Kaori wrote:
Not really many comments I can make this update, but it's interesting to read about job classes and strategy from someone who knows far more about them than I do.
And the thing is I barely know anything about them. :B In fact looking at some earlier updates I've said things that either aren't entirely true or could be better expanded on, it actually bothers me a bit but nothing I can do about it except make corrections as I can.
Part Eight: Spread my wings and fly away
Previously the Light Warriors took a three hour tour on their shiny new fire ship, enslaved an old man, fought killer squirrels, had their sweet boat sink into the sea, caught a bird, and got two new jobs. Not bad, all things considered.
Anyway, GUESS WHAT I CAN DO NOW?
I promise I won't use them TOO much though, only when I feel it's really cool/necessary. This is pretty great too because there's a lot of things coming up in the future that really need to be shown in motion rather than having a still image and trying to write about what happened.
Anyway as was explained, the black chocobo can fly, and unlike the wind drake it can fly easily over mountains.
Well okay, it can't fly over these white-capped mountains, but since nothing is blocked off by those it's not really an issue. What IS an issue is that the black chocobo will only land in forests. Grasslands, deserts, it refuses to land. So this means you can't land next to say, Jachol. You'd have to find a forest and then walk the rest of the way.
Anyway we're off to the Library of Ancients. Might as well explain to Cid and Mid that we lost the ship they literally just gave us.
Cid... We found Crescent Island, but the fire-powered ship sank!
Oh, so?
Whatever. We'll just build another one!
More importantly, we've learned the whereabouts of King Tycoon!
King Tycoon, if you remember, shot off into the sky after the wind crystal broke at the beginning of the game. I guess the party must have told Cid they were looking for him at some point, I honestly don't remember. The quest to find Tycoon isn't really brought up a lot.
What!?
He was seen in Karnak. From there, he moved on to the Desert of Shifting Sands...
Shifting Sands, you say?
It's the desert to the west of here, where the sand flows like water...
...Thus the name. It's impossible for people to enter. They say that past the desert is the Town of Ruin, but no one can actually get there to see.
Then how did Tyc-
If no one can enter the desert, how did the king manage to do it?
Er, yeah. What he said.
Good question.
Witnesses claimed to see him floating in midair.
Floating...!?
Father...
Come on, it's not like we're getting any closer to that desert by sitting around here.
Doesn't matter how close we get TO it if we don't know how to get IN!
Maybe we'll see it and be inspired. Don't tell me you're afraid of some sand, old man...
Please! When I was your age, we crossed burning sand every day and liked it! Come on, Bartz!
KIDS THESE DAYS! *shakes fist* Wait, Galuf you still have amnesia how do you know what you did when you were her age?
From the Library of Ancients, head off to the west through a small path through the mountains. You actually could have gone to the desert at any time, but you wouldn't have been able to do anything there (since nobody can get through it after all).
This is the Desert of Shifting Sands. Those lined patches of sand move like conveyor belts. If you step on any of them, they'll push you towards the bottom center, and then back up to the patch you're on now. You'll need to do this to get the next scene.
Wait!
It ain't over 'til the fat lady sings, and the orchestra hasn't even started tuning up yet!
We'll build a bridge!
It's a little risky, but you guys are all about danger, right?
Well I mean...I guess but it seems silly to purposely go looking for it...
How it works is, we use this bell to call the sandworm...
...then you guys trash it...
...and there's your bridge!
This sounds like a gross plan. No choice I guess though.
Not the most sophisticated of methods...
You aren't that sophisticated of a guy! I think it suits you fine!
I'll have you know Galuf is a master spellslinger and not some thick-headed warrior.
Cid then asks you if you're ready to fight the sandworm and you can say yes or no. If you didn't properly outfit your characters or want to do some last minute job changes, you can say no and do that real quick. When you say yes...
Oh yeah, if you use any magic on the sandworm, you'll be sorry. Good luck!
Like the NPC and the Ribbon, Mid lies here. You can use magic just fine on the sandworm. Absolutely nothing will happen if you use magic on it. But there IS something you need to be aware of.
On the battlefield are three holes. The sandworm will appear in one, and jump around (slowly) in them. Now here's the thing, if you attack a hole the sandworm isn't in, it might counter with a Gravity spell on the party. This however does NOT apply to multi-target magic attacks (like summons). A weapon that procs an additional effect (such as the Death Sickle or Mage Masher) can incur TWO Gravity counters if the additional effect procs.
So since you can't control where a Berserker attacks, it's a bad idea to bring them into this fight. You may notice I brought one anyway. That's because with the strategy I used, Bartz never got off a single attack.
Remember Aqua Breath, which the Dhorme Chimera used? Well, it's not water elemental, but it DOES deal 8x damage to Desert type enemies. The sandworm (and every enemy here) is a Desert type enemy.
It's important to note that a Desert type enemy is not necessarily weak to water elemental damage either (the Sandworm is not weak to water for example). But anyway, one cast of Aqua Breath...
The sandworm has only 3000 HP so yeah one hit kill. As I said, Bartz being a Berserker didn't matter at all.
Game, set, and match!
Bartz asks Cid and Mid to take care of the Black Chocobo. You're not actually walking on the sandworm's corpse like the game implies, just the dug up sand the sandworm created when it burrowed up. You can walk on this down further into the desert, towards shifting sands that will take you towards the exit.
You'll probably go down and that's the easiest path but I'm going to head west, even though it's a longer trek and there's no real reason to go that way.
Sandboils aren't interesting, Desert Killers are undead and sometimes will flee battle on their own. Bartz has the Death Sickle right now so if the instant death spell hit the Desert Killer, it healed them to full HP. So maybe don't use that here.
Everything here is weak to water by the way, so if you have a Ninja and some Water Scrolls you can deal some good damage.
Lenna is good on Summoner for a while so she's going Red Mage while the going's good. !Summon will also boost her Red Mage casting.
Sand Bear is cool. You can steal a Javelin from them which is a pretty good spear at this point in the game. Of course, none of our current jobs can equip spears, so...
Sand Bears are also a cool enemy to catch if you have a Beastmaster as their attack deals around 2000 damage to a single target.
I come across this pyramid on my journey. The door is shut and there's no way in. It's kind of neat but can't do anything with it. You'll also see the edges of it if you go the short way.
The path after the desert is linear, and eventually you'll come to a town. This is Gohn, Town of Ruin.
Though it is called a town and has the town map icon, there's no shops here and nobody living here, obviously, it's a ruin.
When you walk forward to explore the town, a figure appears in the lower left, and Lenna gets a look of confusion. Or well, a question mark appears, same thing really. Now you have to explore the town to find Tycoon in order to advance the plot.
He appears at this position in the lower right.
This spot has another sighting in the upper right.
You can see him off to the left here.
And going down this staircase from the top causes another appearance.
To be honest you really only need to see one of the first three sightings to trigger this last sighting and advance the story. But the characters don't know that. Follow Tycoon into the house.
...P...Papa...
After Faris blurts this out, she and Lenna look at each other, and then...
The party falls down the hole and ends up in some ruins.
Faris and Lenna get up and look at each other.
Faris!
...
I knew it! You really ARE my sister!
This was pretty firmly established when you talk to people in Tycoon Castle and watch the scene there, but since some players might not have gone there (and Faris denied it when she was) this scene sorta makes sense whether it was seen or not.
I'm sorry... I wasn't certain at first, and then I didn't think I should tell you...
Lenna and Faris embrace. Awww. :3
While Lenna and Faris are bonding, Galuf (who you may notice fell in a different area than the rest of the party) has awakened and is searching for a way to rejoin the others. Bartz also wakes up at this point as well.
Uhhh... Where are we?
This place is strange...
Say...what happened to the old man?
Huh? He's not here?
We must have gotten separated when we fell...
He'll be okay. He's a tough old cuss! I'm sure we'll run into him again later. Let's get going.
Yikes! Uh...sorry!
One of my favorite scenes. :B
There's only one path to take in the ruins and there's no encounters at all. Eventually the party ends up in a large room. When they step on the platform in it...
The party is whisked away, and the view shifts to the world map, where the camera slowly moves down to Crescent Island. The party lands on a platform identical to the one they were just on, and the screen starts shaking and there's a rumbling. Bartz yells to look out, and as they run off the platform...
Electricity strikes down from above, destroying the platform, and the party is barely able to keep ahead of the destruction, dashing out of the room.
Bartz should be thrilled! We went above and beyond the call of duty!
I guess he's referring to them bringing the black chocobo back to its home, though now the're stranded on Crescent Island, so...
Back to the ruins.
I suppose that was a warp device.
After not being used for so long, activating it must've caused an overload...
Once again, there's no encounters in these ruins and the path is pretty much linear.
You can go south from here though. You can also press that switch now, but there's no point if you're heading south. And you should go south.
In the center area in the south, there's some beds and you can rest up for free healing, which you might need after the desert and Gohn environs.
Over to the right, you can find this switch.
Urrghhh! Gah, it won't budge.
Bartz will notice a note carved into the wall which says "Check the planters in the center room."
Interacting with this spot gets another note. "...the notepad in the room on the right..."
Arg! That little-
Calm down, Bartz...
In the words of the great Abraham Lincoln, "CALM DOWN, JUST CALM DOWN."
Aye...before you get your pantaloons in a twist, take a look. 'Tis another note.
"Check the urn."
Checking the leftmost urn causes a frog to hop out.
It knocks this book off the bookshelf, then runs off. Did the frog write the notes? Did the guy who writes the notes have some sort of psychic ability to see the future and know the frog would be there? Is it a robot frog that is programmed purely to run out and knock a book off the shelf if anyone ever sees it? The world may never know, but who cares, let's read the book.
"Go down 6 and right 4, then pull what's there!"
What's there is the switch. Interacting with it again asks if you want to pull it this time. Do so, and the wall disappears, letting you loot the contents of the chests. Two Shurikens (throwing fodder for the Ninja) and the Mini spell for the White Mage. Mini casts, well, Mini on an enemy, or it can be cast on a Mini-ized party member to restore them to normal. Someone inflicted with Mini can still cast magic, but their physical attack power is pathetically low, and their evasion is doubled. It can have its uses.
Here's a little hint for you: if you say "no" to pushing the switch leading to those chests, you'll get the option to pull it immediately after, and can skip all the running around. But the running around is fun!
Anyway back to the other switch I told you to skip. Press it and the view shifts to the chocobo forest where Cid and Mid are, and...
A hole opens underneath them, causing them to fall down and confuse the black chocobo. After pressing the switch, the door in the room you're in opens.
If you'd pressed the switch and then gone south, when you came back the door would be sealed and you'd have to press the switch again. A total waste of time! I saved you like two nanoseconds of your time by telling you not to push it earlier. Aren't you glad?
Continue through the linear path.
What an unlikely occurrence!
...But what's that ship over there?
Bartz heads over to a ship further to the left.
Propellers on a boat? What's up with that?
Suddenly Cid and Mid come crashing down!
What the... Bartz? Lenna, Faris, Galuf...what're you guys doing here?
I think that's our line! Where'd you guys come from?
We rode the black chocobo back to Crescent Island. Then, all of a sudden a hole opened up beneath us, and we fell...
Wait, so we're underneath Crescent Island? That explains the fire-powered ship being here...
This place must've been built by the Ancients.
The Ancients are barely mentioned at all in this game. Who they were is of little importance and the game doesn't really go into detail about who they were or anything.
In the background of this conversation, Cid has been running around and gone below decks. Bartz and Mid notice he's gone and go to look for him. Just go down the staircase above Bartz.
Hey, Cid-
Don't bother me, boyo!
Cid runs around the machinery.
...tighten this...and adjust this...righty tighty, lefty loosey... Voila! That should do it!
The ship rises into the air! On the deck, Mid runs around exclaiming how incredible it is.
Isn't it obvious? It's an airship! Amazing...I've only ever seen these in old texts! I can't believe I'm getting to use one in the flesh! ...Er, well, you know what I mean!
The ship starts shaking after this.
Oof, what was that!?
Something's dragging us down!
Creeping crawdads! Some monster's got a death grip on the hull!
BOSS TIME!
Cray Claw almost doesn't deserve to be called a boss. It's only immune to Toad and Mini, and weak to lightning. It has some decent defense so regular physical attacks might not do much, but lightning elemental weapons/Thundara Blade from a Mystic Knight, or Ramuh, regular Thundara spells, Lightning Scrolls...all these work great, and with only 2000 HP it won't take long to fall.
So yeah one Lightning Scroll does over half its HP in damage.
You get a Frost Bow for winning, which is...well an ice elemental bow.
With cheese biscuits AND mashed potatoes!
Bartz this is not a very good one-liner.
Cid will land the airship back underground.
We can use parts from the fire-powered ship to make the airship good as new.
Cid...
If you're just going to thank me, I don't need to hear it.
We'll stay here and search for some clues about the earth crystal!
The skies are yours, kids. Now get out there!
Cid and Mid step off the ship, and Bartz talks to each party member as he heads up to the wheel.
The evil warlock, Exdeath...
We must prevent him from returning...
All that's left is the earth crystal!
No point in dawdling... Let's go!
And the airship returns to the skies, under your control!
Next time: There's no place like home...
Statistics: Posted by Nate — Mon Jun 16, 2014 6:54 am