Last time on Megaman Legends Gaiden,
we learn that bombs are dangerous things, and that the final dungeon music is the best thing ever.
So, this is usually the part of the game where I say to myself that I want to stop playing the game because this dungeon has a lot of stuff wrong with it, and it’s boring.
This thing could’ve just been monochromatic if they really wanted it to be. You have brown, light browns, red, black, and beige. This is a problem in almost all of this game’s dungeons, but it comes to a peak here because the colour brown is boring. Boring, boring, boring.
Beautiful Forest
Also, the music doesn’t change from the Alive Forest music. Now this could have been a good thing, but that BGM has been used in two field areas now, and it isn’t as compelling as Lava Dome or the upcoming Mountain Range of Whirlwinds. These are the alternative tracks for the Giant Tree:
Etrian Odyssey 2 - Ever-Scarlet Forest
Etrian Odyssey – The Withered Forest
Beyond the Beyond – The Tree
Terranigma – Under the Great Tree
Genso Suikoden – Black Forest
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past – Forest
Alternative Battle Themes!
Arc the Lad – Battle 6
Arc the Lad – Battle 2
That about covers it. Let’s go.
So, the first thing you should probably notice on the first floor of the dungeon is that the Giant Tree is more of a giant maze (but with not that much thought put into it). That still doesn’t stop it from testing my patience. This dungeon completely screams "filler material". It isn't even that long, but it's remarkably boring.
We’re lucky that the enemies in this dungeon are all easy, but they have a key annoyance: they can and will inflict negative status effects on you, specifically Petrify (and this will end up being something you'll struggle with for a while). Notice that Kaeli came with a petrification resistance. We’re going to need that since Megaman is going to get petrified a lot. A few of the enemies in this dungeon come with the Doom attack (Tristam is the only character who is resistant to that), which can instakill you if it hits. Mad Toads are assholes, though. They don’t go down in one hit, they can counter with Poison, and they can petrify you. Live Oaks and Leeches are easy enemies because they can be 1-shotted with the Axe.
Oh, and I guess this is why Tristam gave you his toy. As I said in the previous entry, the Dragon Claw serves as a grappling hook. Because you have a new grappling hook, the developers decided to make this dungeon your training area for how to use it properly. So if you see a post, hookshot to it. It's not as cool as Zelda is, no. It's really boring and truly comes off as a hamfisted tutorial level. This is not a good thing.
This door is creepy.
You’d think you could fall down here, but nope. But what’s the tree doing with all of these holes in here? I haven’t been fighting termites. Just slimes, ghosts, mummies, scorpions, frogs, and skeletons. And they're all just standing around doing nothing.
Hm. This area looks small. Wonder what it’s like inside?
What. The. Fuck.
This is one of the huge issues I have with the dungeon design, right here. Here, you have millions of little fungi growing in the tree and you need to cut them down while navigating the maze. It’s annoying. *sigh* It gets worse later on, but let’s go.
Go up here for loot.
This is boring.
At least this is worth it! Meteor is the third Wizard class spell in the game. The spell effect is nice too. However, it’s an Earth Elemental spell, so watch where you use it.
Now let’s go back into the little sub-area again. It won’t be as bad because the stumps are cut down already.
Oh, fuck you, tree.
When you cut trees or stumps down in this game and leave the map, the map will reload with them intact should you come back. These must be fucking magical fungi to reproduce at such a rapid rate. I shouldn't have to cut all of this garbage down again. It's so slow and inefficient. I know they can't make the map retain the way it is when you exit the room, but this is annoying.
Um, don’t go down here because it’ll make you go down to the first floor again. You don’t want to do that. Not yet, anyway.
We also have grapple puzzles, in case you didn’t notice. They aren’t exclusive to the stumps, but they’re also wall grapple puzzles. This is what happens when you don’t go the right way.
You have to open these things up with your sword.
Another one of these. I hate these. The second picture is where the player should realize that they don’t have to go up there at all. The time that it takes to animate the swing, and progress through the fungi can take a while, and if you’re speedrunning this (which I’m clearly not), you’ll want to take the route that has the least amount of mushrooms. I understand they were trying to go for an interesting experience here to take into account all of the weapons' abilities you have so far, but it becomes tedious and boring. I don't remember liking this dungeon much as a kid, and probably felt frustrated while doing it.
You want to go down here.
This is one of those wallgrapple “puzzles”. Basically, climb up, drop, and press the weapon button at the right time to latch onto the wall during your freefall.
More of this maze garbage. We finally start encountering slimes and skeletons on this floor. You do not want to use magic on the slimes as they will repel it back and you'll take the damage (which I think is a nice little animation). Use a weapon. Bombs or your claw. Skuldiers are assholes -- they have confusion and now they have Doom Powder. Proceed with caution. Try to 1-shot them whenever you can with a spell (wind).
Well, this one is closed! It
must be the right way!
No, it’s not the right way! What is up with this tree?! I haven’t encountered any fungi-type enemies here. Where did all of these mushrooms come from? This dungeon sucks. Its mazes suck. The grapple puzzles are boring. The fungus growth and regrowth sucks. The colour palette sucks. And the enemies are lame and not fun to deal with. This still didn’t deter me from cutting down the mushrooms in this room to get the treasure in here, though.
This is the right way, btw.
Because I like getting chests, we’ll get these.
Where is the stump that I need to use to go back?! (Keep fiddling around, you’ll get it eventually). This dungeon sucks. Sucks, sucks, sucks.
This is the final floor, thank goodness. You can’t fall down those pits, so don’t worry about it.
Don’t go here. It’ll knock you down to the previous floor and then you’ll have to go back up.
So, uh, if you’re familiar with this game, if you just approach the boss, it’ll draw you into an encounter right away. This guy’s just sitting here doing nothing. Let’s see if we can go through that door.
Alright, alright. I’m going. Sheesh! The Great Deku Tree wasn’t this demanding. And, uh, I guess that means I can talk to trees now.
Even the effing
boss is a shade of brown.
Gidrah (and I suppose it's a Godzilla reference) isn’t hard to beat. In fact, he’s one of the easiest bosses in this game because he’s weak against Wind so he doesn’t get that many attempts to screw you over. Don't use fire because he's resistant to it. He'll also use Tornado, Quake, Para Gas, and will counter with Poison-touch if you let him mess you up.
After the battle, the tree thanks us for getting rid of all of his parasites. …wait, what? Carry me?
If I could make a gif of this, I would. Instead, you'll have to deal with something I hastily put together in GIMP. Do you see what the trees spell out? "Go on, kid!" or maybe "Goon Kid!!" Well, I guess we can speak to trees too! Also it's good to see a colour that isn't brown!
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So he literally up and walks us closer to Windia. Well that’s generous. I guess we’ll be on the world map after this.
Nope.
I'm bored! Let's go. Screw falling down the tree with the vines, I’ll just use Exit.
By the way, if you go back to Alive Forest, the Great Tree isn’t in his usual spot anymore.
And let's compare some stats. Because we all love stats. So, we're pretty near-par to Kaeli now. That didn't take much effort. We're simply severely lacking in our magic stat. You'll soon see that this is going to be the
general case until the end of the game with regards to comparisons to party members. Our speed and strength can use a boost, but otherwise, we're fine.
Our next stop is Kaidge Temple. We actually don’t have to go here, but we might as well see if we get some free stuff.
Or we meet Master Roshi, whatever works.
The prophecy? Don’t drop a bomb on me like that and leave!
This game...!
Next time: We waste our time on Mt. Gale because Kaeli is an idiot.
I don't think just showing you part of the final dungeon still counts as foreshadowing.
Well, this
is Mystic Quest... Now that I think about it, I don't think foreshadowing is even a thing in this game.
