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

What this tells me is that maybe Palom wasn't exaggerating when he called himself a genius.

Also, after all these years, this is the first time I've truly been able to truly make out Milon's face. Thanks to the shading, I always assumed it was in profile, but nope, there's the rest of it.

Same here, actually! And all this time I never noticed that Milon's hand was twisted around the way it was, I just thought it was pointing off to the right a little.

Milons broken hand was always my favorite part of his design.

His... chest-tusks distract from the real glory of the character: the hand.

Somehow, in spite of how many times I've played this game, I always end up remembering that you fight Milon's second form after becoming a Paladin. My memory says that the game tries to make you spend the first form thinking, "Man, Cecil having dark element attacks sucks!" and the second form thinking, "Man, Cecil having holy element attacks rocks!" Of course I always end up realizing this was a mistake... But now I learn that Milon's first form isn't even undead? Pssh.

Also, I meant to say that I like what you did with that last mountain screenshot. *wink, wink*

But Brick.... That might be a year from now....

Well, technically you do fight Milons second form after becoming a Paladin.

So what happens if you do decide to engage the Dark Reflection Cecil? I remember reading in the manual that if you attacked it the fight would never end and I was always to scared too try, and it always just stuck with me from that young age to never, ever, EVER fuck with Dark Reflection Cecil otherwise I might break the game cart or something silly like that.

You never cast Cure at the pack of zombies even considering you have Twin? You were a smarter kid then me apparently.

Also, WHERE IS HE?!

TECHNICALLY HURR. =p

You know, I've always wondered...

The Mysidians have this holy site at Mt. Ordeals, right? Who knows how long it's been there, maybe it's been generations.

And no one has ever succeeded.

Then it turns out that this one guy shows up. He hasn't had the years and years of preparation, sacrifice, or training that Mt. Ordeals hopefuls go through to prove themselves worthy. But all he does is show up at the top (which he only reached because two toddlers and an addle-brained old man burned things in front of him,) and this mysterious light bestows a legendary sword upon him and transforms him into a Paladin, at no cost. Then it's up to him to stand up to his inner darkness.

Which is fine so far! Any Mysidian adept could conceivably climb to the summit, get past all the undead, and reach the mirror chamber. They could even stand up to their darkness and succeed!

Except that the task is doomed to failure before it even begins. Because, you see, the light is actually some random guy's father. Of course the task was created specifically for that guy, and that guy alone. No one else would measure up, ever. It's not a matter of worthiness or merit, it's nepotism!

So why'd he revive them when the Giant of Bab-il arrived?

On the way down the mountain Cecil has a much easier time with the zombies than he had on the way up, so it sort of does this.

Clearly he's getting a tax write-off.

Funny you should mention that. That's where I found the Blue ZoiDBERG!
Then I ragequit because he cherry tapped Rydia before I could move and I hadn't yet been introduced to the awesomeness that is Brick's encyclopaedic knowledge of FF1.

Because the stone statues would be there forever, for all to see, as monument to his alimonyshamefailure to, ah, "save them." By reviving them and bringing them along to the Giant's awakening, he can always hope that a random fireblast will bring the airship down, with the twins on it.

Of course that didn't pan out either.

You guys are implying that Palom and Porom are the Elder's kids? I'm sticking with my hypothesis that they are simply demon-children from God-knows-where. The Elder wanted to get rid of them because they are the most powerful mages in the world. Excepting Rydia who's basically in another dimension right now, and certain individuals who come from the freaking moon.
Keeping a couple of small, hyperactive children around who could pretty much destroy the crazy dark knight who ravaged the town last week doesn't sound like a safe policy.

What can change the nature of a man?

I think I may have already posted this, but whatever.

There's a theory that Kluya cheated with Cecil's Paladin trial. The reasoning for this comes from the After Years, when Kain finally takes his trial. He has to go through a lot to become a Holy Dragoon, while Cecil just gets converted to Paladin and made to confront his darkness.

And in the end, all Cecil does is just reject his darkness, which is kind of missing the point of the entire trial if we go by After Years.

Also, yeah, WTF happened to Porom in After Years.

Going back to The Legend bit, I remember thinking "Oh, neat, like the first game" for that. Which does make for a really long intro before the "real" game begins.

I'm cheesy and always go heal and save before fighting Milon Z, but I'm a moron and forget to switch the rows half of the time.

Is there anything more satisfying then Cecil gaining back all his levels in the first few fights? It's the same thing for me when I switch to a Lv.1 job in DQ9, or riding the Crystarium after getting someone back after a long time in FFXIII.

Yeah, when I first promoted Cecil, I was wondering why he was so darn weak, but then I checked his level and was like, "oh...I liked him better as a Dark Knight, argh." It didn't help that his equipment sucked and I didn't take off any of his D. Knight stuff. Still, after a few levels, he went right back to kicking ass.

I kept anticipating this feeling when I changed jobs in DQ9, but it took an aeon of grinding for me to regain those levels unless I changed everyone's job at the same time. If I remember right, experience is actually divided based on job level so if your levels aren't balanced, the high-level guys get nearly all of it.

Yes, but you can still gain 4 levels or so a battle with a Lv. 1 dude late in the game. I eventually took everyone up to 20 on just about every job.

Peekaboo!

Now I'm starting to wish there was some sort of transition battle, where you fought Milon at different stages of decay. That looks like it could be stage 2.

Now I'm wishing Scarmiglione didn't suck so much. He was a lot cooler than Cagnazzo.

I like to think the tattered shroud covering his first form is just barely containing the hulking eldritch horror you face in round two.

I wish I had a way to capture DS screenshots. Because Cecil, solemnly bowing his head and contemplating "How can I make up for the bloodshed I've caused." is totally hilarious, When he's a pig.

I'll settle for any awful photos of that, because it does sound awesome.

And don't forget the back legs which look like they belong on an Elephant.

You realize this phrase automatically invalidates all that follows.

I actually kinda like it, but there's no way I'm validating it's terrible fanfic plot.

I rarely have enough money during my play throughs to buy all paladin gear before climbing Mt. Ordeals. I usually drag Kain's initial shield, helmet, armor, gauntlet(?) from the time he leaves (I'm too lazy to give to Fat chocobos) and put them all on Cecil after the class change. By the time I go down Mysidia, I have enough cash to buy the stuff.


For all we know, that cloth shirt may have been Cecil's last connection with his DKnight past (maybe wore it underneath that Black armor). Maybe that also explains his NP art... he only wears a shirt and boxers as his Paladin birthday suit.

That's just perspective messing with you. He's on his hands and knees. You can only see the thigh, knee and foot of his left leg, because the lower leg is hidden from view. Really, he's just a decomposing human corpse with some tentacles. Still creepy looking, though.

But the tentacles/tusks seem to essentially be overgrown/deformed ribs bursting out of his torso, and growing towards you, twisting and winding. Like the death you planted in his 'earth' body is bursting forth from him cancerously, trying to catch you, as he drags his decomposing frame heavily after you across the mountainside.

I like the fiends!