Welcome back. When we left off, Lemeza was having some trouble with his hand scanner. As it turns out, this was due to a bug in the game and not some obtuse puzzle like I'd assumed. I have since been able to almost correct the bug, but this update was played before I knew about it, so the scanner is still not working. In the next update I'll be retracing my steps so far and scanning everything again with my newly working scanner.
This isn't significant to the game or anything, but here's rare footage of me playing competently.
Now that I know the coin pots in the ruins restock when you save and reload, I'm not above collecting them again. Glyph Reader is expensive! Plus, the fact that the pots in the village don't refill suggests the creators intended for these ones to. After picking up 30 coins I'd already gotten, I head for the last new room I reached last time, where the creepy eyes follow Lemeza around.
It takes me forty seconds to kill the four enemies in this room, but when I do so the Shell Horn plays its jingle, indicating I've solved a puzzle. At least I think it did. I mentioned last time that I turned off sound recording to save video size and improve stability, and the result is I can't check if I'm remembering right about sounds. Anyway, nothing obvious is changed, but perhaps there's something subtle.
I exit to the left and fall into a pit full of jumping elephants. Perhaps this drop is the "path of angels" which the Ankh is beyond? You can't see them while you fall, but the shaft is lined with angel gargoyles on the right side.
The elephants (or whatever - when they're in the air I think the upper part looks like the face of an insect springing on its tail, but the ground sprite looks like an elephant balanced on its trunk) all start in the upper part of the chamber, but one of them jumps through the floor to the passage below, meaning I can't kill them all. Still, I get the rest. The skeleton at the upper left gives an "Ok" screen, meaning I'll be able to get some text there later now that I've fixed the bug, and one of the ones on the bottom drops Mahjong Dojo, a 1984 MSX Mahjong simulation. I put the cart in Lemeza's MSX, again to no obvious effect. I attempt to scan the star in the background, but can't do it. There's a symbol in the middle, but I don't know what it is.
The next screen has a new enemy type in it, but I take out this first one before it has a chance to act.
The next one manages to complete its attack cycle, but fortunately misses. Lemeza is cruelly denied its EXP, though.
I make a single unsuccesful attempt to reach the broken stele at the upper right, then check out the lower level. The stray brick turns out to be pretty fragile. The skeleton underneath doesn't scan, though, and I'm not taking paths to other fields yet, so I climb back up.
At the bottom of the ladder I attempt to whip the exploding rat through the wall and get struck by lightning for me troubles. You can just see the whip appear behind Lemeza for a frame or two before the lightning hits. Apparently there's a hidden sacred block to his right. Maybe this is the "long wall" with the Jewel I need to find at its foot? It seems I'll have to do something to clear it. There's a grey block on the left side of the screen, but it's blocking my passage to its level so I can't push it around yet.
I give up on the room for now and head back up to the room with the creepy eyes. This time I go right. I clear out the enemies, and then:
I walk through the wall, winding up three screens to the left of where I started. Weird! I'll admit I remembered this one from the Wii version. Presumably if my scanner were working I'd have found some clues, perhaps on the skeleton resting against the fake wall.
This puts me on the left of the grey block, a spot I couldn't reach before. A few distractions aside, I manage to push the block to its place, opening the treasure chest.
User's Manual:Sounds useful! I didn't look it up in the manual until after I stopped playing, so I haven't tried this out yet.
Grail: Allows you to return to areas you have visited and recorded by pressing 0-9 on the Item Screen.
On the way back to the room with the fake wall, I take this upper passageway for the first time. The passageway seals itself behind me. Well, on top of me, in fact, since I had Lemeza pause to attack a bat just as it was coming down. Luckily, it waits for me to get out of the way before continuing.
Back in the fake wall room, I clear out the enemies and check out the stele at the bottom right. This time I get a picture. Looks to me like the grail and the thing I've been calling the altar (at 1/-1 on my map). I think the two are connected: presumably the altar is where you record having visited an area, and the place that you get returned to by pressing 0-9 on the Item Screen.
I remember this grey block puzzle as being feindishly difficult on the Wii, and indeed I screw it up on my first attempt. Fortunately leaving the screen and re-entering resets the blocks.
It's actually quite easy, and I get it on the second shot, causing a dais to appear.
Weighting the dais causes a ladder to appear, and Lemeza goes down it to a previously inaccessible chamber.
There doesn't seem to be anything to actually do down there, though. I kill a couple bats and score a coin, but climbing the ladders, whipping the walls, and generally checking the place out doesn't get me anywhere, so I leave. Upstairs, I find that the faces with the eyes that follow have shut their eyes. They were still open last time I was in here. Ominous?
Being low on VIT but high on EXP, I grind the same Myrmecoleo as in the previous update until my health refills, then head back down the pit. This time I take the bottom exit to reach somewhere new.
It leads me to a room with a lot going on: there's an exit to another Field, a sword, shield, helmet, and suit of armour, and another lock:
This one is a Conception Lock. I don't have the seal for it, I'm still holding off going to other fields, and I can't figure out any way to interact with the sword or PPE, so I continue to the next screen. It's also pretty busy, with two ladders upwards, a couple of pots, a floor switch (below the pot on the right) that I have no apparent way to get to, and a broken stele:
Which seems to have the same image as one I encountered earlier. Maybe when I come here with the text working properly it'll have something different written on it?
I make an attempt to jump up to this switch, but can't do it. I'm forced to turn back.
I can't jump up the right side of the screen because of Lemeza's realistic inability to change direction in the air, so I have to criss-cross the left side to reach the top.
Which leaves me in a dead end. Maybe I can jump back up from here? I didn't actually try, because I want to reach the upper right part of the screen, which means turning back.
I just have to jump a little earlier to get to the level below.
I break the pot on the upper level for another ten coins, then take the right hand ladder (the middle one leads to the upper section of the room in the third screenshot here) and wind up in the corridor below the room with all the jumping elephants. If I continue through here, I'll wind up in a room I was in earlier, able to reach a grey block that I couldn't before.
Unfortunately, that's not an option. I'd taken this red thing for a background object, but it's blocking my way instead.
I stick around to kill all the elephants. This doesn't do anything obvious, though, so I turn back. On the way I attempt to jump to the switch below the pot, but either I can't go through the wall (and there's no obvious reason why I would be able to) or I missed the jump, 'cause I didn't make it. So I go back around, take the middle ladder, and grind against infinitely spawning sludge lizards for another VIT refill. Since my EXP was quite low when I started, this took ages. Almost four minutes, in fact, though I switched from the ones spawning on the right to the ones on the left part way through. Still, not recommended.
I make my way up out of the pit and back to this room. In the last update I managed to cross this gap with a damage boost.
As it turns out, that was unnecessary. Lemeza can just barely clear the gap with a normal jump.
The next room features bats, a myrmecoleo, and what appears to be Sonic the Hedgehog. Which is strange, since he's not a Konami character.
It's pretty Sonic-y, though. Anyway, there's a dais with a treasure chest next to it on the left. That's not much of a puzzle!
And indeed, that's not the solution. Weighting the dais seems to activate this spike trap. Perhaps if I weren't having the text bug then scanning the skeleton to the right would have provided a clue on the matter.
I kill everything in the room, but nothing obvious happens. There's a floor switch on the top platform that'll probably do something if I manage to find my way up there at some point. For now though, I think I've done everything I can in this Field at present. Time to get out and buy Glyph Reader with most of my 102 coins.
On the way back out I fail the jump, but luckily have enough momentum to land on the top platform in the room below instead of going all the way to the bottom of the pit and having to climb up. I swing by the altar, thinking perhaps it will be different now that I have the Grail, but nothing seems to have changed.
Back in town I pick up Glyph Reader. I stop by Xelpud's and get a tip on the use of the Grail. I guess what I've been calling "altars" are tablets with a strange shape. Then I head up the mountain to the signpost near the waterfall. You and I know (now) that I was playing with a bug that meant all the Glyph Readers in the world wouldn't help me with this sign, but Lemeza doesn't. What will he find?
Konami Pinball, for some reason. Apparently this one's unreleased, but it appears to be a straightforward computer pinball sim. I don't know why having Glyph Reader active makes this drop but I am pretty sure I scanned it before I got the Reader and got nothing. If the text had been working properly, I probably wouldn't have come back here with Glyph Reader and scanned again, so I guess the bug has worked in my favour very slightly.
I've cut out a bunch of me going to the far side of the village and back into the ruins scanning stuff with Glyph Reader equipped. Because I was playing with a bug, that was a waste of time. So: next time I'm going to go back through the Guidance Gate scanning everything now that it's working properly. After that, I'll venture into a new Field (unless I scan up a clue that lets me make more progress in the Gate instead). I have three options:
The ladder at the upper right (4/-1). The sign here appears to show the Death Seal:
Or:
The one at the lower left (-2/-5). This could be the Birth Seal:
Or:
The one at the bottom center (1/-4). This is the Life Seal:
I'll go wherever the thread chooses, though I don't promise to stick around long if I don't like what I find. Spoiler policy on this choice: if you've played the game and have an idea which is the "correct" path to take at this point, feel free to tell me which you prefer openly, but put any explanation of why behind spoilers. If you don't know which is the right way, feel free to vote anyway.
Map:
The pit at 0/-4 kind of looks like the mouth of a face made with the screen above, doesn't it? Mirrors the face in that upper screen, in fact, down to the jewel in the jaws.
Also: the ladder at the top of 0/-2 leads to a space that isn't occupied on the in-game map. What's up there?
To-Do:
Village:
-Kill the blue Algol at -5/1, probably with the Serpent Staff.
-Read signposts at -4/1 and 3/3
-Explore beyond the waterfall at 3/4
-Purchase:
--Buckler (0/0) 80 Coins
--MSX2 (0/0) 150 Coins
--Waterproof case (0/0) 80 Coins
--
Guidance Gate:
-Do something at altar at -1/1 - use Grail to teleport there?
-Open treasure chests at -2/-2,
-Get past barriers at 0/-2, 0/-4
-Climb upper ladder at 0/-2
-Get past holy rock at 1/-2
-Do something with the apparent hidden holy rock at 1/-4
-Climb narrow shaft at 4/-1
-Take ladders to other Fields at -2/-5, 1/-4, 4/-1
-Put weights on daises at -1/-2, 0/-2 (upper)
-Reach and press floor switches at -2/-2, -1/-5
-Do something at 2/-4
-Do something with sword/armour/helmet/shield at -2/-5
-Use Hand Scanner with Glyph Reader on:
--Steles: -2/-2, -2/-5, -1/-2, -1/-3, -1/-4, -1/-5, 0/0, 0/-3, 0/-4, 1/-2, 1/-4, 2/-1, 2/-3, 3/-1, 4/-1
--Skeletons: -2/-2, -2/-5, -1/-3, -1/-4, -1/-5, 0/0, 0/-4, 1/0, 1/-1, 1/-2, 1/-3, 1/-4, 2/-3, 3/-1, 4/-1
-Push the grey blocks at
-Get the Jewel in the mouth of the face on 0/-3
-Get the Jewel in the star at 0/-4
-Find the Ankh
--"Beyond the path of Angels"
-Find the Jewel
--"At the foot of a long wall"
-Awaken the Guardian
Unknown:
Do something in the room depicted on the stele in Guidance Gate 0/-3
Conception Locks:
-Guidance Gate -2/-5
Birth Locks:
-Guidance Gate 2/-1
Life Locks:
-Village -4/1
Next Time:
Part 05: Literacy
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