Game 14: Super Hydlide (Genesis) - Magic Among the Clouds or Robots Underneath the Lake
Based on Sean's suggestion to aim for the head I managed to best the dragon. I tried a bow at first, but didn't have any better luck. My second attempt with the sword went much smoother.
My hard earned reward, a dragon fang... it had no visible use. Once again I was without a lead. Well, time to get back out there and see what I can find. It didn't take long. I decided to return to the tower to find the city in the clouds.
Oh, there it is... just outside the window
I hadn't realized I could actually walk out the windows of the tower, but seeing the cloud sitting outside of one I just had to try. I think I missed this the first time as it's on the 198th floor, and since the elevator went to the 199th I may have passed it. It's also possible I completely missed the visual clue as I wasn't looking for it the first time up.
Most of the townspeople were stunned to see me
The city in the clouds is called Heavenly City. It has an inn, a general store that doesn't offer any better equipment, a magic store for the next six spells, and a palace. Rumors around town are sparse; they're probably too distracted by the view.
So, you're saying if I jump from right here
The people inside the palace told me about the town under the cemetery, which was a nice confirmation I taken the sequence of events out of order somewhere. The king here is very generous, and gives out an unlimited supply of magic herbs. I grabbed a bunch, as much as I could hold, and jumped down the gap in the clouds.
Oh noes!
The cloud stone protected me during the descent, and I landed directly outside the water palace. I hadn't found an ID yet, but I really didn't need one anymore.
You want a dragon's fang? Well, fancy that; I just happen to have a dragon's fang
The Water Palace was much more interesting than the Heavenly Palace: it had even more hints and treasures. The king was an avid collector of interesting and useless items, so I was eager to give him my dragon's fang (current useless item) in exchange for everything in his treasure room (future useless items). I thought the stick in the cemetery was going to be the only joke in the game, but I can see someone had fun here.
To brush all the grime off my smelly feet! Haha...
Hi Yumi! I'm "it's a joke!"
A Sega reference... was this a requirement in all Sega RPGs?
Wow, that thing is heavy
Jokes aside, the residents gave me some good insight into what to do next.
Reveal... I'm sorry, I didn't catch that last part
Well, partial insight anyway. I mean knowing the scroll of Jeem reveals something hidden really narrows the possible uses from anything to everything. I found the scroll in the king's treasury. I traveled back to the runes in the Cave of Death, but still couldn't make them out. I'm probably too stupid to understand them or something.
Apparently that's quite accurate
Well, I'll keep an eye out for things that need revealing. I'm not sure how to educate myself in order to read the runes, so I don't think I'll uncover that mystery quite yet.
The seal... yes, yes... what seal, exactly?
This is the second time someone mentioned a seal. In the first town a guard warned me not to break the seal. Well, if I happen to go against his wishes, then I'll definitely keep an eye out for a valuable statue. Probably one used to trade for wings so I can fly to space.
Lost ID card? I'll be sure to use it
I tried to do the right thing and return the ID pass card, but she already got another one by the time I returned. At least now I had a way to exit the castle without magic. The Move spell is so useful that I'll never need the ID, but I can see other characters that don't have as much magic needing to recover it.
With the scroll of Jeem as my only lead, I once again thought of all the possible places to use it. The only likely spot was to reveal a path to the submerged palace. At least this time it was less stumbling upon the next location and more process of elimination (the crevice was the next spot to try).
I command you... PART!
or... RISE!
I spent a good number of in-game days exploring the robot infested lake palace. It was tough going once again. I think my lack of proper armor coupled with low HP caused most of that trouble. So, I grabbed all the spells I could from cloud city (my name and I'm sticking with it) and returned to the cave of death. I grinded out a couple of days worth of zombies.
With the help of the Flash spell I can see everything
I gathered enough experience to purchase all the spells and another level. I was now rightly equipped to handle the lake palace.
Sleep and Slow are obvious; Defeat destroys all enemies; Weight prevents encumbrance; and Invincible is a godsend
I felt like I was nearing the end, so I went invincible throughout most of the palace and ran through most of the guards. In the end I found a room I was locked into.
Not sure if it's visible, but I'm locked inside
In the upper portion of this room is a panel to the right and in the center the tiles make noise on the left side. I'm not sure what to make of all this. In fact, I would have been stuck there if not for the collected of herbs I hadn't used yet. They gave me enough magic to cure myself while I gathered my wits.
I'm here... now what?
Enemies kept spawning, so I couldn't explore without obstacle and I wasn't getting anywhere in any case. I teleported back to town and called it a night.
I checked the panel, but this was the only message I got
I must be missing some crucial step in the process. What is the point of that room? I know I haven't fully explore the palace, so I must have skipped over an item to energize or unlock something in this room. I'll try again another day. I still feel like I'm close.
Glad to have you following along. I'm going to give it a shot tonight if I don't get distracted again (working my way through Battlestar Galactica as well). I'm also lucky Trickster has slowed down a bit so I can focus here. :D
Wow that's a lot of adventuring for one session. It sounds like you were probrably supposed to go to the cloud city first and the use the hints to find graveyard. And the flash spell would have made it a lot easier. You probrably went about it the hard way. But at least it's not complerly linear. I was reading up on the character classes, you were a monk right?, and it said monks were harder on the begging but level up to the most potential on all stats so it makes it easier going in the end of the game when you can carry more weight etc. I also skimmed over the Single walk through on GameFAQ and it seems like there is still a lot of stuff to do. Maybe half? Hard to tell when reading a guide.
Yeah, I chose monk, but didn't have any trouble in combat. Buying spells takes experience, which I didn't have before exploring the dark cave, so I don't know how much visiting Cloud City would have helped. If monks have the best weight capacity, then I'd hate to see how bad the others are. I keep running up against weight problems.
The game world does seem mostly non-linear. There are some barriers to overcome, but a lot of the exploration is open. There's also no imminent direction (e.g. a quest to go to the tower to save the princess), which helps keep up the illusion since the game isn't telling you to go to a specific place; it just informs you about a location's existence.
If I'm only half way through, then a lot of the world is still hidden. I've thought about grinding a few levels and gold for camping gear, but my stats already seem near max (on the display at least) and camping gear seems unnecessary. I'm light on AC because I can't carry a shield or helmet at the moment.
At this point I know there's a seal to break (don't know where it is), a rumor of space, and that final room to figure out. I wonder if the game world expands once I get to explore space. Next session I'll explore the submerged palace more thoroughly (actually check the floors), and hopefully move past that last room. I hear space is accessible by jumping in the crevice, but I'm sure I need something more to survive (like a space ship).
Also, it didn't seem like much adventuring since about an hour of that time was spent grinding experience. Discovering Cloud City cascaded quickly into the Water and Submerged Palaces, but only the latter has posed any significant obstacles. Enemies still pose a challenge, so I haven't over-leveled yet, but I can easily see doing that in the cave. The enemies in this last palace give equivalent experience and gold, which I find a bit odd.
Oh, and there are those runes I haven't been able to translate. That's another question mark in my exploration.
Played a bit today. I'm a bit lost for what to do next though. I found the space suit and am able to get into space, but I need a space compass. Reading through the manual isn't much help: there are two items, cat's eye and holy water, that I haven't seen yet. Maybe the cat's eye lets me read the runes, which I hope lead me towards the space compass. Anyone have any hints to direct my search?
I suppose there's a seal to break as well, but I haven't found it. The only thing I can think to do is grind to have perfect MF and purchase the camping gear.
Thanks! That helped quite a bit. I knew exactly which one you were talking about, and it'll be the highlight of the next post. The game is longer than I thought, but I'm definitely near the end... I just need to find a door of time and defeat the big bad guy.
Interesting, hope you work out what's up with that last place soon.
ReplyDeleteGlad to have you following along. I'm going to give it a shot tonight if I don't get distracted again (working my way through Battlestar Galactica as well). I'm also lucky Trickster has slowed down a bit so I can focus here. :D
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWow that's a lot of adventuring for one session. It sounds like you were probrably supposed to go to the cloud city first and the use the hints to find graveyard. And the flash spell would have made it a lot easier. You probrably went about it the hard way. But at least it's not complerly linear. I was reading up on the character classes, you were a monk right?, and it said monks were harder on the begging but level up to the most potential on all stats so it makes it easier going in the end of the game when you can carry more weight etc. I also skimmed over the Single walk through on GameFAQ and it seems like there is still a lot of stuff to do. Maybe half? Hard to tell when reading a guide.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I chose monk, but didn't have any trouble in combat. Buying spells takes experience, which I didn't have before exploring the dark cave, so I don't know how much visiting Cloud City would have helped. If monks have the best weight capacity, then I'd hate to see how bad the others are. I keep running up against weight problems.
DeleteThe game world does seem mostly non-linear. There are some barriers to overcome, but a lot of the exploration is open. There's also no imminent direction (e.g. a quest to go to the tower to save the princess), which helps keep up the illusion since the game isn't telling you to go to a specific place; it just informs you about a location's existence.
If I'm only half way through, then a lot of the world is still hidden. I've thought about grinding a few levels and gold for camping gear, but my stats already seem near max (on the display at least) and camping gear seems unnecessary. I'm light on AC because I can't carry a shield or helmet at the moment.
At this point I know there's a seal to break (don't know where it is), a rumor of space, and that final room to figure out. I wonder if the game world expands once I get to explore space. Next session I'll explore the submerged palace more thoroughly (actually check the floors), and hopefully move past that last room. I hear space is accessible by jumping in the crevice, but I'm sure I need something more to survive (like a space ship).
Also, it didn't seem like much adventuring since about an hour of that time was spent grinding experience. Discovering Cloud City cascaded quickly into the Water and Submerged Palaces, but only the latter has posed any significant obstacles. Enemies still pose a challenge, so I haven't over-leveled yet, but I can easily see doing that in the cave. The enemies in this last palace give equivalent experience and gold, which I find a bit odd.
DeleteOh, and there are those runes I haven't been able to translate. That's another question mark in my exploration.
Played a bit today. I'm a bit lost for what to do next though. I found the space suit and am able to get into space, but I need a space compass. Reading through the manual isn't much help: there are two items, cat's eye and holy water, that I haven't seen yet. Maybe the cat's eye lets me read the runes, which I hope lead me towards the space compass. Anyone have any hints to direct my search?
ReplyDeleteI suppose there's a seal to break as well, but I haven't found it. The only thing I can think to do is grind to have perfect MF and purchase the camping gear.
DeleteHaven't played the game, but here's something I found in a walkthrough:
DeleteSpace compass: Vg'f sbhaq va gur fnzr sbegerff nf gur fcnpr fhvgf, va n purfg, abegu bs n gryrcbegre.
Thanks! That helped quite a bit. I knew exactly which one you were talking about, and it'll be the highlight of the next post. The game is longer than I thought, but I'm definitely near the end... I just need to find a door of time and defeat the big bad guy.
Delete