Saga and Final Fantasy Legend

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Final Fantasy Legend 1 All Humans Part 4:  In What Other RPG Can You Drive An Island?


The islands in the 2nd "world" on the 5th floor were linked by caves, as the townspeople suggested.  BIG EYE could put characters to sleep, but were only a threat when in parties with other monsters.  WEREWOLF was the more immediate threat with its 37 damage TUSK.  GRIFFIN's 36 damage BEAK made it a high priority to kill when it appeared. 


One island in the northeast region had a smaller "island" that looked like the others, but could be piloted like a boat.  Enemies at sea for some reason included a RHINO that charged with its HEAD for up to 57 damage!  Maybe we should export Earth's ivory poachers to the Final Fantasy Legend tower so they can be the heroes for a change.  MAGICIANs cast sleep spells and healed themselves.


A hermit in a hut on one eastern island said "The AIR is on the palm tree in the center", and sure enough, he was right.  An island to the south of the hermit had a palm tree in the middle, and pressing A got the AIR needed to breathe underwater.


The whirlpool needed to dive under the sea was to the northwest of town.  Maybe AIR was more common than SARA thought, since there was a fully functional town.  The residents offered these hints:


“Ryu-O now lives above ground.”

 
“Sei-Ryu cherishes the RED ORB.”
 
“Remember where the two lines cross.”
 
“Ryu-O had the BLUE ORB.”



Equipment in the underwater town wasn't exciting.  SILVER gloves only increased Defense by 1 over the GOLD gloves from the tower town, and cost 500 GP each.  The real "sucker's purchase" was the KATANA for 2060 GP.  If a wiki is correct, the KATANA only has 6 power.  You can guess why I stuck with the PISTOL for now.  


The party is now descending into some underwater caves.  Maybe Sei-Ryu will be there.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Final Fantasy Legend 1 All Humans Part 5:  Trial and Error


I played most of these sessions away from home, so I'm relying on Switch screenshots and video clips while writing this update.


After descending a few floors in an underwater cave, the party found an underwater castle.  They couldn't enter various rooms until backtracking and finding the BLUEKEY on the 1st floor.  GUARD was a new enemy that attacked with a LONG sword for 24 damage.  RED BONEs were best avoided when they had high HP and used Poison attacks.  The most dangerous enemy formation that they saw was 3 JAGUARs and 3 RHINOs.  OCTOPUS was weak, but could inflict Blind, an accuracy ailment that did not disappear after combat.  Not even resting at the inn could cure Blind, so I had to stock up on items and keep some in my characters' inventories just in case.  


One treasure room in the castle contained a SILVER chest armor, a CURE spellbook, and a GRENADE weapon with 20 uses.  SILVER armor added 5 Defense more than GOLD, but CURE seemed more like a Mutant item, and I wanted to save GRENADEs for tougher fights.  Another locked room was empty because Final Fantasy Legend was the unofficial sequel to Final Fantasy 2.


The clue about lines crossing probably referred to the puzzle on the top floor of the castle.  All but one of the orbs was fake and activated a fight with ATOMCRAB, an enemy with a 2PINCER attack that crushed one of my humans for 86 damage.  Either the clue was inaccurate, or I must not have activated some event flag, because I must have manually checked all the orbs in the room by resetting and none of them worked.


Our heroes left the castle and sailed to a northeastern town on the surface that I had missed.  The locals mentioned the whirlpool portal and the AIR item.  One suggested not talking to "the old man inside the cabin on the southern island".  SILVER chest armor was available in the store for 2500 GP each, and SILVER helmets provided 3 more DEFENSE than the GOLD helmets for 600 GP.  Another shop sold martial arts weapons such as PUNCH, KICK, and BUTT, but they were expensive and I didn't know their attack power at the time.


New armor made SHRIMP enemies in the underwater cave harmless.  HEAD attacks from RHINOs were still dangerous, but now struck for under 50 damage.


When I went home, I checked GameFAQs and learned that the correct orb is 2 west and 1 south from the northeast corner.  Taking the orb summoned SEI-RYU, the 2nd of the "fiends".  PISTOL shots pierced its scales in the high 20s to 30s damage range.  STRICT paralyzed characters for multiple rounds until they could shrug it off.  BITE chomped for 33 damage, but the real threat was THUNDER zapping someone for 52 damage.


Final Fantasy Legend is more about preparation and resource management than tactics, like RPGs for 8 bit consoles in general.  Since my party had over 200 HP per character and enough PISTOL ammo, victory was assured.  SEI-RYU's treasure hoard was 4800 GP, which I mostly spent on AGILITY potions after buying everyone new PISTOLs. 


The hermit in the hut asked me to solve a "riddle":  What item can be bought for the price of 2 Longswords, 3 Goldhelms, and 4 Potions?  The answer was a BATTLE sword, which I already had in my inventory.  I couldn't give it to him until I left the area and came back.  He gave the 2nd SPHERE as a reward which was necessary to climb higher than the 5th floor of the tower.  My party left the tropical world for the last time and stretched their legs, ready to climb more stairs. . .

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Final Fantasy Legend 1 All Humans Part 6:  Inconsistent Encounter Design


PISTOLs were becoming obsolete by the 10th floor.  Sure, the humans could fight weaker enemies like EAGLEs and RAVENs, but it seemed they had to run from every other encounter.  ATOMCRABs from the orb puzzle were now regular enemies, and there was a whole "pocket world" beach dedicated to them on one floor.  MEDUSAs were one of the worst opponents since their LOOK move could petrify characters.  But CLAMs that reused the OCTOPUS sprite had 8LEGS to kill any human outright for 240 damage (!).


To get through this part, I had to abuse the save and reload trick.  A room filled with hospital beds and an inn helped a bit, but SARA, KARA, LARA, and ANNE were panicking by the time they reached the 10th floor.  It was a relief to see a door "locked by magic of white" since that meant the 3rd world was nearby.


The 3rd world was cloud themed.  Everyone in the nearby town was talking about BYAK-KO and how he was hiring guards at the pub to crush the Resistance lead by Charles.  Supposedly Charles's daughters knew how to get the next SPHERE.


I was more interested in the weapon shop than the main quest.  MUSKETs seemed like the best option.  Their damage formula used Strength and Agility, they cost a modest 800 GP, and the base power was 130, more than 3 times as strong as the PISTOL.


Field testing the MUSKETs had better results than I was hoping for!  Enemies usually died in one or two hits each.  SIRENs weren't as dangerous as their MEDUSA tower cousins, but they could still confuse the party and make them lose multiple turns.  DRAGON 1 breathed FLAME for 79 but had poor defenses.  SABERCATs were the most rewarding encounter since they were weak and dropped 1200 GP each.


Humans started to grow quickly in the cloud world.  MUSCLE and AGILITY potions were still 300 GP, and battle rewards were so generous that SARA, KARA, LARA, and ANNE grew to at least 99 Agility.  The true cap is 255 if I'm not mistaken, but the Game Boy character limit doesn't display values above two digits for Strength and Agility.  I have to be careful, though:  an overflow glitch can reduce these stats if they go above the maximum!


The only stat that gets more expensive over time for humans is HP, since HP200, HP400, and HP600 potions only give 1 if they're above the respective number.


I also started buying MUSCLE potions, and the party is now into the 60s-70s.  DRAGON chest armor is also available for 8500 GP each, but I preferred to work on my stats for now.


EDIT:  If you think grinding your stats is overkill in a Saga game, you clearly haven't read my Romancing Saga 2 playthrough.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Final Fantasy Legend 1 All Humans Part 7:  Maxed Stats Aren't Enough In Saga


I spent a while grinding for money in the sky world and earned enough to raise Strength and Agility to at least 99, and HP to over 400.  DRAGON breastplates for everyone increased Defense by 6 and seemed to offer elemental immunities.


EDIT:  Supposedly the "human stats go above 99" trick is a glitch.


With MUSKETs in hand, the girls entered the pub and challenged 3 MOSQUITO enemies to a fight.  When their NAIL attacks dealt 2 damage, victory was assured.  BYAK-KO said the humans were good enough to work for him, and he ordered them to find Jeanne the daughter of Charles the Resistance leader.  On a small cloud to the northeast was a secret town that gave a hint about the white SPHERE.


Jeanne was in a building that looked like an igloo on a large cloud.  Before BYAK-KO's minions attacked her, the party had a conversation:


SARA:  Well, shall we listen to him, or help her?

ANNE:  You ask a silly question.


The human party didn't waste much time on small talk.  A GARLIC, a SABERCAT, and a P-WORM were generic enemies that SARA, KARA, LARA, and ANNE had killed by the dozen while earning money, so they were killed unceremoniously.  Jeanne asked the girls to help her sister Mileille, who was trapped in BYAK-KO's flying castle.


My party climbed the stairs and opened the final door with the WHITKEY, only to learn that Mileille had betrayed the Resistance.  BYAK-KO threw the party in prison, but having 99 Strength paid off when they ripped the bars off the door and escaped. While still in prison, I found the JAILKEY to unlock a treasure room filled with supplies like REVIVE and ELIXIR.  A REVENGE sword in another cell talked to the party and offered to join.  It was a gimmick weapon based on counterattacks, but the party sold it when they returned to town.  A GIANT gauntlet added 2 more Defense for SARA. I returned to BYAK-KO's castle expecting a boss fight, and fought many battles with the guards, but the white tiger wasn't there.  


BYAK-KO had moved the castle elsewhere, near the sacred palace that the secret town had mentioned.  The tiger tried to kill Mileille with a spell, but Jeanne sacrificed herself to save her treacherous sister.  MUSKET shots pounded BYAK-KO for over 100 damage per hit.  BYAK-KO cast ICE, but the printout read "KARA has resistance to ICE.  Nothing happened."  Was it the DRAGON armor?  BYAK-KO's melee was as ineffective as his magic, as every SWORD slash missed.  Perhaps 99 Agility dodged them all.


Enemies further up the tower weren't as easy as the cloud world made me expect.  JELLY had MELT to drain HP, TRICERAS gored for 143 damage, and GAZER's BEAM lasers stung for 143 damage too.  I often had to save and reload to make it to the pocket worlds safely, let alone the next main world.  The two pocket worlds were linked:  one was flooding because Bob dumped garbage in the drain, and the other was populated with octopi who were dying of drought.  Stepping into the whirlpool in the flooded world solved the problem, and going back there led to some treasure and OGRE encounters.  (Who knew Ogres could put you to sleep?)


An ARMY helmet in a treasure chest boosted LARA's total defense to 40.  A mysterious NPC who gave hints about the other fiends warned the party to run away from SU-ZAKU, since it was invincible.  Sure enough, the 1st encounter in the post-apocalyptic world was SU-ZAKU, whom the party had to flee.  Residents could only survive by living underground. . .

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Final Fantasy Legend 1 All Humans Part 8:  Susie Q


The "post-apocalyptic Japan" world was suffering from monster attacks, but not from the usual Godzilla or Gamera.  Instead, their problem was SU-ZAKU the phoenix fiend.  This was reflected by every random encounter on the overworld being SU-ZAKU.  DRAGON armor blocked FLAME, but its melee attack could still hurt.  It was pointless to fight, so the only option was to go to the southwestern town and talk to its residents.


VULCANs were the go-to weapon for a while, but they only had 20 uses and sold for 8000 GP each.  Their advantage was the ability to hit all enemies in a group, similar to whips in Dragon Quest.  The locals said to avoid the "pub where the gangs are", and that there was a northeastern town called Ameyoko.  There was also a lead for a quest in a Power Plant in the center of town.  No matter how hard I looked, there was no Power Plant in town.


The correct answer was to ignore the warnings and head for the gangster pub.  So-Cho wanted to start a fight, but Sayaka talked him out of it.  We had the common goal of defeating SU-ZAKU, after all.  The plan was to find items to disable SU-ZAKU's force field, and the next place to visit was the hidden town of Akiba.


I found Akiba by accident while traveling on the map.     I looked an an FAQ to make sure I wasn't doing anything wrong, and sure enough it said the ROM was the essential item.  Still went to the library anyway just to be safe.  The library was oddly coded in the game, so on both the 1st and 2nd floors my characters walked over to a bookshelf automatically.  On the 1st floor there was nothing, so I'm not even sure why it was programmed that way.


The party then had to trade the ROM for the BOARD (motherboard?) in Ameyoko, at a stall far away from the other shops.


In the southwestern town, there was a kind of motorcycle for fast travel.  It couldn't go into the "moon crater" areas of the map, but it could travel into underground tunnels for regular battles instead of SU-ZAKU encounters.


In an attempt to save money, I used the P-SWORD once.  It did nothing.  An FAQ told me why:  the P-SWORD is based on the Mana stat, which Humans have no use for.  It must be meant for Mutants, since Monsters don't have equipment.


After acquiring the BOARD, the party returned to the southwestern town and talked to So-Cho.  He said everyone was ready and unlocked the ability to jump over a gap in the subway system.  In the Power Plant, So-Cho sacrificed himself by walking over some spikes to open the door for our heroes and gave the party the BAND helmet.  I still have no idea what it's for.


The Switch rerelease my have been censored here, since the item SARA, KARA, LARA, and ANNE picked up in the radioactive room was called "hadesnium".  The FAQ I used called it "plutonium".  Whatever it was, the radioactive element was necessary to create ERASE99 to eliminate SU-ZAKU's force field.  A MACHINE challenged the girls to a miniboss battle, but fell in 3 rounds to VULCAN fire.  One of MACHINE's attacks missed, but a BEAM seared ANNE for 130 damage.


After these events, the Japan world changed dramatically.  Monsters invaded the southwestern town, and closed the shops while leaving the inn intact.  Underground tunnels were no longer available, or necessary now that random battles had replaced SU-ZAKU.  I was running low on VULCAN ammo, so my characters had to go to Ameyoko and buy 50 use DRAGON swords for 34,600 GP each (!).    


Random enemies were much more dangerous than the bosses so far.  CHIMERA bashed SARA once with 3HEADS for 448 damage, more than anyone's max hP.  HYDRA's 4HEADS murdered SARA for 402 damage.  Final Fantasy Legend leads to odd situations where it's safer to fight and take out the most powerful enemy first rather than retreat.  Running away rarely if ever works the 1st time.


The final area in Japan world was a tower in the northwest.  There were hidden passages in the walls, elevators that didn't look like elevators due to primitive Game Boy graphics, and Final Fantasy 2 style empty rooms.  Hopefully you won't blame me for using a walkthrough to avoid some frustration.


GIANTs and DEMONs were easy encounters when they wasted their rounds casting ice and fire spells that the DRAGON armor blocked. 


SU-ZAKU was an anticlimax once the party used ERASE99 to render it vulnerable.  DRAGON swords clipped its wings for at least 300 damage each, and the bird crashed to the ground during Turn 2.  The only action it took was to blind KARA.


After winning, Sayaka became the new So-Cho.  Is that a title instead of a name?  The party gained the final SPHERE and investigated the tower.  The designers were cruel enough to put the next door on a damage floor, and Final Fantasy Legend doesn't have a "Stepguard" spell like Dragon Quest.  At least not for humans.  I went back to Japan world and bought some VULCANs to save some DRAGON sword uses for harder enemies, then began climbing. . .


(There's a speedrun of this game where the players intentionally mispronounce all the enemy names, so SU-ZAKU is called "Susie Q".  It stuck in my head.)

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Final Fantasy Legend 1 All Humans Part 9:  Ashura's Wrath


Our heroes climbed the tower while blowing away enemies with VULCAN or DRAGON sword attacks.  One treasure chest contained 3 DOORs, an item which sounded useful enough to keep in the limited inventory.  I think there are only 8 slots total outside of items equipped to characters.


A side door led to an area with a few people who talked about the next fiend ASHURA .  One said "Thanks to Ashura, we're rich".  SARA, KARA, LARA, and ANNE weren't impressed with their staircases and one bookshelf.  A woman said Ashura "turned Creator powerless".


On a higher floor, a MAGNUM gun was inside a treasure chest.  Another side room had the corpses of children on the top floor, and a corpse with a diary on the bottom floor:  "We barely made it to this shelter.  We've run out of rations, so we won't last much longer.  Ken and Yuki, forgive me for leaving you.  Akira, take care of your brothers."  It ended with a prayer to the Creator.  The prize for the party was an A BOMB.  It was an N BOMB in the original, so is this a case of censorship for "evolving cultural and social norms", or "de-censorship"?  "A Bomb" is widely understood to mean "atomic bomb". . .


Although humans could equip the AEGIS shield, it seemed pointless since it was a Defend command with durability rather than a piece of armor.  A library with a hidden bookshelf had a FLARE book, which was useless for humans.  One chest on a higher floor was much more promising:  a GLASS sword.


Yet another side path led out of the tower entirely.  There was an overworld covered with flowers and a hut, which contained an old man who gave the party an XCLBR sword before dying.  The man with the black hat who spoke of the earlier fiends said "Watch out!  Ashura lives above".


Enemies had exhausted the party by this point, so I spent much of the time saving to limp to ASHURA.  MISSILE shot by a Trooper hit the whole party for 248 damage, which meant a reset.  ASHURA offered each character "a piece of the world", like the Dragonlord from Dragon Quest 1.  They naturally refused and battled the multi-armed horned demon.


Any attempt at ASHURA lasted two rounds. . .but not in the way of SU-ZAKU.  3HEADS butted a character for 990 damage, well above the intended "soft cap" of 600 for humans.  FLARE casts boiled the party for at least 287 each.  For perspective, the party's health looked like this before the battle:


275/404
416/416
283/422
34/436


SARA, KARA, LARA, and ANNE had no chance, even with 416 damage from GLASS shattering on ASHURA.  This is going to be like Romancing Saga 2, isn't it?  The only way I could beat the final boss in that game was to level  Water magic and MP so much that the boss would be immobile for the entire fight.  Here, I think I'll resort to the "true Strength and Agility cap is 255" trick.  Fortunately, DOORs turned out to be like a teleport spell, so the party descended to Floor 16 to reenter Japan world and stock up on supplies and money.  I'm not going to fight fair next time!

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Final Fantasy Legend 1 All Humans Finale:  Escalator To Heaven


There was no way my party was going to beat Final Fantasy Legend fairly.  But I didn't feel like using the instant kill SAW from Japan world's southwestern town shop on all the bosses either.  There has to be some challenge to satisfy me, after all.


So KARA, LARA, ANNE, and SARA returned to Japan world and spent their extra cash on MUSCLE potions.  In an attempt to avoid Strength overflowing back into single digits, I tested out DRAGON slashes on random encounters.  One printout against a THUNDER bird read 531.  Later on, the damage output would grow to 809. 


The playthrough almost died.  Or at least it would have taken a while to recover if I hadn't taken the right steps.  The Switch version seems to have occasional glitches with its Game Boy emulator.  In this case, the game hadn't closed properly or something. . .and the temporary save state loaded after a Strength overflow occurred.  Seeing "No damage!" and "1 damage" printouts against LAVAWORM and DRAGON 3 was disturbing in a game with only 1 save slot and no permanent save states!


I thought reloading the game again would do the trick, and sure enough my characters were standing in front of the counter at the potion store.  That was a relief!  The team bought a few HP600s for some party members, then charged up the tower for a rematch against ASHURA.


The final fiend croaked after 2 rounds of combat.  DRAGON swords cut for 450s, but ANNE's XCLBR dealt a paltry 99.  Maybe it was really the Excalipoor from Final Fantasy 5?  ASHURA had 6ARMS like you'd expect from a Hindu demon, and used them to punch KARA to death for 472 damage.


After ASHURA died, the party fell into a pitfall trap and was asked "Can you climb out?"  They reappeared in the tower town on the surface, and most of the supporting cast was there to greet them.  The Armor king's monster wife was somehow pregnant.  Mileille from the sky world felt guilty about betraying her sister.  Ryo-O, a character from the ocean world who was only hinted at previously, wondered if ASHURA was an illusion.


The party discovered that the "true" tower was mostly a series of stairs and escalators, without the alternate dimensions from before.  Like in Final Fantasy 1, the 4 fiends returned as boss battles, but these were barely worth recounting now that everyone had well above 200 Strength.  All of them perished without dialogue, and even SU-ZAKU 2 lacked a force field.


It was the random encounters that ended any hopes of completing the true tower in one go.  The team had to return to town and purchase some supplies and equipment.  DRAGON helms and HERMES shoes boosted Defense to 52, but KARA wore the BAND helmet instead for ailment immunities and 55 Defense.  DEFEND swords were the preferred weapon for 2 of the girl, while another wielded the MASMUNE from a treasure chest, and the final member had the GLASS sword.


There was no ASHURA rematch.  The top floor was mostly a white void, with a stream, some trees, and furniture like a bed in the northwest area.  The CREATOR god revealed himself as the true villain of the game in his speech.  He wanted to test the courage of mortals, so he created ASHURA (and by extension the other fiends) as a villain for worthy heroes to kill.  The party didn't appreciate this and challenged him to the final battle.


First blood went to SARA's MASMUNE, which made the CREATOR shudder for 437 damage.  DEFEND slashed for 410, while KARA's GLASS sword shattered for 629.  The CREATOR did nothing at all on Turn 1, as if he were imitating a Dragon Quest boss.  A nameless all-target spell wounded the party for 76 to 155 damage each, but this seemed suspiciously weak.  One of the girls had only 422 max HP since I didn't want to spend much more money on HP600 potions, and she was still healthy after the CREATOR's assault.  On Turn 3 ANNE's DEFEND bisected the CREATOR and finished the game!


Final Fantasy Legend 1 has one of the most anticlimactic endings in video games.  The party approaches the door to paradise, then turns back and goes home.  Boo!


The game itself was entertaining.  Resource management challenges aren't as common in modern RPGs.  It's rare to see breakable weapons in a turn based RPG that isn't Fire Emblem, and it's handled well here.  Character growth is unconventional, since even the relatively bland humans gain their strength from buying items in shops rather than in combat.  The (first) tower setting is well-developed considering the limitations of an early Game Boy game, and the optional pocket dimensions made it more than a generic dungeon.


Final Fantasy Legend 1 does have some flaws.  The random encounter rate can be cruel.  You'll sometimes get into a battle one step after fleeing or fighting in another.  Hints can be cryptic due to the translation, and if I'm not mistaken the sphere puzzle in the ocean world is misleading.  Expect a lot of grinding if you're playing with humans, and inventory management is cumbersome since you can't buy stat potions in bulk.  (That's a problem later RPGs on better systems have too:  Trials of Mana on the Super Nintendo only lets you buy 1 Drake Scale at a time!  This cost me a lot of time during solo challenges.)


Even with these faults, the game seems to be underrated to me.  I'm looking forward to the improvements in Final Fantasy Legend 2!

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Final Fantasy Legend 2 All Robots Part 1:  Who Needs Armor When You Have Whips?


Final Fantasy Legend 2 is the favorite of the Game Boy Saga games according to most players.  It's less primitive than Legend 1, and was developed by Kawazu unlike Legend 3 which was made by the Final Fantasy Mystic Quest people.  


Robots are the new species for the sequel, so I had to try them out.  The 4 letter character limit was still enforced, so they were named DATA, ROBO, WREN, and DEMI.  DATA must have been adopted, since his human father woke him up in the night to warn him about the quest for the MAGI.  He left through the window, but DATA noted this was a habit:  "Why does he always go out through windows?"  The graphics showed the father flying to the top of the screen.  The graphics are better in Legend 2, but some special effects are still ridiculous.


The other 3 Robots were recruited in Mr. S.'s school.  Mr. S the monster mentioned that 77 MAGI were the parts of a goddess, and that others were planning to use them for evil.  Mr. S himself joined the party as a guest character.  He was much stronger than my permanent party, with 185 HP instead of 60. 


Cave of North was the "tutorial" dungeon, as if this game would explain anything to the player.  Robots are a bit like Legend 1 Humans in that they don't gain stats from combat, and instead spend money to become more powerful.  The difference is that Robots get bonuses from every item they equip, even multiple copies.  Weapons used by Robots only have half the durability, but can be recharged by staying at an Inn.  They're also the most susceptible to magic.


The first example of equipment stat gains that I saw was when DATA equipped a Bronze shield from a treasure chest.  (CAPS LOCK is used less frequently in Legend 2.)  He gained 9 HP and 2 Defense.  Spiders, Jaguars, and Skeltons (sic) were the main enemies in Cave of North, and encounters were as frequent as in Legend 1.  Robots shot enemies with their starting Pistols, while Mr. S's Fire spell hit them for well over 3 digit damage.


A Hammer and a Bow were found inside more treasure chests.  DATA must have equipped them according to one screenshot that showed him at 87 HP.  The first "boss" BabyWyrm was unworthy of the title.   Mr. S.'s Dissolve attack missed and BabyWyrm's Beak pecked DATA for 15 damage.  DEMI shot the dragon down with a 116 Pistol and sent the other Robots to remedial firearms training after they all missed.


Mr. S only wanted to make sure that the Robots made it to the next town, and left the party to return to his school.  The residents talked about a "cute cleric name (sic) Ki" and Ashura, who was attacking this world monsters from a base in the north.  Is it the same Ashura from Legend 1?  A false "Dad" mentioned the possibility of MAGI being in "the relics of ancient gods". 


Finding the Pillar of Sky was necessary to travel to other worlds.  Ki's shrine had some NPCs with information.  Besides DATA's home world, a fairy confirmed the existence of Ashura's Desert and Giants' World.  Ki told the party where the "relics of ancient gods" were:  4 to the east and 3 to the south of a lone rock. 


To prepare for the next dungeon, I equipped the Robots with Bows to increase their Agility.  Agility seems more useful in Legend 2 than in Legend 1.  According to a guide on GameFAQs, it affects weapon accuracy, evasion, turn order, and damage with light weapons.  Does it also influence the chance to flee?  My Robots could actually run away in this game on the first try, a luxury the Humans never had in Legend 1.  Even at the end of the game, the Humans failed to escape from a LIZARD on the surface.


Toad and Fungus in the "relics of ancient gods" dungeon were killed with Pistol shots, and Bows shot down any Fly that attacked.  Bows only pricked them for around 25, but each Fly's Nail attack was useless.  It was better to save Pistols for tougher enemies since they only had 25 durability and I couldn't buy any more yet.  Many treasure chests were empty, suggesting others had already looted them. 


The other adventurers must have forgotten about 3 of the MAGI, since the Robots found Power, Speed, and Mana.  A dying guard said that Ashura's minions had taken the rest.  My Robots returned to Ki's shrine, and she agreed to join the party to raid Ashura's Base.  The first two robots replaced their Bows with Whips from a shop to grow to 29 Agility and 168 HP.  Strength and Defense were at a mere 6. 


One shop near Ashura's Base was meant to be revisited later in the game:  there was no way I would pay 6800 for an SMG considering battle rewards so far.  Ashura's Base itself was a linear series of rooms and staircases with similar enemies to the "relics of the ancient gods" dungeon.  Ki cast Thunder against enemy groups, and also zapped the Rhino boss to death for 144 damage.  ROBO and DATA whiffed their Pistol shots, but DEMI proved herself the Annie Oakley of the group by shooting Rhino for 47 damage before Ki's spell activated.


Rhino was a load-bearing boss, so the party had to grab the Fire and Ice MAGI before the dungeon disappeared.  Now the way was open to Pillar of Sky and Ashura's Desert.  Ashura was not the rightful ruler of his world, and had conquered it by finding enough MAGI to become a god.  (Did the CREATOR of Legend 1 gain his power in a similar way?)  Even the local town had random encounters with Troopers, Slimes, Eagles, and Barracud (sic) to prove this was a hostile dimension.  Did Zozo from Final Fantasy 6 borrow the idea from this game?


I didn't have access to GameFAQs while playing these sessions away from home, so I had to improvise by saving and reloading at the shop.  Buying Rapiers was the most cost-effective option at 400 GP apiece.  Rapiers were an Agility based weapon that hit for 164 to 180 damage if the inventory had enough of them.  Pistols turned out to be Strength based for Robots, instead of Strength and Agility like in Legend 1.


Robot Stats and Equipment (same for whole party)


HP:  168
STR:  6
DEF:  6
AGL:  29
MANA:  0


Pistol
Pa/Po
6 Rapiers


Other conveniences of Legend 2:  a much larger inventory and 3 save slots!

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Final Fantasy Legend 2 All Robots Part 2:  Fantastic Voyage


Residents of Desert Town agreed that Ashura's hideout was inside a sandstorm, but disagreed about where exactly it was to be found.  The Robots wandered around and found it inside a southeastern area.


Ashura's tower was a straightforward climb.  Beetles were pathetic enemies that only dealt 5 damage per Horn, if they hit at all.  They did come in groups of 7, preventing the single target Rapiers from destroying the entire team in one round.  BabyWyrms returned as regular enemies.  Eagle, Octopus, and Red Bone were common, but rewards were inconsistent:  a battle with 7 foes total only dropped 66 GP.  I have no idea why Snakes attacked with Tusk, but it dealt 49 damage to whomever it hit.


A Sabre in a treasure chest raised DATA's Agility to 37.  Woodman served as a "miniboss", but died to one 194 damage Rapier slash.  A man called Mask who looked suspiciously like DATA's father joined the party as a guest and specialized in Hammer attacks powered by Strength. 


The lack of direct stat gains from combat may hurt Robots at the end, but at the time this factor allowed my party to pick its battles.  With high Agility, they could reliably run from any encounter that would hurt them too much.


Ashura revealed that his minions had already shrunk with "micronizing" powers and invaded Ki's body!  He then extended the "two birds with one stone" cliche while gloating:  "Well. . .Now I get yours and that'll make it three birds!"


On Turn 1, Rapier swings cut Ashura's many limbs for 118-140, and DATA hacked with his Sabre for 248.  Mask clobbered Ashura with the Hammer for 147.  Ashura's 6-Arms sent ROBO to the scrapyard for 422 damage. . .when no one had more than 177 max HP.  On Turn 2, DEMI carried the team once again by destroying Ashura with a 125 Rapier swing.  She should have been the protagonist instead of DATA. 


The party took all of Ashura's MAGI, and Mask left the party.  They returned to Ki's temple and learned that the secret of "micronizing" was in Giants' World.  Giants' World was ironically small, as there was one normal town and one abandoned town with huge buildings.  The residents of the normal town said that the giants had shrunk themselves to live among the other intelligent species.  Final Fantasy Legend games may have minimalist storytelling, but they have interesting twists.


New weapons were out of the question, since even Sabres cost 3200 GP apiece.  DATA met his father in town.  He gave the Robots a MAGI, and warned of other beings like Ashura before disappearing again.  DATA talked to a Mutant behind a counter, and learned that Johnny in the cafe knew the secret of the giant town.


Johnny was probably a "micronized" giant in disguise.  He mentioned that a tile was "pigmented" differently, and that this was the secret entrance.  Partisans were common enemies in Giants' World, and looked like police officers wielding nightsticks.  They instead shot with Pistols for around 76-115 damage, and appeared in groups of up to 7 to prevent a one round victory.  If the party was lucky, Partisans would instead Kick them for 2 damage.


Silvers, Crabs, and ROBO-28 were other foes that appeared frequently.  They must not have worried about Lone Ranger trademarks like they were about Red Bull in Legend 1.  (Then again, Legend 1 has an enemy named CATWOMAN. . .)


The linearity in this part was heavy-handed, almost to the degree of Pokemon.  Somehow the party didn't have enough MAGI to enter a mouse hole, so they had to go to another giant's house to get some.  One Power and one Poison stone later, and the mouse hole from before said "Opened!"  They found the Micron by climbing on top of some furniture, then backtracked across the Pillar of Sky to the home world to save Ki.


The next dungeon was Ki's bloodstream, an innovative setting for an RPG, especially one so old.  Many foes were from Giants' World, but there were new enemies too.  Cobbles were best avoided since they took little damage from Rapier attacks.  The so-called "Amoebas" looked like an Octopus.  So much for the biology lesson!  


Woodmen appeared as regular opponents here, and Punched for 57 damage.  If they ganged up on one Robot, they died.  ROBO was the victim in one case.  Fortunately, Legend 2 doesn't have "life points" like Legend 1 or other Saga games.  Instead, dead characters come back to life after battle with 1 HP like in Super Mario RPG or Chrono Cross.  Grippe and Plasma were easily killed in one hit each when they appeared.     



ROBO shouted "What!?  Ki's cell is guarding MAGI!" after finding the other MAGI in Ki's bloodstream.  Five "Phagocyt" enemies attacked with Wind Up and Dissolve.  The former seemed to be useless against Robots, but Dissolve drained 123 of ROBO's HP and healed one Phagocyt.  Is "Dissolve" the Legend 2 translation for Legend 1's MELT?  The battle only lasted 3 rounds, since sometimes a Phagocyt would die to one Rapier thrust.


Once Ki was safe, the party said they were going to look for MAGI on other worlds.  The only place left to go was a new area that hadn't been mentioned before.  An elaborate palace was close to the Pillar of Sky.  The first character the Robots talked to said "Welcome to the Palace of Apollo, our new god".  DEMI, ROBO, DATA, and WREN despised nouveau riche "gods" who had gathered a few baubles and now demanded worship!

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Final Fantasy Legend 2 All Robots Part 3:  Second Family?


Worshipers in Apollo's temple praised the Robots for killing Ashura, and assured them that their deity was "away from such ambition to conquer the world".  To show his goodwill, Apollo gave the party a Defense MAGI and hints concerning the others in his dimension.


"One is where wind blows under ground"

"One is where flame burns under water"

"One is where darkness shines brightly"


Local monsters Kelpie and Big Eye took about 2 hits to kill with the Rapier, suggesting that an equipment upgrade would be necessary soon.  I failed to mention in the last part that it took many X-Cure potions to survive in Ki's body, and it was possible that the monsters would only get stronger from there.


Residents of a northeastern village talked about the "god of summits" Dunatis, who lived in the nearby Cave of the Mountains.  One scholar denied the existence of Dunatis outright, saying "it's just a noise of the wind!".  The closest to atheism you get in a setting like Legend 2 is a scholar scoffing at a minor mountain god.  Weapons in the town sold for 6800 GP each, so it was better to return to Giants' World and purchase Sabres to boost the Robots' Agility.


A girl named Lynn had a sick mother and an absent father, so she took initiative and entered Cave of the Mountain.  How did she survive so long in a dungeon that was long by Legend 2 standards?  The Sabres helped considerably, since damage against Kelpies and Big Eyes went up to 340s.  Hofud swords were annoying when they frequently blocked attacks.  Jellies used Dissolve like all "slime" monsters, while P-Spiders were too stupid to realize Robots were immune to Poison.  Big Eyes tried to petrify the party, but once again Robot immunities saved me.


Lynn from the town joined the party, but she only  had 100 HP and ineffectual Punch and Kick attacks.  Martial arts increase in power the fewer uses that they have left, and Lynn's weapons had 90 and 80 uses respectively.


Even with Robot advantages, it still took many X-Cures to survive Cave of the Mountains.  The "atheist" scholar was wrong, because there was a being called Dunatis. . .but it was an ordinary Robot that died in one Sabre slash.  DEMI was the god-slayer, as usual for this playthrough.  Dunatis may have been on the way to becoming a true deity, however, as indicated by the MAGI the party collected.


DEMI, ROBO, WREN, and DATA warped out of the dungeon and into Lynn's house.  DATA's dad was there too, and DATA wondered "Why is he bumming around in a place like this?  I thought he was a hero!"  My answer:  "Your dad has a mistress and a second family!" 


DEMI encouraged the party to continue the quest instead of moping around:  "Let's go on and gather MAGI.  What else can we do?"  If she has exactly the same stats as the other Robots, how come she gets all the good moments? 


Forgot to include a section like this in the last update, so consider the next Stats and Equipment to be an apology:


HP:  213
STR:  0
DEF:  6
AGL:  45
MANA:  0


3 Sabres
4 Rapiers
Pa/Po