It's been a long time.  A while back, I upgraded my PS3 from a 40GB HDD to a 120GB HDD and, consequently, lost my LoD save file.  Since then, I haven't played much of the game and I moved on to other projects.  Now I'm in the mood for more old school gameplay, so I decided to start the game again and make my back to where I left off in part 8.  There's some minor differences between this new save file and my old one.  Here's the stats:

Party:
Dart: Level 9, Dragoon Level 1, Addition: Burning Rush
Lavitz: Level 9, not even a Dragoon, the useless twat, Addition: Rod Typhoon
Rose: Level 9, Dragoon Level 1.  Yeah, for some reason, she didn't become level 2 at the same time as my last file.  Dunno.  Addition: Whip Smack
Gold: 1735
Stardust: 7
Game time: 4:27 hours.  It's a lot faster when you don't have to stop and type.

Whatever.  Let's get to it!

My party is standing outside Volcano Villude and I have only one clear line to follow on the linear map.  Despite the fact that I'm outside the volcano, I still get into a random fight with a magma fish.  A burning fish...that floats over the land.  Kill it.  With that out of the way, I can enter the next area: "Nest of Dragon."  This place looks eerily like the marshland I had oh so much fun with before.  After running up the path beside a pretty little brook, the party emerges and everyone looks at Rose funny.  She asks "Don't you feel something?"  I thought I saw Lavitz cop a feel on Shana, does that count?  No, turns out this forest is "contaminated by the dragon's poison."  Oh, hell, that's exactly what I need.  Lavitz figures that's why the Sondoras don't have a fort here, since the poison will kill people after a lot of exposure.  What are we standing here for, then!?  Hell, I want out of this place!  No sooner do I think that we should hit the road, Shana starts feeling a little dizzy.  You...!  Stop dragging me down, you wimp!  Lavitz sums it up: "I guess it is hard for a woman."  Sexist pig.  Rose takes offense.  Bickering ensues.  Doing her usual stupid thing, Shana says she needs to rest and runs off in to the poisoned forest alone.  After chasing after her and learning she's fine now, she keeps talking.  Shut up, woman, and let me play...

Finally back in control.  We're back to the path beside the brook.  Time to do some exploring and hope I find a ton of body purifiers because I fear poison and abnormal status.  Being my brilliant self, I run along the path onto a giant spiderweb and break through to a cave below.  A cave with treasure chests!  Of course, we can't go anywhere until Shana wakes the hell up.  Fawk!  Stupid woman, shoulda left her in Hoax.  Or Hellena.  Turns out this cave is actually the nest of the dragon.  Shit.  At least there's pure water beside the spot I landed.  It completely heals the party.  Time to snag me some treasure and do the random battle thing.  There's some kind of grass blocking the paths to what I assume is to the dragon's lair.  When I touch a plant on some other path, the grass dies.  Wow, way to mess up the ecosystem Dart.  I'd hate to see the size of your carbon footprint.  During my spelunking, I find a Bravery Amulet.  Not gonna equip it.  Although, thinking of dragons makes me think of the Dragonlance series of books, where dragons scared the crap out of humans just by being around and instilling them with "Dragonfear."  Hopefully that doesn't happen because I don't want to change my equipment.

I encountered an enemy that looks like some sort of fucked-up pelican called a "Run Fast."  Great name.  What do you do?  Die, that's what.  There's so much to interact with around here that the attention icon thinger is going off so much it's starting to sound like Dart won't pick up his cell phone.  Sweet, one of the enemies dropped a body purifier.  One less worry.  And I just found another one in a chest.  With all the plants out of the way, I can make my way to the dragon!  And Rose gains Dragoon level 2!  Finally.  After a quick save outside the dragon's door, I'm ready to kill some Feyrbrand.

Instead of a dragon, though, I find some guy standing on a giant spiderweb.  He knows Lavitz, so he must be a good guy, right?  Lavitz says his name is Greham.  Lame.  He was the head of the Second Knighthood.  Slightly less lame.  Actually, Lavitz was head of the First Knighthood, wasn't he?  And he ended up in Hellena.  Man, these knights suck.  No wonder Dart is a mercenary.  The party approaches Greham and all I really learn is that Lavitz's dad's name was Servi.  *snicker.*  Oh, and Greham betrayed Servi.  Servi Slambert.  Guahahaha!  Lavitz is righteously pissed and wants Greham dead.  Greham, however, has a different plan.  He emits a green light and calls on the "power of the Dragon."  The hell!  Greham is a Dragoon!  And Feyrbrand shows up out of nowhere, looking like a pissed off praying mantis of death.  Rose plays Q&A and demands to know where Greham got the Dragoon spirit.  I have a feeling we'll find out after the inevitable battle.  Or not.  Turns out King Doel got it from Emporer Diaz.  But Diaz died 11,000 years ago.  Something's afoot!  No time to think!  We gotta fight!

So I have to fight both Greham and Feyrbrand.  I think I'll split my forces and have Rose and Dart take on Greham and Lavitz can poke at the dragon for a while.  Holy shit.  Greham chucks his spear into the ground at Lavitz's feet and a giant stone cross picks Lavitz into the air.  After tossing a few spears of light at Lavitz to keep his pinned there, Greham tosses another light spear and breaks the cross, tossing Lavitz and taking 132 HP off.  Ouch!  Lavitz is in the yellow.  Feyrbrand takes a dump on Dart and gives him fear status.  Damn, maybe I should have worn that amulet.  AHH!!  This is going horribly!  Dart, with reduced defense due to fear, is unconcious!  I gotta pull this shit back together.  Rose, wake Dart up.  Lavitz, use a healing breeze and heal the party.  Okay, we're back in this.  Dart dragoons.  I'll have him beat down on Feyrbrand because...well, he's a Dragoon!  That's what they do, right?  Flame shot in your face!  And it only took off 70 HP.  Ehh...I think I got a good flow going now.  Except that Feyrbrand's attack power went up and Lavitz is in fear.  Okay, Lavitz, guard a while and when you're done quaking in your shorts you can join the others in beating down Greham.  Rose dragoons to use Death Dimension magic.  Because it works on all enemies.  Greham is now yellow.  And so is everyone else, except stupid ol' Feyrbrand.  Dumb dragon.  I have 10 healing potions, I might as well use them.  Heh, after another turn on the cross, Lavitz has 9 HP left.  And now he has none.  Oops.  Feyrbrand wants us to pay attention to him, so he poisons Rose.  Fag.  Greham is now out of the equation, after a simple Burning Rush addition.  Now we can wake up Lavitz and hammer on Feyrbrand until he croaks.  Feyrbrand gives Dart the fear again.  Wait, doesn't transforming into a Dragoon nullify all status effects?  I think I read that somwhere.  It's worth a shot.  Well, so it does!  That takes care of that.  And Feyrbrand is now in the red.  Woot!  Rose felled the beast with a Whip Smack and we win!  I get 100G, 1200 XP, a suit of plate mail and a Down Burst attack item!  Everyone (even the mooch, Shana) levels up! 

Tough battle.  Greham laments on his death bed.  Turns out, he betrayed everyone because he wanted to be stronger, like Servi.  So he became a Dragoon,  Makes sense to me.  As Rose so eloquently puts it: "He is lucky to be dead now."  His Dragoon spirit lifts up in front of Lavitz.  Even Rose is amazed.  Lavitz is now the master of the Jade Dragoon spirit.  Yay.  Shana congratulates Lavitz...then wusses out again.  What's that?  You can't breathe?  You got pussy lungs too!  She's poisoned, of course.  But Lavitz is right, we can't make it over Villude with her like that.  We need to abandon her here.  Okay, fine, we'll take her to Lohan!  Maybe we can trick a doctor into healing her.  Save my game in the field and make the short jaunt to the "Commerical Town of Lohan."  Lindseys needs not apply.

This town looks like a real dump.  Garbage is everywhere, the buildings looks crappy and I'm sure the people are assholes.  Dart carries Shana into town and nearly gets hit by some kind of elephant creature hauling a wagon.  Doesn't take me long to find a doctor, I guess.  His name is Sanator.  Nothing's wrong with Shana's body (just ask Dart) it's her mind that is poisoned.  Just like me.  Turns out, she has a week to live.  Well guys, you win some, you lose some.  Actually, Sanator thinks we can save her if we have some Dragoni Plant.  Whatever the hell that is.  He doesn't even think it really exists.  Well, what the hell, man!  That's like going up to a cancer patient and saying "Ambrosia can save you, but it's from Greek legend...you'll die."  Dart decides to try and find the plant in town.  It is a commercial town, after all.  If we can't find a cure, maybe we can buy a new traveling companion.  A cute one. 

Wow, there's a lot of doors I can go in.  Guess I'll loot some private residences.  Found 200G in someone's house.  Snag!  I stumble into another house and find my old buddy Dabas from the volcano.  A merchant doing business in an actual store?  What craziness!  Dart asks if he has Dragoni Plant, which he does not.  Of course.  But he has seen one!  It was north of the poisoned forest (you mean I gotta go back?!) and past some troublesome plant.  I know the plant he's talking about.  So, now we have a plan.  We gotta purify the plant with spring water from the underground spring in the dragon's nest.  Sigh.  I think I'll save and continue this later.  I got some chores that need attending to.  Yay.

'Til next time!

Wanna talk about the blog on the forum?  Head to the Legend of Dragoon topic in the Sony board and discuss to your heart's content!

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1 Re: Dark's Adventures in Gaming: The Legend of Dragoon (part 9) by katana_bluebird on April 08, 2009, 10:21:49 AM

2 Re: Dark's Adventures in Gaming: The Legend of Dragoon (part 9) by TrueDestroyer on April 08, 2009, 03:26:16 PM