mystic in the game, Fei-on is second only to Liza in fists, TimeLord has one of the best spells in the game, and Fuse is, well just Fuse. He's a pretty powerful all-around character. I guess I'd just feel strange passing on them though all five of them are completely optional and you don't need to get any of them. But they all make good choices. Also, their recruiting methods in most other scenarios is very similar to how you recruit them here so learn it, live it, love it, and make use of them in scenarios that dont hand out great characters for free :) Anyway, as I have tried to stress, and cannot stress enough, USE WHO YOU LIKE. Each character has the potential to become amazing at each different thing so there's no reason to be a stickler to certain characters. Even someone like Lute can be turned into a powerful spellcaster given enough time and the right setup. So don't feel restrained by my recommendations. I'm just telling you which characters I like. Q: What's this about the rune sword? A: Yes, the rune sword and the 'cockatrice' spell. If you didn't know, PhantasmShot is a mystic spell that for 3 JP randomly casts a Mirage Magic spell. One character in the whole game, Rei, can actually use Mirage Magic - but you only get her at the end of Asellus's scenario. However if you equip a Rune Sword (2850 Credits - 50 ATK can be bought in the Magic Kingdom) and then equip the Stasis Rune spell the Rune Sword will be able to cast Cockatrice, one of the Mirage Magic spells. This is actually VERY handy as cockatrice is a pretty good spell that does nice damage and can petrify enemies. Since there's a good chance you'll be doing the rune quest in this scenario and since one of only four characters who can get the rune gift in this scenario is a sword user (Annie) you'll have extra excuses to use the weapon. Q: Why would I give up a weapon slot just for one spell? A: Remember, you can equip more then one sword, equip a Zero Sword AND a Rune Sword on Annie, then you can use things like Cross Slash and still be able to use the Rune Sword's special abilities. Q: It's not that good, why go to all that trouble? A: Yeah, you're right. it isn't that good, but I just think it's kind of cool and I like my Mirage magic :) Q: Care to share your Emelia stats? Sure! My current playtime is 34:38 my part is as follows: Zozma TimeLord Fuse Roufas Slime Gen Emelia Mei-ling Rouge Asellus Mesarthim Annie Liza White Rose Fei-on For the most part Ive got pretty solid setups, though I do have a few odd things - I hadnt planned to use TimeLord so he doesnt have a Light/Shadow gift but I actually went to the trouble of getting both Gen and Fuse to have the Arcane gift. My main party is very powerful and each character is good at just about everything. Imagine Gen using guns, Annie a spellcaster, you get the idea. Ive built my characters up long enough that they have a wide range of abilities in every skill type. Anyway, as you may have guessed Emelia IS my favorite scenario - but I've seen people on the SaGa Frontier message board who have had files even longer then mine. Also, since you asked, I've had this play data since probably 2002 or so. *************** **** Mastering Magic FA01 *************** **** Magic is tricky, as you only get one shot at each gift and once you've done it that's it. You can't come back later with other characters and gain the gifts they missed out on. So if you want all fifteen characters (or less if you have monsters) to have three gifts it takes some strategic planning. I've got this section before the walkthrough itself since there are some things in it I want you to keep in mind but I will be referring to the character recruitment section SID01 A quick glance shows the following magic-using characters cannot be recruited until you've tackled some lengthy sidequests Fuse Gen Fei-on TimeLord If you plan on using any of these four you must plan very specifically what you intend to do. Fortunately, three of them (Fuse, Gen, and Fei-on) can be recruited before doing the Light/Shadow gifts though it takes some creative work to have Gen and Fuse both learn the Arcane gift (Remember NO ONE besides Liza, Annie, and Emelia can learn the rune gift in this scenario) You must recruit Gen before going to IRPO but you cant complete Wakatu until you do IRPO, see? It can be easy to get mixed up since you normally dont pick up Gen until you're en-route to Wakatu. Also, Gen and Fuse can't be recruited at all until you complete the Rune sidequest which means if you want them to have different types of magic from the Light/Shadow school you'll have to wait. Finally, TimeLord CAN NOT be recruited unless one of each Light/Shadow and Rune/Arcane is completed. I recommend that he be given the Light gift as Mega Windblast is the best spell to combine with his Overdrive (Mega Windblast is in fact the only big damage spell he can get unless you just want ChaosStream) Anyway the point Im trying to make is plan when to acquire the gifts very carefully. Rouge and Vermillion Sand should be able to get you by in the magic department so that no one is left without a gift. Then again the other thing to consider is how overboard this entire affair is. If you simply want to beat the scenario and dont think you'll ever play it again then this might not be something you want to worry about You should -however- at least keep it in mind while you're working on the game and try to have some plan for how you intend to learn the magic gifts. After all, what's the point of a Spellcaster type like TimeLord if he doesnt have spells? **************** **** Party Strategies FA02 **************** **** I mention this elsewhere but I recommend the new player only focus on a core party of five characters. This will make things much easier and will take less time as well. However, there are benefits to having two or three parties. Your characters are arranged into three columns of five characters each for a total of fifteen. Each column represents a battle party, and during battle you can select which group of characters to deploy (some special battles, like the final boss don't allow this) Now the parties that don't fight will have a bit of WP/JP restored which is very nice for long dungeons like Tanzer. So, if you decide it is worth it to devote the time to making sure each member of your party is useful instead of just having a collection of "tag-alongs" you may find many of the dungeons in the game to be more tolerable. *********** ***** Walkthrough WAL00 *********** ***** Alright, we're at the main menu and we want the cute blond haired girl so pick New Game then Emelia. We get to rename Emelia, making her one of the more customizable characters. So if you don't like the name Emelia, pick something you do like. Make sure to setup system data OR pick system data you've already created. You do want to get to second div eventually right? If you're like me you've got one memory card JUST for this game with a second card for a couple backup saves. Anyway, I'll leave those details to you, but definately don't slouch on that system data. Also, note that when it comes to skills and how to set up your party besides some very general suggestions (like have Liza use her fists) I leave that entirely up to you. This walkthrough is already long enough, I don't need to weigh it down with rehashes of skill explanations you can find in any other guides. Just note that for higher range skills sometimes you have to use medium strength attacks - for instance thrust can lead to Thunder Thrust and Triple Thrust. I ~BELIEVE~ the only skill that you absolutely cannot learn from a regular attack is Haze-to-Wheel which you must learn by using WheelSlash. If you use the area I suggest for leveling in the Side Quest section of the guide you shouldn't have any trouble learning skills. ******** * ************** ***** Part One - Despair Prison WAL01 ******** * ************** ***** "It's not too bad, although it's not my taste. I guess it's better than nothing." Emelia enjoys the scenery of her new jail cell, so just kick back and enjoy the introductory cutscenes - Emelia's scenario focuses more on the story and plot development then some characters. Something I'm sure you appreciate as an RPG fan :) You get to meet Annie who shows part of her secret lesbian side :) (Ok, ok, wishful thinking, so sue me.) and if you check out the top right corner, you'll see Liza loafing about. Now, if you've played someone else's scenario already (particularly Blue) you may be familiar with what you're about to face. This dungeon and subsequent boss are part of the Rune Magic sidequest for every one else in the game. Though the boss has been toned down to take into account Emelia's relatively weak stats. Alright, now once the cutscenes are over you'll appear in some piping under Emelia's room - which you can't get back to. Let's take a moment to look at our heroes. Name: Emelia Race: Human Sex: Female HP: 50 LP: 9/9 WP: 9/9 JP: 0/0 STR 7 ---------- ---------- QUI: 9 ---------- ---------- INT: 10 ---------- ---------- WIL: 21 ---------- ---------- PSY: 7 ---------- ---------- VIT: 6 SilkShirt ---------- CHA: 32 LeatherBoots ---------- DEF: 6 ---------- ---------- Name: Annie Race: Human Sex: Female HP: 130 LP: 9/9 WP: 20/20 JP: 0/0 STR: 15 LaserKnife StunSlash QUI: 17 ---------- DoubleSlash INT: 9 ---------- ---------- WIL: 18 ---------- ---------- PSY: 15 FiberVest ---------- VIT: 13 CottonShirt ---------- CHA: 11 LeatherGlove ---------- DEF: 18 Leather Boots ---------- Name: Liza Race: Human Sex: Female HP: 100 LP: 8/8 WP: 24/24 JP: 0/0 STR: 14+5 ---------- KO Throw QUI: 24 ---------- Air Throw INT: 20 ---------- ---------- WIL: 13 ---------- ---------- PSY: 18 FiberVest ---------- VIT: 12 CottonShirt ---------- CHA: 20 FangAmulet ---------- DEF: 12 ---------- ---------- If you've already beaten at least one scenario (and have it recorded to your system data) then Liza and Annie will get a pretty nice stat boost: Name: Annie Race: Human Sex: Female HP: 235 LP: 9/9 WP: 37/37 JP: 0/0 STR: 25 LaserKnife StunSlash QUI: 29 ---------- DoubleSlash INT: 12 ---------- HardSlash WIL: 25 ---------- Thrust PSY: 20 FiberVest Smash VIT: 23 CottonShirt Deflect CHA: 17 LeatherGlove ---------- DEF: 18 Leather Boots ---------- Name: Liza Race: Human Sex: Female HP: 180 LP: 8/8 WP: 35/35 JP: 0/0 STR: 17+5 ---------- KO Throw QUI: 37 ---------- Air Throw INT: 28 ---------- RollingCradle WIL: 16 ---------- Suplex PSY: 24 FiberVest RotationKick VIT: 16 CottonShirt ---------- CHA: 26 FangAmulet ---------- DEF: 12 ---------- ---------- Phew, ok, now that's out of the way, let's talk about the party a bit. Liza is the single best martial arts character in the entire game, and you get her from the very beginning of Emelia's scenario which is great. Leave her be with her fists. Also be on the look out for the following four skills for Liza: Sliding, Suplex, BabelCrumble, GiantSwing. If you dont know why those are important then just trust me, you will like what happens when you have all four of those skills equipped :) Annie is one of the better sword users in the game so if you really like her (I personally end up using other characters that keep her out of my main party) then you're set. You may want to change your party order so that it looks more like Annie Liza Emelia Since Emelia has the lowest HP (Only a meager 50 hp) and not much in the way of armor or defense, she'll die quickly =( Your item list isnt so bad though: Backpack (1) Cure (5) PowerCure (1) MagicStone (1) FiberVest (1) InfraScope (1) Stick the FiberVest, Infrascope, and Backpack all on Emelia. If you really want to give Annie and Liza one cure each but try not to waste these in regular battles. You'll want them for the boss - just in case. I believe you HAVE to have an Infrascope equipped for a later room in the dungeon so just keep that in mind. Anyway, the armor should boost Emelia's DEF up to 20 which is nice. If you find a weapon in the dungeon (There is a bazooka we'll get for sure later on, but you might get lucky and find a drop) then you might want to hold off on giving it to Emelia. At the boss fight if Emelia has no weapons then she'll be given a gun for free - not a powerful one - but if you want to focus on Emelia's natural trait as a gun user then that might be the way to go. Plus having her work with her fists in the early parts of the dungeon might help her to build up her hp which would be nice. Ok, let's hit the road, run South to the next room. Here you need to go left, make sure to take the pipe to your immediate left instead of falling down to the lower level. From here, take the first right and swing back around, now we're on the other side of the downward pipe with a later to our left. Take the ladder on up. Now you'll be above a room with some lockers and a vent cover will be open that will allow you to drop to the room below. You should do so. As soon as you drop down, Liza will drag you into a locker just before a guard comes in. Once he's gone you'll head out, now head to the back of the room. The locker in the far back to the left (it would be the fourth row if you're counting from the door) has a LightBazooka. As soon as you take it another guard will come in so turn around and enter the locker right behind you to hide. If the guard catches you, you get kicked back to the beginning of the room so don't let that happen. Alright, the LightBazooka, your first extra weapon. As I said, you might want to hold off on giving anything to Emelia right now in case you want the free gun later on. If you really want to use your new toy, give it to Liza or Annie - though they don't need it either. The LightBazooka is a "special" gun that doesn't allow you to use or learn any gun skills but has an ostensibly "powerful" attack. With an ATK: 20 and 4 Bullets it can be used four times and is alright for the beginning of the game though I rarely use it myself since I prefer skills (What's a LightBazooka to a gunner with BoundShot?) When you're done here, just head through the door. As soon as you come out you'll see a large white door with a green up arrow. Go through this to end up in the garbage dump. Exit the little room you're in and head to the west corner where you'll see a ladder going down. Take it. Run through the next room to the other end and take the ladder going up. In this big circular room just run across to the other side and go through the door. Now you're in a room with some ramps that lead back the way you came so ignore them. But do hop down. From here you want to run to the southwest and take some stairs leading down. This next room is the room where you need the InfraScope. So make sure its equipped and go through the door. You'll see several posts with some blocked by laser beams. If you touch the beams you get into a fight with some tough Mecs so be sure to avoid the beams and work your way to the other side. Without the InfraScope, you can't see the beams. Once through the door take the ladder up. Now, make a save in this room and head forward. Run to the grate for a cutscene and... ----------- BOSS BATTLE Nidheg Just before the fight if you dont have a weapon Annie says, "Oh, oh, something's coming. Take this." and Emelia will automatically equip an AGUNI-CP1. If you've fought this boss before you'll note he's much smaller here and consequently much weaker. Use DoubleSlash with Annie and AirThrow with Liza (They should combo for more damage) and just shoot with Emelia. If you need to heal then tap into your cures. You can use the MagicStone if you really want to, it doesn't matter.
If Liza and Annie combo, they can do close to 700 damage (They should combo unless one of them learns a skill instead) Liza's KO Throw can also do good damage if Nidheg tries to attack her and she counters with it. If Emelia is still in the front and you didn't fight much on the way here then be prepared to lose her to Nidheg's thrust. Otherwise you should be able to beat this easy boss with all your characters alive. Nidheg will use SuperSonic as its last move before it does. This attack hurts so be ready for it. ---------------------------------------------------------------- After the fight, you drop into a room with a big rock, go up the steps and examine the rock. A cutscene follows and the Freedom Rune is now yours. The warden pardons you and this first chapter comes to a close. One very important thing to note. In order to get the Arcane or Rune gift you must have a character in your party while you collect each Tarot or Stone - in other words the only three characters who can acquire the gift for Rune Magic in Emelia's scenario are Emelia, Annie, and Liza. Keep that in mind if you plan on using magic later on. Also, Mesarthim - the mermaid - comes with the gift for Rune Magic. Since you'll be able to recruit Asellus, Mesarthim will gladly join you later on and she will probably be your go-to girl for Rune Magic unless you decide to make Emelia a spellcaster. ******** * ******* ***** Part Two - Gradius WAL02 ******** * ******* ***** Cutscenes follow. After the scenes you can talk with some Gradius people to learn a little bit more about everything. Liza wont let you leave HQ though. Roufas is hanging out in the topmost room so go speak with him. If you pick I'm outta here you can leave and do whatever you like but you won't be able to advance the story until you agree to work for Gradius. It's not so bad, you get good characters and a steady paycheck, plus you do want to beat the game right? :) After picking Work for Gradius you are treated to more cutscenes. You'll also get to do your first target practice. Just shoot repeatedly until the "training ends." You can get stats and sometimes gun skills from this so feel free to do it whenver you want - though fighting real monsters is much easier. Do note that you have to go through a training session before the start of every mission. So you'll get to do this a few more times in the scenario. Another cutscene then you're in the sewer with Annie. This is an easy mission as Annie can do all the work with the monsters. You may want to equip the LightBazooka on Emelia now. Two slimes rush you immedietely so you'll need to deal with them. Anyway, just go north and head up the ladder. Yes, you are ALREADY out of the dungeon. You're standing just outside Dr. Nusaken's clinic (Too bad he wont join Emelia) Head up the stairs to your left. You may be accosted by a Pickbird or two but its no big deal. If you don't know your way around Koorong then just head east until you find some stairs leading up. Up the stairs the first shop is the restraunt that serves as a front for Gradius HQ. Step inside. Go talk to Roufas for a scene. Talk to Roufas again and he'll suggest you head to Devin to work on the Rune Stone subquest. Talk to him a third time and he'll cough up some credits. At this point you can start recruiting characters and have a few decisions to make. There are six plot characters that you can recruit - Liza, Annie, Roufas, Asellus, White Rose, and Zozma. Annie and Liza can both join you if you talk to them here in the base, definately do so. FOr Roufas you'll have to go all the way to Shrike and talk to him inside a dungeon there. You don't need to actually start the Rune Sidequest to get him though. If you really want to use Asellus, White Rose, or Zozma (Personally Asellus and Zozma are two of my favorites) then stay away from any and all magic sidequests. Particularly if you actually go to Devin and get the rune pebbles you'll probably get sucked into Tanzer right away which is no fun. This is no big deal since the characters that normally become recruitable through the Rune Stone quest either already can or wont join you. So unless you want Fei-on you're set. Also note that Emelia can NOT recruit any Mechs. So if you really want a Mech you'll have to use a Gameshark or something. Anyway, head to the southmost room (Where you started) and get Liza. Then head outside and talk to Annie to have her join. We might as well recruit Roufas as well so head to the port and fly to Shrike. Note that you have to have them in your party later on (As well as Asellus, White Rose, and Zozma) so make sure to save six slots for all those characters. Once in Shrike, head to the southwest where Mu's Tomb is and go inside. Roufus is lounging around in a room to the left. Head down the steps, through the door and through a quick passage to find him. A brief scene ensues where Emelia gets mad at him for not just joining earlier. Anyway, here are Roufas's stats Name: Roufas Race: Human Sex: Male HP: 150 LP: 9/9 WP: 25/25 JP: 15/15 STR: 23 SamuraiSword HardSlash QUI: 15 AGUNI-CP1 SharpShot INT: 27 ---------- TotalShot WIL: 24+10 ---------- MindHeal PSY: 11 LaserScope Spellbound VIT: 26 ArmorVest ---------- CHA: 20 LeatherGlove ---------- DEF: 32 LeatherBoots ---------- Note that Roufas already has the gift for Mind Magic, so if you use it then he'll learn the other spells. Also, the SamuraiSword is considered a katana and he can learn some special katana-only techs with it. All in all, he's pretty tough. By the way there is a stronger katana in Mu's Tomb (not that far in either) that you might want to think about getting now. It's not that big a deal if you don't want to though. I'm going to take a bit of a digression here so that we can take care of something optional since we're already in Shrike. As you may or may not know there are actually two Tombs in Shrike, one is Mu's Tomb where you are now, the other is Sei's Tomb. In general Sei's Tomb is a completely optional area. We're going to pay a visit there now as you'll want to do it later for sure and you can score some goodies to help you with the first couple of missions. Don't worry about your party: the four you have will be plenty strong to handle anything that comes up. Remember, if you swing by the Street area in Shrike you can find a hotel that restores your health for free. Anyway, make your way to Sei's Tomb in the northeast corner. Hop down the cliff and jump across the stones into the dungeon. This place is relatively easy to navigate To start, run down the stairs and head southeast down another set and through a door you can find down there. In the next room go east through the next door. Now in this room head down the steps and turn to the northwest corner next to the steps where the floor is cracked. You'll fall down and can follow a short path (make sure not to jump off) until you see a rusted sword stuck in a pedestal. Save then check the sword. Now you'll be in a fight with two Dead Knights, these guys can be strong but you shouldn't have any trouble. Use your best attacks and focus on killing one knight at a time. Make sure to heal if you need to. After you defeat the two DeadKnights you'll be awarded the Murakumo sword. With an ATK of 33 this is a nice toy to have. Give it to Roufas or Annie. But keep in mind Roufas's samurai sword can learn some special techs that the Murakumo can't use. Alright, now jump off this raised area and climb up the stairs along the east side. Once you go through the door at the top you'll be back in the room you fell from. If you look in the northeast corner you'll see a something. Head up there to find two skeletons. Try to check the center object and you'll be attacked by two more Dead Knights. Use the same strategy as before to handle them. After this fight you'll receive the Mizukagami shield. This is a pretty powerful shield so give it to someone who you want to have nice defense. Give it to Emelia for now, though when you get a dedicated healer later on you might want to transfer it. Alright, now head west out of this passage and take the south passage into another chamber. Follow the corridor and go through the other door instead of taking the stairs. In the next room, head down the stairs to your right and follow the path straight up to an alcove with a strange object. Examine the object to fight yet another pair of Dead Knights. When you win this fight you'll receive the Magatama accessory. This item isn't as nice as the sword or shield but you'll need it later (much later) to get a powerful sword so its best to do this now to get it out of the way. Retreat with your goodies back out of the dungeon now. Make sure to IGNORE the colored pillars in the circular room. Later on we'll be placing the items we just recovered there to get one of the better swords in the game but since you're not quite ready to face the boss that guards the sword you don't want to do that yet. With that out of the way lets take a look at the decisions you'll need to make. If you didn't already know there are two endings to the Emelia scenario - a "good" one and a "bad" one. Surprisingly, the bad one is the one that requires more work, you'll have to fight an optional boss with just Emelia, Liza, and Annie. So if you want to keep a seperate save here so you don't have to do the intro stuff over again, feel free to. You shouldn't have a problem tackling most of Emelia's missions now as is - so if you want Asellus we might as well continue on with the story. If you want to work on your party now though skip to "On the Side" by searching for SID00 Anyway - once you're ready to go meet me back here ********** * *************************** ***** Part Three - The Martial Arts Tournament WAL03 ********** * *************************** ***** Regardless of whatever choices you've made, get back to Koorong and head for the Gradius HQ. Head to the middle room in HQ which is actually the Training room. Complete training then go talk to Roufas in the upper room. As soon as you enter the room a cutscene will occur where Roufas will describe the next mission for you. You'll be heading off to Shingrow for an event that might be familiar to you if you've already played Red's scenario. Emelia will change into her PinkTiger outfit during the cutscene and you'll be entered into the "Dance" Now, you've got to get in line and wait until your turn to get to the desk, as you move by the desk the person will talk to you and register you for the tournament. I do not believe it is possible to win here as the in the final round your opponent will start using SwayBack every round after you deal a little damage to him. You do get access to your weapons, so you can use that LightBazooka if you want. Anyway, I'll leave the fighting to you. The enemies do scale to match your level so this might be a good barometer of well you can handle yourself with just Emelia. Also, try to come in with only at most six skills (for the crown if you want it) as you might be able to learn some new skills here. After the fighting, you'll see Joker, then you'll reappear in the main room with Roufas and Annie. Talk to both of them to have them join (Remember any characters you recruit can't be used during the story missions but don't worry, you'll get them for the final boss) Alright, you've got your first "special" outfit now, the PinkTiger. When you get back to HQ you'll be able to select between all the outfits you've acquired. Each outfit supposedly make's Emelia better at a certain type of skill. The PinkTiger outfit makes her better at martial arts. So if you want to use fists in this mission go for it. Anyway, Liza is already with you, so you've got all of Gradius trudging along. Should be strong enough to handle anything you find. Reposition your party as you see fit and head west. Follow the corridor to the end then go up the stairs. Head up the stairs to the walkway in this room. South leads to the Arena's observation box and north will get you to the throne room. The stairs on the other side of the walkway lead nowhere so go north. About halfway through this room is a set of stairs that leads down to two doors. Take the southern door. You'll be attacked by some enemies but with your party this should be no problem, Roufas can handle them easily by himself. After fighting the enemies check the urn right next to the door to reveal a hidden pathway. Run down the steps and over to the pit, check near the wall and the pit will raise making the sword accessible (As well as a shortcut to the entrance) The CeramicSword has an ATK of 22 and is a little better then Annie's LaserKnife so I always give it to her. If you keep the LaserKnife equipped as well however you might learn a two-sword skill so I always give her both. The CeramicSword is better then Roufas's SamuraiSword (ATK 19) as well but it isnt a katana so if you want those katana skills... Anyway, when you're satisfied head down the corridor with the red carpeting along the east wall. Follow this path to its end. In the next room is a robot looking thing, the boss, so save then talk to it. ----------- BOSS BATTLE YellowFighter(2) Goblin This really is little more then a sophisticated random battle. Just chop through the YellowFighters then turn everything you've got on the Goblin he'll die quickly. Remember Emelia if you need to heal, though you shouldn't have to. One or two strong combos and the Goblin is finished. Cake. ----- After that, Emelia says something then the mission ends and you get treated to some Joker artwork. Fun. ********* * ******** ***** Part Four - Baccarat WAL04 ********* * ******** ***** The Baccarat mission is the one where the endings divuldge so if you've decided to fight the optional boss make a save before moving on here if you don't want to deal with the Martial Arts tournament again. If you're curious as to where you should be if you want to fight the optional boss then check the appendix at the end of the guide by searching for ADXA. If you're running a bit low on healing items there is a Potion shop that sells some goodies, talk to the guy outside the Port Office that is tucked in an alley between two buildings. But you should probably try to conserve your cash since Emelia can do the Gold Ingot trick relatively easily when she gets all her paychecks. Inside the base in the southern room is a guy in a blue hat. Talk to him and he'll say something like, "You used to be a super model right?" This guy will let you pick which outfit you want to wear, though for now you only have regular Emelia and PinkTiger. Don't worry, you'll get some more if you like playing dress-up :) To get your paycheck make sure to talk to Roufas BEFORE going to the Training Hall. If you do training then Roufas will have the next mission lined up and you wont be able to get credits for the last mission. This is true for the whole game, so make sure not to forget. Anyway, once you're done training meet me in Roufas's room. After the briefing you warp to Baccarat and Emelia is now BunnyEmelia :) This outfit supposedly makes her a better spellcaster, though if you've just been rushing through the scenario to get Asellus you probably don't have any spells just yet. After the cutscene head up the stairs and around the corner to find Joker. Then just follow him. On the next floor go to the elevator and you'll be taken to the parking lot. Head down the ladder and SAVE! This is it, this is where the path divulges. If you intend to get the bad ending and fight the extra boss skip to WAL04-2 otherwise keep reading ******** * *********** ******* Baccarat - Good Ending WAL04-1 ******** * *********** ******* Head across the passage and through a tunnel then head west. There's a passage in the southwest you want to take. Through that door immedietley run against the west wall to find another passage. Head down the ladder and go north. In this next room (the gnome room) you'll see a cutscene. After that just head back out. Yeah, that's it. Once you've climbed back up the ladder to the parking lot you'll get a brief scene and the mission will end, sending you back to Koorong. ******** * ********** ******* Baccarat - Bad Ending WAL04-2 ******** * ********** ******* Note that the enemies do scale in this dungeon so be ready for that. The good news is you might learn a new attack or two that you can use against the boss. The first part of this is very similar to the Good Ending. You need to go to the Gnome Cave (which is where you go in the Good Ending as well) so head across the passage and through a tunnel, then head west. You'll see a passage to the southwest that you want to take. Through that door run against the west wall and you'll find another passage. Head down the ladder and go north. Alright, you'll see a cutscene in this room. Now whatever you do DO NOT GO TO THE PARKING LOT as that will end the mission and lock you into the good ending. Instead once you've left the gnome cave, head south past the ladder to another chamber. Go past the steps and head north through the opening and through a doorway into another chamber. Follow this chamber southwest. Before you go through the door to the next passage SAVE! You're about to meet the boss. Once you enter the next room, Emelia will walk towards the center and "You fell for it, monster-bait!!" will scrawl across the screen. Then you'll be in battle. ----------- BOSS BATTLE Gargantu Gargantu looks meaner then he really is. But as I say throughout the guide, boss fights can be very subjective in this game. The enemies in the dungeon may very well have given you more trouble then he will since they scale. You probably don't need to worry about offensive buffs, just launch your best attacks - particularly if you know they combo well. He has less then 4500 HP so theoretically one strong combo can kill him. If you glanced at the Appendix then you are seeing a group that can successfully do this. And that group only had spent about twenty five minutes leveling. But if you come in with substandard weapons and equipment this boss might be very difficult. Something to keep in mind, while his defense is low and he dies easily, he also has STRONG attacks, so if he is faster then you, you might have trouble killing him. -------------------- For your trouble, you will receive a PurpleEye which is a fairly nice accessory. If you like it, more can be purchased in Manhatten. You can talk to Annie and Liza, then you just need to leave and go back to the parking lot. Mission accomplished. Once in the parking lot, you'll see a scene then get sent back to Koorong. ********* * ******************* ***** Part Five - Trinity Base Part 1 WAL05 ********* * ******************* ***** If you've been rushing through the scenario to get Asellus then don't worry, she's coming up. Make sure to get your paycheck and save before starting the mission. If you've skipped doing sidequests then the next dungeon will be difficult (but by no means impossible.) Before you start this mission you may want to collect the Murakumo and CeramicSword from whoever has them (unless you've already powered up from doing the optional Baccarat boss) as the weapons that Asellus and Zozma will come with are somewhat substandard. Train then go to Roufas, you actually have to talk to him this time instead of just entering the room to get the mission briefing. Some extended cutscenes will follow, so sit back and enjoy. Emelia will be in her dancer outfit which apparently makes her better with swords, this could be your big moment :) Check out Asellus and White Rose dancing in the southeast corner. How'd they land that job? As soon as you get control of Emelia run south and make sure to TALK to Asellus and White Rose. You have to talk to them to get them to join. When you talk to them a fight ensues and it can be difficult, so be sure to save before talking to them. Remember White Rose knows StarlightHeal if you get beat up. Neither of them have anything in their MysticSwords so you might be able to absorb the enemies. Remember Asellus has to go through Mystic Change before she can absorb enemies. Anyway, here are Asellus and White Rose's stats - There will be SLIGHT variations depending on what gains you receive in the battle just before they join. Name: Asellus Race: Half-Mystics Sex: Female HP: 168 LP: 8/8 WP: 20/20 JP: 20/20 STR: 27 FiendRod StunSlash QUI: 21 ---------- ---------- INT: 15 ---------- ---------- WIL: 13+9 ---------- ---------- PSY: 39 ShadeRobe MysticSword VIT: 16 SilkShirt ---------- CHA: 27 LeatherBoots ---------- DEF: 15 ---------- ---------- Name: White Rose Race: Mystics Sex: Female HP: 167 LP: 8/8 WP: 16/16 JP: 38/41 STR: 16 ---------- Fascination QUI: 18 ---------- PhantasmShot INT: 25 ---------- StarlightHeal WIL: 19 ---------- FlashFlood PSY: 25 MysticMail MysticSword VIT: 15 FlowerAmulet ---------- CHA: 28 ---------- ---------- DEF: 24 ---------- White Rose also knows SunRay and FlashFire as well as having the gift for Mystic Magic as all Mystics do. Remember you can't remove her MysticMail. She will be fine attacking with her MysticSword for now, don't worry about it. Asellus has the gift for Mystic Magic but no spells, you won't be able to learn Mystic Spells with her unless you decide to do the TimeLord quest much later. Hopefully you haven't done it already, because once you go to Fascinaturu once, you can't go back. If you've never used Asellus before, you might not be clear on what it is that she does. In battle she functions as a completely normal human, learning skills and everything. The only difference is she can has the gift of mystic magic which no human can acquire. She also can learn the three mystic attacks MysticSword, MysticBoots, and MysticGlove. If she uses one of these three attacks in battle (She can choose to have all, some, or none of them equipped) then she will undergo "Mystic Change" After she undergoes Mystic Change she gets access to the stat bonuses of the monsters in her equipped abilities as well as any powers derived from those monsters. This makes her the most versatile character in the game as well as the personal favorite of many people including me. If you plan on using her then enjoy! As far as White Rose goes, remember, Mystics can only equip four spells. They can learn new magic if they have the gift for that type of magic but they can not learn attacks from weapons or their fists. They get access through special monster abilities via whatever is absorbed in their mystic skills. Also they don't get stat boosts from battle, but do get bonuses based on what is absorbed in their weapons. Some people don't like Mystics, personally I enjoy them. Note Asellus's FiendRod, it's "Final Strike" power will destroy the weapon in order to launch a strong attack on an enemy. It's probably not a good idea to use Final Strike. Also, Asellus's ShadeRobe will allow you to heal in battle which is nice. You might want to swap out White Rose's FlashFlood for FlashFire which is more useful. One final thing about Asellus, you probably already have a good idea of how to develop your characters - Roufas and Annie are sword users - Emelia uses guns - Liza has fists and so on. Obviously you dont have to stick with characters natural tendancies at all. Anyway, combining Asellus's mystic skills with Gun/Sword/Fist attacks is really very cool but here's something else to fathom. Asellus is the single most versatile spellcaster outside of Blue's scenario. Why? Asellus can learn the Light/Shadow gift has the Mystic Gift, can learn the Arcane/Rune gift, and the MIND GIFT. Yes, no other character can combine both the Mystic and Mind gifts. This means that Asellus can get four gifts whereas most other characters can ONLY get three gifts (The exceptions of course - Blue in his own scenario and Rei who can learn Mirage, Light/Shadow, Mystic, and Arcane/Tarot but Rei is only in Asellus's scenario) Light's Mega Windblast and Space's ReverseGravity should do nicely for big damage spells. Anyway, just consider it - Asellus is good at lots of things. Alright, let's go get Zozma, especially if you've been rushing, you'll need his help. After saving, head east and up the stairs you find. On this floor head west. Ignore the first door and head into the second one. You'll have to fight some monsters then go talk to the guard. He is revealed to be Zozma and he promptly joins you. And he is an ASSET. Name: Zozma Race: Mystics Sex: Male HP: 400 LP: 9/9 WP: 40/40 JP: 30/30 STR: 19+15 FiendRod RavaShot QUI: 24 ---------- PainDoubler INT: 26+25 ---------- DeathCurse WIL: 11+42 ---------- ---------- PSY: 32 MysticMail MysticSword (LiquidMetal) VIT: 13 Magicwear MysticGlove (Slime) CHA: 30 ---------- MysticBoots (Basilisk) DEF: 27 ---------- Zozma also knows SharpPain (Evil) Fascination, PhantasmShot, and GlassShield (all mystic) Note that he does know Evil magic and is the only character in the game which does. He does not have the gift for evil magic so these four spells are the only ones you can use of that type. I don't find it terribly useful besides the cool factor, though PainDoubler can be pretty handy. Anyway, once your spells are setup the way you like, you should be good to go. Zozma will make battles around here much easier. Now to get out of here, leave the room and head west. There should be a staircase you can use to descend to the bottom floor. Do so. There's an elevator you can take. Then follow the corridor east until you see a mech. Make sure to SAVE. This is a boss fight and it can give you trouble if you've been rushing. Use Zozma's TidusWave (You havent been absorbing crappy monsters I hope) get Asellus to MysticChange and cast FlashFire with White Rose. Use the Magic Stone if you still have it. Otherwise use the bazooka. The goal is to kill as fast as possible, the mechs can combo which will cause you no end of trouble. WhiteRose's FlashFire - if it gets off - should drop the WaspMechs and Zozma can kill the last enemy with his TidusWave. Unless you get really unlucky and lose WhiteRose before she manages to kill the WaspMechs you should be fine. After that go through the door the mech was guarding for a brief scene, then leave and keep following the passage east. Follow the passage to the east and take the stairs down, then head east again. Take the elevator down then head all the way west (The door just doubles back if you were curious) In the next room you'll get a scene and the mission will end. Alright, at this point you should start doing the sidequests if you haven't already. The only reason to wait this long was so that you could recruit Asellus, White Rose, and Zozma. The next mission isn't very difficult at all by the way, so if you want the last outfit (Commando Emelia one of my favorites) then go ahead and do it. Just be sure to avoid the enemies in the base as they won't be fun with a weak Emelia. ******** * ******************* ***** Part Six - Trinity Base Part 2 WAL06 ******** * ******************* ***** This mission always used to get me because there is a VERY POWERFUL mech that scales to your level that can kill Emelia in like two hits lounging around one of the paths that you need to take to get to where you need to be in this area. (Actually it's the shortest path) The big trick is though that you don't need to fight it at all! Anyway, once you've gotten your paycheck from the last mission and done your training go talk to Roufas. You'll see a cutscene then Emelia will decide to infiltrate Trinity Base MGS style. Once you get control of Emelia, climb down the ladder and head down the path to the south entrance. Follow the corridor and take the west stairs (If you're curious about the tough mech and the shortcut just head up two flights of stairs. Anyway, if you want to fight him, that's your business.) In the next room keep heading down the stairs. The door leads to a room with a mimic treasure that can clobber you even if you're built up. I just pass it up, there's nothing worthwhile inside. Anyway, head down the steps and around the passage to a door that leads to another part of the base. From here head west. In the next room go up the stairs with the red light overhead. This will drop you off at an elevator that was broken before and you should be in familiar territory. Head to the room one west over. In this room take the elevator up and head east. Go into the office and you'll meet Mondo and get a cutscene. Mondo will give you an AngelBroach which is one of the better accessories in the game. When you get control of Emelia talk to your team and they'll join you. Now head back the way you came. In the room with the red light above the staircase there is an exit in the southwest corner that ends the mission and takes you back to Koorong. Cake! Now, listen very closely. You will DIE as you are if you haven't spent any time building up yet. The final boss will kill you. Your characters will suffer in terrible agony. That is unless you spend time doing the sidequests. If you've done most of the stuff I list to be done on the side already then you should be fine. But if you haven't, there is still a lot of gaming left to do and a lot to prepare for. Hopefully you're close to the 10,000 credits or so you need to do the ingot trick (you should be.) Remember the ingot trick can be done with as little as 7500 credits but the more you have when you start it the less time-consuming it will be. If you talk to Roufas, he gives you the last paycheck. Talk to him again and he gives you the choice to start the final mission DONT START IT YET. -Quick jump to the Sidequest Section with SID00 ********** * ******** ***** Part Seven - Yorkland WAL07 ********** * ******** ***** DO NOT SAVE ONCE YOU START THIS MISSION! DO NOT SAVE ONCE YOU START THIS MISSION! DO NOT SAVE ONCE YOU START THIS MISSION! Got it? Ok, so you can save, but just not over the only game file you have. Once you go to Yorkland you CAN NOT GO BACK. If Diva is too strong for you then your entire game will be wasted. Don't forget this. Before you go off, are you sure you're ready? All characters should have at a minimum 700 HP. I wouldnt go near Diva with anything less then 50 DEF. Every character should be able to heal somehow, even if its just one potion. Defensive buffs like Shield Tarot are nice as well but not necessary. My entire strategy is based on using the DSC - at least Liza should have it by now. If she doesn't then get back to leveling. No joke, Diva has a heck of a lot of hp and the DSC is the best way to kill it. Hopefully, you've got something better then a 7 point attack - LifeSprinkler is nice. BoundShot of course - your gunner would probably make a good support character with StarlightHeal and a backpack for backup. If you have a katana like SilverMoon then Katana techs like Tres Flores are nice. Any big damage spells work good: Mega Windblast, Vermillion Sands, and ReverseGravity. If you decide to use TimeLord then make sure to give him a backpack and Light Sword in addition to whatever big damage spell and overdrive you use. The Light Sword spell will give him a strong attack after Overdrive has sucked his WP and JP and the backpack will make him a little more useful. You should have MaxCures all around. When you're sure you're ready talk to Roufas and say Ready! You'll appear in a jungle area (near Yorkland) This area is easy to navigate just keep heading east. Don't drain yourselves on the random monsters. If you have other teams that can handle themselves, let them get a workout and leave your main group of five rested. Three screens in or so you'll run across a bridge with a mini-boss guarding it. If you've got a SanctuaryStone feel free to go all out on him, otherwise play it safe. The miniboss will start with power save which will boost his strength and he can probably kill a character in one to two hits as he can deal upwards of 600 damage. Fortunately he doesn't have that much HP so you should be able to kill him easily enough. If he is difficult for you then you will die on Diva. Three or four scenes after this, you'll be treated to a bit of dialogue by Emelia. Head east once more and you'll be at the Church. SAVE BEFORE YOU GO INSIDE - but not over your slot from before you started the mission. Don't forget. Inside you'll see a cutscene and Emelia will put on the WeddingDress. After the cutscene you'll be in a fight with... +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ FINAL BOSS DIVA This is it! Diva has multiple forms that you'll have to hack through so stay on your toes. You should have a routine down by now, spend the first round activating any buffs you want to then in the second round launch an all out assault on Diva. You may want to save enough WP for the DSC until after Diva changes forms though. The best way to damage Diva is with combos and the DSC. Dont use moves that you know dont combo well. I am rather fond of LifeSprinkler + ReverseGravity which seems to combo well for me and can deal close to 10k damage. Diva's first form is that of a sort of floating statue with a humanoid torso and a bunch of weapons. This form has multiple lightning attacks that it shoots at you and yes it does get multiple attacks per turn. So keep your health up. I'd say if you drop to 300 you should heal but be aware of how much damage Diva does in relation to your max HP. This form can also paralyze you which is highly frustrating. I'm not sure when it changes forms, but after you do considerable damage to it to say the least. Also stay on your toes for its Death Gaze which can instantly kill. After you do enough damage it will change forms and point its axe in the direction of your party. At this point it will begin using some really nasty stuff and has a wide variety of monster attacks it uses on you: Tornado, HeatSmash, GroundHit - so its hard to have protection from any one specific property. Diva has one of the largest HP totals of any final boss in the game, I believe its supposed to be somewhere in excess of 100,000 so it will take a while to beat all of that HP out of Diva. But just keep your attacks up and keep healed. Don't let Diva force you into competing to keep people alive. You've got to hold the advantage. The fight is grueling if for no other reason then because of how long Diva takes to die. But with the proper stats you WILL prevail. If you don't think you are ready then level up some more. Even if you do get killed you'll have a better idea of what you face. Good luck! ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ After Diva dies you'll get to see the ending cutscene. If you've got the good ending then you'll finally know the truth. If you got the bad ending then you should play the good ending - its easier :P Note - if this happens to be the last scenario you need to beat in order to get to 2nd Div then you'll spawn in 2nd Div in the wedding dress! If you're not quite at 2nd Div yet then you've got your work cut out for you. You can always keep your save file around and after you make it to 2nd Div with someone else you can come back and kill Diva again. Well, if you're a total Emelia fanboy like me that's what you would do... *********** ***** On the Side SID00 *********** ***** This section is designed to be followed as a walkthrough to be read in order however you can skip to various parts of the section if you want. *********** * ********************* ***** On the Side - Character Recruitment SID01 *********** * ********************* ***** As you're looking through this section and thinking about which characters to recruit keep in mind that if Tanzer is attempted (And you must beat him as well as the other rune quest to unlock a few characters) with less then 15 characters you will be FORCED to recruit Slime who joins you automatically so if you really want characters like Fuse, Gen, and TimeLord in your party you would be well advised to keep this in mind. I mention this first only because people are curious. I think the best way to play is to develop a core group of five characters. That being the case I have two party recommendations (Though I encourage you to use whoever you like) Good Ending: Zozma Asellus Roufas Liza Emelia Bad Ending: Annie Liza Roufas Emelia Rouge Both these parties are powerful but if you're shooting for the bad ending you'll want to power up before Asellus and Zozma become available. Anyway just keep that in mind while you're looking through who all can be recruited. Alright, let's get down to business. I assume you're either coming here before taking on the Martial Arts Tournament or AFTER getting Asellus at the Trinity Base. In either case, presumably you want to know who you can recruit for your party. First thing's first - remember Koorong lets you get to more places then any other town and the only way to get to Nelson is by going through Owmi which you must get to by leaving from Koorong. You'll grow fond of Nelson I suspect. It seems that even if you start the Arcane Tarot quest you still wont be able to recruit Gen (I could have SWORN this was possible but in my last playthrough I wasnt able to do so *shrug*) So you'll have to put the swordmaster off until later when he's useless. Regardless, you might as well go to Scrap. You can recruit Mei-Ling, Lute, and Riki if you want. Name: Lute Race: Human Sex: Male HP: 80 LP: 10/10 WP: 10/10 JP: 0/0 STR: 7 Knife ---------- QUI: 4 ---------- ---------- INT: 10 ---------- ---------- WIL: 2 ---------- ---------- PSY: 13 Yolk Hat ---------- VIT: 4 HardLeather ---------- CHA: 18 CottonShirt ---------- DEF: 20 ---------- ---------- Comment: Just another fighter, don't bother unless you really like him or really like Thunder Name: Mei-ling Race: Human Sex: Female HP: 70 LP: 10/10 WP: 9/9 JP: 16/16 STR: 3 AGUNI-SSP SharpShot QUI: 8 ---------- SunRay INT: 12 ---------- StarlightHeal WIL: 7 ---------- ---------- PSY: 16 FiberVest ---------- VIT: 7 SilkShirt ---------- CHA: 10 LeatherGlove ---------- DEF: 18 LeatherBoots ---------- Comment: Supposedly good with guns and magic. Some people like her, I don't see where you need her with all the other good story characters you have. Has a connection to Fei-on so might be worth getting because of that Name: Riki Race: Lummox Sex: Neutral HP: 72 LP: 10/10 WP: 16/16 JP: 12/12 STR: 8 ---------- Tail QUI: 8 ---------- TailHit INT: 8 ---------- Heal WIL: 8 ---------- ---------- PSY: 8 ---------- VIT: 8 ---------- CHA: 8 ---------- DEF: 6 ---------- Comment: Its nice that he starts with heal but his form sucks. Recruit if you dont want Lute. Or just skip him because you dont like monsters, like me. Alright, now head over to the junk shop. If you want to do the junk shop trick you might as well do it now. You'll end up with enough credits for the ingot trick most likely, though it is time consuming Alright, here's how it works. Pay to get three items (300 Credits) then talk to the guy again and choose selling. Now try to sell a HyperionBazooka, yes I know you dont have one, but do it anyway. The game will beep at you since you dont have one. Now go inside to get your items. YOu can get 7 items instead of three. Once you get your 7 items try to sell a bazooka again and repeat ad nauseum. For some reason, when you sell 20 repair kits or so the items inside will start upgrading. Eventually you can get things like Warlord Armor and some other goodies. But the real goal is to get enough junk to take back to Shrike and sell for a tidy profit. Anyway, I guess this is a bug so if you don't like abusing bugs then skip this part. Remember you can sell swords in Shrike and armor in Koorong. A few notes on the Junk Shop Sometimes it costs 600 credits instead of 300 credits. I believe the amount charged by the Shopkeeper is based on the items you receive. I seem to recall him once charging me 1,000 credits as well. But this was when I was much higher level. It seems to be based on A. How many credits you have B. What level you are So if he charges more, that's good :) It might be easier to get the better items. It also seems that it doesnt matter how MANY repair kits to sell just as long as you try to sell them. Anyway, I definately noticed the difference when I had more credits so try getting swords and taking them to Shrike to sell. This can be a lot of trouble without the region map though :( A bunch of other FAQs describe the Junk Shop better then me, so if you want to look at a Scrap guide go for it. ~again~ If you don't like using bugs then you might want to skip the Junk Shop though I tell you if you want to use gunners then you will want to get LethalGuns this way otherwise you might never EVER see a LethalGun anywhere. When you're done, head back to Koorong via the port. If you want Thunder (and you recruited Lute) fly to Yorkland. Name: Thunder Race: Ogre Sex: Neutral HP: 228 LP: 10/10 WP: 36/36 JP: 28/28 STR: 25 ---------- BoltBreath QUI: 11 ---------- GroundHit INT: 16 ---------- Dash WIL: 12 ---------- Feint PSY: 20 ---------- VIT: 24 ---------- CHA: 6 ---------- DEF: 16 ---------- Comment: Not a bad first form, a pity you need Lute to get him. If you don't like Lute and want a monster just stick with Riki. There is yet -ANOTHER- monster you can recruit, Cotton. Cotton is apparently an IRPO agent so you may not want to get him until you've recruited someone from IRPO (I believe Silence doesnt have a scene, so that means you'd need Fuse who you wont be able to get for a long time) Anyway, Cotton is in the Bio Research Lab. Enter the lab and head south and up the staircase. In the next area head up the steps and into the topmost room. Check the shelf to find a door, pass through it and down the ladder. Follow the corridor south and keep going west. See the red door north of you? That's where you want to be. Pass to the next area. Head up the stairs and through the door. Inside you'll see a scene then will be attacked by some enemies. They shouldn't be too difficult. As I mentioned if you have someone from IRPO you'll see an extra bit of dialogue with Cotton but if you're following this to the letter, you won't have anyone yet. After the fight Cotton automatically joins you. - Obviously dont do this unless you WANT Cotton :) Name: Cotton Race: Tidi Sex: Neutral HP: 228 LP: 7/7 WP: 46/46 JP: 20/20 STR: 16 ---------- Assist QUI: 31 ---------- Heal INT: 12 ---------- Needles WIL: 22 ---------- Supersonic PSY: 13 ---------- VIT: 16 ---------- CHA: 21 ---------- DEF: 24 ---------- Comment: He's alright. I only use him in Red's scenario. What can I say? Just another monster. Once you've settled on a monster (If you want one at all) head on over to Luminous. If you REALLY like magic, Rouge is your man. Talk to him and tell him you ARE searching for the gift. He is an EXCELLENT spellcaster. Name: Rouge Race: Human Sex: Male HP: 125 LP: 7/7 WP: 0/0 JP: 30/30 STR: 9 ---------- EnergyChain QUI: 19 ---------- Implosion INT: 29 ---------- PsychoArmor WIL: 24+5 ---------- Gate PSY: 26+5 MasterRobe ---------- VIT: 8 Magicwear ---------- CHA: 14 ---------- ---------- DEF: 14 ---------- ---------- Comment: The only character who has the gift of Realm Magic - one of the better types of magic. Naturally an excellent spellcaster and a good choice for any party period. Note his "Gate" spell this spell can not be used in battle and does absolutely nothing besides occupy a skill slot. Helpful for getting a Magic Crown before you have enough spells to fill up his list. This is apparently supposed to represent the spell used in conjunction with the RegionMap from Blue's Scenario. If you go to the Magic Kingdom Rouge will leave you though he can be picked up again from Devin or Luminous. And while we're on the subject of the Magic Kingdom I feel I should point something out. Since Rune Magic is more or less a topic of discussion in Emelia's scenario you may want to consider picking up some Rune Swords from the Magic Kingdom's weapon/item shop. The Rune Sword is an interesting blade at 2850 credits. It has 50 ATK which makes it pretty strong (though obviously the 60 ATK Zero Sword will give superior performance) but what makes it really interesting are its innate powers. When equipped it gives the wielder access to the Victory Rune regardless of whether that character has the Victory Rune equipped. Now here's where things get interesting - if you equip the Stasis Rune at the same time then the Rune Sword will get a SECOND power - the Mirage Spell Cockatrice. Between getting Asellus (easy Mesarthim recruiting) and the very real possibility that you'll be tackling the Rune Quest this might be something to consider for any of your four characters that can get the rune gift. Also you cant go wrong with buying EnergyChain for your non-mystic magic using spellcasters. So you may want to make a trip or two to the Magic Kingdom at some point. There is one other character you can recruit in Luminous - Silence. To get Silence, you'll need to acquire the Shadow Magic gift with Emelia - if you want her to have the Light Magic gift she will NOT be able to recruit Silence. Anyway - following is a guide for the Shadow Magic dungeon so if you don't want Silence (A mystic, you dont NEED him, but for completeness's sake) just ignore this next part. Head through the door's of Luminous's Port and go to the northeast corner to enter the Shadow Magic Sanctuary. Talk to the person there and ask about the gift of Shadow Magic. They'll ask if you want to go to Omble, agree and travel there. Anyone with LightMagic (White Rose, Mei-ling) will not travel with you. Note the man standing in the corner to your right as you enter the dungeon. Head west and up towards the steps (Not the ones to the door, but under the bridge) There you'll find Silence's shadow. Talk to him and offer to help out. Once you do this you'll be able to recruit Silence when you beat Omble. If you dont get Silence's Shadow now you will NEVER BE ABLE TO RECRUIT SILENCE. THis is important so don't forget it. Anyway, head back around and over to the bridge and go through the door along the northwest corner. Now you'll find the shadows of monsters and will have to fight them. Head west and up the steps to the south. Cross the bridge and go up the west steps to another room. Now head west along the bottom of the room and swing around into a spiral hall. Follow the hall into the next room where you'll see lots of shadows. The goal here is to find your shadow and send it to the next room by touching its feet.
Emelia's can be kind of hard to recognize but do your best. Once you've got it moved, get out of there. Go back to the first room that you entered after crossing the bridge and head all the way north. Now you'll be in the room next to the shadow room and any shadows you sent over will be here. Try to find yours (if you sent more then one) and again touch its feet. When you do that head north. Now you'll be in a boss fight against the shadows of your party. They have identical stats to you so hopefully you know who the biggest threat is. I cant offer much strategy here so I hope you know your party. The fight SHOULD be easy though since if you attack first with your best attacks you will probably kill the shades. When you win you will leave the dungeon, get any characters you left behind back and everyone who was with you now has the gift for Shadow Magic. Go up to Silence and he automatically joins. Name: Silence Race: Mystics Sex: Male HP: 150 LP: 8/8 WP: 25/25 JP: 20/20 STR: 21+31 HandBlaster PhantasmShot QUI: 19+17 ---------- ---------- INT: 16+14 ---------- ---------- WIL: 11+22 ---------- ---------- PSY: 24+23 MysticMail MysticSword (Unknown) VIT: 16 ---------- MysticGlove (Gunfish) CHA: 23+9 ---------- MysticBoots (Platoonpus) DEF: 23 ---------- Comment: Well, I WOULDN'T get him, but I like Light Magic much more then Dark Magic and prefer to get that with Emelia. With all the Mystics you already have (and with the ones you can still get) he is pretty useless. But if you really like Mystics go for it. He does have the IRPO Weapon the HandBlaster which is an interesting toy. That actually just about does it for recruitable characters. There are still several you can get but to get them you will have to do some complicated side quests. Theoretically you can get Mesarthim but you have to fight your way past a tough boss to get to her and you probably aren't strong enough to handle him yet. Still, you can grab her before you start the rune quest if you like. You'll need to buff up to deal with the Tanzer boss anyway. ******** * ****************** ***** Addendum - Luminous Labyrinth LUM00 ******** * ****************** ***** Alright, we've got a walkthrough of Omble right here, but not Luminous Labyrinth. If you plan on getting TimeLord, you probably won't want to do this for a LONG time yet but here's the guide to the Labyrinth anyway. From Luminous's port, there is a small passage to the west next to the Light Magic shop. Go there and you'll be in an area with a Priestess. Talk to her and she will allow you to challenge Luminous Labyrinth. Shadow Magic users will not be able to travel with you to the Labyrinth (nor will mechs and monsters) but everyone else who can travel to the Labyrinth with you will be rewarded Light Magic. Don't worry, it's an easy dungeon and you can even score some extra goodies. Once you enter the Labyrinth follow the light beam into the next room. Here you'll see the light being directed by refractors. The goal is to turn the light so that it points at the door. Go forward and hit the first refractor to turn the light around the other corner. Now go up to the second refractor that is now receiving the beam of light and flip it. This will open the door. In the next room, you'll have to collect a light disc and move it to help direct the light. Follow the beam forward to the disc and grab it. Then follow the beam forward and you'll see another stand for the disc - ignore this stand, its a decoy. Head south and you should see another disc stand near the bottom of the room, place the disc there. Head north from the stand to the refractor the light is running through. Flip it. This will turn the light beam backwards towards the disc. There are two refractors near the disc, one point the beam towards the wall and the other pointing it around the corner to the back of the room. Flip both these refractors. Now the door is open. We're almost done but this room is a bit trickier then the others. As you can see the light is being colored by various plates. The goal is to point a specific color at the triangle pattern in the front of the room. Different colors lead to different results: White Light: Exit Red Light: Fight strong enemies Blue Light: Fight regular enemies Purple Light: Receive a Sanctuary Stone Teal Light: Moonlight Robe Yellow Light: 400 credits I assume you want the goodies so the first thing you should do is go to the north room. Flip the green light refractor and this should turn the blue light refractor teal. Now flip that refractor and teal light is shining on the triangle. Go to the triangle to get the robe. Now head to the southeast corner where there is a light disc. Grab it. Also flip the refractor that was pointing the light beam at the disc. This will make the light hitting the triangle yellow, so go get your credits. Remember this setup, all you have to do now is put the light disc on the stand in front of the red screen to open the exit. Now, flip the green refractor, then place the disc on the stand in front of the red screen. This will turn the light purple and you'll be able to get the Sanctuary Stone. If you get any one treasure here, get the Sanctuary Stone. After that, flip the green refractor again and you'll open the exit. Enjoy your door prizes and light magic gift :) *********** * ************** ***** On the Side - Where to level SID02 *********** * ************** ***** So let's talk for a minute about leveling. First off, how are you doing on credits? If you've done the Scrap trick you'll be ready to do the Gold Ingot trick. If you didn't do the Scrap trick because you dont like cheating then you will NOT be ready to do the Gold Ingot trick. I advise doing the Ingot Trick even if you dont like taking advantage of bugs. You dont get much money from battles and sitting around fighting until you have enough money for decent equipment is really no fun at all. On the assumption that you need to do some leveling though I'll take you to my leveling spot. Save and make sure your party is positioned the way you want. If you're curious my Emelia dream team is Zozma, Asellus, Liza, Roufas, and Emelia so all this recruiting we just did would have been for naught in my case :) Head to Shrike and go to the Bio Research Lab. This is the best place in the entire game for leveling up on random battles. There is one room specifically that I like to use. Go through the middle door along the eastern wall and you'll be in a circular room with a...something... in the middle. This room has three scientists. When you talk to them they turn into mystic type enemies for your killing pleasure. The nice thing about this room is that the mystic type enemies you face offer no real surprises insofar as status effects and the like are concerned. They are strong, no question about it, but they wont hex you to death with crap spells so if you use your strongest attacks you are sure to win. When you get tired head back to town to heal in the Inn for free. Eventually the enemies max out and wont get any stronger, but you'll find enemies like DarkFairies regularly and that means the shot for a SilverMoon Sword - the SilverMoon an ATK 69 Katana is one of the best weapons in the game. But you wont get those for awhile, you need to build up quite a bit first. The Zyphons (which are the strongest type of enemy that appear here) also drop WindShells which are VERY nice accessories. So be on the look out for both of those items. I will leave this to you, the building up aspect. I will say that I like to have around 500 hp for Emelia before tackling the fifth mission and maybe closer to 700 hp before the final boss. But I always liked doing battles in this game so it didnt seem like such a chore to level up. Also for skills: Sword users should have at least a 7 WP attack - those and anything higher are strong enough for end game Gun users should have BoundShot and TwoGun Spellcasters need one big damage spell: Vermillion Sands for Rouge and Mega Windblast for others. You can also buy ReverseGravity later on but that will be much later after you've done all of the rune quest. Martial Artists - remember the four skills I mentioned to get for Liza, this goes for any fist user. You will be happy :) Anyway, now that you've got the leveling spot down let's deal with the money issue. You need roughly 7500 credits to do the GOld Ingot Trick. Once you have enough credits, fly to Nelson via Owmi. Talk to the guy in the bar who will sell you gold ingots. Buy as many as you can carry then hotfoot it back to Koorong. Now, when you sell a gold ingot the price on the next one goes down, see? Well, sell ingots until the price is 520 credits. Head back to Nelson, stock back up with the money you made, and return to Koorong. Now try to sell ALL your ingots. Eventually it will get to 0 credits but keep moving the selector until all your ingots are up for sale. Do NOT hit the transaction button, instead press up to reduce the number of ingots you are selling. The price will go up! Eventually you'll get back to the max price. Sell back down to 520 credits, return to Nelson for more credits and repeat the process. This is time consuming but eventually you'll be able to make in excess of 50,000 credits. Apparently the trick glitches up if you try to make more then 50k so be warned. Use all this money to buy weapons and armor. Here is eq that I like Zero Sword (ATK 60) - Buy from Nelson Lethal Gun (ATK 60) - Scrap Junk Shop ExcelShield - Scrap Junk Shop MaxCure - Koorong Potion Shop Warlord Armor (DEF 32) - Buy from Nelson/Scrap Junk Shop (replaced by Cyber Suits later on) Power Suit (DEF 50) - Buy from Koorong Hyperwear (DEF 10) - Buy from Koorong Rune Sword (ATK 50) - Buy from Magic Kingdom Mirror Glass (DEF 8) - Buy from Koorong/Scrap Junk Shop Cyber Glove (DEF 9) - Buy from Koorong Power Suits can be combined with hyperwear and accessories for high defense Otherwise use Warlord Armor with good helms/boots like mirror glass etc for different stat bonuses. There is some better stuff out there but at this point these are all easy to acquire goodies. Also, remember Suits wont let you use anything but tunics/accessories and Mystics generally all have MysticMail permanently equipped so they cant use tunics at all. Take some time to think about what kind of magic you want each character to use. Remember all my ranting at the beginning of the guide. Emelia, Annie, and Liza are the only people who will have the rune gift (And Mesarthim if you get her - I recommend if you're going for the good ending and have recruited Asellus, otherwise its no biggie since there will be THREE rune magic users in your main party) If you really like attack spells, Rouge has the potent Vermillion Sands and any serious spellcaster should have Light Magic instead of Shadow Magic - Mega Windblast and Starlight Heal are no jokes. Shadow Magic is good for characters who aren't necessarily pure mages. Also, remember when I explained how to get Silence - if you want him you need to make Emelia a Shadow Magic user. Also, if you really ~REALLY~ hate leveling up and doing sidequests and just want to get this scenario over as soon as possible then make sure to get your sword users the gift for light magic and try to acquire the light sword spell which will give you a very strong weapon. Actually, this is a good idea period, but if you don't mind doing sidequests you'll get a couple of very powerful swords. With all your spending out of the way you just need to keep those levels up level until your heart is content. Dont go crazy though if you plan on using one of the characters you can recruit from the magic quests. If you're curious: Fuse (Arcane) Suzaku (Arcane) Gen (Arcane) Fei-on (Rune) Slime (Rune) TimeLord (Time) Kylin (Space) And of course Mesarthim. That just about does it for recruitable characters. As you can see, Emelia has a very wide-ranging choice. Also for your mystics keep in mind that at higher levels Suzakus appear on the lower levels of the Bio Research Lab - these creatures add +20 to all stats and make for the best things to absorb in your mystic weapons. Other then that I leave the care and feeding of your mystics up to you. Remember that weapons/armor can make the character much moreso then high stats. Not that you dont need high stats for the end boss because you DO but for a lot of the sidequests, powerful eq can carry you further then stats. If you're trying to avoid the Scrap and Gold Ingot tricks then you can always stick with spellcasters and martial artists who dont need expensive weapons to do good damage. I'll have more details about each of those characters as I explain the subquests to get them but if you're wondering if any of them are worth waiting for then I'll say this - TimeLord is a great spellcaster if he has the Light Magic gift to combine with Overdrive so if you want to use him make sure to hold off on getting Light Magic. Note that if you want both Gen and Fuse to get the Arcane gift you'll have to do a little extra legwork. You dont have to go to Wakatu right after recruiting Gen so you'll need to recruit him and then travel to IRPO instead of Wakatu. Well, its not like Gen is a great spellcaster anyway. If you do plan on using TimeLord again as I said LIGHT MAGIC that means that Fei-on, Gen, and Fuse will also all be stuck with Light Magic since you'll have had to acquire the Shadow Gift beforehand. Also, dont get Mind Magic until you've recruited all your humans. There are still 3 humans you can recruit (Fuse, Gen, Fei-on) so don't forget about them. Anyway, you know what you've got to do to prepare yourself. So the rest of this section will be devoted to getting the extra quests out of the way. First, we'll take a look at recruiting Mesarthim. You can also recruit King Sei - though I wouldnt recruit him at all if I were you, since recruiting him means passing up on the Kusanagi - one of the best weapons in the game. After recruiting Mesarthim I'll talk about King Sei. I should say that everything after this is entirely optional - getting better weapons and leveling up ISNT since there's no way to beat Diva without improving your stats. Just keep that in mind. I do recommend that you finish out the rune quest if you were wondering if it was worth it. There's a couple reasons for this. The most important of all is that you can get access to Asura - one of the strongest weapons in the game - this way. The other is of course to simply have some of the powerful, but difficult to acquire abilities, just to say you have them. Anyway, if you get sick of doing sidequests then just stop them and continue with the main scenario. Though personally, I like to get as much mileage out of each scenario as possible. Anyway, it IS your game, so do what's fun to you. *********** * ********************* ***** On the Side - Recruiting Mesarthim SID03 *********** * ********************* ***** First thing's first - if you're skipping around I will say again that you NEED Asellus before you can recruit Mesarthim. Mesarthim is one of only four characters in Emelia's scenario that can learn Rune Magic so she is worth recruiting for that at least. As I mentioned, there is a fairly strong boss you must fight to get to Mesarthim. This is the Devil Squid which you may remember from Asellus's scenario. However, unlike that scenario you don't have Mesarthim helping you (since she hasnt joined you yet) and you dont have the Asura which you wont be able to get until after you've finished up the Rune Sidequest. If you're not there already, get to Owmi by way of Koorong. Head out of the port across the bridge and north to the Lord's Manor. In Emelia's scenario the manor is empty (sans some goodies) but in Asellus and Riki's scenarios the Lord of the Manor plays an important role. Anyway, once you enter the manor, head to the right through the east door. Follow the hall around and go down the stairs. Follow the stairs in this passage down and go throw the door. In the next room the door north of you leads to the dungeon and the stairs around the corner lead to some goodies you can pick up. Once you've got the RubberSuit and MaxCure head through the door into the dungeon. The first room is straight forward, just down the steps and across to the stairs leading further into the dungeon. In the next room are some more goodies to pick up: some Magi Water and a VERY VALUABLE SanctuaryStone. You don't get many SanctuaryStones so use it with care. Head through the door to the south for another room with treasures. The JetBoots are a nice set of armor that can help you avoid earth-based attacks. Go through the door and you'll be in the room with the DevilSquid. Save then attack. ----------- BOSS BATTLE Devil Squid As you will most likely learn, difficulty in this game is extremely subjective. While this boss might be almost impossible to kill with a team that has just walked out of Trinity Base with Asellus and co if you've spent some time leveling and getting better equipment this boss can be a walk in the park. Open with your strongest attacks as always and remember it is a water-based creature. The DevilSquid's Maelstrom attack will OBLITERATE your party if you don't have any sort of protection against water-based attacks - or a lot of hp - so don't even bother unless you can handle this attack. At a minimum try for 350 hp per character. He also has powerful single character attacks that can finish you off quickly. If he is too hard then you've little choice but to spend some time powering up and returning later. I believe he has around 5,000 hp, but don't quote me on that. ------------------------------------------------------------- Once you defeat the DevilSquid go down the steps and into the west room. There you'll meet Mesarthim and she'll join your party. When you come back out the DevilSquid will be back (Great...) and you'll have to deal with him again. If you just barely beat him then you might as well save and use that SanctuaryStone - you should be able to get him a second time as well. If you're curious the treasure is a trap that drops you to the bottom of the dungeon. If you feel like exploring there are some more goodies to pick up. Here are Mesarthim's stats Name: Mesarthim Race: Mystics Sex: Female HP: 200 LP: 8/8 WP: 18/18 JP: 26/26 STR: 17 ShadowDagger Fascination QUI: 23 ---------- VictoryRune INT: 16 ---------- ---------- WIL: 12 ---------- ---------- PSY: 24+3 BlueElf ---------- VIT: 11 ---------- ---------- CHA: 25 ---------- ---------- DEF: 21 MellowRing Comment: Like all mystics she has a piece of armor that cannot be removed. Unlike other mystics its a necklace and not crappy armor so she can be equipped with Power Suits or whatever else you like making her be able to get the best defense of any mystic in the game! I believe it is her MellowRing that gives her the life rain ability which, at the cost of one of her life points restores the rest of your party. That plus her two magic gifts by default make her a VERY useful character. Im not sure what she gives you if you ask for an item - it would be silly to do that. Checking is on my to-do list for next time I come through that area. *********** * ****************** ***** On the Side - Acquiring Kusanagi SID04 *********** * ****************** ***** What you really need for this next task is equipment. As I've been stressing equipment can make the character and in this case it is true. Good armor can suck the life out of Sei's attacks and make even weak characters up to the task of handling Sei. Remember way back when we raided King Sei's tomb for the sword and other goodies? Its time to return those items, hopefully you've traded up to Zero Swords and the like by now. Return to the circular room in Sei's Tomb and place the objects on the pedestals. This will open up a new passage. If you go inside you'll see a scene and then King Sei will challenge you ----------- BOSS BATTLE King Sei (1) Dead Knight (4) When the fight starts, Sei will summon four Dead Knights and then the enemy gets to take a free round. Be prepared to heal when you finally get to attack. You need to hack through the Dead Knights to be able to hit Sei. If you were able to get to Mesarthim, you SHOULD be strong enough to kill King Sei, still I recommend HP close to, if not above 500 - again good armor can drastically lower this number - but you may want high hp just to be safe. Presumably your other stats and equipment match. I like to start with area attacks to mop up the dead Knights then turn my best attacks on King Sei. You should combo him for some large damage. Also how is Liza doing on the DSC? You need Sliding, Suplex, BabelCrumble, and GiantSwing. Keep that in mind in case she picks up any of those skills. What really makes this fight annoying is all the deflecting that goes on. The Dead Knights all have really good deflect rates and will constantly deflect your attacks. Also, don't forget that Sei can heal every round with his Deathsynthesis. You need to be able to inflict at least 1,000 damage on him per turn. Hopefully you've got at least one healer besides whoever has the backpack to keep up the HP of anyone who gets hurt by Sei. His best attacks are Kusanagi (damage to one person) and MinionStrike (damage to the group) but it shouldn't be anything you can't handle. Sei shouldn't take too long to fall. Something else to keep in mind - speed and luck can contribute to killing the DevilSquid that is protecting Mesarthim - I was lucky enough to have Maelstrom miss Roufas and managed to get a TripleThrust off - otherwise I would have been killed. If you barely beat the DevilSquid you probably will not be ready to take on Sei Sei has one ability 'Battle Song' which effects everyone, including your team and boosts strength. I think I get more mileage out of it then his Dead Knights do --------------- Now that you've defeated King Sei, he gives you a choice, he will join you or bestow his sword, Kusanagi, upon you. Kusanagi is a magical sword with an ATK of 66 - that is its basic attack costs 2 WP to use but it does more damage then a regular swing. You can still use moves like DoubleSlash to learn new attacks with Kusanagi though. I say take the sword, give it to someone like Zozma - who as a mystic could use the extra attack - and keep on rolling. If you REALLY LIKE monsters though you can consider recruiting Sei. He is a medium strength monster so you will have to evolve him some. His stats: Name: Sei Race: DeathLord Sex: Male HP: 444 LP: 4/4 WP: 99/99 JP: 66/66 STR: 41 ---------- Kusanagi QUI: 34 ---------- HPDrain INT: 34 ---------- MinionStrike WIL: 40 ---------- SacredSong PSY: 34 Deathsynthesis VIT: 44 ---------- CHA: 40 ---------- DEF: 35 ---------- Comment: I couldn't imagine passing up the Kusanagi sword for Sei, but if you are really into monsters then he might be a good choice. He has pretty good stats but you'll need something stronger for later in the game. His Kusanagi, MinionStrike, and SacredSong abilities are completely unique so don't let him lose those - especially Kusanagi since you sacrificed the sword to get him. *********** * ************** ***** On the Side - The Rune Quest SID05 *********** * ************** ***** At this point you might as well finish up collecting the runes. If you've got someone who is using magic (like Rouge) you'll probably want to get to Kylin and learn space magic so there is no reason to delay this quest. If you simply don't care about magic the rest of this is probably skippable Just make sure you're strong enough to deal with Diva. Anyway, to get things rolling fly to Devin and talk to the Rune Magic Master about the the gift. She'll give you the rune pebbles without asking if you want the gift as she's impressed you already have one rune. With that the rune quest will be started. If you're worried about trying to follow the side section in order, don't worry - Tanzer for instance is much easier then getting Kusanagi, I simply list Kusanagi first under the assumption you'll want to get the sword as soon as possible. ************** * ***************** ******* The Rune Quest - The Vitality Rune SID05-1 ************** * ***************** ******* Once you get the pebbles from Devin you will get this side quest though I think sometimes you wont get Tanzer until you've collected the other three runes. Im not sure exactly HOW it works but regardless, to handle the "boss" you are going to need some strong attacks. So hopefully you've built up a bit before trying to do this. Fly around somewhere, to anywhere, and you'll be on a ship that you haven't seen before. This ship will be attacked and you'll end up in Tanzer. A cutscene will ensue and you'll meet Nomad and Fei-on. After the cutscene talk to Fei-on. Follow him and he'll lead you to his village. Head to the far passage and talk to Fei-on BE SURE TO OFFER TO HELP HIM - you've come all this way so you might as well recruit him, he is second only to Liza when it comes to kung-fu. Name: Fei-on Race: Human Sex: Male HP: 160 LP: 8/8 WP: 38/38 JP: 0/0 STR: 30 ---------- Kick QUI: 27 ---------- Fist INT: 12 ---------- Backfist WIL: 21 ---------- SwayBack PSY: 18 Budowear ---------- VIT: 25+5 LeatherGlove ---------- CHA: 15 LeatherBoots ---------- DEF: 15 SteelAmulet ---------- Comment: I'll be drawn and quartered for this after that big speech I just made but I rarely use Fei-on. He is very good with his fists no question but Liza is so much better and how many fist users do you need? Anyway, feel free to use him. He's apparently Mei-ling's boyfriend. Talk to him again and he'll ask you if you're going. Tell him yes, then follow him. The passage next to Fei-on leads to a room where you can heal your LP but not your WP or JP so conserve those points for later. If you havent already, consider setting up two teams of characters that you can cycle between while you're here. Now, follow Fei-on all the way north. In the next chamber head all the way North again and check the wall to be sucked into another passage. Head all the way north yet again, then follow Fei-on in the next room when he calls out to you. Go to the next room and up to where Fei-on is standing and through the sucky door thing. Head south and around west to another sucky door thing. Follow this path north to yet ANOTHER door. Keep going north and through ANOTHER door. In the next chamber Fei-on will call out to you so go to him. Go through the door he is standing near. In the next room going south will result in sending you back a ways so dont go that way. Anyway, head north and you'll be in a small area with the sucker blaster thing you came out of and a weird looking grey object. Go to the grey object and you'll be drawn to what is apparently the "slime pits." Slide down the ramp next to you, then on the next level take the slide to the east. Slide again and go through the door. This will put you at the top, so take the larger slide. Slide down again, then hope over and keep sliding. You'll end up next to a grey thing and a big slide. Save here - the grey thing is an exit back just in case you need LP or whatever. The big slide goes to the boss room. Fei-on will confirm you want to fight the boss as well ----------- BOSS BATTLE Big Slime (4) Vitality Rune (1) This is a gimmick fight. What do I mean by that? Simple, the slimes will continually restore themselves no matter how many you kill. So what do you do? You'll notice each character has a command called touch. You must use touch on the Vitality Rune, once you do this the fight is over and you win. Use your best moves to cut through the Slimes as quickly as possible. If you simply aren't strong enough there isnt much you can do. Hopefully you've got a save outside Tanzer that you can use to level up some more. You can also try leveling in Tanzer if you've got two good groups to fight the enemies with since the groups that arent fighting will heal a little. The best I can say for this weird fight is good luck! Note that you need to be able to kill at least one slime per round or you are in for a long and grueling fight. I'm not sure EXACTLY what triggers slime regeneration, Ive seen them regenerate at unusual intervals. So bottom line - as I already mentioned you need to be able to kill at least one slime per round. That means good attacks or decent weapons. -------------------------- When (if?) you succeed you'll be rewarded with some more cutscenes, the Vitality Rune WILL be yours and you'll get to go home. If you agreed to help Fei-on he stays on permanently. Also, if you had an empty space for a party member after beating Tanzer then Slime will join you. His stats: Name: Slime Race: Slime Sex: Neutral HP: 130 LP: 10/10 WP: 26/26 JP: 28/28 STR: 8 ---------- Solvent QUI: 6 ---------- HPDrain INT: 7 ---------- Spoil WIL: 22 ---------- ---------- PSY: 24 ---------- VIT: 28 ---------- CHA: 4 ---------- DEF: 16 ---------- Comment: The dev who came up with the idea for this character must have had a good laugh. As with all monsters Slime can be MADE good but its basic form is crap and if you really like monsters you probably already have Thunder or Riki or something else - this character just wastes a slot that could be used on someone else. ************** * ************* ******* The Rune Quest - The Hide Rune SID05-2 ************** * ************* ******* I'm going to tackle the hide rune first but it doesn't really matter what order you do the next two dungeons in, so if you'd rather go to Mu's Tomb then, well, more power to you. First you need to get to Koorong, head over to the restraunt and instead of going inside, keep going west all the way past the armor shop. This will take you to another portion of the backstreets. Follow the trail along the west side of the screen down the steps. Ignore the first manhole and head south, you can go under what looks like a tarp of some kind to find another manhole. This is the one to enter. Head east then wrap around the corner and go northish to find a bag with some credits (only 200) then head back to the ladder and take the south path. You can follow this through a doorway that goes back outside. Once outside take the stairs up and walk past the building. Ignore the first manhole - which you cant enter - and walk across the plank to find a second manhole. Go down this one. There's a memory board if you head east and wrap around north again but you don't have any mechs so you can't do anything with this item. Just go west through the doorway. You'll be on a very tiny strip with another hidden doorway along the wall running northwestish of you. Climb up the ladder here and you can get to a shop. If you're into special guns this is the place for you - of special note is the HEAT Bazooka (4200) and the HyperBlaster (4020) I dont like these types of weapons because they cant use gun skills but if you're into flashy stuff then this might be the place for you. Anyway, I'll stick with my Lethal Guns and Boundshot. If you're curious the mech who runs this shop is actually a playable character but he only joins T260 :( Anyway, when you're done here, leave the shop and head through what looks like a mine shaft. There's another manhole in here to take and you'll be in a Midgar looking area for sure. Liza will point you in the direction of the mahole if you have her (And you DO have her right?) Take the manhole, then head south in the direction of the monster and follow the path as it circles around to a large cave entrance. We're getting close now since we're in the actual cave where the Hide Rune is. Grab the goodie then head down the steps and swing west up the steps across from you. Keep following the path as it goes west then turns and leads south down more steps. At the bottom is a crack in the east wall that you can go through. The trail leads into a large circular room with a tunnel along the east wall that leads nowhere and a large something (Are those vines?) along the south ledge that leads down to a passage below. Follow this passage south to a room with a Stardust robe, which is alright if you haven't been upgrading armor much. There's a money bag hidden back in the room with the vines that you might have trouble spotting - its got 500 credits in it. Anyway we need to backtrack now. If you go through the crack in the east wall after climbing back up the fines you should notice there are some vines in the small room there. This puts you back at the entrance to the cave so you dont have to backtrack as far :) Anyway head back south and take the south steps this time which lead to a path that heads back west. Follow this to the end then go through the door to the south. Head down the steps into a big room. If you're one who likes to avoid battles it will be difficult in this room since there are a lot of monsters but it isn't impossible, so stay on your toes. The treasure is a Magi-Water. The doorway you want to take out of this room is along the north wall just above where the magi-water is. In this room climb up the vine then head towards the ledge. You can jump across the ledge to the other side if you're running. If you fall down, you can grab the Angel Armor then head through a doorway in the south to another room. From there you can head south again to get to a tiny room that leads back to the big room with the Magi-Water. Anyway, like I said you need to jump across the ledge to continue. Follow the path east and take the steps up into the next room. There's a short path northwest that leads to another crack you can pass through. Follow the stairs up and head west to the next crack in the wall. Now STOP before you go in that room. That is the boss room and you'll want to save before entering. If you got those jet boots way back at the Owmi Manor you might want to equip them here as the boss likes to use earth attacks. Anyway, when you're ready go inside. The Angel Armor also lets you float in air so if you're having trouble you might want to go grab that and stick it on someone. With a DEF of 27 its not much weaker then Warlord Armor. ----------- BOSS BATTLE Quakeworm Wormbrood (3) If you've managed King Sei this should be pretty easy for the most part. I like to open with area attacks to take out the henchmen but dont use your big JP attacks until you can get to the boss. The henchmen seem to like to use buffs on the big one which is frustrating so kill them quickly. If you have Dodge Tremor this is a good time to use it - if you dont have it then, well you might learn it here :p Anyway, besides the earthquake this guy doesn't have anything TOO scary, so hack away at him and heal as needed. Hopefully by now you have a second healer besides just Emelia with her backpack. Remember you dont need a special item to heal a dead character - a regular Cure will do it unless they're out of LP. If you've learned any big moves like Triple Thrust, that'll be an asset here. A Triple Thrust with a zero sword can deal close to 2,000 damage and with those kinds of numbers the boss won't last long ------------------------ Well, after the battle you've got the hide rune. Phew, only one rune left to go! Anyway, you'll have to climb back out of the cave so get back out, get healed, level some more if you like, then meet me in Shrike. Let's finish this. ************** * **************** ******* The Rune Quest - The Victory Rune SID05-3 ************** * **************** ******* Just one lousy dungeon to go, and finally we're going to get the Victory Rune that Roufas joined us to find so long ago. If you haven't already head over to street and make sure to heal up then meet me at Mu's Tomb. This time we'll take the path that leads to the east side of the ruins. Check the door, then pick go in anyway. In the next room, proceed through the door (you have to "check" it to open it) The goodie in this room is just a ShadowDagger so head south into the next area. Keep heading south through the next room. Take the path directly east of you that leads down some steps, head to the south end of this room to find a chest with a katana. This ATK 34 sword is better then Roufas's Samurai Sword though if you're like me and already have Zero Swords and the like you won't get much mileage out of it. Head down the steps here that lead into another room. Head left and around the large enclosed area. There is a path in the bottom west you need to take though its guarded by quite a few monsters so be prepared to fight. Once you hack your way through the hordes, take the door. Run across this next room to a doorway along the northeast. Through the door is the boss (yes already!) so make sure to save before challenging him. Then step inside and prepare to battle. ----------- BOSS BATTLE Skulldrake I love this music - anyway, spend the first turn using buffs, shield, victory rune, or whatever else you like. You can't damage him so keep that in mind. If you're using Asellus you can undergo mystic change which is nice. At the end of the first round the bones will assemble into the Skulldrake, now use your best attacks on him. He can heal close to 1k per turn though if you can't deal significantly more then that, you probably aren't strong enough to win :) He has some strong attacks so having healers is important for this fight but if you're using combo moves you should be able to cause big damage to him. Fire based attacks don't seem to effect him, so don't use something like Heat Smash. He actually doesn't have that much HP, the scariest thing about him is probably the epic music. In fact, I've killed him before without him using any of his ugly attacks. The free round for buffing makes this fight fairly easy. You should be able to handle it fine. --------------------------------- After this fight, the last rune is yours. Annie, Liza, and Emelia will get the gift for rune magic and you can depart the dungeon safe in the knowledge that Asura is just a short region flight away! *********** * ******* ***** On the Side - Errands SID06 *********** * ******* ***** If you haven't gotten one of the gifts from Luminous be sure to do that now. Again I recommend getting Shadow Magic and waiting to get Light Magic until AFTER you've acquired TimeLord. Be sure you have everyone in your party that you want. The Rune Magic gift could only be learned by Liza, Annie, and Emelia so that was no big deal but you don't want to hose anyone else on gifts. If you haven't already picked up the cards pay a visit to Devin and grab them. Then head back to Koorong. First try to fly to Wakatu then find a skeleton lounging around near the entrance to the part of the Backstreets where Dr. Nusaken is. You need to to talk to him in order to recruit Gen. Now fly back to Scrap and get Gen, he's pretty much the best sword user in the game though you're recruiting him so late that you might not get much use out of him. You still need to do some leg-work to recruit Fuse, Suzaku, TimeLord, and Kylin so if you want any of those four make sure to save room for them. Again I DO NOT recommend getting Kylin but that's your call. Also, coming up is going to be your one shot at Fascinaturu and being able to buy Mystic Magic - you'll definately want to buy fascination for Asellus (So she can learn the rest of the spells) but if you want a human to be able to cast the basic spells for some reason be sure to have enough money to buy them. Gen's stats: Name: Gen Race: Human Sex: Male HP: 120 LP: 10/10 WP: 15/15 JP: 0/0 STR: 19 BroadSword Kick QUI: 16 ---------- StunSlash INT: 8 ---------- DoubleSlash WIL: 10 ---------- HardSlash PSY: 12 Budowear Thrust VIT: 18 ---------- Deflect CHA: 6 ---------- ---------- DEF: 7 ---------- ---------- Comment: He also knows CrossSlash though he doesn't have it equipped. Yes, he STARTS with a physical crown. I believe he has the most starting skills of any character in the game. Anyway, in most scenarios he is one of the best choices for your party. But in Emelia's scenario you just get him too late :( Once you've taken care of business fly to Koorong and then choose to fly to Mosperiburg. ************* * ******************* ***** The Time Lord - Overdrive and Asura SID07 ************* * ******************* ***** Note that doing this quest will result in Emelia PERMANENTLY losing 1-4 LP depending on whether or not you want to get Asura (I STRONGLY recommend that you do, Emelia will still have 5 LP which is enough for the final boss IMO) When you arrive at Mosperiburg head forward and up the staircase. "Check" the double door to pass through it then climb the next staircase. In the next room you'll come before Virgil, the Ring-Lord (the Lord of the Rings? Harhar!) Choose to ask about Time Magic and Virgil will send you to the TimeLord's domain. There is no music and everything seems quiet, too quiet. Strange. Anyway, climb up the stairs you're facing and follow the path to the next room. Climb up the stairs here then head west towards the opening. Keep folowing the path as it circles through this room. In the next room climb down the side of the wall and again follow the path around - this is very linear so you won't get lost ;) You'll come to a room with a shattered hourglass next. Go up to the crack in the glass to see some dialogue. Once you see the dialogue about the sand head back to the entrance. You'll warp back to Mosperiburg, turn around and go right back into Virgil's room. Now, he'll ask you if you want to go to Fascinaturu (you do) Make sure to pay a visit to the Mystic Magic shop while you're here (as I said) and buy the Mystic Spells for Asellus and whoever else. Mystic Magic's opposition school is Realm Magic if you were wondering so DONT buy any spells for Rouge as he will never be able to get Realm Magic back if you do that (you cant take him to the Magic Kingdom) Both PhantasmShot and GlassShield are very nice spells so if you want a few of your non-Mystics to have those spells then go for it. Again, this is your ONLY chance to get these spells so dont pass it up. If you've never been to Fascinaturu before then the Mystic Magic shop is the store in the top right corner - Gozarus's shop is right next to it on the other side of the staircase that leads north to Orlouge's Castle. As Virgil told you, you need the sand vessel. This is what Gozarus offers: Asura............3LP Tao-Tieh Pattern.2LP ShadeRobe........1LP SandVessel.......1LP The Tao-Tieh Pattern is just an accessory, you already have a ShadeRobe...both of those will just waste your LP so ignore them. Asura is an ATK 70 sword - one of the best in the game. It costs 4 WP to use its basic attack which does big damage and it has a VERY powerful counter move that can even trigger if your character is killed. Plus it gives stat bonuses to all your stats. In other words - dont leave Fascinaturu without it. I ASSURE you it is well worth the 3 LP. The SandVessel by the way is the object you need to complete the TimeLord quest so get that as well. Once you're done you need to head to the bar to the left up Gozarus's shop - up the steps. Talk to the kid standing at the table there and he'll point you in the direction of the cavern you need to go through to leave Fascinaturu. Go to the House the kid tells you about and talk to the slime. This will open a secret passage and automatically send you to the cave. This dungeon is easy to navigate just follow the path all the way to the end. Test out your new sword on the enemies here if you like. It will do its job well :) At the end of the cave you'll come to a room with a ship hovering in the air and you'll see the kid from the bar. Talk to him and say yes when he asks if you need a ride. You'll be back in Koorong. Now head back to Mosperiburg again. When you go into Virgil's room he warps you right back to TimeLord's domain without any fanfare. Go back to the room with the hourglass. Check the crack again and you'll get a message that you collected the sand with the sandvessel. Now go up the stairs that lead up to the top of the hourglass. When you get to the top move towards the hourglass and Emelia will hop over to the top of the hourglass. She'll use the SandVessel to restart the clock and the dungeon will come alive! The monsters will now fight you and music starts playing. Head through the door in this room that leads deeper into the dungeon. Run across this room up to the bridge and "check" it then cross it and go through to the next room. Now talk to TimeLord. He will ask you why you turned his clock on. YOu can then either recruit him or buy Time Magic. You should RECRUIT him. After wasting 4 LP to get here it would be foolish to discard OverDrive in favor of some weak time spells. When you ask to recruit him he seems amazed you went to so much trouble for his sake and then joins your party. Congrats - you have one of the best Spellcasters in the game on your side! Hopefully you saved the light magic gift as I suggested. TimeLord's stats: Name: TimeLord Race: Mystics Sex: Male HP: 360 LP: 10/10 WP: 45/45 JP: 60/60 STR: 15 ---------- TimeLeap QUI: 28 ---------- TimeEclipse INT: 21 ---------- TimeTwister WIL: 24+5 ---------- Overdrive PSY: 31 MysticMail MysticSword VIT: 17 Magicwear MysticGlove CHA: 27 FeatherBoots MysticBoots DEF: 34 ---------- Comment: His mystic weapons are empty, hrm... He also knows DelayOrder and ChaosStream (the big Time damage spell) as well as Fascination, PhantasmShot, and GlassShield. Unfortunately in Emelia's scenario he can't learn Stasis Rune which takes away one of the best combos in the entire game. If you're hankering to use him I recommend setting up his spells like this: Light Sword Mega Windblast ChaosStream Overdrive When you cast Overdrive, use light sword first so that he has a strong attack once the spell ends then just spam Mega Windblast or ChaosStream ad nauseum for huge damage. There are other fun ways to use Overdrive as well. If you choose to buy Time Magic instead of recruiting him I belive you can buy DelayOrder, TimeLeap, TimeEclipse, and TimeTwister. Again - I dont recommend this since you'll be sacrificing Overdrive AND whoever you buy these spells for won't be able to get Space Magic like ReverseGravity. Now, when you're finished here head back to the entrance. **************** * **** ***** The Arcane Quest - IRPO SID08 **************** * **** ***** Here is where we're going to mix things up. For starters I hope you still have one slot free as you MUST recruit Fuse if you intend to get the Arcane Tarots and the Arcane magic gift. You'll need at least two slots free if you want Suzaku as well. We're going to do the IRPO Arcane Quest first however as then we can buy Space Magic for Fuse as well as the rest of the party. Note that if you want to fight Suzaku you will have to fight an extra (tough) boss. Also, there is another tough fight that you probably wont be able to handle AT ALL unless you uber-level. Just keep that in mind. Make sure to be rested up and to save as we're in for a rough dungeon. Fly to IRPO from Koorong and talk to the secretary. A cutscene will ensue and you'll get to see Emelia and the two characters in the first two slots sitting in the waiting room. Fuse will take you to a mountain as he wants help on patrol. Name: Fuse Race: Human Sex: Male HP: 150 LP: 9/9 WP: 25/25 JP: 10/10 STR: 29 HandBlaster Kick QUI: 17 ---------- ---------- INT: 20 ---------- ----------
WIL: 19 ---------- ---------- PSY: 23 ArmorVest ---------- VIT: 18 Defendwear ---------- CHA: 13 LeatherBoots ---------- DEF: 29 ---------- ---------- Comment: He also knows MindHeal - he has the gift for Mind Magic as well - it is really a shame that the boss for this dungeon is so difficult for weaker characters as Fuse is a favorite of mine. He is a pretty solid character but again as with Gen you're getting him too late in the game for him to be real effective. Note the IRPO gun it is a fun little toy. Oh, his Defendwear is DEF 8 so if you dont have Hyperwears for the rest of your party you may want to take that from him and give it to someone else. There should be a fairy around here somewhere, make sure to fight it. (When I say make sure I mean make sure, don't skip this - not if you want Suzaku) When you're ready to go, follow the mountain path up to the next screen. You'll see a cave. Inside are some very powerful dragon-type monsters. If you beat them you can get some nice goodies, but again they are tough, perhaps tougher then this area's boss. I just note this for your interest - I dont think its worth it to fight these guys at all but if you really want to beat them then my advice is to level spam and try this quest when you're ready for the end game. Also note that while the dragons' attacks are VERY powerful, they dont have much HP (well, the red dragon doesnt, the black dragon is a toughy) so if you have two dedicated healers healing EVERY ROUND you might be able to win. Anyway, past the cave continue forward and you'll end up in another much larger cave. If you run to the end of this cave and find a crack in the north wall, you'll pass into another tunnel. Go forward and you'll find Suzaku. Suzaku has been frozen and an optional boss must be fought to rescue him. Mind you, if you have no intention of recruiting Suzaku then this boss is pointless. ***************** ***** Recruiting Suzaku SUZ00 ***************** ***** To skip this section, search for SID08-1 Alright, leave the cave with Suzaku and head to the west you'll be in a clearing with three boars running around. There should be a snowman in this room to. The snowman is the optional boss you must fight. If he's not there then head back to the first room and kill the fairy again. Note that the snowman appears in the south corner of the room with the three boars. If you see a snowman on the left side that is a FAKE battle. You'll end up fighting three(!) Jotnars instead of just one and when you win you don't get anything. ----------- BOSS BATTLE Jotnar If you've played Blue's scenario you might be familiar with the fact that Jotnar can be defeated by the Death Spell - no such luck here though. If you've got anything that protects against ice like IceCrystals try to equip them before the fight. Jotnar has some pretty powerful attacks - though he is a good barometer, if you can't beat him then the Suzaku boss is probably a tad too difficult for you as well. By this point you should know the return, stick to combos and attack him with your best moves. He has some very powerful attacks but if you've got any defense at all then it shouldn't be too difficult. When you win you get a shot at the best monster ever. ---------------------------------------- Once you defeat the Snowman, head back to the room with the Suzaku. It should be flying around now that the ice is gone. When you meet with it, it will join you. Yay! Name: Suzaku Race: SuzakuJr Sex: Neutral HP: 580 LP: 10/10 WP: 108/108 JP: 0/0 STR: 62 ---------- FireBarrier QUI: 80 ---------- FireBreath INT: 56 ---------- Wing WIL: 71 ---------- GliderSpike PSY: 68 ---------- VIT: 64 ---------- CHA: 80 ---------- DEF: 50 ---------- Comment: VERY powerful as you can see, in fact Suzaku is the strongest character you can recruit period which is fitting considering how late you get it. But is there a place in your party for Suzaku? I cant really answer that. Again, Suzaku IS a monster and if you like them you probably already have several monsters that might have comparable stats. His HP isnt quite up to snuff IMO and I wouldnt face Diva with him. But hey, it IS your game. Use him if you want. No doubt about it his stats are good. By the way, if the rumors are true his "default" form is better then the regular SuzakuJr and if you change him to something else (by absorbing new abilities lets say) then he will never be able to return to his default form. Just so you know. **************** * ************** ******* The Arcane Quest - Finishing IRPO SID08-1 **************** * ************** ******* Alright, you should be in Suzaku's cave. Now leave the cave and head west into the clearing with three boars. You want to take the path north. Just keep following the path north for two screens and you'll be at the summit. Make sure to save since a boss fight is coming up. Run up to the flowers on the Summit and check them. You'll be attacked by a Suzaku - WTF is up with Suzakus and this damn mountain? ----------- BOSS BATTLE Suzaku These are regular enemies later on, I always had the suspicion that this one was a bit tougher then those suzakus though. Anyway, if you've already power-leveled to the point where you've got Suzakus sitting in all your mystic weapons this should be cake. This guy is a flame monster - so dont use flame attacks on him obviously. Gale Slash can do some nice damage here if you have it. Fortunately he doesn't have any troublesome lackies so you can combo him to death. I don't believe you can absorb him with a mystic, but you can try. Note he does have a FireBarrier - so stay away from martial arts attacks unless it's something like DSC. You may want to swap Liza out for this battle if you're using her. His Flame Blast attack is probably the move to be feared as it can do heavy damage to a group of characters. It also gives them flame barriers though... His Heat Wave attack WILL wipe you out if you dont have either fire resist or at least 450 hp. So be warned about that. Oh, if you are killed you get booted back to IRPO and Fuse says "Maybe, next time." In other words - you can level up and try again, which is nice. If you're having trouble, you can try using TimeLord by casting OverDrive and spamming ChaosStream. ChaosStream is a bit iffy for my taste but it can do some nice damage and this might weaken Suzaku just enough so that you can finish him off. --------------- Once you've beat Suzaku, you're treated to some more cutscenes, get the shield card and can now leave IRPO with Suzaku and/or Fuse in tow. ************** * *************** ***** The Space Lord - ReverseGravity! SID09 ************** * *************** ***** At this point there are no more characters to recruit so make sure to get the second Luminous gift if you haven't already. We'll collect the rest of the Tarot cards next but first we should pay a visit to Kylin (Alright so there is ONE character you can recruit if you want.) That way you can either buy Space Magic for your characters (good idea) or recruit Kylin (kind of dumb idea) I believe you can only visit Kylin's Paradise once so again, unless you plan on recruiting Kylin make sure you have a full roster as well as enough money to buy Space Magic for everyone. And whatever you do, don't buy Space Magic for TimeLord. That would delete his Time Magic and you'll never see your precious Overdrive again. But you wouldn't do that, would you? Anyway, when you're rested and saved up, head on over to Devin. From the port keep heading east until you get to the Shinto Shrine. You'll have to run up the long steps. You'll find Rei here (the purple haired woman) and can talk with her. Pick Ask about magic and she'll talk about Time and Space magic. Pick ask about Space Magic and she'll explain what Space Magic supposedly does. She'll tell you about Kylin and then warp you to Kylin's Paradise. There's a girl with blond hair next to where you appear and you can ask her to send you back if you decide you need to leave for any reason. Now, with that said, run forward to the white tent looking thing and go through it. In this room you'll find Kylin. Talk to him. Before he will help you, he wants to test you. You should agree to the test. Then he'll warp you into a maze. There's actually only one path in this room that heads to the northwest, so follow it. There's a door there to go through. In the next room, head southwest and around to the door further from you. Now you'll be in a very unusual area, so follow my directions exactly so as not to get lost. Go north to the next room. Then go west and you'll be out of the maze for now. There's actually a weird key thing here you need, its on the light purple pedestal, go to it and check it - it disappears and you arent notified or anything, but you do need it. Ok, let's go back. Remember the maze? Go South Twice to get out. You'll be in a room, you've already been through, go through the last door here that you haven't used yet. You'll be on a raised platform above another walkway, descend to the walkway and go up to the door that looks like it has a gate covering it. With the key we can open the gate so check the door then pass through it. Now you'll be UNDERNEATH where you just were. Oh brother. At least the path is fairly straightforward, err so to speak. Just follow it and pass through the next door to the southwest. You're still upside down, but there's only one path in the room so its easy to get through it. In this room there is another door along the west that you can use to loop back up to the top. Then run over and check the urn. This will shrink you down (Alice in Wonderland, or is that Emelia in Wonderland? Har har! I made another funny!) Anyway, now you can pass through the tiny door on the highest part of the platform. You'll be back on a familiar walkway again. Follow it around to the northeast door and you'll see another Chibi-Emelia sized door you can pass through. Now you're in a maze again. Go through the west door, then go through the south door. At least those types of rooms arent long, ehh? There's a lever in this room you need to press, once you do it go back. This time head east then south. Now you'll be on the lower platform underneath the walkway from the entrance to the maze. Take the stairs down and you'll find another small door to pass through. Now run across the presents and up the spoon to the teacup. The teacup will shoot you up in the air to another present. Turn and take the steps up and follow the path around to a large double door that is cracked open. When you pass through the door you'll be in Kylin's Room again, yay! The first choice will recruit him (If you already have fifteen characters and pick this then he will try to join you but since your party is full he will just be gone) His stats if you want him: Name: Kylin Race: KylinJr Sex: Neutral HP: 540 LP: 6/6 WP: 150/150 JP: 128/128 STR: 52 ---------- VaporBlast QUI: 71 ---------- Vanish INT: 90 ---------- ReverseGravity WIL: 48 ---------- LightShift PSY: 70 DarkShift VIT: 41 Vortex CHA: 82 Kylin'sSong DEF: 41 Photosynthesis Comment: Again, as I've said I do not recommend getting Kylin. If you really want Vortex that badly then you should probably play Blue's scenario. Not that Kylin's stats aren't good. They are. The only skill you could really sacrifice to try to "improve" Kylin is Photosynthesis but there's no telling whether or not you could get a form stronger then his current one. If you move a spell to the last slot and evolve something over it, you'll lose it forever just so you know. If he were a human or a mystic, I'd say it was worth it, but because he's a monster I just don't think it flies. Anyway, it's your game. If you pick don't bother then the dialogue will end. Talk to him again and Kylin has become a one stop Space Magic Shop. Here's his store: VaporBlast.............400 Vanish.................400 ReverseGravity........1200 LightShift.............400 VaporBlast and ReverseGravity are the best, of course I like to buy all the spells for everyone who can use them. This can wipe out your credits if you have a lot of spellcasters (at least ReverseGravity will) When you're done, depart this place and enjoy your Space Magic. By the way, the girl who sends you out of Kylin's Paradise warps you to Koorong's sewers (gosh darn it!) Anyway, you should know where you are since you've already got the Hide Rune. So meet me on the surface. *********** * ***************** ***** On the Side - The Arcane Tarots SID10 *********** * ***************** ***** Believe it or not, we're getting close to the end of our side quests. If you've stuck with me all this way then that's surely a good thing, you'll get to enjoy a nice advantage over the final area with all the magic you've collected. If your cash reserves are wiped out from the trip to visit Kylin then be sure to raise some more credits - especially if you still have other kinds of magic to buy. Also be thinking about the Kyo Mind Magic test. In the Mind Magic test each person capable of learning the gift has to fight a one-on-one battle. If they win, they get the gift, if they fail, they don't get another shot at it. So if you've got someone like Mei-ling and you haven't been using her at all, you may want to build her up. I'd say at a minimum have 300-400 hp for the humans who qualify for Mind Magic testing. Unless you just don't care, then there's no worries :) Also, one of the Arcane quests will wipe out your supply of gold ingots so if you're engaging in Taconomics to keep your wallet filled then make sure you've got around 25,000 credits before you do it so that you don't have to spend more tedious hours replenishing your money. At this point Im going to assume that like me, you want to collect all the different magic you can. So to get the ball rolling, make sure to get any spells that you havent already - Tarots for TimeLord and Fuse for instance. Also, if you're wondering about a FIFTH type of magic you can teach your humans the basic Realm Magic spells (Energy Chain is nice.) Remember, Rouge can't travel to the Magic Kingdom so if you go there to buy Realm Magic he will leave and you'll have to go back to Luminous to get him again. Unfortunately, Fuse wasn't with us when we went to Fascinaturu so if you want him to have a fifth type, it will have to be Realm. Anyway, this isn't necessary at all, just for your information. When you've got your money supply secured and your magic handled meet me in Baccarat. ***************** * ************* ******* The Arcane Tarots - The Gold Card SID10-1 ***************** * ************* ******* Remember way back when we went to Baccarat on a mission for Gradius? This is actually really easy since you know what to do. Normally, you would fly to Baccarat and have to talk with Emelia to get the quest rolling but since you ARE Emelia and you've already met the Baccarat gnomes you don't have to do this. What you do need are at least four gold ingots - if you havent been doing Taconomics then you need at least 2,000 credits. Go to Nelson (remember to get to Nelson you need to fly to Owmi from Koorong first) and buy the ingots. Now, once you have your ingots you need to go back to the cave with the gnomes where you saw Joker. All you have to do is talk to the gnomes and hand over the ingots and the gold card is yours! Gosh, that was easy. Alright, let's get out of here. Do note that the gnomes take ALL your ingots, its just you need at least four to get the card. ***************** * ************** ******* The Arcane Tarots - The Saber Card SID10-2 ***************** * ************** ******* It's finally time to make Gen do some work. Talk to the guy at the port and choose Wakatu. With Gen in your party, you will be able to go to Wakatu at last. Just to note, it is pretty difficult to avoid the enemies in Wakatu, they like to run at you and there isnt much space to dodge, so you'll probably be doing a bit of fighting here. By now this will be a nuisance more then anything. I should also note that before this quest begins you should spend some time building Gen up. I'm not sure HOW built up he needs to be, Matt Hobbes cites in his guide that he thinks its around 500 HP, 50 STR, 70 WP - you get the idea. You don't have to do this but if you do, you'll be able to get an ATK 55 Katana. Anyway, when you arrive in Wakatu, you'll see a skeleton. If you head south he will ask you if you want to leave. Instead talk to him, he'll say "Wait for the boat" and you'll sail across to Wakatu. There is another ferryman at the entrance that will return you to the port area. Now, head up the steps and through the double doors. In this area head west. Gen will lead you directly to the Saber Chamber which is nice. Anyway, just follow him north and then east. Now, run up the steps and go north. Pass through the door here then leave. Gen will step out and talk to you. Follow him. This next area actually only has one path that ends up with an exit to the east. Run up the steps in this next area and exit east again. Gen will lead you again. Follow him to the next area. He'll point to the entrance to the chamber. Now if you want the TwinDragon sword head south instead and follow the path, it will take you back to a treasure chest with the TwinDragon (at this point a worthless weapon) Anyway, remember the entrance to the Saber Chamber, but first we need to get to the blade chamber. Head back to the last path Gen led you to and instead go North instead of the direction of the Saber CHamber. Follow this path until you get to some stairs that are broken in half. You can jump across here so do so. Now follow the path to another crossroad. Follow the road south and take the next screen south too. You'll be on the other side of the crack in that building from earlier. Go down the steps. You'll see another door on the west end of this room that you want to go through. If you're worthy, you will receive the CometBlade here by checking the statue. If you're not...well, I BELIEVE you can come back later if you really want to. Anyway - you might want to note this for a scenario where you actually have the chance to use Gen, like T260 and Riki. Now, let's get back to the Saber Chamber. You actually have to get back by taking a different path just so you know. Head back to the crossroad and take the west path. Follow this to a treasure, the Iron Clogs, then hop across here. Keep following the trail (Are these enemies getting to you yet?) and you'll be back on the path before the front of the Blade Chamber. So just work your way back to the Saber Chamber. Alright, now that you're in the Saber Chamber, go around to the entrance to the room and climb up the stairs. Circle around this room to another staircase and climb up. More stairs here. Now, we're finally at the end of this place. Go step into the center of the three posts. Now Gen will explain what to do. Wait until you see three swords and hit the action button, if you fail you'll be fighting. Don't worry, it's not as hard as it looks, just focus. The fights are kind of tough - well if you had been doing this at the beginning of the game :) Eventually you'll get it. Also, listen for the click sound, that is your cue that what you want is up. Some people find it easier to listen for that sound. When you get the card, talk to Gen then leave Wakatu. You've just got one last stop and then you'll have all the Arcane Tarot cards, yay? Don't give out on me just yet. You want to give Diva the thrashing of a lifetime right? ***************** * ************** ******* The Arcane Tarots - The Grail Card SID10-3 ***************** * ************** ******* I loathe this mission. LOATHE IT. It's even more irritating in Emelia's scenario since you can't use mechs. If you've been keeping up then you should know that the last card is in Yorkland so hop over there after you heal up. Make sure to save too. When you arrive head south. Now you need to go into each of the buildings here and talk to the people. Emelia will ask about the card and the occupant will make you try their booze. Make a circuit around this area, stopping in each brewery and getting a drink from each person inside. There are five breweries in total and in the last one (climb the stairs to the second floor to get in) the man will tell you where the card is. Now as you might suspect your characters are pretty much wasted by now so this next part is going to be very interesting. Head back to the first area and take the west path. Now the goal is to make your way north to the shrine but there are some things to note. Emelia is just the slightest bit tipsy so she jumps around all over the place. Plus there's tons of tough monsters hidden just waiting to attack. And I do mean TOUGH since they scale they are always powerful even if you have high stats and lots of good equipment. In fact some people believe it is HARDER at higher levels. I think it sucks period. Now, during battles, "Drunk" will be cast at the beginning of each turn on all your characters which will cause you no end of trouble. So be very careful and do your best to end battles as quickly as possible. It is theoretically possible to make it to the Shrine without getting into a single fight but I've never been able to do it. If you get really beat up and have a SanctuaryStone try using that. The trouble is, at lower levels you might not have enough WP to handle the enemies here. If you've been following me around everywhere though then you should have at least two SanctuaryStones that you can use to replenish your JP/WP. Using multiple groups here is very tricky since if your second and third teams aren't up to snuff they may not be strong enough to beat this area. The best I can tell you is good luck and when you make it to the Liquor Shrine you only have to worry about this HORRIBLE HORRIBLE quest at a later date with other people. And just to note, Mechs are IMMUNE to drunk which is why I said it's too bad Emelia can't use them. Try this quest with T260 - it's cake in his scenario. At any rate, you now have all four Arcane Tarots so you should receive the gift for Arcane Magic. Hopefully you followed my party advice and Fuse was the last member you recruited as that means everyone besides Annie, Liza, Emelia, and Mesarthim will have the Arcane Gift. Enjoy. *********** * ************ ***** On the Side - Finishing Up SID11 *********** * ************ ***** That my friend, is it. There are of course other things to do, but none of them are really all that important. Make sure to be ready with all your humans then go to the Doujou in Kyo and get mind magic. It isn't that rough, just use each character's best attack. It shouldn't be a problem for your main characters anyway. After that just go to the Bio Research Lab and LEVEL LEVEL LEVEL. If you put off power leveling then you may need a bit of work. If you're curious, here is my Emelia without having done any Power Leveling: Name: Emelia Race: Human Sex: Female HP: 320 LP: 5/5 WP: 32/32 JP: 10/10 STR: 8+10 LethalGun SharpShot QUI: 31+10 LethalGun QuickDraw INT: 16 ExcelShield TotalShot WIL: 35 Backpack BoundShot PSY: 11 PoweredSuit FocusShot VIT: 22 Hyperwear ---------- CHA: 32 Junk ---------- DEF: 64 Junk ---------- This is nowhere near strong enough to take on Diva, and you might have some trouble with the Mech in Trinity Base Revisited with stats like this, so if you haven't done any power leveling yet, definately consider it. Remember the room I showed you way back at the beginning of this section - it should make power-leveling as easily as possible. Note that I have not covered, and do not intend to cover, all the possible things to do. I have guided you through what I think are the essential things to really master Emelia's scenario. There are still things like the EarthDragon at the bottom of the Bio Research Lab that I leave up to you. Also, while closing up here on the side stuff I'd like to say that if you've gone through all of this you should have a VERY GOOD handle on what to expect from the other scenarios. The strategies I use to beat Emelia's scenario work in all the other scenarios as well. Bottom line: have a blast with SaGa Frontier. ********** * ************************ **** APPENDIX A - POWERING UP FOR BACCARAT ADXA ********** * ************************ **** So, you're curious as to what I think you ought to do to level up for the Baccarat fight are you? Well, if you just followed the Side Quest section then you will be more then strong enough. But if you want some specifics on what I think you should do, I'll be glad to share. First off - you'll be fighting the boss with just Annie, Emelia, and Liza. With that in mind you ought to develop them as best you can. Fortunately you can afford the necessary equipment for handling this fight on a tight budget. I'd recommend getting at least a Rune Sword for Annie - you should be able to afford one between the two paychecks you draw from Roufas. If not, credits can be found in the caverns behind Koorong - check the hide rune section of the guide and just dont go fight the boss there. Liza uses her fists so you don't need to get a weapon for her. I'd make Emelia a spellcaster. She'll be in her bunny outfit already which enhances her magic abilities. You should be able to buy Sun Ray for her with what you have left over after you get Annie her sword. Then just get some armor, there is Harmonium Armor in the ruins at Shingrow and Angel Armor in the caverns behind Koorong. Also, help yourself to Roufas's gear, that should do you for armor nicely. As far as levels, you should have between 300-350 HP on each character - more is better obviously. Annie needs one strong attack, a 7 WP attack like Triple Thrust would be great, but you should be ok with something like Wheel Slash or Headwind. Try to get a similar strength attack for Liza, especially if you can find something that combos. Ideally for magic Emelia you would learn Mega Windblast but if you dont want to get the gift for Light Magic then try getting her Starlight Heal, a gun, and Bound Shot. You ought to be able to get a better gun then the AGUNI-CP1 from the Scrap Junk Shop, though you could be unlucky. Worst comes to worst, get the katana from Mu's Tomb and use that. Again, a 5 WP attack at the minimum. Make sure each character can heal. I'd say give them all Starlight Heal though if you want someone to have Shadow Magic (Liza is a good candidate) then you can equip the backpack on that person. Again, boss fights in SaGa Frontier are very subjective so if you spend a bunch of time before the Baccarat mission recruiting characters and doing all the things in the side quest section then fighting the boss in Baccarat will be very easy. If you take these things into consideration, you ought to be able to handle the boss in Baccarat no problem. Just be careful as you will only have three characters instead of five. Remember, this game isn't balanced at all so it's up to you to be sure you're strong enough to handle the boss. If you want to know where my stats are when I handled (decimated) the boss then take a look at this: Name: Emelia Race: Human Sex: Female HP: 288 LP: 9/9 WP: 39/39 JP: 22/22 STR: 22+10 ZeroSword StunSlash QUI: 28+10 ZeroSword Deflect INT: 11 ExcelShield CrossSlash WIL: 24 Backpack SwallowSwing PSY: 8 PoweredSuit HardSlash VIT: 25 Hyperwear Thrust CHA: 38 Junk DoubleSlash DEF: 64 Junk ---------- Name: Annie Race: Human Sex: Female HP: 323 LP: 9/9 WP: 45/45 JP: 18/18 STR: 32+10 ZeroSword DoubleSlash QUI: 25+10 ZeroSword Thrust INT: 9 ExcelShield HardSlash WIL: 20 MaxCure Heaven/Hell PSY: 15 PoweredSuit Smash VIT: 31 Hyperwear BearCrush CHA: 20 Junk DeadEnd DEF: 64 Junk ---------- Name: Liza Race: Human Sex: Female HP: 352 LP: 8/8 WP: 47/47 JP: 19/19 STR: 32+10 MaxCure Kick QUI: 34+10 MaxCure Air Throw INT: 20 MaxCure Fist WIL: 21 ExcelShield Suplex PSY: 18 PoweredSuit LocomotionG VIT: 31 Hyperwear GiantSwing CHA: 20 Junk CrushBeat DEF: 64 Junk ---------- If you're curious, I am a bit of an obsessive when it comes to defense, that's why I tend to equip the Junk (DEF 2 - better then other early accessories) though you can probably get better results with things like the FangAmulet which boost stats as well as defense. Anyway, as you can see I've picked up the high end eq already, which makes things much easier - though mind you the boss is possible without this high end stuff. Though I definately recommend at least one Rune Sword for Annie. As you can see I've opted to make Emelia a Sword-User rather then a Magic-User as I think the extra physical power helps her in Trinity Base Part 2. It's all up to you how you want to progress though but at least you have an idea of where to get before taking on the boss. ***************** ***** WRITING THE GUIDE WRI00 ***************** ***** Well, things are wrapping up now but I wanted to close by talking about my experience writing the guide. It was much more work then I originally suspected. I knew I wanted to include as much as I could about the scenario and make a guide more detailed then any of the others, but I didn't realize just how much work it would take. I think I really began to realize just how subjective everything in SaGa Frontier is. Of course I think it's a good game, but it's definately a broken game. Writing boss strategies was very difficult indeed. What was there to say? If you have trouble with a boss, you need to level up. The game is very easy if just a little time is spent power leveling. I did enjoy writing the guide though and I hoped it's helped you work your way through this game. I think it says a lot about the game that, unpopular as it was, people are still playing it this many years after it's release though I suppose I wish I had been a bit older and more experienced at writing when the game originally came out. Anyway, thanks for reading! ******* ***** CREDITS CRE00 ******* ***** The usual people, CJayC, etc? Do I need to go on? Thanks to the SaGa Frontier message board, I may just be a lurker but you've provided years of interesting posts and good strategies ********** OTHER FAQS ********** SaGa Frontier Debug Guide The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Beginner's Guide Hunter the Reckoning: Redeemer Secrets Guide Final Fantasy Tactics NPC Class FAQ Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold Plot Guide Copyright 2006 Curtis Mitchell - This guide may be distributed freely so long as it remains unmodified. This guide may not be sold for profit of any kind "That's really ugly. She's out of proportion. Size isn't everything you know." ~EOF