Forgotten Ruins

Written by MSG Commander

Recommended Level 52 or higher

When you enter the Forgotten Ruins, you find out that the Man who told you there was a Guardian Beast here is actually the Chief of the Amm Tribe, and he's just led you into a trap!

It seems the Amm Tribe uses the power of the Darkness for its own evil purposes, and they don't want you to rid the lands of Darkness, so they set a trap in the Forgotten Ruins to try and stop you.

After the dialogue, go north to exit A. On the next screen, go west, and you'll see Hajay, the Wandering Merchant! Again, you can buy supplies from Hajay and you can rest in his tent if you need to.

Get the Mining Point north of Hajay, then go back and take the path to exit B.

From here, take exit C and get the treasure, then go back and follow the path through exits E and F.

As soon as the path turns to the north here, you'll face the first Boss.

Boss Battle

Amm Tribe 01

Amm Tribe, Yellow Elemental, Storm

This guy's not that hard (especially if your level is in the mid-50s).

Alia, Fred and Paola's Linked Skill, Vanishing Soul, will almost completely annihilate him.

Follow that up with any Light skills, or any other high-level magic skills.

After the dialogue, get the Mining Point and take exit G to the next room. Get the treasure, and the Mining Point, then go north through exit H.

On this screen, get the Mining Point and go east. When the path splits, go south through exit I and get the third treasure. Now go back and take exit J to another Boss battle.

Boss Battle

Amm Tribe 02

Amm Tribe, Ruin Turtle x2

If you used a Linked Skill on the last Boss and haven't recharged yet, this battle will take awhile.

Use your strongest Light skills, while someone like Vil or Kline takes care of the Ruin Turtles. Attacks like Ghost-wail Slash and Mighty Lance seem to do well, but honestly your best bet is something like Holy Breath or Crusade.

If Amm Tribe uses All-Barrier, use you physical attackers (but keep Alia in your party so she can heal everyone.)

This battle will take some time if you don't have a Linked Skill availabe, but again if your party level is in the mid-50s, you should be able to win without any real problems.

After the battle, go west through exit K. Take the first path to the north, and follow it all the way to the Mining Point. Now go back to the start of this screen, and go west to another Mining Point, then take the second northern path. Take the east path to another Mining Point, then go back and go further north to where the path splits.

Follow this path to exit L and the fourth treasure, and then go back to the previous screen.

Go through exit M, and follw the path to the fifth treasure. Now follow the path to another Mining Point, and to exit N, and another Boss battle - this time with the Amm Tribe Chief.

Boss Battle

Amm Tribe Boss

Amm Tribe, Dead Space x2

Use All-Quick Spoil, and have Alia use Brave Heart. You can also use All-Quick Assist and All-Soul Assist, if you want to. For this battle, I used Delta Strike because it was the only Linked Skill I had available - and it brought Amm Tribe's HP down to about 20%. Normally, I'd suggest killing the Dead Spaces as quickly as possible; however, the Amm Tribe can use All-Regenerator, and once that starts, he'll recover 1600 HP per turn.

If you don't have any Linked Skills available, then use Alia's Holy Breath, Kline's Ghost-wail Slash, and either Fred or Vil's physical attack, or have Paola use Crusade.

The name of the game here is "try to keep everyone alive, while doing as much damage each turn as you possibly can." Amm Tribe takes the most damage from Light attacks, and high level physical attacks like Ghost-wail Slash or a high level Swiftflash Dragon's Fang.

After this battle, you've still got one more to go, and it's going to be the hardest of them all. When the dialogue ends, go ahead and go north through exit O, and get the Mining Point on that screen.

When everyone is ready, take exit P to the final room, and another Boss battle.

Spoiler

When you enter the final room, there's a statue made of Dark Matter, which holds all the negative emotions from the Amm Tribe, giving it a strange power. The Amm Tribe is using this statue to collect all the Darkness in Laft in one place. The statue reacts to the Darkness inside Kline's body, and Vil tries to help him but he gets knocked unconscious.

Then, another Gray Sage appears, and uses a spell that makes it so your party can't move. He says he's going to kill you, but he might make one of you a new Sage first. At first everyone refuses his offer, but then Epsilon says Fred is willing to accept, to let everyone else die while he becomes the new Sage!

Everyone is shocked to hear Fred say this, but then we find out that he's already one of them anyway. Fred has been working this whole time as a spy for the Holy Messengers. The Carved Seal on Fred's arm was put there by the Gray Sage, to mark him as a spy and to put him under their control. Fred has been reporting everything your party has done this whole time.

When Kline hears this, he loses control.

The Gray Sage commands Epsilon to take control of Fred's body and kill Kline, but somehow, Fred is able to resist. Fred refuses to harm Kline, his best friend, and he and Epsilon refuse to follow the Sage's orders any more. And then, the Gray Sage kills Epsilon, and yet somehow Epsilon is reborn as a Guardian Beast.

Anne shows up, and uses her Guardian Beast, Nikay, to break the spell on your party, and then, you get to fight the Gray Sage.

Boss Battle

Gray Sage

Gray Sage

This guy is just down-right nasty.

Start with Fred, Alia, and Paola. On your first turn, have Fred use All-Barrier, Alia use Brave Heart, and Paola use All-Shield. (Or whatever, just make sure Alia uses Brave Heart.) Then use their Linked Skill, Vanishing Soul.

Next, swap Fred for Kline, and have Kline use Ghost-wail Slash, Alia use Holy Breath, and Paola use Crusade.

You can also use Kline's Life Beat if you want. Keep using your buffs as needed, and make sure you use Energy Flow to keep everyone's HP as high as you possibly can.

If you're lucky, you'll be able to kill him without anyone in your party dying.

Spoiler

After the battle, the Gray Sage's true identity is revealed - it's Commander Orgadion! All this time, he's been posing as a loyal member of the Holy Messengers, and really he's been helping the High Beast Lord to achieve his evil purposes. Orgadion dies, and his body disappears.

Fred and Anne are reunited, and Fred fills her in on everything that's happened. Then you find out that Epsilon was supposed to have fused himself with Fred way back when they first entered Laft, but for some reason it never worked. Paola says it's because of the scar over Fred's Carved Seal - the scar that Vil left him with way back when.

Vil wakes up, and he and Anne have it out. Once everything's worked out between them, you're done here. And now, you have five Guardian Beasts!

When all the dialogue ends, get treasure T6 in the southwest corner - Life with Magic Weapons.

Now, you can leave the Forgotten Ruins. Your next destination is the Realm of Swelling Darkness, and you can go there straightaway.