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Update 24: Party in Kazan!
Stella. What the hell is this?
It’s a rock with a stick in it!
I can see that. What I meant was, what am I supposed to do with this!?
You could bash things over the head with it! You know, just grab the stick part and bonk monsters over and over with the rock!
Nnrgh...! It’s... it’s kind of a little on the heavy side. I don’t know if I can do my job well while carrying this around.
Oh. I see.
N-Not that I don’t appreciate the gift. Um, thank you Stella. Maybe it’ll be good for fighting on the front lines or something. If I ever decide to do something like that.
Hee hee! I think he liked it!
...I just don’t have the heart to tell her.
For this update, we’re going to be focusing on questing as there are a ton of quests we can clear out of our backlog now. First up, Collect A Big Acorn!
Big Acorns can be snagged from Tanucorns. Those can be found either in the Melluride Mines or on Mt. Jomaron.
An acorn... like this one?
This acorn is definitely much larger than usual. Intriguing. Whoever came up with the saying never saw an acorn like this, huh? I'm not sure precisely how to amend the idiom. "Mighty oaks from little acorns grow, but mightier oaks from mighty acorns." Hmm... this is important. People will be saying this for centuries...
How fascinating. If you’re done with your rambling, we’ll just get going.
Oh, don't go! I just got lost in thought a moment. Let me show you this as a token of my gratitude.
...
We appreciate your gift.
Yeah this is where you would “normally” get the Botany gathering skill, except you can buy this in Pleroma far earlier.
You should be able to find plants with this. Thanks! I'll let you know if I need more help.
But, keep it a secret. People should still be able to enjoy little acorns too.
A pretty simple fetch quest with a nice reward. Mind Guards provide a bit of protection against mental ailments. Unfortunately, no such courtesy is extended to Charm.
I pick up this quest while we’re in the quest office, as we can clear it out at the same time as the others. Don’t worry about the 5 star rating, the actual quest itself is really easy to complete.
I'm in charge of all this. I found a strange box just yesterday. Apparently it won't open if I don't solve this puzzle. Oh oh, and there was a note attached too, read it...
Hmm, let’s see now...
I've become old after researching for years. Soon I'll retire. But I want to pass along my research first. Whoever finds this box finds my entire life. Complete my study, the goal I failed to reach. Sincerely, W---y P.S. The key is in knowledge. Line them up head first.
...Eh?
...Now what does that mean? Is "knowledge" Pleroma? Or a book? And the rest isn't much better? Head first? What does that mean? And the part with the missing characters is hard to parse too. Anyway, examine the bookshelves and maybe we'll find something!
Oh dear. Okay so uh, right off the bad we have a translation mistake. Or writing mistake. Whatever you want to call it.
Wait, are you sure you read that note right? I’m pretty sure that wasn’t a “w” and a “y”.
Yes, please. That one part actually looked more like...
A “k” and an “e”.
A moment of silence for any people who would have been led astray by such a blunder.
Don’t be too hard on them. At least we caught the mistake in time!
So this puzzle had some wordplay in it, so obviously it had to get changed. However as you can see, asking to read the note again gives you an entirely different hint here. The one the librarian gives when you ask for the hint again is the real hint, and the first instance of the hint was wrong.
We don’t have to go too far to start this puzzle, as it all takes place in this room to the right of that librarian.
All 5 of these books have switches behind them. Pressing them in the correct order will solve the puzzle. There’s no consequence to pressing the wrong switch, aside from having to restart the puzzle, so you can easily brute force it as the puzzle resets the instant the wrong switch is touched.
Hmm... Head first. Ah! Maybe the first letter of each book?
That note was signed with “K---e”. So I guess we start with “k”, then end with “e”? But what about the rest of the letters?
Well we gotta make a name outta the others so, aha! I got it! “Kitae”!
...
Um, are you sure it’s not just “Katie”?
O-oh. Right. Yeah, that works too.
The solution is to just press in switches in this order.
Now what?
Lets check back in with that librarian. Maybe they found something after we pressed those switches.
But, this one is like a small machine! Let me try to open it!
A flash of white.
What the!?
H-how’d we get outside!?
The librarian looks around.
Oh, I see! This is a portable portal device! Its creator must have been researching portals in the past! It's incomplete, but still, amazing tech! ...Hmm... since it's so unstable, it won't work over long distances. It might be enough to get people up to the top floor of here.
Awww. I was hoping I could just zip around and teleport everywhere.
Ark, I don’t think that’s a good idea. What if you accidentally teleport into the floor, or a wall?
Oh. Yeah, good point.
Yeaah... oh, sorry! Good work! Hey, how'd you find it, anyway?
It was pretty easy. We just spelled out the name of the person in the letter using the first letter of each title in the books nearby.
Oh? Put books in order? Initials... ascending...
What? No we just spelled out a name, what’s this about ascending?
Ah, that makes sense! Finishing this study was my eternal dream, my truest heart's desire. That's what the notes included say, anyway. Ah, how romantic! It's nice to find a thing like that in research. Anyway, thanks a lot for your help this time!
...In exchange for your help, I can send you straight to the top floor!
They won’t do this now. We have to turn in the quest to unlock the teleport option.
If you’re wondering how this puzzle worked in the Japanese version of the game, it was quite different.Pokeytax posted:
Twilight is actually the only one that was in the original. I had to reshuffle them anyway for mechanical reasons so I went ahead and renamed them, partly to carry through a possible implication of the original names, partly because I thought three classics and Twilight was a good gag, partly self-indulgence.
The original names were Tales of Watatsumi, Maelstrom, Twilight (in katakana), and Nobara no Mori. If there's a deeper meaning there I dunno what it is.
The overall puzzle was the same in the original, spell out the writer’s name using the first character of each book. Though instead of “Katie”, you had to spell out “Towa no Yume”.
Not too hard a quest, though I wouldn’t be surprised if people went the brute force route due to the botched hint.
...Will you be going up?
Yes! Roger that, boss! How may I help you!!
And now we have a shortcut up to the very top.
You can interact with this shining spot to leave the tower quickly as well, though I won’t be doing that just yet.
I bet all those people are going to be relieved they don’t have to climb up all those stairs all the time now!
We can start the Crack the Code quest 1 floor below where the Long Lost and Found quest took place.
I have no idea what it means. I give up. Maybe a Hunter who has traveled the world might know?
We’re actually not going to do this quest right away, as it’ll involve us traveling around the world. Instead, I’m going to start Imeppo’s Challenge, which takes place 1 floor above this one.
Welcome to the annual 7th Dragon Trivia Show! How well do you know the world of 7th Dragon? Let’s find out!
Imeppo will ask you several questions, all true or false. You only have one shot at this quiz to get everything right. Outside of resetting the game.
I’ll tell you the answers, but just in case you want to solve it for yourselves, I’ll be putting them behind spoiler bars.
As for the answer to this question, false! It’s Black’s Weapons.
False. She married a historian.
This is true. Sougen does indeed have a beard.
False, there are only 2 of them, and only one of them is reachable and has a gag item inside.
False. The count is very close, but there are 33 women, and 35 men in Nevanplace.
True. The frostbitten girl makes a point of it having never snowed, and even sense you on a sidequest to bring some back.
False. You can only find a total of 18 G from pots in Kazan.
True. The inn fee is actually 10 G.
True. It was the first delicacy we were sent to find in that quest line.
True. We haven’t done that quest yet, but that is the name of the item we return with in that quest line.
False, the delicacy we were sent to get was Mormon Cactus.
False, there are only 4 sheep in Simon village.
Sadly true. Unless you really hate cats, then I guess that would be gladly true.
We haven’t been there yet, but this is true.
False, he’s been called a child numerous times, and someone who is 20 years old is an adult.
Okay now this is just getting into obscure bullshit. The answer is true. I don’t know what even reveals this.
The answer is false. I don’t know what even reveals this either.
True, that is its attack rating.
True, that is what it sells for.
True. They do not have those in stock at all.
False. The fastest you can get there is 23 steps.
False. The Bloom Seed has even lower life, at only 1 life compared to their 20 Life.
Okay how the hell are you supposed to know this!? True, by the way.
We haven’t been there yet, but true. If anyone knows of the real place it’s based on once we reach it, please do enlighten me.
False. Every class has a Rushe portrait. It can be tricky to see, but Princess 4 is indeed a Rushe. Her ears are just drooped instead of perked up.
False. There are 69 quests in the entire game.
Okay hold up. This question was mistranslated. What it’s actually asking is that “If you were to buy one of every item from every store, the total cost would exceed 100000 G.”
It’s true either way. Several items are close to 10k G, so you’d easily spend that much even at 100% prices if you were to do such a thing.
Thankfully false, imagine paying that much for a DS game! The MSP is 5,040 yen, tax included.
False, it’s Rieko Kodama!
True indeed, I hope you were keeping count.
Great! Fantastic! I didn't expect you to get them all right!
Woo hoo! We’re the trivia masters!
Stella, do you even know what he was talking about half the time? We haven’t even been to some of those locations he mentioned!
Yeah, we were just kind of guessing on some of those questions.
Ha! Even then we got a perfect score after guessing that much! We’re just that amazing!
So uh, what do we get for doing this quiz show. We gotta get something special for getting them all right!
Eh? What do you win? You win the honor of your score on my quiz!
Not like we can complain. It was fun, and we didn’t have to do a whole lot!
Ultimately even though some of those questions were bullshit, it doesn’t matter. It was just a nice little for fun thing, and you don’t get any extra rewards depending on how you did. Heck, feel free to button mash to get through this quickly. 
Is there even a need to hold them back from us considering that we answered every one of your questions right?
To be fair, if we got every one of them right, then we don’t need to be told the right answers anyway.
It’s a nice fun little quest. Nothing too big.
Now let’s handle Crack the Code. The first hint was “Do -- Mi Fa So La Ti.”.
Do Re Mi Fa so La Ti... I think this might be the place!
Ya really sure there’s something around here?
Can’t hurt to have a quick look at least.
Can you solve it?
Incidentally, there’s a salvage point in the lake near Nevanplace.
The prize isn’t great.
Hmm. 45, 12, 33, and 15. What could it mean?
I take it we have to start from this point. They’re clearly directions of some kind, but just how do we follow them?
The positioning of those numbers gotta have something to do with that as well...
Hmm, from the way those numbers were laid out on that sheet... I think I got it! We walk 45 steps north, 12 steps west, then 33 steps east, and then 15 steps south! Simple as that!
How perceptive of you, Stella. But you are overcomplicating things.
Huh? What do you mean?
There are some redundant steps in those directions if we were to do as you suggested. We’d be doubling back a few times as a result. If we just cut such cases out...
So just subtract the numbers from each other, then...
Aha! 30 steps north, then 21 steps east. That’s what you were getting at, right?
Indeed I was. You’re putting that brain to more use, I see.
Heading to this tile and pressing A will lead us to the next step.
By the way I hope you memorized that puzzle, because if you try to go back for a refresher:
The translation accidentally deleted the puzzle hint on repeated asks. The first instance given to us is the correct hint.
Three times, so...
So each of those dots represented a knock. So we have to knock on the stump the correct number of times. When we’re done with a set of knocks, say no to move onto the next set.
Oh, I think that was one too many knocks there, Stella.
If you get it wrong, you’ll just have to repeat this step from the beginning.
First we do 2 sets of knocks.
Then 1 set.
And finally, 3 sets.
HUH!?
Could ya say that again?
...Come again?
Sorry, I meant “Eciffo Tseuq Ssorim”.
That still doesn’t make any sense!
Ark, calm down, and let’s think on this for a moment.
It’s not like we have to complete this right away. We should take all the time we need to think it over.
Eciffo... Effico... E-c-i-f-f-o... You know if you spell it out, it’s like office... backwards...
...Miross Quest Office!
Hoo boy, so we have a double whammy this time. So that first hint was... not even a hint at all. Possibly a mental note groaning at the string of Japanese nonsense that Pokeytax forgot to take out. The second hint is also not helpful either. However, in Japanese, it’s actually Miross Quest Office spelled backwards. I’ve noticed that backwards words and phrases tends to be a bane of translators, likely because it just looks like a string of nonsense unless you are very intimate with the language. So I can understand the second blunder, though the first one is far less excusable and just straight up sloppy.
Can you solve it?
This puzzle is pretty easy. Just know what the alphabet is. Of course, just because you know the answer doesn’t mean you’ll know the entire solution unless you’ve been paying attention to the world of 7th Dragon.
R-E-M-U-S... What the heck is a REMUS?
Oh, Remus was the name of... Doris’ horse...
...
Ha, so you were the one that came up with all this, huh?
Hmm hmm, that would be just like him to put us up to this world spanning puzzle.
Kazan truly lost a great man that day...
We’ll make sure to carry on his legacy...
A big statement, Stella. We’ll have a lot to live up to if we hope to do such a thing.
Eh, I’m sure we can pull it off! We’ve taken down 2 Imperials, and sent a 3rd on the run, and are still alive, aren’t we?
Having fun is important, and he wanted to give Hunters a little break.
Hee hee! I’m sure he’d be glad to know we had a lot of fun doing this.
And here's the prize he left for the solver ♪
Well then, Odyssey. Good luck out there!
Fortunately, Erin’s threat was covered up by her portrait, as there a line break that wasn’t put there, so I’m safe for telling you these solutions. But here’s what she actually said:
And if I ever hear you've told anyone the answers... YOU'LL BE SOR-RY ♪
Eep.
D-duly noted.
Funnily enough, this quest doesn’t actually count as completed, so you can cancel it at this point and do it all again. However they thought of that and instead of Doris’s Belt, you’ll just be rewarded with a Heal Aerosol at the end. Not a great way to farm those, so I don’t recommend doing this.
Doris’s Belt is a really good accessory that grants a ton of Life and Mana to the user. I mull over on who I want to put this on, but eventually I decide to put it on Nila by the next update, as she’s going to be making use of a lot of her firepower on the Invisible mission.
Sorry, buddy. But we can’t tell ya! Hee hee!
If you want to know that badly, try solving it for yourself!
...Huh? You can't tell me? Solve it myself? That can't be... I'm begging youuuu!
Pretty good rewards all around, and that was a fun enough quest that was unfortunately marred by mistranslation and straight up technical writing mistakes.
Next up on the docket is this quest. It’s a lot more simple than the quest we just embarked on.
I'm busy with this new menu...
Wait, you sent him directly to our house?
Oh geez, this is probably gonna get ugly if we don’t get there fast.
Uh oh. I hope Cowabunga is behaving well.
I've come here to teach you cooking!
Not quite alone. We were keeping him company while we were waiting for you.
I’m just glad we were able to calm down Cowabunga before things got out of hand.
Taking some cooking lessons, I see! It would be nice to add more recipes to our repertoire!
Let's start right away! That's what I ought to say. But your pantry is bare.
Hmm. Remind me to restock after we’re done here. Gonna have to go on more hunting and fishing trips later.
Ooh ooh! Can I come on your next trip? I wanna help ya catch some big game!
Ho ho ho! Sure, Ark! I’ll even teach you how to build some real efficient hunter traps!
Hmph. She’s never shown such an interest in helping us out like that before. So what exactly do you need for this lesson?
Please bring me the following ingredients:
Shining Jelly can be obtained from Ice Slimes in Zenda Thicket. Elastic Tentacles can be obtained from Ropers on the ocean. And Valuable Horns can be obtained from Rhinos on the western continent. I go and snag those ingredients for him.
Now, watch carefully. Don't blink, and don't look away, please...
Gah! Dust got in my eyes. The rest of you saw what he did at least, right?
Mmhmm, I think I got it!
I'll leave a list of my specialties here if you forget.
An enlightening lesson. Thank you for your time.
Such scrumptious meals we now have the ability to cook for ourselves!
I can’t wait to try them out!
Well then, please excuse me.
The chef leaves.
First, closely examine the cooking pot.
Bizarrely, some text seems to have gotten cut off here by the game and the chef leaves immediately after saying that line. They were supposed to add this line afterwards before leaving.
Then, decide which ingredients you want.
And we’re given a recipe list. This tells us what ingredients we need along with the items they’ll make. Cooking is not a particularly robust mechanic in this game. Most of these items can just be bought from stores, aside from the Bloom Risotto, which can only be made here.
So, let’s start cooking.
From here you’ll be asked what you’ll want to put into the pot. Of course you can choose not to add anything.
Which results in nothing being made. Let’s actually make a dish this time.
7th Dragon is an adorably silly game. 
Ha ha ha! Bon a- EUGH!
What the hell is that!? Are ya sure ya followed that recipe correctly?
I’m pretty sure she did! We didn’t see her make any weird deviations or anything.
How odd, there’s a bit of lightning related magic in there. Just what did we create?
Hrm. I’m not sure if this recipe was intended to make anything edible. After all it’s called the Bloom Risotto, and I don’t know who would even dare eat such a thing. Rather...
Are you saying we created a weapon?
Looks like it. I can see some lightning crackling around it too!
Nrgh. Don’t get too excited. Whatever magic is in this isn’t really potent. Might be handy to toss out against the smaller wildlife, but not anything on the level of a dragon.
Worry not! If creating such an abomination was intentional, then surely following the recipes to create an actual dish should turn out spectacularly!
The Bloom Risotto is not a good item. It’s functionally equivalent to casting a level 1 Boltstorm. Not really worth it unless you really want some AOE Lightning damage.
Meh quest with a meh reward. Mixing time was adorable though.
And of course, I eat even the bad ones for research. ...Well, my husband does.
...Moving along!
Last quest we’ll be doing for this update.
That's why it's called a Dream. But you can do it!
Bear Paws can be obtained from Bugbears, which can be found near Simon Village. As for Fish Eyes, they drop from an enemy we haven’t seen yet but can encounter now.
I never really went into what enemies you can find in the southern seas, so let’s correct that.
Jackfish
Level: 37
LIFE: 180
ATK: 108
DEF: 56
INT: 36
SPD: 52
Attack Type: Blunt
Enemy Type: Large Animal
Exp: 313
Gold: 37
Item Drops:
-Normal: Fish Eye - 30% Drop Rate.
--Eye of a Jackfish.
-Rare: Fish Meat - Don’t kill with physical damage. 15% Drop Rate.
--Fish meat. For carnivores. Increases magic affinity for the day.
Damage Multipliers:
Slash: 125% Blunt: 100% Thrust: 100%
Fire: 100% Ice: 100% Lightning: 100%
Skills:
Poison Bite: Deals 130% melee ATK-based Blunt damage to one party member. Has a 40% chance to inflict Poison. Has a Poison power of 100% (Deals 23 Poison damage.) Has a speed modifier of 90%.
Jackfishes are basically the trash mobs of the southern seas. 23 poison damage is easily survivable and they don’t deal a whole lot of damage. That being said they do come in groups, so the damage can add up a lot if you don’t take them out fast.
Ocean Killer
Level: 38
LIFE: 300
ATK: 114
DEF: 75
INT: 45
SPD: 44
Attack Type: Blunt
Enemy Type: Large Animal
Exp: 434
Gold: 38
Item Drops:
-Normal: Big Tailfin - 30% Drop Rate.
--Fin of an Ocean Killer.
-Rare: N/A
Damage Multipliers:
Slash: 125% Blunt: 100% Thrust: 100%
Fire: 100% Ice: 100% Lightning: 150%
Skills:
Intimidate: 30% chance of inflicting Fear on the entire party. Has a speed modifier of 80%.
Despite how intimidating that sprite looks, these enemies are ultimately not that scary. They don’t have any special skills and Intimidate has a low rate of tagging party members. They are kind of on the tanky side but offensively they’re really not that bad.
Round Sunfish
Level: 38
LIFE: 200
ATK: 98
DEF: 70
INT: 40
SPD: 40
Attack Type: Blunt
Enemy Type: Small Animal
Exp: 347
Gold: 38
Item Drops:
-Normal: Fishy Skin - 30% Drop Rate. 5 needed to unlock the Shiranui. (Katana, +118 ATK.)
--Skin of a Round Sunfish.
-Rare: Fish Meat - Kill with elemental damage. 15% Drop Rate.
--Fish meat. For carnivores. Increases magic affinity for the day.
Damage Multipliers:
Slash: 100% Blunt: 100% Thrust: 100%
Fire: 100% Ice: 100% Lightning: 100%
Skills:
Thunderbolt: Deals ranged INT-Based Lightning damage to one party member. Has a base damage of 80. Has a speed modifier of 80%.
These things on the other hand, are more dangerous than the sharks, ironically. Thunderbolt can hit really hard, and Round Sunfishes like to come in groups where they can chip or straight up smack you down.
That’s all of the new enemies you can fight on the south seas. Ultimately, none of these are too rough to deal with, but they can whittle you down.
At any rate I pick up 3 Fish Eyes, so let’s go deliver them to the bartender.
Video: Party in Kazan!
I highly recommend watching the video if you can, as the charm of the upcoming scene cannot be contained in mere screenshots.
Yup, classic Odyssey. I'll make a Kazan Dream. All right! Guys, Odyssey here got me what I needed. That means... Tonight we party! Take a Kazan Dream!
Music fades out.
Together ♪
Hee hee! May I have this dance?
Wow, look at her go!
WOO HOO! You go, Stella!
Not out loud, you dolt!
Oh relax, it just looks like you’re the one saying that.
And you think that also wouldn’t be a problem for me, why?
Oh, just relax and dance! Come on!
Nnrrrghh... my head. What happened?
O-oh, y-ya don’t remember. D-don’t worry about it! Everyone agreed to forget about certain parts of that party. It just got a liiiitle out of control.
H-huh? Wh-what did I do? ...Wh-why’s Dia all curled up and shaking in the corner?
I-I hope to never witness a drunken Stella ever again in a thousand c-centuries! That was far more terrifying than I could have ever i-i-imagined...
Wow. Party animal didn’t even begin to describe her. Aside from the part where she was pretending to be an ape throwing barrels.
Pfft. I-I’ve never seen anyone devour a keg of beer that fast. Snrk. H-hey Stella, do you think you can perform that trick where you were bouncing off the walls on a steel keg again? Pffteehee!
O-oh, where’s everyone else...? Oyy...
All the others? They were up a while ago. Back at work. But, what a heck of a party. We're all grateful to you. Oh, hey! I'll thank you with a few skills I know.
And this quest is how we unlock 2 of the Fighter’s EX skills!
Whoooaaaa. Thanks. Saay, how do you know those kinds of skills?
You want to know how I know stuff like that? Haha... can't tell ya! I don't want anything to muck up my bar. So you guys are still on your journey? Well then, be sure you come back soon.
And, seriously... Thanks a lot.
If you leave and re-enter the bar...
Zzz...
This NPC starts giving out hints on where you can find EX skills. All of which I’ll list right now.
Nn... zzz...zzz... ...Fighter's... EX...in...Kazan... Zzz...
Nn... zzz...zzz... ...Knight's... EX...in...Miro... Zzz...
Nn... zzz...zzz... ...Rogue's... EX...in...Nevan... Zzz...
Is it a liquor? Lemme try it, then!
That was a nice little quest with a charming scene and some good rewards. Now let’s check out those EX skills we just got.
The first EX skill we’ll be looking at will be Hex Spike. The prerequisite for this one is really simple. Just max out Swordcraft. So this skill requires 16 SP in total to use.
This EX skill can only be used while wielding a Sword, so Axe users are locked out of this.
SLICE! DICE! CUT! CHOP! HACK! SLAAAASH!
This is probably my favorite EX skill animation in the entire game. It’s flashy and energetic, on top of being short.
Unfortunately now we get to the bad part. Hex Spike deals 150% Slash damage to one enemy. That’s it. No additional effects at all. Yeaaaahhh. Keen Edge level 7 deals 151% Slash damage instead, and that can be reached by spending 8 SP, and by spending 6 more SP for a total of 14 SP to max it out, it’ll deal 165% damage. Compared to the 16 SP it takes to get Hex Spike. Keen Edge does the exact same thing but better, only costing 4 Mana to use. There’s no reason to ever use Hex Spike, it’s utter trash.
Tidal Wave is also really simple to unlock. Max out Axecraft in order to unlock this skill, costing 16 SP in total to use this skill.
COWABUNGAAAAAAA!
Now unlike Hex Spike, Tidal Wave actually has a reason to be used over the other Axe skills. It only deals 150% Blunt damage to one enemy, but while several other skills outdamage this, it has a very strong additional effect. It can inflict Skill Seal, and is one of 3 player skills in the entire game that can do so! Not only that, it comes with a 75% infliction rate, which actually makes it the best skill for inflicting Skill Seal in the entire game! It can be especially strong when combined with a different EX skill, so Tidal Wave can absolutely be a worthwhile pickup for some parties.
With all the sidequests we can complete out of the way now, we’ll continue the mission to take down Invisible next time.