A Tale of Two Scripts: Let's play FF3 US & FF6 RPGOne!

ELDER: We’ve no choice... We must do what we’ve been avoiding...
MADUIN: You mean... the magic barrier?
ELDER: Here’s the plan. We’ll cause a tempest that’ll sweep all the nasty creatures out of our realm. Then we’ll seal the gate... I am the last of our kind able to cast this magical seal.
MADUIN: But in your state, you might just...
ELDER: Pass away... but at least we will finally be safe.
MADUIN: Madonna... ...
MADONNA: I, for one, will not miss the other side... [She returns to TERRA’s bed.]
ELDER: Let’s do it. We have no other choice.
“Soon the humans will arrive!
ESPER: This is all because of that human girl!
MADUIN: Nonsense!
ESPER: I’m sure she helped the others find us!
MADUIN: Get a grip on yourself!
ESPER: No! She’s one of them! Soon she’ll be wearing our hide!


[MADONNA runs from the dwelling, holding TERRA.]
MADUIN: Urghhh!
“Madonna took Terra to the gate!”


ELDER: Impossible! It’s too late! I’ve already begun casting the barrier. There’s no turning back!
MADUIN: That fool...
(Madonna or the racist Esper with paranoid delusions about her?)


[The high winds drag the TROOPS back through the gate.]
GESTAHL: Shriek!!! Just when we were in reach of a veritable bonanza...!
[He resists the winds and is soon dragged off his feet. He tries to hold on while prone, but is ejected from the nexus.]


MADUIN: I understand that!
MADONNA: Thank you...
MADUIN: Can you make it back here?
MADONNA: Sure...


“Terra!!!


MADUIN: Madonna!!


GESTAHL: A... human girl? Wh... Who is she?


MADONNA: Please... take care... of my baby...
GESTAHL: YOUR girl!? Eh!? Hmmm... Then she’s half human and half... How absolutely fascinating! Mwa, ha, ha... She will help us realize our dream faster than we ever imagined!


[GESTAHL clubs MADONNA on the head, knocking her down again.]
GESTAHL: We will own this world! Ha, ha, ha...

Terra: I’m the product of an Esper and a human... That’s where I got my powers... Now I understand... I finally feel I can begin to control this power of mine...
Edgar: So Gestahl must’ve known the secret of the Espers’ power back then.
Locke: And those Espers at the facility were grabbed during that expedition! That means Celes’s power came... ... at the expense of an Esper...
Sabin: They can’t get away with this! We have to strike back!
Terra: What’s happening in Narshe?
Locke: Hmm... Maybe we should head back that way.


(I love that little thumbs-up he gives the player.)
Terra: Come on!


Finally we have an airship under our control! For now I’ll be using the same crew I used to fight the Cranes; Locke’s thievery will be handy while Sabin, Edgar, and Setzer are my best damage dealers for now.


Speaking of Setzer, take a gander at his starting equipment. Pretty standard, except that Bandanas aren’t on his equipment list. Most people who notice this assume it’s a glitch or something, but from what I’ve heard it’s actually an in-joke from the makers of the game.


This is what our benched party members have to say about our quest.


On our way to Narshe we take a little detour to this nondescript, unimportant island on the eastern edge of the map. We’re looking for two specific monsters here.


Here’s one. The Chimera is an important Rage. Actually, it’s the same attack as the Anguiform Rage, so really this is just to make two different monsters with Aqua Breath appear on the Veldt, making it easier for us to find at least one of them.


The other important one is the Disco Baskervor. I only had to fight half a dozen of them before getting this Gaia Gear, so I’m ahead of the game so far. Once I have a full set of these and the Chickenlips Rage, I’ll kick Locke out for Gau and the next few hours of the game will be filled with pure cheese. But that’s for another time. For now let’s continue with the story.


BANON: How did it go at Vector...?
ARVIS: I see... Your plan would combine Narshe’s money with Figaro’s machinery to storm the Empire... not enough manpower, though...
BANON: We have to open the sealed gate... Terra!?
Terra: To the Esper World...?
ARVIS: We’ll never beat the Empire without them.
BANON: When the gate has been opened, the Espers can attack from the east. We’ll storm in at the same time, from the north. No way around it. We MUST get the Espers to understand. We have to establish a bond of trust between humans and Espers. Only one person can do this... Terra...


Terra: I’ll do it. I’m the only one who can!
BANON: Get the Espers to understand, and we can bring this war to a screeching halt. Terra... I know that you can do this...
NARSHE’S ELDER: Our battle lies before us. We must make ourselves ready.
ARVIS: The sealed gate stands at the eastern edge of the Empire. There’s a base there, but somehow we’ll have to slip through...

But the tale of the epic Battle at the Base Before the Sealed Gate will have to wait for another week.

Is there another drainer, or did I just get lucky my last playthrough?

One of my favorite things to do for dungeon crawling late in the game it to pair the drainer with the Atma Weapon so I get near-constant full-strength Atma attacks and health.

Drainer's a common steal from Atma Weapon and is a rare steal from the Lizard random enemy in the second half of the game. There's also one in a chest during a certain timed event in the second half.

Part XIV - The Terrible Secret of SpaceThe Empire

I knew I shouldn't have commented on the lack of tempting PSN releases. You win this round, Squenix... Dragging myself away from the addiction known as Legend of Mana, it's time to make our way to the eponymous Majick Research Institute at last. We've got two new summonable buddies, and just a staircase or four to go before we reach the institute proper. Also, is it just me or is it really inconvenient that the only way into the institute is by falling down a garbage chute in the factory?



♪♪ Devil's Lab ♪♪

Damn you clumsy translation...

Majick Research Institute
Enemies: Pudding, Trapper, General, Onion, Renergia, Destroider, Chaser



Raise your hand if you knew this was here. This is the single most missed treasure in the entire game. You have to walk through a wall that has no indicators that you can walk through it and walk a bit to the left to pick it up from a mockingly already-open-if-you-disable-backgrounds chest.



See what I mean?



Well worth the trouble, though. It randomly casts Break, as the name suggests, but as we've established previously, Break tends to miss. A lot.



Oh hello General Leo. You're looking... um, pale and dyed.



♪♪ Decisive Battle ♪♪

Oh, you're a joke of a boss, not General Leo! Somehow I mixed the two of you up. Silly me. (Yep, I nabbed the Blood Sword. I'm awesome like that.)



Those stats are somewhat deceptive, and auto-equip will never actually put this weapon on you. It drains enemy HP and gives it to the wielder when attacking regularly. Not as useful as you might think.



♪♪ Eidolons' World ♪♪

Holy Jesus what are these goddamn animals?

As Efreet before you... In death, we shall grant you our powers..."

That sounds like an awesome deal.



Oh snap.



*Cid runs up and checks the intertubes*
Cid "...So, the powers of Eidolons can only truly be transferred when they die... The true power lies hidden within the stones that Eidolons leave behind when they die... All of those hundreds of Eidolons... Hmm..."

Okay, Cid is a freaking idiot if he somehow hasn't figured this out in the who-knows-how-many years the Empire has been doing research on Eidolons. Seriously, what kind of idiot says "Well, I've extracted a meager portion of power from this beast and reduced its earthly remains to a glowing mystic rock. Toss the rock and get me another one!"?



These particular magic rocks are all mine now!

Received Magirocks.



Cid "General Celes! Then, who are these people following you? Are they your subordinates?" {News clearly does not travel fast in the Empire if Cid doesn't know that Celes is a traitor.}
Celes "No. You see, I..."
Cid "I heard that you joined the rebellion, but surely you merely joined to spy on them...?" {Oh. Well that makes more sense I HEJEBEWHA-!?}
*Lock SHOCK!*
*Lock walks up to Celes*
Lock "!? Celes......?"



Now....."
*Kefka hops to the right!*
Kefka "General Celes!! Enough, the game is up. Come here, and bring those Magirock with you."
*Lock SHOCK! Again!*
*Celes and Lock face each other*
Lock "Celes! Did you deceive us!?" {Wow, this guy has no faith at all in his companions, huh?}
Celes "He's lying! Trust me!"
*Kefka hops downwards and laughs his awesome laugh*
Kefka "Hehehe... She is indeed a traitor... Celes has led you all on..."
*Celes steps down to the railing and checks out the pit*
Celes "Lock... Believe in me......" {ProTip: It's best to look someone in the eye when you're trying to get them to trust you!}
Lock "I... ... ..."
*Kefka faces the party and raises his arm*
Kefka "Now!!"



Dude not cool!



This does not look good. Can Celes really solve this red-tinted problem?

*Celes hops up onto the catwalk again*
*Celes starts chanting*
*The screen turns blue*
Kefka "Celes! W... What are you doing!? Stop it!!!!"



I guess she can. Hooray for cyan-blue!



Oh get over it, there are other fish in the sea.



Dude, Cid, did you just miss the last 5 minutes or something? Pay attention, man!



The shock on the systems has caused a rupture in the capsules, and energy is literally flooding out. It's dangerous to stay here!" {I'm pretty sure the Eidolons smashing through the glass is what caused a rupture in the capsules, actually.}
*Cid runs past the party and faces them*
Cid "Hurry! This way!!"
*They all pile onto the world's tiniest elevator*



*Cid faces down*
Cid "The life force of those Eidolons..."
Cid "In meeting you, I've come to a decision. I'm going to talk to the Emperor. This war must end..."

Well, it's nice to have another inside supporter. Too bad we lost our last one to a combination of Lock having no faith in anyone and Celes being insanely bad at convincing people of her innocence.



And here we are at a fine place to save. Since we have the chance, let's take some time to go over our new summonable buddies we just got!

Unicorn

A bit of Western mythology finally enters the summon rosters as we get Unicorn! It's hard to really comment much on this horny horse, as he/she/it's pretty much a one-FF wonder at this point (unless you count Ixion from FFX, of course). And of course, just about nobody in the Western world is unfamiliar with unicorns, so there's not much room for discussion anyway.



Unicorn Horn cures all status ailments for all allies. This can actually be somewhat useful if the entire party has been hit by a mess of status conditions, but the fact that summons can only be called once per battle tempers this usefulness a bit.

Spells Taught
Curera x4
Esuna x3
Dispel x2
Protect x1
Shell x1

Level-Up Bonus: None

Unicorn is basically Kirin's replacement as the key healing teacher. He'll get plenty of equip time on everyone for some time, though nobody is gonna sit through that kind of torment just to learn Protect and Shell.

Madeen

Savvy FF9 players will spot from that reference link that Madain Sari should've been called Madain Saleh. Anyway, this dude is pretty interesting, though his actual mythological ties are fragile at best. His main role in the story will become obvious soon, however.



Madeen uses Chaos Wave, which does non-elemental damage to all enemies and is almost (but not quite) worth the trouble. You know, as far as attack summons go and all that.

Spells Taught
Fira x3
Blizzara x3
Thundara x3

Level-Up Bonus: Magic +1

Madeen is a favorite of magic power-levelers, since he teaches Thundara fastest and teaches Fira and Blizzara at the same time. He's very useful in that regard, though eventually he gets tossed to the wayside in favor of other summons.

Catoblepas

Everyone's favorite baby pig Shoat is in fact none other than the pig demon itself, Catoblepas. Much like his mythological counterpart, staring him directly in the eye is... not recommended.



Demon's Pupil petrifies all enemies. It's about as useful as it sounds, since useful status conditions rarely hit enemies when you try to inflict them and all that guff.

Spells Taught
Bio x8
Break x5
Death x2

Level-Up Bonus: HP +10%

The deadly pig teaches appropriately deadly spells, which are appropriately generally useless... on the surface. Bio can really tear enemies a new one at this point, as long as they're not strong against poison. And on an unmodified game, Death is genuinely a fantastic spell. He gets some good equip time regardless for perfectionists, given everything he teaches is unique to him.

Phantom

This ghostly buddy doesn't really have much of interest about him, to be honest. He's just... a ghost. Kinda sucks for him, really. Not only is his spirit entrapped in his earthly remains, his earthly remains once WERE a spirit. Kinda a conundrum.



Vanishing Body is easily the best ability to have on hand, since it causes Vanish status to all allies (which makes all physical attacks miss, and all magic attacks land). As Lucas has noted, just about nothing uses magic at this point, so it can make your life so much easier.

Spells Taught
Berserk x3
Vanish x3
Gravity x5

Level-Up Bonus: None

Much like his summon effect being a winner, Phantom's big selling point is that he teaches the Vanish spell. This is especially handy on unmodified games, thanks to an oversight in code making status conditions get applied before defenses on an enemy who's been Vanished. Meaning Vanish + Death on an enemy equals instakill even if they should be immune.

Carbuncle

In spite of the rather gruesome meaning of a carbuncle in modern terminology (I suggest you never do a Google image search for "carbuncle"), this little Latin American mythological creature is in fact borderline cute. His cuteness only increases as the series goes on, to the point that he basically looks like a rejected Pokemon in his next appearance in FF8. His FF5 counterpart's an ugly bastard, though.



Ruby Light causes Reflect status on everyone. Since few enemies use magic, and since magic is your key means of healing, this is about as useful as kicking yourself in the teeth.

Spells Taught
Reflect x5
Haste x3
Protect x2
Shell x2
Teleport x2

Level-Up Bonus: None

Poor Carbuncle. All he has to show for himself is Reflect, really. Though Haste is a damn useful spell, he's just too slow at teaching it to really be practical. And once again, nobody is gonna spend THAT much time trying to learn Protect and Shell.

Bismarck

No really, that's the best anyone can figure for the reference in this guy's name. Our friendly whale buddy here is series long-timer Leviathan's stand-in, and he doesn't leave much of an impression. Though he is the only whale I've ever seen with legs.



Bubble Blow is about as non-threatening and non-effective as you'd expect of an attack summon in this game. It is, however, one of the few player-usable water attacks that can be reliably executed.

Spells Taught
Fire x20
Blizzard x20
Thunder x20
Raise x2

Level-Up Bonus: Strength +2

Bismarck is a short-equip summon for obvious reasons: he teaches spells so freaking FAST! Pretty much everyone equips their magic first-timers with Bismarck to get them set up with the basic elemental spells before moving on to better stuff, and Bismarck also gets equipped a lot for level ups thanks to his rare-early-on +2 bonus.

Okay, that's enough about our new summons. Let's get on with the show!

But, she's become a Majick Warrior, and done some terrible things. But... I wish I could see her just one more time... If only to apologize to her..."

That's real sweet, Cid. "I'm sorry I made you into a death-bringing abomination of nature. Forgive me?"



An evil laugh prompts our escape, however!



Do I have to?



♪♪ Save Them! ♪♪

Augh, it's the worst Mode7 ever!

Mine Cart Ride
Enemies: Magnum Roaders (type 1), Magnum Roaders (type 2)



This place is the bane of perfectionists. The game can randomly load up one of three encounter tables for it: only small Magnum Roaders, only large Magnum Roaders, or a mix of both. You can never fight these enemies anywhere else, and they appear on the Veldt for Gau to Rage over. And you can only reset your encounter table by going between encounter areas. Which you can't do here. So if you want to encounter both types, you have to be sure you save at the save point AAAAAAAAAAAAAAALL the way back where you got Efreet and Shiva, and redo the WHOOOOOOOLE sequence of the lab every single goddamn time you get the wrong encounter table roll.

Needless to say, perfectionists were thrilled that the GBA release fixed this by making the encounter tables roll up when you load from a save.



Oh right, the boss. He's cake. Next!



GET OFF THE TRACK YOU IDIOT!



That's what you get for being a moron. Let'sa go!



*Everyone walks out of the party*
Setzer "? What happened to Celes?"
Lock "......"
*Lock hangs his head in shame*
Setzer "We can talk later. Let's go!!!"



What does the Kefka have up his sleeve?



The suspense is killing me!



Cranes. Are you kidding me?



*Everyone nods in agreement*
Setzer "Hmm. ...Speaking of which, maybe we should be getting out of here before they can retaliate."
*Edgar looks over the rail and freaks out*
Edgar "Something big is coming this way!!"
*Gau checks it out too and also freaks*
Gau "Gau! Gau gau!!"



♪♪ Decisive Battle ♪♪

Damn cranes. Get out of my way!



♪♪ Blackjack ♪♪

And we're off!

*Setzer faces Lock and co.*
Setzer "Tina? Who is she?"
Lock "I'll explain on the way to Zozo... About Tina, the Returners, the Eidolons..."

Oh boy oh boy! I knew my Exposition Sense was tingling! That must be why!



Fortunately we're spared the recap and get straight to the top of Zozo's tallest building. They can really book!

*Everyone walks into place*
Lock "Tina......"



♪♪ Eidolons' World ♪♪

Oh my!

Lock "The Magirock!!"
*Tina glows too*
Tina "Fa... Father......?"
*Tina blinks*
Tina "I remember now. I was born in the Eidolon World."

Dun dun DUN!



Looks downright pastoral.



This dude looks vaguely familiar. Wasn't he floating in a cryo-vat at the Majick Research Institute? Whatever, we're in control of him, so let's talk around... erm, town?

Weird Kid "This is serious! Something came through the gate..."
Red Dragon "Are you alright, Madeen?"
Wolf-Man "There's a strong storm out. Take care, Madeen."
Fairy "I've heard that you're the gate keeper now, Madeen."
Wolf-Man "Are you alright, Madeen?"
Elder "This cannot be a coincidence."

Ahh, so this is Madeen! And apparently he's the big man about town, seeing as everyone knows him.



What should I do......?"
> (Take her back with you.)
(Leave her as she is.)

This could be the start of a wonderful romance...



Wow, fantastic racism against humans. Haven't seen that before, he lied. Let's talk around town again and see what's new.

Elder "Is it true that there's a human here?"
Madeen "It seems so...... She must have fallen into our world by mistake."

Sly of you to leave out the bit about how you dragged her back here. Not that the elder wouldn't know that.

Wolf-Man "We should kill it immediately. Eidolons and humans always end up fighting when they live together......"
Fairy "Everybody is a bit afraid of that outsider."
Wolf-Man "The gate has become weaker every day of every month over the past 1,000 years."
Fairy "......"
Wolf-Man "Is there really a human woman here?"
Fairy "It's been hundreds of years since a human found their way here by accident, right? I'm worried."
Red Dragon "Do you realize what you've done?"
Weird Kid "The elder has ordered it. I can't let anybody pass through the gate."

Overall a much frostier reception than before. Geez, you'd think Madeen had done something wrong by helping that human out! Let's go talk to her.



Well she is now, jerk.

*The woman gets up and the fairy flutters off*
Woman "You're... An Eidolon? What's that pendant for?"
*Madeen faces her, she steps away*
Madeen "Here, you can have it. Think of it as a keepsake of the Eidolon World."
Woman "Eidolon World...... Wow, I really did find it." {You mean you went looking for the mythical realm of monsters of your own free will? You have weird hobbies, lady.}
Madeen "Your presence in this world confuses us. You're a human, and..."
Woman "Are you the one who helped me?"
*She walks up to Madeen*
Woman "I am Madeline. I don't know how I got here from the human world. I was caught wandering in a terrible storm, and before I knew it, I found myself in this world......" {As we'll see later, that storm must've been the single most goddamned powerful gale in the history of ever, because it would have had to blow her through a cave the size of a city to reach the gates to this world.}
*Madeen faces downwards*
Madeen "I wonder if Eidolons and humans really can't live together......?"
Madeline "I'm an intruder in this world...... It's true, isn't it?"
Madeen "I don't understand what you mean..."
*Madeen faces Madeline*
Madeline "I will return to the human world tomorrow."
Madeen "Oh, then you'll need somebody to guide you there."
*The camera pans to show that the elder heard all of this*

I think somebody's horny for inter-species romance here...



Oh snap! This calls for... chatting with the locals again!

Fairy "The human girl managed to breach the gate between the human world and the Eidolon world recently."
Wolf-Man "If the humans knew of the power that Eidolons possess...... And if they found a way to utilize that power...... It's frightening just to think about it."

Okay, that was boring. Let's go get our horny Eidolon some hot human ass.



*Madeen pushes the kid aside*

Nobody stands in the way of Madeen's strange lust!



Why would she want to? You're the only person here who doesn't treat her like an invader.

Madeline "But, humans and Eidolons can't live with one another......"
*Madeen steps up*
Madeen "Unless we find out for ourselves, how do we know that's true?"

I think he's putting the moves on her.

He is! Supernaturally, at that!



Madeline "What?"
Madeen "Tina. It's a good name, isn't it?"

Nice pillow talk, Madeen. Ah well, he made a party member for us, so we can't be too hard on him.



♪♪ Ghastra's Empire ♪♪

*Weird Kid gets knocked back*
"It can't be. Humans."
"The nexus between our worlds has weakened further. It's just like the storm of two years ago..."



Oh shit EMPIRE!

"They're an army seeking our inherent magic powers." {These guys deduce fast!}
*The soldier drags the weird kid off, and another walks in and bitchslaps the fairy who stupidly walks up to get bitchslapped*
"Damn. They've reached the elder's house!"
*Wolf-man walks away as the soldier carts off the idiot fairy*



Heyhey, it's that guy who's supposed to be the antagonist! Hi, guy who's supposed to be the antagonist!

Finally, we have found the secret entrance to the Eidolon World spoken of in texts from 1,000 years ago, and the amazing beasts with natural magic."
*A soldier walks in*
Ghastra "Catch them!! I will reward anybody who brings me an Eidolon greatly! Go!!"
*Soldiers rush into town*

Well that's not very nice of you.



Yes, for now.



So... why don't you fight them off?



Elder has a plan!

Madeen "You mean... The magic wall."
*Elder steps down*
Elder "Alright. I will start a storm, and drive the foriegners out of our land, and then seal the gate. I am the last Eidolon alive who knows the incantation for the sealing. I am also the last one who knows how to recite it."
*Madeline runs down*
Madeen "But, the act of drawing the power up to summon the magic wall might..."
Elder "Kill me, yes. If I die, though, it will become impossible to dispel the magic wall ever again."
Madeen "Madeline, what do you think about this?"
*The elder and Madeen face Madeline, who faces down*
Madeline "I no longer have any regrets."
Elder "Then, let's go. It's the only choice remaining."



♪♪ Troops March On ♪♪

Dude, didn't we talk about your racism against Madeline already?

Madeen "What are you saying!?"
"If you hadn't taken that woman in, this would never have happened."
*Madeen walks up to confront the racist dickhole*
Madeen "You're speaking nonsense."
"No! She's one of them. She's not like us on the inside......"
*Madeline runs off!*
Madeen "Shit!!"

Nice going, ass.

Fairy "Madeline took Tina with her!"

No shit. Off to the gate, I guess.



Madeen "Madeline."
Elder "It's too late! I can't stop the casting now. The magic wall is already up. If you go in there, you won't be able to return!"
Madeen "I don't care!"

He'll do anything for love (but he won't do that), I guess.



It's a plot-relevant Eidolon!

*The winds blow the soldiers away*
Ghastra "Damn! We were so close to having so many of them......"
*Ghastra tries to reach Madeen and fails; he is blown outside instead*



Madeen "I know that!"
Madeline "Thank you."
Madeen "Can you make it back with me?"
Madeline "Yes......"
*Madeen starts to drag Madeline back*
*Tina gets sucked out of Madeline's hands!*
"Tina!"
*Madeline breaks Madeen's grip and goes through the portal!*
Madeen "Madeline!"
*Madeen follows her!*

Huh, I guess he really WILL do that for love. This guy's dedicated.

Oh snap.

*Ghastra takes Tina*
Madeline "Please...don't take...my child......"
Ghastra "Yours? Huh! Then... This child is half yours and half Eidolon... Now that's interesting."
Ghastra "Fwahaha. This unexpected gift will allow my Empire to rise to power even faster than I'd hoped."
*Ghastra starts to walk off and Madeline stands up*
Madeline "S...... Stop......"
Ghastra "Shut up!!"
*Madeline starts to approach Ghastra*
*Ghastra walks over and bitchslaps Madeline!*



I think we finally have a reason to not like this guy. And the black walls close on the scene.



♪♪ Awakening ♪♪

How mystical! And Tina's back to normal, too!

Tina "That's my father......?"
*Tina glances at her father's earthly remains*
Tina "I was born through the bonding of a human and an Eidolon...... That's where my power comes from...... That explains it... I'll be alright. Given enough time, I should be able to control my power, if only a little..."
*Lock walks away for no real reason*
Edgar "So that's how Ghastra discovered the secret of Eidolons' powers."
Lock "Then the Eidolons we found at the Majick Research Institute were the Eidolons that were caught during that raid. So Celes's power came at the expense of an Eidolon's life..."
Matias "Damned Empire! I won't be satisfied until I've blown them off the face of the planet."
*Tina gets up and Lock faces her*
Tina "What's happening in Narche?"
Lock "Oh, that's right. We should go back to Narche, for the time being."
*Lock nods, then Setzer takes point*
"The airship is ready to fly!"
*Tina steps down*
Tina "Let's go!!"

And we've bookended that bit of story. To the Blackjack!



♪♪ Blackjack ♪♪

Yes, let's give three untrained wackos a try at the wheel. How the hell did you ever become a pilot!?

Navigation Instructions---
(Left, Right) Turns the ship.
(Up, Down) Changes altitude.
(A) button moves the ship.
(X) button lets you go aboard the airship, replace party members, and buy items.
(B) button lets you land.Remember these functions when flying.
"Get it so far?"
> Yes/No

An infant could figure that out, Setzer. No wonder you're not too worried about letting these guys fly.

"Shall I teach you some advanced techniques?"
> Yes/No
(Start Button) toggles the world map.
(Y + directional button) lets you move in any direction without changing your viewpoint. This is helpful sometimes when landing.
(L Button) and (R Button) let you rotate at high speeds.

Right right, let's just fly this mechanical deathtrap already!



♪♪ The Mines of Narche ♪♪

I'll take some time next time to explore, but for now let's just get this bit of plot out of the way.



By the way, how did things go at the Imperial capital?"
*The party fills Bannan in*
Jun "Indeed...... So, by this plan we would use Narche's resources and Figaro's machinery to invade the Empire... We may not have enough actual manpower, though."
*Bannan gets a bit down*
Bannan "We will just have to open the Sealed Gate......"
*Tina steps over to confront Bannan*
Tina "To the Eidolon World...?"
*Jun steps down*
Jun "With the help of the Eidolons, there's no way the Empire could withstand our assault."
*Tina faces Jun*
Bannan "As soon as the Sealed Gate is open, the Eidolons can attack the Empire from the east. We'll attack at the same time, from the north."
*Everyone faces Bannan*
"It can't be avoided."
*Bannan faces the party*
Bannan "Of course... Without the Eidolons' help, we cannot succeed... We need to re-establish the bonds between humans and Eiddolons... Only one person can do this..."
*Everyone looks at Tina, who looks down*
"Tina......"
"Humans and Eidolons... My mere existence is proof, that such bonds can exist......"
*Tina looks up*
Tina "I'll do it. I'm the only one who can!"

Hooray for easy solutions! And that's where we stop for this time. Next time we'll take on the arduous task of preparing for the big assault on the Empire! Don't miss it!

Indeed. It looks like Lucas also missed it (or he just didn't bother to mention it). But it's not like I have any room to talk here - I missed it on my first playthrough.

Is there any other way to get a Break Blade?

Yep. You can steal them from an enemy called Outsider much, much later in the game. Long after it's a useful weapon, in other words. If you don't nab the one in the research facility, unless you're a die-hard completionist who must have a full item list, you may as well not bother.

I just figured Ifreet and Shiva were the first to go. It's not like they can go get more if these die off so Cid was probably doing everything he could to keep them alive.

Unless you face a dungeon where only magic is allowed, and multicasting an attack spell on everyone in your team results in 4x damage to the enemy target when it bounces off you. Which is cheaper than simply casting a Reflect-piercing, but more expensive, spell like Ultima.

...legs?

It's not the first time a strong storm blows someone into an otherwise completely inaccessible world.

Oh wait. FFVI came earlier. Then maybe it IS the first time!

Maddie and Maddie's sparkly dance has never failed to amuse me.

Now, you see? I've gotten into arguments where people claim that Espers feel no emotion, or that emotions are alien to her, based on how they speak and act "in the original Japanese."

All I'm saying is that your version tells me that those people are full of it.

And of course, the heroes blow everything by (indirectly) showing Kefka that Magicite is where it's at.

Problem is, the dialogue during this sequence contradicts that. It's strongly implied that 1.) the Empire has been slowly killing Eidolons off over the years to imbue people with magic, and 2.) they caught hundreds of them during that raid instead of just a few. Hell, Lock even surmises that Celes' power came at the expense of the life of an Eidolon. They've just been chucking and/or destroying the Magirocks all this time, in other words.

Yeah, there is that. Problem being that you basically need a single target for that to be worthwhile. And as I remember, there's about one dungeon where that tactic is particularly viable. And even then, you're putting yourself in huge danger since you can't heal if you do that.

Take a look at that screenshot again. Unless that's some sort of weird extra tail, I'm pretty sure it's a leg.

They're both right and wrong. The implication in the original script is that, by default Eidolons have either no or very weak emotions (note how there are few exclamations early on). The presence of Madeline changes that somewhat for most of them, and completely for Madeen. By the end of two years, he's become a lot more human. What's also interesting is that Madeline appears to become a bit more like an Eidolon (notice she has no problem with giving up the possibility of ever going back to her own world).

Yeah, that was kinda a stupid goof.

Isn't it implied that the ones that become magicite did it in a noble sacrifice kind of way? Like, not everyone in there species turns into a magic rock when they die, but these guys kind of chose to? Maybe draining them until they die just leaves a normal corpse.

Maybe they didn't even know about them. If the way Kefka disposed of Shiva and Ifrit is the standard (shucking their spent bodies down a waste chute to rot) then it's likely that, once the Esper died and crystallized, the Magicite simply got buried in the factory's waste without the technicians ev--

......

...and now we know how the Golem and Sraphim stones ended up at the Auction House/in the hands of a shady dealer.

If you're in that dungeon where it's most viable, then there's no way for the enemy to hurt you anyway since only one foe will use Ultima (do the higher-level enemies use Tornado/Merton? I don't remember.) If you're not in the dungeon, then Mantra/Chakra and White/Pearl Wind aren't affected by Reflect.

This is how I've always seen it:



The two shiny lines on the bottom of the tail are just the light reflecting off the same striations on its skin that stretch along its entire abdomen. Plus, his map sprite from the containment tube scene shows just a tail.

Yeah, it's fairly obvious that prior to this discovery Magirocks were destroyed or discarded by the Empire, and the few that survived to get carted away by thieves ended up on the auction block sooner or later.

Huh. I guess Bismarck just has a gimp tail, then. Weird.

Heh, that pretty much explains the only reason I'd want to get it.

PS Doesn't FFVIA have like a dungeon or something that has all of the battleable enemies in one place?

Something like that, yes. A lot of the rare encounters show up there, but it's a gauntlet challenge too (meaning it's out of most players' league until about level 99).

Or, according to this more accurate retranslation, it was a metaphorical storm.

Well, you could use the drainer weapon or drain spells to heal yourself. Or equip a relic that provides regen.

Don't you get magicite from a few espers later bu just out and out killing then, though?

Only in Advance. Which always strikes me as incredibly wrong.

(And Kefka "reduces them to Magicite" at Thamasa, but he was also using magic, so it's hard to tell whether he was killing or transforming them. Easier to believe the former.)

Only when you fight him. He's perfectly cute once you get to summon him.

One could argue that you get Odin against his will. At the very least he has very little say in the matter.

Nothing that can't be fixed with a little-- HEY OH yeah I'll wait for the LP to actually get there, sorry

Battle Carbuncle is so awesome.