FAQ: Ruin – Kami no Isan (PC Engine)  .

Background

In Ruin: Kami no Isan, you control John. He’s a boy with dreams of adventure! And he finds adventure when his homeland is attacked by an evil army. You’ll be joined along the way by several companions, who’ll leave and join your party as they please. The only person who never leaves your side is the priestess Oltena. But those party members are irrelevant. They’ll cut through “normal” enemies with ease, and get obliterated by the bosses. In the end, ONLY JOHN CAN SAVE THIS WORLD!

So here’s a tip. Whoever strikes the killing blow on a monster gets the experience. Always try to strike the killing blow! Beating a boss earns a huge amount of experience for the entire party, so grinding isn’t necessary as long as John slays the majority of regular opponents along the way. There are also some stat-boosting items. Spend all of them on John. The only challenging enemies are the bosses, and John’s the only one who’ll take them down in the end.

John	Oltena	Galikson	Shubartz	Charlolu

Basic Controls

Select Button = Camp menu
Start Button = Pause
II Button = Sword slash
I Button = Cast magic (must equip a stone from the camp menu first)

Walkthrough

PART I: CALAMITY STRIKES

1) Leave your house. You’ll notice there’s a sign out front (it says “John’s House”).
2) Go west, to the other house with a sign. That’s Oltena’s house.
3) Once inside, you’ll see a note on the wall. It’s from Oltena — she’s gone to your house.
4) Go back to John’s House. That’s your house, because you’re John.
5) After talking, you’ll be upstairs. Start searching crates.
6) Go to the right and keep searching. You’ll find a map…

7) Go to the southwest corner of town, and search the crate. (You may have to talk to some people – especially the kids – before you can do this). It’s a secret path out of town.
8) At the map screen, hold northeast (the arrow must be lit red) and press Button I.
9) You’re now in the green forest. Just go northeast until you hit the world map again.
10) Head north to the fort. Groove to the cool music!
11) Go around and talk to people. When you realize there’s nothing more to do, try to leave.
12) After a brief scene, you can really leave. Head southwest to the Silent Forest.
13) This is pretty much a straight path. You’ll encounter more monsters than in the Green Forest, especially if night falls.
14) Back at the world map, head southwest to Cordelia Castle.
15) Head north up the red carpet. You’ll find Oltena’s father.

16) Oltena’s father gives John his blessing to get it on with Oltena. But that will have to come later.
17) Leave the castle. From the world map, you can now head back to your home village, Demisaint.
18) After fighting through the forest, you’ll arrive at Demisaint. It’s been pillaged — sorry about that.
19) Head to John’s house. You’ll meet the manly SHUBARTZ in the bedroom.

PART II: SETTING THE WORLD RIGHT

20) Leave through the front gate. Head northwest towards the Great Haruma Forest.
21) You’ll face a new slew of beasts. Keep going northwest.
22) Once back at the world map, you can now go to Catalia.
23) Yay! A city that has not been ravaged! Visit the southeast house to meet refugees. Be sure to check the back room.
24) Enter the house just a bit north of the refugee spot (there’s a signpost outside the door).

25) The result of the old dude’s rousing speech to a room full of troops is that… he joins you.

26) After the conversation, you’ll get the SEAL STONE.
27) On the way out, talk to both of the dudes wearing pink trousers to get some medicine.
28) Staying at the Inn only costs 10G and refilles all your MP, so you should probably go ahead and do that.
29) Now let’s go shopping. You may not want to buy the 500GP sword or 600GP armor, as you’ll find those early in the next dungeon.

Catalia’s weapon shop:
1. 500GP sword = John, +16 ATK
2. 700GP sword = —-
3. 120GP cane = Oltena, +4 ATK (this is what she already has)
4. 400GP cane = Oltena or Galikson, +12 ATK, +4 MLP
5. 800GP staff = Galikson, +18 ATK (this is what he already has)
6. 600GP armor = John or Galikson, +16 ARM
7. 500GP robes = Oltena, +4 ARM, +2 MLP (this is what she already has)
8. 1000GP robes = Oltena or Galikson, +12 ARM, +4 MLP
9. 2500GP staff = Galikson, +22 ATT

30) Leave town and head northwest to the Catalia Mountains.
31) Just fight your way north for the first piece of this battle stage.
32) Keep fighting north until you’re back at the world map.
33) Head north into the Western Shrine.
34) Go down the stairs into floor B1. From here, go all the way east, turn north, then head west at the first chance. Open doors and grab stuff along the way.
35) You’ll see an opening to the south that leads into darkness. If you follow this, you’ll enter the sewers. There’s a medicinal item and some monsters to kill, but not much else down there.
36) Instead of going south into the sewers, keep going west. You’ll see a second exit to the south, which also leads to the sewers. Keep going west.
37) This is a linear path that leads to a staircase down to floor B2.
38) Now that you’re on B2, you’ll see two doors leading south. The first is the one that you want. The second one leads to a dead-end with a bunch of knights.
39) The door you took leads into a room with two more doors south. The western door leads to two treasure chests. The eastern door leads to a linear path that ends with your first boss fight.

Don’t stand in front of him, because his first strike will be a devastating arc slash. The SMART thing to do is to run off to a corner, and let Oltena and Galikson fight until they collapse. Then you can run in, poke the boss, and win. But if you want to fight stupid, then avoid the first arc slash. Approach Loki from the front, and he’ll hop backwards to perform a magical tri-bolt. This is okay — slash him until the last second, then move a bit down and left to avoid the spell. Those are the only two moves he’ll perform.

After defeating Loki, head north into the next room, and touch the altar.

PART III: THE TOWER SHRINE OF GAZZEL

40) After chatting it up with Charlolu, loot and plunder the castle at will. You’ll also get the RIEFL STONE.
41) Be sure to talk to all of the stationary guards on your way out. One of them will give you Cordelia’s Seal.
42) Head southeast to enter the road to Demisaint.
43) When you make it to Demisaint, you’ll discover that the town’s been rebuilt! Apparently people were busy while you were away vanquishing evil.
44) If you’re like me, you’ll spend a lot of time talking to everyone EXCEPT the one person you need to talk to. So, here’s the trick. Go to the main gate into town. Go north. Talk to the kid. That’s the one! He’ll steal your PENDANT, that little bastard.
45) With that done, now go around town and talk to all the kids. Talk to your aunt, too.
46) Leave and enter the Green Forest.

47) Fight your way northeast to the mountain fort.
48) The kid’s hanging around here, so just find and talk to him.
49) Unfortunately, the kid doesn’t have the pendant anymore. Fortunately, it’s not far away. Go into the graveyard to the north and examine the tombstones to get it back. (It’s the northeast one, if you’re too lazy to search all three.)
50) Now that you’ve got nothing left to do here, head back home.
51) John should literally head back home. There’s a dude hanging around outside his house, who informs John that Charlolu requests his presence.
52) Leave town for another exciting trip through the woods!
53) At the world map, go to Cordelia Castle. Not that the game gives you any other option…
54) You already looted the place earlier, so there’s nothing to do but go all the way to the top and talk to Galikson.

55) Leave the castle and head back into the forest . . . again.
56) Back to Demisaint!
57) This is going to sound counter-intuitive but, uh . . . leave town immediately after entering.
58) Now you can go to the Great Haruma Forest!
59) Back to Catalia! You’re about 25% through the game and we’ve barely covered any of the world map.
60) Head north through town, then north to the mountains.
61) Fight your way east, into a second section of battleground. Keep going east and you’ll eventually exit.
62) From the world map, go northeast into Goriate. You’re greeted by a drunken sailor. This is one of THOSE towns.
63) Head northeast to the bar. It’s got an upstairs area, and there’s a particular sailor you want to talk to. You’ll be able to recognize him pretty easily.
64) After that chat, head back downstairs and you’ll see some kind of ruckus has started. Talk to everyone.
65) By the way, the top item (400G) in the Goriate item shop is a ring. I’d suggest buying three — one each for John, Oltena, and Shubartz.
66) If you head south out the main gate, you can now go to the Goriate Trail.

67) Enter the cave.
68) You’ll have to wind around clockwise to get to the exit. It’s a weird-looking section of rock that you have to destroy. Along the way, be sure to pick up the Dragon Sword and Dragon Armor for John.
69) Bust through the wall like the Kool-Aid Man, beat down the red mushroom men, and bust through the next wall Dogi-style to rescue the pirate and his kid. How this guy got from the bar into the depths of the cavern is beyond me, considering you left town before he did.
70) If you head back to the bar, a normal sailor is in the spot where Drakun used to be. You’ll find him at the far east end of the docks.
71) Talk to Drakun. Talk to him again, and he’ll ask if you’re ready to sail. Pick “yes” to start the next leg of your journey!
72) Once you arrive at Grunika, the weapons shop has a couple new items. There’s a 14,000GP sword that either John or Shubartz can use. I wouldn’t recommend it, as the Dragon Sword is better for John, and Shubartz is buff enough that extra attack doesn’t matter. There’s also a 10,000GP staff for Oltena or Charlolu. That’s a pretty big boost for Oltena.
73) Similarly, the armor shop has a 14,000GP armor for John or Shubartz. Again, the Dragon Armor is better. There’s an 8,000GP robe for Oltena and Charlolu. You’ll find one in the next dungeon, so don’t buy two.
74) Head to the north exit of town and talk to the guards. You’ll be teleported to the King’s throne room.

75) On the way out of the castle, be sure to talk to the nun-looking lady south of the throne.
76) You may now leave town through the south gate. Be warned — the next area has some strong monsters.
77) The next town is called Hamil. If you head up to the item shop, a dude will give you some free stuff. Otherwise, there’s nothing special to do here. You may as well leave for the next leg of the journey, which is Grunika Mountain.
78) Get through the mountain, and you’ll be at Gazell Shrine.
79) Make your way through this dungeon and fight the second boss.

Immediately head to the right and dodge that fire. After the first burst, you’ll have a chance to land some blows. It’s really just a matter of avoiding the fire and landing blows. Every third time or so that he shoots fire, it will stay “centralized” so that you can land a bunch of hits. Be warned: this guy will tear your party apart, and he’ll tear you apart if you don’t avoid those flames.

Afterwards, you’ll be teleported into a throne room and awarded the ATOMUL STONE.

PART IV: THE BITTER TASTE OF DEFEAT

80) Leave the castle. Head to the house immediately southwest and talk to the lady.
81) You can then go upstairs and finally reunite with John’s mother!

82) When you head back downstairs, you’ll see a warrior dude. Talk to him, and he tells you to go see Charlolu.
83) Do that, and she’ll rejoin the party. You’ll also get some more blatant plot exposition.
84) Go back to the docks (west of town) and speak to Captain Drakun. It’s time to set sail! Note: you’ll need to speak to him twice.
85) When you get off the boat, you’re back in the town you were just in, because the boat didn’t really go anywhere. Return to the castle (speak to the guards and they’ll let you in).
86) After the conversation, leave the castle, and leave town through the south gate.
87) Cross through the plains to return to Hamil.
88) Remember that guy in the item shop who gave you free stuff before? He’ll give you free stuff again.
89) You can leave now – nothing else to do here.
90) Head northeast to Koramu Forest.
91) Even though this area is big, it’s still one-way. Fight your way to the town of Kail.
92) Be sure to talk to the old folks in the house immediately to the right of Kail’s entrance.
93) In Kail’s bar, there’s an old geezer in the northwest who tells you some stuff. I talked to everyone in town, of course. I think there was also an old man in the inn.
94) Had enough talking? Time to try to leave. If Oltena stops you, then you need to talk to more people. Be sure to return to the first house you visited.
95) Fight through yet another forest…

96) You’re now in the Ruin.
97) There’s nothing in the bottom two rooms. Head down the center path.
98) At the fork, go left. The path opens into a clearing, then bends north into a second clearing. Don’t head east yet — keep going north into the next area.
99) The path is linear, and ends in two doors — one to the north, and one south. Go south to grab an item and inspect the computer.
100) Leave that room, then go north into the next section. This is FLOOR 2. The path here is linear until you reach two doors that are side-by-side. Along the way to those doors, you’ll see vending machines in the corner (buy stat boosters!) and a room with a treasure chest. It contains a good staff for Charlolu.
101) At the side-by-side doors, ignore the one on the right. There’s nothing there. But on the left is a supercomputer — inspect it to get the URANUS DISK.
102) Head back to FLOOR 1. Remember where I said don’t go east yet? Well, go east now.
103) Stop in the first room you see to get an item. Keep going east until you reach a clearing.
104) Head north, and you’ll eventually end up on a different part of FLOOR 2.
105) Walk south a bit, and enter an east-west corridor.
106) Go east past the door (nothing’s inside), and then head south at the T-junction. There’s nothing to the north.
107) After going through the door to the south, head west into a room that has some good armor for Oltena or Charlolu.
108) Leave the room and go east. Exit through the southern door.
109) This path is a little weird-looking, but essentially linear. You’ll find two chests (containing rings) and a weird-looking assortment of blocks. The blocks don’t do anything.
110) Go as far as you can, and you’ll find a door. The URANOS DISK unlocks the door. Boss time!

This guy sits in his hideaway and spawns sets of four soldiers. It’s easy for you to avoid the soldiers (impossible for your friends, alas). Watch out — when the soldiers reach the bottom and die, they’ll release energy bolts. Similar to the other bosses, these attacks WILL END YOU. So don’t get hit. And in case you haven’t figured it out yet, you can equip the SEAL STONE in the menu, which lets John perform healing magic. If you time it right, John can stand in the corner and cast consecutive heal spells to keep everyone alive so that they keep beating on Bash. When you win, you’ll get a MAGNET.

111) There’s nothing to do here anymore. Leave the ruins and head back into the forest.
112) Back in Kail, talk to the old dude at the inn.
113) He’ll make you a COMPASS, and then… poof! You’re teleported to a familiar king.
114) After talking to the king, be sure to talk to the bishop next to him.
115) The castle has restocked since the last time you were here, which of course means you should plunder it again.
116) Head to the west docks and talk to Captain Drakun.
117) He wants you to go see your mother before leaving, so do that. If you’ve forgotten, she’s on the second story of the house to the immediate left of the castle entrance.
118) When you head back downstairs, the guard will escort you to Drakun if you talk to him. Simply walking back to Drakun won’t accomplish anything — you have to talk to this guard. If you’re having trouble making anything happen, it’s because you’re accidentally talking to the little girl who’s superimposed on top of the guard. You need to shove her out of the way — far out of the way!

119) Talk to Drakun and you’re off to a new town — Endor.
120) Head to the north of town and talk to the guards to get an audience with Endor’s king.
121) There’s nothing to plunder yet, so go into town. The weapon shop actually has some new weapons and armor.
122) Leave town and head west into Endor Beach. It’s a two-part area. Just keep going west.
123) You’ve made it to the village of Merukid! There’s not much to do here except leave.
124) Head northeast to the valley of wind. WHOA! It’s a new battle background! You basically need to go northeast.
125) Now you can enter PAGODA RUINS.
126) These ruins are basically a set of mini-dungeons. There are four spots to go — from left to right, I’ll call them buildings A, B, C, and D.
127) Building A is really straightforward. Just keep going upstairs to get an item. If you enter the basement, you’ll be charged by three will ‘o the wisps.
128) Building B is the boss building. In the first room, take the stairs left to get a SWORD that you can’t use (maybe Shubartz will need it later?) Take the stairs on the right to find the FIRE ARMOR, which is better for John than anything he can buy in the shop. When you’re ready to fight the boss, just go through the center door and keep going up.
129) Building C contains a really nice RING for Charlolu.
130) Building D contains another RING, but none of your current party members can use it.

This guy isn’t too tough. First, move DIRECTLY to the right. Don’t go up — just straight right. This way, his first barrage of spider hatchlings will miss you (but will obliterate poor Oltena and Charlolu). Now just stick around on the right side, and let Enja work his way to the top of the screen. If you try to attack him before he reaches the top, then he’ll rampage on you with those slicing arms of his. But once he reaches the top, you can work in a nice pattern: let him swing his arms, run in and hit him four times, run away, let him swing his arms, run in for four hits, etc. Enja should fall pretty quickly if you do that.

131) After defeating Enja, you receive the KAIL STONE.
132) Now you’re teleported back to the Endor King. He’ll give you the UITOL STONE. Only one stone left to go!
133) You still aren’t able to plunder the castle, so you may as well leave.
134) Leave town — you’re returning to Endor Beach.
135) You’re back at Merukid, and again, there’s nothing to do here. Leave.
136) At the end of this forest area is a boss, so get ready.

He kills you.

PART V: THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH

137) Shubartz arrives and carries you back to the Endor King.
138) If you grabbed all the stuff from PAGODA RUINS, then you can now equip it all and turn Shubartz into a beast. If you didn’t grab those goods — well, sucks to be you.
139) You can now plunder the castle. Explore, and enjoy. Some of this stuff is really good for Charlolu.
140) Back through Endor Beach, yet again…
141) And once again, just leave Merukid immediately.
142) Fight through Kasumi Forest, which looks remarkably like all the other forests.
143) You’re now in the town of Homil. You can’t leave until you find out where you’re going. If you speak to the old dude in the inn, that’s enough to escape.
144) From the world map, head south to the Big Uba Forest!

145) When done, you’ll be in an area with peaceful music. Until the music reaches the end of its melody — then you’ll here a second of loud static feedback. A second that will feel like an eternity.
146) So anyways, move quickly so that you here that sound as few times as possible. In the southwest corner of this area is a staff for Oltena that has super magical powers. It’s inside a green box that blends in with the grass.
147) In the northwest corner, inside another green crate, is some nifty armor for Shubartz.
148) Go northeast — it’s not quite at the corner, but near it — to get a new sword for John.
149) In a house near that chest is some awesome armor for Oltena. If you’re having trouble finding this house, head straight north from where you entered this zone.
150) Near the center of town is a well, and the elderly lady Muja is wandering around. Talk to her.
151) In an enclave to the north-center you’ll find a crate containing a ring for John. Not a big deal to get.
152) Go take a look at the mural (the same one from the game’s intro). It should be easy to figure out where this is.
153) Afterwards, talk to Muja about the mural.

154) You’ll be given the TEAL STONE — last one, it’s mine!
155) Now get the hizzell outta here, and head east into a cavern.
156) There are a few things worth grabbing here. First, head straight east and you’ll find a nice sword for Shubartz.
157) Backtrack to the entrance and head northeast — in two separate crates, you’ll find a staff for Charlolu and some armor for Shubartz.
158) Backtrack to the entrance yet again, and make your way to the far northwest corner for some great armor for Charlolu.
159) From here, go south until you can go east. Keep going east as far as you possibly can. You’ll see two ways to go: north, or southeast. Go southeast and keep going southeast until you find a rock door to the north. Go through it.
160) You’re now in a technological base! There’s nothing on the first floor, so just make your way to the second floor.
161) On the second floor, there’s a big room with two doors. The door on the left leads to an elevator. The door on the right leads to a vending machine. Blow all your money on stat-raising items, then head to the elevator.
162) Make your way up to floor 5 and talk to Gilmore.

163) You still can’t go through the locked door on floor 5, so head back to floor 4 instead.
164) Head all the way back to the purple “landing pad” section on floor 1, at the beginning of this maze.

Stand to Babel’s left. Vertically center yourself with his body. Swing your sword. Win without being hit.

165) After talking to Gilmore again, plunder all those crates.
166) Get on the battleship and sail across the sea!
167) Enter the dome. There’s nothing much of interest here, aside from vending machines and stat-boosting items in crates. Go all the way to the boss fight.

If you look at the demon lord’s robe, you’ll see a brighter blue spot on the front that’s just about as big as a person. STAND ON THAT SPOT AND SWING YOUR SWORD. As he teleports, keep following and standing on that spot. His bullets should miss if you’re in the right place.

Yeah, this guy is annoying. He’ll start by hitting you with a homing beam, which will knock off a huge chunk of life. This guy has homing missiles and laser eyebeams. Hit him enough times, and there’s a cinema where you call down an orbital satellite beam. The fight starts anew after that point, and he thankfully causes less damage from this point forward. As for how to win? I’d recommend having the SEAL STONE equipped beforehand, so that you can revive your party during the first half of the fight. The second half isn’t quite so bad, especially if you stand in the safe spot.

Now enjoy the fantastic vocal ending song and finale!