All roads lead to a destination, and the long path that Isaac and his friends have traveled across Angara and into Gondowan finally terminates just north of Venus Lighthouse: at Lalivero. “Lalivero” is an Engrish reading of Lalibela, an actual UNESCO heritage site in Ethiopia. It’s location even kinda matches up if you compare the shapes of both Africa and Gondowan. Immediately north on the world map we can see the incomplete base of what will be Babi Lighthouse. Upon entering the town proper we find, to no surprise by this point, more soldiers lying beaten at the town’s gates. Once again we’re told that they were attacked by Saturos and Menardi’s group, except now they number seven instead of six. The soldiers say that they recognized Kraden protecting Sheba, meaning that the two warriors really have a penchant for kidnapping people. They urge Iodem to leave them and head north to the construction site in pursuit, adding that the master of the town, a man named Faran, went in that direction as well.
Being the final town of the game, Lalivero has some pretty strong gear available for sale. Weapon-wise, there’s the Crystal Rod - the strongest staff in the game and the best weapon for Mia overall (its unleash, Drown, is naturally Water-elemental and may instantly-kill), and the Swift Sword, a light blade than can potentially have the strongest unleash in the game (Sonic Smash may hit three times in a row) and is probably the best weapon for Ivan outside of a very rare drop in the final dungeon. Gear-wise there’s the Jeweled Crown that provides a nice Luck boost and the Spirit Armlet that’s good for Mia since it boosts Water (and Earth). There’s also the Warrior’s Helm which is the best helmet for Isaac since it boosts Earth-elemental power and the unleash proc rate, as well as the final Mars Djinni of the game (Torch: damages one enemy but may also only use 50% of its Defense in damage calculation) that can be found via some roof-hopping, a finally a Psy Crystal that’s hidden within an obelisk at the center of town. Speaking around, most of the townsfolk are incredibly worried about Sheba; they view her as their “savior” since she apparently fell out of the sky one day as a baby and was adopted by Faran. Plus she apparently has visions and stuff, which sound to me like she’s a Wind Adept since they’re special in that regard. A number of them blame Tolbi for what happened, but as noted by themselves Laliverans are naturally too timid to take action themselves, explaining how Babi was able to have his men just roll in and set up shop.
Exiting the town’s north gate and taking almost literally two steps north on the world map will bring us to the incomplete Babi Lighthouse. The construction site’s got one area before the lighthouse itself, filled with nothing but a few workmen hanging around doing nothing with the lighthouse’s construction being put on hold for the day and a Lucky Pepper that’s hidden behind a brief Carry puzzle. More soldiers and workman are sprawled all over the entrance, plus some of the stone’s scorched black from Saturos and Menardi’s attacks. Babi Lighthouse isn’t really a proper dungeon as it’s really tiny and all you have to do is find a slope that takes us right to the basement. If you want to grab, Luff, the final Jupiter Djinni, that’s a little more involved, as you have to find a secret passage to it outside the entrance. This one was a real pain in the ass to fight because it kept running away from me and getting it respawn was obnoxious because thanks to the slopes it’s not simply a matter of exiting a nearby door and then coming back. Luff has the same general effect as the Bind spell (seals Psynergy) but unlike Bind it’s not a Useless Useful Spell since it’ll always work. When we finally do manage to drop down to the basement, we find Faran and a couple other Laliverans standing before a big door behind which is a tiled area not unlike what we’ve seen in the Elemental Lighthouses. Despite the fact that there’s no way they can figure out how to open it and reach the ruins beyond, Saturos and Menardi’s group somehow managed to pass through. Iodem steps forward to apologize to Faran over Sheba’s kidnapping and introduces Isaac and his group to Faran as warriors from the north who’ve been pursuing her kidnappers. The Laliverans aren’t to pleased to see him, but Faran seems more resigned than anything and is willing to trust Iodem’s words that our powers will enable us to follow the same path if it will save Sheba. Well, there’s a plaque next to the door that mentions “seeing with [one’s] true heart” which screams “use Reveal!” and doing so reveals a button we can push to open the door. Iodem and Faran immediately make to head through but it immediately closes again. Mia speculates that the doors bar non-Adepts from passing due to the dangers beyond, and Faran reluctantly admits that she’s right and that he’d just get in our way. With his and Iodem’s blessing, we’re free to move past the door and descend the stairwell just beyond.
The next leg of today’s dungeon crawling will be through the Venus Ruins, which the save screen refers to as the “Tunnel Ruins”. Upon entering we can see a replica of the room in Venus Lighthouse with the statue and lit up nodes. This is important, because there are actually two paths through the ruins depending on the layout of nodes. It’s not a one-time thing fortunately, so on our next trip through here (because there will be one) we’ll be able to take the other. Either way, the Tunnel Ruins are pretty short, and since the lit nodes are mostly blue, the puzzles we face on this path involve water, namely using Douse to fill up pedestals that we then push onto special plates to open the way forward, in one case then freezing the water to provide a stepping stone to reach the far side of the room. Along the way is a small room that appears to have nothing within but a statue of a maiden holding a tree branch, but using Reveal turns it into a treasure chest that contains the Asura Armor, a great piece for either Isaac or Garet that boosts Attack and grants HP regen in addition to the standard Defense boost. Speaking of equipment, the Wise Gryphons that appear throughout Babi Lighthouse, the Tunnel Ruins, and Venus Lighthouse can drop the Feathered Robe, the best body armor for Ivan and Mia since it boosts Wind elemental power (for Ivan) and resistance (for Mia). Whichever path you end up taking, both terminate in a room with five goddess statues of colors representing the elements (green for Earth, red for Fire, purple for Wind, blue for Water, and gold for Alchemy itself, presumably) and to proceed they have to be pushed into a certain formation. This puzzle is a very Guide Dang It! one and very unintuitive because there are no hints given as to which statue goes where…unless you use Mind Read on them, because there’s a precedent for using that spell on inanimate, non-organic objects, right? Anyway, once the statues have been pushed into the proper positions a door opens up, and just beyond that is an exit staircase beneath a fancy arch.
Welcome to the true final dungeon of Golden Sun, the upper reaches of Venus Lighthouse. You can immediately tell that we’ve made it because the music changes from that kind of grating track from Mercury Lighthouse to a more grand, triumphant-sounding one that is really sublime. The room we enter has a Psynergy Stone to top everyone off with and two additional exits. One of them leads downstairs to the opposite end of that electrified corridor that blocked us off before. The power can be cut by moving a statue onto a button, but this does not create a shortcut as it will reset as soon as we leave the room meaning that as soon as you leave the lighthouse in order to reenter you have to go through Babi Lighthouse and the Tunnel Ruins again. But that’s okay since there’s still that extra path we’ll be taking in the future. For now, we take the top door to proceed.
Being the Earth lighthouse, Venus Lighthouse’s main gimmick involves sand. Specifically waterfalls of sand that we must activate and either go with or against the flow in order to reach new parts of the floor to progress. Along the way are a number of top-class gear to collect: the Thunder Crown which has the biggest Defense increase of any headwear in the game + PP regen (unfortunately it’s cursed but we’ll still hold on to it), the Dragon Scales armor that also boosts Fire and Water resistance, and finally the Gaia Blade, found within a room that has a conveyor maze except with sand instead. The Gaia Blade is the strongest long sword and the strongest weapon in the game, boosting Earth power and resistance, grants the Earth element to the wielder’s regular physical attacks, and has the most visually-striking unleash of the game in Titan Blade. Titan Blade depicts a giant dropping down out of the sky onto the enemy and slowly sinks into the ground, spewing particles everywhere a lot like the Ragnarok spell. Garet can’t wield this thing, only Isaac can (strictly speaking it’s actually “only Earth Adepts” but ssh).
The monsters here can be pretty deadly and can easily get your HP down into the red in very short order: Thunder Lizards have Storm Breath which is quite powerful and can stun, Chimera Mages can use Fire Breath and cast Eruption in addition to healing 150 HP with Recovery, Fenrirs can stop you from moving with Wicked Howl and can lay down the pain with Double Fang and Ice Breath, and Boulder Beasts still have Dynamite and Grand Golems retain Earth Golems’ Truncheon Fist. There are some pretty good item drops though if you’re patient: Thunder Lizards drop Blessed Maces, which is the second-strongest weapon for Mia from a pure numbers standpoint (the Crystal Rod’s still better though since the Blessed Mace doesn’t have an unleash and Drown’s insta-kill effect is proccing a lot more often than I expected), Boulder Beasts may drop Waters of Life, but the best one to get is the Kikuichimonji from Fenrirs. The Kikuichimonji, named after a group of thirteen swords of especially high quality made by swordsmiths in the employ of a 13th century Japanese emperor, is the strongest light blade in the game and second-strongest weapon period. Its unleash, Asura, depicts a tengu swordsman slashing through the enemy and like Torch damage calculation may halve the target’s Defense. Asura is Wind-elemental, so the Kikuichimonji should definitely go to Ivan ASAP. Only problem is that it has the rarest drop rate of the game at less than half a percent, but at least killing Fenrirs with Mars Djinn raises it to a slightly more manageable 2%. Or you could just game the RNG. Either way, it’s quite worth it if you’re patient enough, and luckily I did not have to wait too long for one to show up.
The final puzzle of note in the lighthouse is one that involves an incomplete circuit laid out on the floor that ultimately connects to a locked door, and we have to pushed marked blocks into the correct holes to ensure that the little pulse of electricity/magic that will then travel along it makes it to the door and unlocks it. Past that is a small room with a floating platform hovering just out of reach, and up a few flights of stairs takes us to a small room with a Psynergy Stone and a hole in the center than we can jump through. This is it, the point of no return. Once we jump down through that hole we will be railroaded straight to the final boss battle and the game’s ending. I’ll be holding off on that for just another update or two, because we have some unfinished business still with a certain island cave…
Soundtrack
- Venus Lighthouse
- If the Saturos battle theme is the most popular of the game's battle themes, this one is probably the most popular dungeon BGM. Sakuraba really went all out for a dungeon that well, doesn't exactly live up to its music's hype, in retrospect. Nothing short of a fantastic track nonetheless.
