Hi, I’m ComicX6. You may remember me from such liveblogs as…
So yeah…it’s been a while. As it turns out I was still a little burned out from my Devil Survivor 2 liveblog, my video game backlog suddenly exploded, and most importantly there were some pretty big (positive!) changes in my life around that time, so liveblogging was put on the backburner for a while. However, things have settled down now and playing Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse rekindled my liveblogging fire, so today we’ll be jumping right back into the world of Golden Sun!
This’ll be a somewhat lengthy update, at least on my end, for we’ll be tackling the entirety of Angara’s not-China region today to make up for lost time. So, after leaving Mogall Forest the next stop on this road trip is the town of Xian, located on the Silk Road (come on, that’s not even trying!) that stretches west through the mountains to Kalay and even the faraway city of Tolbi out to the west. Many merchants travel Silk Road...or did, because with all the calamities that seem to be happening these days the foot traffic seems to have dried up. The music, architecture, and syntax of the natives all scream “CHINA!” at you, and the main point of interest we’re directed to by the townsfolk is a kung fu dojo run by a Master Feh. But before that there is a Mercury Djinni sitting on top of an inaccessible cliffside that we have to snag, and that entails talking to a woman who’s pacing back in forth in just the right position, which causes her to spill some water she was apparently carrying (not represented by her sprite, of course), use Frost on the puddle left behind, then hop on over to snag Mist. Mist deals Water damage to one enemy and may put them to sleep. The next summon on the Mercury chain is the Roman god of the sea Neptune, manifesting himself as a giant narwhal monster that blasts enemies with a deluge of water from its blowhole.
The whole thing with the dojo’s rather fluffy, for going there just nets a scene where one of the students tells us that the master is busy talking with his daughter and that if we want to see him, we must use “Chi” to knock down a wooden post from a distance. It’s kinda obvious that we need to use Force here, and when we do the whole school is stunned to see a warrior who doesn’t know kung fu using Chi, and one of them runs to get the master. That’s when Master Feh and his daughter, a purple-haired girl named Feizhi, run out of a back room and loudly summarize their argument for the rest of the school to hear: Feizhi has had a vision of danger befalling a fellow student named Hsu, yet her father doesn’t believe that it means anything and thinks that her premonition is just a coincidence despite the other students insisting that all of her other visions have come to pass. Feizhi gets fed up with her father’s stubbornness and runs off to find Hsu herself, though Feh is rather unperturbed, believing that she’ll eventually give up and come back on her own. Anyway, with the father/daughter spat out of the way he comes over to see what the big deal is about the silent Isaac and we have to once more demonstrate Force. He immediately recognizes that this is not Chi but rather Ki (read: Psynergy) from Fuchin Temple and he explains to his students that while Chi comes from the body, our powers come from the mind, so he urges everyone to train both those things in order to master both powers. End of scene. Like I said, fluff.
Feizhi stands at the town entrance, suggesting that we head west if we’re strong warriors, but first we have to head north from Xian. All the way north until we’re at a little peninsula that’s just south across a river from Kolima. There’s a tiny patch of trees located there, and if we manage to get into a battle on that patch we’ll encounter a wild Mars Djinni. From this point onward a couple Djinn here and there are random encounters on the overworld, though thankfully none of them can be Lost Forever...yet at least. This one’s Corona, and it boosts the party’s defense. The next Mars summon is Tiamat, though following the convention set by Dungeons & Dragons she’s a fire-breathing dragon rather than a primordial sea goddess.
After that little detour we return to the Silk Road and shortly thereafter we reach a mountain range, and a small area called Alpine Crossing, which happens to be currently blocked thanks to a landslide. Feizhi catches up with Isaac here and laments that her vision came true and that Hsu is nowhere to be seen. While we’re here we can grab a Power Bread from a chest up on the cliffs that needs Growth and Frost to access, and those boost a character’s HP. Well, since the path onward to Lama Temple is impassable, we have no choice but to head north to the small mining town of Altin, nestled in the mountains. It’s not a very happy place, since like Kolima and Mogall Forests it too has become a victim of the falling Psynergy Stones: monsters have appeared in the mines and have completely flooded the town, forcing the villagers to flee to high ground. The only amenities available are the local inn and sanctum; everything else is submerged. We can actually see one of the monsters in the southwest corner of dry land: it kinda looks like a fat, blue shiisaa statue, and upon our approach it ceases spewing water into the town and hops on out into a small entrance in the mountainside right near it. We follow, and soon corner the beast inside the small cave area within. Let’s see how tough it it.
Living Statue
HP
- 540
- Weak to Fire; Resists Water
- Tundra - Deals moderate Water damage to two/three enemies.
- Water Breath - Deals Water damage to two/three enemies.
Not very really. It’s got the HP to tank a hit or three, but it’s not really powerful enough to cause problems if you’re on top of your healing.
Incidentally, in this game all attacks ending in “Breath” were mistranslated as “Blessing”, likely due to the fact that ブレス can be interpreted as either “breath” or “bless”. It still works as an attack name, at least, but this error was fixed in the second game. Not as much of an excuse for calling an Menardi used in the opening battle “Death Size” when she uses a scythe as a weapon and the animation shows a reaper slashing one, though.
Winning earns us 377 EXP, 900 coins, and a Vial.
Beating the Living Statue also earns us the Frost Jewel afterwards. Equipping this lets a character learn Frost, but I don’t really see much of a point to it since Mia learns it naturally. There’s like one instance where someone else knowing it could be useful, but even then it’s rather niche.
Anyway, with the beast slain the water level in Altin has dropped a bit, allowing us access to to the item shop and, more importantly, the entrance to the mine itself. Altin Peak is a somewhat lengthy dungeon, and since this is a mine in a video game we have to partake in the obligatory mine cart-riding, switch-flipping puzzles the genre loves so much. There’s a second Living Statue to beat here, dropping the water level in town further so that we can now access the armor shop as well, but for now we want to remain in the mine for the water draining reveals a new path forward towards the mine’s entrance. A third Living Statue is found in the deepest section here, along with a Dragon Shield: a good piece for gear for Isaac since it also confers some Fire resistance.
Killing the third and final Living Statue removes all the water from Altin, exposing another entrance to the mine. This final section of Altin Peak is rather large and a little confusing, but it is worth trying to be as thorough as possible in exploring the place since the fourth Mercury Djinni of the game, Spritz, can be nabbed after reaching it via and optional mine cart segment. Spritz restores some HP to the whole party when unleashed so that’s good, as is sticking all four Mercury Djinn onto Mia because the Cleric class gives her access to the Wish line of spells, which does the same. Four Mercury Djinn allows us to summon the fourth and final Mercury Summon: the Greek god of the north wind, Boreas. Who is essentially a giant robotic ice-making machine in the Golden Sun verse. Shrug.
Anyway, after getting Spritz following the main path has up loop back to a previously-inaccessible, higher area near the entrance to this part of the mine. There’s a long empty corridor at the end of which is a wooden post and a sign reading “Do not strike the wall! Rocks may fall!” We have to use Force to push the post into the wall (and if you didn’t get the Orb of Force from Fuchin Temple and thereby brute forced your way through Mogall Forest the game takes pity on you and has Garet simply kick the post instead for the same result), which triggers an amusing skit where a giant rock does indeed fall and chases Isaac, Indiana Jones-style. Our hero dives out of the way just in time and the boulder busts a hole in the floor below, and apparently angering something big down there judging by the ominous roar that issues out. Hopping down and using the broken tracks as a makeshift ladder to investigate, we find that the rough cragginess of the mine gives way to smooth title, and ends in a chamber not unlike something we saw inside Sol Sanctum. Unfortunately lumbering towards us is a giant version of those water-spewing statues.
Hydros Statue
HP
- 1300
- Weak to Fire; Resists Water
- Tundra - Deals moderate Water damage to two/three enemies.
- Drench - Deals moderate Water damage to two/three enemies.
- Ice Horn - Deals moderate Water damage to two/three enemies.
- Froth Sphere - Deals moderate Water damage to all enemies.
- Water Breath - Deals Water damage to two/three enemies.
- Restore - Cures non-lingering ailments.
The Hydros Statue is considerably beefier than its mini-mes, but overall it’s kind of a boring enemy since the only thing that really differentiates its attacks are the animations. Everything’s AOE, so making liberal use of Wish and unleashing Spritz is the most efficient way to keep the HP up. In fact, I swapped Ivan’s and Mia’s Djinn so that they both became Elders, giving both of them access to Wish as well as Plasma so that even Mia could deal damage and Impact to juice up Isaac’s and Garet’s Ragnaroks and Heat Waves.
Winning earns us 496 EXP, 2400 coins, and a Lucky Medal.
Defeating the final statue has the party wonder a bit as to what their purpose was and what this strange chamber seems to be for, but that question is seemingly answered when the immobile statue vanishes, revealing a treasure chest. Inside this chest is the Lifting Orb, which bestows the Lift utility Psynergy that allows us raise specific round, brown boulders into the air in order to unblock paths. Like, for example, an alternate path at the start of this cave section that will lead us out into the open air of the world map, right at the doorstep of Lama Temple!
According to the monks of the temple, the master of the temple, Hama
◊ (she’s one of the very few characters outside of party members and main antagonists with artwork), is considered to be the greatest master of chi in the land, and many of Feh’s students travel to the temple from Xian to further their training. As soon as we enter the temple itself to speak with her, a scene starts up where she says that she already knew that we were coming, and of our quest to retrieve the Elemental Stars. She explains to the confused party that she is a Jupiter Adept just like Ivan is, and has the power of prescience, as Jupiter Adepts are apparently a little special compared to the other three types in that they possess telepathic powers on top of their elemental ones, like the ability to read minds that we love exploiting. Ivan’s a little ignorant as to the true nature of his Psynergy, but Hama presses on, explaining that the reason that she came to this temple in the first place was because she foresaw that one day she would pass on the Reveal Psynergy to Ivan, something that will be crucial to our quest. She knows a little more about what’s going on too, such as that it was Saturos’s group that triggered the rockslide that’s blocking the Silk Road, and then drops the tidbit that Felix in particular carries a terrible fate, one that she’d never wish on anyone.
Unfortunately she declines to elaborate on that point further (and considering some of the plot threads and backgrounds revealed in the next two games, there are multiple educated guesses that one could make as to what it is) and returns to the subject of Reveal. If we are to continue west, she explains, we must pass through the Lamakan Desert, which as of late has grown “evil” and unbearably hot. Saturos’s group was able to make it across thanks to their leaders’ powerful Psynergy being enough to suppress the heat, but for us, we’ll have to use Reveal in order to find oases with which to cool off. So right away we know that the upcoming area will involve a hot/cold temperature gimmick.
However, Hama is suddenly overcome with doubt as to her ability to pass on Reveal, since she tried doing so with a young girl in the past but seemingly failed. That’s when Feizhi’s voice calls out, insisting that there was a change, and the girl barges into the room explaining that she started seeing her visions after one of Mt. Aleph’s Psynergy Stones struck her right on the head. She explains the predicament with the missing Hsu, who was apparently visiting the temple earlier, Hama realizes that he must have been caught in the landslide, and the two of them hurry out to go look for him, but now before Hama teaches Ivan Reveal with a little light show and saying that she’s glad to see him grow into a fine young man.
Garet’s raring to continue the pursuit after that suggestive line, but Mia suggests they stick around a bit first in order to help Hama and Feizhi’s search for Hsu. At any rate, Ivan can now use Reveal, which works by focusing on an oval-shaped bubble of space around Isaac, exposing anything hidden within that space: hidden passages, treasure chests, other items, even objects that can be manipulated with Psynergy via Conspicuously Light Patches. Some objects will even change their nature entirely, such as a rock on the temple grounds becoming a chest containing a Water of Life when put under the spotlight. Whenever you see an oval-shaped formation of rocks or any other object, it’s best to use Reveal because 95% of the time there will be something hidden to uncover. With that done we can close out this little subplot by immediately heading east after returning the the world map and we’ll find ourselves back in the Alpine Crossing, on the other side of the blockage. Using Reveal will let us find a secret passage in the cliff face that’ll allow us to reunite with Hama and Feizhi, along with the hapless Hsu, whose leg has been pinned beneath a fallen boulder. Lifting that off of him allows the women to pull him to safety, and Feizhi helps him back to Xian after promising to get people from the school to help clear the path, and indeed if we return here later in the game the crossing will be open once again, allowing travel through this section of Angara without having to detour through Altin each time. Back at the temple Hama once again bids us farewell and Mia and Garet ask Ivan if he wants to ask her why she seems to know him before they really shove off this time, but the young shakes his head and says that she’ll tell him once they complete their mission - he has to believe it.
Well, we had to take a bit of a major detour, but we’re finally able to continue on our journey. The Lamakan Desert is literally two steps away to the south from Lama Temple, and as warned there is a temperature gimmick to it. A giant thermometer is displayed on the left-hand side of the screen, and whenever we have to walk on the sand it will begin to rise, while all the while Garet, Ivan, and even Mia will constantly cut in to complain about how hot they are. If the temperature maxes out, everyone takes damage. So in order to get through the desert while suffering as little damage as possible, we have to use Reveal whenever we see the ovalish rock formations I mentioned that are scattered around, and if a pool of water is revealed, Isaac can happily jump right on in for a good soak that’ll reset the gauge. Oases aren’t the only things to be found through this method, however. There are a few hidden treasure chests scattered around here and there, the Jupiter Djinni Smog (deals Wind damage and may delude a single enemy; the final Jupiter summon is Thor, consisting of the Norse god simply zapping enemies with a lot of thunder), and some of the rings contain sandpits instead, forcing us into battle with the unique Ant Lion monster. Ant Lions aren’t super tough despite packing three second-tier Psynergy spells since we have numbers on our side and they’re really vulnerable to Water. Plus they have a chance of dropping Vials which is nice.
There are essentially two sections to the desert, one that’s primarily sandy, one that’s rocky with sandfalls to maneuver through (and here’s something for irony: the actual desert this place is based on, the Taklamakan Desert in China, can actually be one of the coldest deserts out there thanks to being in the rain shadow of the Himalayas) and at the end is the entrance to the cave that’ll take us out of here…but not before we slay the monster that’s camped out in front of it.
Manticore
HP
- 1700
- Weak to Water; Resists Fire
- Poison Tail - Deals moderate Earth damage and attempts to badly poison one enemy.
- Mad Blast - Deals moderate Fire damage to two/three enemies.
- Nova - Deals moderate Fire damage to all enemies.
- Impair - Attempts to lower one enemy’s Defense.
- Curse - Attempts to place a death curse on one enemy.
- Delude - Attempts to delude up to three enemies.
This guy’s noticeably tougher than the Hydros Statue. Mostly it’s in how it’s got a healthy amount of HP to cut through and the fact that it’s the first enemy we’ve encountered who can attack two times in a row rather than once. Focusing on status ailments is interesting since not a whole lot of bosses in these games do, but since half of his moves don’t do damage they can act as a nice little reprieve. With that said, Poison Tail is dangerous since it’s decently-powerful on its own and being badly poisoned means that afflicted characters will be losing roughly 20% of their max HP a turn. Definitely need to jump on that with Antidotes and Cure Poison.
Winning earns us 590 EXP, 3400 coins, and a Psy Crystal.
With the Manitcore slain, we are free to exit the desert. We’re already about halfway done with the game!
Soundtrack
- Altin Peak's Flood
- Very dreary and wet. Would not visit again.
- Desert Heat
- Eh, this is kind of generic to tell the truth.
