RGR011 - The Rise and Fall of King Breager

The Candle of the Ghoul Realm made short work of the barrier just east of Lethe's palace, giving me access to my final goal, Goza's Palace. The palace entrance was a long string of spiked walls with a few little platforms in between, obviously a challenge designed for my newly-acquired Magic Claw. Partway through, a room with collapsing platforms threatened to seriously step up the difficulty by also including enemies that, when killed, cause the lights to go out... completely. For several seconds, all you can see on screen is yourself. A lot of careful dodging is in order, to stay on the platforms, as well as avoid those enemies. Looking back, the Magic Tornado might have made the room easier, since I could have just gone straight up from the center of the room instead of using the spiked walls to gain altitude.

On the other side, Goza was waiting on his throne, but had little to say before beginning our fight.

It'd work better if it were
spelled correctly.

Palace overlooking abyss... check.

His head looks soft and fuzzy.

Wow, thanks for not wasting my time.

Sixth Boss: Goza

Goza is... well, he's kind of a joke at this point. His size requires him to technically be part of the background, and the spiked wall on the left prevents him from moving. So he just sits there, shooting little laser beams at you. His weak point is obviously the jewel on top of his head, so after positioning myself on the highest floating brick in the room, I was able to use short floating hops to attack him continuously. His lasers can destroy individual bricks, but his aim is pretty rough, so the lasers rarely get anywhere near a brick.

Before disappearing, Goza warned me that King Breager has been fully revived, and that I'm not nearly powerful enough to destroy him. But as soon as I stepped away from the throne, a mysterious voice identifying itself as Demogorgon congratulated me on my progress, and proceeded to give me its power, upgrading my flight duration to infinite and my vitality to one unit short of full. The remainder of my power was then unlocked, giving me the magic of Darkfire. Again, that'll be the only thing that can hurt Breager.

You don't even move? Lame.

You've got something on your chin there.

If he fights like you, I'm not worried.

Woot! Super power!

All right, it's on!

Oh, don't flatter yourself.

I was then sent to King Breager's stronghold, a final spike-filled romp on the way to Breager's throne room. Now that I have unlimited flight power and the Magic Claw, though, spike walls are of no concern to me. Along the way, I found a gray vial that gave me my eighth and final vitality point. After fighting off several enemies and busting my way through a brick wall, I reached the door to King Breager's throne room, where he quickly challenged me to the final battle.

Final Boss: King Breager

The battle against King Breager is similar to the Goza battle, since Breager is also an immobile part of the background. The challenge here is that the floating bricks have been replaced with a single pillar that floats back and forth in the center of the room above a pit of spikes. Breager himself launches floating bolts of evil energy that move toward Firebrand. The strategy, then, is to get to the top of the pillar, hop up to eye level with Breager, fire off as many Darkfire shots as possible, and then drop back down to the pillar when the energy bolts get too close. If you miss the pillar, the only other foothold is the spikeless patch of floor on the left side of the room.

Honestly, though, it's not nearly as hard as it sounds. I was able to weave between energy bolts and cling to the side of the pillar as needed, and had little trouble with the battle (although, as you can see below, I did die once). Only one Darkfire bolt can be on the screen at a time, but if you get really close to Breager's face, you can launch them quickly.

Once Breager gave his inevitable vow of vengeance, he faded away, and I was whisked back to the King's throne room, where everyone once again sang my praises. The King thanked me for my bravery, and told me of a newly-created realm called Earth that I was welcome to conquer and rule. He sent me off to be the king of Earth, and my role as the Red Blaze became the stuff of legend.

You refuse to stand up and fight?

Then you can die sitting.

You must not have known the legend.

Don't start sucking up now.

Why yes, yes I am.

I strive to excel.

Calm down, he's like 20 feet away.

Ooh, the whole Earth Realm? Goodie!

The legend comes full-circle.

Now presenting your bosses and staff!

With that, another great old adventure comes to an end. Be on the lookout for another game next week, along with some guest posts!

RGR011 - Legend of the Red Blaze

With the King safe and sound, I began my journey to Lethe's palace. The monster that had blocked my path earlier was still there, but rather than refusing me passage this time, he challenged me to a fight. It all happened so fast that I forgot to get a screenshot of him, but he looked sort of like a praying mantis, with the ability to throw boomerang-like projectiles in any direction. He didn't move around much, but I still had a rough time with him at first. After a few tries, though, I was able to take him down.

Before entering the palace, I had to cross the River of Flames, though the Magic Tornado eliminates most of the challenge of making difficult jumps, so there wasn't much to it. The palace, as advertised, was full of mirrors that I could enter to warp to other rooms. Most rooms only had a couple of intact mirrors, so it was easy enough to find my way around. There also weren't many enemies around, so it was a surprisingly easy level. I just wandered around for a bit, picking up vials and extra lives until I entered a room with a mirror larger than the others.

Fifth Boss: Doppelganger

The Doppelganger first appears in the mirror as an image of Firebrand, though slightly more purple in color. After he emerges, he quickly enters a pattern of shooting fireballs and swooping in at you. The pattern itself isn't as difficult as the timing, since he moves much faster than you. After a couple of swoops, he discards his disguise and shows his true form, a floating robed ghostly... thing. The pattern remains the same, however. I adhered to the words of the townspeople and only attacked when he was in his true form, so I don't know what happens if you attack when he looks like you. I imaging you take damage instead of him.

Once I was finished with the Doppelganger, I entered his mirror, and immediately found myself in Lethe's throne room. He was expecting me, and was ready to tell me the legend of the Red Blaze. It basically said the Black Light would come and threaten to destroy the Ghoul Realm, but that a red gargoyle would answer the call for a savior, becoming the Red Blaze and sealing away the Black Light. It sounds to me like this game is actually defining the Red Blaze legend from the first game.

Lethe then explained that some evil being named Goza was attempting to revive the King of Destruction, Breager (told you), in order to take over the Ghoul Realm. To get to Goza's palace, I'd need to use the Candle of the Ghoul Realm, a candle infused with the power of King Rushifell and Queen Verona of Loosekeep. He gave me the candle and sent me off to Naga's Path, the area with several false entrances and one real one. I made a couple of wrong choices, but was able to find my way out fairly quickly. The first game's Naga's Path was more difficult, with all the flytraps following you around, so this was a welcome change.

What, you're going to stop me?

Didn't think so.

WE LOOK LIKE SAME! BOING!

But I'm the better Red Arremer.

Ooh, story time!

The legend's English is rusty.

Wait, who's Goza?

That sounds like a powerful candle.

Yes, I'm familiar with the concept.

That wasn't so hard.

The town of Loosekeep was small; a couple of small huts dotted a muddy field, and two large buildings to the north housed Rushifell and Verona separately. I approached Verona first, and she happily added her power to the candle, giving me a flight upgrade in the process. Rushifell was just as happy to see me, and gave the candle his power, along with the Magic Claw, which you may remember as a sticky shot that lets me latch on to spike walls. I returned to Lethe with the powered-up candle, and he added his own power to it, officially making it the Candle of the Ghoul Realm.

That sounds condescending.

I can now.

Well, that's why they sent me.

You're a lady?

So I don't have to fight you this time?

I could've just flown over the barrier...

All that's left to do now is begin the final assault on Goza and King Breager, I suppose.

RGR011 - The Impostor King

As usual, I'm not good at moving in a straight line toward my goals, and the King's Palace is no exception. Once I reached the other side of yet another bridge over the River of Flames, I slipped past the ominous-looking palace and instead veered northeast, where I found a bit of a fork in the road, with a village in the middle of the fork. I decided to continue my odd behavior by ignoring the village and going south, where I found a small desert that seemed to contain nothing at all.

But as I turned to leave, I stumbled upon a pit of some sort, where I encountered a large flying fish skeleton. It homed in on my location, much like the flytraps I fought in the first game. It killed me once, but I was able to keep my distance and keep shooting the second time around. Upon defeating the fish skeleton, I returned to the surface to discover I had found the Dagon's Scales. I guess that thing was Dagon.

Talking to me: #1 cause of death
among ghouls.

Huh? What now?

With my mysterious new haul, I returned to the fork in the road and entered the village of Topete, which is apparently lost to anyone who has never been there. The people spoke of a man named Lethe, who lives in a house of mirrors and I guess is guarded by a Doppelganger. I'd probably understand what they were talking about better if I were doing things in the proper order, but that's not my style.

Looks awfully found to me.

Well, feel free to go there now.

Oh, I am SO over myself.

I have to fight a Red Arremer? Great.

So he's like the Oracle from The Matrix?

Who am I? Wait, this is familiar...

I left Topete and took the northern part of the fork, which quickly ended in a cave entrance blocked by a monster who wouldn't let me pass. I figured I'd be allowed through once I talked to everyone I needed to, so I returned to the palace. Inside, everything was disheveled, and most of the people were only able to cackle obnoxiously. The few people who could still speak told me that the Black Light had attacked here and altered everyone in strange ways.

Inside the King's chamber, I found the king sitting happily, acting as though nothing had happened. There's no way anyone could have not noticed the Black Light who was there, so I knew right away that this wasn't really the king. He urged me to return to Etruria, and I refused, so he decided to reveal his true form and attack me.

I... love what you've done with the place.

You have a goofy cackle.

Yeah, they're out of Pizza Rolls!

Wow, you're not too suspicious.

Sub-boss: Impostor King

The creature disguised as the king was a skeletal bat creature, a familiar enemy from later areas of the first game, and he fought the same way. He would fly in a straight line toward me for a certain distance, then stop for a moment before doing it again. The room was a little small, but some fancy foot and wingwork allowed me to keep ahead of him long enough to beat him.

Once the false king was destroyed, the power that had stupefied most of the palace's population wore off, and the people returned to their senses. It turns out that many of them were scientists, researching various mystical chemical compounds and developing new technologies to empower warrior-types like me. One was looking for the materials needed to develop the Essence of the Soulstream, the one-time-per-life-use potion that completely heals its user, and I happened to have one of those materials, the Dagon's Scales, on me. I was interested in getting my hands on the potion, so I set out to find the other ingredient, the Achelon's Water.

Sprite flicker FTW

Yep, I'm the Red Guwa!

Really, it's not hidden THAT well.

Uh, okay.

That guy over there just told me about it.

Oh, you mean these Dagon's Scales?

You have science here?

Yeah, he tends to do that.

Seriously, extra lives are inventions?

Old news, man. Old news.

No one... until now!

Well, I'm not asking for permission.

Hey, I'm headed that way too!

Probably taking a much-needed vacation.

The Achelon's Water was hidden in a cave to the northeast of the palace, on top of a cliff beyond a series of bone pillars. The area seemed to be put there as practice with the Magic Tornado, though I think it'd be easy enough to get through without it. Each pillar had a gap in which a floating platform that would carry you high enough to jump and fly across to the next gap. The tornadoes made the gap easier to cross by letting me get farther out before trying to fly across. After the last gap, I was able to reach the side of the cliff above the spikes that lined most of the cliff wall, and grabbed the bottle of Achelon's Water. Back at the palace, I handed the materials over to the scientist, who quickly set to work making my potion.

The details aren't important.

But I was saving those!

Having finished off the false king, the next step was to attempt to reach the palace on Mt. Imaus, which required me to cross a bit more of the River of Flames, where I found the Candle of the Poltergeist. The road to the palace was rough, starting out with bone pillars, but with more of them, and with very inconveniently placed bees all over. After clearing the bone pillars, a gauntlet of falling platforms, rolling green armadillo-things, and yet more bees awaited me. Eventually, I managed to survive the entire stage and reach the boss.

Fourth Boss: Twin Guardian

Ugh. One of these things would have been bad enough, but this boss consists of twin gargoyles, who start out surrounding you, no less. They slowly fly toward you, and then suddenly swoop in to attack. After tiring of that pattern, they'll then combine into a whirlwind, shooting little sparks in eight directions. Each hit does two points of damage, so there's little room for error. After dying countless times against them, I started concentrating my attacks on one, to see if I could bring one down and then deal with the other. It takes a few seconds before they actually begin moving around, so I used that time to fire at one continuously, and was able to hit him five or six times. It took several lives still to get in the 10+ hits needed to destroy one of the gargoyles, but once I had that under control, I found the other gargoyle to be fairly easy to deal with. He still swooped and shot at me, but at that point, one enemy was manageable.

Inside the palace, I found the true king, powerless and unable to move. I lit the Candle of the Poltergeist in front of him, and his consciousness began to return. He thanked me by adding more power to my wings and claws, and told me what had happened to him. He then asked me to go see that Lethe guy the people in Topete were talking about, who might have information on the identity and/or whereabouts of the King of Destruction.

Two against one? No fair!

Phew.

I know who the King of Destruction is.

Yes, I will fight for thefuture!

But let's face it: not too many people earn the title "King of Destruction", so I think it's safe to say we'll be seeing Breager pretty soon.