–Day 39–

While Moonside may be a neon version of Fourside, it doesn’t have the exact same layout. As such we spend some time simply reestablishing our surroundings. Of course, this becomes much more complicated with so many people in town teleporting us away. Maybe it would be best if we just stopped talking to people for a while.

It also doesn’t help that the town is swarming with monsters. My favorite of which, at least in design, is the Dali’s Clock enemy. These are of course based on Dali’s famous painting “The Persistence of Memory” which just happens to be one of my favorite paintings ever. As enemies however, these guys can be quite frustrating. They don’t have much health, which is good, but they have the ability to stop time and attack multiple times in a row. If you don’t defeat them quickly, you could be in a lot of trouble.

Speaking of having to fight quickly, you also need to watch out for the Robo-Pump enemies. These enemies show up as small fires on the world map, and seem easy enough at first when you encounter them. They don’t ever attack, and simply start counting down from 3 whenever it’s their turn. However, if they manage to count down to 0 before you defeat them, they will throw a bomb at you, damaging the whole party. They’ll also restore their health to maximum and start the process all over again.

Exploration of Moonside is slow and in the end provides us with little new knowledge. Many of the people speak nonsense, so you can’t really gain any information from them. We also didn’t encounter anyone that would fit the description of having a unibrow and gold tooth. What we did learn is that there are invisible walls set up around town, which makes me think we’ll have to talk to more people and hope one of them teleports us somewhere good.

So for now, we’re going to have to accept the fact that we’re stuck for the moment. Join us again next time as we start teleporting all over the place hoping to find our way!

–Day 38–

We need to get Paula back as soon as possible, but right now we don’t even know where she is. The only clue we were given was “Monotoli”, so we head over to his building to see if she is there. Unfortunately there’s nothing new to see here. The elevator still only brings us up to Porky and his dad, both of which give no new information. Likewise, the second elevator is still off limits to public use.

Despite our frustration as we search every inch of the Monotoli building and the surrounding area, the photographer decides to take another picture of us as we sneak around back. It’s really a bad time, we’re kind of trying to break in to this building right now. It doesn’t really help us to have photographic evidence of our crimes.

We spend quite a bit of time searching everywhere in town, talking to everyone trying to find just a single clue. The Monotoli Building, the Dept. Store, the Dinosaur Museum, the Topolla Theater, even the Bar, but no one seems to have any information for us.

However, our luck changes as we leave the bar and see a crowd around the alleyway. It looks like someone might be dead. Actually, I think I know that dead guy, that’s Everdred from back in Twoson. What could he possibly be doing here? And I guess more importantly, why is he now dying in an alley behind a bar?

It is Everdred, and thankfully he’s not dead, at least not yet. He tells us everything that happened. Apparently after we defeated Carpainter back in Happy Happy Village, Everdred went in and stole the Mani Mani Statue from him. He brought it here with hopes to sell it for a good profit, but Monotoli noticed it and managed to steal it from Everdred. Imagine the irony, someone stealing from a master thief like Everdred. Anyway, after stealing the statue, he wanted to get rid of Everdred because he know the too much about the statue. That’s how he ended up here dying in an alleyway.

While he can’t tell us much more after that, he does give us our first good clue in a while “at the bar, Check behind the counter”. Then with his dying words he decides to give us a little haiku. “When on your way out – Be sure that you say goodbye – then lock the door tight.”

After that he’s gone. Like, he left, not that he died. He just gets up, makes a nasty face to frighten some of the women gathered around, and leaves. Now I’m confused, how badly injured was he? Is he goes to die or was he just resting. He got up and walked away pretty easily for someone who is dying…

Following Everdred’s advice, we check behind the counter at the bar. As we do, we are engulfed in a blinding white light. When our vision returns to us, we find ourselves in some dark alternate reality version of Fourside. Everdred, what have you gotten us into?!

Asking around, we find out a few key bits of information. For one, this is no longer Fourside, we are now in the city of Moonside. In addition to that, this really is a backwards world where yes is no and no is yes, so we’ll have to keep that in mind any time we talk to anyone here…

As we start talking to more people, we find out something rather peculiar. Apparently the guys in Hawaiian shirts are jerks who will teleport you away as soon as you talk to them. However, the one I talked to did teleport me to a good spot, kind of. We can see the Mani Mani Statue down there in front of the Moonside Monotoli building, we just can’t get to it because this guy is blocking the path. However, he does give us a hint. He’ll only move out of the way for the guy “whose eyebrows are connected and who also has a gold tooth.”

So it looks like we have a goal now, find someone with a unibrow and gold tooth, how hard could that be? Join us next time as we search the town for this mystery man!

–Day 37–

We do one more lap around the city looking for the Runaway brothers, but it looks like they might be gone for good. Along the way we did however manage to see one interesting change to the city. For some reason there is no longer a crowd around the department store. Sure enough it is once again open to the public. So far, this is the largest department store we’ve seen so far in the game. It has a total of 4 floors, and 7 different stores to shop from. So many different things to choose from, I just wish I had more inventory space to hold it all. I’m honestly still not used to having THIS limited of inventory in an RPG.

Our delight quickly turns to dread as the unspeakable happens. Just as we were about to leave the building, the lights flicker off and Paula is kidnapped by some kind of green tentacle alien. Then to taunt us further, the creatures calls us over the loud speaker and calls us up to the Manager’s Office up on the 4^th floor. We need to rescue her quick. With her powerful PK attacks she really is the powerhouse of the group.

We leave the building for a quick instance to meet up with the Escargo Express man we previously called so we can deposit a few items. That turns out to have been a huge mistake. As soon as we return to the department store we are immediately ambushed by a couple of enemies. If Paula where here they wouldn’t be much trouble at all, but without her Jeff ends up dying almost instantly.

It’s a quick visit to the hospital to revive him, but it’s unfortunately a pattern that repeats itself several more times. We enter the building, get ambushed, Jeff dies, and we have to leave to get him revived. Paula has been gone from the party for a whole 3 minutes and already we’re hopelessly lost without her.

It would take several more attempts before we even manage to make it past the front door and on our way to the manager’s office. Along the way, the creature is constantly taunting us. Not only that, but the enemies are relentless the whole way, often waiting in unavoidable groups just at the top of the escalators.

By some miracle, we eventually make it to the manager’s office like we planned, and the creature has the nerve to be sitting behind the desk like he owns the place. He taunts the party one last time before telling us to go to hell, or rather heaven. Not sure why the sudden shift. It would make sense if he never said “Hell” and it was a type of censorship, but to change it after the fact simply leaves me scratching my head.

The battle against the Dept. Store Spook is definitely a hard one without Paula. Like I said before, she really is the powerhouse keeping the group going. As Ness’ PP depletes and we start running out of healing items, I was starting to think we would end up losing this battle. Thankfully we manage to limp by and defeat the monster and hope is returned.

In his dying breath, the Spook mentions Giygas. So it looks like he’s another servant like Belch was. No wonder he was so hard to defeat. He also mentions Paula, but doesn’t really tell us what he did with her. I had assumed we would get her back once we defeated him, but apparently that’s not going to happen.

As we leave the office, the Photographer shows up at the worst possible moment to take our picture. Please, I don’t want to be reminded of the time we LOST a party member! Come back some other time. At least everything is back to normal, so that’s something to be happy about I guess.

Well, it looks like we’re going to have to rescue Paula now. Unfortunately we continue to have very few clues about where she might be. So let me sleep on this and I’ll see you next time!

–Day 36–

After opening up the last couple presents in the maze, I figured it would be a good chance to use the Exit Mouse and follow him out of the cave. However, that’s not quite how he works. I was expecting him to physically lead the party to the exit, but instead the whole party was simply teleported away. It’s admittedly much more effective than I thought it would be, but I still can’t help but feel a little cheated that I wasn’t able to follow the little mouse with a sign out of the cave. At least the photographer was waiting for us at the entrance to capture the moment of victory.

We tell the digger all the monsters are gone now, and he seems pleased. Now he’s going finish digging and maybe give us something for our trouble. Maybe we’ll get a giant gold nugget worth $1 million? You know, like the amount we need to save the Runaway Brothers again? Or really just any kind of reward…

I’m not sure if I did something wrong, or if he’s hiding or something like that, but after resting I can’t find the digger at all. I start looking around in the maze again, but he’s nowhere to be found. There aren’t any new paths open, there aren’t any other diggers, there aren’t even any monsters left, there’s just nothing anymore except for the family of exit mice.

With no other hints towards what I’m supposed to be doing, we start heading back to Fourside. We’ve barely started crossing the bridge when we’re stopped by one of the diggers. As it turns out, the diggers didn’t manage to find any buried treasure after all. They did however find a large diamond. As a thank you, they want Ness to have it. It’s not the gold we were looking for, but a diamond might be just as valuable.

We continue across the bridge and just as we’re about to enter Fourside the photographer shows up AGAIN to take our picture. Enough is enough dude, you just took our picture a few minutes ago!

Anyway, we quickly return to Fourside and head straight to the Topolla Theater to free the Runaway Brothers from their contract. It might not be gold, but the manager seems more than willing to accept it as payment to cover their debt. Although, she does value the diamond at MAYBE $50, so she’s giving us a good bargain. Since we never actually get to SEE the diamond, I’m not sure if she’s telling the truth or not, but going off her other reactions, I’m going to assume she’s lying.

Once again, the Runaway Brothers show up and say their farewells to the manager. Considering they manage to rack up a million dollar debt in just a few days with this person, they were all very civil to her as they left.

Of course, we paid for a ticket to see their show, and we’re going to see their final performance. This time around, they performed much better than last time. Not only that, but they are joined this time by a female dancer who I can only assume is Venus who we’ve heard talk of. As the show comes to an end, they drive their tour bus on stage, load into it, and drive away.

Unfortunately, that’s where I lose them. Unlike last time, no one is waiting outside the theater to thank us or anything. We start searching all around town for them, but they’re simply nowhere to be found. They mentioned before that we would need their help to take down Mr. Monotoli, but they aren’t anywhere near his building either.

We head back to the theater to see if maybe they’re still hanging out there. To our surprise, we are instead treated to a solo show by Venus. I can’t tell very well due to the small character sprite, but In person she must be very attractive. I say this, because half way through her performance someone runs on stage and needs to be taken away by security…

Ultimately the Runaway Brothers weren’t at the theater either. So once again we’re a bit lost for what we’re expected to do at the moment. I think we’ll just sleep on it for the moment and pick it up again tomorrow. Join me then as we once again search the city for clues.

–Day 35–

So we’re back with another day of hunting down Giant Moles. However, it’s quite easy to get lost in these caves. Thankfully, we stumble upon the family of Exit Mice once again. We haven’t seen these guys since we first entered Twoson, and it looks like we might actually need them at some point in here. Sadly for us, we don’t have the exit mouse with us right now, it’s currently in storage. We’ll have to call home and have him delivered to us soon.

Anyway, our aimless wandering through the maze eventually shows results as we walk right into another of the Giant Moles. To our surprise, this one claims to REALLY be the 3^rd strongest of the 5 moles. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad, why would the other one lie about that? In any event, this one doesn’t seem much stronger than the last. In fact, one good hit from Paula’s PK Freeze γ is almost enough to kill it. Just a little more push and we have killed the 2^nd of the 5 Guardian Diggers.

After a little more exploring, we’re starting to get a good feel for the layout of the maze. With that said, we quickly bump into the next Giant Mole. This one at least isn’t the 3^rd strongest. Instead it falls between the second and the fourth….wait… that means this one IS also claiming to be 3^rd strongest. In a way, they are all very consistent. None of them have seemed to be any stronger than the last, and they keep dying in just a few attacks.

Having defeated 3 of the 5 Giant Moles, it’s time to find our way to the exit so we can regroup and recover before going after the final 2. It was during this time that something rather odd happened. After defeating a Dry Coil Snake, it dropped a present which happened to have a Chick inside. Apparently it’s a live chick, and I can even hear it chirping over the background music. I really don’t know what I’m expected to do with a live chick, but for now I guess I’ll just have to love it and care for it.

We return to the HQ building, take a brief nap, make a few calls, and then it’s right back into the maze. The family of Exit Mice actually prove to be quite a useful landmark, and using them as reference we quickly find the next Giant Mole. It’s almost expected now, but this one ALSO claims to be the 3^rd strongest of the 3 Giant Moles. Why 3^rd? Why couldn’t you all fight over 1^st?

At this point, there’s really only one path left to go down. There at the end of the tunnel is the final of the Giant Moles. This one acknowledges that we’ve already defeated the 1^st, 2^nd, 4^th, and 5^th strongest masters, but now we need challenge the true 3^rd strongest of the 5. This is just ridiculous, how am I supposed to know which one REALLY IS the true 3^rd strongest? I guess we’ll just never know…

With that victory, all 5 of the Giant Moles have been defeated, and it’s time to head out of here. Sadly, I’m going to leave you hanging a bit to find out what our reward is. Join us next time to find out!

–Day 34–

Having explored every other area of town, I supposed it’s time we went and talked to Mr. Monotoli. He’s not hard to find of course, he has his name plastered on the side of the tallest building in town. I am a bit surprised how easy it is to get to him though. Especially considering he practically owns the police force. The elevator operator however seemed to have her own issues with me unrelated to us wanting is see Mr. Monotoli.

I didn’t catch it at first in the elevator, but another familiar name has started to pop up, Porky. It would seem he has somehow weaseled his way in with Mr. Monotoli and is profiting off of his recent success. Not only that, but he seems to have hired rather trigger happy guards. Before I even have a chance to do anything they are already threatening to shoot me if I do anything suspicious.

Inside one of the office suites, we actually run into the tubby little devil himself. After flaunting his new status to us and pretending not to remember us, he states that he is in fact Mr. Monotoli’s partner. Apparently he gives him Political and economic advice. I would like to point out that Porky is supposed to be 13 years old, and any business man that takes political and economic advice from a 13 year old needs to have their head examined.

After he is done bragging, he sets his guards on our party and has us forced out of the room with the threat never to return. I mean, you can return if you want to, nothing actually happens, he just says the same thing and then throws you out again, but still…. NEVER RETURN!

Anyway, just down the hall we find that Aloysius Minch, Porky’s father, is also benefitting from this whole situation. I don’t remember much about our last encounter with him, but I do remember that he was pretty money obsessed before. He seemed to detest the fact that his family had sunk down the lower class from their once elite status. I guess he got what he wanted at least.

Sadly, we have to call this visit a failure, due to the fact that we never did actually get to see Mr. Monotoli. In fact, we didn’t really get any new information at all out of that visit. It looks like we’re going to have to hit the streets again and hope to find some kind of clue. Unfortunately, nothing much really surfaced. The best I saw was someone mentioning a dig for treasure out in the desert. But we’ve already been to the dig site and it wasn’t anything special.

It might not be a very good lead, but it’s the only one we have right now, so we head back to the dig site to investigate. And weren’t we surprised to see that quite a bit of work had been done since the last time we were here. The main hole has been expanded to a sizable crater at this point. Not only that, but there is now a crowd gathered to watch the dig as it progresses.

Of course, things have hit a snag down below ground and it looks like it’s up to us to fix it yet again. Apparently while digging, the miners discovered a maze full of monsters. Not only that, but there are 5 Big Moles apparently acting as leaders. In order for work to progress, we’ll first have to defeat all 5 of the moles and rid the tunnel of all monsters.

Heading north from the entrance and down to a sub-level, we happen to come across the first of the 5 moles. It is indeed a rather large mole, and if we’re to believe what it says, it is the 3^rd strongest of the 5 moles. That’s perfect actually, it will give us a good benchmark for the battles to come.

As it turns out, the third strongest mole wasn’t all that hard to defeat. Don’t get me wrong, its attacks are powerful, and could easily kill a party member if we’re not careful. However, it doesn’t have a whole lot of HP of its own, and it is easily defeated within only a few rounds of battle. So that’s 1 down and 4 left to go.

The maze however does end up being rather problematic for me. Not to mention the high number of enemies in the area constantly slowing things down. Between Gigantic Ants and Dry Coil Snakes, it’s difficult to take even a few steps without getting into another battle.

So for now I think we’re going to call it a day. Join us tomorrow as we continue ridding this cave of its Giant Mole problem.

–Day 33–

We’ve finally made it to Fourside, and it isn’t long before we start hearing people talking about the Runaway Brothers whom we previously helped back in Twoson. Now free from their evil manager, they are now the top performers at Fourside’s Topolla Theater. Good for them. We should probably check in on them. I’m sure they’d be happy to see us again.

Unfortunately, there’s a bit of sad news when we do see them. Apparently their new manager at the Topolla Theater is actually worse than their previous one. Somehow, in the short time since we last saw them, the Runaway Brothers have managed to rack up a million dollars worth of debt already. How? How could they manage to get ONE MILLION DOLLARS in debt in the short time since we saw them last?

At least we get to see their show again. Although, I think they might be a little depressed from their debt this time. They’re not exactly hitting their marks tonight and the show is a bit of a mess. It looks like we’re going to have to pay off their debt yet again, although I’m not entirely sure HOW we’re going to earn a million dollars in the first place.

We continue searching around Fourside, and the next person we start hearing about is Mr. Geldegarde Monotoli. He’s apparently an incredibly rich person who now basically controls the city now. Depending on who I ask, this could be either a good thing or a bad thing, I’m not really sure yet, but past experience has taught me it’s probably a bad thing.

Perhaps Mr. Monotoli can help us with the Runaway Brother’s debt, so I guess there’s no harm in going to see him. Before we do that though, we happen to find the bakery. If you remember, the sign in the desert said the person who lost the contact lens lives over the bakery. He is very grateful that we’ve returned then, and as a reward he offers us his socks. His old, smelly socks that he’s been wearing for the last 5 years… Thank you? I guess…

Leaving his presence as quickly as possible, we apparently find ourselves wandering into the Fourside Museum where they have some dinosaur bones on display. I love dinosaurs, and apparently the Photographer knows I love dinosaurs, because he was right there to capture the moment for us.

After talking with Mr. Spoon, the researcher in charge, we find out that this dinosaur is just a replica. However, there are rumors going around that real living dinosaurs are roaming around in the southern region of Scarabia. There are even rumors that they’ve started eating some of the natives. No naturally, the scientist doesn’t want to go there and get eaten too, but he’s perfectly comfortable sending out group of children in his place. He’s not asking for us to defeat them, just bring back a few pictures to help his research. Sounds like fun, very dangerous fun.

As we continue exploring the town, we also learn that the department store is apparently haunted. At the moment, there’s really nothing we can do about this. We’re not even allowed to enter the building yet. But we can be sure that we’ll be forced to get rid of those ghosts eventually.

It’s depressing to see that the department store is closed, but what’s more depressing is the hit and run our party was a victim of. That’s right! While innocently walking around town, a cab drove right into our heroes. Not that I’m trying to justify driving over young children, but it does look like the cab might have been possessed by something.

To make matters worse, it would seem even the traffic signs are under some kind of possession as they too jump out to attack our heroes. What kind of nightmare town is this where cars and street signs are actively trying to kill young children?

On a more light hearted note, we do find another bit of shameless self-promotion in the game by the developers. This time we stumble upon a developers meeting for the game’s sequel Mother 3. It’s nice to see that they were planning for a third game that far in advance. It’s just sad it was never properly localized after they made it.

Anyway, that’s enough exploring for today. Join us again tomorrow as we finish exploring and most likely try to talk Mr. Monotoli into paying off the Runaway Brother’s Debt. See you then!

–Day 32–

Our final day out here in the desert is sadly rather uneventful. The only real point of interest left to explore is the Dusty Dunes Headquarters located on the east side of the desert. On the surface, it isn’t much to look at, just a small shack and the start of a hole. Inside the shack they at least offer to let us stay the night, free of charge. I wish I knew about this sooner, I wouldn’t have wasted so much money at the Inn.

The dig site itself is also rather unimpressive. There is just a tiny hole with a ladder at the surface. Then inside the tunnel it looks like work might have only recently begun. The small tunnel has nothing of any real interest in it and doesn’t lead anywhere. Maybe it will be of use in the future, but right now I think we’ve seen everything there is to see.

During our exploration of the desert, Jeff unfortunately passes out. So we take a quick ride back to Threek to revive him. During this visit, I was quite surprised to see that Ness can have a hidden status effect of “Homesick”. I’m not sure what kind of effect this will actually have during gameplay, but it’s easily cured with a quick call home to Mom.

We return to the desert and spend the rest of the day searching every last corner for anything else we might have missed. Once that’s done, it’s time to hop on the bus and finally head into Fourside like we probably should have done ages ago. Fourside looks like a rather large city compared to the smaller towns we’ve seen so far. I’m actually really excited to see what it has to offer.

Unfortunately, that exploration is going to have to wait until next time. See you there!

–Day 31–

The search continues for the missing White Sesame Seed, but with very little results. We do encounter a few other things of interest though. There is apparently a small oasis near the center of the desert where a desert monkey lives. He doesn’t really give you anything but he’s fun to see.

While travelling along the road back to the shack to rest and heal, we also come across the Sanchez Brothers and their friend. They are dressed like slot machine wheels and will spin around if you put money into the broken slot machine. I played this a few times, but I never managed to win anything. I’m curious if you really can win something from them or if it’s just for a laugh.

Another very curious find was this little green caterpillar like enemy we found in the desert. As soon as it saw us it ran away, but something told me we should try to catch it. When we did, wasn’t I surprised to see not only an instant victory, but also a HUGE amount of experience from the little guy. I’ll have to try to find more of them.

Towards the right side of the desert, we also find a sign post with a mini quest on it. Apparently someone has lost their contact lenses out here in the desert and is offering a reward for their safe return. Thankfully, they’re right nearby to the sign post, just slightly northeast of it actually. We’ll just hold onto this until we can return it to its owner in Fourside.

After much searching, we FINALLY find the White Sesame Seed. We learn that she’s also worried about the Black Sesame Seed and wants him to know she still loves him. She actually seems a bit relieved when we tell her we’ve already see him and he is doing well.

Before we call it a day, we return to the Black Sesame Seed to relay the message that the White Sesame Seed still loves him. He’s obviously happy to hear the news. So happy in fact that he starts to weep. What a lovely ending to a nice little mini quest.

Well, I’m happy now that we’ve fixed the Black and White Sesame Seeds relationship. There’s only a little bit left of the desert to explore and then we’ll be off to Fourside. So see you again next time.

–Day 30–

Before we head back out on our adventure, I thought it would be a good idea to talk to Ness’ little sister and organize some of the items she’s been holding onto for us. You know, sell off all the cookies that are now mostly useless, drop off a few actually important things for her to hold on to, that kind of stuff. Having that for sale sign really helped too. All I had to do was step outside and people were there to buy my useless junk. It was like a garage sale or something.

Enough of that though, we have an adventure to go on. So we travel all the way from Ness’s house back to Threek and then further on into the Desert. The bus drops us off right in front of a small little shack which seems to be the only building around. It acts as basically a combined store and hotel which means we’ll probably be back here often.

We soon start exploring the vastness of the desert, and it isn’t long before we come across something interesting. Just north of the shack is a monkey guarding a hole in the ground. This look suspicious, so naturally we investigate. Apparently it is the entrance to some paradise for the monkeys set up by someone named Talah Rama. He apparently knows all, but we find out that he’s currently fasting and meditating. He’s also blocking the only entrance to the monkey paradise, so he’s doubly useless to us right now. We’ll just have to make a mental note and remember to come back later.

Next up on our desert tour, we find one of the few mini quests in the game that I had prior knowledge of, the romantic tale of the Black and White Sesame Seeds of the desert. We happen to find the Black Sesame Seed first and he tells us about how he wants to apologize to the White Sesame Seed, if he could just see her again. This is just the perfect example of the brilliantly absurd humor of the game and I love it. It’s one of the reasons I’ve wanted to play this game for so long.

Surprisingly, this little event is enough to trigger yet another appearance of the photographer. I’m still mad about last time when he photographed our terrible house. But I think I’ll forgive him if he’s going to preserve this memory instead.

Anyway, back to speaking of absurd humor, we can’t ignore the other examples we find in the desert. Things like being able to talk to the decayed cow skeletons littered across the desert. Or running into a pair of sun bathers joking about how they are often mistaken for corpses laying in middle of the desert.

However, we can’t overlook the dangers of the desert either, and the worst offender has to be the Smilin’ Sphere. Don’t misunderstand, the Smilin’ Sphere isn’t any stronger than any of the other monsters, and from my encounters, it doesn’t seem to cause any status effects like the mushrooms did. Instead it’s much more annoying by exploding into bits and causing massive damage to the party after it dies. He would probably cause instead death to the party during most encounters if it weren’t for the game’s unique damage counters.

It doesn’t take many encounters like that before we’re ready to call it a day. Join us next time as we continue our exploration of the desert as we search for the While Sesame Seed.