Live A Live: Finale Bonus Dungeons (Part 2)

In part 2 of the final chapter's bonus dungeons, we'll be going through this place that makes me sad.

Key Dungeon
This dungeon is accessed by entering any of the houses in the castle courtyard. Each house leads to a different section of the dungeon, however of the 4 available entrances we really only need to go through two of them.

The first door is this one. As the dungeon title would suggest, you must collect various keys to use within. Four of these keys are hidden in treasure chests. Seven of them are not.

Shadow enemies appear as random encounters throughout the Key Dungeon, and fighting them is the only way to make it through. Roughly 80% of the time (in my experience) they will drop a Rusted Key item that you can use on small, metal doors. As stated above you will need a total of 7 of these. These enemies don't have much hp and I don't think they landed a hit on my once in the entire dungeon. I just had Li use HuaLongTienShengZhi and it killed them every time.

For starters, use the key on the upper-left door (1), the other is a dead end. Go down the stairs here, then use another key on the door on the right (2). Go north in this next area through a small opening and go through a door to your left (3) to open the chest and get the Suzaku Key. Head out, back south into the previous room and down another set of stairs. Go all the way north and climb another set of stairs, then open the door to the right here (4). Go right into another small opening and open this chest for the Genbu Key.

You can backtrack to the previous room and go up the stairs to unlock a door (1 extra) and exit the dungeon from the door up there, or you can go all the way back the way we came in if you want to save yourself looking for the keys as much as possible.

Next go through this entrance and unlock the door on the right (5). Go down the stairs and continue straight south through another locked door (6). Follow the path right and down and go through the opening in the wall. Unlock the door (7) and open the chest for the Seiryu Key. Backtrack to the room we opened with key number six and go down the stairs in the left corner. Follow the path around and up the stairs on the opposite side, and then in the short hallway go south through the door (not locked) and avoid the stairs up.

Here go east and north into a hole in the wall and open the chest for the Byakko Key. Go back and then south down the stairs. Continue going south in this new area and you will come to a wooden gate - use the Gunbu key and then go up the stairs. Follow the new area around to another gate, using the Byakko key this time. At the next gate use the Seiryu key and then, of course, the Suzaku key on the last one.

Here waiting for you, all pretty and patient, is the Murasame. Head all the way back out now.

**Note:  There is a Parasite Sword in a chest in this dungeon. To get it, as you enter the short hallway where there are stairs leading up directly north of you, take them and go right in the new area. Go through the northern door on the right side (1 extra key), through the opening on the left, then take the lower-left exit, then go into the room. Backtrack through the previously locked door, and if you want a quick exit and have another extra key, take the door in the southwest part of the room.

Intelligence Dungeon
If you are not planning to use the robot as a main party member for the endgame you can skip this dungeon entirely. There are no random encounters to level up on, and the only item to obtain is the robot's weapon. Note that in skipping it however, that you will not be able to fight one of the optional bosses. To get into the dungeon, simply enter either of the houses in Familia Village. They will both take you down to the same place.

Head into the room and speak to the copy robot, then go down the stairs and through another couple small rooms until you reach another chair. Ignore it and head through the curtain.

This large room is just a continuous loop horizontally, so you must go up through the different sections. In the first section your left and right directional buttons will be reverse. On the second level, up and down will be switched. On the third level pressing up will cause you to move right, down is left, left is up and right is down. When you've made it to the end head through the door at the top.

In the next room, you must inspect the chair to start each round of the puzzle. You must follow the directions of a mirror image to reach the white ball at the top. Inspect it and it will disappear allowing you through if you followed the directions properly. Note when it is facing you, you need to move up not down. In the next room there will be two mirrors, only one of them giving the proper directions. I'm not entirely sure but I think the left mirror is always the "true" reflection. In the next room there will be three mirrors, you need to move in the direction none of them are facing.

In the next series of rooms just follow the "up" or "down" directions of the red arrows drawn on the floor. In the next room there will be four spheres. Inspect the top-right one, then in the new area the bottom-right sphere, next the bottom-left, and lastly the top-left. After this there will only be one sphere, so inspect it and then go norht through the gate.

Inspect the center to get the 17 Diode and you will be teleported out of the dungeon... all the way up to Hash's cabin on the mountain. Well, crap. At least you're right near the cowboy so you can recruit him for the next set of dungeons, if you want. Do note however, that you must have the robot in your party to go back and fight that optional boss.

Optional Boss: Erauqs

Of course it has got to be in the most annoying place to get to it. As always with a boss battle, save before chasing it down.

One thing I don't like is that the optional bosses during the finale don't even get unique sprites (well okay, that one guy in the ninja chapter didn't either). Alas, what can you do. His attacks didn't cause me much worry, it's especially helpful if you move the robot into the middle space. Erauqs' most worrisome ability is Missile, but as long as the robot doesn't get taken out in one shot it will counter with High-Speed Op which will heal not only itself, but everyone around it.

The big issue here is the boss' high defense and evasion. Li's HuaLongTianShengZhi seemed reliable, and ShuiNiaoJiao was also useful. I only had the robot attack twice but its first attack did next to no damage and its second one missed. I just had the wrestler use the Medicine Box (from the Ninja chapter) on Li to raise her stats, and also once on the robot. The Ninja's attacks seemed to hit fairly reliably but they only did about 60 damage each. I never got in any kind of danger however, and I even just left everyone in their starting positions.

When the mechanical fiend is beaten you will get the Ariel's Helm which prevents the Stone status effect. That's all for this section.

Bonus dungeons part 1 (mountain)
Bonus dungeons part 3 (forest)
Bonus dungeons part 4 (mech pilot)
Finale main walkthrough