50% chance to fail a dance the first round if it comes from different terrain, if you're interested to know the exact failure chance. Once he pulls off the dance, it changes the terrain and won't fail again.
For a change, it feels like the percentage is better than 50%. Maybe I'm just lucky.
Too late now I guess, but while Rising Phoenix is absorbed by nearly every monster here, Aura Cannon will absolutely wreck them. They are undead, they're just undead that are acclimated to living (er... as it were) in a lava cave.
Aura Cannon is my go-to, if Rising Phoenix doesn't work. Just would have liked a group attack, but it worked out fine.
The eight guys you picked up in the factory were nowhere near all of the captive Espers. The guy in the woods behind Tzen says as much, the GBA expansion adds more. I would suspect that once you accidentally showed Kefka the secret of magicite things went very poorly for all of them very quickly.
Ok, that explains his increased power, then. No surprise, that he started immediately killing Espers, and increasing his power, then.
Gestahl got to appoint his own top brass. So he surrounds himself people who either share his motives (like Kefka) or are too dumb to question them (Cid and Leo). Maybe Celes turned out to be a lapse in judgment or something.
She seems certainly smart, and I guess the idea of poisoning just broke her. And it's clear that Gestahl has a soft spot for her, being magically infused, so he might have ignored certain tells.
Also, I'm a bit confused now, how the stuff with Celes worked. So, she is in prison, because she was not ok with Kefka poisoning the river. But...doesn't that mean, Gestahl DID know about Kefkas plan? Or did Kefka just come up with a random excuse, so Celes would look bad to the Emperor? I assume it's not JUST Kefkas doing, without Gestahl knowing about her being in prison, right? I mean, it would work, but no one likes Kefka, so I can't imagine there is any loyalty there.
Nope. The gods infused mortals with their magic, warping them into Espers to battle one another. That's the War of the Magi.
I'd really like to know more about the history of this world. But I guess these aren't really Gods, in the classical sense, and more really powerful beings (which, granted, isn't much different). So, the world has been terrorized for a long time by these three jerks? And human history basically just started a thousand years ago? No, wait, there are written documents, that Gestahl interpreted. Hmm...I don't get it. Maybe they just appear every thousand years, or something, are jerks and go to sleep again? And this time, they decided it was the last time? I'd like to know more about the war, I think.
This always struck me as a skewering of the "everybody laughs" sitcom ending. Things are on the mend, Relm and Strago give a cheesy one-liner joke. The party laughs! The soldiers laugh! The espers laugh!
Kefka laughs!
......wait, what? Oh no.
I like this interpretation. Sounds really good.
Remember, he refused a magitek infusion. How he can do Shock at all is a mystery. He's just that good.
I think Shock is less magic, and more something like a technique. Similar to how Sabin can still do Ki-blasts, I assume there is the possibility, to use the soul of the sword (or yourself) to create special attacks. Magic is just something different, and gotten cheaper (after years of training, Sabin still has only three of his abilities learned).
The first thing Kefka does is nullify the esper's powers, presumably with some spinoff of whatever it was that gave Celes her Runic sword. Then, yeah, he seems to have the perfect weaponry/spells at his disposal to instantly kill and harvest any esper he sees. He's much better at fighting espers than he is at fighting other humans (say, at Narshe), which might be by design.
Right, the Empire is capable of giving people Runic. And probably make it better. And that he is stronger against Espers makes sense.
He wasn't in Vector when the Espers attacked, he was with you at the Sealed Gate,watching them fly away out of control.
Either that or he just has cutscene powers, and is exactly as strong as the plot needs him to be at any given moment.
Nah, you are right, he wasn't there to protect the Empire.
Leo is Lawful Neutral trying, and failing, to be Lawful Good. He's a consummate soldier with a hell of a sword-arm and absolute loyalty to his liege. There's no telling what sort of lies Gestahl propagandized him into about why he's conquering the world, since presumably "for shits and giggles" would not be something Leo would find acceptable.
There might be a cultural difference between the English-speaking world and the Japanese writers here, since Japan would think a lot more highly of a samurai-style "follows orders no matter what" sort of soldier.
Goes back to the difference between being at war with soldiers and slaughtering civilians, I guess. That Leo ever had hesitations and failed to follow through on them is why he fails at being Actually Good.
Celes takes the sword and turns toward the paralyzed party. Gestahl steps to the left, mentions promoting Celes to second-in-command, and Kefka has a little fit that moves him to where Gestahl was standing. Celes turns and lunges without looking. That sword was meant for Gestahl.
Oh, I didn't catch that the Kefka stood in the spot of the Emperor. Nice.
When you first see Leo, Sabin says something like, "he could be my friend, if he weren't my enemy", and I think that sums up his situation pretty well. It's easy to imagine that he had a backstory similar to Cecil's, where Gestahl took him in as an orphan or something, and his gratitude for that makes him loyal to a fault. You never actually learn his backstory, though, and he's ultimately just a minor character, so he dies without getting a real redemption arc.
Right. As a I said, calling him a good or a bad guy simplifies the whole situation too much. It's a complicated world, he is thrown into, and I assume he isn't the brightest one, even if he has strong, moral grounding.
Thanks for the responses about Leo, everyone, they were very interesting.
Most of the normal enemies on the floating continent are weak to fire or lightning, so he can also do good damage with normal attacks. Buy a Fire Rod and Thunder Rod in Thamasa if you don't already have them, give him the Genji Glove and go nuts. Of course, this works with Relm, too. Dual-wielding rods on the floating continent is maybe the best use of the Genji Glove. It's definitely my favorite.
I didn't realize, that Strago was sort-of equipped to handle the Floating Continent well. Had never thought of physically attacking with him. I do like, that the game makes him useful for this dungeon, considering you haven't had him for long.
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Before I start, please don't spoil me on missing characters, espers, or generall the open-world stuff. I normally don't care much, but I'd like to look through the world on my own. Thanks.
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In the twilight, we fly over the ocean, visiting a lonely island with a torn-apart house. I realized later that it's the constant twilight that makes everything look that way, but it appeared, like the water was poisoned, with that awful color. That the island we are on is just a rock, without any plants, isn't an incident though, and so is the vision of the gross water. The world fell apart. Might trick you into thinking, this is the only part left.
We find Celes, waking up after one year of sleep, as we learn from Cid. Cid doesn't know, if there is anything else left of the world, except for this island, and he knows nothing of the others. There were people here, but they committed suicide. The earth and plants here grew weaker, so I guess the island wasn't complitely dried up, some time ago.
So, this is a callback to the way the world would look like, if the crystals were to be destroyed. The water gets poisonous (even aside from the colour, that most fish are unhealthy fits too) and the ground growth weak and dry. Neede some info about wind and fire, though.
Also, suicide? I'm surprised, this stayed in here. Or was the SNES translated, without mentioning the suicide? Just sounds like something, Square wouldn't like to have in their games. Honestly, it seems really intense, even knowing what would happen. Was surprisingly touching, learning that.
Cid had taken care of Celes, for the time being. And, considering their past, and that he is probably the only parental figure she ever had, gives them a strong bond, so that she calls him grandpa.
Which is the reason, why I thought he actually was her grandpa, before replaying the game.
But Cid fell ill three days ago. And now, he goes to bed, sleeping. We do the fishing minigame, and it took longer than I imagined. It really reminded me of Salsas chapter in Mother 3 - you don't do any fighting, just do a repetitive task, except here it is for a good reason. I didn't try for the good fish, just got what I got. Until Cid died. And we get the suicide scene.
As I said, it's an intense scene, well do, intense stuff. Until it is over. Because it just so happens, that Locke has put his scarf on a random dove (it's fine, I assume he wanted to find his partners), and that the dove appears exactly at this moment, to wake Celes up. I mean, it's fine, sometimes chance works out perfectly right.
Then we get back to Cid, who actually wasn't dead, because he had time to write a letter. And suddenly, he thinks there is totally someone out there, and maybe Celes could use the raft he built to get away from this rock.
I...uh...honestly, I think there is something off here. Why didn't he tell Celes about the raft, and that he thinks that there are maybe other people still out there? I mean, he didn't have much time, but it also seemed, somehow, like the game implied that Celes took care of Cid for some time. Maybe I'm off here. *shrug*
Maybe he slept, when Celes thought he died, and didn't realize that she would kill herself just now. And he thought, she might get the letter.
But from the perspective of how the story is laid out, the whole thing seems like a cheat. I can explain the stuff away, sure (like I did here), but the game clearly wants you to think, that there is no one left. The world ended, we did survive, but it didn't help. Yes, one of our group is still there, but she can't take it, and kills herself. It's not just Kefka - he created a world, were we could barely survive for some more time, but it's too horrible. Sounds like the mad clown did a great job. So, showing us how everything looks awful was well done.
But the way Cid talks about the situation, just sounds like a cheap way of getting emotions out of us. Dunno, his words just felt somehow dishonest. Maybe I'm overstating it, but it certainly felt a bit like a cheat.
Anyway, we use the raft, and land on the middle part, of what used to be the southern continent, where Vector was located. And soon, we see actual grass. But, more importantly, at this point, we change the mood of the game.
For the whole first part, we tried to stop a horrible catastrophe from happening. Be that the absolute takeover, through a faschist empire, or through destruction. We tried, and failed, again and again. We saw horrible stuff, more and more of it. The mood was dark and dreadful.
But now, the worst thing had happened, and we hit rock bottom (symbolized by the short time on the island). Sure, Kefka can still kill us, but, in the end, it can't get any worse. Celes is alone.
But we got new hope. And this is the theme of the second half of the game. The world ended, but not really, and we try to get up from falling down. We are alone, but will try to change that, as soon as possible.
I just find it interesting, that we start in the World of Balance, were there is still stability and technology. There are monsters, but nothing as horrible as Funbaba or the dragons. But that part was drowned in fear and sorrow. And now, we are in a place where we are always jsut seconds away from being struck by lightning. But here, we suddenly have hope and can work toward something better. There seems to be more hope now, that the world has ended. Because, yes, it's the end of Gestahl. He had a plan. Kefka doesn't. He just destroys. Which changes everything.
We land near Albrooks, where we get new information about the world. Including side quests! For the first time since FF III, I made a list of open quests.
We learn about Kefkas Tower, where he sits atop and throws Lightning wherever he pleases. Which, ok? I mean, that is awful, but does he randomly look in at people? Is he the all-knowing god, that randomly decides that something displeases him? Is he like the horrible kid in "It's a Good Life"?, who just sees everything? Does he actually want anything, to be thought of as a god? Does he demand sacrifices, or something?
I'm just not sure, how it works. Does Kefka actually demand anything, or is all he does completely random? Maybe I'll learn more about this, as the game goes on.
We hear about a young martial artist, who came through here, and moved to Tzen. There is also mention of Deathgare and Humbaba, and the eight legendary dragons. A barkeeper longs for days gone by, and it's actually a nice, touching scene, where we see how people had fun in that place.
In Tzen, we learn that the Serpent Trench is now above the ground, and Kefkas cult has built a tower there. As we go further in, the ground start shaking, and we find Sabin, who is holding a house, before it collapses. A child is inside.
The house is a dungeon with annoying monsters, that works like the castle in FF V, that was exploding. Only shorter. There are some treasure chests, and in the basement, we find the child. No boss, though, so not too hard.
Afterwards, Sabin makes a dumb joke (he is still the same, good), and he decides that he, too, wants to punch Kefka in the face.
There is a guy here, who says he felt Kefka watching, as the ground was just shaking. I guess the people in this world do live in constant fear, that a thunderbolt might hit them, at every second. It has to be a horrible situation, that you probably learn to live with, I guess. But a bit of fear has to be always at the back of your mind.
We learn of Moblitz, at the end of the Trench, where all the adults died, when they protected the kids from the Light of Judgement. Also, Humbaba (I think I wrote down three different versions of his name, no idea what happened here) runs around there.
We learn, that north along the Serpent Trench, there lies Nikeah, where ships are still sailing.
But for some reason, I felt a stronger motivation to visit Moblitz. When arriving, we see that there isn't much left. Dogs bark, and a child sees us. In a basement, we find a bunch of children, with one of them standing in our way - ready to fight.
But Terra steps in. She tells us again about the day, when all the parents died. At some point, she arrived here, and started taking care of the children. She says, that she started feeling something new for the kids, but can't say what it is. But, when starting to feel it, she lost the will to fight.
At this point, Humbaba appears, and Terra goes outside to stop him. But she can't hurt him. There really is not strength for fighting in her, I guess. We step in, and, after a hard fight (I guess two people isn't that much, here, Celes last spell just defeated him) he runs away. But Terra doesn't want to come along, until she understands, what she is feeling.
To be honest, I feel like the game would be stronger, if Terra decided to not join us at all. She was abused by the Empire, and then still used by the Returners. She always was a weapon, maybe even to the people, who seemed to be her friends. Her live only knew war and death. No wonder, that she is tired of it. It's the first time, where she experiences real love - not romantic (this alone is great), but nurturing one. She finally found a calling, and it has nothing to do with fighting, just with protecting.
That feels very progressive, considering this is a mid-90s videogame, that thinks about a character that doesn't want to fight anymore.
And with that, we leave her. Yes, we would need her, but we shouldn't force her anymore. Finally, she can make her own decision.
With nothing more to do here, we go the other way to Nikeah. In there, we learn a bit more stuff - a former Returner tells us about four Espers, that have escaped, way back in the WoB. Someone tried to sleep in Doma Castle, but monsters attacked him in his dreams.
Here, there are thiefs from Figaro castle, the ones that were in the cells. They want to get the castle unstuck, that stopped moving under the ground. The want to get loot from there. Their boss, Gerad, is on the market, and, for some reason, looks quite like Edgar. Who is pretty bad at hiding his true identity - he can't help, but flirt with Celes. And Celes, being a surprisingly clever JRPG character, realizes that it's, indeed, Edgar. How refreshing.
The thieves don't want us on the ship, but we just hide on there, to reach South Figaro. In the Inn there, we talk to "Gerad" again, who still doesn't want to tell us the truth, and moves with his geam to the cave, that is connected to the castle.
Aside from that, we learn of a huge Shadow beneath the water, a legendary treasure that resurrects the dead and that someone named Duncan is still alive, and trains in the north of Narshe.
In the cave outside, we find Siegfried (huh, what a surprise), who warns us about monsters, before going inside (and taking all the treasure, I guess). Afte making it through part of the dungeon again, we enter Figaro castle. The people there are near dead, as they are running out of air.
After some time, we reach the engine room, where tentacles are tangled up in the engine. The thieves move to the treasure chamber in front, and Edgar finally drops the act, and asks us for help.
The fight was fun, but easy. Celes is simply overpowered, with her magic level ups and second level spells. If it had been harder, it could have been really interesting, with the tentacles being able to grab single party members.
We hide, when the thieves come back out. They think Gerad died, and go. Edgar doesn't care anymore, compared to Kefka, they did nothing. And with that, we finally get Edgar back.
Before stopping, I explored the castle again, but I think there was no new info. Except for a flashback, that I should have seen in the WoB, way earlier. Back then, I didn't sleep in there, so I just now saw the flashback, were we see Sabin not being able to take the death of his father.
It was interesting, that Edgar used his coin here too, the double headed one, that he used with Setzer. I guess, it should be an aha-moment, when Setzer finds out that it's double-headed. But it's nice, how he gave Sabin a chance to live a life outside the castle, without the pain of being reminded of his father. Also, Edgar just seems to be way more king-material than his brother. It was a very sweet scene.
So, that leaves us with three party members: Celes, Sabin and Edgar. I guess I missed Setzer somewhere, considering you only need him, Sabin and Celes to beat the game? And getting to the castle makes you get Edgar? Strange, I'll look around some more next time.
As mentioned, no spoilers please. I want to take the opportunity of exploring this last, open world on my own. I still remember way too much, anyway.
