After leaving Vault if we head north we can actually reach the town of Lunpa, but as we were warned it’s impossible to get in as the town’s sealed off by a giant gate and the guards want nothing to do with us. Though we can get a demonstration of the usage of Catch by using it to snag a Nut off a nearby tree. Nuts are generally the second consumable HP restorative you’ll find after Herbs, and they far outclass them as they restore 200 HP vs. 50. They remain useful throughout the whole game. Next to Lunpa on the world map is a cave called West Lunpa Cave, but again there’s nothing doing there as there’s a switch-operated gate barring the way that only closes further if you flip the switch.
So instead we head east, and eventually we reach the location called Goma Cave that we were told about, but alas the entrance is covered in both a thick layer of ivy and blocked off by a big ivy-tangled stump. Neither Isaac or Garet can move it out of the way (physically or Psynergetically), but before their quest can be brought to a premature halt Ivan approaches them, immediately sees that the problem is, then comes up with the idea of using his Whirlwind Psynergy to generate a small windstorm to blow away the encumbering vines. Garet thanks him, then asks what he’s doing here. Ivan says that, just like us, he wasn’t able to get into Lunpa, but he’s not here to ask for help. Rather, he’s been thinking about our quest, so if he can’t save Hammet, he wants to at least help us. So Ivan rejoins the party once again, this time permanently, and we can use Whirlwind again to unblock the entrance to the cave and head on in.
Now that Ivan’s part of the party again I handed him the Bandit’s Sword that we got in Vault. It’s a light blade and it will serve as our introduction to weapon unleashes. So, going forth, pretty much all unique weapons will have a special attack called an unleash that may trigger if you have your characters attack normally. An unleash has roughly a 33% chance of triggering, and the Bandit’s Sword is called Rapid Smash, where there’s a chance it might deal double the damage. It’s a very basic effect, but as we go through the game and get more and better weapons unleash effects get more elaborate in turn. They’re based off of the Attack stat, so this has the unfortunate effect of Psynergy largely falling off for the warrior-type characters like Isaac roughly half/two-thirds of the way through the game.
Anyway, Goma Cave is a fairly short, unremarkable little dungeon save for two points of interest, the first being that one of the chests contains what is called a Lucky Medal. These items are scattered all over and don’t nominally do anything, but it’s wise to hold on to them for later as they do have a rather important use. Secondly, we can find another Djinni in this cave, a fiery Mars Djinni, and this one shows us that not all Djinn will simply join us without any trouble like Flint did. If you encounter any out in the wild we have to fight and defeat it before it’ll join us. As enemies Djinn wield level-appropriate Psynergy of their level, and they do have a chance of running away. If they do that all you have to do is exit and reenter the room and they’ll be back as if nothing had happened. This one’s called Forge, and its effect is that it increases the party’s Attack by 25%. Also, now that we have a three-man party the size of the random encounter monster mobs start growing larger, so Psynergy spam is the most efficient way to take care of them. Ivan’s Ray and Whirlwind spells are great for this since he has like twice the PP of Garet and Isaac.
Once we exit Goma Cave we find ourselves on the other side of the mountain range that divides eastern Angara and a few steps away is the town of Bilibin. Angara’s Fantasy Counterpart Culture is pretty blatant here, as Bilibin is named after the Russian town of Bilibino and occupies roughly the same geographic location if you compare the maps. The similarities pretty much end there, though. It’s a mid-sized, temperate town that has a very gloomy pall hanging over it, and the source is an odd tree that’s set at the town gates. Talking to some of the nearby locals reveals that the tree is actually a transfigured man and this is corroborated by the fact that we can actually use Mind Read on it (naturally, the man’s thoughts consist of a plea for help). Talking to further townsfolk reveals the backstory here: the lord of the town, Lord McCoy, recently set about building a fancy new palace for his wife, and apparently he decided that only the wood from the sacred forest of Kolima to the west would do. So in retaliation the forest put a curse on the people from the nearby village of the same name, including refugees like the poor guy at Bilibin’s gates. Since none of the warriors McCoy has hired to deal with the problem have succeeded, a barricade has been erected to the east in order to block passage to Kolima, construction has stopped and his spoiled wife is rather beside herself. After doing a small bit of shopping (very small, as money’s tight in the early stages of the game) we can walk along the top of the town gate to reach a cave entrance covered in ivy. Once an application of Whirlwind removes that we can head inside, Move a statue of Lady McCoy out of the way, and scoop up the winged Jupiter Djinni Gust. This one does Wind damage to one enemy similar to what Flint does, but it has a chance of hitting twice for double damage. Additionally, ransacking the town’s pots and barrels uncovers a Hard Nut, the Defense stat-booster.
One screen north is where Lord McCoy’s modest-looking palace is, and right next to it you can see the abandoned framework for the new one where the workmen are stuck idling and Lady McCoy’s working herself up into a lather over how horribly unfair this whole situation is. One of the guards posted outside thinks Isaac and co. are more warriors looking to see the Lord about the curse thing, so we’re let inside. The palace’s pretty compact, all things considered, and McCoy is waiting in a room at the very back, and he turns out to be a rotund guy who speaks with the stereotypical Scottish accent that makes liberal use of “laddy” and replaces various vowels with “ae” so I can never figure out how exactly the accent's supposed to be pronounced unless I picture it being said in Groundskeeper Willie's voice. Like many of the other people inside the palace, he was Expecting Someone Taller and is doubtful that a bunch of kids can overcome the curse. Really, at this point this whole Kolima thing is just a tangent; it’s got absolutely nothing to do with our pursuit of Saturos’s group and the story hasn’t given us any reason why we should be putting that on hold right now. In fact, there is literally nothing stopping us from saying “screw this!” to McCoy and Bilibin and continuing on our way other than the fact that the game expects you to do this business first because otherwise we’re looking at a nasty level spike.
Heck, our party doesn’t even have the slightest clue how they can lift the curse, but Chronic Hero Syndrome comes to the fore and they want to do it anyway, and to be fair everyone looking down on them for being just “kids” does irritate them. McCoy however, puts his Scottish foot down and decides that no, he won’t let us pass through the barricade to Kolima, so we can just cool our heels in Bilibin until the whole thing blows over. Whenever that is. Whatever, he’s not the boss of us! So let’s head east anyway, and when we encounter the barricade we find that it’s a shoddily-built piece of crap that looks like it can be knocked down simply by being sneezed on. In fact, we can simply Move a portion of it aside and continue on our merry way, past an odd sight of three transfigured human trees stacked atop one another, and back onto the world map on the Kolima side of the barricade. Hah, take that!
Soundtrack
- Mysterious Caves
- Goma Cave's pretty sedate, so that aural Jump Scare doesn't really give me the willies.
- Royal Palace
- Hm, a Scottish lord, an overbearing wife, and an enchanted (?) forest? Sounds familiar...
