Quesada's Swan

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Aside: While looking through the playlist of Secret of Mana's music, I accidentally found the remix for the first battle music!

Since Sage Joch's not at Gold City, I decide to go back to the cave to see if he's there...

I demo Pidge's new light spell, the Lucent Beam!

On the way up to the peak cave, I also imbue Hero with light magic!

Everyone's not surprised at the sage not being there at this point...

So he went off to the Moon Palace, huh? From Jehk, the Moon Palace "floats eerily in the Sea of Wonders at Kakkara Desert's end."

Peeking at the online guide, I guess what Sage Joch's wanting us to do: He wants us to power up the Mana Sword from all eight Mana Seeds and get all eight elementals before he could see us!

I fly back to Gold City and get more recovery items, a Battle Suit, a Unicorn Helm, and a Lazuri Ring. Knowing how tough the Golden Tower was, I have to be prepared for the Moon Palace.

We land before the edge of the Sea of Wonders here...

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A Robin Foot by the name of Karon ferries us to the Moon Palace.

Karon: "There's a lot of nothing in the palace. Don't get lost!"

He warns us further about the condition of the ferry.

And now we wait as Karon sails us there...

We now arrive!

A Marmablue, a jellyfish-like monster, comes to greet us!

Marmablue isn't affected by Excalibur's attacks! I have Max cast dark magic on the Marmablue! The spell seems to work...

So that's the Moon Palace...

Inside the Moon Palace, everything looks different...the sad music from Pandora plays again.

Meeting another Marmablue, it casts a Magic Absorb, or the equivalent of an Osmose spell, on Hero! Since Hero has no MP, it doesn't work!

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The sea of stars in the palace make it a bit hard to know where we are...

I realize we just went around in circles...

We go back in the palace and head west this time, where we find a crystal orb! The orb's responsive to light magic!

I fire a Lucent Beam on it, lighting the moon palace up!

It seems the Mana Seed chamber's up ahead! Or another boss...

No, it's the Mana Seed chamber...

There's the elemental Luna (this was the elemental whose name I got spoiled about) guarding the Mana Seed. This feels a bit too easy...

I approach Luna.

Luna: "So sad this place has grown...but enough! Take with you my powers! Go! Mana is fading..."

We get Luna's magic! Yes!!

Now for the Mana Seed...

Now we have seven Mana Seeds! There's now one more left!

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I check out Luna's moon magic for both Max and Pidge: Max has Magic Absorb, Change Form, and Lunar Magic, while Pidge has Moon Saber, Moon Energy, and Lunar Boost.

I check out the effects for Pidge's moon magic, and the Moon Saber basically imbues a weapon with health-draining powers!

As for Max's moon magic, two of the spells he has I'm still trying to figure out the effects of, but Magic Absorb, I think, is the best spell he has here!

I demo Max's Lunar Magic, it absorbed all of his MP! Plus, it gave the Marmablues a stat boost!

We head back to the ferry after taking care of the Marmablues...

The ride's safe so far...

We fly back to the Lofty Mountains, and I demo Max's Change Form spell, turning every monster there into a different one!

After taking care of them, I restock on Walnuts and get more upgrades from Watts!

Golden Axe to Were-Buster
Halberd to Oceanid Spear
Bow of Hope to Elfin Bow
Red Cleaver to Cobra Shuttle (what a funny name!)

The Oceanid Spear's imbued with sleeping effects, the Were-Buster, as its name implies, is effective on beasts, animals, and birds, the Elfin Bow raises the Intelligence stat (perfect for Max!), and the Cobra Shuttle's a poison-tipped weapon!

I equip Max with the bow and save at the inn before heading up to the peak again.