For millennia, a being called the "Raigan" has been kept in suspended animation—waiting for the appointed time at which he will gather the legendary four artifacts to bring about the Great Union and dawn to the people of the world known as Andel. But what exactly does the Great Union entail? No one seems to know, even the Raigan himself. What is it he is working towards? Exactly who benefits from the completion of the Great Union? And what, if anything, does any of this have to do with a far-away place called Lennus, and its heroes Chezni and Midia...?
Lennus II is the sequel to Lennus—better known overseas as Paladin's Quest—which, despite being popular in Japan, was not received very well elsewhere. Like many other late SNES-era RPGs, it was never localized despite doing well in its own country. Thanks to the power of Fan Translation, however, English-speakers can now enjoy the game for themselves via emulation.
Tropes featured in this game include:
- Action Girl: Nikita — a professional stripper — is an aspiring Action Girl who begs you to let her join the party. If you dismiss her, she'll be furious at you for taking away her chance to fight.
- All in a Row: Every mercenary you recruit follows Farus' lead. In an interesting twist, one particular enemy in the Bonus Dungeon does this as well. After each battle, at least one more of this enemy starts following behind you, and in battle can call additional ones that may flee at random; those that flee will also start following you once the battle is over. Once at least five of them are present in the same battle, they transform into the Combiner enemy.
- Always Check Behind the Chair: There are some really useful stat increasing items and gold hidden in shelves throughout the game.
- Arbitrary Headcount Limit: Four, as in the first game.
- Background Boss: Granada's final form, similar to Kaymat from the first game.
- Background Music Override: The Throne of Immortals and Granada's Spaceship.
- Badass Cape: Myra's appears to be made of fire.
- Bigger on the Inside: Monglar, a small-looking drill tank controlled by Gilray Zork, houses an entire dungeon within itself.
- Bonus Dungeon: The Mountain of Learning, home to the Combiner and Guardian enemies, and some of the best equipment in the game.
- Boss in Mook Clothing: The Combiner in the Mountain of Learning. Aside from changing its elemental weaknesses, it has boatloads of HP, hits like a truck (1000+ damage per turn to every party member) and is immune to spells such as Momricknote , Slownote and Sofie.note
- Cast from Hit Points: The entire magic system is based around this, just like the first game.
- Character Development: Farus, in the form of his transforming from a Silent Protagonist at the beginning of the game to giving lengthy speeches by the finale.
- Combat Breakdown: Each segment of Granada's final form starts attacking with less flashy and damaging attacks the more damage they take; the only exception is the Granada Face, which goes from shooting single target missiles for low damage to shooting large missiles that explode for party-wide damage the less HP it has.
- Continuity Nod: One of the dungeons is an almost perfect reproduction of the maze of Doth from the first game.
- Cool Train: For a significant amount of time, your only means of travel in Eltz.
- Doomed Hometown: The entire underworld once the Great Union occurs. You get to revisit what remains of it later on as part of a dungeon.
- Dub Name Change: English-language players will probably be baffled by Rich Jr.'s constant references to a mysterious "father" that they're apparently supposed to recognize, but who is never named outright. That's because for whatever reason, the name of Richter, the strongest mercenary in the original Lennus, was changed to "Mouth" in the localization of Paladin's Quest.
- Elemental Powers: Just like the first game, there are 8 elements in total:
- Kill It with Fire: Fire. This one is available from the start. Provides basic attack magic. Effective against plants.
- Shock and Awe: Light. This one is available from the start. Provides basic attack magic. Effective against reptiles.
- Blow You Away: Air. This one is available from the start. Provides basic attack magic. Effective against mammal/humanoid enemies.
- Extra-ore-dinary: Gold. Can be used to combine other elements, thus creating better spells.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Earth. Mainly used for support spells such as Heal.note
- Bizarro Elements: Sky. Unlike what its name may imply, Sky can be best described as a summoner element, since its spells revolve around summoning creatures to aid you in battle, such as Gubo.note Can also be used to combine other elements, thus creating better spells.
- Making a Splash: Water. Provides magic support mainly in the form of wall spells. Also provides the incredibly useful Revivenote spell.
- Power of the Void, Infinity +1 Element: Void. Provides the ultimate magic in the game when combined with other elements.
- Epic Rocking: The staff roll music is nearly 15 minutes long, and is a Reprise Medley of many themes used throughout the game, seamlessly transitioning into one another.
- Evil Counterpart: Granada, who's a Raigan much like Farus. He outright states that they both are two sides of the same coin.
- Floating Continent: The cities of Andel. Except they're floating underground.
- God of Evil: Granada, being a Raigan, which are a race of gods, naturally qualifies.
- Good Morning, Crono: In a twist, the one waking the player up is the major villain.
- Guide Dang It!: A good number of mecenaries. Recruiting Polock takes the cake for this, but other honorable mentions include recruiting Nikita, recruiting and powering up Myra, and finding a bride for Eudenus.
- Infinity +1 Sword: Farus and Rich Jr. have exclusive access to the Gomutai equipment, which can only be bought from a Robot merchant in the penultimate dungeon for increasingly higher amounts of money (the Gomutai Sword alone costs 200000!), with the exception of the Gomutai Boots, which can also be found in a chest the Mountain of Learning, and Rich Jr. already comes equipped with them if you recruit him.
- Non-Indicative Name: The Rainbow of Gravity atop the Tower of Gravity is not, in fact, rainbow colored. It's just blue.
- Noob Cave: The entire underworld.
- One-Winged Angel: Granada employs this twice:
- During the fight against Granada at the top of the Throne of the Immortals, after disposing of his protective halos with the aid of Petro and Midia (via tangible projections), Granada transforms into a nastier form with a mouth in his torso. In this second half of the fight, he can act twice per turn, and gains the ability to temporarily swallow one of your characters, incapacitating them and draining their HP in the process each turn.
- For the final battle, Granada fuses with his spaceship to become a giant head with three different cannons mounted to itself, all of them with Names to Run Away from Really Fast (Raiga's Wrath, Grand Eraser, and God Cannon). In this form, he's big enough to cover the entire screen!
- Optional Party Member: Nearly all of the mercenaries.
- Path of Inspiration: The Great Union is much less pleasant than the prophecies indicate.
- Permanently Missable Content:
- The Gold spirit and everything else in the underworld, including any mercenaries you didn't recruit at least once.
- The Water spirit becomes unobtainable once you go to Lennus, as Zorban the giant fish will not reappear after Eltz and Lennus fuse together.
- Point of No Return: Three of them:
- The Great Union at the start of the game. Once you trigger it, you cannot return to the underworld as it were.
- Once you go through the Rainbow of Gravity leading to Lennus, you cannot return. Well, kind of. Eltz and Lennus fuse together later on, technically giving you back access to Eltz, but you do permanently lose access to obtaining the Water Spirit once that happens.
- Once you cross the final door in Granada's Spaceship, you cannot head back nor save the game while inside. The game even gives you a warning before heading in.
- Pointy Ears: A few of the races.
- Random Encounters: The Void Temple notably averts this, having all enemies being visible on the field. The challenge of the dungeon is to chase the Void Elemental around the maze (with a layout that's almost an exact recreation of the Maze of Doth from the first game) while avoiding the roaming guards.
- Schmuck Bait: Almost too many to count. There are many, many NPCs who will gleefully take all of your money away—permanently.
- Shout-Out: The fan translation turns the Big Bad's motivation into an evil plan to build a Death Star.
- Stripperiffic: Justified for Nikita, who is a stripper. Most of the other female characters' clothing isn't particularly revealing, although Myra seems to only have her Leotard of Power and cape.
- Take Your Time: Averted at one point. In Tol Terran, if you do anything at all beyond immediately solving the problem by the straightest possible route, people will die.
- Turns Red:
- Monglar, the miniboss causing tremors in Kamui Town, starts getting more actions per turn the closer it is to death.
- Once you deplete half of Boozoo's HP, he hulks up and the real fight begins. His butt stomp is upgraded to a highly damaging belly flop, and he gains a new attack: Rapidfire Fisticuffs that hit the entire party for damage high enough to cause a Total Party Kill.
- Unwitting Pawn: Farus was unknowingly responsible for helping Granada trigger the Great Union, resulting in Andel's destruction.
- Verbal Tic: Boozoo of the four angels, zoo!
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- In addition to the destruction of Andel, it's quite easy to irritate and offend the people of Eltz.
- If you do anything before helping the people of Tol Terran—including taking other paths in the dungeon—you will cause more of its inhabitants to die. The Tol Terrans know this, and will hate you for it.
- Womb Level:
- The Giant's Head and Giant's Heart in Kua Terran. They're filled with much of the same enemies as the Womb Level in the first game, though you do fight two Virus minibosses at the end of each one.
- Zorban's Belly. Zorban is a giant fish, and its insides are an optional dungeon, that's also home to the Water Spirit.
- World Sundering: The Great Union turns out to be this, and it happens twice through the course of the game:
- It first happens to Andel at the start of the game, when all of the continents crash into each other and begin to sink. When it's revisited later on, in order to obtain the eight seal, it turns out the whole thing is filling with lava as well.
- The second time happens way later, when Eltz crashes into Lennus and the two fuse together. Both worlds fit neatly together with one another, with very little damage being done to each world. Granada later reveals this to be a part of his ultimate plan, to convert both planets into a new star.
