While Treasure Roads serve an important mechanical role in Kirby and the Forgotten Land, the game largely glosses over their place in the game’s lore. As side challenges, players could happily go the entire game without playing a Treasure Road without missing a single story beat. However, the end of Kirby and the Forgotten Land sheds some notable insight on what exactly Treasure Roads are and why they exist. It’s possible that the game’s overarching antagonist and final boss has a surprisingly close relationship to Kirby and the Forgotten Land’s optional time trials. Spoilers for Kirby and the Forgotten Land ahead!
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Forgotten Land’s Antagonist and Treasure Roads
Although players don’t meet the character until the end of the main story, Fecto Forgo serves as the main antagonist of Kirby and the Forgotten Land. Fecto Forgo is one half of an extraterrestrial being called Fecto Elfilis, which Elfilin was once part of until they were severed long ago. Fecto Forgo wields intense psychic powers, and in their completed form as Fecto Elfilis, they can also freely tear open portals across space and rifts to other dimensions, which is how they tried to invade the Forgotten Land long before it was abandoned. Such a portal brought Kirby to the Forgotten Land in the first place.
Certain Gotcha Figurines in Forgotten Land suggest that Fecto Forgo lost control over its portal-summoning powers when it was severed from Elfilin, which explains why the Treasure Roads are scattered haphazardly throughout the world, as well as why they’re shaped exactly like the kinds of portals that Fecto Elfilis wields during Kirby and the Forgotten Land’s final boss battle. Forgotten Land doesn’t explain where exactly the Treasure Roads are, but there are a few possibilities. They could relate to Fecto Elfilis’ homeworld, or they could be connected to the dream realm that Kirby and the Forgotten Land players explore in its postgame.
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Rare Stones in Forgotten Land Lore
Rare Stones could provide an extra clue about Fecto Forgo’s relationship with the Treasure Roads. Although players can get a handful of Rare Stones from NPCs in Waddle Dee Town, most of the Stones are found in Treasure Roads. The postgame’s Isolated Isles: Forgo Dreams changes that; each of the dream world’s levels has a Rare Stone hidden somewhere. Since Rare Stones exist in Fecto Forgo’s dream dimension, it’s possible that the Treasure Roads are also pocket dimensions formed from Fecto Forgo’s dreams. At the very least, the dream world suggests that Fecto Forgo knows something about Rare Stones, meaning the Treasure Roads could be incomplete gateways to their homeworld instead.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land leaves a lot of questions unanswered, as is often the case in Kirby game lore, but it’s clear that the Treasure Roads are Fecto Forgo’s doing in one way or another. It’s ironic that Fecto Forgo’s attempts to escape the Forgotten Land give Kirby such a valuable resource. Rare Stones enable Kirby to tap into the power of Copy Ability blueprints, and each evolution makes it easier for Kirby to stand up to Fecto Forgo’s plans in the long run. Treasure Roads may be optional challenges, but Kirby and the Forgotten Land gives them an interesting place in the lore nevertheless.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land is available now for Nintendo Switch.
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