Mogall Forest

Mogall Forest (モゴル森 Mogol Forest) is a dungeon-style location in eastern Angara in Golden Sun. It is located below Fuchin Temple, and passing through it from north to south while questing across Angara in a clockwise fashion is a mandatory stage of the quest. It has areas that loop infinitely and are effectively dead-ends, elements that encourage having already collected the Orb of Force from Fuchin Falls Cave, and the Killer Ape boss battle that rewards you with the Douse Drop.

Walkthrough
As soon as you enter, you'll see a green-furred Ape monster jump into a hollow stump. If you've completed Fuchin Temple and the Fuchin Falls Cave it connects to, you would have the Orb of Force that grants the equipped Adept the Force Psynergy, and would have also received instruction from Master Nyunpa that you are to use Force on empty tree stumps to cause monsters to flee from you and inadvertently lead you deeper through the forest. For after all, this location has several screens that loop back onto themselves when you try to reach their ends, making this somewhat of a classic "Lost Woods"-style RPG dungeon. The ironic thing is, using Force on all tree stumps to have the green Apes lead you through the forest is not at all necessary; you can both find your way through the forest and find side-rooms containing treasures without the directional help of green Apes, and therefore the whole area can be completed without having the Force Psynergy.

In the first room you enter with the lone stump in the center, the west and east exits lead to infinite dead-ends, so go south, and using Force on the stump will verify that as the green Ape that pops out flees south. Proceed down through a linear screen. When you get to an area with a river and some rollable logs, using force on the next stump you come across causes an orange-furred Ape to pop out and attack you (several of the stumps contain monster battles rather than directions), so ignore that if you wish. Push the vertical log right, push the horizontal log down, use Catch to remotely grab the Nut from off the tree across the river to the right, push the vertical log left, and push the horizontal log up. Hop up to find another stump near two exits, and the green Ape in here shows you the way to go is the right exit. Proceed right through another linear screen.

The next room has two stumps and three exits separate from the one you just came out of. The north exit is a looping dead-end; however, both stumps contain green apes that show you that both the east and south exits are worthy of consideration. Exit off the east to get to an enclosed room with a chest containing an Apple, then return and go south, proceeding through another linear screen.

At a room with another river, stand up above the horizontal log held in place by a rock on the ground, and cast Move to remotely shift the rock one space down so that you can now roll the log down. Roll down the next horizontal log you find, and roll left the next vertical log you find to clear a path to a Venus Djinni, which you must battle to earn, so save beforehand. After earning the Venus Djinni Quartz, you may roll the horizontal log up and the vertical log further left so that it falls into the river, letting you hop to a stump on an island whose green Ape jumps into the stump to the left of that. Regardless of whether you do so, return to the top part of the screen, cross the river via the wooden plank and go south along the left path to get to an area where there is a west exit and a south exit and the second stump; if the green Ape resides here now, using force on the stump shows you are to go out the left exit. Pass west through another linear screen.

The next room has three stumps and three exits separate from the one you just came out of. While the upper exit leads to a looping dead end, it happens to contain a Psynergy Stone. The right stump contains an orange ape while the left and south stumps point to the left and south paths. Go out the left exit to get to a room with a puzzle; standing next to the log at the point opposite that of the rock holding it in place, use Move to move it one space right, then push the log one space right, then Move the rock one space up, then Move the rock once space right again, and push the log right again to access the chest. The Elven Shirt it contains is an armor artifact that is not only defensively strong, but has an immensely strong side-effect of multiplying the current Adept's Agility rating by 1.5. Return to the screen with the three stumps and go south.

In the rivery room beyond that, go left and down to where the vertical log and rock are, and you may use Move to move the rock down two spaces so you can roll the log to the right, so you can then use Force on the empty stump from a distance; the green ape in here hops all the way down to the stump at the lower right corner of the screen. Regardless, go left through the maze, pushing the upper left rolling log right, the horizontal log down, and the lower right rolling log right when necessary, and use this last log to hop right to where the stump is. If there is a green ape in here, it will show you the bottom exit is where to go, as the two exits to the right connect to the same room with the same looping dead end. Go down off the south exit, but take note; leaving this screen ensures that you will not be able to return whence you came, and it will be quite a while before you are able to revisit older areas of the game.

The last room has a river and a solitary stump, and when you approach it, a green ape will hop out by itself and flee south, and using Force will have no effect. When you try to go south after the ape, however, you will immediately trigger the boss battle with the Killer Ape. The Killer Ape's 1000 HP, it is interesting to note, is lower than the 1200 HP of the boss at the end of Mercury Lighthouse, so you might find this to be a less prolonged battle, and once you win it, you will gain the utility Psynergy item Douse Drop that bestows the Douse Psynergy; while Douse is a Psynergy you can gain by switching Djinn and classes around, this conveniently ensures you can use Douse whatever your Adept's classes. Complete Mogall Forest by taking the exit south of the stump.

Enemies
Notice: Apes are not battled as random encounters. Instead, they are found hiding in hollow stumps throughout Mogall Forest. When Force is cast on one of these stumps, either a green or an orange Ape will appear. Green Apes run away, leading players to the southern end of the forest. Orange Apes engage the party in battle.

Collectibles
Quartz - At the end of a small log-rolling puzzle. Must be fought to join.

Apple - In a "hidden" room that a different green Ape leads to.

Nut - Atop a tree, use Catch to get it.

Elven Shirt - In a "hidden" room that a different green Ape leads to.

Background and story
Not much in the way of story transpires here. Originally, it was a prairie (namely, Mogall Prairie), but when the eruption of Mt. Aleph occurs at the start of Golden Sun and showers Psynergy Stones all over the world, the stones that land in the prairie rather spontaneously and spectacularly cause the prairie to grow into a dense forest allegedly over the course of a single night, and the new forest is now thick with monsters. Presumably, at a later point, the band of antagonists led by Saturos pass through here on their course to the next Elemental Lighthouse.

The band of young Adepts pursuing them, led by Isaac, following at some point afterward. Before coming here, the Adepts save the guardian tree spirits of Kolima Forest elsewhere on Angara, Tret and Laurel, and Laurel uses her Psynergy Stone-granted power of insight to notify the Adepts of to Mogall Forest's presence and reason for existing, saying that evil has gripped the forest. Later, the Adepts may stop by Fuchin Temple, where they gain further information about the forest from Master Nyunpa, specifically how it can be crossed; they learn how using the Force Psynergy to drive out monsters hiding in tree stumps can lead them through the confusing maze of a forest, as the monsters are cowardly and would flee away from the Adepts, inadvertently leading them along the right path.

The baffling and spontaneous appearance of the forest out of the previously flat plains of Mogall are one of the ominous occurrences that the young woman Feizhi, from the town nearest Mogall, Xian, is able to predict, alongside the flooding of the mines at Altin. She gained her power of prediction after similar physical contact with Psynergy stones that rained from the sky at the same period of time.

Name Origin
The name "Mogall" is rather close to "Mongol", which is fitting as it is north of the Chinese-based village Xian and Mongolia is north of China. Before the eruption of Mt. Aleph, the Mogall Forest was a Prairie, which is synonymous to a steppe, and the Mongolian Steppes are well-known as it was from these that Genghis Khan rose from. This is even more obvious in the Japanese version, when the name is Mogol, one letter away from Mongol.