Secret of Mana - Part 32: Into the Upper Land Forest
Written on Saturday, February 17th, 2018
Posted on Sunday, March 11th, 2018
4 min read
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6
Now off to the Cannon Brother!
I have Pidge cast Stone Saber, imbuing Hero's Javelin with earth magic!
I try the newly enchanted weapon on the nearest Mushboom, petrifying the cute enemy!
We make it to the Cannon Brother...
The destination of Pandora is now replaced with Upper Land.
The Cannon Bro tells us the Upper Land "is huge," and that we can only go there by crossing through the great forest...
After his advice, we climb into the cannon...
Where will we land?
We land in an epic sea of trees, down into a village of Moogles!
Since this is his domain, it looks like Max is leading this time!
But he hit his head again when they landed, meaning he forgot where his home was again! Dangit, Cannon Guy!
Pidge's response is pointed.
We talk to a local Moogle. Pidge thinks he's laughing, but Max says he's not. He's sad...
Who are these "pebblers" the Moogles are talking about?
I have Max lead the way.
In the northern end of the lake, we meet an old friend: Watts!
But just because the blacksmith's out of his forge, doesn't mean he's not willing to help us, and gets down to business. He asks which of our weapons is ready for an upgrade...none so far.
We walk to the western part of the forest. Nothing here.
The trees here look beautiful...
There are two roads out of the periwinkle forest: the south and east.
In the east, it's autumnal looking. To the south, the forest is in bloom...
...where we see Neko, and another species of Rabite called a Silktail!
We talk to Neko, who compliments the fine spring weather in the forest!
The enemies make it hard to enjoy it, though.
His newest item is a Quill Cap, which I get for Max. I also grab another Faerie Walnut...
Other new enemies here, such as a flying dragon and a Steamed Crab, who casts a Thunder Saber spell at himself!
And the Silktails are back!
One casts Acid Storm at Pidge, another heals his fellow Silktail!
I have Max spam Gem Missile at the enemies here...
Hmmm, why is there a flying dragon around this part of the forest? I'm thinking it might be an enemy, but no attacks are affecting it...maybe it's too quick...
I have the party wander around the beautiful spring woods...
Max is almost out of MP...
We head to the west, where the forest is now summer looking...
The place is beautiful, but still dangerous...
We run into a crystal orb, and I have Max Freeze the orb...
...which has no effect...
I try an Earth Slide. Nothing happens.
We head north where we see more monsters, and a dead end...I also see another new monster, a spiky Crawler with cute eyes.
Knowing that I have a weapon that insects don't like, I have Hero equip the very, very bad Power Glove, and use it on the Crawler!
After one final but failed attempt to activate the crystal orb, I head back to the spring part of the forest and take the east route...
...to another part of the forest with a lake, where Water Thugs patrol the area!
The Water Thugs are good at long range attacks!
After taking care of them, I take another pic of the scenery here.
I wonder, is this Secret of Mana's version of Super Mario RPG's Forest Maze?
We take the northeast path back into the autumn part of the forest...
We come across a Nemesis Owl, and get the drop on him! I'm very suspicious of this enemy...
The owl's KO animation is feathers falling...
Near the path back into the Moogle Forest, we see another owl!
We continue around the autumn forest, and do more level grinding...
My suspicions are confirmed as another Nemesis Owl casts a Silence spell on Max, confusing him! My movement controls are now reversed!
We head back south to the large lake and take the east road, where we see another Cannon Bro!
He can take us back near Gaia's Navel, or near Potos Village.
But I decide to explore the forest a bit more...
Taking the northwest path in the lake area, the music changes back to the usual battle music...
The blue-spined hedgehog burrowers are the Pebblers the Moogles warned us about!
And they're quick to approach us through burrowing!
We accidentally head back to the forest lake...
These Pebblers are quick!
Their spinning rock throw attacks are also pretty formidable...
I have Max absorb one of their health...
...and seeing Hero's almost KO'd, I use a Chocolate Bar to heal him!
Eventually Max takes care of one Pebbler!
We get the rest of the Pebblers, and turn to leave...
We now get a prompt saying that the Moogles can return here safe and sound! So this is their village...
Watts is also in the village's garden...
One of the Moogles is overjoyed and thanks us for clearing out the Pebblers!
But Max's head begins to hurt again...he leaps and topples over!
Looks like Max got his memory back! He gives us a tip to enter his homeland in the forest:
So we walk the parts of the forest from spring to winter, and then back to spring, near where the crystal orb is.
I open the chests here as well...
...which have a Glove's Orb and an Axe's Orb!
Seeing Neko nearby, I stop and save here!
What a long session!
Also, I noticed just now that we landed in the winter part of the Upper Land!