Welp. At least we now know where we are...kind of...not really. Well, at least we know the name of this town.
The town mostly talks about Amanda, telling us about how she's been worried, how she has a little bard brother in Jadd, and how she left in a hurry. She must've been quite popular here.
The two pieces of non-Amanda dialogue point to a Chocobo in the north and a hidden magic Ice tome in the desert. Weird meta hints aside, I'm certainly interested in both the bird and the spell.
The shops have upgraded their wares, I stock up on x-cures and pick up a fancy wind spear.
Aside from having high attack power, the spear has almost as much range as the chain whip, and looks awesome. Revi easily slaughters all the enemies in the desert, and traverses it without much fuss.
His next town, Jadd, has an utterly amazing town greeter. It is also oddly silent.
It turns out Davias is not particularly popular. He turns people into animals, and was born to Medusa herself! Naturally, many people also talk about finding her lair and collecting her tears to uncurse his victims.
They also talk about some gas that filled the northern valley when Lester stopped playing. I really don't know how the two could be connected, but hey.
Davias himself is oddly quite forthcoming with information, though he ominously hints at Amanda being quite likely dead. Revi can't interact with his bird, but given all of the dialogue and foreshadowing so far, it's fairly obvious that it isn't a regular bird, and there's something very wrong with his mansion.
This boy claims to know the way to Medusa's cave. But he's holding out until we give him a bag of Fang. Where do you get this? Good question! I don't know either.
After spending half an hour fruitlessly combing the entire desert, I reluctantly give up, and look up a guide. Turns out, those are a drop from the dragons roaming the desert. Sighing, I end up grinding them, until a chest drops. Elated, I open it...
Only to be met with immense disappointment.
I don't get it. Were they trying to troll players? Was this their idea of extending "playtime"? Or incentivizing selling their guides? Yes, 1991 was a long time ago, but I don't understand how anyone could've possibly thought this was a good idea.
Thankfully, I soon find the real deal, and hasten back to Jadd. Let's see what our reward for reckless dragon slaughter is!
Errr...okay? Perhaps he wants me to count the trees at each oasis?
Here's our first oasis. Definitely more than 8 trees.
The second oasis, which has less than 8 trees.
The third oasis, which definitely has too man-wait a second. Those solitary trees look mighty suspicious.
Sure enough, futzing with them opens a cave in the cliff!...Yeah, I dunno what the boy's hint meant, looks like grinding out that Fang was a waste of time.
We finally meet Amanda within the cave. Turns out she'd taken the pendant because Davias promised to release her brother if she gave it to him. He did release him...but as a bird. Angered by his show of poor faith, she decided to take matters in her own hands, and hunt Medusa down for her tears. Sounds quite metal when put that way, honestly.
Did this game seriously give two lame companions in a row? Amanda at least has throwing daggers, but her special ability, as witnessed here, is so weak it might as well not exist. Granted, petrification is quite obnoxious, and it can leave Revi quite vulnerable on occasion, but those alone aren't enough to make it worthwhile.
This room inside is quite bizarre. The dead trees can be chopped with the axe, and it looks like there's something at the center, but there isn't.
Also notable is this room, which has the first mildly clever puzzle I've seen since...checks notes...the creepy vampire castle. Step on one of the button tiles to open the door, then zip to the pole to avoid closing it with the second button.
We are rewarded with the Ice spell. Ice is...interesting, even if somewhat underwhelming as a combat spell. The thing is, it's just a bit too slow to be reliably used in fights. A shame, too, as its projectile can be directly controlled, and it turns its victims into cute, harmless snowmen, both of which would be amazing qualities for a spell.
The game uses it for puzzles almost immediately; that snowman there is an enemy Revi had to freeze to push it onto a button tile. Without it weighing it down, the door immediately closes.
There's not much of the cave left beyond it, and before long, we run into Medusa! She's not very impressive, she just hurls snakes from time to time. Said snakes can petrify, but are easily dodged or destroyed, and she has no other means of attack. Revi and Amanda easily defeat her.
Of course, defeating her isn't exactly helpful to their goal - they came here to get her tears, and she isn't very forthcoming about supplying them, even at her death...
Amanda and Revi futilely look around, and then prepare to leave, when she suddenly starts feeling pain. Turns out, she was bitten by Medusa, and will now turn into a petrifying monster herself! She beseeches Revi to kill her and collect her tears.
He hesitatingly obliges. And yes, they did draw new sprites for her for this one moment. It is tragic indeed, but one has to wonder why it was only Amanda who was affected by Medusa's poison and not Revi. Ah well.
Next time, we head back to Jadd, save Lester, and confront Davias himself. There might yet be hope for Revi's quest.
The town mostly talks about Amanda, telling us about how she's been worried, how she has a little bard brother in Jadd, and how she left in a hurry. She must've been quite popular here.
The two pieces of non-Amanda dialogue point to a Chocobo in the north and a hidden magic Ice tome in the desert. Weird meta hints aside, I'm certainly interested in both the bird and the spell.
The shops have upgraded their wares, I stock up on x-cures and pick up a fancy wind spear.
Aside from having high attack power, the spear has almost as much range as the chain whip, and looks awesome. Revi easily slaughters all the enemies in the desert, and traverses it without much fuss.
His next town, Jadd, has an utterly amazing town greeter. It is also oddly silent.
It turns out Davias is not particularly popular. He turns people into animals, and was born to Medusa herself! Naturally, many people also talk about finding her lair and collecting her tears to uncurse his victims.
They also talk about some gas that filled the northern valley when Lester stopped playing. I really don't know how the two could be connected, but hey.
Davias himself is oddly quite forthcoming with information, though he ominously hints at Amanda being quite likely dead. Revi can't interact with his bird, but given all of the dialogue and foreshadowing so far, it's fairly obvious that it isn't a regular bird, and there's something very wrong with his mansion.
This boy claims to know the way to Medusa's cave. But he's holding out until we give him a bag of Fang. Where do you get this? Good question! I don't know either.
After spending half an hour fruitlessly combing the entire desert, I reluctantly give up, and look up a guide. Turns out, those are a drop from the dragons roaming the desert. Sighing, I end up grinding them, until a chest drops. Elated, I open it...
Only to be met with immense disappointment.
I don't get it. Were they trying to troll players? Was this their idea of extending "playtime"? Or incentivizing selling their guides? Yes, 1991 was a long time ago, but I don't understand how anyone could've possibly thought this was a good idea.
Thankfully, I soon find the real deal, and hasten back to Jadd. Let's see what our reward for reckless dragon slaughter is!
Errr...okay? Perhaps he wants me to count the trees at each oasis?
Here's our first oasis. Definitely more than 8 trees.
The second oasis, which has less than 8 trees.
The third oasis, which definitely has too man-wait a second. Those solitary trees look mighty suspicious.
Sure enough, futzing with them opens a cave in the cliff!...Yeah, I dunno what the boy's hint meant, looks like grinding out that Fang was a waste of time.
We finally meet Amanda within the cave. Turns out she'd taken the pendant because Davias promised to release her brother if she gave it to him. He did release him...but as a bird. Angered by his show of poor faith, she decided to take matters in her own hands, and hunt Medusa down for her tears. Sounds quite metal when put that way, honestly.
Did this game seriously give two lame companions in a row? Amanda at least has throwing daggers, but her special ability, as witnessed here, is so weak it might as well not exist. Granted, petrification is quite obnoxious, and it can leave Revi quite vulnerable on occasion, but those alone aren't enough to make it worthwhile.
This room inside is quite bizarre. The dead trees can be chopped with the axe, and it looks like there's something at the center, but there isn't.
Also notable is this room, which has the first mildly clever puzzle I've seen since...checks notes...the creepy vampire castle. Step on one of the button tiles to open the door, then zip to the pole to avoid closing it with the second button.
We are rewarded with the Ice spell. Ice is...interesting, even if somewhat underwhelming as a combat spell. The thing is, it's just a bit too slow to be reliably used in fights. A shame, too, as its projectile can be directly controlled, and it turns its victims into cute, harmless snowmen, both of which would be amazing qualities for a spell.
The game uses it for puzzles almost immediately; that snowman there is an enemy Revi had to freeze to push it onto a button tile. Without it weighing it down, the door immediately closes.
There's not much of the cave left beyond it, and before long, we run into Medusa! She's not very impressive, she just hurls snakes from time to time. Said snakes can petrify, but are easily dodged or destroyed, and she has no other means of attack. Revi and Amanda easily defeat her.
Of course, defeating her isn't exactly helpful to their goal - they came here to get her tears, and she isn't very forthcoming about supplying them, even at her death...
Amanda and Revi futilely look around, and then prepare to leave, when she suddenly starts feeling pain. Turns out, she was bitten by Medusa, and will now turn into a petrifying monster herself! She beseeches Revi to kill her and collect her tears.
He hesitatingly obliges. And yes, they did draw new sprites for her for this one moment. It is tragic indeed, but one has to wonder why it was only Amanda who was affected by Medusa's poison and not Revi. Ah well.
Next time, we head back to Jadd, save Lester, and confront Davias himself. There might yet be hope for Revi's quest.
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