Episode 1: This Let’s Play Will Not Be Monetized.
Greetings one and all, and welcome to my second Let’s Play for the forum and just in general. Previously I played the super obscure SNES JRPG Paladin’s Quest. Now I’m going even further into obscurity by playing its sequel that never left Japan, Lennus II: The Apostles of the Seals. Being released in Japan a mere two months before the Nintendo 64 was brought over to America, Lennus II did not get an official release. Since this game was never released in English, I am making use of a fan-translation patch.
This is the bunch that we have to thank for bringing us Lennus II in a form we can understand.
And here is our title screen, and with it our title theme. That’s right, Lennus II can afford one of those!
Our main menu is a bit more utilitarian, more in line with the previous game. Sound lets us choose between Stereo and Mono, Erase and Copy do what you think they’d do, and like the game says, choose Game to play.
We will of course be using Log 1 for this Let’s Play. I’ll be making copies of my save file at certain points as appropriate.
We will be sticking to the default name.
We begin in the void.
The void speaks. It goes about how everything has basically been suspended in a state of twilight until a light broke through the darkness to bring a new dawn.
We see energy converge and a beam of light shine down at an angle. At the same time, music begins playing.
We see four land masses floating in the void.
The light causes people to stop where they stand.
Finally, the light arrives at a strange structure.
And there are people already gathered around the exact spot where it lands.
Somewhere deep underground in the complex there is someone encased in crystal.
Suddenly, this guy is talking, presumably to the guy in the crystal.
And thus we are named Farus.
And thus Farus is freed from the crystal while being totally naked. Hopefully he can pick up some clothes on the way.
And he does! And there’s that good old fashioned Mode 7 as Farus flies on up.
With the light gone, we now stand in the center. Fun story; when I first played this game, I was still using the ZSNES emulator, which for some reason put Farus way up of where he’s supposed to be, but as soon as I could move he as in the right position. Snes9x has no such problem as you can see.
We also have the theme for our location playing, the Shrine of Farus.
So we already know that we’re a Raigan. No sense making that a late-game plot twist again. We also are given our mission right away, though we’re going to need a few more details before we can really get started.
If we answer “No”, the Chief Caretaker will fret and worry and then ask us again. So let’s just say Yes so we can play the game.
Well I wouldn’t want to keep them waiting…
And then we have this moment. I can’t confirm it, but I do believe that there is only one moment in the original version where Farus speaks, and this is not it. There will be a fair few points where the localization adds in moments like these, but none of them are intrusive, so I’m okay with them.
We will take our time and speak to everyone, but there’s something I want to do first.
By pressing X, I bring up my menu options! Save is always available, Health will automatically use healing items to restore everyone’s HP and the game is very smart about how it does it so I’ll be using that a lot, Party lets us change the order of party members and remove them, and then there’s Menu.
Right now we have very precious little to our name.
We don’t even have any spells! We may be harnessing all the spirits one day, but we’re not doing that any time soon.
That said, there is one very important difference between Lennus II and Paladin’s Quest that we can see in our status menu; instead of Luck, we now have Wisdom. Wisdom plays a very important role in how powerful our magic is going to be; its not just our spirit levels this time around.
Speaking of Spirits, by going into the Spirits section, we can see that Fire, Light, and Air are all open, but we don’t have any spells from them. This will all get explained in the next update.
We talk to the Chief Caretaker again, who explains that everything in the temple belongs to us so we should feel free to take what we need.
If we answer no…
But let’s not be rude and answer yes.
He explains that there are four treasures in Andel that we need to gather and bring back here to usher in the Great Union, and he admits that’s the whole prophecy right there.
This guy tells us that hundreds of generations of people have been waiting for the Raigans to awaken Farus to bring about the Great Union and make everyone happy.
I’ll let this guy speak for himself.
This guy tells us that we have been in suspended animation for 10,000 years and all of his ancestors have been watching over us the entire time.
No pressure.
These are the four treasures we are to find, and he warns us that while we are an Immortal Raigan, do not underestimate the perils outside. He is right to do so.
If we say no…
No no wait wait, we want to know how to run!
Womp womp.
But yeah, we can dash in this game and I will be using it a lot. You’ll have to take my word for it though, since I can’t depict dashing in screenshots.
Four continents, four caves, four treasures. Its a good thing that we don’t believe in Four is Death around here or I might be worried.
Let’s answer no, since we haven’t.
Aw, he sounds so hurt.
Let’s tell him yes now.
So yeah, we’re going to be bringing the four treasures to this device specifically.
And we even have them all conveniently labeled for each treasure.
We tell him yes and he lets us go downstairs.
We will definitely be talking to everyone.
This guy is very excited at the prospect of our magic and how we will improve it, but as mentioned before, that will be covered in the next update.
I do not know why these guys would be punished but I’ll make sure that they aren’t. He explains that this room contains the equipment of a hero who fell in battle defending Andel from monsters and now we are free to take it. He also tells us to search cabinets and storage bins as well.
There’s always that guy.
Nice thing about treasure chests in this game?
They stay open after you’ve opened them!
Unfortunately, the cabinets have nothing in them here.
And with a single press of Optimal, we get all of our equipment assigned just like that. No silly truncations in this game!
When we move to leave these guys interrupt us. Fortunately they step out of the way right after so they get to keep their jobs.
Downstairs in the room on the left we find a Light Card! I will use that after we get our official explanation about magic in this game, as there are some differences between it and Paladin’s Quest.
This conversation is a treat and I will be showing all of it. You’re welcome.
I did mention that this Let’s Play will not be monetized, right?
She explains how each bottle holds nine doses, each bottle affects the medicine put in it, and in addition to shops we can also get medicine from free-standing machines and even rare individuals who will refill our medicine for free.
She explains that we will need more experience before we get a spell that can restore HP, and also lectures us on how there’s no such thing as MP.
I can’t think of a single time I would want to equip a bottle in a hand slot, but the option is there.
And right away we get to fill out a full party! Unlike in Paladin’s Quest, if we were to try to go outside alone, we would die horribly on the first random encounter. The land of Andel is rough.
If we talk to him again he’ll explain that anyone we dismiss will come back here and we can recruit them again. Furthermore there are Summon Taverns and other ways for us to recover old party members.
But that’s for later. Right now we need to meet our potential party members!
Before we have anyone join, we’ll want to check out their stats and magic.
Suzan is Fire S, while Kekan is Bolt S. Having both Fire and Air gives Zock the SpeedUp buff. Unlike the original, this is not a party wide buff, not yet. As you gain more levels in your spirits, spells will gain improved effects, which for SpeedUp means more targets affected.
This guy certainly feels confident about himself.
Lelan is Break S. He has Defense Up, and despite being a level lower than Zock his attack power is higher than his.
Joad gets a bad vibe from us, but he knows his job and will work hard for us if we do pick him.
Joad is very strong, especially since he’s the highest level of the three we’ve met so far. He’s got good spirit development and the Attack Up spell.
Someone wants to be the new Midia.
Lelun is the group attack version of Lelan. Momrick is the Freeze spell of the game. Her speed is her best attribute so odds are reasonable that she would be able to cast Momrick before the enemies attack, which is the best possible time for that.
And now for our fifth and final option.
Kekun is the group version of Kekan.
So, there you have it. We have five options and three slots to fill. Any party combination can be made to work, so feel free to vote however you wish. Just make sure that you vote for three characters and list them in order of priority so that I can tally up all the votes and determine who gets to get in.
Next time on Lennus II, the hope that we may yet be monetized. See you then!