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

Appropriately enough, the Black Sword is called Deathbringer in later translations.

Maybe we should keep a running tally of how often Cecil and the party's plans backfire or fail due to unexpected circumstances.

The War at Fabul, or whatever it is properly called, is one of my favorite parts of this game, mostly for nostalgia reasons. The first time I got here I was playing at my friend's house, and when they took away my healers we both were like "Crap, we're going to die!" Then waves of enemies started piling on us without breaks, and we practically screamed "We're Going to DIE!" (keep in mind we were RPG rookies and weren't exactly flush with CURE1s, levels or confidence).

Do then we did the only logical thing: We started singing.

♪♪ We're gonna die! Die Die Diiie. Die Die Diiiiiiiiiiiiiiie! ♪♪*

Even though this segment is far from hard for me now, I can't not sing the "Die Song" while playing it.




Brick, dude, I've always appreciated your (totally deserved) reverence for Golbez as a villain. He's one of the best, totally evil, totally powerful Big Bads ever in video games.


*EDIT: Not the same song, but now I think of this, too.

There are actually two sounds that can be onomatopoetically represented as "achoo." One of them is, as you say, a sneeze. The other is the sound made by a Bruce Lee when he kicks someone in the face or other body part.

Jesus. I typo'd an emoticon. Surely this is a new low.

Those keys are nowhere near each other!

Personally, I find Golbez's reasons for being a bad guy to be a bit weak. That said, once he's got the job, it cannot be denied that he does his work with panache. He must come from good stock.

Hey, it worked in FFT. Yang is just too badass to rely on the likes of Chakra.

Annexation of Mist? There was nothing left to annex! Also, funnily enough, you can revisit Mist later in the game when you have an airship and it looks like nothing's happened. Also, no Baron soldiers are there.

Oh my God.

All my life, I've seen the fabulous Fabulians as soldiers wearing tan helmets and shoulderguards, like football players.

Only now, with the blown-up screenshots, do I realize that they're shirtless monks with dots on their bald heads.

Oh my God.

It could only get more mind-shattering if you told me that Yang's pants had happy faces all over them. But they don't, because his Nintendo Power artwork shows him clearly wearing blue horseriding pants.

I love that you find treasure in mist that's on par with what you'd expect at the very start of the game.
!!!

man, Zef, that is just weird. you're weird!!

But what are the dots on their heads?


And don't tell me their the beginnings of ponytails. Why would there be four of them then!??

yeah, they're totally Krillin Dots.*

*technical term

That's exactly what I was thinking.

I caught on pretty quickly, but I was in the same boat as Zef the first time I played this game. It didn't look like the Fabul guys should just have bald heads because that makes their melons freakishly gigantic.


I love the Yang Rap.


I don't recall how the Japanese WSC/GBA/DS versions of FFIV handled it, but the PlayStation port did change his job to "Bard." So, there you go.


Yeah. The answer to "Haha, why is that karate man sneezing?!" is that he isn't. "Achoooo" is an extension of "acho."

Forget the horse-riding pants, why is NP Yang wearing pink Crocs?!

JRPG royals fucking love exposition.

Egad. I don't think I'll ever be able to read that line again without hearing a terrible 90's rap soundtrack playing in my head.

It was Fabul, born and raised
Mt. Hobs is where I spent most of my days
Trainin' to fight and relaxin' all cool
Practicing Karate upside on a fool
When a couple of Bombs, they were up to no good
Started killing folks in my neighborhood.
Got in one little war and my wife got scared
She said "You going with this DKnight and sailin' to Baron!"

I think Kick has a delay like most spells (only more of one). It never seems to happen quickly enough to be worth the bother.

Actually, you can go back to Mist via Mist Cave as soon as Cecil returns to Baron. It is advantageous to do so, because...

You can also find, with very thorough searching, some excellent gear.

My brain was trying to somehow make those lyrics fit to this song:

I know it may be weird, but I've always seen the Fabul monks as the bald guys that they are. Maybe that association just came naturally after those pics of Bonk's Adventure I saw in an old gaming magazine?

I didn't know this, though. And now I just realized I've heard that phrase in WarioWare D.I.Y.'s sound effects, too.

Oh, yeah. There's totally something that's almost game-breakingly good hidden there, too. But finding basic starting equipment for Rydia, long after she left the party, always made me smile. I couldn't really call it verisimilitude, but it is within the context of a JRPG.

This LP is so good it's making me want to replay the game again. And I'm still waist-deep in XIII.

Granted it doesn't take much to make me want to replay FF2, with its chocolatey goodness and delicious caramel center (wait I'm thinking of that Caramilk I just ate).

Decisions decisions. Do I wait for this LP to be done, or dive in sooner?

Hmm, I never did raid the closets of Mist on my first trip back to Baron before. I.. actually forget what items you can get there. Is there really something that awesome at that stage of the game?

It looks like Cecil...

...is back in black.

Unfortunately, he will shortly become a class traitor.

I bet he just painted it black.

There is a Change Rod which isn't very good, but there is a Tiara Helmet which is good for when you get Rosa back. The Weapon shop has a Dancing Knife which isn't bad (although at 5000g is a bit expensive).

- Eddie

Jeezus, no wonder Yang is the master of kicking - that NP art reveals that his thighs are as thick as his torso! He and Chun-li undoubtedly share some heritage.

This dialog box was the most memorable of my "name everybody Golbez" playthrough.
Golbez: Golbez!
Golbez: You are Golbez!
Golbez: And you are Golbez.

The window background could be black...

Damn, even the name of his heinous-ass theme song is heinous-ass. And I just noticed some subtleties to his theme that I don't remember ever noticing before. Also, is it just me or do some parts of "Clad in Darkness" also occur in "Dancing Mad"?