How to
Save the World
Part Ten
By now we’ve
built up enough suspense to enter the final dungeon. I might recommend that you
make your final dungeon unique in some way. Often a final level will be in a
special location. I’ve seen it be placed in the sky, in a separate realm, on
the moon; several times I’ve seen it in a huge castle (not very original) or
atop a mountain or volcano. Last dungeons can be especially intimidating,
mysterious, large, or difficult. And the more of these it is, the better.
In Part 8 I
described the Enemy Hideout Dungeon, but only briefly. I also mentioned that in
some games, the final dungeon will be in more of a Fortress setup, where there
are several outer barriers the hero must break down before going to the central
point of no return. In my game, Lewis has already reached that point when he
enters the dungeon.
You open the
trap door into the dungeon like Ky told you to in her letter. When you do, you
fall to the floor three stories below you. Luckily, you are in water, so you
land safely, but there’s no way to get back up and through the door. See?
There’s your point of no return. Welcome to the Spadeland Bastion. Should you
get into trouble in this dungeon, you can call on the third Jack any time you
are on one of the outside parts of the dungeon. If you’re indoors, there’s no
way the Jack can save you.
My Fortress
dungeon consists of three main chambers with several minor ones. You are in the
first chamber now, the Bastion’s top floor. This is the battle chamber. There
is one door that leads out of the room, but it’s locked. To unlock it, you must
defeat the enemies in each of the sub-chambers. These enemies include
Chalcedons, Lost Souls, Roachers, and other foes you met earlier. Also found
here are some new enemies, like the Galleon, a saucer-shaped enemy that attacks
your throat in buzz saw motion. There are also some Feathers hidden in some of
the chambers, so be on the lookout for them. Beat these enemies and you move on
outdoors.
From here, you
travel on the side of the mountain down to the next door. Once in, there is
again no turning back, because a stone rolls in front of the entrance after you
come in. This room is a bit lighter, though it’s not clear why that is; there
doesn’t seem to be any real light source anywhere. This is the chamber of
riddles, the second chamber of the Bastion. Here, you have to solve several
puzzles within a time limit to move from chamber to chamber safely to keep the
roof from falling on your head. Fail, and you must try again from the beginning
of the chamber with less defense power on your meter. Succeed, and you move to
the final chamber.
*Does it seem as
if this dungeon is moving by a little quickly? Well, that’s unfortunately how
many game creators make their last dungeon. It’s as if they just want to get
the game over with. Shame, shame, shame. My last dungeon is going to be
anything but short. You’ll see.
The third
chamber of the Bastion is a battlefield where you meet the sub-boss, General
Reginald Dastard himself. The general’s weapon of choice is a weapon you
probably wish you had right about now: a sword that shoots charged electric
beams from across the room at you. The trick to beating him was hinted at
earlier in the game. First, you must get within close range of Dastard; he will
not shoot beams at you from back there, because a hit would cause a blast that
could potentially damage him as well as you. And when he fights you only using
his sword and not the beams, his attack power and skill are greatly decreased.
Stay close, and ten hits will destroy him. So you’ve killed Dastard and ended
the war in the land. All of the Lost Souls simply disappear after their leader
is slain. Okay, so now what? You still don’t know where Ky is, you certainly
haven’t prevented the devastation of the land before it happened, and you
cannot repair the damage now that it is done. But you have killed the rightful
heir of the evil Clubland Dastard Kings, and angered a particular Lost Soul
waiting in the underworld. Dastard’s last words are, “Forefather, I have failed
you. Now I fear you shall never be free.”
At this, the
ground shakes furiously. A voice from below the earth responds, “Reginald… you
shall be avenged. Lewis Dominick! You have killed my heir. I therefore
challenge you to fight in my Bastion. Worthy opponent, my victory will
signal the ruin of all your land. Not one person will survive when I take over
the Island! And should you want to repair the damage done, you will have to go
through me first. So accept the challenge, and prepare to die!”
All of a sudden,
the mountain goes volcano and out of the top comes a steady stream of lava. The
lava does not fall after going up, though. Instead it molds to form a mirror
image / inverted mountain on top. Together, the two mountains form a sort of
hourglass shape (kudos to the makers of Final Fantasy 6 for their island in the
sky idea).
Before you can
do anything, the fourth Jack, a condor named the Flying Onyx, grabs you in its
mighty talons and carries you off. Out of Spade Mountain you go, up, up, and
away until the Jack reaches the “peak,” which is really the bottom, of the
inverted mountain, where he drops you off in front of the entrance. Now during
this flight, if you had all fifty Feathers, you could use that messenger spell
to send the birds to the past. Once you have landed in front of the entrance,
though, it’s too late and the spell can no longer be activated, since the
fourth Jack is no longer in your possession. Technically, neither is the third,
but the Amethyst is loyal to you and will send itself voluntarily. The Onyx
won’t. You must catch it there and then, or no alternate ending for you.
Now you enter my
chamber of tricks and treats, the final part of the final dungeon of the final
land in the game. A complete summary of the dungeon will be included later. For
now, I’ll leave you with an example of one trial Lewis must face:
You walk through
a hallway of kaleidoscopic mirrors in the maze to end all mazes. Constantly,
you walk into what seems to be a hall, but it’s really a mirror (Skinner:
Willie, get my Windex!). On top of this, you don’t have the map yet. When you
navigate the maze and kill the monsters that await you from every side seeing
you in the reflections of the mirrors, you finally get the map. Then you have
to go back through the maze to get out and up to the next level of the dungeon.
The final boss
is the evil incarnation of the old Dastard King of Clubland, who possessed
Reginald Dastard and used him to gain power in a violent takeover of Spade
Mountain from beyond the grave, with assistance from living carriers like the
jester whom to him he had forced to give eternal claim to their souls. Stephen
King, eat your heart out.
The King is giant,
red and black, carries an enormous broadsword, and wears heavy, red-hot steel
for armor with an intimidating helmet to match. You cannot see his face. His
attacks mostly involve the sword, but also molten dispatches of lava he will
summon on you. To dodge the lava, you must hover and navigate your way through
3D tunnels of the waves surfing on pieces of rock from the ground. When the
lava subsides, attack the King either by getting him long-range with your
crossbow or short range with cherry bombs and the bow, which is really handy
for tripping him so you can hit him several times while he is down. And if you
use combo moves, it’s all the better. Though it’s easier said than done,
fifteen hits takes down the king. Defeated, he stumbles to the ground where you
can deliver a so-called final blow, only effective when you hit him in the
head. With a clang, his helmet flies off, his body shrinks quite a bit, and he
begins to resemble somebody you’ve met before…
King Aetre looks
up at you, defeated, his eyes a bright, furious red. I won’t include all of the
dialogue here, but in short, he says first how he is so shocked that a mere boy
beat him in combat. Then he explains his evil plan all along. He already had
one Jack under his control, so with it he carried out his design to catch all
of the Jacks, thus becoming unstoppable, and at the same time kill the three
other heirs to the thrones of Aetre’s Island, thus giving him ultimate control
of the universe. He succeeded in possessing Reginald Dastard, heir to the
Clubland throne, and then did the same to Kamikaze, King Hector’s long-lost
son. His mistake was to let both of the heirs’ younger siblings go, so Jerry
Carmichael and Alexandra Chi (Heartland heiress) went free. Then when he tried
to find the Spadeland heir, all he learned from the legends was that he would
be somewhere in Club Town. So he had Dastard bomb the place out. It was a
terrible misfortune that the heir escaped unharmed and even learned his first
clues on the way to spoiling Aetre’s plans. The Diamond King, bleeding to death
right now, swears revenge on Lewis. Opening the door for a sequel, his last
words as molten lava from the ground engulfs him are “I’ll be back, Lewis
Dominick! I will have… my… revenge!”
With that, the
king disappears into the mountain. The inverted mountain begins to shake as it
crumbles to pieces. Now would be a good time to call on the Amethyst to take
you to safety. This is your last action in the game as Lewis.
On Lewis’s
return to Club Town, he watches in the distance as the upper Spade Mountain
collapses. Suddenly, blue skies return over the scenery. The rubble of the town
is cleared and the damage undone. Everywhere, things are going back to normal.
The screen shows pictures of Diamond Castle once again bright and peaceful,
Heartlandtown back in order, the desert sun thawing the icy streets, and Safe
Haven Village, where Diamonds are suddenly becoming peaceful with the
foreigners. Last, but not least, it shows Spade Mountain Metropolis, a happy
city of busy spades digging away at new and bigger construction sites for their
town.
There stands
Lewis, alone in his small town, looking at the repair being done to the land.
All is quiet, when from the woodlands… could it be? He hears the footsteps
running toward him. It’s Ky! She runs up and hugs you. Kodak moment. She thanks
you for stopping the evil Dastard and restoring peace to the land, then asks
you if her notes helped.
Lewis: Yeah, the
notes were great, Ky! Thank you.
Ky: I’m glad to
hear it. Wow, I can’t wait to see King Aetre and see what Medal of Honor he has
in store for you!
Lewis: Uh, I
doubt you’ll be seeing a lot of King Aetre in the future. You see, he’s, well,
disposed at the moment.
Ky: Oh. (Pause)
Say, Lewis.
Lewis: Yes?
Ky: I was wondering,
so, like, what are you going to do now that you’ve saved the world from the
forces of evil?
Lewis: I’m going
to Disneyland!
Cue cheerful music, show various camera shots of happy
citizens of the Islands, and then end with clip of Lewis and Ky sitting next to
each other in perfect silence. Cue on-screen text: THE END.