"One to be born from a dragon..." -- Let's Play Final Fantasy II

Could be, though my idea of the initial gaming group setup was that Cecil, Kain, Rosa, and Cid were all PCs in this game before the actual FF4 story begins. So I wouldn't want a player character to turn into an NPC for a prolonged period of time.

Then do so with Yang. That would make more sense, actually, since he explodes after Cid.

Edit: Also, make Cid's player get sick often, both to justify the parts where there are only 3 party members and Yang's... interesting battle cry.

I remember having a similar idea, but using the tower structure from FFLegend as the base idea. It's funny how Square basically does it with Disney, but doesn't have the ambition to do it with their own games.

I like how Brick's active FF LP thread always seems to double as the miscellaneous FF discussion thread as well.

Truth be told; thats always my favorite part of all of Bricks LPs.

The game part is just the icing on the cake.

I'm 110% certain that monster-dropped summons don't exist.

I got Goblin on my first or second playthrough but didn't know what it was.

About as effective as any instant-kill spell in the original game, i.e. not very. Bomb is really good, though, and it doesn't even sacrifice Rydia like you'd think it would.

This game. Wow.

The sort of "cwshaww" sound for lightning spells plays in my head when I cast Lightning Bolt, Burst Lightning, etc. in MTG.

I got a Bomb summon when I played through the first time and thought it was some kind of item I could use in battle. Silly rabbit, consumables that deal damage are for Japanese players!

I just wish they'd give the pre-7 games some love in KH. Look me in the eye and say you don't want to kick Kefka's ass with a key. After he tells Riku to be less booooooooooo-ring. And laughs. Dear god, WHY ARE YOU WASTING THIS POTENTIAL SQUEENIX

they'll add calcobrina as a boss in toy story world

after seeing what they did to Setzer I would really like Kingdom Hearts to stay far, far away from the pre-7 games.

You see?

THIS is why I love Bricks LPs.

Thank you for illustrating my point Mr. Kishton.

Solution: somebody playing somebody else's character in their absence.

Chapter the Fourth: The Land of Karate



♪♪ Mt. Ordeals ♪♪

Mt. Hobs is a short, transitional dungeon. Barely two screens in the party crosses through a tunnel which exits out onto a cliffside with an absolutely stunning view.



♪♪ Fanfare ♪♪

I actually kinda-sorta lied when I said Rydia's Fire1 spell wasn't that useful; it's actually perfect for taking out the gobs of undead that inhabit the mountain. A slightly-less-perfect solution would be to have Rydia and Rosa both cast Cure1, which would be enough to kill any Skeltons which had been softened up by Cecil and Edward's attacks.

Life1 is one of the most crucial additions to Rosa's spellbook. Life potions are plentiful, but you can stretch them a lot further by committing yourself to saving them for Rosa, and tending to the rest of your revivals with White Magic. There is one section of the game where this practice is particularly useful, but it's way off towards the end.



♪♪ Mt. Ordeals ♪♪

T-t-treasures!!


Just standard dungeon treasures, but welcome nonetheless!



♪♪ Fight 1 ♪♪

Edward's suckiness aside, Mt. Hobs is the first place in the game where the heroes will begin to take significant damage. Rosa spends as much time casting Cure1 as she does launching arrows, all in an effort to keep the team's HP high.

It have been nice if Rosa simply had a command to heal the team for small amounts of HP at no cost to her. Of course, they probably would have botched this crazy pipe dream by giving the command a high failure rate, thereby rendering it useless. Maybe I should just shut up and count my blessings.


If you don't kill a Bomb quickly enough, it will Explode on one of your party members for heavy damage. The damage dealt is equal to the amount of health the Bomb had remaining, so if you don't think you can kill all the monsters before the fuses run out your best strategy is to spread as much damage around as you can.

Later in the game, these explosions are pretty much just a dick move the game pulls on you to screw one of your mage's out of their much needed EXP.



♪♪ Mt. Ordeals ♪♪

Despite this being only the second area of the dungeon, there's a Save Point up here. Sort of unnecessary, since if you skip the treasure room you can walk from the world map to the boss fight in maybe thirty steps.



♪♪ Fight 1 ♪♪

Arrows do have one very nice quality: they hit the weak point of flying monsters. This would be one of Rosa's unique strengths, if the game's flying monster population weren't so front-loaded. There are lots in the early game, what with all the overworld travel and outdoor areas, but fewer and fewer later as time goes on. In fact, I'm having a very difficult time bringing any to mind from the games most difficult dungeons. (Of course, in those dungeons, Rosa's going to be too preoccupied with spellcasting, anyway.)



♪♪ Fight 2 ♪♪

Mt. Hobs is not a particularly tall mountain, so the heroes reach the summit just a short jaunt from the dungeon entrance. There, they encounter a karate man beset on all sides by blue-robed beasties!

The karate man, of course, responds to the threat in the most appropriate way possible: the dreaded sneeze of doom, followed by repeated kicks to the face:




~~~



Yang - Karate

Yang is the sixth most prominent player character in the game, and a personal favorite of mine. You guys should know by know that I like to keep things nice and simple; I'll take a tough dude with a good Fight command over a squishy mage with a maze of spells and effects any ol' day. Prior to playing FF2 the strongest thing I'd ever seen in an RPG was the FASTed MASTER in FF1, so of course my natural response to seeing the "naked karate man" slot get filled was oh hell yeah.

Command List:

• Fight: The amount of damage Yang throws around borders on the ridonkulous. Unlike the rest of the cast, Yang's attack power is not reliant on equipment; it is only a function of his Strength. As a result he just keeps getting stronger and stronger as he levels up. Even Cecil has trouble keeping pace with him.
  
• Kick: There's kind of no point to reading this far down on Yang's command list, since making him Fight is always the Right Thing To Do. If you do opt to Kick instead, though, it's about the same as landing a half-powered hit against every enemy in the fight. In general you're better off killing monsters one-by-one than weakening the whole group of them, so Kick's usefulness is pretty slim... but there are odd cases where it comes in handy.

Yang's only real drawback is that his equipment isn't quite as durable as the other front-line fighters. He compensates for this somewhat by having higher than average HP, but a few choice blows or a flurry of magic spells can put him out pretty quickly if you aren't watching him. Still, given the choice, I'd rather have a Karate in my final five than a Ninja.

~~~



Within moments, the sneezing karate man has dispatched the hapless mooks quickly and efficiently.
...actually, scratch that. Yang's actions in this computer-controlled fight are actually very inefficient. He starts off with Kick, then alternates Fight and Kick until everything is dead. This is stupid, considering that Imp Cap.s go down in two Kicks; Kick/Kick would win the battle in two rounds, whereas Yang always insists on doing Kick/Fight/Kick and winning in three.

This means the Imp Cap.s get more chances to land some hits on him, thereby ensuring he's not at full capacity going into the boss fight.


"Boss fight?"

Oh yeah. Behind the blue-robed goons is a giant, grinning bomb. Not surprisingly, Rydia is 100% gung-ho about slaughtering this explosion-based adversary on the karate man's behalf.


MomBomb is the first battle you'll face with a full party of five, and is also the first battle you can actually lose. Up until now there hasn't been anything you couldn't trounce simply by throwing Cecil at it over and over. If you haven't figured out how the battle system works by the time MomBomb comes around, though, you could be in serious trouble.

Cecil and Rydia once again lead the charge with Fight and Chocb, respectively. Like the previous two bosses, the rest of the team is really just here to support the two of them.


Because MomBomb can bite really hard, and because Yang is guaranteed to be missing some HPs before the fight even starts, Rosais likely to spend the whole fight casting Cure1. In theory Edward could help Rosa out by using items, but again we're in a situation where the person needing the most healing is likely to be Edward himself. His real strength here is the ability to Hide, which increases the effectiveness of Rosa's magic since it's only being split four ways, rather than five.


A deceptively weak hit from Yang! Yang's starting equipment is just a single FireClaw, which means he has a tough time landing damage on the fire-aligned MomBomb.


Eventually MomBomb puffs up into some manner of evil tomato monster. The name of the game at this point is to inflict as much damage as possible; eventually the boss will Explode, damaging your entire team. The mechanic behind this is just like that with the smaller Bombs; if you haven't reduced the boss's HP below a certain point, Explode will be so powerful you're liable to have a few dead heroes on your hands.

The explosion results in MomBomb splitting into six smaller Bombs, each with its own timer. These are just like the regular monsters you've been batting away elsewhere on Mt. Hobs, but their numbers can pose a problem: if you can't kill them quickly enough, you'll have multiple Explodes to look forward to.


This is Yang's time to shine! Since a Bomb (or a GrayBomb) will kill itself to Explode on you, it's not important to actually destroy each monster. Repeated Kicks can lower the whole group's HPs low enough that Explode is easy to mitigate. Cecil can help mop up with his sword.

I always like to have Rydia join Rosa on Cure1 duty at this point, since she doesn't have any good AoEs to use anyway. An alternate method would be to have her sic some Chocb on the GrayBombs. Either way, you'll either destroy all six Bombs in short order, or you'll destroy a few and then shrug off the remaining paltry Explodes.

For extra lulz, you can try for an Explode that deals only a single point of damage.



♪♪ Mt. Ordeals ♪♪

After the fight, Yang formally introduces himself. He and his men were training atop Mt. Hobs when Golbez suddenly set some monsters upon them. When Rosa explains that Golbez is running around punking everyone's crystals, it becomes clear that these monsters were meant as a distraction to catch Fabul's main forces unawares while he and the Red Wings sack the castle.


This is bad news because, apparently, everyone back at the castle is a skinny little weiner-butt without the necessary levels of Karate to repel an invasion. At first Yang is reluctant to accept Cecil's aid, considering he's a DKnight and all, but after running down the list of atrocities that lead to the other party members coming along with him Yang is convinced he needs their aid.


And just like that, the party gets 200% more awesome.


The rest of this update comes at you in stunning Manly-Chest Brown.

Yang is unique in that his equipment does nothing to raise his attack power. He has two weapon slots, but these slots only serve to flavor his attack, not increase it. He can only equip claws, and most of these serve to add some elemental or status attribute to his Fight command.



♪♪ Main Theme ♪♪

The second half of the dungeon is just as short as the first, and before we know it we're dumped back out on the world map. Farewell, Hoovercraft!


The short dungeon is deceptive, though; we still have a pretty epic overworld hike ahead of us. (Mt. Hobs is the mountain on the left side of the screen; Fabul is the currently-not-exploded castle down in the southeast corner.

♪♪ Fanfare ♪♪

Rydia and Rosa both learn new magic along the way! Stop is just another useless Black Magic spell, but Cure2 is, in a lot of ways, Rosa's bread and butter.



♪♪ Main Theme ♪♪

In fact, it's so much her bread and butter that it's going to live in the top spot on her spell list for most of the rest of the game.


We're not going to have much use for that Cure2 spell, though, considering Fabul is the end of the line for Rosa. Time to strip her bare in preparation for her (temporary!) demotion from support healer to damsel in distress.



♪♪ Fabul ♪♪

We always pronounced it like "fable", which is irreproachably correct regardless of what Kishi says. You should just say it like that. You should also dig that music link, since this is one of the most distinctive tracks in the game.


Fabul is also home to the first store in the game worth spending money at! Pretty much all of this is good stuff, and since shopping certainly wasn't a priority in Kaipo we are well-funded indeed.


No, I didn't crop these screenshots incorrectly, thank you very much. We've added an IceClaw and Thunder Claw to the FireClaw Yang already has, and decked Cecil out in a nearly-full set of Black equipment. Note that, curiously, he's still stuck with the same shield he's had ever since Baron.


Upstairs from the shop is a door leading out to the exterior of Fabul. From here you can reach the East and West Towers, where most of the citizens reside.


Yang is a well-respected man here in his homeland. He sees through the feeble (Febul?) excuses of lesser Karates, who spend their days chasing skirts and sleeping till noon. Every little boy in the castle worships the ground Yang walks on. This makes perfect sense; Yang goes around barefoot, and therefore everywhere he strides becomes Sacred Karate Ground by definition.


Similarly, any spare change Yang finds laying around inside pots becomes Sacred Karate Money.

♪♪ Fanfare ♪♪

Fabul has one of the more unsettling dancers in the game. Upon being asked for a dance the comely young lady immediately transforms into a potato-headed Karate, who then proceeds to Karate back and forth across the counter and sneeze indiscriminately upon everyone in the room. It's probably safe to ignore that stirring in your loins... that's merely a side effect of the wonders of Karate Dance.



♪♪ Fabul ♪♪

On the top floor is the king's chambers, and a free Tent.


The Tent turns out to be unnecessary, since the king's bed provides a particularly comfy napping spot. (Saves us money on the Inn too!)


The base level of the East Tower has a few more goodies ripe for the plucking!


Next floor up is a nursing room, where a lone Namingway lays injured. You guys remember what Namingways do, right? No? Good. Let's keep it that way.


Yang's nameless wife is my favorite NPC in the game. Don't let the sweet homemaker facade fool you; she is tough as nails and is every bit as Karate as her esteemed husband. If her curt, even abrupt gratefulness comes across to you as insincere, I offer these two interpretations of this conversation:

1) Yang and his wife are merely being polite to their new gaijin friend. They both know that Yang possesses such an advanced level of Karate that his life would never need saving, but it would be rude to point that out to someone who believes otherwise. Better to let the silly Karate-less outsider proceed under his delusions.

2) She's being sarcastic. "What, you mean my worthless husband wasn't tough enough to take out a few Imps and a giant Ketchup Bomb? Yeah, wow, thanks for bringing that one back home! He's a keeper!"


After seeing the sights, Yang leads his comrades to the throne room and explains the situation to the king. That goes something like this: "Baron is about to attack and steal our crystal! This guy from Baron said so!"


Once again, Cecil's position as a DKnight isn't doing any favors for his credibility.


Edward quickly intervenes to set the record straight. It's no secret that His Royal Spooniness isn't exactly tearing it up during combat, but anyone who comes down too hard on the guy should be politely reminded that he is lightning quick with the plot crutches. This is the second time now Cecil's quest would have come to a depressing end if not for Edward's assistance.


Now convinced that the Red Wings are indeed on the way, the king puts us to work on the front line.

...well, three of us, anyway. The girls are asked to stay behind to aid with the wounded. Which is like, uh, King? Edward can administer Cure1 potions as well as the next guy, and we'd really rather have the little girl with the lightning bolts and murderous chocobos out there with us, if it's all the same to you.


Rosa keeps a brave face on things as she sees her man out to war.



♪♪ Fight 2 ♪♪

Thus begins one of the most iconic scenes in 16-bit RPGaming: the battle of Fabul. If it seemed strange to some players that Mt. Hobs was something of an anemic dungeon unworthy of the amount of Karate that just worked its way into the party, it's only because FF2 had something beautifully novel up its sleeve.


The next few scenes are a series of rapid-fire battles against monsters and soldiers under Baronian command. Everything that happens is automatic; no chance to rest up or re-equip between fights. And the music? That totally awesome FF2 boss battle music? It is constant as the advancing forces push back against Cecil, chasing him all over the castle.


After a single fight on the front line the Red Wings begin bombing the hell out of the walls. There seems to be no chance to hold the front gate. I wonder if Cecil's fears are really accurate here, though... with a sufficient amount of Karate, it seems like we should just be able to Kick the Red Wings right out of the sky.

...nah, too many civilian casualties. Time to fall back.


Monsters continue to pour in as the heroes regroup in the shopping mall.


Fortunately Edward remembers exactly what to do with this WaterHag.


The next wave of bad guys slaughters the Karates who were guarding the Inn and Weapon Shop, which prompts Edward to lead the retreat deeper into the castle. Before you're too hard on him, though, just think of the kind of stones he must possess to willingly put himself through this ordeal a second time. Pretty tough for a guy who, just a few scenes ago, wanted to just cry himself to death next to his girlfriend's arrow-ridden corpse.


...and? And? And what?


Fuck. YES.

While the scene itself is sufficiently tense, the battles are not actually all that difficult. Cecil and Yang are both still extraordinarily hard to kill. Edward has trouble making it through the ordeal unscathed, though. To date, every Cure1 potion I've had to use has been on Edward.


Here, too, we are overwhelmed. Edward once again sounds the retreat.


Foul betrayer!


Even the faithful ranks of Yang's Karates have been infiltrated by blue-robes! If only there were some way to walk forward five steps and re-lock the door!


It was probably a Gargoyle or something. Yang smashed it.


In the end, the boys are beaten all the way back into the Crystal Room, where they decide to make their final stand.


God dammit, Edward.


Thanks to Edward tripping over his shoelaces, we get dragged into one last soldier fight. Fortunately Generals are as adept at turning tail as Edward himself!

Though Edward's effectiveness is repeatedly called into question, let no one doubt his courage. In the end, he stands beside the valiant DKnight and the honorable Karate in Fabul's crystal room, waiting for waves of monsters to pour through the door.


...but a Dragoon pours through instead! Cecil, delighted to see his old friend still alive, asks Kain to join them in the fight.

Kain responds by drawing his weapon and challenging Cecil to single combat.



♪♪ Suspicion ♪♪

Even if Cecil were inclined to fight his former ally, he does not have the ability to do so. Kain Jumps at him repeatedly, which means he spends most of the fight untargetable.

(And if he were so inclined to use a Game Genie to cheat his way through the fight, he still couldn't win, because Kain has tens of thousands of HPs for purposes of this scene. D'oh!)


The repeated blows take their toll, and Kain stands poised to finish Cecil off.

And by the way, there's a reason PCs are called by their class rather than their name when they appear on the opposition's side of battle scenes like this. Nobody's going to point out what that reason is, though, because we have an understanding about that subject, don't we?


Just before striking the fatal blow, the girls rush into the room. The mere sight of Rosa causes Kain to recoil in shame.



♪♪ Golbez, Clad in Darkness ♪♪


Enter Kain's new master: Golbez.

A moment of respectful silence, if you please, for one of the most fiendish villains ever to grace a video game.

Golbez isn't just a bad ass. His ass is heinous. His is an ass so foul and wicked that lesser asses quake in fear at its mere presence. He doesn't need to carry the Bad Mother Fucker wallet; he's in charge of the Bad Mother Fucker mutual fund.

Villains like Golbez did not exist in NES games. You had your evil, nonspecifically ambitious wizard/demons, sure, but they lacked any semblance of dimension. Golbez isn't here to destroy the world for some nebulous, pointless reason. He has very clear goals, and over the course of the game you come to learn what those goals are. He has the means and motivation to cut down everything in his path, like so:


For Golbez, evil deeds are just the means to an end. He commits them unflinchingly, as if on reflex. He addresses Cecil in this scene, but only as a formality; the other characters standing around in the room may as well just be decoration to him. Edward and Yang aren't his enemies, they are merely two man-shaped obstacles that stepped in front of his goddamn crystal.


And when he sees an opportunity...?


He seizes it.

Any villain can give a speech and fight the hero in a climactic showdown. That's not Golbez's style.

In one fell swoop Golbez blows into the room, snags the Crystal of Air, demonstrates a fraction of his ridiculous power, kidnaps the hero's girlfriend, and looked cool as hell doing it. Oh, and he's managed to brainwash Kain. It's like, does this guy even need the Red Wings? As far as anyone knows all those monsters and explosions are just Golbez putting on airs.


Yeah, I'm calling this one a quadruple victory in Golbez's favor.

♪♪ Cry in Sorrow ♪♪

Rydia, who managed to come through the encounter unscathed, gets the boys back on their feet by means of a single Cure spell. This storyline contrivance may in fact be the single reason Rydia has White Magic early in the game, come to think of it.


Yang and Edward respond by throwing Cecil a big dang pity party.


Fortunately, Rydia makes quick work with a pep talk. Cecil is down, but not out: the plan is to chase Golbez down, rescue Rosa, and find the crystals. Presumably in that order.


♪♪ Fabul ♪♪

Now that we can actually walk around the throne room without the Cutscene Gods seizing the controller from us, we can raid the last few treasures in Fabul. Hidden in this unassuming pot is an equally unassuming Cure1.


Like the other castles, Fabul has a hidden stash. Fortunately, it's the easiest to get a hold of.


Though it involves walking across some scary blackspace, the prize is an upgraded shield for Cecil. At long last! The other two treasures were another Cure1 and an Ether1.


Looks like the king took a hit during the battle, which explains why the throne room stands empty. Now that the immediate danger has passed, he insists we go get some rest.


The nursing room is now full up with wounded, leaving the lone healer to lament the ineffectiveness of her abilities when compared to Rosa. Seeing as how Rosa only just recently learned Cure2, this is a somewhat startling insight into the sad state of Fabul's health care system.


In other news, Yang's wife is fucking metal. \o/

Retiring to the Inn to regroup, Cecil hatches his new plan: approaching Baron by land or by air is out of the question, but they should be able to sneak in by sea. Yang is confident the king will facilitate his request for a ship.

You may think this constitutes an open act of war against Baron on the part of the king of Fabul, but I prefer to think of it as political Karate.


Not only does the king grant us a ship, but he also gifts Cecil with a pretty sweet new sword. This is the strongest and blackest our dear DKnight can get! To advance in equipment much beyond this, he's going to have to... I dunno... class change or something.

The Black Sword is actually a pretty fearsome weapon at this stage in the game. It has the potential to insta-kill, which I believe is a unique feature.


♪♪ Main Theme ♪♪

As promised, the king has delivered us a ship. Before that, though...


Chocobo's Forest!

There's not really a lot you can do with this forest. The chocobo can't travel anywhere you can't get to on foot, after all. I just like pointing out where they are.


Before stepping aboard the ship, you would do well to strip Edward, Yang and Rydia down to their skivvies. With that, Edward's tenure in the party is done. Farewell, sweet prince.

Later in the game we will begin encountering Golbez's elite forces, elemental superbosses comparable to the FIENDs from FF1. Because Edward exits the party before the first of these makes his appearance, he has the distinct honor of being the only character in the game who never gets to fight one. Honestly, most of what Edward accomplishes in the game is done in accordance with the plot, either as prince of Damcyan or as a Bard.

Upthread Kishi mentioned how Edward's class in the original Japanese version was "Royalty", rather than "Bard". Later English versions of the game translate this as "Prince". This is another case, though, where I think FF2's unique translation nailed it to the wall: Edward presents himself as a Bard, first and foremost, and that is his essential role in the plot. Though he does not rejoin the party, Edward is far from finished aiding Cecil in his quest. His crowning achievement is yet to come, and there's nothing princely about it.

(And yes, one of my sub-goals with this LP is to antagonize Kishi as much as possible. Check this out: you know what's great about FF2? There are no monks, like, anywhere! I mean, how boring would that be? A party member who wears robes and chants dirges and swings incense all day? Special attack: Transcribe Biblical Passage. Zero damage! Laaaaame. Karates are sooooo much better, I'm sure you all agree.)


♪♪ Hey, Cid! ♪♪

Yang's wife comes down to the docks to see her husband off. In the short time he has known her, Cecil has learned to show Mrs. Karate the proper respect she deserves.

I've always loved how Mrs. Karate takes special interest in how her husband fights. Like, there is a minimum amount of acceptable ass Yang must kick in order to meet her expectations. You'd be ripped too if your wife made you sleep on the couch if you came home without rocking at least twenty faces.


As Yang's wife waves good-bye, the S.S. Karate embarks on its fantastic oversea voyage. The journey is long and harrowing, but it affords our heroes time enough to fine-tune their plan.


♪♪ Main Theme ♪♪

Upon arriving at Baron, Cecil recommends they hunt down his friend Cid. It's never really stated what, exactly, Cecil wants Cid for... presumably Cid can either hook him up with an airship of his very own, or can bring down the Red Wings from the inside. Either way, it would even the playing field a little bit before their next encounter with Golbez.


Rydia also takes the opportunity to get one last jibe in at Prince Crybabypants.

Turning west through the long chain of islands running south from Fabul, the ship suddenly approaches a fantastic obstacle.


♪♪ Ring of Bomb ♪♪

Oh, that? That's just the sound of a half-dozen sailors soiling themselves in unison.


Sweet Christmas! That's one big sea snake. Good thing we don't have to fight it; it would take up like sixteen battle screens!


Leviatan wastes no time in launching his attack. He rams the ship, causing the lightweight Rydia to lose her footing and fall overboard.



Before anyone can even blink, Yang jumps in after her. Is the God of the Sea any match for Karate!?


While Cecil stares dumbfounded at the empty spots on the deck where his friends once stood, Leviatan rams the ship again, causing Edward to faceplant.

It's a good thing I caught this screengrab as the text box was still opening; the full height of it would have obscured him laying there all helpless and defeated. And yes, "No!" is pretty much Edward's catch phrase.


Leviatan quickly grows tired of his new plaything and descends back into the depths, leaving the ship to get sucked down into the whirlpool he'd emerged from. And then...?


...darkness.

Next: "Kids of Mysidia. Very well."

Okay. Did you know enemy weaknesses are stronger than enemy strengths? Which is to say, weaknesses are prioritized over strengths? Which is to say... uh... hold on. This is going nowhere. Let's start with an example.

Hop in your time machine and flash forward to Final Fantasy III. In that game there is a relic called the Genji Glove which enables a hero to equip two weapons, instead of a weapon and a shield. Imagine such a hero puts a ice-element weapon in one hand and an fire-element weapon in the other. Now imagine a hero, so equipped, launches an attack against a fire-element monster. In FF3, each of the hero's equipped weapons counts as an individual attack. This situation is therefore resolved by the monster first receiving double damage from an ice-element hit, and then absorbing damage from the fire-element hit. The net result is a wash: the amount of damage dealt is about the same as if the hero had attacked with a regular weapon.

In FF2, however, such multi-hit attacks are verboten. Characters who can equip multiple weapons, such as Yang, instead have their all equipment bonuses applied to one standard attack. So if Yang were to equip his IceClaw and FireClaw at the same time, he doesn't get "ice hit and then fire hit"; he gets one single hit that counts as both ice and fire.

So what happens if Yang, so-equipped, goes up against a fire monster? The game only takes the element that is most beneficial to the player. In this example, the ice property of Yang's attack would deal double damage, but the fire property would be ignored completely. What a nice little bonus! Note, though, that the fire property is only ignored because there was something there to supercede it. If Yang had a Thunder Claw instead, the hit would count as Lit/Fire. The fire monster is neutral to Lit, so the only thing left to trigger is absorption of Fire, and therefore Yang's attack would heal it.

Oh, and you can't score a "double weakness" by attacking that fire monster with two IceClaws. Two weapons, but only one attack, yeah?

Since you can hot-swap weapons in the middle of combat at no penalty, keeping one each of the elemental claws near the top of your inventory is a good way to ensure Yang is getting the most bang for his buck. There are a few spots in the game where this strategy really pays off!

I prefer to think that its because Fabuls health care system is based around applying karate to wounds and infected areas.

And nobody saw the disadvantage to this plan.

Worked for Mr. Myagi...

I think after the bombing, the invading, and the theft by Baron, that the war is already on.

- Eddie

No, Baron went to war. They haven't declared war since the annexation of Mist.

Fabul was just a police action.