TEXT PLAY: Lufia and the Fortress of Doom (Taito, SNES 1993): Issue #34: Finding Raile

Now, you might think the title is a Finding Nemo reference, but the first thing that came to mind when I came up with it was a Dire Straits song called Calling Elvis.

Mostly because I'm sure you're all wondering if anybody's home when I'm really here all alone.

Anyway, where we left off was at Epro after claiming the Power Oil from the Oil Dragon. About all I remembered at first was that Lab #4 was a long ways to the south from where we started from this time.

As luck would have it, Frederia really is pretty much straight south of Carbis, just like Shaia said it would be. The trick of actually getting there was the trip between Epro and Carbis. I eventually had to use Jerin's Warp spell mostly because I got tired of fighting all the sea monsters along the way, and was also a little lost.

Once at Frederia, we find that it's an actual town for once instead of just a conveniently named place with a save point for the sake of the Warp spell. We already have all the weapons and armor they sell in those shops. At least the Item Shop has some decent items for a change. The whole place has a high-tech feel to it, just like the other three Shaia labs. In this case, Lufia even comments that the Inn looks more like a prison than an inn. The fact that none of the shops or the save point are marked as they have been thus far only furthers that perception.

Shaia himself is in the basement again, with his working staff, ready to make the Falcon fly once we give him the Power Oil. He explains that it's one of those “press A to do it” sort of things when it comes to making it happen. Gotta admit, though, these cutscenes are one of the reasons why the Lufia series isn't as well-known as it might deserve to be. They're rather lacking when compared to those in this game's contemporaries, most notably, at least for me, Final Fantasy 4. Would have been fun to see the engineering team refitting the Falcon for flight, but gotta take what I can get here.

Once the work is done, one of the guys tells us that Doom Island has finally gone into something of a parking orbit over Glasdar Tower, and we can't just fly there. Fortunately, though, we do have the town of Arus to go to, where we can get hints as to how to get into Glasdar. But before I get to that, there are a few side quests and general flavor items I might want to do first, since I get a sense I'll need to grind a few levels anyway. Next time, I'll do a little running around, so I can talk a bit about a few of the non-storyline things here.

So until next time, stay safe, have fun, keep gaming, and DFTBA!