My God! ...wait, who?
Traveling underwater through the eastern waterways of the world leads me to a very important location.
Surfacing reveals an island with a well. This is one of the best shops in the game, and has some huge upgrades at this point.
Another reason I like the Spiegelspire grind is to have money for this shop. Not sure how much traffic and money they get when they're at the bottom of a well on an island though. Maybe they're the shopkeepers who scream?
Very good equipment here, both weapons and armor. I went ahead and got the best stuff for everyone, which ran about 350k between the two shops.
The other really important thing to do is get the Final Key from a wrecked boat underwater. This is what I've been needing, and opens every door in the game just about. I go back and get the loot I was locked out of earlier. It's nothing to write home about, just armor IIRC.
Now that all of the running around is done, the next dungeon is this temple in the great southern sea.
It's the first major dungeon in a bit, and involves using switches to lower water levels. Not to worry, it's nowhere near as complex as Ocarina of Time's Water Temple.
This is a super important key item for the next area, and it can be missed pretty easily. I missed it in the remake and had to redo this area, since it's near the end of the dungeon.
Next, we meet the third Maou, the latest pretender to the throne of Mudo...
Well, this is another minion who got promoted to Maou due to process of elimination. Before Mudo and Jamiras fell, this guy was a toilet cleaner in the bad guy army. The higher power is really scraping the barrel for minions at this point.
This is a fight I'm way overleveled for, and thanks to that new shop, also way overgeared for. He's got some strong AOEs but nothing to worry about. Thus far Mudo was the toughest fight in the game and he'll likely remain that for the rest, despite only being about a third of the way through.
Would also be nice if any of the other archfiends got the level of build that Mudo got, or even anywhere close to it. Mudo gets an excellent build that would be fitting for the main villain of the game. Jamiras and Glacos just sort of come out of nowhere. Wouldn't be surprised if a lot of players don't even realize that these guys are supposed to be archfiends.
Next area is where the Sand Container is needed to proceed. Only Barbara can use it though, everyone else gets a "doesn't know how to use it" message. This part is real cryptic. It doesn't tell you what to do, the item you have to use is missable, and it won't work unless one specific character uses it, so I could see players trying it and thinking it wasn't what they needed. Bet a lot of people got stuck at this point unsure of what the heck they were supposed to do.
Talking to the Calberona village elder gets Barbara the ultimate spell (Magic Burst in other versions). I pretty much never end up using this, but it's necessary to continue either way.
Next up, we gotta get the Magic Carpet from the Style Contest, which transpires on a distant island. This island is the domain of...
...Calvin, the style connoisseur. Calvin Klein?
He's a bit sketch, this Calvin guy, and holds style contests just to gawk at attractive people.
Reminds me of when I was a kid and I first heard about Calvin Klein on the news. Someone was talking about how the brand had controversial commercials that were too sexy or whatever. Me being like 6, I misunderstood everything they were saying and thought Calvin Klein was this guy who was going around being too sexy and like, doin' it with people in clothing stores.
I also thought his name was "Clean Ken" at first. So I was warning other kids to watch out for Clean Ken since he was hanging out in clothing stores trying to get people to have sex.
I remember one girl balking at this and going "No way! I don't care how clean he is!"
The judges are three of the hardest-nose, toughest critics out there. They are basically 3 of Simon Cowell. They don't just judge your style...
...they also judge your perky breasts. So our hero is at a disadvantage, as his lot in life was to be stuck with an unwelcome dong.
I've got a secret weapon for this style contest: Barbara, wearing nothing but a towel, a tiara, and some fishnets. And cracking a whip, if they're into that. 263 Style is gonna be real hard to stop.
Her competition is...lacking. Well, except that one guy who looks like a zombie version of the hero.
"FUNGAAAH!"
"I'm Too Sexy" by Right Said Fred plays as he stumbles around on the stage.
Barbara easily wins round 1. That's just one of three, though. Well, no problem. After making sure to pump up her style points all game, Barbara can handle anything they've got.
...wait what
Well that nullifies my whole strategy. WE NEED A BACKUP BOY, STAT.
Hiko himself is the only guy with decent style points, so he steps forward. He's got much tougher competition than Barbara did in round 1, as well.
First up is noted dwarf King Giott, who is one sweet piece of ass.
Next is Kandar, of Kandar's Hentai Emporium fame. He slathered himself in baby oil, so his style and sex appeal are through the roof.
Hiko struts down the runway, and the eyes of all the men turn into hearts and pop out for some reason.
Finally there's round 3, where I accidentally pick Hiko instead of Barbara. He somehow ekes out a win anyway, so that was lucky. Carpet is acquired!
Insert questionable question about whether Barbara's carpet matches the drapes. The answer is yes, she does indeed have a Firebush.
The Magic Carpet does nothing at first, and you have to bring it back to the sleeping elderly couple to get it re-magicked. Sometimes I think I can't go ten minutes in this game without having to check a guide after a certain point. Once the world (both of them) expands to the point that you can go anywhere, good luck not being constantly lost as to what's next unless you're paying extremely close attention. And even then.
Now I can fly in BOTH worlds, not just the dream world with the flying bed. Problem is, I still can't go over hills or forests, so this is pretty limited. It's basically just a more-convenient boat, except you still need the boat for all the areas you have to submerge to reach.
The carpet is needed to get to this next area, which is over a river that's inland so no boating. Not sure how they trade with the outside world. Also, this is pretty obscure, and again without guides and maps I wouldn't have known what the heck to do next.
The King here is trying to summon a monster to defeat the Demonlord for us. That's okay, I have things pretty much under control alrea-
No, sir, really, you don't have to. Needless to say, people in the kingdom are apprehensive...
It's like trying to cure a fruit fly problem by bringing in spiders.
Enough for what? WHAT'LL COME OUT NO MORE?
The King is already starting the rites. We gotta get down there and stop him!
My God. We're too late. The Summoning has Begun.
................
Fiiiithos.
FIIIIIITHOS!
LUSSSSEC!
The Dark Lord proceeds to set the entire castle ablaze, along with everyone in it.
VIIINOSEC!
EVERYONE OUT NOW!
Returning to the castle, there's no sign of the summoned monster, and everything is now in ruins. I guess he went back to his home plane and I don't think the game ever brings this up again.
Regardless, now that the castle is in ruins and unguarded, we can find out way down to the storage room and get the legendary armor for this game. The Erdrick or Zenithian equivalent. Now to find the other legendary equipments.
A somewhat confusing dungeon (with yet another obscure hidden stairway) gets me to...
...the legendary shield. That was quick. Still need the legendary sword and helmet.
The sword is somewhere on Mt. Snow, with this town at the base. Finally, another snow area!
There's a problem though. The people here have been frozen solid by some sort of curse. This is a very DQ-like idea for a zone.
Instead of just going through an ice dungeon and fighting a boss to lift the curse, I have to run back and forth talking to the couple of non-frozen NPCs in the area until stuff happens. Terry is here and he's also looking for the sword.
Turns out the aptly-named Yurina here cursed the town for whatever reason. Not sure what that reason is, but it's probably that this local boy wasn't visiting her enough. Now he's an old man and everyone else in town has spent 50 years frozen. In any case, she lifts the curse with no fuss.
Everyone's unfrozen and the problem is solved. This town needs the Secret of Mana "happy town" theme now.
Now that Zam is unfrozen, he's the key to getting the next few objectives, so I'm back and forth talking to him. Loooot of NPC-talking in this game to move things along.
The next part has you reciting a set of phrases to open a locked door. None of this makes any sense. You're supposed to infer meanings from what Zam tells you and tell the door things that mean the same thing as what he said, but these things really don't line up. Yet another thing I need to refer to guides for.
After a quick ice dungeon with no enemies, we arrive at the legendary sword...only to have Terry get there after and just waddle up to take it.
Yeah, everyone just gets right out of his way like a bunch of wimps and he claims the sword. Da Fuq.
And he doesn't even want it. He's all about the Sword of Thunder. Dragon Quest II represent
::Secret of Mana field theme plays::
Unfortunately the legendary sword has seen better days, and is too weak to use as things are now. So the next thing to do is get it fixed. Also have to get the helm, the flying citadel, fight Dhuran, get Terry, get the flying Ramia, and go to the Dark World. So there's a bit left, but not a ton.
After all this DQ I should probably check out Taloon's Mystery Dungeon. That get translated yet?
.......
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