Wednesday, April 10, 2013

TEXT PLAY: Lufia and the Fortress of Doom (Taito, SNES 1993): Issue #03: Star Treckin'


Of course, first, it's a hop, skip, and a jump to drop Lilah off at Chatam Village first. She's happy to see her brother Danil again, and he's just as happy to see him. Once they're reunited, they tell us that there are clues about the Sinistrals in a place called Treck.

There's a cave with a couple items of treasure in it that I probably should have gone to after I dropped Lilah off, but since I forgot that she was going to Chatam instead of Sheran, I tried to go to the cave first. What made me realize my mistake was an “invisible plot wall” sort of thing where Lufia was saying it was dangerous to take Lilah into the caves with us. But anyway, once that's all sorted out, it's off to Treck to meet this person with clues for us.

Finding Treck is a fairly easy task. There's no real point in going to Sheran at this point, even though there's not much more there than there was before. I've heard it said that there are some repairs that have been done, but I'm usually in OK shape when I come through the cave after Chatam, so I usually never go there. Beyond that, it's pretty much just a straight shot to Treck. There are some mountains that seem to offer three paths, but the center one's the one we want. It's been so long since I've gone down the other paths, I can't remember what's down them. The reason for that is that the monsters are getting stronger at this point, and Lufia and the Hero are not quite strong enough for such side trips just yet. I may go back later just to refresh my memory.

Once we get to Treck, there's new weapons and armor to be had. They're a bit pricy, but worth it, for the most part. It's a good reason to keep your gold up, too.

There's also an old man standing on the shore just east of the docks. Everybody in town says he's just some weird old guy who likes to watch the sea. Turns out, though, he's an old knight in what they call the Guy Legion, after the dude who helped Maxim beat the Sinstrals a hundred years ago. Once he hears who you are and what you've done, he takes you back to his house and has his niece take you through a cave to the east so you can meet “the One”.

Once again, the monsters get stronger on the way, but that's what the better weapons and armor were for if you could buy them. On the other side of the cave is a cabin in the wild where the One lives. One might be thinking it's gonna be Jesus or Neo from the Matrix, but not quite. In this case, it's none other than Guy, one of the four heroes from the prolog. He says it's true and that we must be surprised by this. Yeah, kinda, since the man's gotta be something like 120 years old by that point.

When Guy hears your story, he tries to suit up and go with you because he remembers how it was a hundred years ago and wants to help. But because he's so damned old by this point, it gives him a heart attack and he keels over. After the funeral, it's worth it to search the grave. I feel kind of bad about horking the guy's sword, but it's a real upgrade for the hero, especially if you weren't able to buy the club back in Treck.

Before he dies, Guy tells you to go to someplace called Grenoble to look for Artea the elf, who was also on Doom Island with him and Maxim. I was going to make a Coneheads joke here, but like so many clips I've wanted to find lately, one from the classic Saturday Night Live sketch where they say they were from a small town in France proved harder to find than I deemed worthwhile.

Once we've dealt with Guy's passing, it's back to Treck, where we meet a green-haired fellow from Lorbenia, named Augro. He's one of the commanders of their army, who's in Treck to investigate the attack on Sheran. When monsters attack his ship and sink it, he joins the party when Lufia and the Hero help beat up the monsters that did it.

With Augro's ship at the bottom of the harbor, there seems no way to get to Lorbenia, or Grenoble, which lies beyond it. As luck would have it, though, there's still one more ship still in Treck. Or at least there was, until monsters kidnapped the captain and stole the ship. Good thing the other ship's captain will help when we rescue him and his ship.

But that's for next time, when we finally Ship Out. See you then, folks!

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