SomeColorMage unleashes Let's Play Golden Sun!

Hello everybody, today we are going to save Master Hammet from his own stupidity. Seriously, he should've just stayed in Vault and helped Ivan, but instead he rode straight into the town run by that Dodonpa guy.

First, I rearrange my Djinn. Isaac gets the Mars Djinn, making him a Barbarian, Garet gets the Mercury Djinn, making him a Cacalier (Mars), Ivan gets the Venus Djinn, making him a Shaman (Jupiter) and Mia gets the Jupiter Djinn, making her a Savant. I'll start really using more tri-elemental classes soon enough.

To start, first we have to go through the Gondowan Cave we cleared earlier and head for Lunpa, and sneak in again through the West Lunpa Cave. In Lunpa, we head towards the Lunpa Fortress.

But we can't get in, we're blocked by guards. So we use Cloak and stay in the shadows to stop ourselves from being spotted.

The fortress is filled with guards dressed in green we have to Cloak past so they don't see us and throw us out. Simple enough, as most of the dungeon is dark, so it's tricky to blow our cover.

The guards start to move, but we figure out the holes in their paths and sneak past them all.

Oh crap, we get spotted. But instead of throwing us out, these guys fight us. They fall quickly.

From now on, we see guys in red clothing instead of green. These guys are hostile, and impossible to miss anyway.

We find Donpa, asleep. Apparently, he coddled Dodonpa a bit too much when he was young, which made him grow into a jerk.

Damn, this path is locked. But we can Catch the Cell Key and let ourselves out.

We're now in an area full of monsters and no guards. We find a Power Bread, and give the HP boost to Ivan.

Mia reaches level 21 and learns High Impact.

We go down the stairs at the end of the area, and...

Hammet: Is it time to eat?

Hey, it's Hammet. Hammet notices Ivan is with us, mentions that Ivan's journey prophecy thing has begun, but is a bit upset that we're here instead of doing said journey. Once again, I have to bring up that Saturos and Menardi are gonna take as long as we do to get to Venus Lighthouse, so don't worry.

Hold it right there!

Crap, it's Dodonpa, who proceeds to insult us for being a bunch of teenagers. Why does everyone do that?!? Anyway, he tries to stop us by releasing Toadonpa.

Toadonpa can regenerate 80 HP a turn and inflict us with a few different statuses. He's weak to Mars and isn't really that impressive. I've stopped doing the turn counts, because, well, I keep forgetting to keep count.

We defeat Toadonpa, and it falls on top of Dodonpa. We have no idea how that happened. According to Hammet, he was trying to sneak behind us to attack when Toadonpa was defeated. What an arse. We let him have it verbally.

Dodonpa: Yeah, OK! I'm sorry! Now, get this thing off of me!

Sorry, no dice. Hammet asks us to move the monster, though, so we might as well. Then we have some discussion on morality and what we should do with him. We decide to lock him up.

Donpa: Serves the little punk right!

Whoa. The old guy's awake and he has a bone to pick with his son. Donpa verbally blasts the guy. He then asks us to sneak out the same way we got in, so that Dodonpa's henchmen don't see us, as the chain of events occurring from that would likely lead to an attack on Kalay. Although Donpa's tricked most of them to get out of here anyway. Donpa is awesome.

On the way out, one of Hammet's apprentices shows up and offers us a caravan ride back. No thanks, we've got a bit more to do here.

First, we head back into the fortress, to get ourselves a Mythril Circlet we couldn't get earlier, and to have another chat with Donpa. He decides to thank us for our help by giving us a Mercury Djinn he found!

The Mercury Djinni Tonic joined Garet.

Tonic gives 8 HP, 3 PP, 2 Defence and 2 Luck. In battle, it removes all status ailments from the party except Downed and Equipment Curse. Very useful.

Also, the shops are now open, so we get some very nice armour upgrades. We also sell the Cell Key. So some guy just gave my 22 coins in exchange for being able to raid the Lunpa Fortress.

I could have gotten the Demonic Staff here, but it has Equipment Curse. What does Equipment Curse do? It randomly paralyses you, stops you from taking equipment off without going to a sanctum and stuffs up rigging the Battle RNG. So I'm not getting it.

We go back to Kalay to see Hammet and Layana reunited. Layana is annoyed at us for not doing what we were supposed to. I'm not going through the Travelling at the Speed of Plot thing again, so please just shut up, ma'am. Hammet tells us that the Shaman's rod must be taken to the continent of Hesperia, to the west of Angara.

The entirety of Kalay Tunnel is now open, so we can get a few more things. Most important of all is an Apple. Ivan gets the Attack boost.

That's it. Next time, we start on the path to Venus Lighthouse. See you then.

Stats:

Isaac: Lv 21 Barbarian HP:393 PP:104 Attack:294 Defence:174 Agility:172 Luck:5

Garet: Lv 21 Cavalier (Mars) HP:348 PP:100 Attack:257 Defence:185 Agility:139 Luck:9

Ivan: Lv 21 Shaman (Jupiter) HP:314 PP:160 Attack:205 Defence:176 Agility:130 Luck:7

Mia: Lv 21 Savant HP:317 PP:210 Attack:214 Defence:176 Agility:179 Luck:12

Djinn: 6 Venus, 5 Mars, 6 Jupiter, 6 Mercury

Well, dood, it looks like things are moving along quite well. All of the stats seemed balance, with Garet no longer slacking in the Defense department. And as far as plot goes, I can't wait to see Menardi and Saturos' faces as you once again come out victorious...I think. It wouldn't seem right if such a swell bunch of psychic teenagers didn't come out on top, would it?

Oh, and on the topic of classes, it's getting harder to decide, and even harder to translate into words. However, I may as well map my current decisions out to make it easier to interpret. Also, if/when you get a 7th Mercury Djinn, pin it on Ivan.

Issac - Barbarian - 5 Mars

Garet - Dragoon - 3 Mercury, 3 Venus

Ivan - Medium - 3 Mercury, 3 Venus

Mia - Savant - 6 Jupiter

...One last thing. When you're deciding which Mercury and Venus Djinn go to which Adept, I suggest giving Garet as much of an Agility boost as you can. Compared to 'Ninja', I doubt that 'Dragoon' will offer a good amount of speed for him.

edited 24th Nov '10 7:26:14 PM by EndarkCuli

OK, got those suggestions in mind. Garet will need those Agility giving Djinn as a Dragoon anyway, it's the slowest tri-elemental class.

Hello guys! Today we go south towards the Venus Lighthouse. First, I've set things up based on Endark's suggestion above. Isaac gets the Mars Djinn, making him a Barbarian, Garet and Ivan split the Venus and Mercury Djinn, making Garet a Dragoon and Ivan a Medium, and Mia gets the Jupiter Djinn, making her a Savant. All of my characters get a nice attack set from this, and all four have at least one form of healing/revival. So it's pretty good.

I'm also starting to think I may need to start level grinding, as I seem to be falling behind on where I'd like to be.

Before I leave Tolbi for good, I take another look through Babi Palace. A girl called Sheba had been kept here earlier to... convince the people of Lalivero to build Babi Lighthouse. Now that We're working for Babi, she's being returned home.

...You know, Babi's kind of a dick. He's about 150 years old, and now that he's approaching death, he's taking control of half a continent to find a city that will help him live longer. Just give it up man.

Anyway, heading south takes us to Gondowan Passage. Iodem joins us to escort us to Venus Lighthouse. Iodem doesn't actually join our party though, being a boring non-Adept.

East of the passage is Suhalla, a desert town. We find a Hard Nut, and give Mia the Defence boost.

We encounter two injured soldiers. Iodem talks to them. They were the guards escorting Sheba to Lalivero, but a sandstorm took them out of the desert. They think Sheba must still be in the desert, and Iodem tasks us to find her. We can stop the sandstorms with water, like another group who got through. I think we know which group that is. Stopping a sandstorm also triggers a fight with a monster.

So now we head south, to the Suhalla Desert. At certain bottlenecks, we get tapped in tornadoes and have to cast Douse to force a fight with a Tornado Lizard, otherwise we'll be thrown back to Sulhalla.

We can also encounter Magicores here, which drop Aura Gloves. I've decided I'm going to leave RNG rigging until I've reached the end of the game and am getting ready for the second half of Crossbone Isle as we won't need most of the rare drops until then.

We head right at the entrance to get a Virtuous Armlet. We give it to Mia. Now to head left.

We encounter another Mimic. Garet reaches Level 22 and learns Wish Well and we get a Water of Life.

Mia reaches Level 22 and learns Hail Prism. Ivan reaches Level 22 and learns Blue Bolt. My target level for the next boss is 26, so we've still got some ways to go.

We find a Cookie. Isaac gets the PP boost.

We encounter some Stone Soldiers here. These guys have been poorly designed. They can use Mad Blast, but their max PP is less than the casting cost for it. So if they try, they just waste a turn doing nothing. It's kind of a relief, because this place can be hard.

We reach an open area. Now we could go south and head straight for the boss and exit, but there's more to do here. First, we use Reveal to open a path to the west, where we have to fight a Mars Djinn. And down it goes. Isaac reaches level 23 and learns Debilitate, and...

The Mars Djinni Flash joined Isaac.

Flash gives 14 HP, 3 PP and 2 Defence. In battle, it reduces all damage to your party to a tenth. It's pretty useful.

We also now have enough Djinn to give everyone tri-elemental classes. So I think I will. Isaac gets 3 Mars and 3 Mercury, becoming a Dragoon, Garet gets 3 Venus and 3 Jupiter, becoming a Ninja, Ivan gets 3 Venus and 3 Mercury, becoming a Medium, and Mia gets 3 Mars and 3 Jupiter, becoming a Ranger.

We follow the path behind where Flash was to find a pink tornado. We can take this tornado to Crossbone Isle, but we're not ready yet. We can, however, Douse it to fight a Bonus Boss. But I'm a bit underleveled. So, annoyingly, I have to grind a bit. Doubly annoying because I'm pretty sure I said I didn't want to grind. Lure Cap time.

Mia learns Resist at Level 24, Garet learns Thunderbolt at Level 26 and Ivan learns Potent Cure at level 26. All done, and not even one pair of Aura Gloves to show for it. Anyway, I Put Isaac's Prophet's Hat back on and head for the Bonus Boss.

It's the Tempest Lizard. It attacks twice, can rise its Attack and Resistance, and can hurt you pretty badly. It's weak to Venus. We get a crapton of coins and a Potion for winning, and if we leave the desert and come back, he'll be back as well.

Onto the actual boss for this area. As we head south, a huge tornado starts chasing us. If you're good, you can run away from the thing, but I can't, so we have to Douse that thing.

So now we have to fight the Storm Lizard. This guy is actually weaker than the Tempest Lizard, but can attack twice and has a similar attack set. It's weak to Venus as well, and compared to the Tempest Lizard, he's easy.

At the exit of the desert, Iodem worries that we didn't see Sheba anywhere. We tell Iodem we need to go onwards.

But not today, I'm ending this update here. See you then.

Stats:

Isaac: Lv 26 Dragoon HP:460 PP:157 Attack:306 Defence:212 Agility:150 Luck:11

Garet: Lv 26 Ninja HP:478 PP:152 Attack:312 Defence:183 Agility:256 Luck:7

Ivan: Lv 26 Medium HP:382 PP:212 Attack:253 Defence:204 Agility:181 Luck:8

Mia: Lv 26 Ranger HP:364 PP:211 Attack:249 Defence:192 Agility:204 Luck:7

Djinn: 6 per element

reduces all damage to your party to a tenth

pretty useful

I do not think you fully realize the implications of this.

I think I do. Granite or Ground + Flash = 1 very easy superboss. While it is a Game-Breaker, it is only a 1 turn thing, so if you want to keep using it, you'll waste half of that Adept's turns putting it back on Set.

edited 25th Nov '10 7:08:46 PM by SomeColorMage

yep, it means that 2 adepts are constantly either releasing or setting Flash/Granite. In return, you take only a 10th of the normal damage, and you other 2 adepts can feel free to go all out with summons/whatever have you.

Yeah, I know the strategy, but I don't particularly like it, as it's so damn boring only having 2 Adepts fighting. I might use it on a certain enemy in Crossbone Isle, but I may also fight fair, or summon rush the thing, I haven't decided yet.

Hi guys! Today, we're nearly at Lalivero and the Venus Lighthouse. First, I'm rearranging the Djinn. We're back to dual-elemental for the time being, so if you want to see any other classes, speak up! Isaac becomes a Barbarian, Garet a Cavalier (Mars), Ivan a Shaman (Jupiter) and Mia a Savant. We've had these classes before, so I shouldn't have to describe them.

The next stop on the map after Suhalla Desert is Suhalla Gate. A few guards at the entrance have been wounded. Iodem talks to them to find out what happened. Saturos and Menardi happened, naturally.

After the entrance, there are a bunch of notches in the cliff to drop down and get some stuff. First, there's a Mint. It goes to Ivan. We also find a Mercury Djinn that fights us. We defeat it, of course.

The Mercury Djinni Dew joined Isaac.

Dew gives 13 HP, 4 PP and 4 Agility. In battle, it has an 80% chance of reviving at 80% HP. Revive is a lot better for revival than Djinn, really.

We give Dew to Garet. With 6 Mercury Djinn and 1 Mars, he becomes a Luminer, a very good class.

A side path here takes us to Idejima, a small area just off the beaten path.

Iodem: Look at this!

Huh, there's a wrecked ship here. Iodem suspects it is Babi's, and gives us the Black Orb to use on it. It doesn't work.

Iodem: Strange... Nothing happened. What does it mean?

It means it's not Babi's ship, dumbass. Iodem takes back the orb and suggests we really get to Babi Lighthouse now.

Towards the exit of Suhulla Gate, we see another fallen soldier. He tells us that Venus Lighthouse has been attacked by a strange group. I think we all know who that is. And then he dies. And vanishes.

Next location over is the Venus Lighthouse Entry. Nice, we can skip Lalivero! More death, including a few harmless scholars. Even after Kraden told them not to. I'm not sure who's more of a dick now, Babi or Saturos and Menardi.

On the plus side, the door is open. As is normal of the lighthouses, Isaac, being a Venus Adept, regenerates 4 PP a turn. But it turns out we can't get very far. This isn't the real entrance, and the people we are chasing are already headed for Babi Lighthouse. Inside, we find a message:

If ye seek to climb Venus Lighthouse, first seek the power within. To obtain this power, see with the eyes of truth. Then the way shall open. But the path I reveal is not the beginning. the true beginning lies down ancient pathways on distant soils.

...Well, that's the biggest cryptic mess we've seen so far. Also, what's with that ye? We cast Reveal to find a stairway. And for that, we get the Carry Stone! Carry lets us pick up and move certain objects that Move can't. I think it also lets us move stuff over gaps.

And we use it to open a path to a floor above us. Reveal opens another passageway. Now here's the important part of the entrance. There's a statue here, and we have to talk to it.

Ye who seek to climb Venus Lighthouse, I shall grant thy wish. The path long closed shall not be opened here. That path begins far, far away, on the soil of an ancient people, with the sunrise to your left as you gaze upon the lighthouse.

Seriously, why the archaic English? This is in Weyard's equivalent of Africa, you know. Not much for there to be in archaic English and make sense.

Anyway, a set of lights light up, showing us a path. We can talk to the statue to change the path, but that can be done later.

We look in the last remaining section of the lighthouse we can currently visit, and encounter a jumping puzzle and get a Lucky Cap, which increases our critical rate and our PP recovery rate. We give it to Isaac.

Anyway, that's all we can do here. Next time, Lalivero. See you then.

Stats:

Isaac: Lv 27 Barbarian HP:464 PP:127 Attack:328 Defence:187 Agility:203 Luck:5

Garet: Lv 27 Luminer HP:542 PP:143 Attack:303 Defence:219 Agility:192 Luck:12

Ivan: Lv 26 Shaman (Jupiter) HP:356 PP:183 Attack:236 Defence:187 Agility:163 Luck:7

Mia: Lv 26 Savant HP:369 PP:232 Attack:222 Defence:189 Agility:214 Luck:9

Djinn: 6 Venus, 6 Mars, 6 Jupiter, 7 Mercury

I always thought it was odd that they gave the revival Djinn only a chance to revive. and then not tell you it's only a chance.

seriously, what were they thinking?

Not much to say on your latest update, since it seems to match the superb quality of other entries without having any particular point I feel like commenting on. But, it just wouldn't seem right if that was the whole post, so I may as well recommend another class set-up.

Since it seems that you're only using 6/7 of the Mercury Djinn you have, I suggest pinning the last one on Mia as soon as you get the chance. If Garet's current combination is as good as you say, 6 of one Djinn type + 1 of the Adept's natural affinity sounds like it'd make a rather good combo. This suggestion should probably apply to Issac and Ivan with the next Venus and Jupiter, respectively.

I do already have 1 of the matching element on each Adept, as it is a requirement for the highest tier of the dual-elemental classes. Thanks for the suggestion though, they're always appreciated.

And do feel free to mix up what I currently have, I just currently have them on how I want to have them for the Bonus Boss at the end of Crossbone Isle.

Hi there! Last time, we failed to get into the Venus Lighthouse, but opened the true path or something. This time, we're going to Lalivero.

Ah crap, more dead or nearly dead guards. Iodem asks them if it was a group of six (Saturos, Menardi, Felix, Alex, Jenna and Kraden for those who have forgotten). It was a group of seven. Great, another person in the arsehole group.

The seventh person is Sheba. Crap, we've got another hostage to save now. The group is headed for Babi Lighthouse, as the ruins underneath hold the true entrance to Venus Lighthouse. Someone called Faran has followed them.

There is a huge amount of new Artifact Weapons and Armour in town, so I pick up a ton of really good stuff. I also re-buy the Turtle Boots, as I'll want them later.

I am able to get onto the rooftops in town. By walking around the city border this way, we get a Warrior's Helm, the best Helmet in the game.

We can also go around the rooftops to find a Mars Djinn!

The Mars Djinni Torch joined Isaac.

Torch gives 9 HP, 3 Attack and 1 Luck. In battle, it attacks at Attack + 30 Mars power and calculates damage as if the enemy's Defence has halved.

With 6 Mars Djinn and 1 Venus, Isaac is now a Berserker. A good class, but Luck could do with a bit of a boost.

We now head for Babi Lighthouse. First, we take a small detour to get a Lucky Pepper. Here's Isaac's (small) Luck boost.

...And there's more injured guards. We'll take another detour here. Instead of the actual entrance, we can go downstairs to the left of the entrance. This lets us use move to open a passage we can use from a secret entrance to the right of the proper entrance. This takes us behind the lighthouse, where we can use Growth to get into an alternate entrance inside the lighthouse.

Confusing, huh? Anyway, the point of that was to find a Jupiter Djinn, that then fights us. We defeat it.

The Jupiter Djinni Luff joined Ivan.

Luff gives 11 HP. 5 PP, 2 Defence and 1 Luck. In battle, it inflicts Psynergy Seal. I guess the good stats compensate for the crap ability.

With 6 Jupiter Djinn and 1 Mercury, Mia is now a Sage, a very nice class. Unfortunately, we won't see the last Venus Djinn for a while, it's in Crossbone Isle.

Anyway, we're now towards the bottom of the Lighthouse. But heading to the basement takes us to a locked door. So we head up the left side of the lighthouse for two floors. A notch up there takes us behind the locked door.

Faran: You're sure they went through this door?

There's a big stone door in front of us. Saturos and Menardi's group were able to open it, but the non-Adepts here have been unable to do so. The door leads to the ruins, so I guess that's where we need to go. We offer to open the door after Iodem introduces us to Faran.

So, there's an inscription on the door.

The truth of this door is open to those seeing with their true heart.

Sounds like it's time to cast Reveal. Sure enough, that inscription turns into a button. We open the door, and Iodem and Faran start gushing about our powers. Iodem tries to enter the ruins, but the door slams shut. Seems like the ruins are for Adepts only. But isn't Kraden in there?

After a bit of discussion, Iodem and Faran agree to stay behind. So in we go. The door closes behind us, and we head into the Tunnel Ruins. But that'll have to wait until next time. See you then.

Stats:

Isaac: Lv 27 Berserker HP:543 PP:144 Attack:364 Defence:218 Agility:210 Luck:6

Garet: Lv 27 Luminer HP:542 PP:139 Attack:317 Defence:225 Agility:200 Luck:14

Ivan: Lv 26 Shaman (Jupiter) HP:356 PP:181 Attack:236 Defence:198 Agility:170 Luck:12

Mia: Lv 26 Sage HP:438 PP:228 Attack:2784 Defence:224 Agility:217 Luck:10

Djinn: 1 Venus away from a full set

Only 7 of each Djinn? So much for having the best tri-classes existing simueltaniously with the best duo-classes. Even worse, I can only assume that your collection of almost everything means that this LB is slowly drawing to a close. But I guess it also means that the best is yet to come, as far as drama and action go. It's been a blast, and I can't wait to see what excitement comes next.

And for Classes? Well, if you don't mind mixing things up drastically, I'd recommend a variety of tri-elemental classes that'll give everyone decent statistics...

Issac - Dragoon - 4 Mercury, 3 Mars

Garet - Ninja - 3 Venus, 3 Jupiter

Ivan - Ranger - 3 Mercury, 4 Mars

Mia - White Mage - 3 Venus, 4 Jupiter

OK, I'll use that setup. And we are slowly winding down. Two more story dungeons (one of which we have to go through twice to get everything) and half of Crossbone Isle. Plus one update for munchkining my way to good equipment and one for the finale, I should be done sometime this week. Which is good, as Dark Dawn comes out here on Thursday.

Hello! This instalment, we're going through the second part of the three dungeon long ending. And we're going to do it twice. This should be a short update.

First, my Djinn setup. Isaac gets 4 Mercury and 3 Mars, becoming a Dragoon, Garet gets 3 Venus and 3 Jupiter, becoming a Ninja, Ivan gets 3 Mercury and 4 Mars, becoming a Ranger, and Mia gets 3 Venus and 4 Jupiter, becoming a White Mage.

Anyway, a statue similar to the one at the Venus Lighthouse Entry is here.

Ye who seek to climb Venus Lighthouse, the lady knows your desires. Here, your path shall not be opened.

In other words, if you want to change your path through the ruins, you have to do it in the Venus Lighthouse.

The Tunnel Ruins start with a simple pillar moving puzzle, and then there are two paths, but we can only take one. We have to go left.

More pillar moving. Then even more pillar moving, but this time, we have to use Whirlwind to reveal another pillar. But we have another way to get that pillar. You see, Ninjas can use Gale, which on field screens works the same as Whirlwind. Which means I don't have to mess with the Djinn, and we still get that pillar. It costs less too. Everybody wins!

The next puzzle is a little more inventive. We have to use Carry to move those Carry blocks onto a platform to make the other platform rise.

We reach the end of this path, and find a statue. We use Reveal on this statue to get an Oracle's Robe, which I think is Mia's best chest Armour (Ivan can't use it). It goes to her. Due to the HP regeneration effects of Mia's equipment, she heals 13 HP a turn, which is pretty good considering some of the random encounters.

We can go to the last puzzle before Venus Lighthouse now, but I'd rather not. Instead, we go out, and head back to the Venus Lighthouse Entry.

Why? So we can go back to the statue there, and change our path.

Mia gets downed by a lucky shot on the way back to the ruins. Oddly, a downed person can still use Psynergy in the field, so after the battle, she cast Revive on herself. O_o

This time at the split in the ruins, we have to go down. The puzzles on this half has us move water filled pillars onto tiles with a water drop on them. If the pillar is empty, we cast Douse on it.

We encounter another Reveal statue. This one has Asura's Armour, one of the best chest Armours for Isaac and Garet. I give it to Garet.

The next puzzle is also clever. We have another empty water pillar, but no tile, so we have to move it into the right position, then cast Douse then Frost on it to create a path to the end of the ruins.

After both paths meet up, we have to solve a logic puzzle. There are five coloured statues, and Mind Reading them tells us where they have to go on these 5 tiles in the middle of the room.

Violet: Red shines northwest of me.

Blue: Red shines due west of me.

Yellow: Violet shines southeast of me.

Red: Violet shines southeast of me. (Yes, the yellow and red ones say the same thing)

Green: Yellow shines northeast of me.

The answer is red is northwest, blue is northeast, green is southwest, violet is southeast, and yellow in the middle.

And with that, we can enter Venus Lighthouse. We'll leave exploring this place for next time.

Stats:

Isaac: Lv 28 Dragoon HP:499 PP:169 Attack:323 Defence:236 Agility:161 Luck:14

Garet: Lv 27 Ninja HP:497 PP:155 Attack:336 Defence:204 Agility:258 Luck:8

Ivan: Lv 27 Ranger HP:409 PP:204 Attack:268 Defence:219 Agility:209 Luck:15

Mia: Lv 27 White Mage HP:441 PP:225 Attack:305 Defence:231 Agility:202 Luck:10

Djinn: 1 Venus short of a full set

The seventh person is Sheba? Methinks there's a little Bilingual Bonus going on with that...  ^*

Also, casting Revive on oneself? I know a few games where that would've come in handy...

edited 28th Nov '10 1:38:16 AM by Nyperold

It'd be more handy if you could do it in battle.

Well, great; now I can't help but take that idea to its natural extreme...

Mia's Battered Corpse summoned Thor! It's a Critical Hit!

...You know, if spells could critical, Psynergy and Artifact Weapons would be a lot more balanced.

Yeah, Psynergy becomes Awesome, but Impractical after a while.

Hello! This time, we're going through the final dungeon, Venus Lighthouse. As a starting note, if we go left from here, we end up at the Venus Lighthouse Entry. If we choose to go back, it's one way. We have to go back through the Tunnel Ruins. But we're not doing that... yet.

Also, we've got a pretty epic final dungeon theme here. Anyway, we head up then left. We have to use Carry to open a path.

Oh joy, the next room shows the main gimmick of this lighthouse; the sand slides. We have to run diagonally up and across them or we'll fall off and probably end up somewhere we don't want to.

We find the Thunder Crown. It's got a nice Defence and PP regeneration. Problem is, it's got Equipment Curse. We'll be keeping this though, as we can use it after the trip to the second half of Crossbone Isle.

Next, there's some sand falls that we can walk through like in Mercury Lighthouse. An easy puzzle follows, where we have the move a block to complete some kind of circuit. It takes us to a button, which we press to change a sand slide in the second room, which a newly opened path takes us back to.

We can now head right in this room. Sigh, another pillar moving puzzle. This is starting to get really boring. Good thing we have that brilliant music.

Another circuit, but this one is a little more complex, as there are more holes than tiles, and several paths. Only one we can make though.

We are now at what's essentially the centre room. We can only take one path right now, but we can open a few sand slides to open other paths.

We find the Dragon Scales, a slightly stronger Chest Armour than what we have. It goes to Garet for now.

Continuing on, there's another one of those Carry scale puzzle things. Solving it lets us reach a button that opens one of the sand slides in the centre room. We head back to the room to get to the newly opened path.

We are now in a sand maze. We want to get to the lower right corner, as there is a chest there with the Gaia Blade! This is the best Long Sword in the game. We give it to Isaac.

One more circuit puzzle here. It's more complex, but still easy. And for solving it, we can now open the last sand slide in the centre room.

And the path that sand slide opens leads us to the path leading to Venus Lighthouse Aerie. However, I've still got a bit more to do before we go confront Saturos and Menardi. We've got some ultimate weapons and armour to RNG rig, half of a Bonus Dungeon, and a bit more level grinding (I need Isaac and Ivan at level 29 for Plan A on the Bonus Boss). We'll start all that next time. Also, no more Djinn setup suggestions. I need the mono-elemental classes for RNG rigging, and I already have setups I want to use for the remaining fights.

Stats:

Isaac: Lv 28 Dragoon HP:499 PP:169 Attack:373 Defence:245 Agility:161 Luck:14

Garet: Lv 28 Ninja HP:510 PP:159 Attack:333 Defence:208 Agility:265 Luck:8

Ivan: Lv 28 Ranger HP:418 PP:209 Attack:273 Defence:222 Agility:216 Luck:15

Mia: Lv 28 White Mage HP:451 PP:230 Attack:309 Defence:232 Agility:208 Luck:10

Hello! This time, I'm getting ready for the second half of Crossbone Isle. If you're not interested in me manipulating the RNG, then just head for the stats at the end of the post.

Seriously, RNG stuff will be about 90% of this post, and the other 10% will be that tiny level grind I mentioned.

First, I set all my characters to mono-elemental. Then we cast Retreat to go back to the first room of the upper part of Venus Lighthouse. Then save and hard reset.

Target one is a Fenrir. Walking around here after a reset starts a fight with a Fenrir and an Ice Gargoyle.

I'm not including the RNG strategies, if you want them, they're in half of the guides on Game FA Qs

For killing the Fenrir on RN 28, we get a Kikuichimonji, the best Light Blade in the game and Ivan's best weapon.

Next target is a Thunder Lizard. We save and hard reset, and from this room, go into Tunnel Ruins, back here, into Venus Lighthouse Entry, back here and start a battle. It puts us against a Thunder Lizard and a Boulder Beast.

We get a Blessed Mace from that battle. The Blessed Mace is probably Mia's best weapon, I'm not entirely sure. But that's what I'm using for her.

The next target is the Wild Gryphon. To get a battle with them, save and hard reset, then enter and exit Venus Lighthouse Entry from here 3 times. We encounter 2 Wild Gryphons and a Grand Golem.

We get a Feathered Robe from that. It's the best Chest Armour for Ivan and Mia. So I get another one.

Ok, now I want to get some drops from Suhalla Gate. I save and reset in the second screen, and walk to the first screen, and back here, encountering an Earth Golem and two Nighmares. The Earth Golem is our target.

We get a Giant Axe for RNG rigging it. It's a better weapon for Garet for the time being and as he should get a better weapon in Crossbone Isle I don't want to get another Kikuichimonji.

I go to Suhalla Desert to rig a fight with Magicores to get Aura Gloves. I had to figure out my own encounter rigging strategy for this (I couldn't get the one I knew of to work): Start in area 2 near the transition to area 1 and perform 5 transitions (you'll be in area 1). I get two pairs of Aura Gloves.

Now for the level grinding. I do that back at Venus Lighthouse.

...You know, they still haven't cleaned up all the dead bodies at Venus Lighthouse Entry.

Now that I'm ready, we ride the pink tornado in Suhalla Desert to Crossbone Isle. See you next time.

Stats:

Isaac: Lv 29 Lord HP:521 PP:149 Attack:371 Defence:228 Agility:211 Luck:10

Garet: Lv 29 Champion HP:567 PP:122 Attack:309 Defence:250 Agility:158 Luck:10

Ivan: Lv 29 Magister HP:426 PP:232 Attack:279 Defence:229 Agility:272 Luck:13

Mia: Lv 29 Paragon HP:439 PP:206 Attack:306 Defence:240 Agility:189 Luck:13

Djinn: 1 Venus to go

Congratulations, SCM. Guess this means that the next two updates will be your last, won't it? At least, for this particular LB. I may have said it once, but I'll say it again: it's been fun to read, and an honour to have contributed. Also, I must agree with your observation on those bodies; it really is undignified to have corpses lying around like that, dood. Make a graveyard, burn them before they're zombified, put the bodies into positions harmonizing with Feng Shui...it's just disgusting (and tacky) leaving them as-is.

...Also, when it comes to classes, I've constantly been focusing more on class statistic growth than I have for variety. And since Golden Sun is almost over and done with, I'd just like to put down which classes offer the greatest bonuses. The following data is influenced by the Game FA Qs guide written by a user named D'Hoost, which should not be reprinted publically unless I suddenly find the urge to appear in a court of law.

For Issac & Garret, the Conjurer, Samurai, and Ninja classes seem to be the only ones with superb growth rate, with the first one the only duo-elemental class of the trio. Meanwhile, Ivan & Mia's Sage, White Mage (a tri-element), Fire Monk, and Druid classes have the best growth rates.

And those first three classes for the 'mages'? Better total stat growth than any of Issac & Garet's classes. Is the fact that the best classes in the game seem exclusive to Ivan and Mia balanced by being recruited later in the story, or by their Attack statistic not being as grand as the other duo? As only an observer, and not a player, I doubt that it is my place to judge. Thus, I have merely stated the facts which others can form opinions from, dood...

Well, I do agree that it's been fun. For my sources, I've been using Iron Knucle's walkthrough and aku chi's class setup guide on Game FA Qs, as well as Golden Sun Universe. I never thought that I would put so much effort into something that I've been writing nearly entirely impromptu.

As for the classes, the balance is odd. Most characters get at least one class that focuses on each aspect of fighting (i.e. fast, attacking, brick wall, casting, healing), but ones that aren't really suited to that element tend to be weak. This is because of a small feature called partial classes, where Adepts can get into the lower tiers of classes that involve their element but they cannot get through a normal setup (for example, Ivan can become an Enchanter (Venus) with 6 Djinn, while Isaac only needs 4), but as you can't get into the highest tier of classes that way, I neglected to mention it.