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

You never equip espers, so you only get the magic that Terra and Celes learn naturally at level ups. And I guess leaning blue magic is cool. And then Gogo can do magic if he's in a party with Terra and Celes, but that's it!

It's a self-imposed challenge, a la conducts in Nethack. (The only difference is that these aren't tracked by the system, so it's only for bragging rights. Erm, non-verifiable bragging rights.) Pretty much, it means that no one can use magic taught by Espers - so the only folks that have magic are those that learn it naturally. (I'm not sure if using the Espers themselves is kosher or not.)

The only people that learn magic naturally are Terra and Celes, and they tend to learn it waaayyyy later than they could if they had Espers. (For instance, Terra just now learning Cure 2, something that anyone could learn right after Zozo in the World of Balance.)

(Edit: Whoa, I got the *hell* ninja'd there!)

That is the first time I've ever seen three people post the same thing at pretty much the same time.

That was beautiful, guys.

Generally not, since there's not a lot of stuff that doesn't give AP. (I can't remember off the top of my head whether bosses and the Veldt give AP or not; I know neither one gives XP.) Even then you risk leveling up and getting the dreaded Esper level-up stat bonus. There's only a few things Espers can do better than the party alone can, however, and those are all defensive or just flat out weird like Ragnarok. If all you want to do is to damage things (and 99% of the time that's all you need), then summons are generally outclassed.

I have heard of people who will allow natural magic runs where Terra and Celes can equip Espers and equipment that will teach them spells they would learn anyway, but that's too complicated for me. And plenty of people don't do a totally natural magic run, but instead assign different Espers to different characters based on some theme or class they want to use.

Incidentally, doing a natural magic run is why I've been pretty dismissive of Relm for the LP. She has the highest natural magic stat of the entire group, but without Espers she has no way to use it. Also she annoys the hell out of me. Now, if I could have her use Blitz....

And then a fourth a little later.
1000 years ago, nothing of import happened...

Admittedly this is a little off topic, but am I mistaken in thinking that the pugs/tonberries can also randomly drop a ragnarok instead of minerva? I really really want to believe that I once got both the esper and the sword in one of my playthroughs, but I may just be suffering from faulty memory.

You're misremembering all right. There's only one enemy you can get a Ragnarok from, and you can't keep it past the fight you nab it in.

It's also quite possible you glitched your game. Most ROMs and the earliest version of the SNES cartridge have an infamous bug that would give you lots of random items (if you're lucky - if you're unlucky it'll erase your save or brick your cart). But I should be covering that next update.

Edit: Though I guess you could say that remembering glitched-in items is due to faulty memory, just on the part of the game instead of you....

I would get thousands upon thousands of Dirks.

But when I had the Vanish spell in the World of Balance, I took it and Relm to the bird enemies outside Narshe, and zapped them.

in addition to the Dirks, I got 256 Atma Weapons. Hock one at an item shop, and you have a stash of Atma Weapons.

Urgh. If the next update isn't as meaty as I promised, blame Ebot's Rock. I... I was actually thinking of just not doing this damned thing, but no, it's an LP, I want to be thorough....

You've earned it after all these bigger updates. Besides, now I have catch-up to do thanks to the fact that I prefer a full team to tackle some of the areas you did early.

Actually, I was standing in front of the boss when I posted that; it was just a delayed angry reaction to being teleported to the save point for the third time in a row again.

I think it's a shame this mechanic wasn't used a little more. (But not too much more - I think it could wear out its welcome really quickly.) Not just in Final Fantasy 3 but in other RPGs.

I'm not crying... I just have something in my eyes.

This is where self-imposed challenges cross the line from crazy to stupid.

You can also avoid it (enough) using Palidor and some good timing and luck. But since you weren't using Espers that wasn't an option.

Because he is a thief is a treasure hunter has the power of plot contrivance.

I agree - if you're talking about Japanese Relm. American Relm is still annoying but not as bad. So thanks for fixing that Mr. Woolsey, wherever you are.

It's just a shame the game mechanics wouldn't allow him to learn any new Rages without other party members.

edit: Whoops... Should all be fixed now. Lucas... Sky Render... Whoever...

You've managed to mis-attribute a lot of things Lucas said to me. I'm not sure how to take that...

Characters showing up solo at the end of a dungeon I just had to slog through with a full party is one of those things that always bug me in video games. It also bothers me when I characters I fight who are in my party at some point never seem to have the same abilities and/or HP.

The Palidor idea was floated by Zef when we were discussing FF6 challenge runs... huh, about two years ago, actually, in the FF6 thread of self-imposed limits (which seems to have as much talk about FFV challenge runs as FF6, maybe I should bring this up over there) (also notice talk from Alixsar from when he was going to be the one running this LP!). Never did find out how that worked for him....

But anyway, I'm not big on the Palidor idea myself just because:
1) Too much luck involved, both in being able to time the summon and in how long your guys are up in the air

2) No espers, but I might have been willing to make the exception for that one fight (since you can easily equip Palidor just before triggering it and then take it off afterward)

3) I'd rather have one fight that goes a long, long time than a bunch where I'm depending on luck to win

I'm not sure how I feel about you not automatically being honored by that.

It just occurred to me that this doesn't happen all that often in this game. There's Locke and arguably Gogo and Cyan. Arguably on the last two because it's Gogo, so for all we know he built the dungeon or Banished himself into the end of it from FFV or something, and the path up to Cyan really wasn't all that hard so why couldn't he make it on his own? Other characters found at the ends of dungeons in the World of Ruin:

Mog: Moogle Charm

Umaro: Badass, at home

Edgar: Accompanied there by a pack of ruffians

Shadow/Relm: Actually quite hurt when you first find them in the cave

Relm (at Owzer's): Probably got there before Chadarnook had really messed up everything in Owzer's house

Locke's the only character at the end of a dungeon that really makes me go "How the hell did he get there by himself?" I guess you could ask how Strago got to the Fanatics' Tower without an airship, but... eh.

Anyway, hey, how about an update! The last update saw us getting the last player characters. Hail, hail, the gang’s all here! Time to wrap up a few last sidequests, then.


Alright, so, first sidequest is to do something about a little pest problem we have. Setzer could quite probably take care of most the dragons himself, but Cyan needs levels (I don’t want to grind, but come on, level 29?) and I need Strago and Relm for the next dungeon, so I take them along to learn some Lores.

Strago has one big advantage over other Blue Mages (or at least the ones in FFV, the only other Blues Mages I know very well): he only needs to see a learnable monster action to learn it. He can’t be Blind, Confused, Petrified, or Wounded when it happens, and he needs to be alive at the end of battle, but otherwise as long as he’s in the party when the move is used he’ll learn it.

The part where learning Lores gets tricky is in knowing both which monsters have Lores and how to trigger them. Some use their Lores as part of their regular attack scripts, some will only use them if you satisfy certain conditions like killing all the other monsters in the party (the boss of the Strago-specific dungeon we’ll be doing this week has one of these), some only have the Lore as part of their Sketch action list (like Tyranosaur’s Aero up there), and some Lores are only in the Control command list. It’s a pain and a half to get Strago’s Lores and honestly it kind of soured me on all Blue Mages ever.

Still, I can put up with it for an hour. All for you, folks.


Master Pug is a monster-in-a-box on the way to the Ancient Castle. He takes a step forward every fifteen seconds, and like Magimaster can only be touched by one element at a time (unlike Magimaster, Master Pug only uses WallChange when he steps forward and telegraphs his weakness by attacking with spells of the opposite element). He only has a middling defense stat and twenty-two thousand HP though, so it shouldn’t take too long to take him down if you have decent non-elemental attacks.

Master Pug’s biggest offense is Knife, a x8 Fight command he uses if he manages to take seven steps forward, after which he’ll move back halfway and start using Knife every fourth step instead. His other nasty move is Traveler, a single-target Lore that deals damage equal to the party’s steps taken divided by 32, which Master Pug has a 33% chance to use whenever it takes damage.

Master Pug drops the Graedus, a Holy-element weapon and the most powerful dagger in the game outside of the GBA version. It can be equipped by almost everyone and is a decent end-game weapon for anyone who doesn’t have their own dedicated ultimate like Setzer’s Fixed Dice or Strago’s Heal Rod.


Except for the fact that it can hit the entire party at once with its Water attacks (including giving everyone Sap with Acid Rain), there’s only one thing remarkable about the Blue Drgn:


If anyone in the party has the Haste status, the dragon will cast Slow on itself, then use a Lore called Rippler to exchange all its statuses with all those of the Hasted character. This doesn’t do much in this case beside teach Strago the Lore, since Strago’s Haste comes from RunningShoes and is thus permanent, but the Lore is extremely dangerous. Rippler doesn’t exchange just the normal statuses you’d expect, like Slow, Haste, Poison, Muddle, etc.; it also can exchange several things you wouldn’t expect like Morph or being protected by Interceptor. Interceptor’s particularly nasty because it’s a permanent switch. If the dragon takes Interceptor from Shadow and you can’t Rippler it back, you’ll lose him forever when the dragon dies.

Blue Drgn drops the Scimitar, the only non-Knife weapon Cyan can equip and his second-strongest weapon overall. This brings us to four dragons down, four to go. On the way out from the castle, Strago learns L.3 Muddle from a Goblin.


Along the way to the next dragon, Cyan hits level 34 and learns Stunner, his sixth SwdTech. This attack hits all enemies inflicting Stop and actually dealing some decent damage (it has a higher spell power than Sabin’s Air Blade, for instance). As always, however, the time it takes to use the attack ensures that’ll almost never happen.


Near the peak of Mt. Zozo, we unleash the demon. I think the fact that it can fly over the save point is the whipped cream atop its hot fudge sundae of jerk-ness.


Say hello to the Storm Drgn. With a solid 42,000 HP and a host of nasty multi-target attacks (the pictured Cyclonic reduces everyone hit by it to Near Death and is often followed by Aero), it’s probably the hardest of the Eight Dragons, especially given it’s also likely the first dragon a new player will encounter. The Force Armor it drops is pretty sweet, I’ll give it that much, and most of the threat of the dragon dissipates if you can equip Wind-resisting items like Minerva and Thunder Shld, but this guy will always be one of the biggest butt-faces in the game.

Why yes, I have had Setzer remaining as an Imp since the caves before the Ancient Castle. His Offering/Fixed Dice combo still works this way, so why not? He’s so adorable that way! Sadly, at this point I’m in bad enough shape after this fight I used a Tent and that “cured” Setzer.

That’s five dragons taken down, and two are in the final dungeon. That leaves one last dragon out there in the world. Been almost everywhere, though, and I know there’s no dragons in either of the last two side dungeons....

Oh yeah. I almost always leave this guy for last just because I forget about him. Its location makes it one of the more entertaining dragon fights, but you’re never given much reason to visit the Opera House after the end of the world and it’s easy to forget anything important can happen here when you’re running around rebuilding your band of heroes and visiting some much more emotionally charged locations.

Anyway, we go upstairs to find the Impresario, who tells us “A dragon is sitting smack in the middle of the stage! Looks like we’re gonna have to save the day once again!” Remember how we get on stage?


Yup, a gag from around twenty hours ago that you might not have even seen because you were in a timed event and specifically told not to do what you just did is now vital to completing the farthest-ranging sidequest in the World of Ruin.

And the fight itself? It depends. If you didn’t know what you were getting into and just had a generic adventuring gear setup going into this fight, you’d likely be destroyed by the multi-target Earth-element attacks the Dirt Drgn can pull out every turn. If you do know about it, Gaia Gears and the Cherub Down Relic (gives the wearer Float) for characters like Cyan who can’t use the armor make the fight a joke. If someone’s permanently Floating Dirt Drgn will even waste the occasional turn trying to bring them down with its 50 Gs move.

With its main attacks nulled, the Dirt Drgn is just a speedbump. It does still have a powerful physical called Honed Tusk that it will use as a counter, but even using old armor like Gaia Gear it’s not an OHKO on any of these characters and Strago’s Heal Rod action can easily keep up with any damage the dragon dishes out.

The dragon drops a Magus Rod when it croaks. This weapon has a great-for-rods attack bonus, a great-for-anything boost to Magic, and 30% magic evasion. It’s actually a great choice for Relm or Strago in a normal run of the game, but for me now it can’t replace the Heal Rod for utility so it’s merely Relm’s best option to bash things while I’m forced to use her.

And forced to use her I am, since she’s vital to trigger the next sidequest.


Relm: It’s like old times! [RELM runs off into town.]
Strago: Time to relax! Home sweet home!
Relm: Granpa! [She runs back on screen.] This is terrible! Gungho’s hurt!
Strago: G...Gungho?!


Strago: Who did this to you?
GUNGHO: It was...Hidon, the beast you and I used to hunt. I almost had it...
Strago: You took on Hidon...?
GUNGHO: Oooh...cough, cough...
Strago: G...Gungho?!
GUNGHO: Strago... Please...you must avenge me... Ooooh...cough, cough...
Relm: Gramps! Why are you hesitating!
Strago: Well... I spent my youth chasing that creature. To do it again at this age is more than I bargained for. Gungho... rest easy, I’ll do it for you!


Relm [running in from upstairs]: Just a minute! You don’t think you’re going alone, do you?
Strago: I spent too many years of my life hunting that thing. It is my obsession, not yours.
Relm: But Grandpa! This “obsession” of yours could easily slay you! You’re my Grandfather. I can’t just sit idly by and watch you go.
Strago: Sorry, Relm. I’m so grateful that you care! But as its name implies, the Hidon is extremely difficult to find. Unless I go alone, it will not show itself.
Strago: Next stop, Ebot’s Rock. [He walks out.]
Relm: Phew...


Alright, before go, we update Shadow’s armory a bit. Their Battle Power doesn’t sound very impressive when even Relm’s edging up toward 200, but remember that Thrown weapons ignore Row and Defense. There is one more powerful type of Thrown weapon, the Tack Star, but you can’t buy them, only find a handful of them in chests or steal them from enemies. Or you can bet Ninja Stars in the Colosseum one at a time!


TREASURE: Hungry hungry hungry hungry hungry hungry hungry hungry hungry hungry hungry hungry!! Feed me! Otherwise, I won’t let you by! I like to eat “Coral”! Have any?
Tell the treasure you don’t have any Coral and it’ll call you a skinflint and knock you back. And with that you’ve seen pretty much 95% of the dungeon. Ebot’s Rock is made up of a number of small rooms, each of which has at least one teleporter and (excepting the entrance hall, the hungry treasure/boss room, and the room with a save point) at least one chest which gives you 1-5 pieces of Coral when you open it.

Your job, if you really want to use Strago, is to collect 22 pieces of Coral minimum from the dungeon before confronting the hungry treasure again (if you give him Coral with fewer pieces in your inventory, he’ll take them all and not let you past), all while only being able to see two tiles in any direction. The problem comes from the fact that the teleporters are, as far as I’ve ever been able to tell, entirely random. Even after I had the requisite Coral, the game insisted on sending me to the save point room, then having that teleporter send me to the save point room two more times in a row. Then letting me leave for one teleportation, then sending me back to the save point room three times in a row again. Then repeat it all.

Ebot’s Rock isn’t hard at all (except for having to take Strago and Relm along, I suppose), just potentially really frustrating if the RNG’s got it out for you. I can only imagine how long Sky Render’s going to spend in this place.


So annoying, the random encounters even drop Warp Stones so you can just leave if you come to your senses.


The most amusing part is when a Confused Strago decides to use Rippler to get himself the Seizure status from this Opinicus. Then he did a second time and it wasn’t nearly as funny.

TREASURE: Bluuurp! Whew! Oh, yeah, you wanna pass through here, right? [The TREASURE is jerked backward.] Eh!! What the...!


There are two important things about this fight. The first is that it’s one of the most infamous places to activate the Sketch bug. If you fail a Sketch (by missing, trying to Sketch an invisible enemy, etc.) in the original commercial builds of the game it will try to load data from the wrong places and you’ll end up with graphical glitches, a frozen game, an inventory chock full of random items, erased game saves, or a completely bricked cartridge.

I say Hidon’s an infamous place for the bug because, if you’re like young me, you never used Relm before you needed to for this dungeon (maybe you used her in the Cultists’ Tower, but she wouldn’t have her Sketch command there). Then you figured that, if Relm is needed for this quest, obviously using her special command on the boss is going to get you something awesome. In my case, it was actually pretty awesome: more than enough Daggers to make myself a millionaire selling them at 75 G a pop, enough Illuminas to give two to every character that could use them and still have Shadow throw them, and so on. I haven’t tried it again since then, though.


Of course, what we’re really here for is the GrandTrain Lore, which only Hidon uses, and only when the Hidonites are dead. With just over half the spell power of Ultima, GrandTrain is the strongest offensive Lore. After he finally uses it, we end the fight by using a Fenix Down on Hidon’s undead donkey.


Strago: I have to tell Gungho he is avenged!
I want to make fun of Strago for saying this when all he was doing was swinging the Heal Rod around and topping up his teammates, but you know what? The Heal Rod has the highest battle power of any Rod (200) and ignores Defense, while Hidon is undead; Strago probably could have done some good damage to the boss if I’d thought to have him Fight it, so I’ll let him have this one. (And Hidon respawns so you can get more shots at learning GrandTrain, so I could go try that, but... eeeeehhh.)


Strago [running to the other side of the bed]: Gungho...!
GUNGHO [getting out of bed]: What’s all the hullabaloo?!
Strago: Listen to me! I DEFEATED Hidon!
GUNGHO: You WHAT?! You b...beat Hidon?! You’re lying! LYING!
Relm [runs in]: No, he’s not! He really defeated Hidon.
Strago: Ho, ho, ho! If I didn’t know better, I’d say that Hidon wasn’t my only enemy!
GUNGHO [jumping up]: I don’t believe this. This has to be a joke!
Strago: Ho, ho, ho!! ...by the way, how are your wounds healing, Gungho?
GUNGHO: Eh? Oh, they’re fine...


Unlike Kohlingen, Thamasa has streetlamps.
[STRAGO jumps out of the chair and starts running around the room as he describes the battle.]
Strago: I stared Hidon straight in the eye, lifted my staff, and let him have it! G’Pow!! Thwack!! Crash!! I wanted to show my enemy the true meaning of the word, “hero”! And then... ...


GUNGHO: Huh? Finally! He nodded off. However... Let’s let him be! He’s nice and...quiet... Now, about my “wounds”...
Relm: Wait! First let me thank you. You gave Grandpa a reason to go and defeat something that had tormented him for decades! Even if YOU were faking, that creature meant business!
GUNGHO: What a granddaughter he’s raised! Amazing!
Relm: And what a terrible actor you are! Only Strago could have been taken in by that performance!
[RELM runs off screen. GUNGHO watches her go, then...]
GUNGHO [jumping in indignation]: What the...!
And that’s it for Strago and Relm. Next up, time for one last little character-specific vision quest.


Well first, I loot all the stuff that’s been patiently sitting here since the Imperial Banquet back in the World of Balance. Some useful consumables, but nothing spectacular. The Beads we pick up give a good boost to Evasion, but since I’m playing the bugged original SNES version....


We take a nap in the Doma Castle guest room, but when everyone else wakes up Cyan remains asleep despite Shadow’s attempts to wake him. Then these three jokers hop into the room.
Top joker [hops toward Cyan]: I’m Curley!
Middle joker [hops toward Cyan]: I’m Larry.
Bottom joker [hops toward Cyan]: I’m Moe!
“We’re the 3 Dream Stooges!”
Curley: This man’s soul is ours!
[The other STOOGES repeat his line.]
Curley: Tonight we dine well!
[CURLEY leaps toward CYAN and disappears. The other STOOGES again follow his lead.]
“WAIT!!!”
[The party also leaps into CYAN.]
And thus we enter the next dungeon.


The Dreamscape, also sometimes called Cyan’s Dream or Cyan’s Soul, starts off with the three non-Cyan members of the party (you never actually control Cyan in the Dreamscape though you do occasionally see him) scattered around this landscape of disconnected platforms. We have control of one character at the start and have to fight our way to the other characters.

Fortunately the enemies here can’t take much damage and, with the Illumina in her right hand and the Soul Sabre in her left, Celes is loaded for bear. Just keep in mind that you should target the Critic - the girl on the green tapir-thing - first, as she’s fragile but can give you Seizure or Sleep or hit you with Roulette, Doom, or L.? Pearl. (Actually, this place in general has quite a number of Lores to learn, if you want to use Strago.)

The right door on the central platform leads eventually to the character on the right. There’s no big deal about it; the Stooge runs away when you get close and the rescued teammate just stands up and joins you with no fuss.


Pan Doras are my favorite enemy down here just because they have Evil Toot, a move that throws ghosts at you to inflict random status ailments. And it’s called Evil Toot.


Running around we pick up Shadow.


Roulette. Freakin’ Roulette. Besides just being annoying (casts Doom on a totally random target? Really? Ok, so maybe that sounds weird coming from someone who uses Fixed Dice for most of his offense....), Roulette introduces some weird timing issues to the game since you’re allowed to act while it’s happening. In this case the Critic used Roulette, then I had Shadow Throw some Ninja Stars at a Pan Dora while Roulette was still running. Roulette ended while Shadow was still animating, then the Doom spell occurred before the Ninja Star damage. Then the Roulette’d Pan Dora came back since they’re undead, then Shadow’s target was slain.

I have to wonder why they programmed Roulette like this. It’s mildly interesting as a delayed attack, but kind of pointless and I could see being upset by it if, say, I’d Thrown something rare at an enemy that was chosen by Roulette, causing the Throw to be retargeted to something I didn't want to hit with that item; there are several such cases of wanting to be careful who you’re hitting with what, all of which Roulette can mess up. It’s no big deal though, you just have to wait for Roulette to finish if you want to avoid such situations.

Once you have all three of your party members gathered up, a certain door protected by landmines can finally be accessed.


“Good, everyone’s here! Let’s rumble!”
As with most group bosses in a Final Fantasy, the Dream Stooges have one nasty attack they can use if they’re all alive: Delta Hit, which turns a party member to stone. Ideally you want to take out the top Stooge, Curly, first, since he uses White Wind and will cast Life2 to bring the other Stooges back while the others aren’t very threatening – Larry in the back uses basic physical attacks and Moe on the right casts buffs and Cure 2.

Once Curly’s gone Moe and Larry will start using Bolt and Ice spells respectively to attack (if you kill someone else first, Curly will use Fire spells until he revives them). No Delta Hits, though, and neither of them has even Curly’s fifteen thousand HP, so the fight goes quickly.


After the Dream Stooges are dealt with, we’re sent to the next sector of the Dreamscape, the Train. We watch a skit re-enacting Cyan’s escape from the souls of the departed, including his pratfall through the train car awning.

The sound design here deserves a mention. The original BGM for the Phantom Train begins with the sound of a train running along the tracks, then fades into an homage to the Danse Macabre (or Chopin’s Funeral March, or both, depending on who you ask). Here in the Dreamscape, the Danse never comes and instead you’re treated to the steady sound of the Train for the entire time you’re here. It may not sound like much, but it’s a suitably creepy example of less being more.

This screenshot shows the two puzzles in the Train that aren’t merely flipping levers in the right order. The lever here flips the chests from six open to half open, half closed, a pattern which the nearby book tells you will be important later: “Memorize the positions. This knowledge might save you”. The open chest on the right moves to block you if you try to get at the chest above it, but open the chest on the left for a Lump of Metal you can drop in the moving chest to hold it in place.


I like fighting Rain Men just because of this move. All it does is put the target to Sleep if it hits, but it has an awesome name. The change of Umbrawler to Spinning Umbrella is one of the greater crimes of the GBA retranslation, in my opinion.


These three switches are probably the most devious puzzle in the Train. Let’s call them Switches 1, 2, and 3 going from left to right. Switch 1 moves the two boxes near the bottom of the room. Switch 2 rotates that bottom-left couch (which starts with the long end facing the wall). Switch 3 expands the couch at the top to cover Switch 2. The short solution is to flip the switches like so: 3, 1, 3, 2, 3, 1.

The explanation (feel free to skip, this’ll be long): when you enter, Switch 3 is the only one available; there’s no space to reach the others between the couch and the tops of the boxes. Flip it and the couch will expand, giving you space to circle the boxes and hit Switch 1 to move them down. Go back to 3 to uncover Switch 2, which will move the lower couch. Hit Switch 3 a third time, then run back to Switch 1 to move the boxes away from the wall again. This allows you to run under the boxes and lower couch to access the next area. And looking at this screenshot, I just realized I never picked up that treasure chest you can see at the bottom right of the screen there. Too late now; like the original, the Train (and all of the Dreamscape) is one-time deal.


Here we just close the proper chests and hit the switch, opening the wall to the left.


The rest of the Train is pretty unremarkable, except for Celes hitting level 42 and learning a new spell. We get to the end of the Train, enter the engineer’s cabin, and leave to find ourselves in a new place.


We catch Cyan looking searching the boxes in the mine, but he runs off when some Imperial troops come running at him (they run right through the boxes, oddly enough).


Heading out of the mine we find ourselves on the side of a mountain on a single path into a new cave; going to the end of the cave sends us back to where we left the mine.


By the way, Imps can’t pilot Magitek Armor. This was a major problem during my first fight in this area. It actually kind of surprised me, since Fight is the one command Imps can use and MagiTek simply replaces it. Guess it’s not so simple after all. The fights in this area are, though! (Well, once Setzer’s not an Imp anymore.) The enemies in this area deal out a lot of damage, and most of my attacks don’t deal much damage. However they are weak to Lightning, so Bolt Beam does double damage to them. Additionally, since all MagiTek commands deal magical damage, Celes deals ~1000 more damage with each Bolt Beam than the boys, letting her get an OHKO on most enemies; Setzer and Shadow either double-team another enemy or use Heal Force to keep the party’s HP up.

There’s another enemy that’s only found in this area that I never actually fought called Io, whose Rage gives Gau the useful ability Flare Star.


A very wise man in a very impertinent hat once told me that sometimes the way forward is also the way back, which is the secret to this part of the Dreamscape. To proceed through this area you need to enter the cave and immediately leave by the way you came in. You’ll come out here, all you need to do is follow Cyan across the bridge.


Ouch.

While we recover our senses from that fall, images of Elayne and Owain appear in a pair of red flashes and beseech us to help Cyan.
Party: Where are we?!
“We’re inside... Cyan’s soul... My husband... Cyan continues to torture himself... He failed to defend Doma... The world’s slowly dying... and then there’s his family...”
[OWAIN steps forward.]
“A beast known as Wrexsoul is taking advantage of him. Wrexsoul is a composite monster, made up of wretched spirits who were dispatched in meaningless wars. They’re wreaking havoc on Papa! Please help him!!”
[ELAYNE and OWAIN turn into a single spark that becomes a save point.]
“Please... help Cyan...”
“Papa doesn’t deserve this...!”


Cyan [looking out the window]: What do you want from me? A soldier doesn’t say things like that!
[OWAIN’s head pops out of the bed. ELAYNE steps toward CYAN.]


[OWAIN leaps out of the bed, surprising CYAN.]
OWAIN: I heard that! Yipee! “I loveth you...I loveth you...” Papa loves Mama!
ELAYNE: Owain!! Hush!!
OWAIN [running from the room]: I heard that!

The gimmick of this area is that you can wander around a sepia-toned version of Doma Castle and watch a few vignettes from Cyan’s family life. There are battles in this area, but they won’t trigger during the flashbacks; besides, they’re nothing you didn’t already see on the Train.


[CYAN and OWAIN clash several times, then break.]
Cyan: Excellent concentration! With a little more practice, you’ll be Doma’s best fencer!
[OWAIN run away, bouncing with happiness.]
OWAIN: Yippee! Papa praised me! I’m gonna go tell Mama!


Cyan: This is part of your training. We must all learn patience.
[OWAIN moves next to CYAN.]
OWAIN: I love fishing!

I love that the game gives us actual memories of Cyan’s family; even more than little details like his quest for vengeance, his ultraformal/archaic way of speaking, or anything mechanical, Cyan’s most prominent character traits are that he is a warrior of honor and, even more importantly, devoted family man. It’s not brought up often, but after his introduction Cyan is a father and husband without a child or wife, and it colors all of his dialogue (and our perception of him) for the rest of the game, from when he insists he and Sabin take on the orphaned Gau and his much more even-handed and patient treatment of the wild boy, to his devoted-husband-shock at being propositioned in Nikeah, etc. Yet, for all the rage and despair he feels, he’s still able to do his job.

At least until we force him back to where he lost his family just so we can take a free nap, and he finally snaps and becomes bait for malignant dream beings.

This dynamic has some slight echoes in Relm and Strago’s relationship, but that’s a fundamentally different thing. It is interesting that Shadow does show some paternal tendencies in a scene or two, but these are all directed toward Terra rather than his actual daughter. (Interceptor makes things even more complicated by the fact that he obviously knows Relm, being friendly to her and no one else, even protecting her in the World of Ruin should Shadow not survive the Floating Continent.)

It all boils down to this: I want to see more fathers as heroes. Mechanically I suppose “save Jessica/Jack/Yona” is no different from “save Princess Peach/your girlfriend/the president” but emotionally it’s a whole other, far more affecting ball game. But let’s get on with the LP before I... you know, before I get anything more in my eye.


WREXSOUL: You’re too late! His pain has reached critical mass! Nothing can stop his feelings of rage and despair! I grow stronger now, with his anger, hatred and guilt! And I hunger for... you!
In the throne room we finally find the joker who’s been orchestrating all this. Time to eliminate with extreme prejudice.


“I’ll only appear in this form again when you’re about to expire!”


And with that Wrexsoul dissipates into one of the party members, disappearing from the battle. That would normally end the battle, but that’s what the SoulSavers are for. They cast *insert element here* 3 spells for offense and won’t die even if you kill them. They’ll just pop back up; kill both at once and one will die and come back before the other can die. The way you’re supposed to deal with this fight is to kill your own guys until Wrexsoul appears, then hit him as hard as you can before he uses Zinger again.

Of course, this fight is most famous for the fact that you can just use X-Zone to banish the SoulSavers to the void and end the fight. You won’t get the Pod Bracelet, Wrexsoul’s drop, for doing this, but who really needs a Relic that gives the wearer auto-Protect and Shell? Sadly, X-Zone’s not an option for me, but I’ve got a great idea that Sky Render gave me way back when.


Dang it Setzer, don’t block the spell! Fortunately, Shadow’s not nearly so light on his feet and I successfully get him Muddled to hit the SoulSavers with a Smoke Bomb.


And apparently we’re a boss battle so the SoulSavers can’t escape. Well, that messes up my plans, but does provide an ego boost.

(Yeah, yeah, I know whether you can run/Teleport/Smoke Bomb in a battle or not is probably just a global variable that’s set for the whole fight, so they can’t escape because I can’t, but let me have this.)

So, doing this the intended way, I guess. First of all, the reason Setzer’s an Imp: after healing up with Cure but before starting the fight I used all of Celes’ MP on making him an Imp and turning him back, so I could do this:


Yup, that’s stealing almost all of a SoulSaver’s MP in one shot (and yes, I did this in the fight before my two castings of Muddle). SoulSaver’s only attacks are magical, so by taking most of its MP I’m effectively neutering this one. They can use an Osmose-type attack called MagicDrain once per battle to restore their MP, but after that runs out they’re done. And when this one does try to use it...


Pting! Hahahaha, take that, dude with a physical version of Osmose! Now you have no MP and no way to restore it!

Also pictured: Shadow dead at Celes’ hand due to my efforts to drive out Wrexsoul. Can’t have Setzer try to kill the party, because with Fixed Dice, Offering, and our relatively low HP counts that’d likely be a TPK, which we don’t want. Since Setzer’s not doing anything right now, he’s next to go down.

Wrexsoul doesn’t appear, dang it. Though this is actually kind of a blessing in disguise. Anyway, I now know for sure that Wrexsoul is in Celes and the SoulSavers aren’t any kind of threat to her, so I have Celes res Setzer and Shadow, take the time to heal them a bit, then cut her own head off.


Ta-dah! One good Fixed Dice-ing and a Ninja Star later, and Wrexsoul is toast before he can Zinger again.

Cyan: I heard my wife and children calling out to me! Their voices finally gave me the strength and courage to come to grips with my own suffering.


Cyan: Elayne! Owain...
ELAYNE: Thank you, my love...
OWAIN: Papa’s strong!!!
Cyan: No... I didn’t do anything... then... and I can’t now... I’m a man with no honor...
ELAYNE: No! You have entirely too much...
[ELAYNE and OWAIN stand on either side of CYAN, then step back.]
ELAYNE: My beloved... We’ll always be together...
OWAIN: Papa... We love you!
Cyan: Please, wait!


Elayne and Owain turn into sparks of light and come together, coalescing into a sword. Cyan draws the sword and the entire party finds themselves in the real world.


Cyan: I must leave the past behind. I have much to life for...


“Cyan’s swordsmanship attained its peak level of skill.”

And that’s it for Cyan’s vision quest. He made peace with himself, pulled a sword from a dream, and brought himself to the peak of his abilities.

The abilities will never be used unless you just want that bit of novelty, and the sword is actually a pretty big downgrade from what he’s using now, but making peace with himself and the loss of his family is the important part. Not to mention pulling a sword from a dream is a way cooler concept than pulling one from a stone.


The dream leaves us one other present, waiting for us in the throne room in the real world. (It’s actually in the dream too.) This Magicite is Alexandr, which I’ve always loved; like all attack summons in this game it’s not really all that powerful, but it’s quite possibly the most awesome summon animation in the game.

Alright, look, I know I’ve been pretty down on Cyan’s special, so here’s the full command list, with brief discussions. All of them, as far as I can tell, are unblockable, and none of them are changed by what Cyan has equipped.

Dispatch: Physical damage, 120 battle power, ignores defense. Takes no time to charge and is actually a pretty good attack for most of the game. Ignoring defense with 120 power is quite nice, almost as good as, say, the Ninja Stars; not as good as most of the end-game weapons, but what do you want from Cyan’s first move?

Retort: If used, Cyan will counterattack one physical attack. Ignores defense and has 56 spell power. You’re probably not going to use this except in Cyan’s first fights, when most enemies have only physical attacks, or if you’re performing the Psycho Cyan bug.

Slash: Halves one target’s HP and inflicts Seizure, is an Instant Death attack. Demi plus Seizure, to sum up, and about as useful as that sounds. At least Cyan will likely have this when you get him, so you might use it when trying him out.

Quadra Slam: Four attacks against random enemies with 72 battle power each. You’d do just as well with a Genji Glove or Offering, but you get it early enough that you won’t have enough of those to spread around.

Empowerer: Targets one opponent and steal HP/MP – 49 spell power for HP, 12 for MP. And of course undead opponents would take HP/MP from you if you used it. There’s better, more efficient ways to heal.

Stunner: Hits all opponents with Stop and 97 spell power. Actually pretty neat. I mean, that’s a more powerful magic hit than GrandTrain and costs no MP. We’re getting into the territory where the time it takes to charge up these attacks just doesn’t feel worth it, however.

QuadraSlice: Like the Slam version, but with 70 battle power and ignores defense. The latter part definitely makes up for the two points lower attack power, but even if you queue up everyone else to go first and then start charging this it’s hard to justify the time.

Cleave: Instant Death on all enemies. Hits undead, delays final turns so enemies can’t counter, looks awesome. Freaking takes forever, though, and like most Instant Death attacks it will fail on any enemies otherwise worth using it on.

They’re all just... well, most of them would see a good amount of use if it weren’t for the way SwdTech works. If they’d had a Sabin-style method of performing the attacks, or even something similar to, say, Tidus’ Limit Breaks, that would be one thing. But everything about the battles in this game are fast and active, and SwdTechs just bring that to a screeching halt.

Well, that’s it for this week. Sorry we didn’t make it to the final dungeon like I promised, but we’ll definitely start it next week.

I mean, unless it takes me five hours to update Gau’s Rage list. I doubt that would happen, though.

My update is going to take a while since I'm going the extra mile this time to get certain things done. It should be up before the evening for sure, though.

Locke just stayed at 1 HP(spikes will not kill you) and abused his high Speed, a Back Guard, and a ...what's the pre-emptive raising relic? Doesn't explain how he got in I guess.

Pretty sure it's called Step Mine in the US version? (The MP cost is time-based.)

Say, who's Ebot?

Indeed, it is.

A question I've been pondering since about five minutes before the beginning of time.

I believe you're thinking of Gale Hairpin.

Yes and yes. I've been trying to stick to the US SNES names of things, but I've played so many version of the game all the names are kind of mixed up my head.

The cost of Step Mine is specifically 1 MP per half-hour you've been playing, so since I'm about 32 hours in it would cost Strago 64 MP (if he had it to use).

The game doesn't say, so I'm going to go ahead and claim with absolutely no support that he was the necromancer who created, and was subsequently consumed by, Hidon.

With the release of FFIII on the VC this week, I'm pondering making my run an Esper-free run, since I've never done it and I know otherwise the game will be about as challenging to me as tearing a wet piece of cardboard.

Part XXVIII - Drag On, Dragoon Heroes!

Last time the party reunion was completed, and this time we're going all the way: we're gonna finish up all those annoying stray quests! Starting with the legendary Fanatics' Tower!



After a (very) short magic-grind session with the cacti, of course.



♪♪ Fanatics' Tower ♪♪

And a small bit of talking time, too.

Thief "This is the tower of Kefka's fanatics. Apparently, the cult's treasure is kept on the top floor... But, you can only use magic while in the tower. The monsters have extremely powerful spells, too, and they use them often."
Thief "Care to hear about a big treasure? How's 100,000 Gil sound?" > (Pay 100,000 Gil) / (Forget it)
"Ha, you're serious! Right, the information... Apparently there's an ancient castle beneath Figaro desert. And it's full of treasure... Oh, and I heard a rumor recently... The old man who lives in the weapons shop in Narche was looking for you..." {Of course you can find this stuff without dropping 100,000 Gil on it. Not that I knew that when I first played...}
Thief "The treasure, the treasure...!"

Know what? I think a small detour to Narche is in order first.



♪♪ The Dark World ♪♪

Unlock those locks, Lock!



*The screen glows blue*
"I've run this weapons shop for 70 years. I can feel an amazing power emanating from this stone. I could probably make it into a fantastic sword, if you want me to... Well? Should I make it into a sword?" > Leave it the Magirock "Ragnarok" / Make it the sword "Ragnarok"

This used to be the bane of perfectionists back in the day. The GBA release solved the problem by making the final battle repeatable (thus you could get as many Ragnarok swords as you liked and didn't need to transform this one), but this is the SNES version.



I kept the rock, because, well...

Ragnarok

Yes, the Ragnarokr has been embodied into... a sword. This Norse end of the world legend has become synonymous with the penultimate weapon of the Final Fantasy series pretty much from FF6 onwards as a result. And it's not an undeserved reputation, either.



Metamorphose changes enemies into items sometimes, from a fixed list for each enemy. So what?, you say as you prepare to select 'Make it the sword "Ragnarok"'. Well here's the "so what": it can make ultra-rare accessories out of enemies, like Grow Eggs, Ribbons, and Three Stars. Rock on. Also, Gogo can Mimic it forever as long as he stays alive for the duration, so its low success rate is easily mitigated.

Spells Taught
Ultima x1

Level-Up Bonus: None

This is the other best reason to keep Ragnarok as a summon. The Magirock teaches Ultima, and is one of only two ways to learn the spell (the other requiring quite a lot of work).



One more house to check...



*A red glow*
"The 'Bloodstained Shield'... If you could dispel the curse, it would become the world's most powerful shield..."

Awesome. May as well undo the curse, then.



Now, any 255 battles will do, so I take a strategic approach and fight on the Solitary Island (where enemies self-destruct anyway). But there's another reason, too...



♪♪ Battle ♪♪

Gogo and Lock can steal up a storm out here and get lots of Elixirs for the party, as well as Last Elixirs (aka. Megalixirs, they're full-party Elixirs only usable in battle) from the Earth Protector enemies. Casting Stop on these enemies prevents their self-destructive Sap status from killing them. I only did that for a few fights before I realized it was going to take forever and a day if I kept that up.



♪♪ Victory ♪♪

255 battles later, we have the ultimate shield, Ultima for 2.5 allies, Reraise for 3 allies, 81 Elixirs, and 39 Last Elixirs!



The Hero Shield is truly an awesome piece of equipment. Great defense, great magic defense, huge evasion scores, and it blocks or absorbs all lf the elements! Oh, and it teaches Ultima too. In the old days, this was the justification for melting Ragnarok down into a sword, since the Magirock was not the sole means of learning Ultima.

Okay, NOW we can continue on to the tower.

♪♪ Fanatics' Tower ♪♪

Fanatics' Tower
Enemies: Magic Level 10, Magic Level 20, Magic Level 30, Magic Level 40, Magic Level 50, Magic Level 60, Magic Level 70, Magic Level 80, Magic Level 90, Magic Pot

(Terribly creative monster names here, huh?)

Like any sane person, we'll be Tack-Q, er, tackling this thing with Morul's Charm on. Technically we can handle this thing without it, but why take the risk?



The first treasure room has a switch hidden to the right of the chest, just like that thief from before said.



It reveals a door on the floor below, behind which is Edgar's final Machine!



And now, it's Holy Dragon time.



♪♪ Decisive Battle ♪♪

That pretty much sums up the fight.



♪♪ Victory ♪♪

Yep. Ultima and Flare, worst nightmare of enemies everywhere.



Always good to see the series long-time weapons making appearances.

Eight Legendary Dragons - Five remain

Not much more to go...



Ahh, there we go. This item has also been called Gem Box (FF3US) and Samantha Soul (FF8), but pretty much from FF9 onwards it's been given its proper name.



Make me.



Oh, you're... you're actually gonna make me.



♪♪ Decisive Battle ♪♪

Magic Master is kinda a pushover at a glance. He doesn't really have much in his arsenal that's threatening, and his barrier change tactics don't really affect Flare or Ultima.



Nonetheless, Reraise is in order. The fight is pretty boring. Lock and Edgar spend most of it faceplanted, while Tina is basically immortal and Mog takes little damage thanks to the Force Shield.