Well, the cannon got us to the desert, all right, but there don't appear to be any landmarks anywhere nearby. Appropriately desert-ish adventuring music plays here (track 14 熱砂の秘密 / "Secrets of the Hot Sands").

Like I've said before, if that's the worst that happens when you use cannon travel, you should consider yourself fortunate.

Some Molebears appear in the area, but mostly we'll encounter new enemies specific to this environment. Death Scorpions (Sand Stingers) may cast Protect but are otherwise unremarkable. Bumpkin Bombs (Pumpkin Bombs) only pose a threat when they decide to cast Burst and self-destruct. Spider Legs, found mostly in quicksand pits (easy to escape by moving diagonally out a corner), like to cast Earthquake (Earth Slide) when not hiding underground, making them dangerous despite their lack of mobility. Some areas of the desert also have Duck Soldiers (Mad Mallards), which can spawn additional Bumpkin Bombs.

After a few screens, the party starts to give up hope.

Specifically, this happens upon reaching one particular screen of the desert region. Other than the starting screen, the area consists of two rows of three screens each that loop infinitely when continuing east or west. Two screens in each row connect north and south to two screens in the other row, and continuing north or south from any of these four screens will also loop infinitely. The screen that triggers the event is conceptually in the same place as the starting screen, if you try to get there from the side. To advance the plot as quickly as possible, after heading north (the only exit) from where you land, go either east, north or south (same result), then west; or west, north or south, then east. If you get lost, pick either east or west and go that way twice, and if nothing happens, go north to switch rows the next chance you get and continue east or west a few times until you reach the correct screen.

Heading north, where everyone looked, we find a large metallic object.

We find ourselves facing a pair of soldiers in a high-tech environment. Regal music flavored with sea chantey plays (track 27 海辺の王様 / "Seaside King").

A more elaborately dressed soldier approaches.

The party nods in agreement.

The scene fades, then resumes with The Boy in the engine room without the others.

Soldiers and civilians mingle here.

One of them looks more like a pirate than anything else.

Might as well. What have we got to lose?

The soldiers waste no time abandoning their posts to run around like idiots.

Sergei brushes off any attempt to thank him.

Atop the ship, an easily-missed soldier gives an opportunity to save, using a setting-appropriate message.

Soldiers block the nearby door...

...so we'll head back below deck by another entrance. Ah, there's The Sprite!

It's not exactly a daring escape, but that's one objective complete.

Maybe now we can get into Moriel's cabin to save him from The Girl.

The soldiers rush off.

The Sprite just laughs. It worked, didn't it?

Actually, she vocalizes a childish rude gesture that involves pulling down a lower eyelid and sticking out the tongue. How do you translate that?

The character graphics not having enough detail to show that particular expression, The Girl turns her back on him.

That gets her to whirl back around in an aggressive stance. Before this escalates any further, though, another prominent soldier enters.

Another rude gesture, but this one is just the sticking out the tongue part, so that's close enough.

Also, Merelia's comment is basically a sarcastic "oh, you poor thing" directed at Moriel. Something that sounds sympathetic if taken literally, but doesn't indicate any actual sympathy at all. From a less dignified character, I might translate it more like "too bad, so sad" or "sucks to be you".

Regardless, she's clearly not amused. Then she notices the others.

Just when things seem like they can't get any worse, the ship starts shuddering.

Well, that was pathetic. Fade out, then back in above deck, now swarming with soldiers, with Gestahl leading the imperials. "The Boy Heads for the Wilds" plays.

Suddenly we're out in the desert on foot. Gestahl speeds by on some kind of hoverbike, as Machine Rider (Mech Rider). "Crisis" plays.

Gestahl mainly attacks by charging in straight horizontal lines from one side of the arena to the other. Dashing diagonally usually works for getting out of the way, and taking advantage of his slow vertical movement to harass him with magic and long-range weapons should make the fight fairly simple.

Gestahl may also cast Quick (Speed Up), which, beside its usual effects, appears to be responsible for enabling a homing missile attack he can use while trying to line up for a charge. Try to take him out before he can cast it. Freeze is likely to be your best bet for offensive magic, since he has no weakness.

With his bike starting to explode, Gestahl flees.

"Seaside King" resumes, but now all the other non-Imperials from the Sandship are stranded in the desert with us.

Others here include our pirate friend...

...and several generic soldiers.

We're done here, so let's be off.

How surprisingly helpful. The soldier takes us to a different part of the desert, just south of an inhabited area.

This section of the desert is about the same size as the pre-sandship area, though it may feel smaller because it doesn't loop on itself in any direction. We can never again return to where we first landed, or to the sandship itself, but there's nothing of any importance there anyway, so it's no loss.

"Roses and Spirits" plays here, presumably due to the dryness of the oasis. As usual, Watts has set up shop.

To the south of him is an item merchant with some new equipment. But let's see if we can find someone who can tell us more about what's going on.

Maybe the merchant next to him can...

There's not much point in going there now, then. Let's check the rest of town for helpful rumors.

That sounds suspicious, and the town's cannon travel center has the Ice Country as a destination, conveniently enough. Let's go!

After a kingdom full of walking, talking mushrooms, maybe a village full of walking, talking sea lions shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. "Color of the Summer Sky" plays in the town, as it's a largely happy and peaceful place. The item shop carries all the same equipment as Kakkara, and as usual, Watts has made himself at home as well, not caring that the village already has a blacksmith.

Let's see if the sea lions have anything interesting to say.

This is kind of interesting, linguistically. Most references to the forest (including the location on files saved there) call it 氷の森 (koori no mori, ice forest), but in this line it's both that and the English-derived クリスタルフォレスト (kurisutaru foresuto, crystal forest). That could be taken to mean that "ice forest" (written with Japanese terms to ensure the reader understands the meaning) is a descriptive generic name and "Crystal Forest" is its proper name (similar to if an English writer were to mention a "Shinkansen bullet train"), or that 氷の森 is meant to be pronounced as クリスタルフォレスト, and may suggest that the writer regarded "crystal" as being the English counterpart to 氷, as though it were a simple synonym for "ice".

We'd better go investigate.

The music here sounds icy and desolate (track 16 ねがい / "Wish"). We encounter large numbers of aggressively pouncing Jackals (Howlers) here, significantly more than can appear all at once, which results in finding them all over sections of the map we thought we'd already cleared out.

Many screens of the Ice Country map are fairly obvious copy/pastes with only minor changes. The desert is similarly monotonous, but there it's all wide open maps that give a sense of vastness, and also help make the area more disorienting after initially landing, so it comes across as a deliberate design decision. The filling of each screen there varies, too: rocks, ruins, cacti, giant shells, sand pits, stars. Here, other than a few set pieces and the screen just outside of town, the forest consists of three screens that are identical except for the exits and a few moved barriers, and it just feels like the map design was rushed.

The next screen has a lone house and a red-nosed reindeer, which, of course, talks.

There's another doubled-up name, this time 氷のきゅうでん (koori no kyuuden, ice palace) with クリスタルパレス (kurisutaru paresu, crystal palace). Also note that, unlike the buildings that house the mana seeds, which are 神殿 (shinden, temple), this location is a palace even in Japanese.

O... kay? Continuing on, we find more Jackals, as well as a few Molebears. We may also see Tortoise Knights (Shellblasts), which can move surprisingly quickly, and incorporeal Gas Clouds (LA Funks), which mainly attack with magic but take damage only from magic.

Then, on the next screen, a sudden boss battle! The Ochu Face (Boreal Face) resembles the Bud we fought earlier in the Dwarf Village. It comes with a Blood Roper (Brambler) or two, which this time around do respawn if killed, but they're no stronger than before and should pose no threat. While the Ochu Face can heal a little, the more open battlefield makes landing hits easier. Offensive magic and stronger charged weapon attacks let us dispatch it with minimal trouble.

Speaking of which, Ochu Face is Wood element, so has no weakness. As usual for this situation, use Freeze for its high power and low cost.

This brings us, oddly enough, to a tropical village. Since "Strange Incident" plays, we should know better than to trust this, but what's going on?

These workers have a familiar uniform, though. Aren't these the guys who stole the Water Seed?

One of them watches over a stove outside.

How curious. We try hitting the stove, and something inside seems to hit back.

Opening the stove reveals something resembling a fiery lizard. Energetic music (track 10 妖精族のこども / "Sprite Child") plays.

The Sprite gets three direct damage spells. Unsurprising, if a bit boring. More interestingly, The Girl also gets two direct damage spells, which, while not as powerful, do inflict status effects. These all prove especially helpful against the many Water-element enemies in the area. The Girl's third spell is a saber spell that has minimal cost and lets weapons set enemies on fire. Neat!

"Strange Incident" resumes. Without Salamander heating the town, it reverts to an icescape. The Scorpion boss is not amused.

They leave, and "Wish" takes over as the music. Nikita shows up in a dead end further into the forest to save the game, and also sells goods that are remarkable only for their inflated price. That's not what we're looking for, though...

Interestingly, the Crystal Palace is one of those rare places where the game prevents a game over. If the party wipes when inside (or at the entrance), they're returned outside. A voice sounds out of nowhere, and then The Boy (and only The Boy) is fully healed.

This protection only works at the palace itself, and is removed upon leaving the area. It also no longer applies after finishing the events here, but at that point, no monsters will spawn here anyway, so it doesn't matter anymore.

The music here (track 25 八点鐘 "Eight Bells", apparently in reference to nautical timekeeping) still sounds icy, but it's rather more energetic and adventurous than the music in the Ice Forest. Enemies consist largely of more Tortoise Knights and Gas Clouds, with the addition of Blue Bavarois (Blue Drop), icy monsters similar to Green Slimes. Like other slimes, they often split to make more, and this varient can also inflict Snowman status when attacking. Some rooms also have Specters, another type of incorporeal enemy, though we can temporarily disable these by standing on them.

Thankfully, the Crystal Palace has more varied and interesting map layouts than the forest outside.

Searching the side rooms finds...

Further in, we find Viledars (Weepy Eyes), floating eyeball enemies that can shoot energy pulses and attack with holy magic. Magic Books (Mystic Books) also appear, and unsurprisingly use a lot of magic, including Freeze, Air Blast, and a new spell that blocks several physical attacks. In one room that resembles a library, the entrance closes up behind us, and the far side opens into a pit that drops us into a battle with three Omnom Tadpoles (Tonpoles). Fortunately, though there are three of them, they're no stronger than in Undine's cave, and focusing on one at a time helps things go smoothly, as does a bit of magic.

Unfortunately, beating the lizards doesn't give us any prizes other than returning to the previous room minus the tricks and traps. A short whipping segment and a teleporter later, however, brings us to a large chamber similar to a throne room. A voice sounds from out of nowhere:

Leaving does no good, so we'll refuse.

We're moved to another room where we have to fight the Frost Gigas. The fight will strongly resemble the one against the Fire Gigas.

Though he mainly attacks with ice-based magic, the Frost Gigas also tends to cast Ice Saber on the party. Presumably, this was meant to hinder weapon damage, but since attack elements are bugged, it instead just gives a small damage bonus. In any case, magic will hurt much more effectively, and since both casters have offensive fire spells, they should be able to take him down with ease as long as they have enough MP left.

"Orphan of the Storm" plays as we return to the throne room to find... Santa Claus?

A reindeer enters before he can respond.

And we automatically leave the palace.

Let's pay Santa a visit on the way back.

There's also a chest here with this:

After checking again, it turns out this has been here for the taking all along, but thematically, doesn't it make more sense to get it now?

There's a cannon travel outlet in the forest that offers routes back to Kakkara or Matango.

If we come to the Ice Country without first visiting the desert, the cannoneer refuses to send us to Kakkara until after we have the misfire from Matango into the Sandship adventure:

Going to the desert first gives us an in-universe reason come to the Ice Country and makes more plot sense because of it. On the other hand, coming here first means having access to better equipment for the Sandship sequence, so that may make more gameplay sense if you know about it.

Fortunately, after that first attempt, cannon travel to Kakkara always takes us straight to the town.

Well, he's as overly self-conscious as ever... Anyway, let's get to work!

Curiously, "Prayer and Whispers" always seems to play here, even with the seed missing.

That has to be some kind of a bug or an oversight or something, right? It's such terribly unfitting music for fighting through a temple crawling with enemies...

Spider Legs lurk in unmarked spots along the approach. The Porobin Foot (Robin Foot), a stronger Poron variant, appears in and around the temple, and may use Flame Saber to enhance its arrows. They might drop Porobin Hoods, an upgrade for The Girl or The Sprite. The Red Marshmallow (Red Drop) and Dark Smog (Dark Funk), fiery counterparts to the Blue Bavarois and Gas Cloud, also appear inside, and both have an annoying tendency to set characters on fire.

An unusually hot room bars the way not far from the entrance.

There's a crystal orb here. Unfortunately, the obvious choice of magic doesn't help.

Time to break out Detect (Analyzer).

Good thing we brought Salamander! Somehow, casting Explode cools the lava.

Another orb two floors above needs a shot of Fireball to extend a bridge. A side room above leads to one of those chests we always hope to find:

This dungeon is fairly light on the puzzles, though there is one interesting puzzle-ish room before the boss. Stepping on a switch lights torches all over the room and makes a crystal orb appear. This time, Freeze works, putting out all but two adjacent torches. Walking between them reveals a stairway in the middle of the room, which leads to a boss arena that boasts a Minotaur. Though intimidating and hard-hitting, it's also slow-moving and vulnerable to ranged attacks.

Despite this being the Fire Temple, it's an Earth-based monster, so The Girl's Fire Cocktail (Fire Bouquet) works just fine, while The Sprite should favor Air Blast. The Minotaur may also cast Protect (Defender) and Earthquake (Earth Slide) if given the chance. Ideally, try to keep it stun-locked as much as possible. At lower health, it turns red and gains the ability to rush horns-first, causing Asleep in addition to damage, but can only charge in the four cardinal directions, so take cover in diagonals and pile on the magic.

"Prayer and Whispers" resumes after winning. The usual altar is in the next room, and we return the seed automatically.

The seed reacts as the others did, this time with a bright red glow:    

Mana Energy is now 4.

As usual, the monsters inside the temple are now gone, and so are the ones in the area immediately outside of it. But what comes next?