Rhone gets built up a lot in this game. As well it should be. It takes a lot more to give the audience the same kind of feelings that snow tiling did on the NES almost 40 (Jesus) years ago.
"I am cold like December snow!"
This version has a new scene before the Cave to Rendarak, where Elmoo (the Black Sanguini) gets the party some info on how to sneak into the plateau... at the cost of his life.
We get this super-sad death scene as Elmoo breathes his last breath. Well, I didn't expect THAT. They basically introduced this lovable new character just to have him seek redemption and then immediately die.
Our heroes bury him in the yard, with a makeshift grave, like a pet hamster.
RIP Elmoo.
This is it, the former Rhone Cave. One of the hardest dungeons on the entire NES. Well, now we've got autosaves and a lot more abilities (being able to Zoom to and from this place is a big one) so it'll be nowhere near what it was on challenge level.
Worth noting: At level 44, repel works in Rhone Cave. From what I could tell, it didn't actually block encounters until 44. Chances are, the party won't be 44 yet at this point (I got here at like 38)
This section is super-annoying, with a bunch of identical rooms that repeat endlessly unless you go through them in a specific order.
The goal is to find this ladder, and it takes a while without instructions.
So I looked up the instructions, and...
Yeah, I hate this kind of guide. Way too many RPG guides are like this. They tell you how to get EVERY LAST GODDAMN THING instead of just giving you instructions on how to get to the end of an area quickly. If you want everything, you could just check every nook and dead end, don't need a guide for that. If you want to just get through an area, TOUGH, WE'RE GONNA STEER YOU TO ALL THE EMPTY CHESTS FIRST
The Nose for Treasure thing isn't an excuse either. WTF. Then when I inevitably lost my place after a random battle, about ten times, I had to try and redo these steps with all the unnecessary extra steps, or try to skip them without messing it up.
Here, LET ME TRANSLATE
Right 5 times, down 1 time, left 2 times, up 1 time
There you go. From the entrance you do that and you're at the ladder. Go up.
Soon after I find the legendary armor of Erdrick! Sorry, armour. ::raises pinky::
This place is a solid leveling area because of all the Metal Babbles. The Puff! spell is great here, as a babble-sweeping AOE. However they get two full turns before Puff! goes off, and their flee rate is high in this game. So if you start with six, you'll be lucky to hit one and very lucky to hit two.
Here's the Thunderbolt Sword, which used to be the strongest weapon in the game (yeah, stronger than Erdrick's Sword). Now we'll be able to get a re-forged Erdrick's Sword that's even better.
There's a new section where Midenhall has to go off on his own, and ends up fighting a boss one-on-one. It's Hypermalediction, which I'm not sure what the pun is. Venezuela-style hyperinflation where people use money instead of TP because TP is worth more than the money?
Using money as TP also gets more Bolivars out of circulation, thus increasing the value, so it's a win-win.
Maybe his name's a pun on hypertension, aka high blood pressure? That guide up there was giving me high blood pressure!
Our heroes stumble around until they're all reunited. The only problem is...there are two Moonbrookes!
While this would be amazing for her boyfriend, it's a pretty bad situation for our heroes. All this time I thought the "fake princess" was Sasha doing things on her own before she joined the group, but it turns out there was an actual Fake Moonbrooke going around.
Our heroes aren't sure which Moonbrooke to shoot with their phasers, and luckily Belial makes the choice for them by morphing back into his real self. So he's a master of illusions? This guy is pretty interesting.
He's let our heroes get by for this long because he wanted to see how powerful they'd get. While that might not make sense on a surface level, it does when you consider that he likely wants them to get rid of Hargon for him.
RAISE SHIELDS!
This was a challenging fight, unlike the one-on-one pushover boss moments ago. It's pretty much an endgame castle boss, one dungeon early.
After chasing him off, our heroes find a bridge that is... very very Dark Souls. This vista could be lifted straight out of Dark Souls 3.
At the end of the cave, and a long difficult journey...lies the snow.
Our heroes emerge into the blizzard. There it is, the moment that was so impactful decades ago. Back then all we had was a snowy color palette and our imaginations had to do the rest.
...and it was awesome.
Here's the level grinding spot, with the healing shrine. This isn't just my favorite level-grinding spot in this game, it's my favorite level-grinding spot in ANY game.
I've been known to completely-unnecessarily max out the entire party here in some versions of the game...which takes a loooong time.
The key is to save and heal at the shrine:
It took all the way until basically the end of the game, but I finally get the Ultimate Key and can go get all those mysterious green boxes. Later.
After lots of level grinding, I arrive at Hargon's Castle:
The interior is Midenhall Castle all over again, except things are so prosperous that nobody has to do anything anymore, and the king can wile away his days with bunny girls. This is probably more like the old USSR version of "prosperity" where it doesn't exist but they just say it does and no one can say otherwise because they'll end up in the gulag with all their problematic relatives.
I'll take a wodka. Dasvidanya.
Man, the wealthy elites are just doing this stuff right out in the open now. He then orders our heroes to go out and get him some jerky.
"Ignorance is bliss" says Cannock as he eats a nonexistent steak.
The difference between reality and fiction...is that fiction has to make sense.
The actual Hargon's Castle is revealed after we break the spell of Mariella by using the Eye of Rubiss. I found something interesting while looking at the old pictures:
Looks like Mariella was a thing in Hargon's Castle before. Not sure if she goes back to the NES and SNES versions, but she's in the DQ6 engine port for phone and Switch. She's a mere bunny girl in the throne room of the lecherous kiing, so either the idea was always that she was the one casting the illusionary spell, or they retroactively decided to make her the source of the spell. Never thought of the illusion as being something run by Hargon's secret fourth minion.
At this point I headed out, because I had a few unfinished things to do before the final battles. First and foremost, getting Erdrick's Sword powered up.
Here's the metal for it, lurking in the depths of a dungeon (not a horse stable like it usually is in these games)
The swordsmith in Kol can use that metal to forge the rusty old sword and make it into the strongest weapon in the game, the reconstituted Erdrick's Sword. In other versions this wasn't a thing, and the rusty blade was Erdrick's Sword, that was it.
All four characters can equip this super version of Erdrick's Sword, as all of them are of the Erdrick lineage.
Moonbrooke is in awe of the glistening blade, much the way the people of Kol were in awe of her glistening body after she got out of the hot springs. Bunch of sick pervs! That or they're Swedish.
"Yo Slim, this girl's like 16 years old" says Doctor Dre when reached for comment. Pipe down dude, you aren't a real doctor.
Question is, who equips it? Moonbrooke and Sasha don't need any help in life, they're already blessed with being able to have multiples without any major refractory time. So that leaves Midenhall or Cannock. Midenhall is the primary attacker and the guy dishing out the mega-hits...however...
...Cannock gains more raw power from this, and needs it more. Hard to say, could go either way. Cannock will probably roll with it for a little while, but Midenhall will need it for the endgame fights when he's the one doing the focused super-hits.
Next time, on DQII: Hargon's Castle, after I knock out a few more sidequests.
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