The town's name also bears a definite resemblance to "coliseum", appropriately enough considering that it's centered around one.

Players with some extra money who were lucky enough to get a Coin (Gold) drop can try using it as bait in the fishing spot just northeast of town. Cast as close to Ryu as possible and let the merchant come to him. With a successful catch, the merchant offers to sell some equipment that is both significantly stronger and significantly more expensive than what appears in town.

This town just loves its battle show.

Thanks, Captain Obvious! Hopefully other people have more useful information.

Hmm. Let's try at the pub. It's basically abandoned during daylight hours, though.

Talking to the bartender lets us advance time immediately, or just letting time pass normally works, too. The pub is much livelier at night.

I can't be sure that his name (phonetically Babaderu) means anything in particular, but... デル sounds like the verb 出る (approximately "come out"), while ババ can be either a fairly rude term for an old woman (similar to "hag") or a rather childish term for feces. Especially given all the snide remarks about it, and the game's fascination with toilets, I'd wager his name was meant to sound more like baby talk for a bowel movement than anything else, a far cry from the connotations of "Bunyan", which the NA versions of BoF3 and BoF4 use for the same name. At best, it's a fart joke.

Let's see if he can get us in.

The Dragon's Tear gleams at the end of his first line, so it seems Rand has a favorable first impression of Ryu. Even so, it doesn't sound like there's much he can do to help. Maybe we can work something out with this Doodoo person, though...

Who is, incidentally, not always the debut opponent, just the woman battler's first opponent. Considering the way events end up unfolding, it's unlikely that anything more than his reputation has even come to the coliseum before.

Before leaving town, let's stop by the church, where a local woman seems intent on ogling the traveling cleric.

Seems like a decent enough guy. That's it for now, but he'll be showing up again later.

If that means anything, I'm not sure what. It does have some similarity to タクシー (taxi), and the cable cars do sort of taxi Ryu across sections of the forest.

Navigating the forest, collecting treasures, fighting monsters, and riding a series of buckets on cables, we eventually reach a big grumpy lumberjack.

He has a weird verbal tick, ending most sentences with ズラ (ZURA). It doesn't seem to mean anything, so I just tried to do something that suited his character. After looking into it further, ending things with ～ずら (-zura) is also a characteristic of certain dialects that come across as sort of "hickish", though he seems to be both overusing it and also showing no other signs of using such a dialect.

The unusual コいて (KOite) appears to be from the verb 放く (koku), which in addition to uttering something also refers to expelling something (such as flatulence) from the body, so that's more evidence that any potty humor in his name is fully intentional.

Though given that potty humor is already in play, I should probably point out that he doesn't literally say "a load of crap". ねごと (negoto) directly translates to "sleep talk", referring to the usually incoherent things a person talking in their sleep may say, and by extension also means nonsensical remarks in general.

He's a competent fighter, and he can counterattack, but that's about it. He can't heal. Ryu can. Enough said.

Let's show Rand that axe so he can see that Doodoo has agreed to back out.

Ryu appears flustered, but the Dragon's Tear gleams as Rand notices the axe.

That's... not quite what we were going for, but it works, I suppose. The coliseum is now open to us, at least.

Thanks to this little ruse, Ryu's name is temporarily changed to ババデル/Doodoo/Baba, and will appear as such anywhere the game uses his name. This includes not just in dialog, but also in the menu, in combat, and even on the save file! I'll follow suit here.

Wait, this looks more like a torture chamber than an office.

And this looks more like an overzealous bodybuilder than a head of personnel. He just keeps flexing and repeating the same line...

...until we beat him up.

There could be wordplay with ごうか (gouka, "splendid") especially since there's a hesitation before the last kana finishes ごうかく (goukaku, "pass").

Enough of that. Back to the receptionist.

There's a possible connection to gold (chemical symbol Au), so I'll keep that spelling. On the other hand, it could just as easily be Argus, with a connection to argent (silver), which would have much the same connotations.

"Doodoo" reacts with some alarm.

Though it's already gone as dim as it can, the Dragon's Tear groans once again when Augus mentions killing, just in case we hadn't already figured out that something is Very Wrong here.

Better get away from this guy. And stick all our money in the bank just in case. With that done...

Only one of the two doors opens. There's a treasure chest, but we should leave it alone for now and talk to the guard instead.

The guard leaves through the inner door. It locks behind him, but Rand appears when we try to open it.

These are げどくざい (gedokusai) rather than the standard どくけし (dokukeshi) Antidote item, although the two words are synonyms in practice.

Good thing we put our money in storage. When Rand says all, he means all, but will make do with any amount, even no money at all.

Rand leaves, then goes to see the girl, who has fiery hair and cat-like features, and is quite clearly not the thief we're looking for. Oh well. It's a little late to back out of this now. Regardless, she doesn't respond well to Rand's attempts to talk to her, and swats him out of the room with a quarterstaff despite his bulk. He comes to see "Doodoo" instead.

Those are common enemies in the area, with relatively high power and an aggravating counterattack.

"Doodoo" still has qualms about this, but Rand leaves before he can object, and the guard returns.

Open that chest if it's still closed, then on to the arena! Meanwhile, in Augus's office...

Good thing we got those antipoisons.

The feline girl appears in spotlights.

She meets "Doodoo" in the center of the arena.

Yet the Dragon's Tear shines. Interesting.

Lin Pu is the opponent the real Doodoo wishes he could have been. While she can't heal, either, and doesn't counterattack, she's ridiculously fast and has a high critical hit rate. She may also taunt with rude gestures and one of four messages...

...which usually drops "Doodoo" to zero attack power for the round...

...but may fail, and just wastes the turn anyway even when it doesn't.

Some of these are very childish. The second one in particular is basically just sticking her tongue out, and the beginning of the third is also making a rude face.

Players intending to win this battle should respect her speed and power, and heal sooner than seems necessary.

Tried to, maybe, but I question whether even he would have been able to manage it.

The Dragon's Tear shines and jumps a few colors. Her delivery may be awkward, but she really appreciated that.

Whoever joined, it helps to buy them some equipment and maybe grind for a few levels before going to confront Augus.

Either way, he turns into a monstrous two-headed canine beast.

On that note, his name might also be a reference to any of various characters in Greek mythology named Argus, including two dogs of some note.

With two heads, two clubs, and two actions every round, Augus can do a lot of damage in a hurry, especially against Lin Pu's meager defense power. Worse, he has the ability to heal a few times as the battle drags on. He may also charge up...

...to double his attack power on his next action, and may even charge and strike in the same round. Having Lin Pu, especially given her high speed, helps quite a bit, so hopefully she made it. Heal often, and consider using the Deadly Flame from Futabi Mountain to knock off about a quarter of his health all at once.

Augus explodes, or something. Regardless, that's the end of him. The things he said, though...

A villager approaches as they leave the coliseum.

They proceed to the inn to find Ray, the cleric, with Lin Pu, who is looking awfully lively for someone who was supposed to be dead.

Ray tries to pacify her.

Ray turns to the others.

He leaves.

Lin Pu interjects herself as the others start to leave.

She swings her staff.

The Dragon's Tear shines (note that it's indicating Lin Pu's Mood during this entire block of dialog).

The Dragon's Tear shines.

Either way, Rand has concerns.

They seem to be mentioning the hideaway an awful lot. Maybe we should go check how things are going at the hideaway now.

Lin Pu can hunt animals with her staff, much like Bosch with his crossbow, though with less range. However, she swings quickly enough that once she has something pinned down, she can just keep beating it into submission without giving it any chance to get away.

Rand can roll up into a ball on the world map, moving in a straight line at double walking speed until he hits something. Rolling also avoids all random encounters, except that hitting an obstacle tends to set one off immediately. The dashing feature makes rolling less useful in the GBA version, though I rarely used it anyway.

Bosch comes out to greet us.

And Ryu's name finally stops being Doodoo and returns to normal.

A short time later, inside...

Bosch takes Ryu off to the side.

Bosch and Ryu look a bit panicked.

That's clever, actually. If he'd directly told her not to get involved in the repairs, it's unlikely she would have taken it well, but give her something else to do instead, and it doesn't even occur to her that she's being deliberately excluded from the task.

Lin Pu is so eager she drags Ryu right out of the house, but let's go back inside long enough to see what the others have to say.

Niro:

Bosch:

Rand:

That almost sounds like a lead. Back to Origin, then...