Breath of Fire II - Storyline

I'm not going to list items or the names of bosses and things this time, just pure story.

Breath of Fire II begins with a giant eye opening, and a voice saying that it doesn't have enough strength, and pleading with someone, everyone, to pray to God.

Ryu and Gate

Ryu Bateson lives with his sister Yua, and their father, Ganor, a priest of St Eva. Yua runs away at naptime, so Ganor sends Ryu to fetch her. The other villagers talk about the death of Ryu and Yua's mother, three years before, and another, later, occasion, when monsters attacked the village, and Ganor and a dragon held them off. They tell Ryu that Yua often plays up at the back mountain, where the dragon now sleeps.

Ryu heads up to the back mountain. The dragon's claws protect doors to the east and west, while it's head protects the one to the north. There, Ryu finds Yua.

Suddenly, a monster attacks. Ryu tries to fight it off, but he isn't strong enough. Ganor appears, and uses his powerful magic to defeat it, before scolding Yua and praising Ryu.

Yua explains that when she sleeps by the dragon, she sees her mother, and Ganor laments his failure in protecting her. Yua and Ganor leave, and Ryu closes his eyes. He sees a huge eye.

Ryu's mother highly resembles Sara, the sister of the Legendary Hero.

Ryu follows his family back to the village, but quickly finds that no one recognises him, or has ever heard of his family. He heads back to the church, to talk to the priest there, and is given a bed for the night.

The night, the other orphan staying there, Bow, takes the candle and leaves to find a better village to steal from. Ryu decides to stay, initially, but then runs after Bow. The two head out of the village, and it starts to rain.

They head for a nearby cave, where Bow lights their way with the candle. In front of them, they see a weird snakey thing, and Bow insists on following it. They eventually catch up, only to find that it was the tail of a huge monster. The thing flings Bow into a wall, and babbles at Ryu. It asks him if he believes he is the one, the chosen child, and challenges him to prove it.

The monster easily breaks every bone in Ryu's body, but calls him the destined child, and challenges him to open the gate. It says that that is when he will know the strength of God.

It was like waking from a long dream...

But now his father and sister disappeared and no one recognised him.

He dreamt of a horrific demon who ripped his mind and body apart, but it remains just a dream.

Yet the vision remains strong.

Deep waiting in the corners of his mind he hears it calling...

"You are the one" the demon screeches, and he realises that it is true.

In his mind, he sees a tower.

Hometown and Bow

Ten years later, Ryu and Bow have grown up to be Rangers, people who can be hired for any tasks.  Bow begs the guild leader for work, and they are given the task of finding someone's pet.  Bow initially refuses, but agrees when he meets the owner of the animal, Windian Princess Mina.  Hoping that she'll reward him with a kiss, Bow and Ryu head to Mt. Fubi in the south, and to the ruins beyond it.

In Hometown, they find a statue of the old Dragon god, who laments that no one prays to him any longer.  They find another old statue in the ruins beyond the mountain.  On the way to Mt. Fubi, they run into a travelling circus.  The star attraction, the Grass Man, looks sad.  The workers tell them that they're heading to Windia next.

On Mt Fubi, Ryu and Bow fight three harpy sisters, who appear to have been picking off animals and travellers. They also ran into a hunter named Azusa, who'd gotten lost on the mountain while hunting an animal.

In the ruins, they meet an old man, Niro, being terrorised by cockroaches.  They save him, then rescue Mina's pet pig, Suzy, from his cookpot.

Returning to the guild, they find Mina, who thanks them, and ask them to visit her in Windia.  The guild leader pays them their 500 zenny, and, disappointed, Bow suggests that they return to their room.

In the night, a man, Kilgore, appears, to ask Bow to liberate his stolen Magic Hood.  Bow agrees, and decides not to wake Ryu.

The next day, Bow is still missing.  Their lady and the other people in the block have no idea what's happened, but, outside, Ryu hears people talking about Bow being wanted for burgling Trout's mansion.  On his way to the north of town, a blue-haired, bat-winged woman crashes into him.  Eventually, Ryu found Kilgore, who told him that it was his fault, and pleaded with him to save Bow.

Ryu headed back to their room, where Bow was now waiting for him.  Bow explained that he'd been trying to liberate the Magic Hood, but as he made his way through Trout's mansion, a girl with blue hair and bat's wings ran into him.  When he walked down the way she'd come, he found the place ransacked, and the guards right behind him.  The girl he'd seen had taken everything.

Ryu and Bow agreed that they needed to find her, to prove Bow's innocence - but to do that, they had to avoid the guards.  Bow hid in the trash, and Ryu carried him out of town, and all the way to Niro, in the ruins.

When they got there, Bow explained what had happened.  Niro agreed to let Bow stay in exchange for him hunting and repairing the building.  Niro also suggested that Ryu ask about the suspicious woman at Hometown or Coursair, to the east.  Ryu headed to Coursair.

Katt and the Coliseum

In Coursair's church, Ryu met a very charismatic man named Ray, and a doctor named Kay who wanted her own office.  In the bar, Ryu met a man named Poo, who wished someone would build him a house.  He waited in the bar till evening.

That evening, Ryu heard from the other patrons about a girl who would be fighting in the coliseum.  He also found that the tickets were sold out.  A large, odd-looking man named Rand suggested that he ask the lady's opponent, Baba, if he, Ryu, could take his place.  Baba lived in Tag Woods.  Ryu headed to Tag Woods.

Ryu eventually found Baba, who, offended at the suggestion, attacked him.  After being beaten by Ryu, Baba had a change of heart, and gave him his axe.  He also vowed never to fight again.

Ryu headed back to speak to Rand.  When Rand saw the axe, he assumed that Ryu was Baba, and was disappointed at how normal he looked.  Confident in his disguise, Ryu picked up a few herbs at the item shop, and headed to the Coliseum.

Inside, he was told that he needed to attend a final interview with the Dir. HR which turned out to be a battle.  After winning, Ryu went to speak to the manager, Augus.  Augus told him that he'd already decided on 'Baba' torturing and killing the girl, as the audience enjoyed that kind of thing.  Augus told Ryu that they'd be throwing a poison dart at the girl during the fight, and this Ryu''s payment was waiting in his dressing room.

Ryu took the 1000coins from his dressing room, then headed outside to put all his cash in the bank.  He didn't trust these people one bit.

After Ryu had spoken to the soldier in his dressing room, Rand came to see him.  Ryu explained the situation, and Rand agreed to go and buy two antidotes - if Ryu and the girl both took one, neither would be affected by the darts.

There was a flaw in this plan - the girl refused to listen to Rand.  Rand told Ryu to gently knock the girl unconscious and protect her from the poison that way.

As Ryu headed to the battlefield, Augus told his soldiers that he didn't care who the poisoned darts hit - either fighter dying would make a good show.

The girl...didn't have blue hair and bat wings.  Instead, she was a red-headed member of the Woren tribe, named Katt.  Ryu tried to tell her about the poison, but, again, she refused to listen.

Ryu managed to disable Katt, and pushed her out of the way of the poisoned needles., instead getting hit by them himself.  He woke in the inn, listening to her wondering how to apologise to him.

Ryu and Katt decided to join forces, and headed back into the Coliseum to confront Augus.

In Augus' office, Katt and Ryu ran into Rand.  Augus was babbling about God's approval of his "scenario".

"We make you fight each other...and hurt each other...we turn that into a show!  And, the enjoyment of all your warped minds becomes the strength of our God..."

Augus transforms into a monster, and attacks, decided that, if it can't be a show, at least they can be killed in style.

After being defeated, Augus groaned that the seed had still been planted, that they could not stop his God by knocking him down.

Rand asked him what he meant, and Augus laughed.  He told them that God's world was coming.

Rand and Katt decide to stick with Ryu, or "Baba", as they still know him.  Ryu decides that they can both help Bow and Niro, and they all head to the ruins.

At the ruins, the party splits up again.  Rand stays to help with the repairs while Ryu and Katt look for the thief.  Rand mentions that he's heard of a similar person in Hometown's Magic School, so Ryu and Katt head there.

Nina

As Ryu and Katt walked through hometown, they heard an explosion.  Running over, they saw a blonde girl with wings being pestered by a group of thugs who wanted to take her to their boss.  She apologised for hurting them, but said that if they didn't leave her alone, she wouldn't hold back.  Nina headed back inside the magic school, as the men ran away, and Katt, impressed, begged Ryu to let her learn magic too.  He agreed, and they headed inside the school.

From students in the magic school, they learned that Nina's black wings for unusual for Windia, where everyone else had white wings.  They also heard about the Joker Gang, who gathered at Mt. Rocko in the east.

Upstairs, they overheard Nina talking to an instructor, Yoji.  Katt interrupted, and begged Nina to teach her magic.  She told Nina that, if she did, Katt and Ryu would get the Joker Gang for her.

Yoji exclaimed at her braveness, but told her that it was impossible - Katt didn't have time to learn magic to defeat the Joker Gang.

Just then a member of the gang burst in.  He told Nina that they'd kidnapped her sister, Mina, the girl who's pet Bow and Ryu had saved.  Nina followed him.

Ryu realised that, if Nina was Mina's older sister, she must be a Windian princess, too.

Furious, Katt insisted that she and Ryu follow the gang, and rescue Nina and Mina.  The two headed to Mt. Rocko, to the southwest of Corsair.  They headed into the cave surrounded by mountains.  A hood challenged them at the interest, but he was no problem.

Inside, Katt and Ryu found that all of the Joker Gang were related.  They also met a man named Win, who said he only lived in the cave because he was homeless.

They told the guard that the bosses' nephew's name was 'Pain', and he let them through,  However, they failed the next test, and this guard attacked them, along with a poisonous spider.  After defeating him, they headed deeper into the cave.

After knocking out another guard, Ryu and Katt found the boss and Nina.  They hid and watched.

Nina demanded that her sister be returned to her.  Joker brought Mina out, but told Nina that he'd only free her if Nina vowed to become his slave.  He used his men to grab Nina, and keep her from escaping.

Disgusted, Ryu and Katt decided to quietly free Mina.  Katt snuck up behind the one guard holding Mina and knocked him out, before Nina gave her oath.  Joker set his other hoods on her and Ryu, but they were quite easy to defeat, although they did keep calling for backup.  After the battle, Nina hit Joker with a spell, and managed to bury him in rubble.  As Nina was thanking Ryu and Katt, behind her, Joker transformed into a monster.

After the battle, Mina told Nina that she'd left the castle because she wanted to see her.  Both sisters thanked Ryu and Katt.  Ryu and Katt agreed to help escort Mina back to Windia.  On the way out, they grabbed all of Joker's treasure.

When they reached Windia, Mina convinced the guard to let them through.  They had to make their way through the Dead Maze under the castle in order to reach the city proper.

Ryu spoke to the prisoners along the way.  One claimed that a child with dark wings had been born to the Royal family, and that this heralded disaster.  The man next to her told them that the old lady herself had cast a spell to cause disaster.

A nurse, in another part of the maze, told them that she'd once taken care of a dark-winged child, who'd been sent away, as her wings were a bad omen.

A little way through the maze, Mina said, "Nina, everyone will be shocked when we return, won't they?!"

Nina didn't respond.

Another person in the maze told them "According to legend, a person with black wings will ruin Windia."

A little later, Mina said "I wish you could come home...every once in a while."

Outside of the maze, the party ran into guards.  Mina ran into the Queen's arms, while the soldiers questioned the rest of the party.  Mina told them that she'd had her sister bring her back, but the Queen contradicted her, telling them that "Mina does not have an older sister."

Nina apologised, and said "your princess seemed to have been lost, so we..."

Confused, Mina asked what they were talking about.

The Queen asked the soldiers to thank the party and escort them out of the castle.  She added "Mina, you must also thank them."

Outside of the castle, the guard gave them directions back to the east.  Katt asked Nina what was going on, and told her she liked her wings.

As the party walked into Windia proper, they ran into a monkey conducting a magic show.  He convinced Ryu to let him make him, Ryu, disappear.

Katt and Nina demanded that the monkey, who introduced himself as Sten, return Ryu.  He claimed that he couldn't, and commenced flirting with both of them.   Behind him, Nina saw Ryu start to dig himself out of the ground.  As Sten decided he'd like to date both Katt and Nina, Katt saw Ryu and hit Sten with her weapon.  Sten wormed his way into the party, giving his life to Katt, and then they were four.

A few people in town mentioned recent burglaries by a blue-haired, bat-winged woman, who fled west.  The party decided to head to Capitan.

A few other people talked about the Great Bird, a transformation that Windians were formerly capable of.  It was rumoured that the Royal family still retained the talent.  Someone else mentioned a gap to the south, the one the guard had mentioned.  He said a highlander with long arms could probably cross it.  A lady named Barretta in the weapon's shop wished for her own business, while a man in the Inn wished to sell fish.

Outside of Windia, the circus was waiting again.  The workers told them that they were going to Tunlan next.  The Grassman looked even more depressed.

The party also passed a hunting lodge.  They were looking for an Uparupa, for which they were willing to pay 10,000 zenny.  They wanted it to sell to a circus.

One of the hunters told them that, when the owl fruits bloomed, a beautiful girl appeared, so he'd been waiting for her.  He told them that he intended to sell her, of course.  The party continued west, to Capitan.

In Capitan, the party met a travelling salesman named Leminton, and a painter named Locker.  They also learned that, after the well ran dry, all the village's children had fallen in.

The party went to investigate and fell in themselves.  Inside the well, they ran into Ray, from Coursair, who fought off a monster that attacked them.  He explained that the well was infested, and asked them to help.

The party rescued a child, and fought off some of the monsters.  Afterwards, the entire well started shaking.  They hurried back to Ray, who exclaimed that the dam must be bursting.  As they ran to escape, Ray managed to cast a spell to create a barrier, stopping the water.  He asked them to quickly save the rest of the villagers while he held it.  They did so, before heading back to tell Ray.  Luckily, everyone was able to outrun the water.

Outside, Ray asked to be taken to "where the members meet".   The party headed back to the ruins.

Once there, they found that the old house had been repaired, a new one had been built, and the ruins was now called the Township.  Ryu asked Ray to give the blessing to Nina.

The party headed back to Capitan, where a strange girl insisted on borrowing Ryu for a bit.  When she'd got him home, she explained that she and her granny were experimenting with the idea of uniting the power of shamans with other people.  However, Ryu's power was far too strong, and ended up setting the forest on fire.  Afterwards, she explained that this was Ryu's dragon power, and she was surprised to find it still existed in anyone.  Granny also insisted that Ryu now find them a house.  Back at the township, they insisted on taking the one that Bow had built for him and Ryu.  They also ordered Ryu to fetch a carpenter from Capitan.

In Capitan, Ryu learned that the bat-winged girl had taken a boat to the north, to Simafort.  He sent the carpenter to the Township, and the party got on a ship to follow the bat-winged girl to Simafort.

From the harbour, they headed through the nearby woods.  Halfway through, they came to a swamp, with a number of frogs sitting around it.  Suddenly, a voice spoke to them.  A giant frog arose from the swamp and told them he'd had a spell cast on him.  He asked the party to head to Witch Tower in the west, to ask the witch to remove the spell.

The party walked all the way around to the tower, stopping to rest with a man who was camping by the dragon statue.

Inside the tower, the witch made them fight for her amusement before she would open the gate.  After slaughtering three enemies, they were allowed through.  In the next room, they saw two statues, with a person inbetween them.  The person tried to warn them that the exits were closed, and that the witch was twisted and would do terrible things to them, but then he was turned into a statue too.  They saw many of these statues, on their way through the tower.  Finally, they ran into Nimufu, the witch.  She offered to turn the frog back if Ryu became her pet.  Ryu backed away in horror.

Angered at not being liked, Nimufu attacked, saying she'd kill him first, then play with him.

When defeated, Nimufu cried that no one loved her but a frog.  She told them that if a young girl kissed the frog, he'd turn back to normal.   Then she begged them to leave her alone.

On their way out of the tower, they noticed that all the statues were now people.  They also spoke to a water shamen, who had to hurry back to Granny.

Back at the woods, Nina kissed the frog, who transformed into a smaller frog.  He introduced himself as the Prince of Simafort.  While all this had been going on, the Township had been growing stronger.  The party headed back to take a look.  They then explored a strange restaurant that fed the strong and cooked the weak before heading to Simafort.

Once they arrived at Simafort, Jean was denounced as an imposter.  Stunned, the party were told to leave, but were stopped by Petape, the Princess of Simafort.  She told them that their Jean was the real one, and begged them to rescue him.

Asking around the castle, they found that, since "returning", Prince Jean had talked a lot about St Eva, and had been writing hymns about her.  They also found that the King had been acting oddly - he just mumbled.  They also heard about a thief who'd tried to take Simafort's Treasure Sword, who'd been put to work in the palace kitchens.

After defeating the Jailor, they found Jean, painting in his cell.  Jean told them that they could prove his identity with the Royal Ring, which he'd given to Nimufu, because she was lonely.

The party eventually found Nimufu at the Wildcat Cafe, attending a Witch School reunion.   After a little excursion which they all vowed never to talk of again, they had the ring.  Nimufu refused to believe that anyone would give anything so important to her.

Back at the castle, they challenged the imposter, but found that he had a ring of his own.  As a last resort, Petape challenged the imposter to a cooking contest against Jean, and Ryu was dispatched to find the ingredients.  The party headed through the castle dungeon, hunting down the ingredients.  It wasn't easy.  They saw a few of the imposter-Prince's guards die on the way through.

Although Jean cooked well, the Head Chef and the King both proclaimed the imposter-Prince the winner.  Petape appealed to the party to try the food, for a fairer vote.  Ryu tried, but he vomited.

Furious, Petape screeched that she would blow up the castle, and both Princes ran after her.  The Head Chef begged Ryu for forgiveness, and explained that the imposter had threatened him.  He asked Ryu to save Petape, Jean, and the castle.

The party followed them, and soon came across both Jean and Petape, who'd been attacked by the imposter.  The Imposter introduced himself as Kuwadora, transformed into a demon and attacked the party, for knowing the secret of the power under the castle.

Afterwards, the imposter called out to God, wondering how he could lose when he'd been granted special powers.  Then he tried to blow up the castle with the last of his strength.

Jean rushed in, and explained that it wasn't an explosion control - it was the hiding place of the legendary sword.  They'd told everyone it would destroy the castle to prevent burglars, but it seemed no one had informed Petape of this.

As the King thanked them, Petape gave them permission to take whatever they'd like from the castle, which was handy, as Ryu had already grabbed the Legendary Sword.  Instead of saying goodbye, Jean told them he was coming with them.

In Simafort's kitchen, the bat-winged girl was yelling about cockroaches.  The chefs begged the party to take her off their hands, and Ryu readily agreed.  The party headed back to Hometown, and took the thief to Trout's place.

Patty, the bat-winged girl, claimed, as Bow had, that Trout was a thief himself, and she was merely trying to get the items back.  Trout asked Ryu to check the basement for the thieves she claimed were there.  Ryu couldn't find any, and Trout thanked him for exposing the thief and asked him to leave.

Outside, the party ran into Kilgore, who asked them to bring Bow to him, so he could apologise.  The party headed back to the Township to pick up Bow, then back to Hometown.

Kilgore invited them all to dinner, where he asked Bow to steal from Trout's place again.  Ryu agreed to go with him.

Inside, they found a secret basement, which did indeed have a number of thieves locked up, including Patty.  Patty said that she told them so, and that she only stole from bad people.  Suddenly, Trout came back and caught them.  He asked Bow if he would steal for him; when Bow and Patty refused his offer, Trout decided to kill them, and transformed into a monster.

Afterwards, Trout whined that he'd just wanted to be rich - richer than anyone.  Patty gave Bow the Magic Hood before escaping.

Back at his mansion, Kilgore let Bow keep the hood, as a token of his appreciation.  He also wondered if Trout's greed had consumed his soul, and if something terrible was going to happen.  Bow agreed that a lot of strange things had been happening lately.  Ryu agreed that something bad was going to happen, and thought about all the people he'd seen who'd transformed into monsters because of their greed, or love of violence.  In his mind, he saw the eye again.


A young man's day...the voice of a demon...like a bad dream...The destined child.

He saw Gate.


Something...something evil...has begun to stir....this little stir is about to change...the world greatly.

On their way out of Hometown, another Ranger, Sylvia, asked Ryu and Bow to come to the Guild with her, for something urgent.

In Powell, the head Ranger's, office, a group of Rangers were talking about a huge demon they'd been sent to face, something far beyond their capabilities.  When Bow asked, they told him they'd been researching an incident in Gate, where a lot of the trees in the forest had died.  They also heard more about the large Demon, and realised it was the one that they'd faced as children.

The elder told them to look for the Grass Man, who could communicate with trees, and might find out what happened at Gate.  He warned Bow and Ryu not to be heroes.

The party headed south of Simafort, and soon found a hut which offered sight-seeing of the whale caves.  The owner was one of the thieves they'd freed from Trout, and he offered them a free trip.

Inside, they met a man named Maiyoru, and two dolphins, named Tree and Ton.  They explained that the party were inside the mouth of Grandpa the Whale, but Grandpa seemed to have been sleeping a lot lately, and they were getting worried.  It had all started when Grandpa had swallowed a big stone doll.  It was a scary doll that came out in a dream and said "sleep, sleep".

Maiyoru left then, riding on one of the dolphins.  He told the party to come and see him, in his to the west, if they had any questions.

The party headed down to the whale's stomach, until they ran into the stone idol.  The writing on it said that the person who woke it would be cursed forever.

The idol complained that it couldn't sleep, so it would put Grandpa - and Ryu - to sleep forever.

After the battle, the idol thanked them for letting him sleep and disappeared.  Grandpa was still sleeping, though, so the party headed back to his throat and kicked his adam's apple until he woke up.

In gratitude, Grandpa offered to show them around the ocean.  Tree and Ton suggested Tunlan, where the carnival was, and, remembering the Grass Man, Ryu agreed.

Spar

The circus was indeed near Tunlan, and the party headed there first.  They found that the carnival was much more popular in Tunlan, simply by showing monsters that were commonplace elsewhere but rare here.  Although Ryu could understand their speech, they couldn't understand his.

The party also learned that the Grass Man was going to be eaten by a monster, to try to attract more customers.  They went in and found the chief of the Carnival taunting the Grass Man, who responded civilly.  The chief told the party that he'd only stop the show if they were willing to bring him an Uparupa instead.

The party headed to the Uparupa caves, just south of Coursair, to try to catch one.   Along the way, they had to stop by Owl Woods for more Owlfruit.  While there, they took care of the girl the hunters had been talking about.

When Ryu finally caught an Uparupa, he couldn't bear the thought of giving it to the Chief.  The party let the Uparupa go, and headed back to the Carnival, to rescue the Grass Man.

Back at the Carnival, the chief transformed into a monster and attacked them.  Afterwards, the Grass Man let himself out of the cage, and told the party that he'd been waiting for them - or, at least, for people like them, people horrified by the atrocities in the world.  He introduced himself as Spar.

With Spar, the party hurried to the Great Sea of Trees, to the west, to ask the wise tree about Gate.

The Wise Tree told them that the information was buried deep within his mind.  He told them that, in order to find it, they'd need to fetch the Therapy Pillow - or, 'Bolster' - from Tunlan.  However, in Tunlan the party learned that they'd need a musical instrument in order to communicate with the people there.  They headed to Highfort, to the east, to see if they could borrow the famous flute.

When they reached Highfort, Sten told them that it was his hometown.  He told them that he'd never intended to go back.

Inside the castle, a soldier greeted him as Chief Sten, and told him that he'd thought Sten had died at the Goonheim war.  Sten told him that he'd run away, and that the hero of the Goonheim war was Trubo, who'd fought to the end.

The soldier told Sten that Trubo was looking forward to seeing him.  Sten said he couldn't face him, then left, telling the party that they'd need to get the famous flute themselves.  Talking to the other Highlanders, the party learned of Shupkay, a beautiful, bloodthirsty general.  They also learned that the castle had recently become filled with monsters.

Wandering around, the party ended up overhearing a war meeting, where Shupkay talked of taking over the world, and building an incredible weapon.  Realising that they'd heard her, Shupkay dropped them through a trapdoor.

Elsewhere, Sten wondered where Ryu and the others had gone.  He set off to explore.  One of the soldiers warned him about Shupkay.

Along the way, Sten ran into Trubo.  Trubo still held a grudge and challenged Sten to single combat.

After trading a few blows, Trubo revealed that he'd thought Sten was dead, and was angry at him for not coming home.  Trubo said he could forgive Sten leaving him - but not for leaving the Princess.  In his anger, Trubo then broke the bridge they were standing on, and told Sten he could only escape from it by defeating him.

Sten won, and fished Trubo out of the water below.  When he awoke, Trubo told Sten of how Shupkay was now controlling the Kingdom.  She intended to unlock the powers of the castle, using a member of the Royal family - the Princess.  Trubo and Sten decided to split up, and make their way to the Princess.

Eventually, Sten found himself in the Princesses room, where Shupkay was attempting to persuade her to help unlock the power of the castle.  Sten challenged her, but she dropped him through a trapdoor as well.

Sten met up with the rest of the party, and they all made their way upstairs.  Finally, they ran into Trubo, who'd been heavily injured by the security system.  The party smashed it.

Afterwards, Trubo told them that it had been guarding the control room - if they smashed it, Shupkay would be unable to use the castle as a weapon.  He told Sten that he'd take care of it, while Sten and the party rescued the Princess.

Shupkay intended to use a machine which took human emotions and turned them into energy.  She decided that the Princess's despair at seeing Sten killed would be enough, and attacked.

When she was unable to defeat the party - as a monster - Shupkay decided that she would use her own feelings in order to transform the castle into a flying fortress.  Downstairs, Trubo was unable to break the machine, and, upstairs, the party couldn't reach Shupkay.

Trubo had managed to do something, however.  The energy started going backwards, and Shupkay screamed that the castle would explode.  The party and the Princess ran to the elevators.  Unfortunately, they needed to be operated manually, and Sten offered to stay behind.

Afterwards, the Princess, Elforan, gave them the famous flute, and asked that, should Sten appear again, they take care of him.  She hoped he'd return someday.

The party found Sten on their way out.

In Tunlan, the party learned that the Queen was sick.  They'd have to cure her of her obesity before she'd help them.  They also learned of an old Magician, Gedd, who would be able to cure the Queen, if she hadn't banished him.  The party headed northeast, to the island Gedd had been banished to.

Old man Gedd insisted that he would only talk to women.  Luckily, he accepted the Seso-bonded Spar as female.  He still refused to help the Queen...unless, that is, he got a kiss from Spar.

With Gedd, the party returned to Tunlan.  Gedd examined the queen, and told the party that she was turning into a monster due to her greed.  The greed and selfishness in her heart made her vulnerable to demons.

Gedd gave the party a list of items to fetch from his mountain.  The party headed there, and brought back a Mirror and a Mushroom.  Gedd told them that they needed to head inside the Queen, to defeat her fat, and shrank them down with the mushroom. 

Once inside the Queen, the party used the Mirror to communicate with Gedd.  Once they'd finally gotten rid of all the fat demons, Gedd let them out.  The Queen agreed to let Gedd stay in Tunlan, and gave Ryu permission to take the Therapy Pillow/Bolster.  The party headed back to the wise old tree, Gandaroof

Once there, they entered his mind.  They found many memories there, including a prophecy of a dragon who would lead a brave group during times of trouble, and stories of a demon who took over one's soul when a person was vulnerable.  Ryu also learned that the dragon clan disappeared shortly after telling the tree that they had an important mission.

Finally, they ran into a creature that told them he wanted to destroy Gandaroof's memory, because he knew something that was inconvenient to the creature's God.  He also told Ryu that he was the one who'd caused everyone in Gate to forget him and his family.

Ryu destroyed him.

After the battle, the monster gloated that he'd already destroyed part of Gandaroof's memory before disappearing.  Speaking to some of the avatars inside Gandaroof's mind, the party heard of a Dragon who'd lead seven brave warriors to fight a great evil.  Outside, Gandaroof talked about the warrior again, as well as the horror of the devil-god who used such demons to control people.  He talked about a man who'd used the powers of the demon to possess people, but he couldn't remember his name.

Finally, Gandaroof talked about the demon destroying the trees, and people living to the south who would help them fight.