Deneb’s Garden

Size: 2x2 (Small) Overall Terrain: Mountainous valley 24 Hour Speed: Short Stage Music: Thunder Overall Difficulty: 3 Stage Boss: Deneb

City & Roshian Temple Information Cities (5) Hidden Cities (1) Roshian Temples (1) Buried Treasure (2) Rankagua Anquard RT #1: N of Roseanhels 1) NW of Valparine; Rebel Base At the end of the road   at the small open area Valparine / Valparin leading up to Valparine   of the three mountains Boss Castle     2) Slightly SE of Baljib     Anquard; along the S of Rankagua     bottom of the map Peltmont         S of Baljib         Peltmont         NE of Antalya         Roseanhels / Roseanhe (Shop)         S of R. T. #1         Talka         SW of Rankagua

Stage Shop Wares

Roseanhels / Roseanhe “CURE” (Cure Potion) 400 Goth “HEAL” (Cure Stone) 700 Goth “ALL HEAL” (Cure Ankh) 2,000 Goth “REVIVE” (Ethereal Flute) 2,000 Goth “JOKER” (Joker tarot) 2,000 Goth

This is the first appearance of the “ALL HEAL” (Cure Ankh) item in a shop. Using one of these now would be gross overkill, seeing as your characters don’t have much more than 100 Hit Points right now!  These are much much better later on, so get them then instead of now.  You also may not have the Goth for them. “REVIVES” (Ethereal Flutes) would probably be a better buy right now anyway.

Neutral Encounters

LV: 5 Dragon LV: 8 Faerie LV: 1 Pumpkin Mountains Forest Mountains

A pretty good haul on this stage.  The Dragon can be helpful, but you have to get him in the action early if you want him to be anything besides a Red Dragon, due to Alignment restrictions. The Faerie is pretty terrible on its own, but you probably will need a few of them to not only get Sylphs, but to build them up so they will be tough Sylphs!  Long term investment there! And as far as the Pumpkin goes, he’s a novelty.  Look to use them if you want to have a fun time and nothing more!

M.O.B.Q. Tip!

There is a primary reason why the appearance of Pumpkins on this stage is a good thing.  Any that you find are only Level 1, and so any character that kills one is sure to lose plenty of Charisma & Alignment.  So, if you are looking to have a character take a serious hit in this stats, like oh say, your Opinion Leader if you want him/her to be evil, come back once you have completed the stage, and pace back and forth in the mountains for fights!

Enemy Units

Different Types of Units: 6 Total Enemy Unit Deployed: 15 Enemy Level Threshold: 6 - 8 Unit# 6-1

The total number of units are light on this stage, and only slightly more in total units than the previous round. The only thing that is of concern is that you will want a “Temperance” Tarot Card or two, because there are some units with Witches & Cockatris in them.  These classes can paralyze & stun your characters, making them nothing more than spectators for the remainder of the battle! Keep an eye on Unit# 6-1 & Unit# 6-6, however, as they are tougher than the rest...

Beat The Stage!

Prologue:  Your opponent in this territory is the beautiful, alluring witch named Deneb.  A fanatical student of the black arts, she joined the Empire to gain access to their tomes of arcane lore. She has stopped killing people as part of her experiments, but now ravages the land. Thanks in part to her freakish humanoid pumpkin creations!

I will start off by saying that there is a bit of confusion throughout the Ogre Battle community about what you should do with Deneb once she is defeated. We are talking about Forgive or Forget, only without Mother Love...  Bad reference to a terrible UPN show!  Some say do, some say don’t. Some even say you will never be able to get the best ending if you do. All will be revealed!  There’s information about this further down in the boss section, but I thought that I would mention it up here first.

Deployment Time!
You will want to deploy every fighting unit you have right into the first ridge of mountains.  The more Mountain terrain fighting units that you have, the better. You could reorganize a unit or two if you want to, and Hellhounds are a good choice to swap into some of your units for just this stage.  All of your city liberating units should be split between going west and south. Send Canopus east, because the town of Roseanhels has the shop, and he can get there pretty quickly.  If you still have a Gryphon in your Opinion Leader’s unit, and he/she does not have 100 Charisma & Alignment, and is quite a bit lower in levels than the enemies, you can have him/her fight.  With the Gryphon enabling his/her unit to fly, you can just have him fly away if things get too crazy or his/her levels get too high.

Step 1:  This stage is so small, that there is not much to worry about at all.  Your main goal is obviously the boss castle of Valparine, but the way to it is to liberate the hidden town of Anquard first. So, you can send units from all sorts of various directions to get to this town. I find it successful if you use Gilbert’s unit and another High Sky fighting unit to push back the enemy units while you sneak city liberators in after them.  It might be a little slow going because the mountains will slow them up, but this will give you time to beat back the enemy units to clear the way for them by the time they get there. But first, grab the outlaying towns along the north and east edges of the map.

Step 2:  When you are right on the doorstep of Anquard, this stage is basically over!  Not so bad at all, now was it?  You should take the opportunity to squeeze out a little extra Goth from tributes after defeating all of the enemy units, and prepare with your boss battling unit.  There is no necessary character for this go around with the boss, so just use whoever you wish, and...

Fight It Out!!

Boss Time!

LV: 8 Pumpkin Deneb Witch HP 125 LV 10 STR 74 CHA 59 AGI 94 ALI 47 INT 121 LUK 68 LV: 8 Pumpkin     LV: 10 Witch LV: 8 Pumpkin     LV: 8 Pumpkin 2 Direct & 4 Targeted

I don’t think you need me to tell you that this is probably one of the easiest boss battles in the entire game.  A weak spell caster in the middle Front Row, completely surrounded by terrible Pumpkins!  The only thing that limits you is your use of Undead characters against her. The Pumpkin attack can kill them, so just use a different unit.  You won’t have to worry about too much else!

After giving her a good spanking (and, after all, who wouldn’t want to!), Deneb admits defeat, and voices her willingness to mend her ways. She want to be a good girl now and do the right thing now. I guess all it takes is a firm hand, huh?  However, you can choose whether you want to accept her apology or not. What are the consequences involved?  Take a peek at this chart below:

Ally!?

M.O.B.Q. Tip!

Forgive Forget Slight loss in Reputation. Slight increase in Reputation. Increase in Opinion Leader’s Alignment; + 5 points. Loss in Opinion Leader’s Alignment; - 5 points. After beating the stage, return to Valparine.  Deneb will give you a “PEARL” (Black Pearl).  Then, if you bring her back a “BOUGH” (Golden Bough), she will give you a “PUMPKIN” (Glass Pumpkin).  Also, she may join you!  More on that below... After beating the stage, return to Baljib.  Here, you will receive a “PUMPKIN+” (Rotten Pumpkin).  Every time you revisit this town, you’ll get another one!  Unlimited supply!

Available Items

Only a few items this time around, but there’s a Zodiac Stone here!

SNES Name: PEARL Selling Price: 41,000 Goth PSX / Full Name: Black Pearl Buying Price: 82,000 Goth Description: “A very rare black pearl.  Only obtained in the Black Pearl Sea.”

SNES Name: PUMPKIN Selling Price: 5 Goth PSX / Full Name: Glass Pumpkin Buying Price: - - Description:

SNES Name: PUMPKIN+ Selling Price: 5 Goth PSX / Full Name: Rotten Pumpkin Buying Price: - - Effect: Promotes a Pumpkin to a Halloween! Description: “Use it on a Pumpkinhead and...”

Aftermath

Depending on how you handled Deneb, different situations will be present themselves to you here. Besides the sole buried treasure, there’s only a Zodiac Stone to pick up. Yeah, only!  Come back when you have the “TABLET” (Tablet of Yaru), which will be much much later on in the game...

If You Forgave Deneb

1) Visit the boss castle of Valparine, and Deneb is waiting for you. She will give you a “PEARL” (Black Pearl) for free, which is worth 41,000 Goth when sold! She then asks a favor of you. Deneb wants you to bring her back a “GOLDEN” (Golden Bough).  You can find this item at the shop town of Raloshel on Diaspola.  You may also be able to find it from battles, but I’m not sure.  Come back here after you find it, which will be in several stages.

2) Welcome back from Diaspola!  Now that you’ve recovered the “GOLDEN” (Golden Bough), you can return to Valparine and give it to Deneb.  She will give you the ”PUMPKIN” (Glass Pumpkin) for your troubles. And, as an added bonus, if your Reputation is rock bottom, she will ask to join your party!  She makes an excellent Princess, by the way...

Ally!?

If You Did Not Forgive Deneb

1) For the unforgiving sort, you still get something to come back here for. Revisit the town of Baljib, and the townsfolk will give you a “PUMPKIN+” (Rotten Pumpkin).  That may not sound very tasty, but with one you can promote Pumpkins into Halloweens, which actually makes them usable.  The cool thing is that every time you visit this Baljib, you will get another one, so this will provide you with an endless supply of “PUMPKIN+s” (Rotten Pumpkins)!! Still, in spite of all this, the Pumpkin class is not one of the greats in this game. Take ‘em with for the novelty factor fi you so desire.

M.O.B.Q. Tip!

The ultimate decision of whether or not you should bring Deneb into your party is really up to you.  Contrary to popular Ogre Battle myth, you chances of getting the “World” ending are not ruined if she does join you. In fact, she has no bearing on any of the endings at all!  Deneb & Lyon, a special character on Slums of Zenobia, are the only two special characters that do not appear in any of the endings! So, you can make a run at getting her to join if you want, but keep this in mind.  You only have a few more stages until the Kastolatian Sea comes up, and you need to have a somewhat high Reputation in order to be rewarded with the “BRUNHILD” (Brunhild).  So, if you do forgive her, make sure that you can bring your Reputation back up in time.  If you do want both the “BRUNHILD” (Brunhild) & Deneb, just wait for the return trip with the “GOLDEN” (Golden Bough) until Reputation rep is really trashed!  For more clues on this, check out the section detailing how you can get all 18 characters.