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I suppose I will just use this thread to document findings/possible strategies.
My latest progress on the game, General Streaming with a bunch of messups on certain strategies.
http://www.twitch.tv/inamurei/c/3376680
Planning from End-Beginning
Kill Final Boss
Kill Captain 2nd Time
Gather 4th Key
Kill Dragon for 3rd Key
Kill Boss for access to 3rd key area
Kill Captain 1st time
Get 2nd Key
Go to Dragon Cave (at 47 mins I had died to a monster accidentally forcing me back 3-4 rooms. I think I'm on track for that 1hr 10 minute boss fight, AND have the ability to kill it.
Skipfor Dragon Cave
Go through Poison Mist area
Talk to Turban Dude for Protect ring
Kill werewolf to access next area
Get 1st Key
Kill Water Temple Boss (16 mins?)
Talk to Weapon dude for knife
Talk to Commander for weapon voucher (guard blocks your path until you have retrieved the Weapon Voucher)
Get to Village.
Differences between versions
Apparently the Japanese and the English versions are exactly the same except for a few minor changes, only one of which would really change a speedrun time. The Japanese Version upon killing the 1st boss of the game gives you a "Power of Move" ring, which supposedly lets you dash around. Quite Handy, Whereas in the english version (The one I will prolly make attempts at once I get a decent MGS recording done to update the site.) You get a +exp gain ring. This is also handy in a different way as you will need to kill less monsters to get enough hp/mp to survive boss attacks/kill them with magic.
Strategy. Revised
Old Notes
Couple items to look out for that might be worth taking the detours for are the Branch Magic ring, which doubles cost, and doubles the cast of your spells (double damage essentially) Alongside this is the Power of Seek ring, which gives your spells homing status (less skill to aim, and makes the branch ring better for single target engagements. I think it's the Wisdom ring, but a ring that decreases mana costs for spells and hastens cast time by a bit. This is toward the end of the game, but with items being at such a premium, and bosses taking a little longer to take down than they would perhaps otherwise be, It might be worth the detour in order to not have to return to camp to stock up on items before taking on the final boss.
Cutscenes in this game are for the most part unskippable, unless you avoid the area altogether, but as I have only played the game twice through as of now (with the first being a long long time ago) it is unknown to me yet just how much of the game I can not visit and still have the main storyline progress.
Thats about it for jumbled thoughts, if anyone else has played the game, has ideas that might be useful, let me know
My latest progress on the game, General Streaming with a bunch of messups on certain strategies.
http://www.twitch.tv/inamurei/c/3376680
Planning from End-Beginning
Kill Final Boss
Kill Captain 2nd Time
Gather 4th Key
Kill Dragon for 3rd Key
Kill Boss for access to 3rd key area
Kill Captain 1st time
Get 2nd Key
Go to Dragon Cave (at 47 mins I had died to a monster accidentally forcing me back 3-4 rooms. I think I'm on track for that 1hr 10 minute boss fight, AND have the ability to kill it.
Go through Poison Mist area
Talk to Turban Dude for Protect ring
Kill werewolf to access next area
Get 1st Key
Kill Water Temple Boss (16 mins?)
Talk to Commander for weapon voucher (guard blocks your path until you have retrieved the Weapon Voucher)
Get to Village.
Differences between versions
Apparently the Japanese and the English versions are exactly the same except for a few minor changes, only one of which would really change a speedrun time. The Japanese Version upon killing the 1st boss of the game gives you a "Power of Move" ring, which supposedly lets you dash around. Quite Handy, Whereas in the english version (The one I will prolly make attempts at once I get a decent MGS recording done to update the site.) You get a +exp gain ring. This is also handy in a different way as you will need to kill less monsters to get enough hp/mp to survive boss attacks/kill them with magic.
Strategy. Revised
Water Cave-Collect magic Ring behind first savepoint. This saves time in the not wasting mana to get the one inside the temple. Speed through, jump off the cliff to the left. Kill 3 frogmen for chance at leaf gems/exp for lvl and 2 mana, pick up 2 heal plants in case you need them.
Village- Talk to Man, turn in your sword, then rush water temple
Water Temple- Rush to Fireball ring picking up magic ore along the way, kill as few crabs as you can but killing all the frogmen (crabs cost mp to kill, and frogmen will start to heal mp) Also kill plants, while they are mp deficient, they have the high chance of dropping a 2nd ore in order to guarantee the 30 mp you need to kill boss, if not I would run to the right before boss and pick up magic gem. Kill boss, get water key, and ring of insight, then leave, by this point all monsters should either be mana neutral or gain you mana. Don't forget to equip the insight ring! From start of game to exiting the tunnel you are looking for 2-3 leaf gems, a water gem, and a fire/wind gem.
Village 2- Pick up your sword again, then rush to werewolf. Sword is gotten to kill golem later. Werewolf trap in a corner/wall, take some damage if you must but dart in and out spamming fireball and sword to kill quickly.
Worship Area- Make material arrow and earth heal (earth heal is the main spell, material arrow is just for the earth stats, possible to just make an earth attribute ring and keep fireball till myst can be made). Pick up another magic ring just past the 1st ogre. Then go to man to get the protect ring. Hope for a snipe of the moths if you can (material arrow 1-shots these, i dunno about fireball) equip it for the added earth protection, then head down to the Posion Valley.
Poison Valley- Collect the 4 magic ore in the valley, healing up with earthheal when your hp gets low (I think hp saved vs mp lost is better this way, but I could be wrong) Collect cloud gem from chest, then go straight to dragon cave/winding tunnel.
Winding Tunnel- Rush to chest, collect Pheonix gem, then kill the mage and stone giant. You are hoping for a Forest/Tree gem, if it doesn't drop off him, there is a 2nd one near the half-way save point in this area, kill that one. When you get it, create upheaval with the earth gem and Pheonix/Cloud gems. Then rush through this section picking up your last magic ring off the chest near the end, next to the 2 healing flowers.
Place with Rats and Green Mages- This is my 2nd farming area, Upheaval and your high earth stat 1-shots everything here, the minimum you want is 3 of the forest gems and 3 flame gems, But if you get 4-5 you can have a high chance at the dual element gems which are the highest stat boost you can get for minimal gem investment. You can skip some of the moving platforms by dropping down, then riding the other thing across, 2 material arrow shots kill the mages in the air. Before the Forge area or at it's save craft a Poison ring and and dual attributes you can.
Forge Area- Quick rush for the lever, get the fire key. I kill the fire guy in the center as he followed me down after the fire key spawned causing me to lose more time on the way up, 2-3 hits should do. use Upheaval for the mage blocking the red door.
Captain 1- Spam poison till dead, you have a chance to get 2 hits per cast with additional poison ticks, good stuff. When he's dead pick up clarity ring for quicker cast speed and additional mp after you kill mobs.
Dark Dark Area- I kill the Axe men through here, the 1st is killed so I can pick up mana gem, the 2nd is killed to make sure he isn't wailing on my while I kill the 3rd which blocks our path. Use material arrow for the doors, and if you need help seeing through the dark, cast protect, the thing seems to light up the area when its pulsing. Run past the pheonix, speed talk to the man, run to lyla and get knocked into magic testing area.
Magic Testing Lab- Run straight through to cockatrice, Spam him dead with poison, enter library
Library- On the left trio you can instagib the gargoyle by casting earth element magic on him, I use material arrow, then switch to poison for the others. Collect the Earth Dragon gem drop off of him. Ideally you only need to collect the Fire, Wind, Light dragon gems, but I have a habit of picking them all up anyway. Take the elevator up, flip the switch and collect the other earth dragon gem, poison 1-shots the mages. go to other side, dispatch the gargoyles, then go up and flip the switch and pick up the sacrifice ring. The faeries do nothing. Enter main elevator, then ignore the last gargoyle, pick up and equip the seek ring, then head to lylas place.
Lylas Village- Talk to her, then run into the cave
Path to Wind temple- Run run, cutscene with dragon, run run
Wind Temple- Make Myst ring here with Earth gem on left and Fire/Wind/Light on right, use the material arrow ring for this and it'll provide a big boost to your stats. The other earth gem can either be used for this, or turned into an attribute ring to again boost earth along with any extra forest/tree gems you might have. Rush through Use poison on the Flapping guys to 1-shot them for exp on the way up. For wind dragon, my 3-pass strat was to start off with poison equipped and spam dragon, then equip mist and let it charge after the dive for when he comes back up. then spam poison into him after you let one myst off. Get ring, get to bottom as quick as you can, you can jump down 2 floors and still be ok (on the inside) go to snowfield
Snowfield- Enter 1st cave for enlightenment Ring for mana reduction on your spells. Then enter 2nd cave and follow path, either myst or poison should be able to kill the Flapping Gargoyle things as you pass them for quick exp. I have a fear for the Hippogryph thing that blocks the middle so I kill him before passing due to having fallen off there before, but ideally you can just run past him both times. Get earth key, then make your way back, just killing for exp. Our kit is essentially complete to kill last boss. Back to the magic testing center.
Magic test lab 2nd time- Wind key first thing you come across, then head left and save, or not, go around the left putting in the Water, Earth, Fire keys in their spots respectively. Then go down into the thingo (but not too quick or you die) Rush past casting myst on the 2 green mages you come across while myst recharges for EXP on the way down, But follow the ledge skips. Kill captain 2 with 1 shot of myst then poison spam....or just poison spam might be quicker, and less painfull to you in case you run into the orb and dmg yourself. Into Final Boss
Final Boss- Equip Sacrifice ring instead of insight ring, For Magic Rings you should have Myst, Poison, Earth Heal, Upheaval, Protect. For Attribute I use Sacrifice, Clarity, Enlightenment, Ring of seek, and a Stone ring of some sort. try to dart in and out of lightning storm range casting poison into him. So long as you don't kill his orbs he should be able to stay there. But the sacrifice ring is there in case you get hit by his bolt, or lightning, or stuff hits the fan.
IF boss goes into p2 i switch to upheaval for a wider path spell (and it's a bit faster of an animation) to run into the boss, to finish him off, but it'll take more passes than that to align him properly, and if he runs into you it's a sacrifice ring charge or game over. Time ends when he falls to the ground as the credits cannot be skipped.
Village- Talk to Man, turn in your sword, then rush water temple
Water Temple- Rush to Fireball ring picking up magic ore along the way, kill as few crabs as you can but killing all the frogmen (crabs cost mp to kill, and frogmen will start to heal mp) Also kill plants, while they are mp deficient, they have the high chance of dropping a 2nd ore in order to guarantee the 30 mp you need to kill boss, if not I would run to the right before boss and pick up magic gem. Kill boss, get water key, and ring of insight, then leave, by this point all monsters should either be mana neutral or gain you mana. Don't forget to equip the insight ring! From start of game to exiting the tunnel you are looking for 2-3 leaf gems, a water gem, and a fire/wind gem.
Village 2- Pick up your sword again, then rush to werewolf. Sword is gotten to kill golem later. Werewolf trap in a corner/wall, take some damage if you must but dart in and out spamming fireball and sword to kill quickly.
Worship Area- Make material arrow and earth heal (earth heal is the main spell, material arrow is just for the earth stats, possible to just make an earth attribute ring and keep fireball till myst can be made). Pick up another magic ring just past the 1st ogre. Then go to man to get the protect ring. Hope for a snipe of the moths if you can (material arrow 1-shots these, i dunno about fireball) equip it for the added earth protection, then head down to the Posion Valley.
Poison Valley- Collect the 4 magic ore in the valley, healing up with earthheal when your hp gets low (I think hp saved vs mp lost is better this way, but I could be wrong) Collect cloud gem from chest, then go straight to dragon cave/winding tunnel.
Winding Tunnel- Rush to chest, collect Pheonix gem, then kill the mage and stone giant. You are hoping for a Forest/Tree gem, if it doesn't drop off him, there is a 2nd one near the half-way save point in this area, kill that one. When you get it, create upheaval with the earth gem and Pheonix/Cloud gems. Then rush through this section picking up your last magic ring off the chest near the end, next to the 2 healing flowers.
Place with Rats and Green Mages- This is my 2nd farming area, Upheaval and your high earth stat 1-shots everything here, the minimum you want is 3 of the forest gems and 3 flame gems, But if you get 4-5 you can have a high chance at the dual element gems which are the highest stat boost you can get for minimal gem investment. You can skip some of the moving platforms by dropping down, then riding the other thing across, 2 material arrow shots kill the mages in the air. Before the Forge area or at it's save craft a Poison ring and and dual attributes you can.
Forge Area- Quick rush for the lever, get the fire key. I kill the fire guy in the center as he followed me down after the fire key spawned causing me to lose more time on the way up, 2-3 hits should do. use Upheaval for the mage blocking the red door.
Captain 1- Spam poison till dead, you have a chance to get 2 hits per cast with additional poison ticks, good stuff. When he's dead pick up clarity ring for quicker cast speed and additional mp after you kill mobs.
Dark Dark Area- I kill the Axe men through here, the 1st is killed so I can pick up mana gem, the 2nd is killed to make sure he isn't wailing on my while I kill the 3rd which blocks our path. Use material arrow for the doors, and if you need help seeing through the dark, cast protect, the thing seems to light up the area when its pulsing. Run past the pheonix, speed talk to the man, run to lyla and get knocked into magic testing area.
Magic Testing Lab- Run straight through to cockatrice, Spam him dead with poison, enter library
Library- On the left trio you can instagib the gargoyle by casting earth element magic on him, I use material arrow, then switch to poison for the others. Collect the Earth Dragon gem drop off of him. Ideally you only need to collect the Fire, Wind, Light dragon gems, but I have a habit of picking them all up anyway. Take the elevator up, flip the switch and collect the other earth dragon gem, poison 1-shots the mages. go to other side, dispatch the gargoyles, then go up and flip the switch and pick up the sacrifice ring. The faeries do nothing. Enter main elevator, then ignore the last gargoyle, pick up and equip the seek ring, then head to lylas place.
Lylas Village- Talk to her, then run into the cave
Path to Wind temple- Run run, cutscene with dragon, run run
Wind Temple- Make Myst ring here with Earth gem on left and Fire/Wind/Light on right, use the material arrow ring for this and it'll provide a big boost to your stats. The other earth gem can either be used for this, or turned into an attribute ring to again boost earth along with any extra forest/tree gems you might have. Rush through Use poison on the Flapping guys to 1-shot them for exp on the way up. For wind dragon, my 3-pass strat was to start off with poison equipped and spam dragon, then equip mist and let it charge after the dive for when he comes back up. then spam poison into him after you let one myst off. Get ring, get to bottom as quick as you can, you can jump down 2 floors and still be ok (on the inside) go to snowfield
Snowfield- Enter 1st cave for enlightenment Ring for mana reduction on your spells. Then enter 2nd cave and follow path, either myst or poison should be able to kill the Flapping Gargoyle things as you pass them for quick exp. I have a fear for the Hippogryph thing that blocks the middle so I kill him before passing due to having fallen off there before, but ideally you can just run past him both times. Get earth key, then make your way back, just killing for exp. Our kit is essentially complete to kill last boss. Back to the magic testing center.
Magic test lab 2nd time- Wind key first thing you come across, then head left and save, or not, go around the left putting in the Water, Earth, Fire keys in their spots respectively. Then go down into the thingo (but not too quick or you die) Rush past casting myst on the 2 green mages you come across while myst recharges for EXP on the way down, But follow the ledge skips. Kill captain 2 with 1 shot of myst then poison spam....or just poison spam might be quicker, and less painfull to you in case you run into the orb and dmg yourself. Into Final Boss
Final Boss- Equip Sacrifice ring instead of insight ring, For Magic Rings you should have Myst, Poison, Earth Heal, Upheaval, Protect. For Attribute I use Sacrifice, Clarity, Enlightenment, Ring of seek, and a Stone ring of some sort. try to dart in and out of lightning storm range casting poison into him. So long as you don't kill his orbs he should be able to stay there. But the sacrifice ring is there in case you get hit by his bolt, or lightning, or stuff hits the fan.
IF boss goes into p2 i switch to upheaval for a wider path spell (and it's a bit faster of an animation) to run into the boss, to finish him off, but it'll take more passes than that to align him properly, and if he runs into you it's a sacrifice ring charge or game over. Time ends when he falls to the ground as the credits cannot be skipped.
Old Notes
Couple items to look out for that might be worth taking the detours for are the Branch Magic ring, which doubles cost, and doubles the cast of your spells (double damage essentially) Alongside this is the Power of Seek ring, which gives your spells homing status (less skill to aim, and makes the branch ring better for single target engagements. I think it's the Wisdom ring, but a ring that decreases mana costs for spells and hastens cast time by a bit. This is toward the end of the game, but with items being at such a premium, and bosses taking a little longer to take down than they would perhaps otherwise be, It might be worth the detour in order to not have to return to camp to stock up on items before taking on the final boss.
Cutscenes in this game are for the most part unskippable, unless you avoid the area altogether, but as I have only played the game twice through as of now (with the first being a long long time ago) it is unknown to me yet just how much of the game I can not visit and still have the main storyline progress.
Thats about it for jumbled thoughts, if anyone else has played the game, has ideas that might be useful, let me know
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