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S03E03: Day 1: Sweet Little God and The Throne Room
So. Like Laxius Power I and II, Laxius Power 3 has a place in the halls of the Top Dogs of Home of the Underdogs. Currently, it has a rating of 8.32 with 1952 votes.
Here's the review:
quote:
The third and best in the epic trilogy, Laxius Power III is one of the best freeware console-style RPGs made with RPG Maker 2000. Over one and a half years in the making, Laxius Power III offers a vast and very detailed gameworld that spans over 1,100 maps, 150 quests (including about 100 side quests), over 500 monsters, 22 controllable characters – all of which add up to 150-200 hours of playing time. The game picks up where the previous left off. The hero knight Random is reunited with his friends when they are invited by the king of Metrolia, the biggest town in the world. Naturally, all is not well: a mysterious evil aura is spreading, a sign that demons are inching toward their ultimate goal of usurping mankind.
Although language in the game is still quirky and inconsistent in terms of quality (English is obviously not the designer's native tongue), it is much better than the first two games. The ability to see the monsters before you fight them (in contrast to most console-style RPGs) is nice, since it gives you a chance to run away before the encounter takes place. The quests are also generally interesting, and there are many plot twists along the way. The non-linearity of the game is great, and the ability to split your party to do different tasks (like the classic Magic Candle games) is a nice touch. Add to this the excellent graphics and many nuances (such as character-specific dialogues and quests), and we have a captivating RPG that will keep fans of console-style games glued to their computer screens. A true labor of love, and a definite "two thumbs up" from me – French idiosyncracies notwithstanding.
That part comparing it to the Magic Candle games is... weird. Since it makes it sound like you can do party splits whenever you wish. That's very much not the case.
Anyway.
Time to look around Metrolia!
Laxius Power 3: The Final Terror OST: 06: Metrolian Street
That castle right there is not the king's btw.
The street the Inn of the Silver Eagle is on.
95% of places around here get you this dialogue from Sylvenia about how urgent the visit is because.... the opening is in two weeks? I don't get it. That's plenty of time.
We are briefly allowed to ooh and ah over the Museum which is at the end of Crystal Street.
That's the kings castle over on the right. Can't get there from here.
So I head back to the inn and take a couple 'steps' south.
We're meant to go north, but I head south. That Statue of Liberty knockoff in the 'Place Andre' is meant to be Yveen, I believe. Not sure if that's even mentioned until the ending. We'll see.
... Tyrine St....
At this point, Sylvenia says we're going the wrong way and Sarah and Luci just say we wanna look around a little!
Sylvie gets a little confused.
Bazizka!
Remember that book about Metrolia in LP1 that said you're not allowed to move into or even enter Metrolia without express invitation?
How does a city with rules like that even function.
If you move along the south wall of the city you get this dialogue about Sylvie trying to find a secret door she saw once when the wall was being built or something. She can't find it and says it just went into the wall and was empty and boring though, so no matter.
This is the only time in the game you can get the scene. If you progress the story a little bit, you won't be able to get it again and...
Sweet Little God won't be able to find it much later.
Shouldn't this be Fantasian St.?
One of the few places Sylvie doesn't nag at you for trying to enter.
Because the gate is locked. Dang!
I think the fucking huge corner turrets are unusuable for the entire length of the game. Another thing we'll have to see about.
I didn't try every single building, so there may be some other places we can enter, but this is the sole place we can check out right now.
There's not much going on in here, though a woman does mention a swamp being horribly dark and perfect for scum but there's some weird ass stuff there that would light it up.
Sarah points out the sign says GRAND Avenue.
Laxius Power 3: The Final Terror OST: 07: Castle
Random's hype to see the Throne Room and Sylvie says not to bother the guards cos she's friends with most of them.
The left side of the entry garden has nothing interesting going on.
Jesus Christ, Brad.
Sarah gets upset about how mean this is.
Shape up, Brad.
The right side of the garden also has nothing going on besides one of the few female guards who does not say anything interesting.
Across the moat, this guy literally lectures us about wearing white and black things in the sun. Thanks Indy.
Another guy tries to impress Sylvie with his new haircut (which Sarah says sucks.)
Just inside the entrance of the castle is a well-hidden Shark, which are still the same old Sharks we know and love.
Laxius Power 3: The Final Terror OST: 08: Inside The Castle
Feels like the exact opposite of what the Chief Guard should be saying but fine.
The central hall...
Luci and Sarah both gently rebuff this guy, Sarah mentioning that she's engaged.
And his counterpart talks about the old Metrolian Castle in the woods next to the city that has been abandoned. Since this one was built.
If you go straight past the statue...
There's an art gallery. Can't actually look at any of the exhibits but for one...
Looking at this wall... or the kingly painting...? Makes a white flash happen and...
You wind up in a dim room with a painting of a book on the floor.
Guess this is our shit now.
Door at the back of the art gallery leads to.... Hey those two guards are stuck between those candles and statues. You can't even talk to them and I can't imagine they'd be very effective if they have to run over and help with shit in their way. what if they knocked over the candles and started a fire in the art gallery full of legendary works of art (according to one patron this is the case and also one guard complains about how many tourists come here.)
Anyway, the doorway leads to a shrine to Yveen. A nearly(?) naked lady complains about being fired for being too sexy and believes Sariis will like her more.
Also when this guy welcomes us to the shrine, Luci asks if those statues are of Yveen.
Also there's a blank book here. I felt this was important to mention.
Backtrack to the entry...
Interesting...
This guy is a historian and him saying this provokes Sarah.
Wisdom.
Random says at least she remembers how to cast spells.
This guy is a cameo of former(?) community member. He's also credited and in the special thanks of LP2.
We have that! We have that!
I give it to Luci, even though Sarah can also wear it, because, well... Luci's Defense was even lower and now they're roughly even.
Back in the hall is a hidden chest.
Locked...
People turning into monsters in their own homes...
More chat about the old castle...
Walk over to the other side of the entry hall.
This guy raves about how we should find out more about the Underking because letting people and kingdoms spread without controls put on them is undesirable and oh god are these guys the World Police? Now I'm rooting for the utter destruction of Metrolia.
And this lady says a thing. Random remembers Eva but does not mention he kicked her ass twice/thrice.
This guy brings up a community that helps people explore the swamps.
Why?
This goober is in the last room.
And so is this... ?horny? lady.
I go upstairs.
The northern door is locked, so to the south.
Get this spellbook from WAR AND FIGHT. I give this to Luci.
It's not an especially good spell but it scales with stats a bit better than Necromogon.
what do you mean wonderful
And a shelf of magic books has this: +1 Mind. Give to Sarah.
What the hell kind of name is that
The northern door here is locked too, so we head into the south door again.
We did that! That was us! We did that! For some reason Random doesn't mention it though.
Back in the hall, we find out even chickens are getting dangerous.
Here's the bank. And we can earn interest!
I dump the vast majority of our PP for now.
Up more stairs...
We're not meant to go this way yet, but...
There's a fiery ball thing floating around.
If you touch it, you get into a fight where this thign doesn't do anything as you wail on it for a bunch of turns. Then when it dies, you go back to the map, everything is tinged red and the battle resumes.
Except now it regens a lot. You're not meant to do this crap here but you can't flee so... Well, you can't flee the first form, I didn't check on the second. I reload anyway.
This time I head north of the statue, up more stairs.
Sylvie tells this guy to forget her.
And then we're here.
The Duchess here also says no one told her we were all so beautiful.
Labacca.
lol
Carol
All is said! I'm always saying this.
The queen has little to say.
lol. just keep your mouth shut Sweet Little God.
We should have brought Chaz!.
Anyway the king says even in Metrolia they heard about everything in SankT Leona.
Right after he says this a clicking noise starts up and plays continuously for a while.
Laxius Power 3: The Final Terror OST: 09: CutScene Frenzy
And a guy bursts through the door over on the left and slowly walks towards one of the guards.
Pushes the guard out of the way, and then just slowly spins into the centre of the room. The queen cries out BARON SIEGFRIED as the King shouts for the guards to do something.
Luci effortlessly exorcises the baron with some kind of spell that makes the Holy Cross appear, and that thing above the barons head flies into the ceiling.
The Baron isn't doing very well, and has a headache, so...
He's lead back to the room he came from.
The party demands to know who would've sent a Black Eye to possess someone.
The king opens up after a bunch of prodding. This cult has been threatening the royals and the baron for some time now but they didn't take it seriously until literally right now.
For some reason the king declares the odds are against him even though he's the ruler of the most powerful and wealthy city on the planet and this is apparently just some dinky cult they didn't even think was a real threat!
Sarah, please. They may be Democrats. You're being very insensitive.
This is the kings actual excuse. They know this cult is hiding everywhere but they just can't catch them!
Oh, he's one of -those- guys. He fancies himself an Operator. That explains so much.
The King is not crazy about this offer, but the Princess is hyped for some Random action.
the what free.
The King relents but says he will only let the party do a little bit of work and will refuse all requests to let them help more.
This guy won't talk to just anyone, so we get a letter.
Random says, no prob you can come with. So Random and Luci are the mandatory partymembers for the first part of this game. We can ditch Sarah immediately should we wish.
The queen gives us a little something.
Oh, this was full on monster shit huh. Shame the sprites can't really communicate that.
lol.
DO SOMETHING ass royal court.
Yeah but 8 months ago Luci said the 'True Demons' invading due to their 'Daemoniac Cycle' would be in 2-3 years. We should have plenty of time bro.
Granted, even back in one of LP1's earliest cutscenes, one of the Evil Tower leaders said the daemonic aura was already spreading over the Deport and making animals and monsters more hostile.
Some of the guards in the hall either heard the noise, or take note of how frightened Sylvenia apparently looks and ask whats up.
This guy in particular is probably a serial killer.
Sure is.
One of the guard claims the palace guards are undefeatable.
And when we leave the castle, Sylvie ditches us, saying she needs a rest. We're transported back to the inn.
Coryool and Wendie are present now and don't get little prose intros like everyone else for some reason.
I put Coryool in the party for a moment.
He's still unimpressive, but he could be worse.
We go up to Marianne's on the top floor.
Random says it's too high even for Coryool, so Coryool punches it.
Thanks Coryool! I boot him from the party.
The Questbook summary for our current quest is actually pretty detailed, providing both context and everything we need to know like where the manor is. Hopefully all the quests are like that.
According to Errant, Wendies Lust-Cut still has its LP1 stats, meaning its already basically high level gear.
Wendie's not learnt any skills either.
So, there's different conversations partymembers can have in and out of your party and in both cases they'll ask if you'll put them in, or keep them in depending on which convo it is. Sarah and Wendie tend to clash in Wendies and Guanidias dialogues.
Yes, I said Guanidias.
If you say yes, she says that. If you say no, she says she'll get better soon, and then Sarah thanks Random for not putting her in the party.
lol.
So, with Sarah and Wendie in tow, Random and Luci venture to the Barons Manor.
Laxius Power 3: The Final Terror OST: 18: Manor
The Manor is like some kind of adventurer society tavern, for some reason? No one says anything particularly interesting, so we go straight to the main man himself.
Random and Luci introduce themselves, hand over the letter and explain why they're here.
That's not the point, the baron says (also it's not a good weapon, we find out later.)
So it's their calling card basically.
They refer to the Black Eye as Dark Eye several times in a row here so I'm not sure if the names are interchangeable or Indy liked one name over the other but forgot to change all instances of it.
They explain the possession shenanigans to the Baron at any rate.
Then Luci says if it is the work of the cult, they must have left a Black Dagger there too!
Why. Maybe it's not even them, this time! But oh well. We head back to the throne room.
Where one of the guards seems to be having a meltdown. Neant is French for nil or nothingness and things like that, apparently.
Rare occassion that Wendie does not come out on top of an exchange.
This is also still happening.
The king gives us permission to inspect the Barons room so...
We get our first QUEST COMPLETE and are recommended to the Mage Guild.
Tell the King as much.
The Mage Guild is just south of the giant statue. Technically we could explore it and the rest of Metrolia now, but I'll leave it for later, when some more quests in the town have unlocked.
The Mosquito Swamp is basiclly the Tangar Mountains of this game, though I'd say it's not quite so... big and looping up to previous areas all the time and giving you branches within branches within branches or like 8 paths at once.
We have to pay 500PP to a guy at the entry to use the most basic services. But we count as guildmembers now. A bunch of services are restricted to higher level members, and I think you need to do quests to reach those.
The ID mage is just to the right, and we have to pay him 50PP to look at the Black Dagger.
These two can fight about fucking anything.
Back to the throne room!
lol what
Anyway, the king is about to have his guards search the Mosquito Swamp (which Sarah says is a stupid name!) when...
Literally everyone teams up against the king, to make him let Random do the dirty deed.
Sarah priorities are very skewed.
Everyone is so rude to everyone in this game lol
Then there's a whole thing about directions to the swamp where the queen winds up chastising the king for not giving good enough directions.
Sarah takes the chance to whine some more.
Even Sweet Little God has had enough.
The king gives us 10,000PP and the authorization to leave and Random assures him he'll track down the Black Dagger man.
Lol. And that's the end of that scene.
Everyone Loves Random.
Normal.
Living Mind Free In Your Own Head.
The one guards meltdown reaches critical level.
Laxius Power 3: The Final Terror OST: 20: Boss Fight
So, this is our first real fight of the game. I believe this is optional. Not sure what happens, if anything, if you miss it.
He'd probably be a bit of a challenge if we didn't have the conversion bonuses, but as we are, he's an absolute pushover. Like he only does 20-30 damage on hits and Random has 200+ HP so. You know. And we have buffs and debuffs too.
He does take a bunch of turns to get him down to a critical state...
And he dies on the next turn.
Everyone in the throne room gets MORE new dialogue after this fight. The king says he's immediately calling an 'extraordinary council.'
That's old news dude.
This is still happening.
The Prince is only slightly impressed with our demonstration and says Mosquito Swamp will be many times worse.
We leave the castle now though.
And it's getting dark, so we head back to The Silver Eagle.
Next time............. WE START IGNORING THE MAIN PLOT TO DO SIDE QUESTS!!!!!!
the end