So in this update we return to the continent of Gondowan. While in the first game we visited the northern reaches of the continent, the one that corresponds to northern Africa, this time we’ll be visiting its southern and central depths which more closely resemble Darkest Africa. Luckily there’s nothing here that’s uncomfortably racist.
The biggest feature of Gondowan’s overworld is a giant river that runs down the center of the continent, splitting it up into two. To the north there’s a mountain range that runs from east to west, splitting the continent further width-wise, than even further north past that is yet another lateral mountain range that cuts this portion of the continent off from the chunk visited in the first Golden Sun. There’s a lot of land here, but sadly most of it is empty space as there are only two towns that we can visit here. If we head west across the river via a bridge and then head to the tip of the continent’s southern cape we can randomly encounter yet another Mercury Djinni, Chill, whose effect deals Water damage and may debuff Defense.
The first of southern Gondowan’s two towns is Naribwe, a village of straw-roofed huts in the middle of a jungle clearing. Most of the people here speak of the Kibombo to the north, namely how ever since they got a new witch doctor they’ve become more hostile and warlike. One of the children name drops another Elemental Rock, Magma Rock, but it’s a location that we won’t be visiting for quite a while, and after how long Air’s Rock was, that’s currently a blessing. Naribwe’s main raison de’tre is that it’s home to a fortuneteller. I know fortuneteller NPCs are fairly common in RPGs and this one doesn’t stray far from the mold; show him a piece of equipment (and pony up a small amount of coins) and he’ll give you a vague hint as to where to go next…maybe. The problem is his fortunes are very vague most of the time; they’re generally supposed to point you in the direction of important items and such but I’ve never, ever made extensive use of his services. For the most part the Golden Sun series isn’t bad at providing direction, large empty chunks of the world map aside. Naribwe’s also got two treasure chests that can be reached by Lash and Reveal, containing a Unicorn Ring (cures poison if you recall) and the Thorn Crown, a piece of unisex headgear that raises both Defense and Attack.
Not far to Naribwe’s north is the first of the mountain ranges, the Kibombo Mountains, and when we enter the pass we see a scene of two Kibombo warriors conferring on whether anyone has seen the “strange one” who has knocked out several of the guards already before taking up positions. Yep, this is going to be our obligatory stealth-based segment of the game. If you get caught by any of the stationary or pacing guards, it’s right back to the start of the mountain pass for you! It’s not difficult though as there are far less guards to dodge here than there were in the Lunpa fortress. You basically just have to push big crates around to reach alternate cliffside pathways (as well as a chest that contains the Disk Axe with the rather boring Power Drive unleash that deals Fire damage and nothing else). There’s one screen that has a dog running around in it, and that one requires using Tremor if you have it to knock some bones into its path to distract it, otherwise its barking will draw the guards’ attention. Enemy-wise, the Kibombo Mountains add the Assassin and the Pixie to the monster pool. Assassins’ big thing is trying to poison the party with Poison Sting, but that’s not too much of a big deal since they drop Antidotes and we just got the Unicorn Ring anyway. Pixies are very fragile, once Felix equips the Disk Axe he can one-shot them with a normal attack, but they come in numbers and know Sleep and Wind Slash which can be annoying. Towards the very end of the area, past the stealth section, we can see a Jupiter Djinni on the cliffs but since we need Frost to reach it we’ll have to take a rain check on it for now.
One neat thing about this area though (and about the Gondowan Cliffs as well) is the fact that there are some seemingly random puddles scattered here and there. They serve no purpose for Felix and co., but if you pay attention to their placement you’ll see that if they were frozen they’d form an alternate path, showing how Piers was able to get through the pass himself. It’s a detail that the developers did not at all have to include, yet they did anyway.
Anyway, once we exit the mountains the village of Kibombo proper is just north at the foot of the second mountain range, and behind it is a giant statue. The screen dims as we approach to indicate that night is falling, and upon entering the village we find that there are torches burning in the doorways of all the huts, and that all the villagers are crowded around the exit to the north leading to the statue, the “Great Gabomba”, in order to witness the ceremony that their witch doctor, Akafubu, is performing. This ritual, which apparently involves presenting a jewel to the statue, been one that the impatient and petulant Akafubu has failed numerous times in the past, but now that he’s stolen a new jewel, Piers’s Black Crystal, he’s confident that he’ll succeed this time and be fully certified as the witch doctor.
Well we can’t get any closer to the statue thanks to the crowd, so we have to scale some vines, hop across several hut roofs, and then follow the cliff onto the next screen. There we see Piers standing a little ways away, watching Akafubu (who’s got either a headdress or a really big afro) and the warriors over by the statue, which has the orb in its cupped hands, dancing a praying. When the party goes over to talk to Piers it takes him a few moments to recognize Felix and his friends from Madra, as overall he’s more concerned about his orb and seems really reluctant to except any help in getting it back, even though he can’t see any way for him to get over to where Akafubu is (I’m just going to go ahead and assume that the cliff ledge we’re on is much higher than it looks). While he’s looking for a path, Akafubu calls for silence and uses the Lift Psynergy to raise the Black Crystal into the air. The Gabomba statue’s eyes open, but close just as quickly, causing the witch doctor to turn around and claim that the warriors’ prayers were too weak and that they have to try again.
Once we have Felix use Move on a wooden post to fill in a gap in the path Piers realizes that we’re Adepts and becomes more open with the party, introducing himself and saying what the player has long since figured out in that he is indeed from Lemuria. Since none of Felix’s party are really in the know in regards to Lemuria Piers and Kraden give him and the girls a brief primer on how it’s an island civilization where the power of Alchemy supposedly still flows. Kraden even says that the reason he was sent to Vale by Babi to study Mt. Aleph and Alchemy to begin with was due to Babi’s inability to find Lemuria. Piers remarks that Babi is another name he’s heard of, and that it’s not one that’s held in high in his homeland as there he’s seen as a thief, and rightfully so as we learned in the first game. Kraden says that he wants to help Piers return to Lemuria so that he can also see it for himself, while Piers is reluctant to do so thanks to his association with Babi. However, Sheba says that they should just focus on recovering the orb for now and Kraden agrees, leading to Piers joining the group and finally filling out our party.
So, Piers is Lv. 18 when he joins, is a warrior-type Adept like Isaac, Garet, and Felix so he can equip all the same kinds of weapons that they can, and is of the Privateer class line (even though he never commits any acts of piracy). As a unit he’s…kind of “eh” to be honest. Like Garet he’s got a lot of HP and Defense, but also like Garet he’s very slow, and has the slowest level-up rate out of all eight playable characters. His spell potency is rather low, and unfortunately most of his optional classes are on the more magey side of things. His base classes give him access to the Frost line, the new Cool line, and Diamond Dust, a Water version of Ragnarok and Heat Wave and I guess an alternative to Cutting Edge. He’s got the standard suite of healing spells in the Ply line (he does not naturally learn the Wish line or Break), Restore and Cure Poison, and a new spell called Avoid that temporarily lets you avoid random encounters (not that the Golden Sun games have especially high encounter rates to begin with). Then Douse and only Douse randomly. Also he comes with the Mercury Djinn Spring (restores a good amount of HP to one character) and Shade (reduces party’s damage by 60% for one turn).
It’s a bit of a bummer that Piers is stuck with ice-based spells when he’s a sailor IMO. I would’ve given him Making a Splash spells instead, like the full Douse line and the Froth series. Then put the Frost Gem in this game somewhere instead of the first, where you already had someone who naturally learned it. Finally, I would’ve changed some of his alternate classes to give him some unique ones to accommodate his theme, which was something that Dark Dawn did with a few of its characters. I guess it doesn’t matter at the end of the day since regardless if the spell is ice-themed or water-themed it does the same thing, but still.
Well, enough ranting. Following the cliffside path leads us to the back of the statue which appears to be a dead end, but Kraden notices some odd marks on the ground, and Felix using Scoop on them reveals little arrows, suggesting that there used to be an entrance into the statue here. Unfortunately it seems to be sealed up, but Jenna raises the possibility that there may be another entrance nearby that served as a ventilation shaft for the statue’s construction crew. Doubling back a little bit does indeed reveal another suspicious crack on the ground, and Scoop does indeed unearth a ladder entrance. One short cave stroll later and we’re within the Gabomba Statue itself which is a somewhat claustrophobic area of tiny, narrow passages and open spaces choked with gears of all kinds. Most of the enemies here are pretty weak since they’re drawn from the first game’s monster pool, but there are two new ones that could potentially be troublesome: the first are skeletal Doomsayers by virtue of being able to cast Condemn, and the Red Demon which is one of the sturdier commons we’ve yet encountered, plus it knows an HP to 1 attack called Vital Moon. It is notable for dropping the Staff of Anubis, which at the moment is the strongest staff-type weapon we can obtain. Its unleash is called Sarcophagus and simply drops one on the target, dealing Earth damage and potentially haunting them. Speaking of haunting, there’s a piece of gear we can pick up here called the Bone Armlet for the girls that can be used as an item for a free casting of Haunt if that’s your jam. Not mine since status effects are mostly irrelevant in this game if they’re not in my hands.
Now we can actually jump up onto some of the gears and ride them and jump between them, but there’s not much point in doing so until we reach the bottom of the statue, where there’s a flashing gear that’s flanked by two posts. The posts can only be reached from two separate entrances, but once both of them are Pounded into the floor the flashing gear will lower itself a bit and reverse direction, along with every other gear in the entire statue. This is the key to advancing forward, as well as snagging the third Venus Djinni (Finally!) Steel. Steel deals Earth damage and absorbs HP, so it’s also punning off of “steal” (it’s Japanese name is Kiss, and Camelot ended up getting the last laugh regarding that in Dark Dawn).
Reversing the gears allows us to eventually reach a room that has a giant spool as well as a miniature model of the Gabomba statue set against the wall. Up a ladder takes to our destination: the inside of the statue’s head where the final puzzle awaits. In the center of the room is a tiled floor with a miniature of the Gabomba’s head. We hear Akafubu attempt to present the orb again, and the Psynergetic energy he sends inside flows along two different channels. Because the markings on the tiles are pointed in completely random directions however the energy fails to reach its goal and the ceremony once again fails. Piers is reluctant to help the Kibombo to complete their ritual, but he comes around once it’s explained that he should be able to reclaim his orb once it’s taken inside the statue.
So to complete the circuit we have to Pound a post at the head of the room to pop all the offending panels out, step on some buttons to rotate them either clockwise or counterclockwise as appropriate, then Pound each tile in when they’re facing the correct direction. There’s a time limit, but it’s not a big deal if you fail because you get unlimited chances. When the two charges finally get to where they need to be the Gabomba’s mouth will open, a “tongue” (what was spooled up below) pops out to snag the orb, then allows the elated Akafubu entry. Back inside the statue the party has moved down to the room below where the orb has fallen into a groove in the floor and rolled through a hole in the base of the miniature statue, out of reach. Piers laments that he’s been forever separated from his homeland when Akafubu enters the statue and demands to know what outsiders like us are doing inside the Great Gabomba. Unimpressed by his attitude, Jenna grabs the man’s arm and leads him upstairs to the puzzle room to explain how they helped him complete the ritual so that they could take the orb when it was over, but now it’s out of reach. Back downstairs Akafubu puts a jewel in the statue’s hands that causes it to slide to one side, revealing a hallway beyond. He says that he might be able to retrieve the orb and heads down it, causing the party to wonder if maybe the witch doctor isn’t as bad a person as they’ve been led to believe.
We’re supposed to head in after him, but if you want some laughs at this point you can exit the statue through its mouth and talk to the warriors outside, who either mistake Felix and co. for gods, complain about being tired from doing all the dancing and singing that Akafubu’s ritual had required, or thinking that there’s no way that we’re prepared for how long they can stand in one place, repeating the same thing over and over again.
Once we do decide to follow, the long hallway eventually leads to an elevator, and ultimately to a dead-end chamber with yet another statue miniature with Pier’s orb resting on it. Akafubu doesn’t know what to do here, but the solution is as easy as simply examining the statue upon which a voice, apparently that of the spirit of the Great Gabomba itself, speaks. It congratulates Akafubu on reaching this place and bestows upon his sprite a new cloak and feathered headband, signifying that he is now truly Kibombo’s witch doctor. The man is so excited that he runs off without listening to the rest of what the statue has to say, which is unfortunate because it was intending to teach him a particular brand of magic. Kraden figures that it must be more Psynergy, and asks if it’s possible that they could learn it instead. The spirit thinks, then opens up an entrance to a cavern that’s further underground and says that the magic is free for the taking, but we must tell Akafubu all of this first for the sake of fairness and the hopes that the young witch doctor will thus be motivated to live a righteous life thinking of others instead of only himself so that he’ll be worthy of the magic. The Black Crystal is finally retrieved and added to the inventory, and Felix automatically leaves the room.
This subplot is finally brought to an end in the hut belonging to Akafubu and his grandfather where the party is filling the two men in on what they had just learned. The father is thankful, but Akafubu is not. Despite his father’s scolding he blames the party for him missing out on the new magic and accusing us of trying to steal it. His father basically throws his hands up in the air on witnessing his son’s continued petulance and suggests that we might as well be on our way if Akafubu is going to be like this. And he’s right. We can’t fully explore that new cavern just yet, and now that the Kibombo are trying to return to their peaceful ways with the ceremony over there’s nothing really left to do here in the village and this side story has gone on for long enough. We’ve finally got the keys to a new boat, so let’s mosey on back to Indra, shall we?
Soundtrack
- Scaling Mountains
- The default BGM for all three of southern Godowan's main locations does what it needs to do I suppose.
- The Nocturnal Ritual
- The BGM for Akafubu's ritual does what it needs to do I suppose.
- Inside the Great Gabomba
- The most interesting of this batch of music.
