Rune Worth Full Walkthrough

*** ITEM AND MAGIC LIST ***

Aside from the four level-up items detailed previously, there are only a handful of items you'll be using in this game -- most, honestly, just take up space in your inventory and can really just be sold at shops (second option).

The most useful ones, though, that you should consider always keeping on-hand are:

ザン・リクシュ (+1, +2, +3, +4) - Zan Riksche (+1, +2, +3, +4)
The standard healing item. There are five varieties, with the +4 obviously being the best. When possible, you should definitely replace all your Zan Riksches with Zan Riksche +4s, as they're relatively cheap (compared to the amount of money you earn in this game, anyway), and absolutely vital to have on-hand, since you won't always have time to cast magic for healing (and won't be able to if you're in "dying" status, making healing items like this the only thing that'll save you from a Game Over!).

ラニュール - Ranyule
Poison recovery. You won't encounter poison all that much in the game, but you should make sure to stock up on this before entering the forest dungeon, since you will be crossing several poison swamps in there and will probably run out of MP if you rely on magic to cure you every time.

カルハニムスのカギ - Karhanimth's Key
Used to unlock locked treasure chests. You should always carry 3 or 4 with you, because these items are the only way to unlock some treasure chests in the game -- there's a spell for unlocking treasure chests too, but it only works on those that have been sealed up with "magic locks," which are separate from those that have been sealed up with physical locks. And it sucks if you're deep in a dungeon and find that there's a treasure you can't get because you don't have enough keys on hand -- and in one case in particular, if that happens, you're screwed out of the treasure altogether, because you can't return to the dungeon once you leave it.

ウィル・ポーのすなどけい - Will Poe's Hourglass
Will Poe is the name of the god of time in game lore, so unsurprisingly, this item is used to change day to night or night to day. You don't technically need these, since you can change night to day by sleeping at an inn, or day to night by just entering and leaving shops enough times, but there are times it'll be convenient to have one of these, and it's usually quicker during the day to just go into a shop, buy one, and use it than to walk in and out of a shop over and over again until night falls. (Note that you'll eventually learn a magic spell that does the same thing, making this item mostly obsolete.)

ホーキンがい - Hawkin Shell
Used to transport to any town you've visited thus far, with the exception of Contrabal and Rifania. Note that this only works from within another town (again, with the exception of Contrabal and Rifania) -- if you try to use it in a dungeon or battle scene, it won't do anything. (Note that you'll eventually learn a magic spell that does the same thing, making this item mostly obsolete.)

ハイフォンのふだ - Haiphon Ticket
I'm not listing most story items here (you can't accidentally sell story items or anything, since they don't show up on your list in shops), but this one is pretty notable, as it allows you to freely move between the two southernmost towns (Contrabal and Rifania) and the rest of the game world. Without a Haiphon Ticket, you need to find some other way to get to Contrabal and Rifania. Fortunately, you only need one, ever -- it's never used up.

(anything)・カマン - (anything) Kaman
If you ever see an item name ending in ・カマン, it's a piece of armor, so make sure to go into your equip screen and try it on. It's unlikely you'll ever find a piece of armor that's worse than what you already have, so it's usually a good rule of thumb to just equip whatever the last item is you received.

• Note that the final piece of armor is called オードリオ・ラダン ("Oldorio Radan"), which doesn't match this naming scheme. When you obtain this, be sure to take note of it and equip it, as it's significantly more powerful than the second-best armor.

スイレンのすず - Suiren's Bell
Used to gather info about your surroundings, including the number of treasure chests in the dungeon, and more crucially, the number of treasure chests that still have items in them! This might be useful to you for a very short amount of time, but you quickly learn a magic spell to replace it (it's one of the first spells you learn in the entire game, assuming you explore thoroughly enough), and the spell uses up so little MP that this item becomes obsolete almost immediately. More details will be listed under the spell description -- the spell is called Sepethmyda.

カンカールのしずく - Kankarl's Drop
To be honest, I'm not 100% sure what this does, but the description implies it might be useful if you lose faith in your god (i.e. if you go for too long without praying at a church), so maybe it's the remedy that gets you your magic back in that case? Hard to say without testing. But I figured I'd at least mention it!

ブロドゥイン - Brodwin
Also figured I'd mention this one, though I've never had any need to use it. It claims to cure drunkenness and other similar ailments, but I've actually never gotten drunk in the game -- I assume you need to go into the bar several times before that happens, but I always only visit the bar in each town once or twice. And I've never been able to find another use for this item (it doesn't cure confusion in battle), so I don't ever really find myself using these. You might, though, which is why I'm mentioning it!

* * *

And useful spells! Note that magic takes time to cast, and you are COMPLETELY vulnerable while doing so, so you should never cast a spell when there are enemies nearby or you might take some serious damage.

アウントゥム - Auntum
Teleports you to the entrance of the current dungeon, for easy escape. Not learned until near the end of the game, but SUPER useful once you know it, and works in every dungeon without exception (even dungeons in teleport-proof areas like Contrabal).

セペスマイダ - Sepethmyda
Same effect as Suiren's Bell; used to check your surroundings. Use this in dungeons to determine if there are any treasure chests you haven't collected yet: if you see one number displayed, it's the number of treasure chests in the dungeon, and if you see a second number displayed, it's the number of treasure chests with items still inside them. Your secondary goal in every dungeon is to use this spell and try to get it to display only one number -- if it displays two, then you've missed a treasure somewhere. Sometimes, this will be unavoidable -- there are some treasures you can't get without the ability to warp, which you don't learn until near the end of the game -- but it's still good to know. Note that this spell also gives you other information, but nothing else is as useful as the number of unopened treasure chests. The full set of information provided inside dungeons is:

• Name of dungeon
• Number of treasure chests in dungeon
• (Number of unopened treasure chests in dungeon)
• (There are traps in this dungeon)
• The dungeon does/does not have an exit (if the dungeon has no exit, that means you need to defeat a boss in order to leave)

チェンバス - Chenbath
Status recovery. This works on poison, but also on other status effects as well, so it's much more useful than the Ranyule item. But like all spells, it requires some casting time to use it, and if you're taking damage or something, you'll continue to take damage during the casting process -- whereas if you use a Ranyule instead, the effect is instantaneous. Also, note that the low-health status ailment which sees your HP slowly dropping can NOT be cured by Chenbath -- you need to heal in order to cure that, as that status ailment is basically "bleeding out," and just automatically triggers when your HP is very low.

カルハニムス - Karhanimth
Unlocks all nearby treasure chests, as long as those chests were locked magically and not physically. If you try to open a treasure chest but it doesn't work, and you have at least one Karhanimth's Key in your inventory (which would be automatically used if that's what was needed), then that probably means you need to cast Karhanimth, then try opening the chest again.

レンテポナン - Renteponan
Healing. This works differently than the Zan Riksche items, in that it will basically heal you to max, but use a set amount of MP for every 1 HP it restores (which is why the MP it uses in the menu is listed as ??). If you don't have enough MP to heal to full, it'll just heal as much as it can. This should be used as an absolute last resort only, since it'll eat through your magic in no time compared to just using items.

フェ・リクシュ - Fe Riksche
Surprisingly useful, though it doesn't last very long; freezes all enemies in place temporarily. This includes bosses, but since most bosses are only vulnerable while attacking, and freezing a boss in mid-attack is unlikely to happen, you probably won't use this spell all thaaaaat much.

フェ・ニルエン - Fe Niluen
Changes day to night or night to day. The magic equivalent of Will Poe's Hourglass.

フェ・ペクトム - Fe Pectom
Transport from one town to another. Doesn't work in Contrabal or Rifania, and won't actually teleport you to Contrabal or Rifania either (even though both towns appear on the menu). The magic equivalent of a Hawkin Shell. Uses a pretty good chunk of MP, though, so if you're not teleporting to a town with a church where you can easily recover your MP for 5 Cz, you might be better off teleporting to a neighboring town and walking the rest of the way.

ペトゥムヌゥ - Petumnu
Boosts defense temporarily. I don't know how effective this actually is, as there's no indication anywhere that your defense has been raised, so it could wear off really quickly or it could last a long time; it's hard to say.

イェンダリュ - Yendaryu
Boosts attack temporarily. Again, not sure how effective this actually is, but it bore mentioning.

フェ・ラエノート - Fe Raenote
Teleports you at random to another spot in the dungeon. This can include spots that are not accessible through normal means, allowing you to grab treasure chests you couldn't previously. This spell is very annoying, but necessary to 100% the game.

The other spells I've learned so far are all used to affect nearby enemies in various ways, but they never seem to work very well, so you're better off saving your MP for better spells.

*** WALKTHROUGH PART ONE: THE QUEST FOR THE SWORD ***

Immediately upon starting the game, you'll be bombarded with text -- this is pretty much just a basic explanation of where and who you are, much of which I've already covered up above. You're an ordinary boy who tends "quons" (this world's equivalent of horses) in a mountain fortress that straddles the border between two friendly nations: a kingdom called Saia, and a dukedom called Weidenitz. This place is known as Zanoba Fortress, and exists as something of a halfway house for mountain travelers, offering them a place to rest and recuperate on their way up or down the Weidelm Mountains. You live here with your father, Garan, who serves as the leader of the mountainfolk that tend this fortress -- a tribe, of sorts, called "Detour's Fang." Which may sound like an odd name, but in the world of Rune Worth, just as horses are called quons, dragons are called detours. So your tribe is basically "Dragon's Fang."

(Incidentally, this immediate text dump is a pretty common occurrence -- every time you enter a town for the first time, you'll get a similar text dump that tells you a little bit about its history, sort of getting you "up to speed" on background info your character is expected to know from having grown up in this world. I'll be noting any particularly relevant info in this walkthrough as it comes up, but won't be going into any great detail on any of the pure "flavor text" stuff; sorry!)

Once you gain control of your character, the VERY FIRST thing you should do (IMHO) is open the menu by pressing button 2 on the controller, and select the last option, SYSTEM. From the System menu, select the third option (MESSAGE SPEED), and change the message speed of the game. I went into more detail about this in an above post, so I'll spare you the repetition here, but I felt it was worth reiterating since message speed can drastically affect the pacing of the game (especially in these first few text-heavy hours!).

So, getting into the actual meat of the game, you can now walk around and talk to NPCs. Most of this serves to develop your character more than anything else, since the dialogues aren't one-sided like in many other RPGs; your character actually talks back and holds legitimate conversations with these people, revealng a lot about his personality... which, you quickly learn, is kind of dickish! He's a sarcastic teen who loves nothing more than to slack off and give people lip. He doesn't exactly have a job, but unofficially, he tends to the quons and helps out around the fortress a bit. He also has two notable friends, whose genders I can't quite figure out: Tarenion, and Perles. Tarenion is basically his partner in crime, often taking the fall for him when things go wrong; and Perles is... either his best friend, or his love interest? I can't tell which, since I can't determine the character's gender, but the sprite LOOKS like it's supposed to female, so I'm guessing love interest? Can't have female friends in an '80s/early '90s RPG, after all -- if you're a dude and you've got a female friend, she's totally a love interest!

Perles is, ironically, revealed to be somewhat "peerless" (I don't think this was an intentional pun, but I like it!), being the strongest warrior in town, skilled both in swordfighting and magic. She's offered to teach you wave-magic, basically saying to come back and see her again after the day's work for your first lesson.

And what is the day's work? Well, you'll find out soon enough: try entering each of the doors on the bottom level of the fortress, and there's one you'll be able to go inside. Do so, and you'll see your father (Garan) and a bunch of other people hosting a huge banquet... in your honor! See, today is your 17th birthday, and although you apparently did something reeeeeally naughty earlier (I forget what, honestly, but that's not important), and were worried Garan would scold you for it, he's instead all smiles and invites you in to celebrate your big day with the other Detour's Fang members.

While eating, drinking, and making merry, Garan says that it's about time to give you some work... which you, of course, would prefer not to do! But he convinces you to do one little job for him: the town at the bottom of the mountain path upon which Zanoba Fortress is situated (across a rocky valley known as "Auntum's Corridor") is called Seltore, and is renowned for its old church. The front door to this church, however, has a broken lock -- and while it's constantly under the watchful eye of its priest during the day, it's totally abandoned at night. Your job is to sneak into the church after dark and find the door leading down into its basement. Therein, you'll be able to gain access to some very old caves that run under the town, and within those caves rests a sword. Get that sword, and bring it back to Zanoba Fortress.

Because this job is being treated kind of as a "rite of passage" for you, you're asked to go on foot -- no riding a quon down the mountain! -- and you're also asked to go alone.

But before you go, Garan suggests speaking with Colino (your grandfather) in the house at the top of the stairs, as he can outfit you with the necessities you'll need for your journey.

Go through the door at the top of the stairs, and Colino will bid you good luck, offering you a modest dagger and an old piece of armor. Being the dickish protagonist you are, you'll complain pretty loudly about receiving ONLY a dagger (a nice sword would be much better!), and the best you're able to say about the armor is that "it'll do"... but, as you put it, "Ehh, if you're gonna just give 'em to me, I guess I might as well take 'em." How gracious of you!

After talking with Colino, be sure to open the menu with button 2 and select the second option, EQUIP, to equip the items you were just given. Just select the last item on each menu and press button 1 to equip it.

(It's worth noting here that Colino has not been filled in on what your task is -- only that you've been sent on a quest down the mountain. It's actually somewhat important that he doesn't know the nature of your quest, as you'll be finding out soon.)

If you talk to NPCs again before you go, they'll remark that it's really odd how you're being tasked with breaking into a church after dark to more or less steal a sword -- the Detour's Fang is sometimes thought of by people as a gang, but they've never been a gang of thieves, always operating lawfully and honorably. Something must be up for Garan to task you with this... but what?

To find out, you'll have to go to Seltore! Now that you have an official quest, the guy guarding the gate in the southeast part of the fortress will let you leave, and you'll see the map screen for the first time. This screen is basically just a formality -- rather than letting you select your destination, the map basically exists just for you to confirm it. Where you're headed is determined by which exit you take from a given town, and once you see the name of that location on the map screen, you can either press button 1 to confirm that yes, that's where you want to go, or button 2 to turn around and go right back to where you came from.

(And again to reiterate, if you should ever choose to leave a town at night, there's a possibility you'll get into a random battle with bandits before reaching your destination. If this happens, you'll receive a choice before the fight: either give them all your money so they'll spare your life, or fight them. You will pretty much ALWAYS want to choose the latter option, for obvious reasons!)

Upon entering Seltore, you'll receive the standard wall of text describing the town to you -- which is mostly just flavor text, as per usual, but does note that despite Seltore itself straddling the border between Saia and Weidenitz, giving it the ideal position for tourism, it's generally overshadowed by the larger cities on all sides of it (Saia to the northwest, Tenerbe to the southwest, and Garciano to the east), which basically means that tourists tend to completely ignore this town... making Seltore kind of a dump.

Despite this, the townsfolk do take some pride in their sleepy little burg, if only because of its uniquely constructed, historically old church, which the locals have named "Haqual Chapel." Haqual Chapel is definitely the standout building in town, and is pretty much impossible to miss -- and it is, of course, your goal (though it's rather amusing when you ask one of the NPCs where the church is; he's like, "You mean Haqual Chapel?", to which you respond, "I don't know what it's called! I just know it's a church, dammit!"... to which he more or less responds with something like, "Well, there's an obvious church right there. You figure it out!" -- though not quite in those exact words).

Note that all the NPCs who mention the church will tell you to be careful around it, as there are rumors of monsters dwelling beneath it, their cries echoing forth from deep underground each night.

Although it's daytime now, you're going to want to go into the church anyway and talk to the priest. Choose either the second option ("Pray") or the third ("Undergo an ordeal"), and the priest will tell you that you can't worship at this church without first accepting a "rath." He believes you're well-suited to "Rath Femryu," which is the worship of a wind god, and teaches you the prayer that invokes Femryu's spirit to dwell within you.

From this point on, you're going to want to stop in at churches during the day fairly regularly (basically, whenever you happen by one) to pray, because if you go for too long without praying, you'll lose your connection to Femryu and subsequently lose your ability to cast magic... I think? As mentioned in one of my previous posts, I'm not sure what actually happens when you lose your connection to Femryu, since as soon as that happened to me, I reset my MSX, re-loaded my save data, and prayed like a madman.

Anyway, now that your spirit is one with the god of wind, you're definitely going to want to select "Undergo an ordeal" (which is, again, the third option from the church menu). I won't be calling this out in my walkthrough each time, but basically, whenever you visit a new town with a church you haven't been to yet, you're going to want to make certain you undergo its ordeal, since that alone will account for expanding your max MP more than anything else in the game.

What is the ordeal, you ask? Well, it's the same thing every time: Simon. Like, literally, you play a game of Simon, imitating the lights and tones with directions on the D-pad (or arrow keys). Each Simon ordeal starts out with a pattern of 4 notes, then progressively adds one more until you either fail or have completed your ordeal to the priest's satisfaction. This can occur after as few as 8 notes, or as many as 20, so you might want to bust out a pen and paper and do a little cheating as you get farther into the game!

The other options on the church menu are "Make an offering" (first option), which is what you'd do if you needed to refill your MP meter (and it also refills your HP, as a bonus!), and "Leave" (fourth option), which is the same as hitting button 2, and just takes you back to town.

After you've accepted Femryu as your lord and savior (err), prayed to him, then played Simon for a little bit, you'll want to leave the church and check out some of the other services Seltore has to offer. Like the well near the church! Drink from its water, and you'll... start to basically have a seizure or something. You'd think this would be important, but nope! It's solely there to add character to the game, I guess, and is... really just kind of baffling. You never have to drink from this well, but drinking from it doesn't hurt you in any way either -- it just forces you into a short animation loop.

For more SERIOUS services on offer, there is a shop in town (which you can identify by the bald-headed man smiling at you goofily after you step inside, since it's the same bald dude tending every shop in the world!), wherein you can buy a few essential items -- I'd recommend buying a healthy number of Zan Riksches (healing items), as well as at least one Will Poe's Hourglass (an item that lets you instantly turn day to night or night to day).

And there's also an inn in town, which is 100% essential in every conceivable way. Inns can be told apart from shops by the kindly-looking old man who ISN'T bald, and if you pay him a very small amount of money, you can stay the night... which not only heals you, but also prompts you to insert the User Disk, because that's how you save your progress!

After saving, you'll be prompted to re-insert Disk A, and you'll then continue the game -- but yeah, definitely make sure to stay at inns fairly regularly as you play through this game, since it is the ONLY way to save your progress.

Once you're back in town, use that Will Poe's Hourglass you bought (open the menu with button 2, then select the third option -- ITEM -- and find the item called ウィル・ポーのすなどけい) to change the game over to nighttime. You can always tell nighttime from daytime not only by the change in palette, but also because every house in every town will light up all their front doors with torches once the sun goes down.

You can now head over to the church for the game's first dungeon if you're so inclined, but before you do so, there is one other service offered in this town that's pretty commonplace throughout Rune Worth, and might be worth checking out real quick: the bar! Bars can only be entered at night, and have a flat door charge of 12 Cz. If you elect to go in, you can then choose which table to sit at (1 through 5), and you'll down a few beers before looking around to see if anything cool's happening. A lot of story events are triggered in bars, but if there's no story event cued up (which there isn't in Seltore), you'll instead be given some sort of gameplay hint or "flavor lore" from a random NPC at this point. Which hint or piece of lore it is is determined by the table you chose to sit at -- though if you can't read Japanese, these bits of dialogue will all be useless to you anyway, so I'm only going to note from here on out when it's necessary to drink at a bar in order to advance the story.

So... you've now exhausted everything else there is to do in Seltore, which means it's time to enter your first dungeon! Go to the church, and you'll note that yes, the lock is indeed broken. You'll enter the church and get a little bit of story text (plus a cool-looking art still) describing how you felt around a bit in the dark until you found the door to the basement, then carefully busted its lock too and headed inside, emerging in a cave system that reeks of mold and dust. Dungeon one is go!

Here are a few points to keep in mind when exploring your first dungeon (some new, some old, but all worth mentioning):

• There is no experience in this game, so you don't actually HAVE to kill enemies at all. Especially in this dungeon, since there's no boss.
• You'll encounter one locked treasure chest. Right now, there's nothing you can do to open this; you need a consumable item called "Karhanimth's Key" to open physically locked treasure chests, or a spell just called "Karhanimth" to open magically locked treasure chests (and I forget which type of lock this particular treasure chest uses, sadly!). Seltore doesn't sell Karhanimth's Keys, though, and you haven't learned the Karhanimth spell yet, so just leave this treasure chest be for now -- but do be sure to remember it for later!
• This isn't going to come up right now, but it's worth reiterating for later that you do have limited inventory slots, so if you ever happen to open a treasure chest and get an item that puts you over that limit (or receive an item as part of the story that puts you over that limit), the menu will automatically open with a red warning message telling you to either use or discard an item. When this happens, you'll need to do as it says before you can continue: open your inventory, select an item, and choose either the left option to use it, or the right option to discard it.
• You'll receive numerous level-up items from treasure chests in this dungeon, including one Naiyal Tablet. This particular Naiyal Tablet will teach you the "Sepethmyda" spell when used, which is one of the most useful in the game. It works the same as the "Suiren's Bell" item, and gives you info about your current environment, including how many treasure chests there are (the first number, if there are two), and how many of those still have treasures inside of them (the second number). Before leaving this dungeon, I recommend casting Sepethmyda and confirming that there are only 2 unopened treasure chests left -- this will mean you've explored the dungeon thoroughly for now, since one of those two is locked, and the other can only be obtained near the end of the game. Note that when casting spells, you're actually animated chanting the spell's words, and you're completely vulnerable to enemy attacks during this time, so make sure you've killed any nearby enemies BEFORE casting any spells -- always!

The sword you seek is located in the northwest corner of the cave, and is NOT in a treasure chest: it's just stuck into the ground, Excalibur-style. You're able to pull it free with ease, and make quite a production out of it, even basically saying out loud, "Dun-dada-DUUUN!" You then realize you're tired and hungry, and decide you shouldn't be wasting time messing around; you should get out of the dungeon and back to Zanoba Fortress! Before you do so, though, you should definitely open the menu and actually EQUIP the sword -- which is called "Wind Sword Sartarus," by the way. This sword controls very differently from the dagger you've been using, offering a much greater reach, but a much longer swing time. The tradeoff is worth it, though, as Sartarus is also MUCH more powerful than the dagger.

Once you've gotten everything there is to get from this dungeon, head back out into town, and drop back in at the church to make an offering and pray (exiting the dungeon changes it back to daytime, so you might as well take advantage of that fact!). I'd also recommend saving at the inn before leaving town, because all hell is about to break loose when you approach the northeast exit (the exit that leads back to Zanoba Fortress).

*** WALKTHROUGH PART THREE: WANDERING THE WORLD WITH MIRIM ***

You're pretty much free to explore the world of Rune Worth at your leisure at this point, with Mirim still in tow, but your next story goal is very close, so you might as well just head there now. It's the capital city of Saia Kingdom, called... erm... Saia! Exit Zanoba Fortress through its southeast exit (its only exit!), then exit Seltore through its northwest exit to get there.

Saia is one of the biggest cities in the game, for obvious reasons, and has the most to offer as far as places to visit go. Not only is there the usual inn, church, shop, and bar, but there's also a second bar (though it seems to have the same info in it), a battle arena, and the castle itself (which you can enter during the day as a monster-free mini-dungeon of sorts, though don't do that just yet!).

As you enter Saia, after the usual text dump, Mirim will also begin complaining that you should leeeeeeave... she haaaaates this city, it's shaaaaady, let's get ooooout of here! You marvel that anyone could think of Saia as "shady," with it being so big, sprawling, and full of life and beautiful architecture. You tell her that you plan on staying the night in Saia, and that's that -- and if she objects, she's free to go off adventuring by herself, as you didn't really ask to take her with you in the first place. She tells you you're mean and that she hates you (seriously), but sticks with you anyway because... well, because she's gotten attached to you, I guess!

(As a random aside, you might notice that Saia has the same BGM as Seltore. At first, when I noticed that the majority of the game's towns use only two different town themes, I thought that was kind of lazy for a game that focuses so much on little details, but I learned later while looking through the official track names on the game's soundtrack that there IS a reason for this: the town theme you've heard thus far is played in all towns that are part of the Saia Kingdom, whereas the other town theme you'll be hearing a lot is played in all towns that are part of the Dukedom of Weidenitz. Later, you'll also hear a third town theme that plays in both Contrabal and Rifania, which is the Bachmane Empire's theme, and then a fourth that plays only in Ramaskael, since Ramaskael is part of an independent federation of small island nations. Kind of a cool detail to take note of!)

There may be multiple ways to advance the story at this point, but the one I took was to drink at the bar, and it was easily one of the most amusing scenes in the game, so I'd highly recommend you take that approach as well! But first, let's go over some of what Saia has to offer.

NPCs in town talk a lot about Saia's princess being a tomboy and a really violent drunk, as well as the princess' aide, Al Laiyard, being a total hunk who wields a mystical fire blade. There are also a few NPCs who mention that the ruffians who fight at the battle arena have absolutely no concern for their own lives and are dangerous fellows, and that there have been a lot of creepy Bachmane missionaries in town recently trying to convert the locals to the Bachmane Empire's cult-like religion under cover of darkness. Here in Saia, the NPCs who mention these missionaries are all like, "When he got near me, I punched him square in the nose, and he hasn't bothered me since." But elsewhere, in other towns, you'll encounter other NPCs who've been approached by creepy missionaries and seem to have actually been intrigued by what they had to say... and you'll even encounter full-on converts, who speak the prayer of Bachmane's god or praise the might of Queen Olmam. It's very subtle, and a nice detail that really helps drive home the creepy, insidious nature of the Bachmane Empire.

The NPCs in Saia will change their dialogue more often than in any other town in the game, too, as the story progresses, though most of the new stuff they talk about over time is just... a growing concern about a Bachmane invasion. Or rumors about the princess.

This is the first town I've talked about so far where you have access to a battle arena, but there are a fair number of towns in the game that have these, so they're worth mentioning again as well. Battle arenas appear as giant black entrances in what look like big temples, and can only be entered during the day -- and only if you haven't fought in the battle arena in that particular town for a few days' time (if you try to enter the arena during the day too soon after fighting in it previously, it just won't let you in). Fighting in the arena is free, but you're restricted: you can't take any weapons in with you (it's bare-knuckle only!), and you can't open the menu to use healing items. You basically just fight big, burly dudes until your HP is gone, and then receive 100 Cz for every dude you defeated. This, along with selling useless items you received from treasure chests (many of which exist entirely TO be sold, like ダイヤモンド Diamonds, オリハルコン Orichalcum, and るり Lapis Lazuli), is a great way to ensure you absolutely never run out of money -- and most likely, you never will, even without ever fighting in the battle arena. Still, it's a fun diversion, and I'd recommend trying to top your best record for number of burly dudes defeated -- it's surprisingly difficult, with the best strategy being to sneak up on guys from the side or the back, hit them ONCE then immediately run away, then repeat until they're defeated. You can rush in kamikaze-style if you want, but even when your HP bar stretches across the screen, the most dudes you'll be able to take down that way is maybe 3, since their punches do a LOT of damage.

Fortunately, you're fully healed before the fight, and healed again on your way out of the battle arena, so there's no worries about dying or anything.

When you're ready to continue the story, head into one of the city's two bars at nighttime, and pay the 12 Cz cover charge. Pick any table (I usually just pick table 1), and Mirim will start to complain more and more about how much she doesn't want to be here, and how mean you were to force her to come. You'll say something like, "Well, aren't you just a little princess!", and she'll get really embarrassed and tell you never to call her that (GEE, I WONDER WHAT THIS IS FORESHADOWING). She'll then down her beer, and yours as well, and call for the bartender to bring another round... which she'll proceed to drink all of, before you even have a chance to grab one. It's pretty clear she's piss-drunk at this point, and she starts complaining even more loudly when you suggest maybe she's had enough, eventually throwing empty beer bottles at you. The bar owner comes to tell her she's disturbing the other customers and damaging bar property... and she decks him across the face, in what is probably one of the funniest art stills in the game. The local constabulary is called, and she starts throwing beer bottles at them too until eventually, both you and she are arrested and thrown in jail.

When she eventually wakes up, she asks how she got here, and when you tell her she flipped out at the bar, she says that's not possible -- somehow, you must be to blame. She's absolutely convinced of this, and gets extremely indignant.

Then, she gets a visitor. It's a man named Al, who says that he heard a young girl started a bar fight and knew it had to be Mirim, since this is very much her usual M.O. Mirim apparently ran away from home recently, and Al is very relieved to have found her... as is her father, who steps into the room from behind Al.

Her father, the king of Saia.

The two introduce themselves and reintroduce Princess Mirim to you. Al, who turns out to be the princess' aide Al Laiyard, thanks you for looking after her, and both Al and the king apologize to you profusely for the trouble they're certain she caused, which causes Mirim to get even more indignant.

(Incidentally, this is the most you're ever going to hear Al say. He's virtually omnipresent throughout the majority of the game, but barely ever says or does ANYTHING. And when he does open his mouth, it's usually to say something sexist about Princess Mirim. In my expert opinion, Al is stupid and useless, and I really enjoy making fun of him!)

You and Mirim are, of course, set free from prison, and the king takes note of your sword, asking if you'll please let him see it for a moment. When you tell him it's the Wind Sword Sartarus, with which you've sworn to get vengeance for the death of your friends and family, the king immediately recognizes the name as one of the holy swords of Saris Kingdom. Saris was a dear ally to Saia before Bachmane destroyed it, and most of its holy relics -- like Sartarus -- are believed to have been lost during the raid, so the king is really surprised to see it suddenly turn up here, under these unusual circumstances.

You suddenly get really defensive of Sartarus and tell the king, "Well, if it's that valuable, then no, you can't see it! It's mine!" Al takes a "why, I never!" stance to this (stupid Al!), but the king just laughs it off, telling you pretty much that he likes the cut of your jib.

He then has a really good idea: he says that one of the kingdom's treasures, "Elise's Necklace," handed down from Saris (making it one of those rare Saris relics he just spoke of), has been stolen -- and that's a big problem, as it's an essential tool for Mirim's rite of succession to the throne (which Mirim doesn't want to do, but kind of has to, since she's his only progeny). He asks if you'd be willing to take on a quest to get it back, and you're given the choice to accept or decline. Obviously, I chose accept, because I've played RPGs before -- not sure if it's possible to decline it permanently, so I really have no idea what happens if you say no here! But uncharacteristically, if you choose accept, you say that you'd be happy to help keep an eye out for it... as long as you could do so as a secondary objective on your quest for vengeance. The king agrees, and you have a new story quest to fulfill! (And he also says he'll have the guards unlock one of the treasure rooms for you, so you can take the treasures located within to help you prepare for this quest.)

Before the meeting is broken up, though, you ask the king how in the world such a precious artifact as Elise's Necklace could be stolen -- isn't it kept under lock and key, like crown jewels typically are? The king then tells you that the answer to that is a little embarrassing: Mirim herself took the necklace out of the treasure chamber where it was kept so she could wear it, flaunting it publicly because she thought it was so pretty and shiny. And during one of her many escapades, it was stolen from her person. Oh, Mirim, you wacky little tomboy, you!

Before leaving the castle, be sure to grab the four treasures from the treasure room on the east side of the castle (the one on the west side remains locked for the time being). You'll get some new armor and three level-up items, including a Naiyal Tablet that teaches you the "Karhanimth" spell when used -- the spell that opens magically locked treasure chests. When you're able, I recommend buying several Karhanimth's Keys from the item shop too (I don't recall if Saia's item shop specifically sells these, but you should now have access to an item shop SOMEWHERE that does), then returning to the caves beneath Seltore's church to open that locked treasure chest, leveling you up a little further still. The way locked treasure chests work is, if it's physically locked and you have a Karhanimth's Key in your inventory, you'll automatically use it and get the treasure; if it's magically locked, you'll just get a popup telling you that you can't open it. So if you have at least one Karhanimth's Key in your inventory, but encounter a treasure chest you can't open, THAT'S when you cast the Karhanimth spell and try again.

*** WALKTHROUGH PART FIVE: INFILTRATING BACHMANE ***

I'm not 100% sure what the exact trigger is for the next story scene, but I know what all I did, so I'm just going to chronicle my next few steps!

Proceed out the northeast exit of Saia to the one accessible town you haven't yet visited at all (assuming you've been following this walkthrough thus far): the port town of Miranta. Here, you'll learn from NPCs that there haven't been any boats setting sail from here for a while now, and probably won't for a good six months yet on account of rough waters -- rough waters caused by someone angering the god of the sea. The god of the sea evidently used to have a harp that he loved, and the people of Miranta would often hear its melodies drifting up from the waters. But some time ago, a nobleman who happened to be passing by saw the harp floating just under the water, and plucked it right out, sailing away with it -- and without his harp, the god of the sea is PISSED.

This is a shame, as virtually every NPC in the whole damned game won't shut up about how beautiful the island town of Ramaskael is -- it's like paradise on earth! But with these rough waters, it's completely inaccessible, and Miranta as a whole is in big trouble since seafaring is pretty much their way of life.

Noting all of this info, you might as well head out the southeast exit to Mt. Weidelm, the mountain dungeon. You'll be returning here later as part of the story, but for now, this is just a treasure run -- all but 2 of the dungeon's treasures are easily accessible, and there are a few level-up items included among them, so it's worth grabbing them now while you're here. The remaining 2, as with most of the other dungeons so far, require teleportation to access.

In the back of Mt. Weidelm, you'll find a big stone door, with a sleeping dragon behind it. When you attempt to wake the dragon, he asks who DARES disturb his slumber. You try to act tough, but the dragon basically just tells you to go away. Right now, that's the best you're going to get -- he won't actually talk to you for a good long while.

Leave Mt. Weidelm, and back in Miranta, talk to the NPCs again. One of the NPCs will recall you telling her you come from the south, and will ask if you've heard the rumor yet -- that Princess Mirim was kidnapped. THIS IS NEWS TO YOU. You quickly excuse yourself from the conversation, since the princess being kidnapped is... kind of serious!

Return through the southwest exit back to Saia, the capital city, and the NPCs in town will confirm that yes, Mirim was kidnapped -- by Vifo, Bachmane's sorcery squad. The squad led by your archnemesis, Leschel Karos.

Talk to the king in his castle during the day, and he'll task you with finding and rescuing her (you can accept or decline this, I believe, but you're obviously going to want to accept) -- though the only assistance he can provide is to give you Elise's Necklace, which he believes may help you find her... and also, to send her royal aide, Al Laiyard, to accompany you.

As mentioned previously, Al is useless and stupid. But no matter! He's with you, so you get to see his portrait whenever you open the menu now. Yay?

I'm not sure how much investigating you need to do in order to progress the plot, but in my game, I questioned NPCs specifically in Tenerbe (the trading outpost), Garciano (the city of excess), and Eliselem (the lake town), and got all the information I needed by doing so. It may be necessary to speak with these NPCs to trigger some flags, so I'd recommend you do so as well, even if you can't read their text.

Through your investigation, you learn that it's not just Mirim who's been kidnapped -- beautiful young girls all across the land are being kidnapped, with another notable one being an old man's granddaughter in Eliselem. You ask him for details, and he tells you that witnesses saw the Vifo sorcery squad carry her away over the lake, literally walking on the water toward the easternmost town in Bachmane: Rifania.

Other accounts point toward Rifania as well, and Rifania is a pretty notable location, being the former seat of Saris Castle and its castle-town before the castle was sacked and the town burned to the ground during Bachmane's invasion around 17 or so years ago. Since then, there have been rumors of cult-like rituals being performed in the booby-trapped ruins of Saris Castle. No doubt, that's where Mirim and the other kidnap victims have been taken!

The question is, how will you get there? No one is allowed past the gates in Tenerbe without valid paperwork, so you'll need to get creative.

(Incidentally, you'll also start to hear some rumors from NPCs at this point about a noble getting mugged by bandits -- possibly pirates -- who stole a harp from him and took it to the northwest. Take note of this for later.)

Anyway, there are actually two different ways you can get into Bachmane:

• Walk to the edge of the dock in the lake town of Eliselem at night, where you'll encounter the spirit of Elise -- a girl who threw herself into the lake over unrequited love, and more or less became the guardian of the lake in the process. Since you possess her necklace, she offers to walk you over the water into Rifania... though she can only do it once, and the necklace will shatter in the process. You can accept or decline this offer.
• Alternately, if you return aaaaaaaall the way to the northwest pirate town of Weltoria and speak with your old pirate friend Manoi by the docks at night, you can call in that favor he owes you, and have him take you by boat to the Bachmane imperial city of Contrabal. He really, REALLY doesn't want to do this, because the risks are enormous -- but as main characters go, you're kind of delightfully dickish (in case you hadn't noticed as such by now!), so you easily manage to guilt him into it.

If you take Elise up on her offer, you're actually going to want to head through Rifania's south exit into Contrabal first and foremost -- and if you take Manoi up on his offer, you'll be there already, so... great!

One thing I'm going to note here, since I'm not sure where else to note it: you're not able to warp to or from either town in Bachmane (Contrabal and Rifania) with either a Hawkin Shell OR the Fe Pectom spell, for the entirety of the game. If you try, you'll be told there's a magical barrier over all of Bachmane preventing it. So from here on out, whenever you want to enter Bachmane, you'll have to warp to Tenerbe and walk into either Contrabal or Rifania on foot.

Contrabal is the most interesting town in the game IMHO, as it just feels very... oppressive. And it's HUGE. And the NPCs are all brainwashed cultists who praise the name of Queen Olmam, or try to sell you on the theology she essentially created here. It's really creepy!

There's one NPC in particular, however, whom you need to talk to during the day. He's somewhere in the southern part of the city, and he'll identify you as an outsider... because he, too, is an outsider who managed to sneak into Bachmane with a fake ID! He tells you that the item shop owner here will sell you one too, if you want.

Enter the item shop, and you'll immediately trigger a cutscene where you ask the item shop owner to make you a fake ID. He tells you to quiet down (and swears to have some words with the NPC who told you about his side business), and to come back at night.

Use a Will Poe's Hourglass, or just enter and leave the inn until nightfall, and then go back into the item shop. The owner will try to sell you a fake ID for an absolutely exorbitant amount of money, but you'll basically laugh in his face. He then tells you you're out of luck -- pay, or you get no ID. You tell him, OK, you'll go outside and ask to borrow the money you need from a town guard. He tells you that this would get him arrested, and you'd be arrested as well, and you're just like, "That's fine. It'd be worth it." Did I mention how delightfully dickish you are in this game?

After a bit more back and forth, the item shop owner decides he doesn't want to take the chance that you might not be bluffing, and reluctantly just GIVES you a fake ID (a "Haiphon Ticket") for free, making you swear you'll never bother him again and you'll never tell another soul about this. After this point, the item shop here will be forever closed to you.

But that doesn't matter, because you are now able to enter and leave Contrabal and Rifania at will! Yaaaay!

Before leaving, one thing worth noting is that you can attempt to enter the building that looks like a church on the north side of town (it has two entrances, both with stairs leading up to them), but if you do so, the attendant will tell you that it's Bachmane's holy temple, and no mere peasants are allowed inside. You'll then be kicked out. How rude! You'll have to remember this for later.

Anyway, now that you're able to enter and leave these towns at will... well, I'd suggest taking the northwest exit from Contrabal back to Tenerbe so you can pray at the church (since neither Contrabal nor Rifania have churches), then taking the southeast exit from Tenerbe to Rifania, since Rifania is where you need to be.

Rifania is a mostly ruined town, with lots of totally destroyed buildings and townsfolk who all resent Bachmane and claim that they will never recognize this town as Rifania -- it will always be Saris to them. A couple townsfolk also speak of pretty young women in town going missing, and one or two mention strange, ritualistic goings-on in the ruins of Saris Castle at night.

Meanwhile, all the guards in town sing the praises of Queen Olmam and the mighty Bachmane kingdom. It is, again, pretty creepy stuff, and very effective at setting a mood (which the music that plays here and in Contrabal also helps set).

Anyway, your goal is the castle on the north side of town, which is eerily devoid of monsters (but does have traps for the first time in the game, with spikes rhythmically rising from and retracting back into the floor at certain spots -- be sure you don't get caught on them, as they'll eat away your health!). If you enter the castle during the day, you'll find it's COMPLETELY empty, whereas if you enter it at night, you'll find a group of cultists near the altar. DO NOT APPROACH THESE CULTISTS YET -- doing so will trigger a cutscene and a boss battle, after which point you'll be locked out of the Saris Castle ruins forever, cutting you off from any treasure you might have missed. Take the time to thoroughly explore the castle, and use a Suiren's Bell or cast Sepethmyda when you're done to ensure you haven't missed any treasure BEFORE continuing with the story.

Note that in the southeastern-most room, all the way in the back, you'll find a "mysterious sword" on the ground (I believe the Japanese was なぞのツルギ, though it might have been なぞのつるぎ written entirely in hiragana). It's invisible, but when you step on the right spot, you'll automatically bend down and pick it up, commenting that maybe you can sell it at a weapon shop for a decent sum of money. This is not an equippable weapon, and I've genuinely never been able to figure out what it does -- using it does nothing, and while I did try to speak with some item shop owners about it, nobody would acknowledge that I had it... and then, all of a sudden, I *didn't* have it anymore. Like, it just vanished from my inventory after a time, and I'm not sure when, nor what happened to it -- I definitely never sold it to anyone, because I couldn't! It's all very strange, as it seemed to be an optional secret item of some kind, and if anyone else happens to know what its purpose is, I'd love to hear about it.

Secret items aside, make sure you're well stocked with Zan Riksche +4s (like, buy a full inventory's worth, because you're not going to be able to visit a shop again for quite some time), and then when you're ready, approach the cultists by the altar (remember, they'll only show up at night!), and you'll note that at the head of the pack is your arch-nemesis, Leschel Karos... and on the altar, asleep through some foul magic, is Princess Mirim!

You'll demand that Leschel wake her up, and Leschel will tell you that she can't be woken up due to the strength of the magic used to knock her out, to which you'll respond by calling Leschel a pervert. He'll brush this aside, and basically reveal that he planned on infusing himself with her royal blood to make himself stronger... or something? I forget his exact motivations, but they were pretty typical villain things. After he monologues a bit, you'll basically tell him that he's a dead man, and he'll tell you that no, he's not -- because he's not going to be your opponent. Instead, the rest of Sorcery Squad Vifo will be your opponents!

Thus begins a rather easy boss battle -- you start out totally surrounded, and can try to break away, but you're probably better off just holding the attack button and facing your enemy, then healing with a Zan Riksche +4 when you reach "dying" status. In no time at all, every member of Vifo will be dead, and you can turn your attention to Leschel himself... who can be killed pretty much the same exact way: just approach him and hold the attack button, healing whenever you need to. Between him and his cronies, you'll only go through maybe 4 or 5 Zan Riksche +4s before winning the fight.

This triggers a story scene whereupon you shatter Leschel's mask, revealing his face. You more or less ask if he has any last words, and he laughs, telling you that as long as he has his magical armor, your pathetic Wind Sword Sartarus can't touch him -- only the fabled Void Sword Seilreet can pierce that unpierceable plate, which he feels confident revealing to you because Seilreet is apparently hidden away so thoroughly that you have no hope of ever finding it, so your vengeance can never truly be fulfilled! (Typical villain scheming: give away crucial info as a taunt, under the assumption the hero will never be able to use it. When will villains ever learn?)

After taunting you with this info, Leschel teleports away... in a ball of fire. Which ignites the entire castle and causes it to start crumbling around you. You quickly grab the still-unconscious Mirim and throw her over your shoulder (I guess?) -- note that Al, who is presumably by your side during this encounter, says and does NOTHING WHATSOEVER this entire time (stupid Al!) -- and your goal is to high-tail it out of there to safety!

(Incidentally, where are all the rest of the kidnapped women? When you return to Eliselem later on, the old man's granddaughter seems to have been returned to him safe and sound, so you presumably rescued ALL the kidnap victims... but the only one you ever see is Mirim! Seems kind of odd.)

You'll barely walk two steps before falling through a hole in the ground -- it may be possible to successfully leave the castle, but it seems like no matter what you do, the floor will give way beneath your feet eventually before you're ever able to find a viable exit.

After a quick load, you'll land in a set of underground catacombs, which is easily the largest and most complex dungeon yet, full of traps (floor spikes, as well as metal shutters that open and close) and teleporters (which you should completely ignore, since they never take you anywhere you can't get to through normal exploration, and warping elsewhere will just get you completely turned around). This is the first dungeon I actually broke out paper and drew a map of, as I quickly realized I could never re-enter it once I left.

...And yeah: you only have one shot to get all the treasure in this dungeon, because the second you find the stairs leading out and climb up them, you'll be back in Contrabal, emerging from the battle arena entrance for some reason (?!), and any attempt you make to re-enter (from either Contrabal OR Rifania) will be met with failure (or, rather, with a typical battle arena clerk).

Fortunately, you don't need to use the teleportation spell to find all the treasure in here like you do in most other dungeons -- it's all accessible from the get-go, so just cast Sepethmyda every now and again and try to get that unopened treasure chest count down to 0, then find the stairs and get out.

Once you've recuperated a bit, head back to Saia (northwest exit from Contrabal, then northwest exit from Tenerbe) and enter the castle during the day to return Mirim safely home. The king will thank you, as will Mirim (who woke up at some unspecified point) and Al (stupid, useless Al!). Mirim will then beg to join you on your quest, and you have the option to either tell her she'd be better off remaining in the castle and training to take over the crown, or telling her you'd be happy to have her accompany you. I forget which order these two options are presented in, but I don't think it actually matters if she joins you or not, since she barely ever says another word the whole time -- and worse still, if she joins you, Al joins you too as her bodyguard, and he says even less! The only time the two of them ever speak is when you stop by to visit the king (at which point Al makes fun of Mirim for being such a tomboy, saying they should call her "Prince Mirim" instead of "Princess Mirim," which goes over about as well as you'd expect!), or if you try to enter the church dungeon in Seltore again (at which point Mirim tells you it's wrong to break into a church at night, you tell her you've done it before, she agrees to join you after some cajoling, Al admonishes her for that, and you learn that she wields one of the four elemental swords, Neiphel, just like your Sartarus and Al's... whatever-the-hell-it's-called fire sword).

Whew! Anyway, your next goal is to find the whereabouts of the Void Sword Seilreet, since you'll need that in order to defeat Leschel Karos once and for all.

*** WALKTHROUGH PART SEVEN: SHIN HAN'S WILD RIDE ***

Ramaskael is a cool little town that definitely feels like an island paradise, and is also the only town in the game (aside from Zanoba Fortress, if you even count that) to have its own unique music. It's pretty good music, too, with some nice FM synth equivalents of steel drums.

The people of Ramaskael all speak in very simple sentences written entirely in katakana, which is roughly the equivalent of caveman speech in English -- so they say things like, "You no go into woods at edge of town. Woods cursed. They dangerous. People who go no come back." (Which is actually one of the things the villagers here will warn you about.) There are even a few villagers here who speak complete gibberish that I guess is supposed to be island speech. Except that your boatman friend claims otherwise: he's waiting for you by the docks during the day, and if you talk to him, he'll take you back to Miranta for free, but during the boat ride, you'll mention how you can't understand a word the people of Ramaskael said to you... and the boatman will inform you that the people of Ramaskael speak the same language as everyone else in Rune Worth, so they were probably just trying to mess with you.

I kind of suspect it's the boatman who's trying to mess with you, but I also like the idea of Ramaskael being a town full of trolls playing an elaborate group prank on all the tourists who happen by!

Anyway, surprisingly, though there IS a dungeon out in the forest on the northwest part of town, that's not where you'll find Shin Han. Instead, he's just... living in a house in town! You'll find him in the isolated house on the northwest corner of town, near the forest entrance but notably not within it.

Once you enter his house, you'll begin a VERY LONG story scene, so make sure you're saved and healed, you've prayed at the church in Miranta, etc. BEFORE you enter the house in the northwest corner of town. You can even check out the forest dungeon beforehand if you want, though as it's a completely optional dungeon that remains forever accessible to you, it's up to you when you want to tackle it (or even if you want to tackle it at all, though I would definitely recommend doing so if only for the treasures found within it). The only real advantage to waiting until after you speak with Shin Han is that you'll have a new sword to test out inside the dungeon if you wait (SPOILERS!).

Since it is optional, I'm going to go over the dungeon info now, so as not to disrupt the flow of the story after the whole Shin Han event takes place.

Entering the Ramaskael Woods involves walking into them just so: you need to first walk west into the wooded corner of town, then once you can't walk any farther west, walk north and you'll enter the dungeon. It might take a few tries to find just the right path.

Once inside, the dungeon is fairly modestly sized and easy to navigate compared to most of the other dungeons you've encountered so far. There are also no hidden treasure chests, so you can use the Sepethmyda spell or a Suiren's Bell to check and see how many treasure chests there are, and how many remain unopened, and when you see the line vanish that tells you there are unopened treasure chests, that means you've gotten them all.

The first treasure chest you should get is the one closest to the entrance: after you enter the dungeon, turn left and follow the path, and you'll score a new piece of armor right away, which is of course extremely helpful. There are lots of other good treasures in this dungeon too, though, including several level-ups.

In order to fully navigate the forest, however, you'll need to have some Ranyules on hand and/or lots of MP to spend on the Chenbath spell, as this dungeon has poison swamp sections that not only cause you to move more slowly, but also poison you as soon as you touch them. Poison in this game depletes your HP *very, very quickly*, so as soon as you set foot out of the swamp area, use a Ranyule or cast Chenbath to cure yourself -- and note that if you cast Chenbath, you'll continue to take poison damage as you're chanting the spell, so it's probably better to just buy a lot of Ranyules prior to exploring this dungeon (since those take effect instantaneously).

Another reason to make sure you have lots of Ranyules on hand is that some of the enemies here are capable of inflicting the "dementia" status ailment on you... which is basically this game's equivalent of "mute," preventing you from casting magic at all. And as far as I can tell, no items cure this status effect, so your only hope if you're struck by it is to go back to town and either visit a church or sleep at an inn.

There IS a boss in the forest, but... as far as I can tell, you don't get anything for beating it. It's almost like a trap boss: once you enter the boss' room, you can't leave until you've defeated it, but that's literally your ONLY reward. And if it's meant to be a trap, it's not a very good one, as the forest boss is without a doubt the single easiest boss in the entire game -- you're very likely to take no damage whatsoever during the fight, even on your first try. I went back to fight it again a few times, thinking MAYBE there'd be some change, but... nope! It's always there, every time you enter the boss room, but defeating it never seems to accomplish anything. Weird!

Anyway, with the Ramaskael Woods fully explored, it's back to the village, and specifically to Shin Han's house. Enter when ready...

Shin Han will immediately know who you are, and tell you he's been expecting you -- it seems the Detour sent him a message to let him know you were coming. You get right down to business, asking him to please let you have the Void Sword Seilreet... but Shin Han reports that he doesn't have it anymore. He does know where it is, though, and you beg him to give you that information.

He says you should know that you aren't the only one seeking the Void Sword -- there is another, and he's listening in on this conversation right now from outside the window. Shin Han tells the eavesdropper to come in, and through the door emerges none other than your archenemy Leschel Karos himself!

You immediately take up an offensive stance, but Shin Han tells you to stay your blade, as both you and Leschel are his guests, and he must insist that all guests be welcomed within his house. Leschel seems a bit less friendly, immediately making a move to kill Shin Han so he can't tell you the location of Seilreet -- but Shin Han effortlessly freezes him in his tracks.

It's not just Leschel Karos who's been frozen, however, but you as well. You're both completely paralyzed, and Shin Han says that it's not up to him who may claim Seilreet, but up to the gods, for they are the ones who currently possess it. He says he will send both you and Leschel Karos to the land of the gods to speak with them directly and plead your cases, and before you can object, you fall unconscious.

You reawaken to find yourself in the presence of Eatils, Garlasoon, and Will Poe -- basically, God, the devil, and the time lord. (That certainly escalated quickly!) Your visit was... seemingly unannounced? As they're all a bit surprised (and perhaps a little annoyed) to have a human being suddenly pop into their divine living room (or whatever the heck this place happens to be). There's also no sign of Leschel Karos or Shin Han, and it's never really specified where either of them went (you will encounter Leschel Karos later on, but that's the last you'll see of Shin Han for the entire game; if you try to visit his house again later, it'll just say that he's not home).

Although initially a bit daunted to be in the presence of not one, but three divine figures, you still manage to plead your case, stating that your entire life's mission now centers around obtaining the Void Sword Seilreet and taking your vengeance upon Leschel Karos with it. The gods tell you that Seilreet is a powerful sword that reflects the heart of its wielder, and only those with the right temperament can call it their own. They agree to give it to you, but only if you can overcome three ordeals.

The first ordeal is presented to you by Garlasoon (the devil), and is designed to test your physical strength and determination. It's basically just a straightforward boss battle, and it's... really, really easy. You'll take damage, but even without the upgraded armor from the Ramaskael Woods, you'll take SO LITTLE damage that you probably won't even need to use a single healing item the entire time.

The second ordeal is presented to you by Eatils (God), and is designed to test your compassion and selflessness. It's another boss battle, but your opponent is... Princess Mirim! She'll come at you with her water sword and try to hack you to pieces, and if you land even a single hit on her, Eatils will fail you and tell you to try again. The only way to pass this ordeal is to just... let Mirim kill you. Don't fight back, and don't heal. Eatils will revive you after the fight, and tell you that you showed a noble spirit of sacrifice, willing to die rather than to hurt someone you love. (How you managed to fall in love with Mirim this quickly, I'll never know, but you don't argue with Eatils on this point, so I guess it must be true!)

The third ordeal is presented to you by Will Poe (the time lord), and is... five more multiple-choice quiz questions about game lore, a la the three you were asked earlier by the Detour of Weidelm. These are much harder questions that require digging even deeper into the velvet-bound book included with the game (and one even requires looking something up on the map that came with it), so once again, if you can't read Japanese or didn't pick up this game complete-in-box, you're theoretically screwed... except that I've got the answers for you right here!

FIRST QUESTION: What was the tool used by Eatils to create the heavens and the earth?

FIRST ANSWER:
This is part of the game's creation myth, where the book describes Eatils taking a giant piece of holy cloth and draping it over the land, folding it and tucking it in in spots to create the shapes of the mountains and the rivers and such. This makes the correct response:

• Holy Cloth of Andius (answer #4)

SECOND QUESTION: What are the highest-level masters of god-magic called?

SECOND ANSWER:
This one's kind of a trick question that actually fooled me the first time around. Basically, there are many different types of magic in the game's mythos, with god-magic being just one of them... and there are two different names for masters of god-magic: Rune Patam and Rune Calpa. I answered Rune Patam my first time around, but the key is the "highest-level" part of the question, as the book talks fairly extensively about Rune Patams, but then later talks about Rune Calpas being even more proficient. So the correct response is actually:

• Rune Calpa (answer #5)

THIRD QUESTION: In wave-magic, a special breathing/meditation technique is used to focus the wave energy within one's body, and there are seven locations on the body where that wave energy resonates. What are these seven locations called?

THIRD ANSWER:
This is a very specific mouthful of a question, but that does mean the answer's fairly clear... once you actually find it in the book. (Incidentally, though the book identifies these by the name you're required to give in response to this question, it also notes that they're alternately called "chakras," and identifies wave-magic as another name for the real-life practice of Kundalini Yoga!)

• Seats of Ohm (answer #5)

FOURTH QUESTION: What is the name of the island in the land of Rune Worth upon which a large volcano sits?

FOURTH ANSWER:
Easy one! Just look at the map that came with the game, and check all the islands. Find the one that has a volcano drawn on it, and boom, there's your answer. There's even an official English spelling for this one! And it's kind of a funny one -- but, I guess when you're cursed, you need SOMEONE to lean on, right? The correct response, therefore, is:

• Cursepal Island (answer #2)

FIFTH QUESTION: Although all the gods were born of the One True God Eatils, only one of the gods was born specifically from his bosom. What is the name of that specific god?

FIFTH ANSWER:
A nice, easy one to go out on!

• Genpadal (answer #1)

And again, you can see these questions being answered in-game via the following YouTube video link (not my video): https://youtu.be/MwpndLSa-00?t=26s

Answer all five correctly and you'll be presented with the Void Sword Seilreet. Answer any of them incorrectly, and you'll be asked all five of them again -- so if you don't have access to this guide, the book, or the internet, you might as well just reset your MSX, since it's unlikely you'll ever progress past this point!

If you do answer all five correctly, though, Seilreet is yours, but the gods issue you a warning before handing it over to you: with the mighty Void Sword in your possession, a new fate awaits. There are multidimensional wills that threaten all of Rune Worth -- beings that the gods themselves sealed away long ago, but which have escaped and now seek to undo the very fabric of the world. These evil wills have manifested in Bachmane, as evidenced by portents such as the wanton destruction of Saris Kingdom -- and the wills have perhaps even taken the form of major players within the Bachmane ruling class, such as Queen Olmam Bach herself. Seilreet is a mirror of the one who bears it, so it can be used for great evil just as easily as for great good, making it a dangerous weapon indeed. And as they say... with great power comes great responsibility!

In other words, you only wanted this sword to get your revenge, but your ultimate destiny may be something far nobler...

With that in mind, you're sent back to Shin Han's house, which is now empty (and will remain empty for the rest of the game). Seilreet is officially in your inventory as a new weapon, so be sure to equip it right away -- it's significantly more powerful than the Wind Sword Sartarus, and fires multiple projectiles at once in a spread pattern rather than simply firing projectiles straight out in front of you. In other words... it rules, and there's preeeeeetty much no reason to ever touch Sartarus again (except during the final battle, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it!).

Also note that any Holy Symbols of Cain you've used to increase your weapon level apply to Seilreet just as much as they apply to Sartarus -- your weapon level is part of your character, not the weapon you had equipped at the time. So when you first equip Seilreet, you'll be equipping something like a level 4 or level 5 Seilreet, assuming you've been keeping up with dungeon exploration.