The Apojii Islands were the first of the major locations we had to visit on the Eastern Sea and though it may not necessarily have looked it, the first step in reaching Lemuria. Today we’re steering Piers’s ship north from there, towards the largest of the islands. Located due east from the general Fuchin Temple area of Angara is the island of Nihan, though it’s never referred to by that name in this game as far as I can remember. It’s pretty obvious from the island’s shape, name, and general geographic location that this is supposed to be Weyard’s equivalent to Japan, and as we near we can see that there are two locations here: a town and a light-brown Elemental Rock a little to the southeast of it. Immediately following Aqua Rock we’re hitting up the third of the four Elemental Rocks in this update, the one aligned with the element of Earth, Gaia Rock. But first let’s stop in the town, named Izumo after an ancient Japanese province. The first NPC that we can talk to tells us that we should turn around and leave. Run even.
So as it turns out there’s a bit of a story arc going on with this town. The music is very depressing, and the villagers are agitated by and large, so by talking to them and mind reading here and there a picture begins to form of what’s currently going on. Gaia Rock is known as Mt. Mikage to the residents of Izumo (it’s Mt. Fuji originally) and after Mt. Aleph erupted the Great Serpent that dwells within was awoken from its slumber and began to terrorize the town. Legend has it that the creature can only be sated if a maiden is sacrificed to it once every month, so the village girls all drew lots and an unfortunate girl known as Kushinada drew the short straw. Complicating things is the fact that the local town hothead, a young man named Susa, is in love with Kushinada and naturally vehemently protested this arrangement. However his older sister and governor of the town, Uzume, doesn’t want to take any action, believing instead that some heroes will arrive and defeat the Serpent. In response to her inaction, Susa has come up with a harebrained plan to weaken the Serpent with dragonsbane then kill it himself, even though Kushinada does not want him to throw his life away for her. Also, Susa and Uzume are apparently weak Adepts, as is Kushinada herself though only after getting beaned with a Psynergy Stone just like Feizhi and Eoleo have. Whew.
I had no way of knowing this way back when I first played the game, and I doubt the majority of fellow western players did either, but this whole scenario is actually a send-up of the Japanese myth of the Yamata no Orochi, where the warrior-god Susano’o slew the monster to save (and later wed) Princess Kushinada of Izumo. Susa and Kushinada obviously owe their namesakes to Susano’o and Princess Kushinada, but in the myth Susano’o’s older sister is the sun goddess Amaterasu while Ame no Uzume was actually the goddess of the dawn. And also the dragonsbane was actually sake, though that’s down to Frothy Mugs of Water on the localization team’s front.
Kushinada herself is staying in a house separate from the rest of the village designated for sacrifices where she’s a bit of a wreck since even though she doesn’t want to die ultimately, she doesn’t want Susa to get himself killed trying to save her. Uzume in the governor’s house repeats what we heard from the villagers that she believes some heroes will come to save them before the coming of the next full moon, but some of the villagers agree with Susa that they can’t just wait around to be saved. The shop doesn’t have any novelty Japanese-themed weapons or gear aside from the Ninja Blade from the first game becoming available for purchase, though there is a Festival Coat we can loot from one of the houses and it provides a nice Defense and hefty Luck boost.
If Izumo’s Holding Out for a Hero it looks like Felix’s party is going to have to step up to the plate, and we’re going to have to visit Gaia Rock anyway so we head over there. Gaia Rock is the most straightforward of the four Elemental Rocks, even lacking a base area as it’s just a straight shot to its gaping entrance. The player who does that however is in for a highly unpleasant surprise. Instead we’re supposed to first start by scaling the cliff face via some vines flanking the entrance that can be easy to overlook. The ascent to the mountaintop is pretty simple as it consists of just a lot of free-hand rock climbing, the only tricks being some small statue heads bursting out of certain spots of the wall in order to knock Felix off and having to use Whirlwind to pull some dangling vines towards him so that he can swing across gaps like Tarzan. Only interesting piece of loot here is an Apple, though at the summit is an altar that’s surrounded by pillars laid out in the shape of a Reveal bubble. Examining the altar itself has the game note that you can “sense” something, and Reveal reveals that there’s actually a small clay doll on top of it, swaying back and forth as if dancing. Obtaining the Dancing Idol will be our key to navigating Gaia Rock’s interior.
So we Retreat back to the start and enter the Rock proper. Right in the entryway is another altar, and placing the Dancing Idol on it when prompted causes two dragon-headed statues to slide out of the way revealing two additional doors off to the sides. These are where we want to go first rather than straight ahead towards the Rock’s heart, because it’ll lead us to a room with another altar and more statue heads. Once again placing the Idol on the altar makes the head move aside, allowing a beam of light to shine down into a hole in the floor. There are four holes total, one of them hidden under a pile of leaves that need to be Cycloned away. Proceeding will eventually allow us to use the Idol to allow light to shine through all four holes, then it’s time to double back to the entrance and press on ahead at least. The final section of Gaia Rock is actually a Lost Woods setup with four potential exits from each room, and the only way to figure out the right path is to use Growth (meaning Djinn shenanigans) on little sprigs growing in the center of each room, amusingly causing one of the leaves to grow into the shape of an arrow that denotes the correct path. Along the way is a Mimic (only has a Game Ticket, bleh) and a treasure chest containing a Rusty Mace. That’s three rusted weapons now.
The heart of Gaia Rock is full of barrels of sweet, sweet sake-flavored dragonsbane that the Serpent is lapping up, seemingly oblivious to anything else. While most of the depictions of the Yamata no Orochi that I’ve seen portray it as an eight-headed snake (eg Shin Megami Tensei games and Yu-Gi-Oh!, not to mention the original myth) here it looks more like a typical eastern dragon which seems to match certain pieces of historical Japanese artwork. Susa is present, declaring that now that it’s drunk its fill the Serpent’s time to die has come. Unfortunately for him, even in its weakened/inebriated state it doesn’t even seem to notice the young man attempting to stab it in the head, then proceeds to bitchslap him away with a fireball. You can almost hear the sad trombone. Guess now it’s time for Felix’s party to step up to the plate.
Serpent
HP
- 3536
- Weak to Wind; Resists Earth
- Mighty Press - Deals moderate Earth damage to one enemy and may instantly-kill.
- Quake Sphere - Deals moderate splashing Earth damage to all enemies.
- Briar - Deals moderate splashing Earth damage to two/three enemies.
- Toxic Breath - Deals moderate splashing Earth damage to and may poison two/three enemies.
- Black Ice - Deals moderate splashing Earth damage to two/three enemies.
- Cure Well - Restores a base of 150 HP.
Now here’s the reason why we had to do all that stuff with the Dancing Idol instead of shooting straight for the boss: The Serpent has an innate HP regen effect to the tune of 2430 HP a turn!! Needless to say, it is impossible for us to out-damage that. Fortunately it turns out that the Serpent is Weakened by the Light, and each beam that’s been able to hit it reduces the regen, all the way down to 30 HP if all four are in play. Much, much more manageable.
Even putting that aside, the Serpent can attack twice per turn like the Kraken could and has some potentially-deadly stuff waiting in the wings like Mighty Press’s OHKO potential and poisoning with Toxic Breath or just flat damage with Briar. Come to think of it, I guess this is a lot like the Kraken battle since their movesets do sorta parallel each other in a Broad Strokes sort of way now that I look at both of them. Both can certainly keep you on your toes if you don’t cheese them.
Winning earns us 1995 EXP and 2898 coins.
As the Serpent writhes in agony Susa recovers and once again attacks the monster, this time managing to kill it, leaving a pool of blue blood oozing from its body. He thanks us then hurries off to see Kushinada now that she’s safe, though we’ll find him again right outside the dungeon entrance, lying on the ground pooped. When we have Felix himself attempt to leave the chamber the ground will start rumbling and another tablet like we saw in Air’s and Aqua Rock arises, and this one teaches Felix the Sand spell. As long as Felix is standing on a sandy surface, this spell enables him to dissolve into sand himself and travel under rocks and obstacles and stuff before popping back out with a button press. It’s very similar to how you can dunk Luigi with the hammer in the Mario & Luigi games. Unlike the other Rocks we don’t need to use this spell to leave the chamber, but if we use it here we can burrow beneath the dragon’s corpse and investigate the stream of blood to obtain the Cloud Brand. From its name you’d think it’s related to the Storm Brand somehow, but it’s actually what the localization team decided to call the Ama no Murakumo, one of Japan’s three great mythic treasures and the sword that Susano’o obtained from the Yamata no Orochi’s corpse. It is the strongest long blade we can obtain at the moment and its unleash, Raiden’s Wrath (depicts an oni wielding an electrified sword who rams into the enemy), not only triggers more often than usual, but it also completely ignores the target’s Defense.
When we return to Izumo the atmosphere is much more cheerful and upbeat as the villagers are throwing a festival to celebrate the Serpent’s death. The mood over in Uzume’s mansion is a little more somber however, with a generic villager informing Uzume and Kushinada of rumors of “heroes” emerging from Gaia Rock after the Serpent’s defeat. Uzume takes this as a sign that her prediction came true. She then notices that Felix happens to be eavesdropping on her and gets very angry until the villager figures that we must be the heroes and her mood immediately brightens. Kraden and the rest of the party introduce themselves as Susa himself enters the chamber and credits the party with the Serpent’s defeat, though they insist he played a part too with striking the finishing blow. The party explains how they pretty much just happened to be in the neighborhood because they’re trying to get the special Psynergy spells that are kept within the Elemental Rocks for the sake of their quest. Uzume, Susa, and Kushinada are mostly ignorant of the technical aspects of Psynergy and Alchemy, but they do wish us well and have the group promise to come back and visit upon their quest’s success. Talking to Uzume again will automatically open the menu to indicate that we’re supposed to hand her something, and that’s the Dancing Idol, which she becomes taken with as it’ll allow her to explore Gaia Rock herself. In return she gives us the Mars Djinni Coal which buffs everyone’s agility. Kushinada’s already looking towards the future, saying when spoken to that she and Susa will have a son named Takeru who will help Felix and/or his descendants if they’re ever in need. I’m guessing that that name was taken from the legendary prince Yamato Takeru, because as far as I know Susano’o and Kushinada did not have a son by that name in actual mythology.
Speaking of mythology, once we exit the mansion Susa will run back out after us. Since we did him a solid, he says he’ll do one for us by suggesting we check the Serpent’s corpse again. It’s just a hint to finding the Cloud Brand if you didn’t get it already. One more thing left to do in Izumo though, and that’s to check out a ring of pillars in the north part of town laid out in the Reveal oval. Except for one that’s misaligned. Using Reveal shows a closed hidden door in the ground, and Moving the pillar back into place allows us to access the cave below. I feel it’s just a touch too long for what it is, but it has a good piece of armor for Felix and Piers that we need Sand to reach as well as another Summon tablet. The gear is the Phantasmal Mail which also boosts Luck and can be used in battle to cast Delude, while the Summon is Ulysses which costs two Mars and Mercury Djinn apiece. As many know, Ulysses is what the Romans called Odysseus, the king of Ithaca who wandered for years after the Trojan War. In one of the more head-scratching liberties taken with the Summons, up there with icy Terriermon Moloch and ice shaver Boreas, Ulysses instead appears as a childlike figure with an elaborate robe and hat that look like they belong in Touhou, and attacks with paper talismans that turn into toothed mouths that chomp down on foes that deal Fire damage and may prevent survivors from attacking. Just gotta like these weird sorts of things slide off at this point. Anyway, that’s it for Izumo for now, and ever. Next time we’re heading back south. Down under you might even say.
Soundtrack
- Izumo in Despair
- Rather droning. Makes you want to hurry up and save the day so you can listen to something else.
- Gaia Rock
- I'm curious how this one would sound with actual instrumentation or more advanced hardware since it's clearly inspired by traditional Japanese musical styles.
- Festival in Izumo
- Aah, much better.
