Belinsk

Belinsk is a walled city settled by the beastmen as the capital of their territory of Morgal in northeastern Angara in Dark Dawn.

Belinsk (首都ベルフネ, Capital Verkhne) is a major settlement featured prominently in both the plot and gameplay of Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. It is the fortified capital city of the Morgal region, the northeastern swath of Angara that the beastman race claimed as their home territory after the Golden Sun event transformed various humans and animals into hybrid forms. The beastmen settled their distinctive culture upon ancient ruins that seemingly none are aware holds a cataclysmic secret of ancient origins. Their leader, Volechek, is unwilling to open diplomatic relations with the human nations of Bilibin to the west and Sana to the southeast because of their roles in the military aggression directed at the beastmen in the decades leading up to the events of Dark Dawn.

Matthew and his party of Adepts, who were assigned a training quest by Isaac so that they can follow in the footsteps of the Warriors of Vale who brought about the Golden Sun, enter Morgal and stop by Belinsk on their way to Talon Peak so that they may retrieve a feather from the Mountain Roc that roosts there. However, they and their guide to Morgal, Volechek's wayward sister Sveta, are drawn into a shadowy plot that compels them to seek a way to infiltrate Belinsk's castle and rescue two captives Volechek has slated for public execution: the Sanan princess Hou Ju and the pirate Eoleo.

In-game, Morgal functions as the hub settlement for the player's activities throughout the Morgal region during roughly the middle third of the game's length. A local minstrel troupe led by the beastman Vande is needed to play the "Arangoa Prelude" so that the party may regroup with Sveta in Belinsk Ruins near the end of the party's time in Morgal, but several members temporarily depart for settlements elsewhere in the country during the player's first visit. These musicians return to the band one-by-one as the party fulfills story objectives in settlements like Border Town to the west, Port Rago far to the east, and Kolima Village in between.

In Golden Sun: Dark Dawn

For all NPC gossip, see Side Scripts.

When the player passes through Teppe Ruins and steps into the central part of the Morgal region, Belinsk will be within walking distance after crossing a couple stone bridges in the overworld. Belinsk is presented as the "primary hub settlement" for the player's activities during their time in Morgal, which spans roughly the middle third of the campaign's play time and content. A host of other locations spanning most of Morgal will be made available at the same time as Belinsk itself:

• Border Town, west of Belinsk, can have a Jupiter Djinni collected even if visited as early as possible, but it becomes the first mandatory settlement to visit after triggering mandatory cutscenes at Belinsk itself.
• Border Town Mine, northwest of Border Town, contains a short puzzle that rewards you with the summon tablet for Ulysses.
• The Venus Djinni Gears can be randomly fought at the far northern tip of green land north of Border Town.
• Another Venus Djinni, Furrow, can be randomly fought on the small island connected to a bridge just east of the exit from Teppe Ruins.
• Port Rago, the coastal settlement at the far east end of Morgal, is only worth visiting after triggering a long cutscene at Border Town.
• Saha Town, northwest of Port Rago, connects to Saha Cistern, which in turn connects to Kolima Village just behind it. It is possible to play the whole way through the dungeon accessible from Kolima Village, Phantasmal Bog, before visiting Belinsk the first time; however, only by triggering a cutscene at Port Rago will you get the key item needed to subsequently progress through Kolima Forest northwest of the village in Angara's enclosed northeastern area.
• Kolima Junction's west exit, located northeast of Belinsk, is a one-way exit out that does not offer anything when visited early and can only be opened from the east. Once that is done, it becomes a shortcut between Kolima Forest, the overworld, and the dungeon Talon Peak at the northeast corner of Angara.

If this section of the game is boiled down to its most mandatory steps, you must enter Belinsk and talk to any of the five band members playing in the central plaza so that a cutscene triggers when you next leave the city. Then, head west into Border Town to trigger a cutscene with a pair of pirates, then head all the way east into Port Rago and reach the now-closed-off dock from the inside by traversing Port Rago Canal. After receving Hermes' Water at the dock, progress through Saha Town, Saha Cistern, Kolima Village, and Phantasmal Bog in that order, then use the Hermes' Water inside the purple tree in Kolima Village to dispel a curse. This lets you progress through Kolima Forest without being turned back.

After very long cutscenes at both Kolima Forest and Kolima Junction, head east from the Junction and complete Talon Peak, then talk to Vande back in Kolima Village to have him rejoin his band in Belinsk. With this completed, you can talk to the band and request the song "Arangoa Prelude" to gain access to Belinsk Ruins, an extremely significant dungeon that lies underneath the city. Once you progress far enough into Belinsk Ruins that you reach its deepest chamber and step up to a certain podium, a major point-of-no-return will take place that will prevent the party from exiting Belinsk back into Morgal once they return to town. Following along with the story will eventually bring the party into the final Eastern Sea arc of the game on their new sailing ship.

Initial visit

Belinsk' main town square. Belinsk's local minstrel troupe is partially visible at the top.

A cutscene will introduce the main plaza area of Belinsk from different angles when you first walk in. After regaining control, Karis will prevent you from heading back out the gate until you talk to at least one of the five band members playing above the central monument in the plaza. Heading out the gate after this will trigger another cutscene in which two of the five band members, the violinist and the pianist, will be shown temporarily departing Belinsk to find "musical inspiration" in other settlements at Morgal, and the party will decide they must look for Kraden at Border Town west of Belinsk.

The item vendor at Belinsk is the first who sells Nuts as generic consumable restoratives, as does the vendors at Border Town, Port Rago, and Saha Town. The armory vendor introduces the Great Axe, Master Rapier, and War Mace as generic weapons; the party should already be equipped with superior weapon artifacts from dungeons leading up to this point, and Port Rago's Artifacts menu introduces the Angelic Ankh. The Armored Shell and Steel Helm introduced here are already outclassed by the Plate Mail and Silver Helm sold in Saha Town, though the Platinum Circlet and Knight's Shield introduced here are shared between armory vendors in Morgal. It should be noted that the useful War Gloves can also be bought at Saha Town at your earliest convenience.

It is possible to enter the eastern portion of Belinsk Ruins's earliest hallway through the stairwell at the far eastern edge of Belinsk, reached by heading through the southeast gate and past a couple trees. This area is only relevant for the Mercury Djinni you can see here, Spout, which can only be reached from a hidden doorway in the lower-floor library of the structure that is marked for the Sanctum service it contains. By casting Move on the three bookcases arranged in a row a the upper-left part of the library, you can shift the right bookcase twice to the right and the center bookcase once to the right to expose the doorway leading to Spout, which will join without a fight.

An aerial view of Belinsk Castle provided by talking to a child atop a barrel near the northeast dock.

Also in the library, you can cast Move on the bookcase between the one with the chest atop it and the one with the ladder against it and shift it one tile to the left, allowing you to climb the ladder, hop west toward the chest, and obtain the Assassin Blade it contains. Meanwhile, examining the lone bookcase at the upper-right corner of the library will get you Sun Saga 4, the fourth installment of the series of items that let you see a simplified retelling of the events of the previous games in the Golden Sun series.

If you enter the small structure atop the western structure used by an elderly couple as a residence, you can find one of the game's eight Power Breads by examining the wooden crate to your left. The Mercury Djinni across the gap in this "attic" area cannot be gotten until near the end of the party's time in Morgal.

There is nothing of mechanical interest in what is labeled in-game as the Belinsk Opera House, nor in the graveyard that can be reached by exiting the opera house's back door. Belinsk Castle itself, meanwhile, remains closed to the public. However, talking to the child atop the barrel at the east side of the northern screen, on the way to the northeastern dock, will give the player a clear view of the castle. At the dock itself, you can find yet another Mercury Djinni, Torrent, by casting Cold Snap on a puddle, moving the left tall crate one space right, and the right tall crate two spaces down and one space left, creating a hoppable path.

Subsequent visit

During the player's time spent progressing through the settlements and dungeons populating Morgal, the pianist and the violinist will have returned to resume playing with the band in the central plaza, re-unlocking the songs the band may play on request. However, after defeating the Mountain Roc at Talon Peak and leaving with the four Magma Shards, the player will have to return to Kolima Village and talk to the troupe's leader, Vande, to get him to rejoin the band as their sixth member.

When the minstrel troupe plays "Arangoa Prelude" on request, all the beastmen enter a trance, and a hidden entrance into Belinsk Ruins opens under the central monument.

Belinsk will be at sunset when you return, and talking to the squirrel trumpeter will give you the offer to play "that" song, the Arangoa Prelude. When you accept, a cutscene will show every beastman in each outdoor area of Belinsk standing idly in a hypnotic trance, and the monument in the center of the plaza will shift north to open a stairwell functioning as Belinsk Ruins' true entrance. When you enter, before heading northward along the T-intersection inside the first hallway, head west up the stairs to emerge back outside into Belinsk and open the chest containing the extremely useful Storm Gear.

Belinsk Ruins will require placing all four of the Magma Shards in your inventory onto hole-like pedestals to open doorways. Despite the game presenting the party as getting locked into Belinsk Ruins after Sveta rejoins your party early in the dungeon, you are free to cast Retreat to return to the monument entrance into Belinsk Ruins, and Sveta will temporarily leave your party and rejoin when you next reenter the dungeon.

Belinsk Ruins is a long, multi-stage dungeon, and the final, deepest chamber in the ruins features a purple pedestal in front of a circular blue display screen. The seemingly innocuous action of stepping up to the pedestal triggers by far the most impactful point-of-no-return in the game because you will be forced into a boss battle, then be forced to follow along with the story until you reemerge in Belinsk in front of the newly raised Luna Tower north of Belinsk Castle in the upper screen of Belinsk. This will permanently prevent the party from stepping back out into the overworld from Belinsk, rendering all collectibles in the other locations in Morgal missed, and it will also lock off the aforementioned Storm Gear and any missed collectibles in Belinsk Ruins itself.

Post-Belinsk Ruins

Starting at the base of Luna Tower, you can immediately reenter it and head up a long, winding staircase to its top floor to collect the Eclipse summon as though you had picked up its summon tablet. You can also hop east onto a raft that you can propel southward using the Whirlwind Psynergy to reach a chest on a tiny island just east of Belinsk Castle, containing another of the game's Power Breads.

The party can only reach Pincer between Belinsk Ruins and the party's permanent departure from Belinsk at the northeast docks.

During the limited time the party has while trapped in Belinsk, you can enter the southwest residence of the elderly couple and talk to the old man on his bed to watch him head into his living room and accidentally spill tea, creating a standing puddle in front of the fireplace. If you immediately go and cast Cold Snap on this puddle, the ice pillar will melt because the fireplace behind it is still active, so you must first extinguish it by casting Douse. Climbing up the ladder to the upper left of the fireplace brings you to the third Mercury Djinni accessible within Belinsk, Pincer.

The guards at the entrance to Belinsk Castle will now let you through. In the front hallway, you can immediately detour up the stairs to a hallway where a guard stands in front of the king's bedchamber. To get him to move, cast Slap on the bell at the far end of the hall to get the guard to run over there; if you talk to him, he will walk back to the door and will have to be moved again. Take the stairs to the roof to reach a chest containing the Beast Knuckles, a significant upgrade over Sveta's Brass Knuckles that is stronger than weapons that can be bought as Artifacts in the Eastern Sea: the Iron Claw and Spiked Knuckles.

In the longer back hallway, attempting to head up the stairs at the west end will prompt a comment from the assistant that the cells accessible from the east end of the hallway is where the princess, Hou Ju, awaits rescue, whereas the pirate Eoleo is held captive in a cell at the west end. If you head further up the left stairwell, Ryu Kou will sternly question your priorities and ultimately prevent you from rescuing Eoleo before Hou Ju. As soon as Hou Ju's cell is approached, a long cutscene will depict Ryu Kou's Sanan group splitting from Matthew's party and Kraden accompanying them from then on. When you regain control, you can examine the white pot in Hou Ju's open cell to find one of the game's eight Apples.

After the Sanans leave, you can head up the west stairs in the long back hallway and step out onto the balcony to see Eoleo demanding that you get him down from there. If you head back, a short conversation with Karis, Tyrell, and Sveta will hint that she is capable of using Slap to send it crashing down to the ground. Once you do this, head back downstairs and south through the lower-left doorway of the back hallway to meet with Eoleo.

Follow along with the story as it picks up in urgency and tone until you regain control outside the front door of Belinsk Castle. When you return to the main plaza, you will start engaging in random encounters with Dark Scuttler monsters in the areas of the plaza that are now encased within a dome of dark energy. Even so, you will be able to shop, use the Sanctum, and sleep at the Inn as normal.

Belinsk is partially covered by the onset of a grave phenomenon shortly after the party frees Eoleo from his cage.

Cutscenes outside the castle gate will spend quite some time directing the player's attention toward the opera house, but the game seemingly expends a lot of effort to give the player a false impression that the northwest part of Belinsk is blocked off by NPC bodies carefully strewn throughout the plaza. However, an opening lies just above the injured NPC in a cyan dress at the south end of the plaza. This lets you get the Mercury Djinni Pincer (if you overlooked it earlier) and enter the opera house to fulfill an optional objective.

Since the bodies of soldiers will prevent you from taking the opera house's seating area to reach the monsters that have taken over the stage, you must follow the normal path throughout the opera house and engage them from the left. A cutscene afterward will cause the party to gain the game's sole new summon sequence, Crystallux, and the party will regain control at the graveyard, where two new tomestones have been set up.

Regardless of whether you complete the optional opera house event, your mandatory destination is the northeast dock (the raft right of Luna Tower can be used to quickly reach the dock from the direction of the graveyard). At the dock, a cutscene will show Eoleo jumping onto the sailing ship now moored there, surrounded by three Gloom Skorpna enemies. This represents another unexpected point-of-no-return because, once the party hops off the red-brick pier onto the ship on either side of Eoleo, the Gloom Skorpna battle will lead to a series of cutscenes that will lock the party to the screen with the dock. All collectibles that remain in Belinsk and its castle will be rendered permanently missed for the remainder of the game, and the only collectible of relevance the party can still pick up at this point is the Mercury Djinni Torrent in the dock screen. This, too, will be permanently missed if it is still there when you talk to Eoleo and say "yes" to his question whether it is time to push off.

After more cutscenes, the party will begin the Eastern Sea arc of the game on the now-controllable sailing ship, with the Blue Orb now a part of the party's inventory. Officially, the first mandatory destination is the island with Harun Village on it, northeast of the Morgal region.

Final visit

Belinsk serves the role of the customary "epilogue settlement" for the game, similar to Lalivero and Prox in the previous games in the series. Once the party has defeated the final boss in the final dungeon of the game, a procession of cutscenes will eventually bring you back to Belinsk with just Matthew, Karis, and Tyrell in the party. You are allowed to freely walk around the city and talk to whichever NPCs can be reached, though both Belinsk Castle and the opera house are locked off. It is not possible to return to the overworld through the south exit because the final string of cutscenes leading up to the end credits will trigger as soon as you pass south underneath the arch.

Like in Prox, it is not possible to save the game during the brief time you can explore Belinsk. In stark contrast to previous games, however, you will be allowed after the credits to save a postgame file that will "rewind" the story back to before the events at the end of the final dungeon, with the full party now starting back at Tonfon. All party members' statistical and inventory changes since the last save file saved prior to the final boss will be retained, which includes whatever the player does with the three characters comprising their party during the ending tour of Belinsk.

Since Belinsk's vendors will be back in business and sell all the same wares, the party effectively regains access to those shops. Far more significantly, the party can pick up certain collectibles they might have missed before they departed for the Eastern Sea; these include the aforementioned Assassin Blade in the library, Muni Robe in the elderly couple's residence, the Power Bread in the crate atop said residence, the Mercury Djinni Spout downstairs from the Sanctum service, and the Mercury Djinni Torrent at the dock.

Vendors

Belinsk's inn is located along the southeast edge of the main plaza and costs 14 coins per party member.

Weapon Shop
Name	Class	Cost	Effect
Claymore	Long Sword	4000	Attack +70, Unleashes Critical Strike and Spin Strike
Great Axe	Axe	5200	Attack +80, Unleashes Power Charge, Critical Strike, and Berserk Rush
Master Rapier	Light Blade	6800	Attack +86, Unleashes Critical Strike, Spin Strike, and Double Attack
War Mace	Mace	6200	Attack +84, Unleashes Critical Strike, Rolling Attack, and Berserk Rush
Composite Bow	Bow	1600	Attack +65, Unleashes Double Shot and Arrow Shower

Armor Shop
Name	Class	Cost	Effect
Armored Shell	Armor	3600	Defense +30
Jerkin	Robe	2400	Defense +26
Knight's Shield	Shield	3000	Defense +28
Heavy Armlet	Bracelet	2000	Defense +25
Steel Helm	Helm	3100	Defense +27
Platinum Circlet	Circlet	4200	Defense +29

Item Shop
Name	Class	Cost	Effect
Herb	Consumable Item	10	Restores 50 HP to one Adept
Nut	Consumable Item	200	Restores 200 HP to one Adept
Antidote	Consumable Item	20	Cures Poison and Venom from one Adept
Elixir	Consumable Item	30	Removes Stun, Sleep, and Delusion from one Adept
Sacred Feather	Consumable Item	70	Temporarily lowers monster encounter rate
Artifacts
Potion	Consumable Item	1000	Restores all HP to one Adept
Psy Crystal	Consumable Item	1500	Restores all PP to one Adept
Water of Life	Consumable Item	3000	Revives one downed Adept

Collectibles

• Spout: Found inside the east, unusable entrance into Belinsk Ruins. While the lower level of Spout's area can be entered via the stairwell at the far east edge of Belinsk, the Djinni can only be reached on its upper level by hopping to it from a secret doorway that connects to the interior of Belinsk's library downstairs from the Sanctum service. Cast Move to shift the rightmost of the three bookcases in the upper-left part of the library two tiles right, then the center of those bookcases one tile right, to expose the doorway between the center and left bookcases.
• Torrent: Can be seen idling atop the lower-right red brick structure in Belinsk's northeastern dock screen. To reach it, cast Move on the right, tall crate to the lower-left corner of its space and Move the left, tall crate to the upper right of its space, and cast Cold Snap on the puddle. That way, you can hop south from the left crate onto the ice pillar, then east across the right crate, to land on Torrent's space.
• Assassin Blade: Found inside the chest atop the bookcases in Belinsk's library. It is reached by casting Move to shift the bookcase between the chest and the wooden ladder one tile left, then climbing the ladder and hopping across the bookcases.
• Muni Robe: Found inside the wardrobe in the elderly couple's bedroom inside the western structure in town.
• Power Bread: Found inside the wooden crate to your left when you enter the top floor of the west structure in town, where the Mercury Djinni Pincer is visible off to the top across the gap.
• Sun Saga 4: Found by examining the bookcase in the upper-right corner of Belinsk's library. (If this is missed, it will automatically be added to item vendors' Artifacts menus across the Eastern Sea.)
• 11 Coins: Found inside the white pot at the east end of the lower floor inside the Inn.
• 66 Coins: Found inside the barrel at the far left end of the topmost hallway of the opera house.
• Crystal Powder: Found inside the barrel right of a tall crate in the eastern portion of the upper screen with Belinsk Castle, where the exit to the dock is off to the right.
• Dried Lizard: Found by examining the center, upper-row tombstone in the graveyard north of the opera house.
• Herb: Found inside the upper barrel in the top floor of the east structure, upstairs from the Sanctum service.
• Khiren Water: Found inside the lone barrel at the lower-right corner of the red brick structure at the lower-left end of Belinsk's dock screen.
• Nut: Found inside the wooden box at the northeast corner of Belinsk's dock screen.
• Sacred Feather: Found inside the center-right bookcase in Belinsk's library.
• Sacred Feather: Found by examining the bookcase in the living room of the old couple's residence in the west structure in town, half-covered by a wooden ladder.
• Smoke Bomb: Found inside the upper of the two wooden barrels at the far right end of the bottommost hallway of the opera house.
• Vial: Found inside the wooden crate at the far left end of the bottommost hallway of the opera house.

The following item in Belinsk becomes available once "Arangoa Prelude" is requested at the band and the entrance to Belinsk Ruins opens up:

• Storm Gear: Found inside the chest in the enclosed space at the city's west edge. It can only be reached by entering the stairs under the central monument in the plaza, then – instead of heading north at the T-intersection where you must begin using Magma Shards to enter Belinsk Ruins as a dungeon – continuing west up the stairs, which will deposit you next to the chest.

The Storm Gear, as well as any of the optional collectibles in Belinsk Ruins itself, becomes permanently missed once the player triggers a critical point-of-no-return in the deepest chamber of Belinsk Ruins (specifically, when approaching a purple pedestal in front of a circular, blue display screen). This is because, when the party has no choice but to return to Belinsk's surface level out of Belinsk Ruins, the central monument will have returned to its original position. At the same time, you will no longer be able to exit out of the south gate back into the overworld, so all other optional collectibles spread throughout the Morgal region will be permanently missed if they were not collected prior to this point.

The following collectibles become newly accessible at Belinsk, the newly opened Belinsk Castle, and the raised Luna Tower:

• Eclipse: Received by examining the black tablet in front of the glowing sphere of purple energy in the top floor of Luna Tower.
• Pincer: Can be seen idling in the upper "attic" floor of the west structure in town used as a residence by the elderly couple. To reach it, enter the couple's bedroom, talk to the elderly man lying on his upper bed, and he will go off and accidentally create a puddle of "tea" in front of his fireplace. Cast Douse on the fireplace before casting Cold Snap on the puddle to prevent the ice pillar from melting, and hop west across the ice pillar to climb the ladder into the upper floor
• Apple: Found inside the the white pot in Hou Ju's cell in Belinsk Castle.
• Beast Knuckles: Found inside the chest atop the roof of Belinsk Castle. It can be reached by entering the king's bedchamber atop the first stairwell you come across when first entering the castle; to get the guard to move out of the way, cast Slap on the bell far to the northeast of him.
• Power Bread: Found inside the chest on a tiny island in the southeastern portion of the north exterior screen with Belinsk Castle, reached by using Whirlwind to propel yourself south via a raft parked next to the front exit of the raised Luna Tower.
• 20 Coins: Found inside the white pot at the base of the stairs in Floor 1F of Belinsk Castle leading up to where guards have been keeping Eoleo suspended in a cage.
• Oil Drop: Found inside left of the two white pots in the west room in Floor 2F of Belinsk Castle, where the guards monitor the captive Eoleo just outside.

When the city becomes encased in darkness, all of the above collectibles remain available (and the vendors continue to provide services), and a new collectible can be found in the opera house, which is possible to reach despite seemingly being blocked off by the bodies of NPCs throughout the plaza:

• Crystallux: Received by defeating the optional Dark Devourer mini-boss in the opera house.

Virtually every collectible mentioned above becomes permanently missed the moment the party hops onto the ship at the dock to engage the Gloom Skorpnas on board, as the party will no longer be allowed to head back west into the city. However, there will still be a period where the dock remains explorable before you decide to shove off for the Eastern Sea, meaning you can still collect Torrent (and the Nut and Khiren Water) up until that point.

Ironically, when Belinsk is explored as the game's "epilogue town" following the final boss, many of the above collectibles become available again, including the vendors. Since the game can be saved as a postgame file after this, anything you pick up at this version of Belinsk will carry over when you respawn back at Tonfon in the Eastern Sea. This lets you collect Spout, Torrent, the Assassin Blade, the Muni Robe, and the Power Bread in the attic of the elderly couple's western residence if you had missed any of them previously. On the other hand, all of the other bolded collectibles mentioned above will remain impossible to collect without external cheats because both the castle and the opera house will remain closed.

Bestiary

Bestiary of Belinsk (following Belinsk Ruins)
Monster Name	LVL	HP	ATK	DEF	AGI	EXP	Coins	Weakness	Drop	Drop Rate
Dark Scuttler	29	316	310	130	140	1096	147		Weasel's Claw	1/16
Dark Devourer (unique)	29	1474	362	102	70	3483	588		Vial	1/16
Gloom Skorpna (3) (boss)	29	347	316	127	140	1483	147		Crystal Powder	1/16

Enemy Formations

• Group 1: Dark Scuttler x1-4

History

This article or section has been identified as needing to be either cleaned up, reformatted, or rewritten. Please help us improve it by editing.

Spoiler warning: The following section(s) contain plot details that some people may not wish to learn before reaching this point in the game on their own.

Prior to being visited in Dark Dawn, Morgal was ruled by Sana, and beastmen were oppressed. However, a revolution was staged by Volechek, whose father had ruled prior to Morgal being conquered, which ended in a battle where the previous Sanan monarch, Lord Kuan, was killed, earning Morgal's secession from Sana. Though no specific force drove them together, the Beastmen gathered in Belinsk, and became the city's populace, while Volechek became their leader. However, Volechek was uneasy about his situation, with the previously hostile Sana to the east of Belinsk, and the increasingly militaristic Bilibin to the west, he felt that the security of the fledgling country Morgal was at stake if he could not acquire a more definitive source of power for himself.

Belinsk's opera house is where a certain dragon in hiding is rumored to be among those who enjoy the music.

This is when the Tuaparang entered, promising him the power he needed to secure peace for his people. They coerced him into holding Hou Ju and Eoleo captive, the former prompting Ryu Kou and Hou Zan to attempt to infiltrate Morgal and rescue her, the latter prompting Briggs to launch a head-on assault in his sailing ship. Brigg's attack would end with a crushing defeat as his boat was nearly sunk by Belinsk's defences, leading him to desperately seek out Matthew's group as a last resort. Ryu Kou and Hou Zan, however, attempted to sneak into the ruins below Belinsk and enter the castle that way. To this end, they take the Magma Orb from the Mountain Roc before heading into the ruins, with Matthew's group, who opened the ruins via the Arangoa Prelude close behind.

However, they quickly realize that the ruins are leading them to a single point, the control room of the sealed Alchemy Dynamo, something Laurel had urged Matthew's group to not activate. Ryu Kou, not caring about this, and seeking only to save his sister, activates the Dynamo. This powers up the Eclipse Tower and starts the Grave Eclipse. It is then that Volechek realizes that he was duped, as the monsters spawned in the shadow of the eclipse quickly start to ravage his town. Matthew's group reunited with Kraden and rescues both captives, before fleeing to the port (though a cut scene can be triggered in the opera house in order to obtain Crystallux), where Briggs' ship lay waiting, giving them a means of escape. Briggs himself, however, is mortally wounded by monsters and doesn't survive the departure.

In the game's epilogue, Belinsk is showered by the light of the Apollo Lens and the human-born Beastmen turn blond and gain new-found powers, including the so-called power of "light". Sveta, who is revealed to be Volechek's sister, becomes queen of Belinsk in her brother's stead (as he had died firing the Apollo Lens), and is last seen seeing off Matthew's party.

Trivia

• The musical troupe constantly playing in Belinsk's square features consistent in-game mechanics. They can play three separate songs on request, each of which sounds less simplistic than the previous song because it involves the active participation of one extra musician, whose respective instrument is reflected in the soundtrack. The default song, "Mountain Roc Rising," only involves the squirrel trumpeter, the bear cellist, and the pig percussionist, and while it is playing, the other musicians will be animated as relatively idle. The next song, "Lake Bycal Moonlight," additionally involves the cat pianist, and the third song, "Rainbow over Koba Desert," involves the vulpine violinist on top of that. When the latter two musicians temporarily leave Belinsk, the latter two songs become unavailable to play, and the option of playing them is re-enabled in sequence when the pianist and violinist are subsequently compelled to return to Belinsk from Border Town and Port Rago, respectively. None of the available recreational songs involve the sixth member and leader of the troupe, the alpaca saxophonist Vande, but he takes part in the plot-relevant Arangoa Prelude alongside all five of the other musicians.
  • In a minor oversight, if either "Lake Bycal Moonlight" or "Rainbow over Koba Desert" is left playing during the first visit to Belinsk, it will continue to play in the background even during the cutscene when the party is first leaving Belinsk and the pianist and violinist – the band members who need to be physically playing their parts for those songs to begin with – walk by, announcing their intent to travel independently across Morgal for musical inspiration. The music will only revert to "Mountain Roc Rising" once you reenter Belinsk.
• When the party has completed Belinsk Ruins but has not yet rescued Hou Ju, approaching the front entrance of Belinsk will cause Ryu Kou to question you and ultimately force you to remain in the city. Once you have saved Hou Ju, if you come back to the same spot before talking to Eoleo, Karis will be the one to prevent you from leaving the city this time. When the Grave Eclipse begins, the flower cart left of this spot will have moved in front of the gate leading outside to physically keep the party in the city.
• During the cutscene where Volechek and four soldiers are about to enter the opera house, both text boxes meant to be spoken by the soldier to the far right fail to point to him or have a "squeak-voice" sound off while its text is being printed on-screen. This does not happen with the cutscene inside the opera house itself.

"Walk-through-walls" curiosities

The castle and the opera house cannot be entered normally during the epilogue sequence and are presented as "locked from the inside", which consequently prevents the party from walking up to the entrance of the raised Luna Tower. Using a walk-through-walls code with Action Replay allows entry into all three of these buildings, however; the castle can be entered using the left balcony from which the party used Slap to make Eoleo's cage fall, and the opera house can be entered from its north end. (The small, wooden door southeast of the balcony does not allow entry.) The "Grave Eclipse theme" plays in the opera house and castle, and the NPCs inside the castle cannot be interacted with.

Exiting south from the castle's front entrance will place the party back in front of the sealed front door where the cutscene with Matthew pacing impatiently had recently taken place, with the background music having reverted to the chipper band performance. If the opera house is exited south through its front entrance from inside, the party will instead be spawned at the far south end of the main city screen, just south of the trigger line for the final cutscenes leading to the end credits. You cannot step outside into the overworld from this position and can only initiate the ending by walking a few steps north under the city's south arch.

Curiously, walking into the open entrance at the base of Luna Tower does not bring the party inside. However, using the code makes it possible to enter Belinsk Ruins and proceed all the way through it, and the party can enter the already-raised Alchemy Dynamo chamber and leave through its top exit to enter Luna Tower from underneath. If the party walks out the top-floor door just south of where Eclipse is found, instead of appearing at the top of the tower outside, the party will be returned to the epilogue version of the northern main screen – but their starting coordinates will be far above the front door of Luna Tower's base, which means the party will end up clipping and falling into the unseen plane underneath the surface-level graphics.

Bizarrely, if the party exits Luna Tower from the base doorway at the bottom of the winding staircase, they will appear in the eclipsed version of the upper screen of Belinsk like they would have done at the end of the Morgal arc, complete with the Grave Eclipse theme. The raft to the right can be used with Karis' Whirlwind Psynergy to explore the rest of the city (though random encounters will remain permanently turned off). Entering any doorway in the main city will bring the party into the cheerier, epilogue version of that interior location and will cause the party to return to the epilogue version of the city outside once they step back outside. Likewise, both the opera house and the castle can be entered as normal under these circumstances and will be their "eclipsed" versions inside, but leaving them through any exit will bring the party back to the epilogue version of Belinsk.

If the party enters the eclipsed version of the northeast dock, the sailing ship will be moored there, but there are no NPCs present in the screen whatsoever; even so, trying to enter the stairs into the ship, which was previously blocked off by a pirate, does not work. However, the scripted sequence where Karis apologetically prevents Matthew from heading back into Belinsk remains functional here as it did shortly before the party departed for the Eastern Sea for the first time. This effectively means that entering this screen in this specific circumstance will get the player stuck, though it is possible to use the same walk-through-walls code to navigate around the trigger line for Karis' text string and reach the trigger line that brings the party back into the screen to the west.

Cultural references

Belinsk's Japanese name, Berufune, refers to "Verkhne", a common prefix for cities situated in the Russian Far East. The most likely candidate for the inspiration of the name is Verkhneudinsk, the historic Russian name for what is now Ulan-Ude, just south of Lake Baikal (the inspiration for Lake Bycal in the game). The English localization's name, "Belinsk", seems to be a different take on condensing "Verkhneudinsk" down in length, one that retains the "-insk" sound at the end.

On the other hand, Belinsk's architecture and geographical location north of Lake Bycal in-game seem to take more inspiration from the city of Irkutsk, a fellow regional capital city that incidentally sits along the Angara River (the name taken by the in-game continent Angara). This river flows out of Lake Bycal and forms the headwaters of the Yenisei Valley, which in turn flows north into the Kara Sea.

The giant gulf north of Belinsk in-game seems to represent what would remain if the sea level were to be raised and the low-lying northern Siberia tundra were inundated. The various long islands and peninsulas shown in-game can be seen to represent the mountains and hills that divide the Ob, Yenisei, Lena, and Kolyma rivers.