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fourteenwings stocks up on B Protects and B Powers (Or fourteenwings' The 7th Saga Liveblog)
"Many years ago people fought fierce battles to win this land."
"These heroic battles inspired many legends."
"This is one of those stories that will be talked about for generations to come."
"Someday people will forget these legends, leaving only scars upon the planet's surface."
"The planet referred to in this story is called TICONDERA."
Okay, so I'm fourteenwings (as you can tell by my Chieri Sono avatar) and this is my liveblog of Enix's SNES RPG "The 7th Saga".
From what I've gathered over the internet (meaning Wikipedia and TVT) this game is most noteable for it's hellish localization, which made everything harder for the player for some unknown reason (Trying to kill the popularity of JRPGs already Enix? It's only the `90s!).
As it's an RPG released before most of the Final Fantasy games (and well, it's a SNES JRPG that's not a Final Fantasy or Phantasy Star game) it was mostly forgotten by everybody and would probably continue to be forgotten if not for the difficulty. The plot is fairly simple (and surprisingly shounen), you choose one of the seven characters summoned by the king to go find magical stones (called runes) and gain ultimate power. It uses a fairly simple battle system with some nice aesthetics that I'll go over later.
I'll be playing Lux (Or LUX, since the game has no lowercaps for my character name, yet everyone else gets them just fine) the Tetsujin. A robot who has developed emotions and was called upon by the king to train for five years along with six other warriors in order for them to prepare to find the seven runes that will make the wielder ruler of the land. Now, I'm not going to ask the King to reason here and have the person who brings them back give them to him without revealing the "Ultimate Power" part (especially to the demon who is plotting against him and the entire continent before we even leave the castle), mostly because the set up gameplay wise is good enough to cover for this 'plot'.
As I'm not playing the Elixir mage, we'll either be recruiting him or never being able to win the game later. Hopefully the former. Even if we do fail to recruit him and lose, at least the music is great.
Skipping all the boring first town parts where I spent thirty minutes grinding only to lose all my money to an extremely evasive bird, then spent another hour grinding only to find out that all the gold I'd managed to get couldn't help me since I can't equip any of the stuff in the starting town anyways, we leave for the town of Rablesk.
I guess I should detail the battle system. When one of the dots on the map touches you a battle is initiated (on the world map there isn't any screen transition, the camera merely spins around and changes focus to a third person view behind your sprite) where you pick either "Attack", "Defend" , "Magic", "Item", "Status" and "Escape" (The image has spoilers for a little later). The overworld system has a similar menu brought up by pressing the A button (There are more options in the towns than on the world map) that allows you to interact with the world.
Rablesk has already increased the Inn price by 50% (4-6G) because... RPG economics and still has nothing I can really equip (on the bright side leveling up has allowed me to gain the magical skill err... Laser 1). I'm on my way to the Gate of the Earth, which has been locked by a ghost that will probably kill me, but as the citizens need to get medicine and stuff through it and I'm a big burly hero, I have to go try beat it anyways (Honestly though, some guy promised me a map if I beat the ghost).
After an hour or so of grinding (this time I remembered to change all my money into items I can resell for the bought price, but then nobody killed me since my level was now high enough to cover the imbalance) and learning more magic (Laser 2, okay, since when are lasers so magical anyway?) I leave for the Castle of Aran!
Okay, so the castle is dark, the enemies are ghostly skeletons in robes (called Chimera for some reason) and demon walls, this place is officially creeping me out. Luckily I'm overleveled and can sort of manage myself (though they stole all my MP).
I make my way up the three levels into a throne room where a blue tornado (fire?) sits. Talking to it initiates a battle with Remus the ghost. I cross my fingers and hope for anything but an OHKO.
I use a B protect and he hits me with thunder, which luckily does one damage (I am overleveled).
After twelve turns of him hitting me for one damage and me hitting him for 20 or so, I finally whittle him down to 20HP!
At which point he starts continuously spamming his Drain spell which almost kills me and gives him back 100 or so HP.
Six more turns and I beat him. With a demonic scream, Romus the ghost dies (or whatever ghosts do when killed... erm, beaten).
Killing Romus gets rid of all the other ghosts and I guess the castle is inhabitable again (Should've bought it before clearing out since now the price will go through the roof) I take back the Key of the Earth and head to Rablesk (having to walk throughout the castle completely alone, which is scarier than when there were weird skeletons).
I head back to Rablesk to rest for the night.
Comments
I take a leisurely stroll down to the Cave of The Earth and am surprised that the new enemies can actually hold their own against me, which means I need to grind more (By the way, turns out Lasers are quite powerful magic).
After thirty minutes of grinding, I walk up to the metal door and unlock it with my "Ky Earth". The door flashes white and opens, I then raid a tiny room and nab "ANTI" and "A Seed" (Space limitations are so fun!) from the chests. I return to the path and continue along it. Hey! A chest on my path!
I search the chest and an enemy appears, oh, it's a trap chest. Better defea-
It murders me so hard that I hardly have time to blink before it's done. It only has 80 HP!
After I do everything in the last three paragraphs again, this time avoiding the chest, I go on my way.
Who am I kidding? With no sense of preservation I go back to town and save, then head back to the cave and reopen the chest...
And then it /runs away/?
After resetting (four times), I defeat it by spamming B Protects and B Powers then beating the hand out of it (As it's literally a green hand in a box). I go back out of the cave to beat some potions out of Demons, then continue down the cave to... yet another boss. Yaaay.
The boss is named Pison, an assasin sent by one of my Best Friends Forever who I trained with for five years and treated as a comrade. He can't tell us who. Hmm, let's guess which one *coughDemoncough*
While I realize the boss music for this fight isn't as good as all the other battle music, I also notice that our assasin is rendered as a blue skinned reptile man with a whip and a hood over his face.
Luckily, he doesn't do as much damage as our friend from earlier. Seven turns in I manage to murder him. I make my way outside and meet up with our new set of enemies, a tall blue set of enemies (called Androids? They feel like zombies...) who manage to take a lot of my HP and I groan, more grinding time. But first I make my way to the port town of Bonro to heal.
Bonro's inn luckily costs just as much as Rablesk. Hey! Demon is in the weapon/armour store, I'm now wary of buying anything from here (He also turns me down, which is okay cause I'm looking for Valsu anyways)... but I do need to upgrade. The Inn houses warrior and fighter and I find the house which needs the medicine from Rablesk, it's a kid whose sick (Now I feel bad for taking so long...) I go look for the guy who promised me my map, apparently he's been all over town today and I have to follow him everywhere. Eventually I get it.
I take a long walk to Zellis in my search for Valsu and meet a few other Tetsujin, apparently there are 30 of us in the world... also, people, I get it, I should go to Melenam, there's a Rune there.
I find Valsu, who doesn't even bother taking me up on my offer, so I need to go out and train a lot so he does. First I stay in the Inn, another 50% increase (6-8G).
Okay, after a few fights VALSU JOINS MY PARTY YEAH I WIN YUP VALSU JOINS MY PARTY YEAH YEAH YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.
Well, join me next time when Lux and Valsu go out to get the wind rune and hopefully not die!
Is this one of those games where there's a huge difference between being overleveled and being underleveled?
(Alternatively, one where relative level makes a big difference in the algorithm.)
Yup.
Though the trudge from level to level alone kind of balances it out. As soon as I hit level 11 it was 20-30 minutes of grinding between levels.
Setting off from Zellis with temporary and useless but necessary party member Brantu (where the inn prices go higher and higher every time I leave) I head out to grind some more. During my grinding I cross an invisible threshold that unleashes the most hellish monsters upon me.
After grinding up on tiny monsters, I manage to take some of the tougher ones on and defeat them. I defeat enough to make my way to the Cave of Melenam, inside lies the Wind Rune. Do they really let tourists come here? It seems like a serious health hazard. And then I realize I have no idea how to maneuvre my way around.
I fumble a bit with the stairs (why are they shaped like mudslides? Do these look like stairs to you?) and head upwards. I fight lots of battles and... really, there isn't much treasure up here. I'm assuming because the freaking Wind Rune is also in here.
Somehow I make my way around this weird cave and find the Wind Ru- no, Wind Rn, the Wind Rn. I can use it to get out of here and back to any town I've visited, much like the HM Fly. As with Fly, I need to get out of the cave first to use it. But of course I'm not out of the cave yet since there's still cool stuff down here. Valsu is low on MP and since NOBODY IS WILLING TO SELL ME M HERBS I only have one left, I use it and head upwards. I find the cave of Melenam and... well, Lux and Valsu are both semi-dead, so I head back to Zellis where they don't sell M Her-
Wait a second, I have the Wind Rn! I can go WHEREVER I WANT!
Lux grabs the wind rn as it pulsates with power as it transports him and his elvish friend to- actually there's no effect, you just appear wherever you wanted to go.
In Bonro, where they do sell M Herbs, I mistakenly leave Valsu and have the alien join me. Luckily I saved before this so I just reset and hope this never happens again. After stocking up (which takes forever since I have to buy each individual item) I head back to the cave.
I return to Zellis and then to the cave, heading into the deeper reaches of Melenam (But first Valsu gains a level!).
Oh, temporary and useless but neccessary party member Brantu reminds me he exists by pressing some buttons in the cave and getting rid of some rocks on the path to the deeper reaches of Melenam. Those are some pretty odd trousers Mr. Temporary and Useless but Necessary party member Brantu. Inside, he thanks me and tells me to visit him at his house in Branch when I can. But right now it's time to explore the deepest reaches of the city that used to be underwater Atlanti- Melenam!
It's very steampunk in here, so it's probably a ship-submarine-city thing. Surprisingly, there aren't any enemies in this lobby. I grab some stuff from chests and head into the next room where there aren't any enemies either, but there is a Tetsujin. I'd like to start counting my people to make sure there are 30 of us, but I'm not going all the way back to Zellis to do so because that'd be annoying at this point.
The Tetsujin is quite saddening, he's broken, all he can say is "I MUST PRO... I MUST PRO..." and then "...GGGG..G.G..." There's another one... too, this is surprisingly saddening.
There are empty rooms and basically... it implies that everyone who lived here died and the Tetsujin were left to rust... There's even more Tetsujin too. The saddest is the one who tried to get everybody out as the city sunk...
After grabbing all the stuff, I discover another way out of the cave/city of Melenam... back to the caves I see.
I celebrate as Lux gains a level and take the path and instantly recoil cause I see a boss. It's the red version of the last assassin boss and I'm very very scared of it.
After healing up I go towards the boss and get ready to try to not die.
Pison has apparently returned from the dark world and become RED PISON! The dark world has nothing to do with my best frienemy Demon by the way, totally not related at all~
I use B Protects on both Lux and Valsu and a B Power on Lux. Through teamwork and lots of throwing around Potion 2 & 3s we manage to... not die! Over 2200 EXP! Yay!
I go outside and find myself in yet another desert, but according to my map this one is an island! What wacky undersea city acts as a traversal between deserts anyway? Going upwards, I fight some new and old enemies (A mass of tentacles? Who designed these things? Why is it called a Brain?) I make my way to the town of Eygus (as revealed to me by the one girl whose always standing at the town entrance to say "Welcome to Xville! Other words I'm saying.").
I can't find any shops, seriously. No shops. I can't stock up after wasting 90% of by Potion and M Herb stock. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU ISLAND PEOPLE. Not even the Inn's relatively cheap price (16G->12G) can make up for this.
Well, join me next time as I do stuff and cry about the lack of freaking SHOPS IN A TOWN.
It's rocks piled on top of each other to make makeshift stairs.
Still looks kind of odd.
For some reason it reminds me of Mud Doll from Terranigma. Which then reminds me of The Great Mighty Poo.
After calming down, I take a look around the island town (note: the island itself is a desert, yet this town is green and lush). I bump into an old elf guarding a door, he sees my Wind Rune (how do people know you have this stuff anyways, I would be hiding this thing like a sack of stolen gold) he lets me through to his underground cave passageway. Great, even more caves.
I take a surprisingly short walk through the cave and end up back on the main continent. That sure is some artistic licence with the distance Enix. Anyways, I head downwards and find myself near the town of Pell. Where new, more difficult monsters wait. I quickly head into town to rest and buckle down to level grind.
While I do so, I'll entertain you guys by complaining about Valsu. Aside from his upcoming Elixir ability he has no physical ability and has one actually useful attack spell (ICE 1, LUX has four already!) and maybe his ability to heal (but Potions heal more than he can and his MP cost per HEAL 2 is way too high). It makes me wish I'd picked someone else but if I had I'd be in real trouble with Valsu's Elixir spell, so I guess I just have to deal with it.
Pell is yet another port, though more obviously so than Bonro. Which is why it being the town of Water makes sense. We're here to find the Water Rune (Or Rn) if you hadn't guessed already, but you probably had. The inn is only 12G, so I can quit complaining about inn prices now. In the Inn an NPC is surprised that I found Melenam as he spent 25 years of his life searching for it. I find a guy from Egyus, he makes me promise to tell nobody about being from that sham of an RPG town. I also find out that Melenam was considered the "Northern Continent" when it was still above water. I stock up on things (changing Valsu's equipment, LUX's is still great) and head into the Tavern. There's a drunk digger man who will be important later due to having random red dialogue in his... musings? I also hear from the bartender, he says a ruthless tribe to the south have the Water Rune. Look, I'm a robot whose fought Brains, Androids, Stingray, Demons and what looks like Cthulhu's cousin, I can handle humans just fine.
I hope.
(Also, just a note, while all of them seem to have learned a lot of awesome fire spells, no enemy has been able to heal themselves by 40HP per turn, now that I mention this they'll probably all learn a full heal spell.)
I head a bit to the south, around a mountain, and see the schizophrenic red light that represents a rune. It's time to face some-
Okay, nobody's mauling me yet. Just a friendly greeting from one of the countrymen. I talk to the citizens (Lots of Umpa! Umpa!)and it seems that nobody is trying to murder me, I can't believe the bartender lied to me! I even leveled up a bunch too!
One guy tells me the Water Rune must be losing power since it hasn't rained in a while, at least the bartender was right about the Rune being here. Oh yeah, drought, I should probably help with that.
While there are no shops here (if you get invaded it's not my fault >_>), there is an inn (no beds, just a huge mat), so I can continue training to be the best apprentice of them all whenever I like as long as the Brains don't get to me.
Due to the drought they can't grow their crops and their usually waterflowing canals are empty (which took me a while to notice, just thought they liked highlands). They can't dig a well because the ground is too hard. Instead of going somewhere else, they're relying on the Water Rune to maybe not screw up one of these days.
The Rune is with the Sage, who stubbornly won't give it to me cause "It's their Guardian". Darned old man who I can't rea- Hey, this guy has lots of lines unlike most other NPCs who only have two, he practically has ten! Oh...
I've worn out his stubborn-ness and he tells me to get the country water if I want their awesome Rn.
So as that drunk guy from earlier couldn't stop singing about his digging prowess in glowing red letters, I go grab him from Pell and bring him to Guntz.
When we get to the Elder, he's perplexed by my new friend, but the digger is already busy working on the 'hard ground'. In seven seconds he's struck water, yeah, 'hard ground' indeed.
And then the Sage just hands me the Water Rune.
Okay... the next Rune I'll have to pry from the hands of an unbeatable monster right?
The Water Rune heals your HP in battle without the use of MP and it can be used and unlimited number of times, this thing is so broken I think that just what it does describes the broken-ness appropriately.
He suggests I head to Patrof, since he heard there's also a rune there. So I guess I know where I'm going next! The Digger decides to stay in Guntz to help the villagers for a bit longer, hopefully he doesn't mean relieving them of all their mead.
But before we go... lots of grinding, so see you next stage time!