Legacy - Definition of Insanity (Request for Assistance)

 Written by Morpheus Kitami

When I began writing what was going to be the original entry, it was not a hopeful one. It would have ended with a request for assistance...a different request for assistance. Something changed between then and now. Because I'm looking to wrap things up, I was looking up old reviews for this game, you know, to provide contrasting opinions with my own. This all went smoothly, until I read the Polish magazine Top Secret's review. It had the answer right in my face, a map. What was in that map? I'll tell you in a moment. To tell you how much of a roadblock this tiny bit was, almost as soon as I had reached that area, I had realized what almost every single item I had did. And then another, entirely different roadblock happened.

The observatory

We start on the 3rd floor, where I had put the Hand of Glory and the Horned Skull on their pedestals. I leave the Horned Skull, but take the Hand; The Horned Skull does nothing useful. It does stop you from using magic, which is nice. It's a long trip, I have to go down to the second basement for the Astrolabe, then back up to the temple. Here, after putting a few points into Key of the Shadow Lord, I open the door to the observatory. Firstly, putting points into Key is very useful for two reasons, one, it is literally impossible to open this door without it, and two, I'm going to need it for the rest of what I'm going to do.

The observatory is...well it sees the stars. There's also a summoning ring that if you left click on damages you. Very nice, but whatever. With the Astrolabe, you can see the stars have aligned in a way that Alberoth is gone.

 The crystal flute, how many times it's damaged my hearing

Behind the other door I thought was impossible to unlock, there's a mummy, a set of batteries, and most importantly, a crystal flute. The flute plays a very annoying sound. Which is very nice when you're desperately running around trying to solve anything at all that might help you win. I have used that many, many times. At this point, I tried to use the Ghettoblaster, in my hand, playing to avoid taking damage from the mummy. Didn't work, but I got the flute anyway.

What will hopefully solve most of my upcoming problems

Next on my list of problems to solve, getting the best weapon and armor in the game. Only problem? I needed the wakizashi and I had lost it. It must be in one of the basement levels, but fortunately, I can solve some of my other problems here. Namely, that of the leftover worms. Since I killed most of them already, its not that difficult using the plentiful rock salt ammo on the two that remain. Then, I use the Mogana leaves on the mortar and pestle, then the mortar on the incense burner. Hopefully that will prevent the fish people from attacking me. If not, well, I've got a lot of ammo, I should be able to kill off some of them.

Problem

Problem solved

Going through the entire house...well, the entire house I've been spending time around, and the temple, I could not find the wakizashi anywhere. I know I found it once before, I already solved the problem with that item. Huh. But fortunately I could solve one problem involving Japanese military equipment, the samurai armor. The half-metal crescent could be used to repair a broken Japanese mon symbol. This restores the Fukijama symbol...which apparently isn't a thing. You know, maybe they should have asked Lawrence Schick to take a 5 minute break from BloodNet to give them an actual Japanese clan name?

Intentional, this is intentional, absolutely intentional

Try to guess what's wrong with this picture, the answer comes soon enough

But where the hell did I drop that wakizashi? I have a lot of items to move to the lower reaches, because this is rapidly approaching the final confrontation. But on each floor, I search and search anywhere I would have been, and I can't find it. I can't find it at all. Where did it go? Without it, there's not much point in getting the katana. See, as you might remember, the samurai who the swords belonged to had demonically possessed equipment or something, and in order to get that advantage, I need to bring the weapons and the urn together on the 3rd floor. I did it before, but now, when it's important, I can't remember where it went.

 If you're really in this kind of situation, the spear is always a better choice

So, uh, after a considerable amount of time, I give up. Instead I go for the spear, a Zulu Assegai. This doesn't do as much damage, but it does have as much reach as a gun. If nothing else, I'll be able to cheese an enemy to death.

Ah, Melchior...anyway...

So, this is the part that gave me so much trouble. The bit of the map that's separating the north from the rest. It's a hidden passage behind a chair. Unless you're paying attention, and you really aren't at this point, you're not going to notice you have the option of walking through it. It doesn't show up on the minimap. I walked past this section half a dozen times and never saw it. I even summoned Melchior there, which I guess I should get into. As I found out last time, you summon Melchior by using the dagger on the book...I don't really know what the purpose of this is, because as long as you have the Golden Torc, Melchior just sort of sits there. He doesn't do anything to you. Seeing as the only other necklace item is the Eye of Abhomet, there's no point to not wearing the Torc as of yet. Oh, sure, he's wandering in a couple of places down here, but it doesn't matter.

Fish tacos are on the menu tonight

It's at this point that it changes into the caves. "Caves", more like. Looks more like a bunch of random lines to me. It's dark, it's ugly, and I can't see anything on the ground. I found a jar of slime...which I can eat. Yeah, I'm going to eat a mysterious item I see on the ground in an area mostly untouched by man. Anywhere, here are the fish people...whatever their name was. With the samurai armor they're not that tough, and I brought the sawed-off shotgun here. If I hit them, I can get them in two shots. With the amount of times I hit them, its usually 3. Here's where the severed head of the dead guy is useful, it opens all the doors. However, there does seem to be a door that I can't yet even find, but it's on the in-game map.

Get a good look at these guys, because I sure did

I find a wand, that when I pick it up summons a few guys. Not sure what that does yet. There's a book made out of...octopus skin...? That's what the game says...questioningly. It details in the fish language how to turn people into servitors. Itss at this point that several elements pop up that would be okay...if this were a normal RPG. Things like respawning enemies and getting teleported to other locations. Okay, they're just in limited locations, but this game is supposed to be horror, and respawning enemies in this environment doesn't produce that, it produces annoyance. I mean, I know of a horror game that did that and did that well, but it wasn't exactly a never-ending buffet. I find a note, from Martha Maitland, whining about how her husband tricked her into marriage, so she fed him the fish food to poison him. Was that supposed to be something I have to figure out? Unless I'm going to be poisoning someone later, it's not going to matter.

Then I find another note, this one from...Robert Prentiss, saying they haven't found his sister yet, and that the Sea Daemons say a special gate is going to open twenty four hours prior to the opening of the final gate. This is the Gateway to the Endless void. The capitalization is as it is in-game. Its located in a place of danger, and leads to Belthegor. I have to make a leap of faith...and oh...is this going to end with me jumping off a cliff or something to reach it?

Ah...back to the darkness of unknowing

After some more rooms full of respawning enemies, another pre-rendered room. Its the Sea Daemons' altar, and it has something projecting a sound at F Sharp...some 15 minutes later I return with the crystal flute. This explodes something...I think this is the item I need...and what I didn't realize before now is that there's an electrical force field here...which I can't pass. The wand does nothing. It does nothing in the chalice room or the jewel room either. Back downstairs, I use the book to summon Melchior, thinking that'll fix something...all that did was summon another copy of Melchoir, now there's three down there. One here, off to the side, one guarding the sea caves, and one in the sea caves. He's still in the Ethereal Realm too. Why does he need Belthegor again?

I hate being right

So I once again return to the caves...deciding to myself to try to red potion on the altar...but then as I'm exploring the area where the door should be...something stupid happens. I'm teleported behind the door. Thanks...thanks for that inspired bit of level design there, fellows. Here's the cliff I'm supposed to jump off of. "Stepping through the cave mouth must surely end on the rocks below. Will you turn back or continue?" the text box pops up as I do something no one without a save file would do...or in Morrowind I guess...Twilight...I'm only writing this because all jumping does is save me the trouble of teleporting to the Lair of the Beast. Hurts me a little, but just about as much as going to the Ethereal Plane without the Mayan Idol.

Ha...ha...ha...

Now, at this point, I have gone through every item multiple times. The Fungi and the Horned Skull, as I learned last time, are useless cursed items. Given the game's habit of telling me every other important bit of information, it's surprising they didn't bother to mention anything about those. The wand does absolutely nothing. The remote does nothing, I probably missed my opportunity to use that anyway. The head does nothing, but that's okay, it was very useful a few moments ago. Oil Lantern, Ghettoblaster, attack spells, attacking, Assegai, shuriken, defensive spells, red potion, guns, Eye of Abhomet, magic glasses, jar of slime, standing around, timing it, spam clicking. The only thing I didn't try were the Chainsaw and the sunglasses, because I suspect those are both useless to me now. Now, I want to point out that I might, possibly have missed something because I found out just as I was finishing up that the pillar and the electrical field were separate items. I know I'm not giving a good indication that these pre-rendered scenes are usually animated, except with the dismembered zombie room, but this field jumps up and down the pillars. If I left click on something that the field is guarding, it jumps out. And I don't know how to solve it. I also did everything except the jar of slime in the chalice room...which leaves me with one option left.

REQUEST FOR ASSISTANCE:

Basically, I just need the answer to one question, but I'd like to solve any loose ends while I'm at it.

Firstly, there are two rooms in the 1st and 2nd basements that I can't reach. Solving this would undoubtedly solve the rest of my problems, but I have just never seen any item that sounds like it would help. What, is throwing a shuriken at it going to make the teleporter disappear? Blasting some sick beats? Eh...eh...eh...

Secondly, the chalice room. I'm thinking this is another trap and I just didn't realize it because I'm desperate. Remember, I'd still be trying the fungi and the horned skull if Ilmari didn't tell me otherwise.

Thirdly, and most important, the Sea Daemon altar itself. The rest only matter if they're related to this. I think if this is solved, the rest of the game is going to fall into place. There can't be anymore stupid stuff after this, can there? Right? Right?

Items I have not identified the use of yet: Red Potion, Oil Lantern, Remote Control, Chainsaw, Ghettoblaster

Spellbook: Shroud of the Shadow Walker, Agatta's Iron Fist, Belgor's Mental Violation, Elixir of Health, Aura of Mystic Defense, Flames of Desolation, Dimensional Rift, Key of the Shadow Lord, Crimson Mysts of Myamoto, Xython's Guiding Eye, Wind of Destruction, Sight of the Dark Walker, Arcane Tower of Reason, Obsidian Shard of Annihilation, Mantle of Endurance, Malevolent Compression

This Session: 8 hours 00 minutes
Total Time: 42 hours 00 minutes