Grand Gallery

"Woah, this place looks super fancy. I've got a feeling that I won't be treated nicely around here..."

―Matt's first impression of the Grand Gallery

The Grand Gallery is an optional location in Epic Battle Fantasy 5. Located on the northern end of Hope Harbor, it is a menagerie of foes, art, and treasure that acts much like the Medal Areas of Epic Battle Fantasy 3.

Description

The Grand Gallery is a massive estate of unparalleled luxury and splendor, with fine indoor hallways, many rooms and even an outdoor hedge maze and pond. It also has a pair of rooms containing machinery, not to mention one containing a mysterious arcade and another with rare flora from The Great Sea. More rooms are unlocked as the player acquires more Medals, with the penultimate room unlocked at 90 Medals and the final room with all of them.

There are several treasure chests in the Grand Gallery; a few are out in the open, but most are protected by enemies. Six chests are blocked by Gold Blocks, requiring Gold Keys to reach them. The two engine rooms (unlocked at 60 and 70 Medals) will provide more chests if the players can solve the puzzles within (a walk-once puzzle and a directional pad puzzle), and another one can be revealed by beating the arcade in the 90 Medals Room.

The Grand Gallery is owned by an old man named Raymond, who apparently collected many of the foes and treasures that are stored there and welcomes all those who enter there. On the other hand, the art is sent in from patrons - who, as it so happens, are innumerable fans of Epic Battle Fantasy whose art Matt Roszak has picked to put into the game. There's also some sketches and art from Matt Roszak and Ronja as well.

Foes

Almost all non-boss foes are present in the Grand Gallery, with some exclusive to the "All Medals" room. However, there is a notable presence of TREAGURE in the 90 Medals room. The battles in the hedge maze (accessed from the southern "Medal Doors" in the mansion) are usually accompanied by Sunny weather, which has a chance to give beneficial status effects to all combatants.

Most of the enemies in the Grand Gallery are grouped by family (e.g. Slimes, Creeps, Mirrors, Dragons, etc) and guarding treasure chests in the various Medal-locked rooms. Incidentally, this also offers players a good opportunity to capture foes or farm items in a somewhat controlled environment; after their first playthrough, they also have a fine opportunity to get easy scans of many foes in the opened rooms.

The Grand Gallery becomes much more dangerous if certain Custom Game settings are enabled. "Weather Remix" changes the hedge maze's weather to Normal, but different rooms within the mansion will gain Breezy, Air Strikes, Energy, and even Sacred Land weather. "Foe Remix" adds some new foes to the enemy formations (e.g. adding a Black Bear to the Bears fought in the 40 Medals Room or an Omega Dragon to the Dragons fought in the 50 Medals Room), but the most noticeable change is that practically everything gets a level advantage over the party, with some foes having 6 or more levels to compensate for being alone or generally weak.

Map

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Trivia

• If the player talks to Raymond in the All Medals room, he reveals that he has been paying close attention to the party's journey, and has decided to give it to Natalie. As this requires beating the final boss on Epic, it is the only "post-game" content in EBF5 barring starting a New Game Plus.
• Apart from the medal rooms, the outside areas of the Grand Gallery are only accessible if you've gotten (from left to right) 35, 25, 45, and 15 medals.