Last time we heard rumor of trouble in Po-Koro and arrived just in time to thwart a terrible crisis. This time we plunge deep beneath the black earth to render assistance with some public works projects.
Part 4: Mines of Onu-Koro (Click to expand)
Since we’re done in Po-Koro, and arbitrarily earned our identity as the Chronicler, let’s take the road to Onu-Koro.
Last time I said that the developers position Hafu in each screen so that the road to Po-Koro is always either on his right or on yours. That was a filthy lie I spewed, and I apologize for it.
BGS: Po-Wahi
As you follow the path, the environment starts to shift.
This is one of the only places in the game where the developers had to depict the boundary where one of Mata Nui’s environments transitions into another. It helps that Onu-Wahi isn’t that different from Po-Wahi. Onu-Koro and the caves and tunnels around it are all underground, while the surface is I think just supposed to be a wasteland where nobody lives and nothing happens. Which seems like it lacks both elegance and economy to me, but then I don’t make the big bucks.
I can see the entrance to a tunnel…a Matoran, and…something.
The tunnel sign says “Onu-Po-Koro”, while the sign on the left says “Taxi Crabs”.
Hello, sir. Could you tell me about, um…‘taxi crabs’?
“I heard there’s another Ussal race coming up. Make sure you catch it if you’re in town.”
“Who is Puku?”
While I don’t think they ever play a major role in the story, Ussal crabs are a good part of Bionicle lore because they’re crabs and the Matoran ride them and that’s cool.
Puku on the other hand is a recurring character. At some point she stops being a taxi crab and Takua becomes her owner. The 2003 Takua set includes Puku Pewku, and she’s his ride during Bionicle: Mask of Light.
“What race?”
So, I went to BioSector01 to look up Puku and see if there’s anything about when Takua got her. That’s when I discovered that this taxi guy actually has a name.
In 2001, Bionicle Dot Com listed a couple Matoran from each village on its character pages. Other than them, the villagers in the MNOLG don’t have names. Some got backfilled in the MNOLG II, like the astrologer being named Nixie. Ahkmou got retroactively named in 2003. This guy was retconned into name-havery in 2009.
The Midak Skyblasters were weapons used by the Toa in 2008, and in the novel in which they debuted, the Toa decide to name them that because of a Matoran Pohatu knew (and Lewa always wanted to call something a ‘skyblaster’). A fan on BZPower - which was and I think still is the premier Bionicle fansite - suggested the taxi crab guy should be that Matoran. And thus, this guy’s name is Midak.
Lore, eh?
Oh, we still have one last question to ask this guy Midak.
“What is Onu-Koro?”
How informative.
Unlike FFX, riding ze crab is entirely optional. It’s not even more convenient; there are no side-passages or places to get lost or anything like that. And the MNOLG speedrunning community (which I remind you is a thing that exists) has recently determined that the cutscene for going by crab takes slightly longer than walking on a modern computer.
But we’ll ride Puku for the sake of, um, authenticity or something.
BGS: Onu-Wahi Tunnels
Since Ussal crabs are, you know, crabs, they walk sideways.
BGM: Onu-Koro (you probably should NOT listen to this)
Welcome to Onu-Koro, the great undercity of Mata Nui. Apparently there’s somebody off-screen playing a vuvuzela or something, but we never meet them. This guard doesn’t say anything, but he’ll salute if you click on him. The hut on the left is an Ussal crab stable.
BGM: Onu-Koro - Ussalry Stables
Inside is a Matoran polishing a crab with some “Ussal Wax”.
“Try to stay out of the way, Traveler. We’re organizing a patrol. With all the lights out in Onu-Koro, the Rahi have stapped up their raids. Take care when traveling in the deep mines and tunnels–the Kofo-Jaga can appear at any time. Battling them takes special skill.”
We’re going to be hearing a lot about Kofo-Jaga from this guy and some others in this chapter. Kofo-Jaga…do not appear in this chapter, or in any part of the game for that matter. The Onu-Koro chapter was larger and more ambitious in the planning stages than previous ones, but to quote classic science fiction film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Templar Studios choked on their ambition, resulting in a chapter that’s very nearly plotless.
Anyway. Interrogation time.
“Who are you?”
“What are Kofo-Jaga?”
Is this that capitalism thing I’ve heard so much about?
“How do I battle the Kofo-Jaga?”
Okay dude peace out.
BGM: Onu-Koro
If you turn around from here, you can see what I believe is more cut content.
This is the market. Onu-Koro is apparently the main place where trade between villages happens.
Like the bazaar in Po-Koro, you can’t buy or trade anything.
This image shows the three places we still have to visit. On the right is the hut of Whenua, the Turaga of Onu-Koro. The archway with three lights above it leads to a highway (lowway?) system to some other villages. On the far left is another torch - that’s another archway, leading to Onu-Koro’s Great Mine. We’ll be doing things roughly from right to left.
Whenua is in the middle of a meeting with three Matoran. This is I think the largest set of dialogue in the entire game, consisting of more than 45 text boxes. There are actually three different conversations going on…somehow at the same time I guess. Because they’re so long, I’m going to put them in details tags.
Conversation #1: Captain (Matoran on the left)
This mysterious rock layer is actually foreshadowing for later events in the Bionicle storyline. In the original plan these revelations were I think supposed to come in 2004, but because of Bionicle’s success they were pushed all the way back to 2009.
Conversation #2: Foreman (Matoran in the middle)
It took me a minute to figure out what Whenua means here, because it sounds like he’s referring to a flood of rainwater or somethine like that, which he isn’t.
Phew, that’s all done.
This is a pretty typical ‘people-coming-to-leader-with-problems’ scenario in a story. Whenua is supposed to appear unduly put-upon, but he really comes across as, at best, indecisive. Like…the Foreman and the Guildmaster want the same thing. And the Captain’s problem is that they can’t mine right now. In other words, the Captain and Guildmaster have too many workers, and the Foreman has too few. I think this might have been a puzzle in Cluefinders: 3rd Grade Adventures…
Moving on.
The sign over the tunnel says “Onu-Ta-Le-Koro”. My keen deductive reasoning skills lead me to conclude that this connects with Ta-Koro and Le-Koro. The map on the right is labeled “Onu-Ta-Le-Koro Subtransect” (which is a real word but according to Wiktionary isn’t being used correctly). Apparently going straight leads to some wavy lines, while going left leads to a Rupee and a fire.
BGS: Onu-Wahi Tunnels
This is what traveling between areas in Onu-Wahi looks like.
Lots of this.
Wait why’s there like a leaf on the side?
One thing I do like about moving through the tunnels is that when you approach a landmark, because it’s dark, you can’t see what you’re approaching until you get there, but each landmark in the tunnels is lit by a different number of lights so you know you’re about to reach ‘something’. It’s not a maze, but if it were it would be a much more effective realization of the Charred Forest from Ta-Wahi.
One light is for the highway crossroads. Left leads to Ta-Koro, right to Le-Koro. We’ve been to Ta-Koro already, so let’s go right.
Three lights. Is it a three-eyed Octorok?
BGM: Onu-Wahi - Digsite
No, it’s the digsite for the Le-Koro Highway. Or at least, there are some Matoran holding protest signs. “No one see… No one dig.” and “You can’t dig what you can’t see”. There is, however, one guy in the background who’s crossed the picket line.
BGM: Onu-Wahi - Digsite (Taipu’s Pickaxe)
“Why are you digging?”
“What is Le-Koro?”
“Who is Onepu?”
That sounds more in character for a Matoran named Nuparu who is introduced in 2002.
That’s all there is to see here, so let’s try the Ta-Koro tunnel. I think the map said there were some rupees that way.
BGS: Onu-Wahi Tunnels
I guess I didn’t get a screencap of it, but two lights is this side-tunnel. Inside is…
A very toasty roadblock.
It’s still underground so isn’t it technically still magma?
If there’s anybody who would know how to deal with a lava flood, it would be Ta-Matoran. So let’s pay another visit to Ta-Koro.
BGS: Onu-Wahi Tunnels
BGS: Ta-Koro
Here we are. We’ve reached Ta-Koro from the other direction. Ta-Koro, Ga-Koro, Po-Koro, and Onu-Koro make one big loop.
If you F L A S H B A C K to our conversation with Vakama, he mentioned that he’d given us a lava surfboard, though we seem to have lost track of it. There’s a Matoran in Ta-Koro who wanders around with a surfboard under his arm. This is not a challenging puzzle.
Another case solved, until the next case that is unsolved.
These signs are the same as those in Onu-Koro, just with ‘Ta’ first.
Back at the flooded tunnel…
We pull out our lava surfboard and, utilizing muscle memory, effortlessly surf across.
BGM: Crisis City
You ever notice how the rising scales from Crisis City are unabashedly copied from Bowser’s Road from SM64? Actually that’s not fair - I don’t know if it was abashed or not. Whatever ‘abashed’ means.
On the other side is something even more dreadful than a flood of lava.
One of these puzzles.
Each of these nine switches can be turned on and off by pressing them, but flipping a switch also flips all the switches horizontally and vertically adjacent to it. The goal is to light them all. Which switches are lit is randomly determined when you start the puzzle.
I’m not good at puzzles in general and used to be particularly flummoxed by this kind. Luckily, the guide for speedrunning the MNOLG on Speedrun Dot Com explains how to brute force it. If you, like me, didn’t know this, here’s how you do it: (if a given doesn’t apply, skip it)
- Start at the top row. Are there any unlit switches there? If yes, press the switches below them in the middle row.
- Now the middle row. If there are unlit switches there, press the switches below them in the bottom row.
- Now the bottom row. If there are unlit switches there, press the switches above them in the middle row.
- Back to the middle row. If there are unlit switches, press the switches above them in the top row.
- Go back to step 1 and repeat. The puzzle will eventually solve itself!
Like…
…so.
VIDEO: Fixing the Lava Pump
BGS: Onu-Wahi - Lava Tunnel (Cooled)
And just like that, everything’s fixed.
Apparently lava cools very quickly.
The door on the right is now unlocked, so we can see what it is we’ve helped with.
This tunnel includes what is either a minor bug or a little Easter egg. If you look up…
There’s a hidden sign, in English instead of the Matoran alphabet.
BGM: Lightstone Cavern (w/ ambience) (you should probably listen to this)
Ohhhhh, that wasn’t a picture of a Rupee it was a lightstone! Silly me.
Lightstones illuminate the tunnels better than torches and don’t attract Kofo-Jaga. The Onu-Matoran can work on the Le-Koro highway much faster and more safely now.
As for the cavern itself, there’s nothing to do here other than admire the ambiance.
We’re now done in Onu-Koro…sort of. Were we to return to the Le-Koro highway digsite, we would be able to proceed to Le-Koro, which is the next chapter. However, there is one more thing we can do in Onu-Koro, and doing it is necessary to access the village after Le-Koro, despite having nothing to do with said village.
BGS: Onu-Koro
We’ve yet to visit the Great Mine.
It says ‘Great Mine’.
BGS: Onu-Wahi Tunnels
In this passage there’s a Matoran trying to get an Ussal to haul a cart of rubble.
but its too heavy lol
On the left is a lift, while further forward is a Matoran we can talk to.
If you look up from here…
You can see how big the mineshaft is. There’s lots of little animations here you can’t appreciate in screencap form.
Anyway. This guy.
Oh yes, I almost forgot. This guy has a minor bug.
These are Onepu’s lines.
“Who are you?”
There’s no explanation in this game as to what protodermis is. While this is eventually clarified, I still don’t know what the Matoran here use it for or how they’re even able to mine it.
“What rock layer?”
Whoever wrote this guy’s dialogue; loves semicolons.
“What word from Whenua?”
All stuff we already know. Let’s take the elevator.
*elevator noises*
This is the bottom of the mine shaft. It’s the mysterious rock layer they can’t break through.
There’s some kind of structure on the floor, and as reports have claimed, a pickaxe and drill both sit broken next to it.
This is what it looks like. The drill has evaporated between screens.
“I know an astrologer!”
This guy has some other dialogue, but it’s all stuff we’ve heard at least once before already.
We now need to take this to Nixie in Ga-Koro. You can return to Ga-Koro either via Po-Koro or Ta-Koro. I think Ta-Koro might be faster.
But here’s a nice screen of the tunnel exit into Po-Wahi. Midak the taxi crab guy is right outside.
BGM: Ga-Koro
However you get there, we need to give Nixie the LETTER TO THE ASTROLOGER.
yes how could we possibly do that lol
Back to the Great Mine!
BGS: Onu-Wahi Tunnels
She said there’s an indicator at 4 o’clock, but I don’t see anything special about 4 o’clock on here.
Oh, the symbols around the exterior are numbers, indicating clock times, except that apparently the day on this sundial has eighteen periods with ‘1’ at the top, instead of twelve periods with ‘12’ at the top.
oh ffs you people who has the amnesia here you or me?
We’ll stick the gnomon into the middle of the sundial…
And…nothing happens. Oh right, we need to fake sunlight. Hmmmm…maybe if we go back to the market and buy a torch?
Or just use the lightstone.
We need to position the lightstone so the shadow falls on the 4 o’clock mark.
If you hold it there for a couple seconds, the circular symbol on the 4 o’clock period starts to glow. (This circular symbol is I think the symbol used to represent the Makoki stones, which don’t really appear in any Bionicle media because they were supposed to appear in BIONICLE: Legend of Mata Nui.)
Then video game things happen.
Oh my. Some poorly rendered stairs. If we descend…
BGM: A Strange Discovery (this is the Lightstone Cavern without the mining sounds)
…we go to…this place. It seems quite dramatic and important, but it’s a complete dead end. There’s a gold Mask of Shielding, but it’s not…like we don’t go bring this to Tahu. It’s not an actual gold mask.
Despite being mandatory to proceed I think this room was originally meant to be optional. I’m a little fuzzy on this, but apparently in 2001 there was a contest you could enter, in which you had to find gold masks in various Bionicle media, decode the Matoran letters next to those masks (in this case the word is “Rahi”), and mail the words into the contest. I think a gold mask made of actual gold was one of the prizes.
I do like this shot.
BGS: Onu-Wahi Tunnels
Okay, now we’re really done in Onu-Koro.
Well.
BGM: Onu-Koro
Now that we’ve solved everyone’s problems for them, the Matoran bothering Whenua are gone. (They disappear as their related issues are solved, so once you reopen access to the Lightstone Cavern the Foreman and Guildmaster leave, and the Captain goes once you open the sundial. I’m not sure how opening the sundial into a dead end room helps them but whatever.)
He…doesn’t have anything interesting to say.
“Who are you?”
“What is Onu-Koro?”
“Who is Onua?”
Whenua hasn’t mentioned Onua to us directly, though others have brought him up in passing. When I said there’s cut content in the Onu-Koro chapter, there’s clearly a lot that was cut, because Onua himself doesn’t even appear.
Anyway bye I’m gonna see about going somewhere that isn’t suffocating darkness. Maybe like a tropical jungle or something.
BGM: Onu-Wahi - Digsite
With the lightstones restored, the Matoran are back at work on the tunnel to Le-Koro.
BGM: Onu-Wahi - Digsite (Taipu’s Pickaxe)
Taipu is now joined by a Matoran on an Ussal crab.
The crab apparently has like circular saw/drill things for claws. Unless that’s some kind of separate machinery. It looks like it might be.
Talk to Taipu again and then say goodbye and he’ll go into mining overdrive.
VIDEO: Le-Wahi Discovered
A little short on animation. I also think the detour back to Ga-Koro to visit the astrologer works against the mood of the moment. But anyway…
Next time, we explore treebright Le-Koro.
Mailbag Corner:
It definitely has great atmosphere. And it wasn’t until this playthrough that I realized how…dumb this evil plan is. The Matoran get sick from using the Comet balls, but once the Comets are thrown away they get better. So you need to be constantly exposed to them. But once you’re sick and bedridden you’re not using your Comet anymore…
I liked it quite a bit when I played it as a kid, actually, but I got stuck in like the third area. I played it more recently and…yeah, it’s not great.