Legend Of Arcadia

When you exit the cave to return to Cauforte you become stuck.

I think it's really hard to recommend this game. To be honest, its decent length is its only saving grace. Story, dialogues and "humor" are cringe-worthy (even when not considering all the spelling mistakes and the annoying fourth wall breaking stuff), and the joke ending is unsatisfying. Referencing one of the jokes I didn't quite get: I wouldn't have paid (only) 27 Dollars for this game. The most infuriating aspect was definitely the character Phoenix and his incessant bullying of Veris without any intervention from other party members. What a stupid, shitty brat.

While I should have discovered most of the game's contents, I couldn't find a key to open the building in the upper right corner in the Thieves' Hideout in Dead Forest. Also, if there ever was a window to revisit the prison from the game's beginning, I seem to have missed it.

Here's a useful hint to make the game less difficult:

Buy the Abandoned House Key at Hillsfar's item shop (10000 Gold) (warning: can only be done until completing Arcadia Desert Ruins, and it's recommended to do this before entering the Storage Building in Shintosaki City). Backtrack to the Abandoned House, find the hidden basement inside and there the Flaming Demon Sword for Kellus. Now you can comfortably slay Foxmen (Hard) in Innisgonie Labyrinth to earn EXP and money. By renting the premium room at Hillsfar's inn (5000 Gold), all party members gain one level. Since enemies drop more money the higher your party members' levels are, you can alternate between fighting Foxmen (Hard) and sleeping in the premium room until all party members have reached the maximum level (99). You have to repeat this process later after further members have joined the party (Fukhed, Shiro), but the process gets significantly easier and faster if the first four party members are already at level 99 (use Veris in your active party, since her presence somehow doubles Gold earned from defeating enemies, which the game doesn't tell you). The method becomes permanently unavailable later (i.e. Hillsfar's inn after completing Arcadia Desert Ruins and Innisgonie Labyrinth after the following events at Hillsfar). At that point, you have to rely on level-up items from Port Cauforte (black market item shop) that only level up one party member by one level, but cost 15000 Gold (and become permanently unavailable as soon as you recruit Kano in Port Cauforte).

Unfortunately, the game is (was) plagued by bugs (Edit: Apparently the developer fixed them). In accordance with Murphy's Law, anything that can go wrong will go wrong: If the player deviates even slightly from the scheduled path, he will be punished (or at least be afraid of punishment). The following bugs are only what I bothered to write down, and most of them are part of a pattern that also applies to similar aspects.

- Some skills are usable outside of combat, but shouldn't be (e.g. Phoenix: Absorb All, Magic Defence Up [the latter one might be intentional]; Shiro: ATK Up Self [might be intentional]; Fukhed: Lightning Punch). Conversely, it's weird that Azalea can't use Regenerate HP outside of combat, but can use everything else. Speaking of skills, many skill descriptions are flawed or even missing completely.

- The Green spheres until Dead Forest don't work as intended: "Heal" only heals HP, but not MP, so the player has to choose "Revive", which heals HP and MP (even of alive party members).

- Prison at the beginning: It doesn't make sense that the player has to repeat the whole sequence (waiting for a guard, picking up the dropped key, opening the door) when choosing "No" at the second or last junction. For example, if the player has already picked up the dropped key, why does he have to repeat the whole sequence instead of simply having to open the door?

- Hillsfar: When reentering Hillsfar from the mountains, there are suddenly random encounters with enemies inside the village (which are really hard and unrewarding at this point). This issue affects the town's first and final versions. These random encounters should (only) appear when the party is supposed to return to Hillsfar (the town's second version).

- Raos Monastery, coliseum: When speaking to the tournament NPC again after winning all fights, the last (two) fight(s) can be repeated.

- Raos Monastery, coliseum: There's a two tiles wide back exit at the northern end that the player can/must take back to the world map, but stepping on one of these tiles triggers a boss fight. The problem here is that triggering this boss fight on one tile doesn't deactivate the trigger for the other tile, which means the player can return here later and repeat the boss fight on the other tile. The same happens later at the Tomb of Ithos (the last boss here can be fought two times).

- When the player is supposed to visit Shintosaki City, nothing prevents him from exploring south of Shintosaki City, which probably includes the opportunity for sequence-breaking if it's possible to acquire the "airship" prematurely.

- Shintosaki City: The player can get permanently trapped by the female NPC and her movement in the boxes area (game-breaking).

- When returning later to the Thieves' Hideout within Dead Forest (center building), most people previously encountered (that fled or were defeated) are suddenly there again and standing. They can still be seen here even after their final defeat south of Iglis.

- Storage Building: Similar to the Raos Monastery coliseum exit issue (see above), one cutscene (there's so much food) can be triggered two times (once for every tile).

- Storage Building: The last cutscene before the boss fight (so many stacked boxes) is triggered every time the player walks over the trigger tile, effectively making it impossible to backtrack at this point.

- If the player leaves Akana Beach using the boat, then leaves the boat (lower right tile of Shintosaki City) and reenters the boat (and thus Akana Beach), the boat will become invisible (which can be fixed by leaving Akana Beach towards the world map again), but if the player leaves Akana Beach towards the Storage Building now instead, the boat will disappear completely (game-breaking). The boat also becomes unavailable at Akana Beach (game-breaking) if the player enters Shintosaki City from the boat. In the same fashion, the player permanently loses the "airship" by landing it on Shintosaki City's lower right tile, then entering the city.

- World map: The small area between Arcadia Desert and Theommetha Village is encircled by mountains, but the player can still slip through the sides. By doing this, it's possible to acquire the boat north of the village prematurely.

- Theommetha Village: The weapon shop is labeled as accessory shop (on-screen label).

- Theommetha Village: After resting at the inn, the village can be left without speaking to the village's leader first.

- Theommetha Village: After resting at the inn, the scene where Miko joins the party when trying to leave the village is played again each time the player reenters and tries to leave the village (until the issue at hand is resolved, i.e. the next dungeon completed). Players have to be careful not to stumble upon this issue later, since Miko's level is reset to the initial value (19) when this happens.

- After returning from Arcadia Desert Ruins, the cutscene that previously played when entering Raos Monastery plays again. 

- After returning from the Fire Pit to Hillsfar: When entering the weapon shop, the NPC in the lower left corner should be lying on the ground, but instead moves around like a zombie.

- After the player has been brought to the Peaceful Forest, there's no direction: The player can - and probably will - do things out of order (I suppose at least the Tomb of Ithos and Raven's Ruins can be skipped by acquiring the "airship" right away, and then it should be possible to skip Iglus, which means the player gets to keep Azalea as a party member until the end). Someone is supposed to give the party the quest to slay the Gods, but I didn't encounter anyone who would advance the plot. Speaking about the Gods: The player can choose to kill or spare the final God, but despite the God proclaiming to return the favor when being spared, this topic is never mentioned again.

  - Ketho's Ruins, F2: When the player activates the switches to make the bridge appear, but then leaves the map back up to F1, the bridge disappears and the switches can't be activated again (this doesn't happen when the player is warped out of the dungeon after the boss fight and reenters the map in question). The activated bridge also disappears when the player is brought back to the map entrance after trying to reach the treasure chest in the lower right corner.

- Ketho's Ruins: Isn't the fog supposed to disappear after defeating the boss?

- Hillsfar, when returning here after one's business here is finished: It seems no one took care of the poor armor shop NPC. There are also still three NPCs inside the mayor's house and a chopped in half cook NPC (the latter one could already be seen during the second visit).

- Port Cauforte: The guards at the town's entrance can be spoken to normally (from the sides) even when the party is only comprised of Kellus and Kano, but these guards attack the party when trying to leave the town with Kano in tow.

- Tomb of Ithos: There aren't any sprites for the boss monsters to be seen.

- Tomb of Ithos: The Red Lever Rod isn't removed from the inventory after having been used.

- The sub boss at Raven's Ruins can be fought an indefinite number of times.

- During Gladiolus's flashback when recruiting him: For some reason, Azalea accompanies him (probably because I initiated the flashback at a time when Azalea should have already left the party permanently). Also, when trying to enter Kano's house in the lower left corner during the flashback, Kellus's dialogue is shown as usual. After triggering the scenes (after both scenes) at Alastor and Alexia's house, when speaking to Alastor and Alexia, they already utter dialogue lines that would only make sense if the player returns later to Cauforte with the full party. If the player enters the cemetery in Peaceful Forest during the flashback, the other party members can be seen standing around, but they shouldn't be here at this point (maybe the cemetery shouldn't even exist in this form), since this is supposed to be a flashback. It shouldn't be possible to leave Peaceful Forest to the south at this point. After returning from the hunt, but before returning to Alastor and Alexia's house, it doesn't make sense that Gladiolus says he needs to investigate the town when trying to leave Cauforte. If the player has already recruited Kano in Port Cauforte, Kellus's dialogue is shown even during the flashback when the player tries to go "out of bounds". Although I couldn't test it, it's probably possible to recruit Kano during the flashback if the player hasn't already done so. Finally, the Caite Meat isn't removed from the inventory after the flashback has ended.

- It seems Gladiolus can't use his skill "Rogue Cleave" during battle.

- Kingdom of Salem, Stairs to Rich District: When talking to the Tired Rich Kid from any other side than from below, his sprite disappears.

- Kingdom of Salem, castle (throne room): The player doesn't need to collect the cooking ingredients and can simply walk past the reminder (although I don't know if delivering the ingredients is necessary to gain access to the Cave of Solitude).

- Snowfall Mountain, during the last boss fight against the Ice Giant: If the boss casts Frostbite, the following effects fail to load (which is game-breaking, unless the player adds files of these names to the folder):

effects/texture/HB_Basic.png

effects/texture/HB_Horizontal.png 

- Kenzo and Asta can still be encountered at Kingdom of Salem's castle (throne room) even after having joined the party. 

- Temple of Elis: The cutscene (about having to press a switch to create a bridge) in front of the bridge plays even when the bridge has already been created and the player nears this area for the first time. 

- Immortal Fortress, Shido's Chamber: When leaving and reentering the map, the already defeated Shido can be seen sitting on his throne again.

Edit: It seems the developer has fixed the aforementioned bugs, so hopefully other players will have a more pleasant experience (at least technically).