The climactic confrontation with Saturos and Menardi atop Venus Lighthouse is going to be put on hold so that some unfinished business can be taken care of: namely the remaining floors of Crossbone Isle. Now last time we had to jump through some hoops aboard the Tolbi-bound ship in order to reach the treasure-filled island but that was a secret, easter egg way to reach it. The main way of getting there is much more simple. We have to return to Suhalla Desert, where I deliberately neglected to mention that just above in the cliff face where Flash was is a cave entrance. The cave is super short, and opens onto a small, enclosed area that sports a giant whirlwind much like the one that contained the Storm Lizard, only this one is red. Unlike all the others, this one does not drop us back off at the town of Suhalla, this one will drop us off on Crossbone Isle’s overworld. Step into it again, and then it will return you to the town. However, if you use Douse on it like all the others…
Tempest Lizard
HP
- 3000
- Weak to Earth; Resists Wind
- Storm Ray - Deals moderate Wind damage to 2/3 enemies.
- Sonic Slash - Deals heavy Wind damage to all enemies.
- Tempest - Deals heavy Wind damage to all enemies.
- Wing Stroke - Deals heavy Wind damage to 2/3 enemies.
- Impact - Raises Attack.
- Ward - Raises Resistance.
This purple palette swap of the Storm Lizard (which in turn was a green palette swap of the red Tornado Lizard) is literally just that boss with a tiny stat buff. If you can beat that guy, immediately turning around to fight this one should be not problem.
Winning earns us 1360 EXP, 6400 coins, and a Potion.
If you defeat the Tempest Island while still on Crossbone Isle have no fear, you won’t be trapped. All you have to do is simply enter the island’s exterior area, turn around and exit, and the red tornado will have respawned. So if you feel like it you can grind against the overgrown purple frill lizard.
In we go to pick up where we left off on the fourth subterranean floor of the cave. The room here revolves around a darkened room containing statues on tracks that’ll automatically move around to block our path, however we can slip past them by using a combination of Halt and Cloak, explaining why we could go no further on our first attempt. The main piece of treasure in this room is a very good piece of armor called the Storm Gear as it grants resistance to all the elements but Earth. The fifth floor is a more difficult reprisal of the sluice gate + rolling logs puzzle from Kolima Forest, while the sixth floor room involves post moving and chasing down the final Venus Djinni Bane, who damages and badly poisons one enemy. And now we have all twenty-eight Djinn in the game, woo hoo!
Floor number seven involves Carrying blocks around in order to cross over to treasure/the exit, and the piece of treasure here is the Wicked Mace. The Wicked Mace is the second cursed weapon we’ve come across (Crossbone Isle actually contains all of the remained cursed equipment) and it comes with the Deadly Poison unleash which can inflict just that on whoever gets hit with it. Now the next room, which borrows elements from the cave in Fuchin Temple, contains the Cleric’s Ring, which is the one item I mentioned that makes wearing cursed gear actually viable. If you let someone equip this they’ll be able to use cursed gear without having to worry about the possibility of being paralyzed by it and skipping their turn in battle. You still can’t remove the gear without going to a Sanctum, but since cursed gear is already pretty powerful there’s not really a reason to remove it. I’ve always stuck it onto Garet (Thunder Crown too) and given him the Demonic Axe found in the Bane room. The Demonic Axe is essentially an axe version of the Wicked Mace, only its unleash merely poisons the enemy instead of badly and it’s a couple points stronger. The Wicked Mace is probably the better choice all things considered, but I personally thinks Garet’s battle sprite looks better when holding an axe, so that’s what I go with.
The guardian monsters for the final room are a big pain since they’re two Cerberuses (imagine a Fenrir with 2200 HP) and the puzzle involves log rolling over water like the end of Fuchin Temple did. There’s a final cursed weapon to pick up (the good old standby Muramasa) then we can move onto the tenth and final area of Crossbone Isle, which is in fact a rotted, decrepit pirate ship! At the base of the snapped-off main mast is the final Mimic of the game (only guards a Potion, sadly), and when we approach the vessel’s bow…
Deadbeard
HP
- 6000
- Weak to Earth; Resists Water
- Inferno - Deals heavy Fire damage to all enemies.
- Spark Plasma - Deals heavy Wind damage to all enemies.
- Freeze Prism - Deals heavy Water damage to all enemies.
- Impact - Raises Attack.
- Guard - Raises Defense.
- Ward - Raises Resistance.
- Break - Removes enemy party’s buffs.
Lurking in Crossbone Isle’s depths is the ultimate boss of the game: Deadbeard. This animated set of armor doesn’t look very piratical though; in fact, “Deadbeard” is a localization invention. This guy was named “Talos” in the Japanese version, after the bronze giant automaton that patrolled the shores of Crete in Greek myth until a nail was pulled out of his heel and all the “ichor” within his body drained, killing him. From what I understand “Talos” as he appears here is also an enemy from the Shining Series, perhaps the most overt of the minor references to that series sprinkled throughout the Golden Sun games.
Anyway, Deadbeard’s MO is very simple: use his two actions per turn to buff himself then start nuking you with some of the most powerful Psynergy spells in the game (he doesn’t have Earth’s Grand Gaia though so he doesn’t have the full set; for some reason Camelot’s pretty allergic to giving out powerful Earth spells to bosses). Also he’s the first enemy we’ve come across to know the Water-exclusive debuff spell Break (as in “the waves break on the rocks”; its Japanese name was “Splash” FYI) which is very obnoxious when you’ve spent a turn or two setting up and he wipes that work out in a single action. But at least that means one less nuke headed our way. Mia doesn’t learn Break herself until…Lv. 30 I believe and I’m going into this at Lv. 28 so I’m at a bit of a disadvantage there.
You could summon rush a lot of his HP down but there are more inventive ways to try to cheese him. Like using Luff to seal his spells for a few turns (though his AI is smart enough to not waste time trying to cast spells he can’t use), or Ground to block one of his actions. Flash and Granite are of course invaluable, especially given that I went the straight slugfest route and had to have Mia refilling everyone’s HP with Wish Well near-constantly. Deadbeard’s kind of a Boring, but Practical bonus boss even if his spells do look pretty flashy.
Winning earns us 8000 EXP, 9000 coins, and a Water of Life.
Defeating the ghostly reanimated suit of armor leaves behind a chest that contains the Demon Mail. The Demon Mail provides a flat +50 Defense so in that regard it’s the best piece of armor in the game, but it also lowers Wind resistance by ten points, which is a little odd since I don’t think any other piece of equipment bar the Turtle Boots has a stat penalty. It’s not much of a big deal at this point though since there aren’t any significant Wind-themed enemies left in the game, so onto Garet it goes so that he can continue to be a tank.
And that’s the entirety of Crossbone Isle! Next time I’ll finally, finally be bringing this game to a close.
