This update’s going to be a bit of a short, odds-and-ends sort of one as we wrap up Osenia for now and begin the next leg of the story. After leaving Garoh we have to keep pressing on west until we come across a small hamlet named Mikasalla. Mikasalla’s a pretty “in the middle of nowhere” sort of place, a fact that its inhabitants will gladly tell you, and its only purpose in the greater scheme of things seems to be to tell the player that Air’s Rock exists, since almost all the NPCs mention either it or Garoh. Despite the fact that they keep saying that there’s nothing going for the town there actually is: first the single shop available has some decent basic armor and the Blessed Ankh if you should choose to buy it. Second is that staying in the inn is yet another gladiator from Colosso, the purple-armored Galahad. Like Morgan and Dekka’s appearance in Madra, Galahad only shows up if data’s been transferred from the first game, and he says that he’s been on a quest to find Isaac, since apparently Azart, Satrage, and Navampa are sore losers and want revenge on him. Finally, there’s an animal pen in the bottom southwest corner of the village, and using Scoop in the sand here will uncover an entrace to a short cave that ultimately leads us to the second Mars Djinni at last: Spark. Spark revives a character at 60% max HP and is our first reusable means of reviving downed characters, but it fails about a third of the time, so it’s not always reliable.
So ends Mikasalla’s existence as far as we’re concerned. There are still two important things to pick up in this neck of the woods though. By heading northeast from the village we’ll eventually run into a cavern called Osenia Cavern, following the same scheme employed by the Indra Cavern, meaning that there’s a Summon tablet within. Like with Spark you need Scoop to reach this one, and this new summon is Megaera, one of the Furies from Greek mythology. She requires a Mars and a Jupiter Djinni on standby and deals Fire damage by dropping energy swords on foes then lighting them up with a big energy tornado, and is nice enough to buff the party’s attack on the way out. Almost directly beneath Osenia Cavern on the world map is a triangular patch of forest, and this is where we can battle and capture the second Mercury Djinni of the game, Sour (Water damage and resistance debuff to one enemy).
Heading back to Mikasalla and then heading north and winding east brings us back to the western entrance to Yampi Desert. To be honest, the sense of progression here feels very weird. Given the placement of Megaera and the fact that Mikasalla’s existence urges you to seek out Air’s Rock it feels like the developers expected the player to stop at the entrance to the desert and then immediately nope on out of there and head south instead, when the plot’s actually calling for Felix to make haste across the desert. But Mikasalla’s far enough south and the road to it is windy enough that it’s unlikely the player will easily stumble upon it. Maybe it’s just me.
Anyway, we’re going to go back to Madra for now, and there’s nothing new on either the Osenia Cliffs (the Madrans’ dialogue about the Champa wreck has not been updated) or the drawbridge after it. Madra seems to be the same as ever, but once again the guards at the gate order the party to halt before recognizing us. Turns out that they were attacked a second time since we left, this time by the Kibombo, supposedly a tribe of savages from Gondowan. Apparently the raid’s purpose was theft, because the Kibombo broke into the mayor’s home and stole that orb that he was keeping safe for Piers, and the Adept set off in pursuit. Guess where we’ll be going next.
It’s actually back into the Madra Catacombs! Now that we have Reveal we can open that door and explore a bit of the ruined underground town. There’s an Attack-boosting Apple to find beyond, and now we can enter the ruins themselves. Picking our way across collapsed floors and the like there’s a Lucky Medal within a chest, and eventually we can reach a small room with a chest containing a Tremor Bit. Equipping this teaches the Tremor utility Psynergy, which like most utility Psynergy is pretty niche in use since its purpose is mainly to summon a small earthquake to knock an item or such off of a ledge or some other out-of-reach location. Very useful around when tidying the house, no doubt.
Once again we are done with Madra for the time being. Now we head west, to the other side of the continent of Indra, where there is a land bridge connecting it to the tail end of the continent of Gondowan known as the Gondowan Cliffs. It’s a simply area to navigate, though at first it appears to be a dead end as the path leads directly to a cave with nothing in it but a still-burning campfire (if you come here earlier you can find the Kibombo warriors suspiciously camping out here). In order to scale the cliffs we have to use Scoop on a Conspicuously Light Patch on the ground towards the spot that a random stray dog is by, unearthing a geyser that’ll carry Felix upwards. It’s mostly a bunch of vine-climbing action from here, topped off by walking a tightrope over a waterway. There are some brand new enemies here, the Wolfkin Cub and the Wyvern Chick, and I think the Wyvern Chick might be the first common random encounter to have an AOE attack in Fire Breath, as well as upgrades on old ones in the Flash Ant and Wild Gorilla. The Wild Gorilla has slightly less HP that its predecessor the Chestbeater, but it can still raise its Attack with Beat Dance and inflict some noticeable damage with the returning skill Ransack. Decent EXP, though. There’s also a Mars Djinni on the cliffs in relative plain sight. Kindle will buff everyone’s Attack.
Odds and ends are done. Next time we head into Darkest Africa and finally add to the crew.
