Let's Play Golden Sun Dark Dawn: Chapter 36
Hm... well, I've seen this one before. More like SOLOBOROS SANCTUM. Or something.
Anyway moving the statue leads to a way right out of the dungeon. Uh... okay. That wasn't hard. Except wait yes it was, how are we supposed to get the Sol Mask so it can be stolen from us?!
And they're not letting us back in the palace. Um, didn't someone say something about a tree...? Man, I don't remember.
Oh yeah, right. (He is the Whoaaa-san, that's what he am, he is the Whoaaa-san, he's got the master plan.) Before we openly defied Whoaaa for no real reason, he was gonna have us go attack Ayuseriouslygoingwiththatname Ayuthay. And we already had that handy letter to show these guys that says we're helping them out.
Gosh, if Chalis hadn't obviously intended things to go this way, that would've just been embarrassingly convenient.
Nobody else in the entire palace is allowed to learn how to write, I suppose?
To get across to the generals, we have to do ice puzzles... ON A POND! (Using Whirlwind as propulsion, of course.)
DAAAAAy I got Twitter cookie.
Over the pond, we find our generals being tormented by cackling ninjas.
In response, they slice straight through some priceless ancient statues.
Their PURGING OF EVIL SPIRITS is interrupted by DAAAAA's party, and Kutan asks to see Whoaaa's letter, so we show it to -
Well geez, what if DAAAAA just can't distinguish red and blue, huh?
We show it to Kutan and the two are all "YOU ARE NO SOLDIERS YOU WILL ONLY GET IN THE WAY YOU CANNOT POSSIBLY BE OF ANY oh wait maybe they could do something about those evil spirits we were literally just trying to deal with?"
...As they stare into each other's eyes.
We go up above and find that tree everyone's been talking about.
DAAAAA plays some seriously funky music on the Tree Flute.
Incidentally, kids, don't touch Fuzzy or you'll get dizzy like DAAAAA here, who then falls into the hole in the tree. Also the tree has a face too just because.
Oh no, we've stumbled upon a band of obvious-fact-staters.
So the blue-haired guy with the silly crown is the Amiti guy Baggy wanted us to meet and it turns out the "evil spirits" were just these stupid kids being terrible at hiding.
Amiti thinks we should meet their king Paithos (a tragic figure, I'm sure) but the kids are like BUT HOW DO WE EVEN KNOW THEY'RE ADEPTS, to which Amiti's response is WE MUST BE HOSPITABLE TO ADEPTS. Right, that makes sense.
Amiti shows us how to take a SECRET PASSAGE to the throne room by playing more funky music to make vines grow really fast and pry the door open. Right.
Well, this guy looks... humble.
Paithos explains how Amiti's mom recently restarted the Alchemy Well which gave Egypt Ayuthay back their water supply. Then he's about to say something about Amiti's father, and...
You mean... I'm NOT a freakish creation that defies nature?! HOW COULD THIS BEEEEEEEEEE
"(Huh, how the hell DID I get everyone to believe that, again...? Oh right, this is Golden Sun.)"
So it turns out this MYSTERIOUS ADEPT PERSON WHO CARRIED GENES FOR BLUE HAIR came by and got it on with Amiti's mom and restarted the well and left, and neither Paithos nor the mom had any powers after all. So yeah, this got really predictable really fast.
Rief, why are you asking me, and Camelot, why am I answering like this?
So in another move that surprises no one, there's a Luna Mask that brings the full power of the Alchemy Well just like the Sol Mask for the Alchemy Forge. (PS. I can't wait to see the Alchemy Loom and Alchemy Fold in Golden Sun 4.)
Not-Even-Remotely-Alex didn't get the mask for them, of course, so I guess we gotta do that.
Also, there's some kind of prophecy that some Adepts will come along to reactivate both machines and THE WORLD WILL PROSPER.
YOU HAVE THE ABILITY TO GIVE YES/NO OPTIONS YOU KNOW
Paithos, in his infinite wisdom, notices the Sol/Luna Mask connection and finally starts discussing us getting the Sol Mask from the Ouroboros, which was all we really (sort of) cared about.
It's actually just a mirror, so DAAAAA's party can see how horribly boring they all are. Truly a gift from the gods.
Currently. It depends on the tides.
Apparently turning on the Well flooded the temple (meaning Totes-Not-Alex probably only activated it as part of a plan to delay us years in advance) so now we need to switch it from suck to blow blow to suck.
Well, this couldn't possibly be a well.
Inside, Amiti suddenly hears voices from a SLUMBERING SAND PRINCE, which means we need to go find a princess to wake him with a kiss - oh no we just have to play some funky music in front of a rock so he can come out of the ground and we can fight him.
This guy.
Who has now become this stone.
Suddenly this seems like a bad idea to our party. Some heroes you are. Gotta parch a few desert towns to fix a soarwing, what I say.
The temple has a bunch of water-level puzzles. Yep. No key hidden under a block that floats up, though.
And he looks GREAT in it!
Also... yeah. Camelot never claimed to be original.
Abusing water scales as stairs, etc.
Oh my gosh, we've NEVER done a puzzle like this before. ...Oh wait, I guess these guys haven't.
Push the pipes into position, Douse the bowl up top, go back and tilt the scale the other way, etc., etc.
OH NO A PSYNERGY VORTEX
wheeeeeeeeee
AHHHHH I'M SORRY FOR USING YOUR IRRIGATION SYSTEMS AS A SLIDE
...Uh... Look, can people PLEASE just make up their minds about this?
Anyway, apparently the Insight Glass is sentient or something and decides to give itself to Amiti for some reason. Most disappointingly, it's not shown what kinds of antics would happen if he tried to give it to someone else.
ALL SIGNS POINT TO WHIRLWIND
Yes, not at all a plot device to make us keep Amiti around so he can find out some mysterious half-masked man is his father.
DAAAAA AWAAAAAAAAAAY
Excellently-put for once, Tyrell.
Nuts to him! Heck, while we're at it, let's "forget" to reactivate the Well.
Eventually Paithos decides to let him go because there's no way we could just use trial and error in place of the Insight Glass or anything.
Well, sure, if you really want to make up another name for deus ex machina.
Amiti, it's more what you're NOT wearing... (no actually the crown is dumb too but i couldn't resist)
At last, Dark Dawn makes a major improvement upon the first two games: a five-person -
Ha ha kidding.
Oh yeah, these guys. How do they know we're traitors already? Maybe it takes a long time to exorcise evil spirits, ever thought of that?
We don't try to convince them otherwise or anything, though, because our party is fight.
(Not screenshotting because battle screenshots are hard, but they have an attack where they ATTACK WITH PURE HATRED and can give AN INSPIRING SPEECH to raise their attack. They also have fireworks, get it.)
We beat them and tie them up.
Gosh, no wonder they wanted us to come help them. I guess they were only saying those inspiring speeches to each other.
So apparently these generals are really bad at leading troops so we presume the troops won't even notice they're gone. Way to go... uh... whatever your country was named.
Never mind me, just grippin' your flags.
Google Insight tells us to play some funky music here to destroy a paper rock wall AND grow some vines that pry open a door. The wonders of psynology.
Okay, NOW can we be manipulated?