Previous thread: >>11040516If you're just joining in, this is a full playthrough with commentary, while (You) get to make certain decisions for me.Last time, we infiltrated the Imperial capital of Vector, wherein we acquired a fuckton of Magicite, only for HUNTER to fall for a cheap trick and seriously entertain the idea that his new waifu had actually been playing him. As a result, we lost Runie, but our efforts were not in vain, as we managed to get SLAVE back to her normal self, AND we have SIMP's airship at our disposal. Now, however, it is time to figure out a plan of attack against the Empire. And so, we head to Narshe, where we are greeted for once.
About damn time.
A direct invasion into the Empire? Sounds ballsy as fuck. They just don't have the numbers for it.
Uh, you sure about that, chief? Last time the gate was open, shit did NOT go well.
I mean, that's probably true, but isn't this literally recreating the War of the Magi?
Making a whole lot of assumptions here. Like that they'll be willing to help. Or not go on a murderous revenge rampage.
And of course, this task falls upon... a girl who literally just found out who she is and what she's more or less capable of. I guess we just cross our fingers and hope for the best?
Guess so.
And so it's settled. Our task now is to head toward the Sealed Gate to the Esper Realm. Turns out this gate is indeed in that continent that is being closely guarded by the Imperial Base in the east of the southern continent. However, last time we were there, it was bloody impossible to pass through. But get through we must.
Before that, though, a hunch tells me to check back to that one chest in the storage room that was locked. And it looks like we caught a thief in the act!
And what do you know, it's that furfag we found locked up in Figaro Castle. Unfortunately, we're too late. Lone Wolf makes out with the treasure. Unlike Sigfried before him, however, we can actually chase after him.
Looks like we'll have to chase him through the mines.That thing at the top, though. Chat, is this real?
Ha, he ran to the cliff where the Esper is. That's a dead end! What a retard.
Except he has an ace up his sleeve. He takes a Moogle hostage, and threatens to kill him if we so much as move. So, I guess we won't?
Eventually, the Moogle breaks free! Go, you little fucker, go!
>on the box art>won't join you until over 9000 hours of gametime
In the struggle, though, they both end up hanging onto the edge of the cliff. Lone Wolf reveals the treasure he stole: a Gold Hairpin. The game gives us a choice: help the Moogle, or help Lone Wolf.I thought about making this a choice you guys, but I decided not to because there's too many drawbacks for making the "wrong" choice. I'll still show you what happens in both cases, though.
If you go toward Lone Wolf, you'll grab the Gold Hairpin off of him and leave him hanging. However, the Moogle won't be able to hold on and will fall, as will Lone Wolf afterward. So now you have both of their blood on your hands. As for the relic, it is decent for this point in the game, as it halves MP use from spells and summons, but once you learn Osmose it's not all that necessary IMO. All in all, it's not worth it, because...
...helping the Moogle is MUCH more beneficial. Not to mention it's fucking cute. It even talks!
And we get to name it! You know the drill. Even numbers gets to give this lil' nigga a no-doubt super kawaii name.
>>11046516WEEB
>>11046516rapebaby
>>11046516BARF
>>11046516death
>>11046516KEK
>>11046529Ngl, I'd love to use this one, but rules are rules. KEK it is.Also, he's got bantz.
Oh, right Lone Wolf is still there. He lets go, taking the Gold Hairpin with him. He brought this upon himself, though, so he can fuck off.
Anyway, KEK goes to wait for us in the airship, meaning we gotta trek back that way.And there's that thing again! Could it be...?
HABEEB IT
>>11046553Water Ronda! Isn't it true that you can only get certain dances in the World of Balance? I remember having to do a long circular trek around the world without the airship just to get that dance.
By the way, Narshe has new shit up for sale, including the powerful Hawk Eye. This weapon does full damage from the back row, does extra damage to flying units, and randomly does an extra powerful attack that deals something like 3x damage. HUNTER will DEFINITELY want at least one of these, if not two! As soon as I get a bit more cash, that is.>>11046562Indeed, Water Rondo can only be gotten during this part of the game, and I'll definitely make sure to grab it.
Lots of good armor, too, including the Gold Shld. I'll grab at least one.
Now, let's talk a bit about KEK, our newest addition to the team. He's a bit of an oddball. He mainly wields spears, like PEDO, but he can also equip some "mage" weapons like rods and flails. As for armor, he can equip heavy armor, such as the Gold equips, as well as certain light robes. He actually has the highest defense of any character at this point, as a result. He also joins with a whopping +5 levels above the group average, so he's substantially higher leveled than most of our current characters.As for his attack potential? In this part of the game, he'll be relying on his Dances, which are acquired simply by fighting once on certain types of battlefields, such as forests, deserts, and such. This part of the game is tailor-made for KEK. Using the right dance, he DESTROYS entire groups of enemies almost effortlessly. Should we choose to take him to the Sealed Cave, there's one Dance he'll most definitely want to have, but we gotta go out of our way for it, because it involves fighting underwater, and there's only one place where we can do that.
That's right, we gotta traverse the Serpent Trench again. This is gonna be a hell of a detour, because if you remember, this will take us to Nikeah, and from there we can only go to Narshe. Once there, we'll just have to walk through the Cave of Figaro, then traverse Mt. Koltz, then go into the Returners' Hideout to go back to the Lete River, which will drop us off where TRAIN washed up originally, then traverse that entire continent up to the Barren Falls, which will put us back in the Veldt and in sight of our airship. It's a looooooooong trek, but it must be done.
And with a single battle, we got what we needed. Too bad we gotta do all that rigamarole. By the way, this is TRAIN's Fire Dance. It's good, but it's only on par with PEDO's Flash, unless it hits an elemental weakness, which it does here.
And from Nikeah, we take the boat. I forgot that it doesn't take us to Narshe anymore, but rather South Figaro. This works out nicely.
Ah, right, South Figaro is still occupied. Seems the ferrymen have a plan, though.
And their plan is to throw me inside a fucking chest. Brilliant. But hey, can't argue with results.
On the way to Mt. Koltz, I take the opportunity to grab a few more dances. The way they work is, KEK attempts to do the Dance, but if you're not on the same "type" of battlefield as the Dance you're trying to use, he'll fail half the time. When he succeeds, the battlefield will change, and you'll lose control of KEK, who will throw out one of four different moves, some of which have a higher probability of being used than others, and some of which are attacks while others are for party support and healing. Here we see Water Rondo. Its main draw is El Niño, a very strong Water-elemental attack.
You are obviously an expert at this game. I was wondering about that weapon you found yesterday- The Drainer. I read that if you hit undead with it, it will heal the undead. Will that also happen if one of your party members is afflicted with undead status and you attack him with it? Will it hurt one and heal the other? What if both party members have undead status? What happens if you have undead status and hit yourself with it?Isn't there a relic that does something related to undead status too? I have so many questions. Don't bother answering if you're too busy playing. It's very entertaining watching you. I'm just always looking for a new angle for glitching and oddities.
Phew. Took a while, but I'm at the Phantom Forest now. Not long to go! I even got almost all of KEK's dances save for two, and one we can't even get during this part of the game.>>11046624That's a good question! Something to try. As for the relic, there's the Relic Ring, which does indeed turn a character undead, though not a zombie, exactly.
>>11046653Relic Ring, yeah thanks I'll remember that.
Finally, we're back on the Veldt. We damn near traveled the whole world just to get that dance, but it was worth it. I also took the opportunity to teach SLAVE the level 2 elemental spells through her father, Maduin, while everyone else focused on support spells since their main source of damage will be through their skills. Now we have almost everything we need to tackle the Sealed Gate, though I still wanna go back and buy some equipment.So, the Sealed Gate. Who exactly will go? Well, while at the moment we're completely free to choose our party, to actually progress into the Sealed Cave proper we'll need to have SLAVE in our party, so she's a given. Who, then, shall go with her? Odd digits chooses her companions.
>>11046667Vicks and Wedge.
>>11046669>555-COME-ON-NOW
>>11046675Whenever I have to make an important decision I like to sleep on it.
>>11046680Yeah, to be honest, it's about that time. I'll stop for now. Today was mostly a lot of sidequesting, but tomorrow shit will go down. I'll still honor the party choices, of course.
>>11046452>a cheap trick entertaining the idea that his new waifu had actually been playing him.Has this ever been confirmed or denied? I guess it's implied to be a trick, but there's room for doubt....>>11046507Boo, have a little more faith in us! Yeah we'd totally drop the moogle just because.>>11046512>So now you have both of their blood on your hands.iirc he can still join in WoR if he falls so I guess they survive.>>11046667>Who, then, shall go with her? Odd digits chooses her companions.KEK
>>11046667KEK wills it be SOOGA and MknFuk
>>11046907Excellent choices! So it shall be. I'll likely start up again in a couple of hours.>>11046726>Has this ever been confirmed or denied? I guess it's implied to be a trick, but there's room for doubt....I don't see any reason to doubt Runie. The whole thing comes way out of left field, from Kefka no less. And notice it was more than anything a distraction tactic so that the party would leave themselves open to attack. Well, that, and to add a splash of melodrama into the story. I kinda hate it, too, because it once again forces HUNTER into your team after this bit just to keep that melodrama going for a couple of scenes, but that's just me.
Ok, time to start again. Well, to be honest, I've been playing for a little while. See, there was still some preparation to be done, and I didn't want to bore you to death. SLAVE was still lacking in spells, and since we're taking MknFuk, there was at least one Rage I wanted to grab for use in the upcoming dungeon. There was also a crucial piece of gear to grab in the Gaia Gear, which is pretty much the best armor in this part of the game. It's only a couple of points behind the Gold Armor's physical defense, but has quite a bit higher Magical defense, AND it absorbs the Earth element, which is great, because many upcoming enemies will be using Earth-elemental attacks on us. For that, I traveled to the island where Thamasa is located and fought this Baskervoir dude, who has Gaia Gear for HUNTER to steal. I managed to grab four sets, though unfortunately SOOGA (and PEDO) cannot equip it. I also took advantage and fought a Chimera in that same island, which is precisely the Rage I need, since it casts Aqua Rake and grants Instant Death protection, both of which will be VERY useful.
Anyway, a bunch of Veldt-hunting later, I do believe we are ready. SLAVE is now in possession of pretty much every crucial spell she'll need, and everyone is equipped about as well as they could be. Truthfully, SOOGA will be the weak link here. He DOES have the Tempest, which is a very nice weapon, but here, it will pale in comparison to what the others can do, not to mention he's gotta be in the front row for it do to its full damage. Still, it adds a bit to the challenge, don'tcha think?Oh, but first, we gotta get through the Imperial Base. Right. How're we gonna get past all those guards, again? Maybe we'll actually have to fight our way through, or we'll have some new way to sneak past them, or someone will help us, or...
...or they'll just up and desert the whole fucking base. Now why in the hell would they go and do that? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Well, whatever's going on, the path is open, so onward we go, toward the no-doubt danger-filled Cave to the Sealed Gate.
Right away, we find a chest with the Assassin, a dagger for PACMAN. We of course cannot use it yet, but it will be nice when we can, as it can randomly inflict Instant Death on an enemy. It also slightly boosts his Magic. It's useless against undead enemies, however: if you try and use it on one, it will 100% try to kill it, only for it to revive automatically at full health.
And guess what: many if not most of the enemies we'll encounter here are undead. Some are quite dangerous, too. They are mostly all weak to Pearl, Ice and Water-elemental attacks, so guess what we're going to do?
The next chest yields a second Tempest! Should we wish to, we can actually have SOOGA dual-wield these awesome weapons with the Genji Glove, potentially casting two Wind Slashes in a single turn. It's risky, however, given it means giving up on a shield, and with SOOGA already in the front row, well, chances are he's gonna die, a lot. We'll try it out anyway just to fuck around.
In the next room, we find a bit of a puzzle. Every few seconds, the bridge tiles change positions by themselves. If you're standing in the wrong place when the change happens, you'll fall into the lava and get transported back to the beginning of the room, so you have to pay close attention to the tiles that DON'T change, and hurry toward them.
Well, that was fucking annoying. The second chest contained a Coin Toss, a Relic for SIMP that changes the Slot command to another one called GP Rain, which is what it does: it throws some of your GP to attack. IMO it's not a very good attack, and is in fact wasteful as fuck. I guess it's there if you for whatever reason want to use SIMP but absolutely, utterly suck at timing his Slots and don't want to bother learning.
Don't you dare miss Atma weapon
We press a switch, and it's a booby trap of some sort. And yet...
Another Genji Glove! This dungeon delivers the goods.
More switches. Usually, a setup like this implies one of them will be a trap, but let's see what the one on the right does.
We have chosen... poorly.
This nigga can fuck us up something fierce if we're not careful. He throws shit at us, including elemental scrolls, like a discount PACMAN. And they HURT. Better kill him fast.
And kill him fast we do, as luckily, both MknFuk and KEK cooperated and busted out their strongest attacks right away. And speaking of fast, he sure is quick to sing.
The left-hand switch opens a door right in between the switches, leading to a Save Point and a chest containing a Tent. I'd wager we're around the halfway point, then.
Further ahead, we find a long stairway. Is this what the dude was speaking of?
Lots of people miss this (including myself for many of my playthroughs), but the treasure that Ninja guy spoke of is indeed buried in the ground here, and can be obtained by inspecting the ground tiles one by one.
Actually a Soft.
Actually called a Water Edge in-game.
Actually 293 GP. Seriously, what the fuck happened here? Was it last-minute changes that weren't reflected in the text?
Anyway, onward, we find an area full of switches. The chest up top is also a switch. They don't do a whole lot of interest, to be honest.
This one, though, is crucial. It opens a door for for us.
>>11047676Here it comes
And inside, we find some nice treasure, including the Atma Weapon! This is the very same sword spoken of by that one scholar in Albrook. We also find two "Magicite", but they're not the same as the ones we have. Rather, what they do is summon a random Esper, including ones we've yet to gather.
>>11047681Awesome. Sadly, the weapon is very underwhelming at first.
And wowza, look at that! 255 B. Power, highest in the game! And while the game doesn't say so, it even ignores defense! However, there's a catch to this weapon, a big one at that.See, the way The Atma Weeapon works is, while it ignores defense, it instead factors in your current HP AND level into its damage formula. And it is not a favorable algorithm at low levels. In fact, I'd say it doesn't become worth using over other weapons until you reach around level 40 or greater. As for the HP thing, this is NOT, in fact, based on how high your max HP is, despite what the in-game description suggests ("grows stronger as HP increases"). All it means is it will only do attack at its full potential when you're at full HP, regardless of whether that's 800 HP or 9999 HP, and the lower your current HP is, the less damage it will deal, so equipping things that raise your max HP does absolutely nothing for its damage.So, is it of any use currently, then? Well, there's one slightly esoteric use, where you can pair it with HUNTER's Thief Glove so that its damage algorithm gets completely ignored, and he'll thus have a back-row compatible attack with 255 B. Power, so that's something. But for now, yeah, we're shelving it. It'll be useful someday, but not today.
>>11047696>Well, there's one slightly esoteric use, where you can pair it with HUNTER's Thief Glove so that its damage algorithm gets completely ignored, and he'll thus have a back-row compatible attack with 255 B. Power, so that's something.Something I never knew about the game, that's sweet. Going to try that next time I replay. Apparently it works with Genji Glove + Thief Knife/Atma Weapon too.
We find one more chest containing another Magicite item, and now we stand in front of a big cavern entrance. We should be close.
Finally, we arrive. Time for SLAVE to do her thing.
Fuck off, clown, nobody invited you to this party.
As usual, we got fucking played like a fiddle. Now the Imperial Base being deserted makes complete sense.
>>11047612>be me>never figured out how to get atma weapon here
I'm getting used to it. You should, too.
Well, let's give this joker some scars, at least.
Not much to this battle. Just gotta kill some time.
Thankfully, SLAVE is quick to please.
*autistic Tarzan noises*
Here they come!
Even Kefky-poo is shaking in his little red boots.
FUAAAAAARK
More than you bargained for, eh?
And they just keep coming. Eventually, Kefka gets swept away.
SLAVE isn't having a good time of it, either. She passes out shortly after.
The gate closes again, and rocks come to block it further. Guess that's that. But what now? Many Espers came out, but they didn't even bother to speak to SLAVE. So what did they come out for?
Mission... accomplished?
>>11047784Skull Rock, no humans allowed!
Thankfully, an exit appears that takes us right back to the entrance of the cave, saving us a great deal of backtracking.
On the way out through the Imperial Base, we get filled in on what happened. Apparently, the Espers came out and terrorized the citizenry, or something. And they're heading toward Vector, no doubt to have a little diplomatic chat with the Emperor about this whole war business.
The party boards the airship and heads toward Vector. Perhaps there's still a chance to coordinate with the Espers before things escalate.
SLAVE's Esper sense start tingling, however.
SLAVE! Now's not the time for lewd talk!
Oh, fucknuggets.
I AIN'T YOUR BUDDY! GO AWAY!
For fuck's sake, SIMP, it's raining Espers! And why aren't you at the wheel!?
I love how HUNTER keeps having to protect these fools.
This CANNOT be good.
Any bets on whether he pissed himself here?
Nah, it's just a prank, bro.
Tell me again, what in the fuck did you all expect? That they were just gonna come out and sing kumbaya?
They set it to high for your maximum pleasure.
PEDO with the good news!
And indeed, the airship starts going haywire.
We crash-land... somewhere. Time to inspect the damage, I guess.
Evidently, the airship is out of commission. Nothing to do but exit and make our way to Vector on foot.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaand of course we landed in the farthest possible point from our destination. Fucking good, great, WONDERFUL.Anyway, gonna take a break for the moment. I'll be back later tonight to finish this bit.
>>11047654oh i always thought he was talking about the stuff in the imperial base.>>11047664weirdly enough the same thing happens later with the floating chests in owzer's mansion.
>>11046452Can’t wait until you do a FFIX play through and I can tear apart that overrated poorly written game and weak love story: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14012757/1/Everything-Wrong-with-Final-Fantasy-IX
OP here, gonna start again in about an hour.>>11048559I'm thinking about it. It was my second favorite FF for many years, but I haven't played it in a very long while. I wouldn't be surprised if I found a whole bunch of issues I overlooked way back when.
Aaaaaanyway, one long trek later, we find ourselves at Vector's footstep. Let's see what havoc the Espers wrought.
And... yeaaaaaaaaah, they chimped the FUCK out. The whole place is up in flames. But can you blame them?
There's Narshe guards and Returners walking about. Most likely they were part of the invasion force that was supposed to attack at the same time as the Espers, but it seems they didn't get to do shit. The Espers went and solo'd the Empire on their own.
Arvis and Banon are here as well. Arvis here pretty much confirms my theory.
Banon seems confused, though?
???? Yes, that's what you sent us here to do, remember, you old shithead?Honestly, though, is this another Woolsey fuck-up? His dialogue makes little sense here.
That last line flabbergasted me so much I actually had to look into it. It was indeed a mangled line. Banon is shocked at what transpired, and is then in disbelief when (it is implied) he's told that the Espers caused this mayhem. That's the gist of it.Anyway, moving on, we start walking into the Imperial Castle grounds, where we're met by this dude that's totally not one of Emperor Palpatine's personal guards or whatever.
Looks like the Emperor actually wants to talk to us filthy plebs. And the soldiers aren't looking to bash our heads in for a change. Getting your shit pushed all the way in by rampaging magical beasts out for revenge will do that, I guess.
And they even went and locked up our favorite clown! Not sure what they mean by him being on his last legs. Is he sick and dying? I had to look this one up, too. This is meant to say he's been given a life sentence. Woolsey's starting to shit the bed a bit too much here.
Ah, at long last, a face-to-face chat with our lovable dogman. And to hear him say it, he's spooked to high hell. He and his subordinates all even speak of peace. Can it be true? Let's find out.
Even the banana man seems quite sure of it. Maybe it's not just talk, after all.
Gee willikers, who could've seen THAT coming?
>>11048735...I sense falsehoods and deceit even after getting his shit pushed in
That's bullshit but I believe it.
Are they? Seems like they just shredded your precious capital and nowhere else. Though they DID down our airship, but to be fair, we were kind of in the way.
Oh, goodie, time to eat! I'll have uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
But first, we gotta do this weird little "mini-game" of sorts they throw at us kinda out of left field. We have to go around and talk to as many soldiers as possible, but we only have four minutes to do so, so time is of the essence. Some will actually try to fight us, too, so we have to kill them as quickly as we can. We get a reward for it, so may as well.
There's 24 soldiers to talk to in all. Four will fight you, but are easily dispatched, and must be to get full points. We just barely do so.
We then cut away to a banquet with the Emperor. Genderbent April O'Neil sits with us, counting himself as one of the Returners, because I guess he's free to do that now or something.
In this banquet, we are presented with several dialogue choices with which to respond to various things said by the Emperor. There actually are consequences for this: some choices are more "correct" to say than others, and net us more brownie points with the Emperor or something like that. The more points we earn, the greater our reward will be at the end of this. As such, we must choose our words wisely.
When I was a kid, I had already played through the game once and was disappointed by the meager rewards that I got during this segment so I wrote a letter to Nintendo Power magazine and asked about the best way to get through the banquet. One of their 'game counselors' sent me the most wonderfully detailed response by mail and taught me how to get all the best rewards. I'll never forget the personal attention that they used to give their subscribers. The response they sent me was like three pages long.
First, we ought to toast for our hometowns, because that's less polarizing, or something.>>11048778That's wonderful to hear, anon. I, too, sent a letter to Nintendo, though it was sometime around 2001, asking if Squaresoft had any plans to release any games for their new upcoming console. They wrote back and were straight-up with me, saying there were currently no such plans, but Nintendo was nevertheless open to the idea, so you never know! They bundled that reply with a whole bunch of goodies, including documents explaining how game cartridges worked, a bunch of stickers for Star Wars: Rogue Squadron for the N64, and a picture of Link fighting Volvagia signed by a bunch of staff. Shit was so fucking cash.
Is an acid bath a viable option?
We can't be too bloodthirsty, though, so we choose to leave him in jail.
>>11048784That's cool. Sounds like they felt bad about the divorce and wanted to make you happy. Funny story, FF3(6) was already 'out of print' by the time that I was finally able to buy it and I badgered the guy at Electronic Boutique so many times asking if it was in stock and when it would be in stock again that he finally shut me up by telling me that I had to special order it out of a catalog. I used to call him and every other video game retailer in town every week hoping they would get more copies. >Who was that on the phone?"Oh it was that annoying kid again."
Fuck off, Fido. Runie knew all about it, so how didn't you? In any case, we have to choose that it was inexcusable, because, well, it was.
Cool. You gonna do anything else to repay the one lone survivor? He's right fucking there.
Speaking of which! ...where is she, actually?
We assert that Runie is one of us, and I guess the Emperor is cool with that. And yes, we get confirmation that Kefka was just trolling us, so take THAT, random anon from earlier! jk I love you brah
Now we get to ask Scooby our own questions. Every question we ask adds to our points, but we must take care not to repeat any, or we'll lose a bunch.
We ask why he started the war. We get the most canned answer possible. Well, I'm convinced!
I'm usually good at stuff like this in video games but my honest responses to all these questions and my failure to speak to many soldiers was a low point in my career. After the banquet the emperor rewarded me with a half-eaten orange and handful of skittles and told me fuck off.
We then ask why he wants peace now. He gives an even MORE canned answer. Yep, I can trust this guy.>>11048828Yeah, as far as the banquet goes, it basically comes down to choosing the most "balanced" answer in almost all cases.
We ask why he wanted us to talk to his men. And... OK, I suppose this one's fair. Touche, Marmaduke.
The Emperor wants to talk about the Espers. He's afraid that since they destroyed his Empire, they'll move onto the rest of the world. That could indeed be a concern. Mayhaps you could help by showing humility and deference, and coming along with us to show your gestures are not empty....but you're not going to do that, are you?
We're supposed to choose the first option, but come the fuck on. Though then again, it was technically us, so...
Randomly, Ghestal asks us which of these questions we asked first. Uh, the first one.
>>11048840The espers going berserk and this unholy alliance with the empire was a great plot twist in this game.
I understand that you WANT us to think that. So far, we only have promises.
Cid asks if we want to take a break. Sure, I guess.
Within this break, we get a chance to fight these fuckers. If we win, we get extra points, but we only get two minutes.
They look tough-ish. Let's see how they handle our best attacks.
Nope, didn't stand a chance.
Where da white wimmin at
In all seriousness, we ask him to say the war's truly over, and so he says as much. Now, he wants a favor. O rly?
Now Ghestal reveals the Espers went toward what's known as Crescent Island. He wants them found, and made to understand that the Empire seeks peace with them. For that, he needs SLAVE's help. Because she has SUCH a stellar record in communicating with Espers.
The plan is to make for this Crescent Island from a freight in Albrook. Wait, so he IS coming along? Guess he means business! Sign me up!
And OUR HERO is coming, too! I've never felt safer!
Fucking FINALLY someone acknowledges him. Mad fucking props to Leo for this, even though it's still strange that Runie knew something he didn't when he was right fucking there and she wasn't.
The respect is mutual. Nice to know there's no hard feelings here.
And so the banquet ends. And as usual, HUNTER forces himself into the team, because while Runie's not here, SLAVE is the next best thing to protect. Have you noticed a pattern, yet?
Are you sure? I don't see any Gokubros around. Though then again, TRAIN's AuraBolt bears an uncanny resemblance to...
Anyway, we're now left with only SLAVE and HUNTER. Before heading to Albrook, let's pick up some things here.
On the way out, we're met by this sentry, who rewards us with the following: the withdrawal of Imperial troops from South Figaro and Doma, permission to take the treasures from the Imperial Base, a Tintinabar, and a Charm Bangle. Very nice! We cannot go back to either South Figaro or Doma, but later on we'll make sure to visit the latter at least. We can, however, go to the Imperial Base, and there's some good shit there. The Tintinabar is mediocre. All it does is recover 1 HP for every step you take. I also already had one from the Mobliz soldier sidequest from earlier, which I forgot to say I had completed.. Lastly, the Charm Bangle halves the encounter rate, so we'll be annoyed by random encounters slightly less if we equip it. Cool, I guess.
There's some treasure around the castle that I didn't get before, so I take the time to do so now. Here we find Emperor Ghestal. Telling us to meet up with General Leo....Didn't you imply you were coming with us, you Terrier-looking motherfucker?
And here we find Kefka in his rightful place, with SOOGA keeping watch over him, as is fitting.
We can use the toilets, too. SLAVE doing her business is cute! Cute!
Understandably, everyone up and down is skeptical.
We find MknFuk in the Cafe, and he says something quite enigmatic. Evidently something is jogging in that brain of his. Perhaps this will become clear later.
Now, while our objective is to go to Albrook, we head south for shits and giggles to check up on SIMP and the airship. For our troubles, we get this scene where Cid attempts to help SIMP repair the Blackjack.
Again, I ask, was an airship beyond Cid or something? How is it that only SIMP has one?
Cid's got bantz, too.
SIMP tells him to fuck off, understandably. SLAVE states the obvious.
SIMP begins to show a bit of vulnerability, however.
He speaks of an unfulfilled dream.
A time in which he had actual competition.
And perhaps... there was more than that.
And, as per usual, it seem this story did not end well.
So, even SIMP knows the pain of loss.
By the way, in case you're wondering, all Imperial troops have also left from both Maranda and Tzen. They've not left from Albrook yet, though this guy suggests they will, soo.
In the harbor, we find General Leo. And he's brought friends.
And... it's Runie! And PACMAN! Hell yeah! Wait, she's a general again?
Nigga...
Make it as awkward as possible, will you?
We're reaching awkward levels that shouldn't be possible.
Yeah, good call, Runie. This party sucks.
Thanks, PACMAN. I knew I could count on you.
Anyway, we're supposed to get some rest, so I guess we will.
HUNTER can't seem to sleep, though. Perhaps a bit of fresh air will do...
>shit, there's my waifu>what do I do?>should I give her some treasure?>bitches love treasure
>just say her name>yeah, that's good>goddamn, you're smooth
>think she still resents me taking Kefka's word over hers?>nah, that shit's history>she's just playing hard to get
>alright, let's try honesty>bitches love honesty>wait wait wait>did I just friend-zone myself?>FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF-
>forget I said that>here, eggs>I love you
>I FUCKING HATE BITCHES FUCKING GODDAMN SHIT MAY AS WELL GO GAY 4 DICKS NOW ;_;
And THAT was pretty much the entire reason HUNTER was forced into our team. Worth it, eh?Anyway, fuck all that, let's just talk to Leo and get this shit over with.
And so, the freight goes on its way. Sometime during the night, in the middle of the trip, SLAVE finds herself having an intimate talk with General Leo.
Leo, to his credit, tries his best to sympathize with SLAVE, as well as show her that not everyone in the Empire is an enemy.
SLAVE isn't sure what to make of him, which is only fair, given that as a high-ranking General, he should've been aware of what they were doing with her. And sure enough, he admits it. He knew, and did nothing to help her. He's no better than Kefka.
SLAVE, however, has other questions on her mind. We saw her ask this question to Runie before. Does Leo have any insight to impart upon her?
Leo's answer is unequivocal.
Yet doubts remain. How can someone like her possibly find love?
Leo answers in the most gentlemanly fashion possible. He is truly too good for the Empire.
You will.
PACMAN comes out. Perhaps SLAVE can get a second opinion from him.
Evidently, PACMAN overheard their conversation. SLAVE tries against all odds.
Unfortunately for her, she's not dealing with a normal person. He cannot give her the answers she's looking for, though it is VERY interesting that he is so keenly aware of what she wants to know. Almost like this is something he himself has struggled against.
And this line confirms it. This is probably my favorite of PACMAN's quotes, showing that as hard as he's tried, he's yet to completely kill off his humanity. He completely gets SLAVE, but he doesn't feel worthy of giving advice to help her due to the path he's chosen.
MEANWHILE
Yep, a vomit gag right after all that heavy shit.
PACMAN ain't got time for that shit.
Rest assured, your secret is safe with him.
Finally, we're about to land. PACMAN will be joining us, Hurray!
Oh, NOW you want to talk. What's up?
Pshhhh, nothing personnel, bitch.
So yeah, we gave Runie the coldest fucking shoulder we could, then landed in an island that should be familiar to us. Why, this is where Thamasa is! Nothing to do but make a beeline for it. And this, friends, is where I'll stop for the night. I may start again sometime around noon. See you then.
>>11048778>>11048784can confirm, Nintendo Power was excellent stuff back in the day.also OP, appreciate your efforts in doing this LP of one of the best proofs that vidya can be art (Woolsey's oversights/censorship notwithstanding).
>>11048879Yeah that is strange, what gives with that?>>11048887I kinda forgot Locke (er, HUNTER) fell back on the team's other girl at this point. Was there supposed to be a love triangle?>>11048921Wait, why is his name "MAJESTY" here? Reminds me of the weird "IMPRESARIO"/"ZIGFRIED" thing on the train.>>11048949I don't think his backstory is ever fully explained even in external works, but I always imagined that the gambler was originally from the Jidoor region to begin with. Maybe before the richfags rested on their laurels, there was a reason why the city got so rich. Maybe the airships were made by the same peeps who made the auction house, known for weird curios like "talking Chocobo". I like to imagine SIMP and his honey were oldmoney babies who inherited their airships from their Jidoor parents, and actually learned how to maintain 'em. He comes across as a bored richfag who resorts to exotics for cheap thrills. But I don't think the devs thought much beyond it other than "we need an airship.">>11048964I always thought it was odd how Runie later mentions Daryl from this one obscure optional scene she totally misses out on. Makes me think something else was cut or shuffled. The World of Ruin was added relatively late in development when they realized they had the cartridge space for a more ambitious twist and finale, so this is probably a victim of that change.>>11048974>>11048978Why'd it take me this long to realize HUNTER was reacting to Runie and not PACMAN? Guess it's because, if memory serves, his theme plays, but he was optional up until then and you can name him there.>>11049017Leo would've been a good party member. I like how T-Edition and Divergent Paths both have their own separate way of wrapping up the Terra/Leo loose end in a way that makes sense.>>11049040Man, missed opportunity to have Runie walk in late to the scene only to stop and then wordlessly walk out and pretend she didn't see nuttin'.
>>11049056I'm glad you were able to navigate thru the questions to maximize the amount of stuff that you get. When I played, I wasted time talking to Kefka and he eats like a good minute of time talking.
OP here. We're starting again soon. A little later than I wanted to, but that's ok.>>11049304>Why'd it take me this long to realize HUNTER was reacting to Runie and not PACMAN? Guess it's because, if memory serves, his theme plays, but he was optional up until then and you can name him there.Huh, that's interesting, but it makes sense. It's entirely possible to completely miss talking to him up to that point. That said, his theme didn't play for me here, I guess because I had already named him.
>>11049304>Why'd it take me this long to realize HUNTER was reacting to Runie and not PACMAN?He's reacting to seeing his waifu with a black man.
And so, we enter Thamasa once again. Seems the locals are slightly more talkative this time around.
Even the shops are open to us now. We can use none of these weapons for the moment, though.
>>11050332Buy 9 thunder rods
At the armor shop, things are a bit better. Actually, here is where we can get the Mystery Veil, which is pretty much SLAVE and Runie's best helmet, period. Not only does it grant good defense, but it also bestows +3 Magic AND +10 MBlock. We're basically never taking this off of them.>>11050339For the IAF sequence, I presume?
The innkeeper's still a xenophobic asshole, though.
Looking around, however, we find some... weird shit going on. Here's this kid screaming about a fire. What fire?
...waaaaaaaait a minute...
The kids gets spooked as if we saw something we weren't supposed to see. Fucking weird. Next, we come across a little girl and her mom. Apparently she's going to... Cure her?
Until she spots us, that is. I don't know WHAT the fuck is going on.
The kid gives the game away, of course.
You're a terrible actor.
Finally, one of the locals suggests we go see the old man about Espers, since apparently he's an animal expert. I suppose we will.
Very kind and welcoming old man, too.
Ah, and we get to name this old fart. This one goes to even digits.
>>11050391A white-haired old wizard in a Square game? I can't think of any name but KALIVA
>>11050391oldfagin lowercase.
>anon in charge of getting even digitsUnfortunately, I don't have all day, so let's just go with one of those two. If my post ends in odds, it's KALIVA. If evens, oldfag.
ngl, I was hoping for oldfag kek oh well. Anyway, this nigga claims to not know what we're talking about. I wonder.
He doubles down when pressed. You sure convinced me.
The team huddles together, befuddled, when suddenly...
UOOOOOOOOOOH!!Bejitabro btw
Grrr... damn brat...! Needs correction...
This little girl gets to be named, as well! Odd digits gets to give her what will no doubt be a most adorable name!Do your worst.
>>11050475ADOLeiFA play on Ado/Adeleine, our other favorite SNES "paintings come to life" girl, of course! And NOTHING else. 'F' is for 'Family'
>>11050475>>11050479needs to be 6 characters, maybe like ADOLPH?
>>11050475CWC
>>11050479How dare you. KALIVA only travels with one kid, and his family would certainly not be above naming their progeny after him.
>>11050479>>11050483Indeed, it needs to be 6 characters. I'll let you roll one more time. Consider this the first and last exception.
>>11050491uWu ?
i call her cumrag
>>11050493uWu is cute!
And funny!YJK
Urge to correct... rising...
Too much.
Interceptor is a dog of culture, is all.
Anyway, looks like we're not getting anything out of the old fuck.
The team agrees. Too much weird shit going on, and everyone's trying a bit too hard.
I'm sure he already did.
Had fun with him, eh? This can be arranged...
Dam, I missed naming Relm? This sux. I'm leaving the thread 5ever!ok I'm back
Looked around, nothing changed, except the Innkeeper finally removed that stick up his ass, and he's only charging us 1 GP to stay now! Dunno what we did to earn his trust, but fuck it, let's take it!
...only for old fuck KALIVA to come in the middle of the night and rouse us. Buddy, I payed one GP for this room, and damn it, I'm going to enjoy it!
Bleeding internally? I could've told you that.Ok, I'll stop with the dog-fucking jokes before they get old.
SLAVE and Interceptor wake the fuck up immediately. PACMAN gives no fucks.
A fire, eh? If only we had some way to put that out... can't we like, summon a literal fucking whale?
Can't blame him. That bed looks mad comfy.
He literally turns, then goes right back to sleep kek talk about not giving a shit. HUNTER ain't got time for this.I always wondered what the intention here was. Like, is he just really, really deep in his sleep? Did he hear the whole thing and just doesn't give a fuck? And why was he even added to our team if we don't get to use him at all? Kinda weird all around.
I guess his plan was to just wait until everyone left before hightailing it out? PACMAN's motivations were pretty strange during this part.
Anyway, shit's on fire, yo!
The fire rises!
In desperation, KALIVA adopts a certain stance...!
He casts some sort of spell! Ice, presumably.
And the jig is up.
KALIVA, of course, has his priorities straight.
Of course, it's too much for KALIVA alone to handle, so the Mayor lets up.
One by one, the townspeople all cast Ice (?) spells, hoping to put the fire out.
But it's no use. The fire spreads. Apparently they kept a lot of Flame Rods in there or something. No choice but to head in ourselves.
HUNTER and SLAVE volunteer, but KALIVA insists he, too, will go. He may be old, but he can still be of use.
So the party enters the burning house. It's truly a hellscape here. First things first, we must equip KALIVA properly. He's a pure mage through and through, so only light equipment for him, though he can equip the Gaia Gear, so let's go with that. He comes equipped with a Mithril Rod, which gives +2 Magic, so let's keep that on him. KALIVA is this game's Blue Mage, which means he learns certain attacks (called Lores in this game) by witnessing monsters use them. He already comes with three such Lores: Aqua Rake, Revenge and Stone. Only the first one is really useful at this time, as it's a multi-target Water/Wind attack that decimates everything in this dungeon. It's a good thing too he has it, too, because otherwise he'd be useless as, for some dumb reason he doesn't know OR naturally learn any Magic despite the story JUST showing us he does. I know it's probably because they wanted that to be SLAVE and Runie's schtick, but storywise it makes no sense if you ask me. He and uWu ought to have natural Magic as well, something which T-Edition rightfully corrected IMO.
Patrolling this place are fireballs which are Bomb enemies. They're, of course, weak to Ice and Water, so Ice 2 and Aqua Rake will fuck their shit up nice and easy.
>>11050616Is it not possible that he was casting some version of Aqua Rake on the house during the story scene?
Not much treasure in here. All we find is a Fire Rod, as well as an Ice Rod. We can put this to VERY good use in a moment.>>11050630He was casting the same spell as everyone else (with the sound effect for the Ice spell), so unless they all know Aqua Rake...
Double Earrings on SLAVE for best results.
Dis gon' be gud.
Looks quite menacing. But I wonder...
>>11050641>unless they all know Aqua Rake...Well why couldn't they?Background music for house dungeon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2CjlA7MaSM&t=349s
How much...
>>11050652Huh I thought the time-specifying thing in YouTube links worked on this site? Oh well.
He likes...
THIS?
<<OVERKILL>>
KWAB
>>11050661well that's about as cool as a person can be
Anyway, looks like Interceptor got ahead of us somehow. uWu looks ok.
>>11050475KITTY. Y'know, the Cat Ear Hood.
OH SHI-
Interceptor, ever the loyal hound, keeps the monsters at bay. The situation looks dire, however.
>So... what'd I miss?
OP, have you ever paid money to post on Something Awful?
PACMAN literally ninja slashes through them all. Just like in my Japanese animus!>>11050684Fuck no. I value my 10bux too much.
>>11050692Nah, you're from Something Awful. Give your name.
PACMAN uses a Smoke Bomb to get us out of there. Never mind that it's the Warp Stone that takes us out of dungeons, but I guess it's a ninja thing, so I'll let it slide.>>11050694I can assure you I've never posted there, nor have I ever wanted to. What makes you think that, anyway?
>>11050697>What makes you think that, anyway?Let's Play started with Something Awful, and the very same sort of dumb humor applies (DID HE JUST HECKING SUPLEX A TRAIN???)
You're welcome. You're still not keeping the dog, though.>>11050704Yeah, I know that. Doesn't mean I ever posted there.
>>11050706Yeah, no, you did. Something Awful goon faggot.
Time for the story of this town and its people.
Small exposition dump.
Apparently, once the Espers left, the Mage Warriors were hunted down and persecuted by the other humans.
No one cares about your Let's Play you stupid faggot. Get lost. Anyone who told you otherwise came from Discord.
I always wished there was more of a connection shown between SLAVE and the people of this village. Thinking about it, it feels like they rushed this part of the game just a tad. They could've perhaps introduced it earlier somehow, while still having this sequence more or less intact.
Makes sense.
And why not? We brought a 13 year-old orphan monster boy along. A little magical girl would make a fine addition to this "diverse" team.
That supposed to be an insult?
Finally, a clue. Let's get it over with.
Cool, we may even learn more about their origins.
And just like that, PACMAN peaces out without saying a word. What's his fucking problem?
There's something in this corner here, a Memento Ring. Why's it there, and what's it for?
Hmmmm, suggestive.
Outside, PACMAN is standing around. KALIVA attempts to communicate something to him, but PACMAN doesn't seem to want to listen.
>I just wanted my doggo>I-it's not like I like you guys or anything
Guess he just doesn't want to stick around us for some reason. Looks like there's something about the current situation with us that he's not comfortable with.
At least let her say goodbye to the dog, you fuck.
Anyway, we have our next objective. Next stop, the mountains to the west. I'll go ahead and stop here. I got some shit to do until kinda late, so we'll probably pick up tomorrow, hopefully in the morning this time.
>>11048973>>11050561I wonder if he made himself available after learning they wanted to check Thamasa, or if it was a coincidence and he was phoning it in on autopilot.>>11050616>for some dumb reason he doesn't know OR naturally learn any Magic despite the story JUST showing us he does. I know it's probably because they wanted that to be SLAVE and Runie's schtick, but storywise it makes no sense if you ask me. He and uWu ought to have natural Magic as well, something which T-Edition rightfully corrected IMO.I hardly ever used Strago or Relm in my playthroughs since you get them so late. Seemed too squishy. Them having natural magic would've made them much more appealing to me. One could argue the Thamasans should just have special magical skills like Lore and Sketch, but if that's the case, what was the Cure scene about?>>11050641>He was casting the same spell as everyone else (with the sound effect for the Ice spell), so unless they all know Aqua Rake...Fire melts Ice tho.>>11050735Ah, so THIS is why they don't learn spells without magicite!>>11050757I think the description was tweaked in retranslations because some people in the early days misconstrued it as meaning Shadow is Relm's BROTHER.
>>11050726This poster is delusional.
>I hardly ever used Strago or Relm in my playthroughs since you get them so late. Seemed too squishy.The biggest drawback to them appearing so late is the fact that unless you go full autist with keeping your levels low until you get everyone, they potentially miss out on a lot of Esper boosts. Even if they don't, they're just sort of outclassed by other characters, notably Terra and Celes, who are excellent Mages in their own right, have overall superior equipment, and can also work as competent Fighters. Strago at least has some decent Lores that set him apart (notably White Wind, Big Guard, Aero, and GrandTrain), but Relm is 100% reliant on learning Magic to be any good due to Sketch being such a poorly designed skill. She's actually breddy gud once she does learn the big spells, but I'd still take either of the big tiddy chicks over her any day. The best I can say is she's another character that can get max Mblock, but with fairly unique equipment.
>>11051086meant for >>11050785
>>11050726go suck monkey ass>>11050684not OP, but I absolutely refuse to pay money to post on a forum, just on principle.>>11051086I always thought Relm was a qt, although what you're saying is accurate. Also, I believe Sketch can glitch & break the game if used in a certain way iirc.
>>11051225I honestly don't know what they were thinking with Sketch. I get they wanted to give her something unique and cool, but it feels like they ran out of time to flesh it out and balance it properly and left it in a completely broken state.
>>11051225>Also, I believe Sketch can glitch & break the game if used in a certain way iirc.My family's copy of this game had that bug in it and my sister and I ran into it. It mangled the party's item inventory somewhat, adding some new items in the process. I don't remember noticing any other effect of it, but supposedly it can do lots of crazy things: https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Sketch_bug
>>11051301I learned about the glitch sometime around maybe 1999 or so, so I tried it on ZSNES. I remember it gave me like a thousand Dirks, but not much else of note that I can remember.
>>11048697Pretty glaring translation mistake by Woolsey.
>>11051263pretty much this. it's been quite some time since I delved into ff6 lore, so I needed to jog my memory.>>11051417Woolsey's work is generally solid and consistent, but there are definite mistakes & flaws. I think alot of it was having to rush through the script, the rest was censorship constraints.
>>11051263It's only broken in, oddly enough, the North American 1.0 revision of the SNES version. Apparently, not even the earlier SFC version has an issue with Sketch. It's a freak localization mistake. So of course, since it's so infamous, every relocalization hack of the game pretends like it's some almighty triumph that the Sketch bug has finally been conquered, even though you can literally just play 1.1 and be fine.
>>11050530
>>11050726here's your (you)
Ok, so the morning session didn't happen. That's ok, I've got a couple of hours to spare. Let's at least finish this part.>>11051806Yeah, it's not just the glitch. Sketch is just terribly implemented, period. I'll go over why that is in a bit.
We enter the mountains through an entrance that wasn't there before. It's very similar to Mt. Koltz here. As usual, we'll need to look for loot. Here was a Heal Rod, which has VERY high Battle Power, but it translates into healing rather than damage. Yeah, not very useful in and of itself, unless you want to heal a single character for free. There is, however, a much better use for it much later on, so let's shelve it.
And lookit here, we got ourselves a disobedient little gremlin!
Think KALIVA is the corporal punishment type?
Almost caught her that time!
What's this, now?
KALIVA suggests this is a most significant find.
And now they're goddesses out of nowhere. I don't know exactly what happened here, but Woolsey made a huge mess out of the nomenclature for these beings. They are usually known as The Statues (though called goddesses here for some reason), and indeed the beings we encounter later on did turn themselves into literal statues, but they are supposed to be GODS. One of them is indeed called Goddess and is very clearly female, but nothing suggests the other two are female as well. I'm guessing this was some attempt at censorship, but then why keep one of them called Goddess (even though the other two had their names changed) and call them goddesses here? Needless to say, this caused a shitton of confusion until the GBA port, which adopts the collective term the Warring Triad, but also correctly calls them gods.
kek I forgot we were nearing the image limit. Guess I'll make a new thread.
New bread: >>11053046
Runie was here
