Romancing the SaGa (3)

[Rez09]

Part 3 - Leonid's Castle

Of course, since he is taking Harid, Mikhail isn't totally heartless to us and actually drops us some nifty gear into backpack, which he briefly mentions before he and Harid see us off. As a nifty aside, almost everyone has a slightly different version of this scene, generally what is in the their thought bubble after the others have left, and I have to say, Ellen's is hiiiiiilarious.

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I mean, it's better than running into a bunch of heavily armed troops, right? I mean, all we've got to look out for is a vampire. Honestly though, I can understand why Ellen isn't too enthused by this assignment, as we are effectively babysitting a . . . kind of terrible unit, but at the same time at least Monica is a pretty agreeable young woman -- a bit anime-naive, sure, but not spoiled or anything like that.

Anywho, following this scene the game now drops us off in the second part of tutorial pass, this time without Harid and in the Free Fight formation, so we are going to take this time to quickly hit up that gear Mikhail gave us and swap back to Desert Lance before moving on, putting Ellen on point to boost her defense and damage. I give Monica and Julian shields, as they are both using 1 handed weapons, upgrade Julian's sword, give someone leather armor, and slap our nice new hair ornament onto Ellen. Beyond that there isn't much to say here, so we head east to this log bridge over to the wall and take a hidden path through the trees north -- it can be a pain to get through some times; just wiggle around and you'll get it. There'll be a couple more encounters at the top, which we murder and continue on north again.

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This next screen is a bit more tricky with its path split; both work, but encounters are far easier to avoid on the top path this time around, unlike the previous tree path.

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More encounters are not a problem in this game, nor are less, so it is really up to you which you prefer, though for newer players it might be better to stray on the more side. Either way, I take the frog path north through here and curve around to meet up with the forest path on the other side of the river, then proceed north to this point when I save.

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This little red wisp is our next 'boss' and was, it appears, intended to explain another aspect of the combat system, but said explanation ISN'T ACTUALLY IMPLEMENTED anywhere, so this fight can be surprisingly dangerous sometimes if you avoid all of the encounters here, though buddy Mikhail was nice enough to provide us a plan B on the offhand chance things are going extremely poorly for our party. Anyway, enough of that, let's take a look at our next encounter: the Whirlwind!

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So, first and foremost, this is a NORMAL enemy, it just has beefed up stats for this encounter, so don't worry when you see them in normal enemy formations quite shortly after this -- the other ones are all very weak. The idea here is to shift the elemental field away from wind, usually via Thomas' Squall spell or the Sand of Mars items Mikhail gave us, to stop its regeneration and beat it down afterwards, though, depending on what you sparked along the way, the shift might not even be necessary. It's only semi-dangerous attack is Wind Dart, which is a complete joke for us as it does barely 30 damage to Ellen due to her hair ornament, and we stomp this quite easily. Annnnnnd with that . . .

! Player Tips - Elemental Fields !
Elemental spells and attacks in this game has the ability to shift the battlefield's elemental field, granting certain benefits to both your party and the enemy based on creature type, equipment, and spells. Notably, the spells Water Pole/Ball and Dancing Leaves grant regeneration and a magical shield to party members when in the appropriate field, and each of the elemental fiends regenerates a significant amount of health each turn in their own fields. This mechanic is underutilized for the most part in the game, but it is important enough to bear remembering, and can be built around for highly evasive teams.

Welcome to Podol.

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Podol is a sleepy little town of eternal night, but, honestly, not a lot is going on in this place and I don't spend much time here, usually only if I need it during Fullbright's sidequest a bit later, and there's no need to stop by the Inn here. A bit surprisingly, the people here are not hostile towards the Earl despite needing to offer up maidens to him from time to time, but talking to the selected woman reveals that she is . . . not at all offput by becoming a vampire and sees it as obtaining eternal beauty. Eh, if that's what she wants, right? You also find out the Earl keeps all of the vampires confined to the castle, so they aren't out terrorizing the countryside, in stark contrast to the RS1 vampire, and, indeed, I do not believe there are ANY vampire random enemies in this game. Props to him. There are also some shops in the town if you are interested in poking around, the most interesting at this point in the game probably being the magic vendor, but I just skip north towards the castle.

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Listen to them, doggos of the night. What music they make.

This is a short single screen area with dogs and birds, which I believe CAN be used extremely late game as an easily accessible location for drop hunting Roc Featers, so it might be worth keeping in mind if you decide to take that route. Otherwise we just need to follow the path right here, then down a slope, left, and up to the castle itself. Which, of course, has a fiant door that opens itself as we approach. Seems we are expected.

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Well, it'd be rude NOT to go in, right? After all, what could go wrong?

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Welp, he's into you, you done now, girl. Was nice knowing you.

But nah, Leonid seriously a pretty chill dude, and after making their introductions Monica inquires into the Earl knowing why we are here, which he actually does!

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It seems that long confinement in his castle as led to him developing 'ears' elsewhere, and one assumes the raven he has with him is one of many collecting news of world events for him. It even caws when he mentions rumor collecting. Hearing this and being the sweetie she is, Monica wastes no time trying to enlist the Earl's aid for her brother.

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Though he does turn her down. He is correct, of course, but I do have to wonder as an aside what the in-universe consequences of him aiding Mikhail here would have actually been, considering Leonid's primary political adversary is one of the two major factions in the world and Loanne is affiliated with neither -- it is possible his involvement here may have been the spark needed to kick off the brewing war. Interesting thought.

Anywho, following this he tells us to simply relax as guests in his castle and directs us to our rooms on the left. HIS left. Don't take the other left. He even sends a wisp to guide us to the proper left. Which isn't the left you are thinking of.

! Player Tips - Seriously. Don't take the other left !
He isn't lying about this being a vampire's castle; the other left leads to a late mid-game dungeon you cannot complete the quest at the bottom of yet, and the best loot down there, the Dragon Scales, cannot be used until around the same time.

Following that wisp we reach our guest rooms, which is why we skipped out on the Inn earlier, and get a humorous cutscene involving, you know, sleeping a in a vampire's castle.

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Bwahahaha . Yeah, but no, seriously, I get'chu, ain't nobody sleeping right in this place.

Anyway, after that we pop out to talk to Leonid again and he tells about a nearby treasure cave we can explore -- technically you can just talk to him before sleeping to skip the above scene and just unlock the cave, but I like doing it this way more. We also don't have to fully explore the cave he is sending us to, just step inside it and come back, but there is absolutely NO reason not to explore this cave, so that is where we will meet up next time!
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