I finally got through Grandia and I’m about to complete Link’s Awakening as well. Since I started Tomba! months ago, I decided to stick with it and complete it, before going to anything else. It’s a fun game and I’m in danger of burning out on RPGs. The problem is, I can’t remember a thing!

Everything I wrote about below happened on my train ride on May 5th, 2013.

I Was Lost and Confused

Tomba! is basically a theme park of quests. You aimlessly walk around, pick up tiny, bite-sized quests and then, when you get around to it, you complete a few of them, which unlocks more quests you can complete. It heavily relies on your memory for those “Hey, I know how to solve this” moments.

This is where Leaf Butterflies go. In hindsight, I should have probably tried “using” them to store them.

I loaded up the game and found myself in the Forest of 100 Flowers with no idea where to go next. I spent about 5 minutes catching Leaf Butterflies and getting hit by pigs, before I decided to go to the area with the creaky bridge. From there, I found a new passage which lead me to Charity Square.

I Got Advice in Charity Square

Charity Square had a pair of Charity Wings and a bunch of fruit to pick up. It also had several locked chests and a heap of dwarves giving me hints on where to go next. It was basically perfect for someone in my situation.

Eventually, I realized I could go to the mountains. Charity Square just happened to wrap around to the mountains through a brand new, alternative route. From there, I went to the Mushroom Forest, or at least I think that’s the name of the place. In there, I found a wannabe dwarf actor who wanted me to use two mushrooms to first show him how to cry and then how to laugh (or was it the other way around?). Once that was done, the way to Phoenix Mountain opened, but those mushrooms ended up being important later.

Apparently, the Phoenix was hungry, so we crashed.

Phoenix Mountain was either an Evil Pig Lair or there was an Evil Pig Bag somewhere in the area because it was extremely windy and the game told me stuff like that happens when Evil Swine are near. I couldn’t find either of the two, though. Instead, I got to the top, tried to fly on a Phoenix and I crashed into the Mouse Town.

I Helped the Mice in Mouse Town

The Mice in Mouse Town are actually people under the Evil Pig’s Spell. They had a bunch of quests for me, including finding a real baby mouse (not a baby human under a spell) and fixing the pump at their vineyard on the lake. After I took care of those things, I got a locked chest as a reward and I was able to explore the nearby haunted house.

Mouse Town is all about Wine.

I Started Dealing with the Haunted House

The trick with the haunted house is that it’s a clustersomething of rooms, doors and rotating cameras, purposely making it extremely confusing. The goal there was…

Use a laughing mushroom to open one of the doors – CHECK
Use a crying mushroom to open one of the doors – CHECK
Collect five pieces of the Big Key – CHECK
Open the Big Locked Door – UNCHECK
Find the 1000 Year Old Man – CHECK
Rescue the 1000 Year Old Man – UNCHECK
Find the Small Key – CHECK
Open the Small Locked Door – UNCHECK
Find the Fire Jewel – CHECK

To rescue the 1000 Year Old Man, I need to find and defeat the local Evil Pig. I found the Big Door previously, but I can’t find it now, for some reason. The fire Jewel replaces my attack with a fire skill, which I used to burn a bale of hay, blocking the way to some cheese which a mouse in Mouse Town wants. The five key pieces took a while to find, but at least I explored most of the area during this.

The scene at Baccus Lake surprised me.

Also, the Mouse Village is actually called Baccus Village, probably because of all the wine, but “Mouse Village” is easier to remember.

Overall, there’s a lot of open and unsolved areas I need to deal with now, but I think I’m getting close to the end of the Haunted Mansion, though I’m not sure if I’ll find the Evil Bag for the Evil Pig before I find the Evil Pig.