The one where I forgot to buy armor!

So, tonight sucked. In hindsight, mostly my fault.

I ventured into Riesz’ penultimate dungeon, the Night Caverns. It has a stupid Dark Cave from Pokemon mechanic, where you can't see where you're going. Feel free to turn up the TV brightness. It leads to the final dungeon, the Dark Castle, but that’s a story for another day. Inside the cavern is the final Benevodon, Zable Fahr. The fight here is another strange one. The battle starts with two disembodied heads on either side of the platform. There are no apparent differences in attack patterns between the two. Hit them enough times, and they die, separately. When both go down, congratulations, you now have three disembodied heads to fight. The three heads do new magic that hits the whole party. They do hit hard and often, but I found Durran’s new ability to heal everyone at the same time to be more than capable of out healing the enemy. You can kill the old heads, but you need to beat up the female looking one in the middle. She’ll revive the old heads when they die, sometimes, so there may be no point in killing them. The worst she can do is a spell called Annihilate that one-hit KOs a character. Bring a full stock of Cup of Wishes.

After the fight, Fairy will give us some bad news. It turns out the Corrupted Sword of Mana has been absorbing the souls and mana of the defeated Benevodons. We’ve been playing right into their hand! Fairy encourages us to end this now before it gets worse. With that in mind, I continue onward. In the very next room is my corpse. I died...without saving... The Cave of Darkness is filled with mobs who chunk the whole team's HP, even with regular attacks. Riesz has good defense, so I’m not sure how? After getting over my rage, I go back in. I die before the boss. And then again. And then again. And then again. I can say I’ve never died to Zable, but reaching her was the problem. After I beat Zable again, I take a trip back to Peddas to buy armor for Durran and Angela. Despite it not working well for Riesz, it makes proceeding back into the cave a lot easier.

Expecting worse in the final dungeon, I try my hand at finding the best gear in the game. It sucks even worse than the cave! The ultimate equipment comes from Gear Seeds that function like all seeds. They’re horrifically rare to find and even rarer to have something worthwhile. This is a great place for farm ??? seeds, though, if you need them. During my two hours, I found one piece of armor. I found more, but they’re for other classes I didn’t take for Riesz. So, it was about one out of seven. I stayed around farming until I could afford the best weapons money can buy for Durran and Angela. With that in mind,

I called it a night.

I’m on the precipice of the final dungeon, so this may have worked out in the end. I’m at level 45, have the second best gear in the game, and ready to end this game tomorrow. What finally soiled me on Secret of Mana was the long final dungeon, so I hope the Dark Castle is better with this for several reasons. Finale tomorrow!

Trials of Mana Boss Rush: Benevodons

So, heads up, I’m gonna be editing this tomorrow since I already regret not just rushing through this port. The first three entries are from Monday, and the last three are from the following Tuesday.

Tonight was part one in tracking down and killing the ancient beasts, Benevodons. Each creature has a corresponding crystal it was housed in. The ones I fought tonight were all near the Mana Crystal they broke, so I imagine all of them will be going forward.

First up was the Wind 'Don, Dangaard. We were in Palos, for some reason, so it was nearby. I, for the umpteenth time, climbed the Heavensway, entered Gusthall, and walked to where Sylph was attacked. Riesz sees the Benevodon in the air and summons Flammie, whose head we stood on the whole battle. Dangaard flies around in a circle while we beat-up on him. He uses strong wind based magical attacks when he decides to stand still. Occasionally, the perspective will change from the usual top-down to side profile. Nothing changes when this happens, so I don’t know why. It will reset buffs and special gauge progress. This isn’t a hard fight, but good god is it long. It took more than ten minutes, and I used up all of my items. I don’t know if I’m underleveled again or what, but tedium isn’t a good game mechanic.

Next up was the Ice Benevodon, Fiegmund. Unlike Dangaard, he does have a dungeon tied to him. The Labyrinth of Ice turns out to actually be a labyrinth! Outside the place is a welcome sight. Two cat people are selling weapons and armor that are drastically better than what I have. Did I miss them before fighting Dangaard? Regardless, I spend an enormously large amount of money to buy everything and increased my power by 25%-ish. Inside are enemies weak to fire, but it’s still a pretty long walk to him. When you do get to Fiegmund, he tends to just stand around. After a time, he flips strategy. He ends up standing around under the ice where he can’t be attacked physically. Angela can still use her Fire spell, so spam then as best you can. Durran should heal, and Riesz might as well buff her more useful allies. Fiegmund's most common attack is a large ice spell that can turn a character into a snowman but doesn’t do too much damage. Maybe it was the new gear, but I found this guy to be easy.

Lastly, I went back to the Fiery Gorge. Behind the areas where flames blocked our path before lies Xan Bie. The dungeon to reach him is pretty rough and might be harder than the boss. When you do reach him...I didn’t really understand what was going on. There are two things to hit, one stationary body and a head surrounded by flames. I don’t know if the flames do anything. This whole fight is visually busy, and I got lost. I stood before the body and just hit him while Angela spammed her ice spell, and Durran did his thing. Occasionally, I had him heal since the damage we took wasn’t enough for me to waste sugar on. I’m still confused...

In each of these dungeons are mobs that drop a rare seed, ??? Seed. If you get one, you can use it class change into your final form. It’s incredibly rare and sucks to get, I hear, but I tried to grind for some tonight. I didn’t get any! With my self imposed time limit past, I called it a night on part one. I’ll finish the last three tomorrow and think about doing the last one, too. I hear it had some plot around it, so who knows?

I had some annoyances tonight, but I plowed through and to my target destination. And then I set myself up to glide to the end...mostly.

The first Benevodon I felled tonight was Dolon. Travel back to Chartmoon Tower, where we fought Goremon and met Kevin. When we were first here, all the doors were locked. Now, though, they’re wide open. Only one leads to our destination, with the others are empty or trap rooms. This pattern repeats a few times upward. It’s filled with various undead type mobs, but the werewolves are the only ones you need to worry about. They have the same moves as Goremon, meaning they occasionally cut your HP in half. And two can spawn at the same time, and you will die. At the top is a balcony where our target reveals himself. It turns out Dolan is a giant werewolf who climbed his way up to us. We can only see his hands and face. His physical attacks aren’t bad, but he can howl, which is a large attack on everyone. He also has several moon based magical attacks and can turn your characters tiny. He can, for the duration of the fight, reduce your maximum HP and lower your level. There’s gonna be a lot of healing in this fight, so prepare. I didn’t but succeeded regardless. :D After I won, I had the urge to go back in and grind. The very first room I entered was a room where I died. And I forgot to save... And then I died trying to kill Rolan again. Always save!

Next up was Mispolm in the Woods of Wandera. I went looking for the Earth one, but couldn’t find it and moved on. The cat people peddlers are selling new gear that is amazingly expensive! Mispolm’s dungeon is filled with pallet swamps of various forest creatures we’ve killed before, so bring poison cures if you want. His actual fight is another confusing one. He just stands there, and we attack him. He can throw a character around and likes to put people to sleep but is an easy fight. Bring Stardust Herbs along if you want.

I still couldn’t find the earth dungeon, so I went to the Shimmering Ruins. There’s finally a puzzle in this game! After walking through every room in the place, you come to two switch looking things, but there’s no way to interact with them. In the room above is a note on the wall that will tell us how. Use Lumina on the left switch, and a door behind us opens up to the start. Use Shade on the right, and the water level in a room goes down. I couldn’t find the room, got frustrated, died, lost two levels, and stopped having fun. Annoyed, I looked online for where the earth dungeon is to get the taste of this failure out of my mouth. I ended up randomly landing in the Molehill Plains, south of. Valsena, until I got somewhere new.

Gemstone Valley, Daria sucks. It’s filled with mobs that take no physical damage and take a bit to kill with magic. About three-fourths of the way through I, not learning my lesson, began trying to skip and speedhack my way through. I didn’t die, though, so it worked. And Land Umber continued my suffering. His physical attacks are weak, his magic isn’t much better, but he’s so slow. It takes forever for magic to be cast, his attacks have a long animation, and he’s got a lot of HP. This is the first fight where I really felt that the action in this action game slowed down. There is a turn order in this game, but there is no way to know that turn order, so you often just stand around trying to press the button you want. Tedium is not a good game mechanic.

I returned to the Shimmering Ruins, found the proper path, and went up against the last boss tonight, Lighthazer. It’s another lengthy fight. So long, in fact, Angela ran out of MP. She spammed Dark Force so much, doing 600 damage per tick, so often I had to use a Fairy Walnut. His attacks are more weak stuff. I only used three Honey Pots, so I'm trying to save my characters from diabetes. Light does like to turn our characters into Moogles, so bring some Stardust Herb.

After the fight, Fairy tells us about the lost city of Peddas that disappeared ten years ago in the Dragon War. She says the best equipment is located there. With that in mind...

I didn’t call it a night!

I was on a roll and wanted to keep playing, at least to get a ??? Seed or two. I found one before Lightgazer but wanted more. Unfortunately, all the mobs in the Benevodon dungeons are gone. Fortunately, Peddas is the best place to grind for them. I went to the Forest of Illusions and triggered the missing village to appear by walking into the ruined building. Upon exiting, the whole village is there. It's a village stuck in time from ten years ago. The inhabitants give us backstories on the three villainous factions, as well as a clue to where the Darkness Mana Crystal is. In the forest around the place are all mobs that drop the seeds. Riesz and Durran got the seeds I wanted in quick succession, but Angela took a lot longer. Just as I reached level 38, I got the Book of Omens. Along with the Brisingamen and Prince Tag, I went to the only place I knew to class change: The Sanctuary of Mana.

This place isn’t doing so well anymore. What once was green and luscious is now brown and dead. Halfway through the place is the Goddess Statue we need. In the same fashion as we did before, all three characters now go beyond Super Saiyan. Riesz is now a Vanadis, Durran is a Liege, and Angela is a Magus. And I am content to call it a night.

I am now set up rush through the end. For the most part, at least. Those weapons in Peddas are nearly 400000 Gold. Riesz has her’s, but I’ve got some work to do for the others. Armor is a good price, so maybe I’ll buy them tomorrow and get the weapons later unless I get something better before. There's one more Benevodon tomorrow. I think we’re in the home stretch!

Sanctuary of Mana

With all the Mana Spirits on our side, it’s time to save the world!

We take Viscay to Oblivisle, and Fairy does her thing to operate the portal. All of the Mana Spirits encourage her as she prepares to use what little mana is still around. After a great and monumental buildup...she fails. There just isn’t enough mana in the world to open the routine. After our characters give her more encouragement, Fairy tries again. This time, a portal opens! Please note I said, "a portal". Fairy says that it isn’t she who opened it, but someone else.

We then cut to the three big evils. First, we see the Crimson Mage in Altena. He and his group say they’ll enter the portal and use what's inside for the Dragon Lord. They take their giant flying battleship, which we’ll learn is named the Gigantress.

We then jump to the Beastmen, who want to have superiority over the humans. Goremon and his associates take flying creatures through the portal.

Lastly is Belladonna and Nevarl, namely the man we met on the volcano island, Malocchio. They want to revive their Dark Master and mention a new landscape, Mavolia.

We, however, have no way of reaching the floating portal. Riesz has an idea, though. She says her country has a Winged Defender that lives above her castle. If we travel to Laurent, we find a new NPC outside the castle that will open the way. It’s a straightforward path that takes us to a small, white dragon. If you’ve played another Mana game before, you’ll recognize this as Flammie. In this game, it’s a girl and functions the same as it usually does, or at least as it does in Secret.

We automatically fly to the portal and, when we land near the Mana Tree, see the bodies of footmen from all three evil factions. Everyone is dead. The three factions are fighting over the sword but are nowhere around now. As we travel closer to the Mana Tree, all we see are rabbites. They’re easy to kill and give 450 exp a room. I don’t know if it’s the best place to grind, but it a great, nonetheless.

The only problem with this place is finding the way to go. Here’s a hint: you can walk on lilypads. Travel north, and we eventually come to where we saw Fairy and her cohorts leave from. We stand before the Mana Tree and, bedded in it, the Sword of Mana. Despite Durran being the sword user, only Riesz can wield it. She approaches, prepares her mind, sees all the Mana Crystals resonate, and is able to pull it from the roots. We can’t use it in battle, but it’s ours. Riesz then asks Fairy what we’re supposed to do now.

...silence...

The Mana Goddess, or a shadow thereof, appears behind Riesz. She says that Fairy has been taken away, somehow, and states we need to get her back. She then gives us a Flammie Drum. We begin to walk back in hopes of something happening.

As we come to a bridge, we see the dark knight standing over the Crimson Mage. The knight says that something far more powerful is looming. Durran is upset he won’t be able to exact his revenge from the Mage. The knight then says not to let your guard down and disappears. As he does, he heavily implies a deeper relationship between him and Durran.

Later down the route, we see Goremon. He’s just a messenger that says the true evil is waiting for them at the exit. He’s not allowed to fight us and then does his best to flee the even more evil now in charge.

At the exit, we see Belladonna, Malacchio, and Fairy. Belly tells us, if we want Fairy back, come to Nevarl with the Mana Sword. Elliot is also brought up, but he remains a bit player at the moment. They teleport out, and we Flammie Drum away and back to our world.
Rather than go to Nevarl, I travel the world in my new airship. I see new places I can’t really go to now, but at least I kinda know their location on this terrible Mode 7 abomination. Out of places to procrastinate, I land in front of Nevarl Fortress. If you go up the middle, it’s a quick walk to the throne. There we see our enemies and Fairy. Reluctantly, we hand over the Mana Sword, and they corrupt it. According to legend, the sword can only be used by the one chosen by Fairy, but Belladonna and Mallo are so evil that they can ruin it. They do hold up their end of the bargain and free Fairy before teleporting out again.

Fairy re-possesses Riesz and shows us that all of the Mana Crystals are breaking. Belladonna has just unleashed the seven great evils on the world in the form of the Benevodons. Fairy suggests that we can defeat them if we take them on one by one before they merge, so we now have our next plot points...

While I’ll begin to do tomorrow!

I think playtime is over. Anytime there are seven great evils, things are gonna be rough. Oh, dear, seven bosses... Where do I grind? Also, the Sanctuary music is the best in the game so far. Most of the OST has been very mediocre, but this one is actually good.

Final Four Mana Spirits

After some more wandering around the Burning Sands, I accidentally found the correct way to go. The path down in the lava cave was hidden by Riesz’ health bar... SNES game design, man.

We quickly meet Belladonna and Jessica, where the evil one threatens to throw the innocent one into the lava. Suddenly, a dart appears from behind us and hits Belly. She drops Jess on the ground, and Hawkeye rushes forward to keep her safe. Belly retreats deeper into the cavern. Hawkeye takes his girlfriend back to Diin, the oasis city I accidentally found while wandering, and we advance forward to see the Fire Crystal steaming. Belladonna had planned to sacrifice Jessica to the Fire Crystal until we showed up, so she had to use the souls of Bil and Ben instead. She reminds us of her Dark Master and flies off. The Mana Crystal is still steaming and its spirit, Salamando, appears. He’s vehement that his crystal was tampered with and vows vengeance. He joins up and teaches Angela her fire spell and Riesz, a physical damage buff. He and Fairly wonder about the Benevodons. We wander back to Diin, where Hawkeye is watching over a sleeping Jessica. Nothing else is here, so return to Vascay and head for the fifth spirit.

For me, that would be Undine, but I think it can be either way around. I found another beach hidden behind icebergs in the north, which is the way to the Hamlet Village Alrant, in Altenian territory. The inhabitants say the queen once kept this village warm but no longer does. This is the first place that sells multiple weapons for a character, so be careful that you’re buying the strongest one. I think it’s all based on class, so had I went to the other class, I’d have a different selection. It’s also expensive. I was able to buy what I needed now, but that’ll change later. For now, we head south and into Frostbite Fields. This place is a long maze filled with mobs that only kinda do a lot of damage. It’s surprisingly manageable after what I’ve been through. I really wish I had come here first... Eventually, we find the black knight that attacked Sylph. He tells us that he fights for the Dragon Lord, the villain that Durran’s homeland fought against. At this, Durren becomes enraged. If the Dragon Lord is alive, that means his dad died for nothing. The black knight becomes silent, disappears, and summons three of those adorable murder bots.

Don’t use magic! I can not stress that enough. If you do, they will counter with a teamwide lightning attack. It hits hard and will kill you! Treat them like a traditional, extended fight, and they go down in time. Use diabetes tactics if/when need be.

Beyond this fight is the terribly named Labyrinth of Ice. It’s one open floor room, not even remotely labyrinthian, that contains the Mana Crystal. While the party is stating how determined they are to save the world, Undine appears. She’s crying because our story is so touching. She joins us, and the usual things happen. It's worth noting, Riesz asks why we don’t let them open the portal to the mana realm and get to the Mana Sword before they do? Fairy responds, saying the portal would drain all the mana left in the world.

With Undine aboard, we can open up another path elsewhere. Take Viscay to a river south of the Golden Road, where one of our new Spirits will destroy the gargoyle blocking our way, and we reach the Moonlight Town, Mintas. It’s a village where it’s always midnight. At least it looks so, but I didn’t check if time still flowed. There are more new weapons and armor in the shops, and the townsfolk say how Beastmen are from the area. They’re not usually aggressive, though. The Duskmoon Forest is our destination and, through it, is the Moon Mana Crystal. In an area where the goddess statue is Karl’s Grave. Who's Karl? Past the statue are two Beastmen, Liegar and Goremon. Goremon is sacrificing Altenian mages to someone until Kevin, the last could-be hero we’ve met, shows up. We learn Kevin is the prince of the Beastmen, Karl's friend, Ludgar's enemy, and doesn't want to be king. Kevin is knocked out after Ludgar shows up. We then make our appearance and end up fighting Ludgar, while Goremon runs into the castle behind him.

Ludgar isn’t that hard. He spams a teamwide, physical attack that nearly halves our HP, but otherwise, isn’t a problem. Diabetes strat and whail on him. Kevin wakes up in time to say a farewell to his longtime rival. Suddenly, Luna, the Moon Mana Spirit, shows up and answers Kevin’s final request. Kevin wanted Ludgar's next life to be better. Kevin is the heir to the Beastmen, despite not wanting it, and Ludgar is more qualified. Luna turns Ludgar into a baby and will challenge Kevin in a few years for the throne. Kevin defends the fort we’re about to enter, and we go into the Chartmoon Tower. The only thing here is the Moon Mana Crystal.

The final spirit is on the eastern side of the Altenian continent. It’s usually blocked by a plant, but Luna can remove it. On the otherside is Charlotte, who’s here to look for medicine for her grandpa. The barrier he put up uses forbidden magic and came with a curse she’s trying to cure. Since she’s upset we left her in the Cascade Caverns, she runs off. We find her beset by mobs in the next room. We save her with ease, and she says she’ll follow us after giving us the trick of navigating through here. Follow the Red Flowers that bloom at night. If we do that, we come to the Elvin Village of Dior. All the inhabitants hate humans and won’t talk to us yet. We find the Elder, and Charlotte catches up. The Elder recognizes her instantly and informs Charlotte that her mother is from this town. Her dad is a human from somewhere else. Charlotte is a half-elf, and both of her parents are dead somewhere. Charlotte, crying the tears you’d expect a child to cry, runs out of the house. The Elder tells us that Luna can open a new path near the Golden Goddess Statue, so we make our way there. The new weapons and armor are super expensive. I was only able to afford the weapons because I’ve learned nothing from complaining about my defenses. The mobs in the last two areas haven’t been a problem, so I’m confident.

As I should have been. The Lampbloom Woods is straightforward and easy to navigate. Eventually, we come to the boss, Grapplevine. There are two parts to this fight. Part one has him summoning mobs that are easily felled with Angela’s magic and Riesz’ new special skill. The second part is a bit harder. Ultimately, though, it was one of the easiest boss fights in a long time. I barely gave anyone diabetes! Had to use a few cups of wishes, mind you, but less sugar. I’m glad I didn’t play this game when I was younger. I’d have eaten more sugar than I did.

After we beat Grapplevie, Dryad shows up. He’s the Mana Spirit of the Wood and claims he’d slow us down. Riesz and Fairy convince him he’s still strong, and he joins us. With all the Mana Spirits as allies, Fairy encourages us to travel to Oblivisle. That’s where she entered this world from and where we’ll enter hers. I’ve already been there since it’s so close to the Valsena shore, so I know my destination!

Which I’ll do tomorrow!

Armor is expensive, though, so I’m gonna grind some money. I have an idea of what’s about to happen, and I want to be prepared for it. Tonight was enjoyable and pretty peaceful. Almost too much, actually. I made a lot of steps but didn’t feel like I advanced much. I learned a lot about characters I didn’t bring along, but I kinda wish I had. Charlotte seems a lot more interesting, and I want to know who Kevin is. Riesz' arc has been solved, and she's a bit boring now. I might end-up playing a second time through. That’s always a sign of a good game.

I have done horrible things to my stats.

I’m fine with Angela having a decent strength stat, but I’ve messed up big with Riesz. I’ve put about 45% f her stats into Spirit, a skill that doesn’t help her at all. I’ve also thrown some into Dexterity for everyone. That explains why I stopped having fun. I’m gonna need to rush some Stamina for the next few levels.

So let’s get them! We canon our way to Valsena and meetup with the Hero King. He tells us the locations of the remaining four Mana Spirits and who the giant turtle is. Viscav is his name, and he can be summoned by a magical flute. A flute that the Hero King has and gives to us. Viscay can be summoned at any beach in the game. I’ve been wondering why every field location had a beach. Viscay acts as the boat in this game. It’s hard navigating, as the world map isn’t overhead but a mode seven abomination.

Regardless, I take turtle boy around the world and find that most of the new locations are inaccessible at the moment. All but one is blocked behind some form of barrier. The only place we can get to is the desert in the southeast. Welcome to Sirhtan. Buy new gear and walk into the desert. Here is where I took a break from the plot. I was one level away from the class change, so I walked around grinding for a while. I got my butt kicked... When I got to level eighteen, I returned to Gusthall and became a Super Saiyan.

Riesz is now a Valkyrie. I was thinking about going Rune Maiden, as it has the better gear, but I opted to get buffs instead. My goal is Vanadis, as it has buff magic and the most sensible armor from the official renders.

Durran is now a Knight. And I have a healer! I’m planning on him going towards the Lord class because I dig the Viking aesthetic I’m building. His best weapon in that class is named Balming. So, maybe not Viking but Germanic. Close enough!

Angela is a Mysticist. I don’t know why. I should have gone towards Rune Diviner, but I think her scantly clad Magus costume confused me. Either that or mass target damage?

I return to Valaena to buy the four shields Durran can use before going back to Sirhtan. Since we're around the Fire Spirit, I think it reasonable to have the Fire Shield equipped. I wander around for a bit and find the Nevarl castle. I can’t get inside. I continue to wander until I stumble upon Belladonna, Bil, Ben, and a mysterious woman, who I think is Jessica. Belly takes Jess away while we have a rematch with Bil and Ben. It’s just as annoying, even with new classes. Fortunately, I have a full assortment of items, so, ya know, diabetes...

Afterwards, the only way to go is south and into a lava filled cavern. I hit a flame wall, got lost, returned to town, and called it a night.

Class change may have saved my run. It seemed to even out the stat problem I said I had up top, but I still feel fragile. The class change seemed to have averaged out all the stats as everyone has low double digit points everywhere. Everyone now has above even defense, although Durren still tanks better than Riesz. I’m confused as to if any of those levels meant anything, but whatever. I’m happy but still worried, and I’m remotivated to keep playing. Salamander tomorrow?

I’m not having fun anymore!

Tonight was a slough, and I’m starting to hate the game.

Still on the mountain tops of Gusthall, I take the surprisingly quick exit and return to the flower field. There, we see two people. I talked to the Amazon waiting for us and had the option to summon Sylph. He did the plan, and the flower spores put the trespassers in the castle to sleep. The Resistance takes their places in and around the castle. We’re told to prepare in case anyone is still awake, and given two barrels of supplies. We’re gonna need them. The areas we had access to in the prologue are clean, but, as we approach the western wing, assassins begin to appear from the shadows. There was an area that was blocked off to us when we first started, but it's wide open now.


We climb the floors and stairs up to the citadel, taking heavy losses along the way. The barrel of candies was used early and often here, but I managed to make my way to the Golden Goddess Statue. Beyond that, however, is exhibit A to the case of why tonight wasn't fun.

First up is an evil chimney. The boss, Zehnoa, can summon various, powered-up mobs we’ve fought a few times before. It is often a three-on-three fight. This seems fair, but when one of the competitors has several thousands of HP and can still attack AND tank just doesn’t seem right. Not only that, but I think my controls began to fade here. Either that or the ring menu sucks more than it did, and there’s a turn order we can’t do anything with. I would often try to switch to Angela’s magic menu, but that was frequently delayed. Healing was also affected by this, and I wound up wasting a chocolate or two on dead characters. Using items is instant, and you can't target the dead. I scream silently... When Angela wasn’t dead, I had her use Holy Bolt often. Every other spell did no damage. Ultimately, Zehnoa is a boss and sure feels like a boss. It draining all of my candies and cup of wishes should be suspected, but what came next is exhibit B.

Bil and Ben show up in the room directly afterwards. They give you no time to restock or even save. Before the fight, they talk about Belladonna, their queen, and how cool she is. Yadda yadda...

Bil and Ben start the game by fusing together. So far, it’s going well. I can hit them, and they’re not too terrible. And then they split up. They have no cooldown on their extremely high damaging, party-wide attacks that knock us away from them. Because we’re knocked backed, getting hits in is hard. Due to the pixel graphics, this entire fight is not only incredibly hard, but chaotic, and I have no idea what’s going on. I randomly heal a character I just healed because the warning klaxon went off. Trying to use magic is just as slow as it was before. I’m still out of everything from Zehnoa, by the way! On my second attempt, only Darren survived with less than 100 HP left. I don’t know if I’m underleveled or missing gear, but I hated this. With the assassins gone, I’m free to talk to Belladonna. She doesn’t stay too long, and I’m too flustered to remember what happened. Something about Elliot, I think. Also, in the middle of the climb, we met Hawkeye, the thief that could have been a character. He’s a Nevarl turncoat who hates Belladonna because she cursed his girlfriend, Jessica, or something. And I think she conquered Nevarl and turned the thieves into assassins. He also tries to kiss Riesz because Square loves rapey thieves.

After this, we’re reminded to return to Valsena. I make our way down from the freed castle, which we’re still locked out from, and down to Palos. The townfolk and merchants have sieged weapons and armor from the fleeing thieves and are selling it to us. At the dock is a new ship that takes us to Beison. I don’t know why we’re going to the Merchant City, but we hop aboard anyway. It takes a long, circulations route, and blah blah, it’s a ghost ship.

It’s inhabited by zombies, who keep poisoning us. I run low on HP early and often. To make matters worse, halfway through the, albeit short, dungeon, Riesz gets taken away from us. She gets turned into a ghost, so she can’t fight. To free her, Durran and Angela have to kill the boss. The boss is on the deck and easy, but it’s still exhibit C. I want to play as Riesz. Why would removing the main character in an already rough dungeon be a good idea? I don’t think she missed out on EXP, so cool, and I think she’s my weakest character, so blessing in disguise? Also, why is she so weak? Durran does more damage and has more HP, and Angela is fragile but does high magic damage to everyone. What’s the point here?

After we beat the boss, Shade, the Mana Spirit of Darkness, shows himself and says his Mana Crystal is gone from this world. The benovoeon it housed is, likewise, MIA. No one knows what’s going on. Also, also, the ghost ship sinks.

We float to a nearby beach on a volcanic island. The volcano is about to erupt, by the way. By the way, again, here’s exhibit D, E, F, and G.

D: The music here is amongst the worst in any video game. It’s repetitive, clangy, and gave me a headache. I had to mute my TV, which lowered my ability to hear the damage delivered and received, as well as the warning klaxon.

E: There are nine and a half million enemies. All of them hit hard, have hundreds of HP, and make my controller feel like it's breaking. It’s the Zehnoa boss strung out for an hour.
F: The place is a maze. And with limited healing options...
G: What was the point of it? Fine, I get the ghost ship for Shade, but there was no great plot here. We met the guy who bought Elliot and may be Belladonna’s boss. We're saved when we ride on the back of a giant turtle. Tomato Village offered no new NPC or memorable moments.

Anyway, the turtle took us back to the Golden Path. I went to the inn in Maia, saved, and called it a night.

I hate this game suddenly. Am I underleveled? The guide I followed might be about the remake, so I don't know. If this game needs that much grinding, I might drop it. I’m at the same level as the mobs... Maybe a good class change will solve everything, so I'll look into that while I wait for my family to wake up and open presents. Merry Christmas. Try to avoid headaches like Tomato Village’s music and suicidal NPCs. I never thought I’d yearn for Gaia's navel...

I get lost a lot.

I broke outta lockdown (I’m probably not sick) and played Super Smash Brothers Ultimate with a few friends, so I didn’t get much play in tonight. I tried to cram some in, though.

I walk east out of Palo and enter the Heavensway. It’s a rocky plain like area that eventually starts leading upwards in elevation into the mountains. And here’s where I got lost! There are a lot of forked paths in this area. The one we need was the last possible path I could walk. I traveled everywhere else, up to the castle gates and even the dungeon I’ll be going into later, before finding the correct path. After aimlessly walking around for twenty minutes, I walk into a field of flowers. It is a beautiful area, and I want to know what it looks like in the remake. We walk further and further in until everyone passes out.

We wake up in a bed with an Amazon nearby. We’ve entered the secret hideout of the Laurent Resistance, survivors of the Nevarl raid. For some reason, they took our shoes off and placed us in the same state of undress as if we’d rented a room at the inn, which is sketchy because Angela seems to sleep naked. I think all the Amazons are women, though, so...uh...? We walk through the hideout and talk to the leader, the old groundskeeper of the castle. He informs us we should search for a better strategist, Donperi. Donperi aided the Hero King of Valcena during their Dragon Lord campaign many years ago. The thing is, he’s not human. He’s a koropokkur, a very tiny humanoid creature that lives in the Rabbite Forest. To reach him, we need to find the Minor Mallet. There were rumors of such an item in Beiser, so we head there. In the Night Market is a new merchant who isn’t having fun in her new job. She gives us the mallet with no questions asked and quits. I don’t like this. It’s nice that it's easy to get, but it’s very boring and deus ex-y (not the game).

Travel back to Jadd, which is free now, not by us but by the new barrier erected by the Wendel Priest. The cave to Wendel is blocked again, so we can’t backtrack that far. Near to where we met Fairy is a gargoyle statue. Use the mallet to make your party small, and the statue will open up a path to the village. We convince the guy at the front of town we’re one of them and then ask him if he knows who Donpuri is. He yells at us to look for him ourselves. After talking to people in the trees, one gives us the idea that the guy at the gate was Donperi. We go talk to him, and he confesses. He knew all along that we weren't one of his kind but wanted to play a trick on us. He then gives us the knowledge we need. He tells us to find Sylph in the Gusthall near Laurent. Sylph can then spread the sleep flower spores across the Nevarl troops in the castle, and we can move in afterwards. I’m really annoyed since we were supposed to find Sylph already and were just there! A statue blocked our path, so why did we need to backtrack!?

We return to the mountains and enter Gusthall. It’s a dungeon where various paths are blocked by strong winds coming from statues. Feel free to spam Gnome magic in here, as it can one-shot most mobs, and, once again, I got lost. I think I’m supposed to get lost, so I’m slightly not salty. YOu can press green switches on the walls near the wind statues to change their direction, which is needed to advance. Eventually, I reach a Golden Goddess Statue to refill my HP and MP. Many of the mobs can do a lot of damage, so it’s quite welcome. Save and continue eastward. We enter a room with the Wind Mana Crystal, the first we’ve seen all game. Fairy tells us the Benovodons, ancient mana beasts that once tried to destroy the world are housed in the Mana Crystals. Sylph, however, is nowhere to be seen. If we interact with the crystal, Fairy asks us to focus our mind to class change. I lack the needed level, so remember to come back later on. Keep going west, and we see a dark knight attacking Sylph. As we approach, he retreats, and a Harpe, Harcypete, attacks us.

She’s surprisingly easy. Have Angela spam Diamond Shard, doing about 200 damage for only 2 MP. It’s far more effective than Riesz and Durran’s physical attacks. She also doesn’t seem to do a lot of damage, physical or magical. Go figure.

After we fell the summoned beast, we heal Sylph up, and he joins us because we saved his life. He also teaches Angela Cyclone when she levels up. After this, I return to the statue and called it a night.

I wish there were treasure chests in this game. And not just the trapped stuff from mobs. I don’t feel rewarded for getting lost and exploring. Maybe that’s just me, I dunno. Also, why did this take so long to write? Two hours of playtime should not be nearly two hours of typing!

Plot advancement for back-up characters.

We left off locked in a dungeon somewhere. The save data said Jadd, so I guess we’ve returned to where we started from.

We quickly and easily beat up the feral Beastmen and decide to not save the noble in the throne room. He’s just sitting there, asking for help, but we have no option of doing anything. Weird. We then do the same in the town. I wonder what would have happened if I waited until daytime? Regardless, I have no idea what happens if you leave through the front gate, but I went back to the docks where the shipman took us to the Free City of Maia.

Townsfolk references the dwarfs nearby, but the interesting person is in the northeast. A man named Bon Voyage lives with his sister, Van Sour. They have a cannon in their backyard, and he’s looking for an ignition agent, but we’ll get back to that soon. What we’re supposed to do is exit the town and walk on the Golden Road.

This place sucks. Everyone can poison you, and using items is a bit tedious in this game. Because I hate the ring menu, I mostly power through it, getting my butt kicked the whole time. If you stay on the trail, you come to the Merchant Town Beiser. The gate is blocked by people who don’t let us in because we could be spies. I think we can skip this, but there’s a cave shortly before this that we can’t. Deep in the cave is a bridge that usually leads to Valsena, where Durran is from. Today, though, it leads to doom. The bridge is defended by Atena, where Angela is from, and their small army of tiny murder bots. The Altenian mages have labeled Angela for death and try to detain her. Riesz and Durren are guilty by association. To do this, they attack us with two adorable murder robots.

They’re very good at their job! The first time I fought them, they won. The second time was a long hard battle where I, once again, gave my characters diabetes and had to use a Cup of Wishes, this games Phoenix Down, on Angela. I learned how to use magic at the very end, which I wish I knew sooner. Holy Bolt does a lot of damage to every enemy on screen, and I end up spamming it going forward. As we finish off the murder bot, it slowly walks towards us while we casually move to the middle of the bridge. As it reaches us, everyone notices that the murder bot becomes a murder bomb and explodes! Fortunately, it doesn’t do anything to the party, but it does destroy the bridge.

Angela and Durran bond for a moment, as they both declare vengeance on the Crimson Wizard. He’s the one who beat up Durran and tried to change Angela’s mom, telling her to kill her daughter. After learning more backstory on our allies, we return to Gaia. Here’s where we discover Bon Voyage is looking for an igniting agent, which he thinks the dwarfs have. We return to the caves and talk to the Goddess Statue to initiate a conversation. If we select Lumina, s/he (she from henceforth) states the dwarfs use illusionary magics to hide from humans. She will open the way, and we descend to the Dwarf Tunnels. The dwarfs down here are mildly racist, calling us Topsoilsrs, but are friendly enough. They sell us new weapons and armor with no twists and fair prices. One tells us about Watts, who has the agent we need, and where to find him. Another dwarf opens the path, and we go down to the dungeon, The Jewel Valley Daria.

Nothing down here is too dangerous. On one screen, we fight mobs while a dwarf watches on behind bars. He doesn’t talk to us, but it does give us a notice that a room is back there. Behind a secret wall in the next screen is the way to Watts. After we ask him about the igniting agent, he offers to sell it to us. First, he says it's 5000 Gold, and the second offer is 3000. I can’t afford that, so he yells at us, saying he needs to find Gnome, the Earth Mana Spirit and patron deity to the dwarfs, and runs off. We chase after him until we meet the dungeon boss.

The Gem Eater, a legendary beast that wakes up every 1000 years and looks like a mole rat, attacks. It’s...a fight, alright. It mostly stands in the corner and lets us beat upon it. It physically attacks, too, but the main issue is the spells it uses. It can do a lot of damage to one character, so keep your HP above 50. Occasionally, it tries to block physical damage, which it does well. It opens back up when Angela starts casting a spell on it.

When the mole rat dies, Watts gives us the agent and magical ropes us out of the caves, as thanks for saving their god. Walk back to Gaia and deliver it to Bon Voyage, who feigns ignorance of us before launching us to the capital of Valsena. Or tries to, at least. He’s a terrible shot, and he launches us nowhere near the city, but we are close enough to walk to it after a long trek. As we reach the castle, we see Altena attacking! We give chase, beating up mages and chess horses the whole way up to the throne room. There we interrupt the Crimson Mage and the Hero King of Valsema. Mage quickly flees, and we save a city! The Hero King says he knows the True Queen of Altena, the name of Angela’s mom, and wonders what happened to her. He also mentions that we are doing what we once did long ago. His Fairy died during the quest, though. He then informs us that our next goal is in Laurent, where the Mana Spirit of the Wind resides.

A new cannon is made in the courtyard, which we use to get back to Gaia. We walk to Bieser, which is now open for some reason. We get better gear and discover the city has a Night Market that's only open at night. If we go there then, Riesz meets a slaver who she thinks sold Elliot. He said he sold a kid who matched Elliot's description to a man with red eyes. She scares him into changing his life, after the other party members talk her out of killing him, and we hop a ship back to Laurent via the port town of Palos. I should have bought gear here, as it’s the same stuff sold in Beiser, and I support shopping locally. Lastly, I meet with the town’s resistance informer at the bar, who tells is to go to the Heavensway.

Before looking for that place and having our orders down, I called it a night.

I fully support the murder of slavers, so I’m getting into Riesz’s story. It’s about to get dicey for her, and I want to keep playing. So far, I’m really enjoying the game. The combat, while feeling simple, is still fun. The music isn’t as good as Secret of Mana, which is a real bummer...

Also, an edit from last night: Durren and Angela share the main villain. Riesz shares hers with the thief boy I don’t think I’ve found yet. Apparently, everyone but Charlotte is in Jadd, so it wasn’t happenstance.

Trails of Mana: Riesz

I played Secret of Mana a few years back, shortly after the remake was announced. I’ll be honest, I kinda didn’t like it. I saw the charm and how everyone could love it, but I found it mediocre. Maybe it's because I played it alone, but I thought it was more tedious than fun. When I announced this to the world, one of my friends told me the third game was better. Trails of Mana remaster came out a few months ago, and it looked fun! It inspired me to try my hand at the SNES version, and here we are. The music further encouraged me! I played a little bit of it a few months ago, during lockdown, and only played it for two hours before deciding to start this blog. It was an enjoyable experience, but I wanted to go a different route at the time. But now I’m back on the hype train, ready to give this a full shot.

As the title suggests, my main character will be the Amazoness, Amazon from henceforth, Riesz. My secondary will be Angela, for the magics, and Durran, for the tanks. I also think Riesz and Durran have the same enemy, so there’s a good connection. Angela just seems like the one I’d connect with the most, which is why I’m not running with Charlotte, the healer, or Kevin, the monk. Backstory aside, at least until the memorandum, let’s get on with it.

We start in the cliffs of Laurent, where a group of warriors has come for reasons dealing with the wind. Laurent is the Kingdom of Wind and is nearly impenetrable due to the strong winds around the castle. Riesz is the princess and priestess of Laurent, as well as the captain of the Amazon Warriors. Main character syndrome, I guess. Her Amazon warriors have come here to train, I guess. It’s not really stated why, but she sees a lone monster, and a fight ensues.

 It's somewhat hard. The fight is primarily an introduction to the combat system, which is an action focused, hack-and-slash type thing that mixes some turn based features in. You can’t spam the attack button, for example, or not if you want to deal full damage. If you hit something four times, you gain access to a special skill that does four times the damage. Ultimately, the wannabe boss fight is more long than hard, and the bird dies in due time. After the battle, Riesz says that the monsters have increased lately, and she can hear the cries of the wind.

We then go to the castle, where Riesz is looking for her younger brother, Elliot. He’s late for his training, so she goes looking for him. The first person I find is her father and king, Joster. She asks if he’s seen Elliot, to which he responds that that’s a dumb thing to ask a blind man. I approve of the humor so far. King Joster says he can sense his son on the castle grounds, and we continue our search. When the proper conditions are met, we see more backstory on the family. The Queen died giving birth to Elliot. This event greatly affected Riesz, who, after she cried as much as she could, turned those feelings into a positive and became a surrogate mother to him. We then see a scene where Elliot is talking to a shadow that soon reveals itself to be a magician. The magician turns into two and begins to manipulate the young boy into leading them to a sacred altar beneath the castle. Riesz may not know, but we do, so we guide her there.

While there, the magicians scare the boy and force him to turn off the winds that protect Laurent. They start by promising he’ll see his mother before outright threatening him, which he, being a small child, responds to and turns off the winds. Riesz shows up a minute too late. Before she can do anything else, the magicians, Bil and Ben, remind her that her blind father is missing his protector. What a terrible time for the country of Nevarl to now siege the castle. Riesz and Elliot leave, but Elliot trips and is left behind. The thieves kidnap Elliot. We can return, but we only gain minor dialogue where Riesz laments her predicament and blames herself.

She then rushes to her father, who tells her he knew this day would come but could do nothing to stop it. Something is wrong with the Mana in the world, and the priests in Wendel are the only ones who can help. He then dies of injuries before his daughter's eyes, with his last words being to save Elliot.

We then have a SNES cutscene showing Riesz leaving the castle and asking her mother for guidance. The winds return but far too late. Riesz travels down the cliffs and crags of her homeland before reaching a nearby village and sails to a town called Jadd. The credits roll, and the Final Fantasy Overture plays for some reason. The tutorial is over, and we’re on our own.

Jadd has been taken over by Beastmen, who don’t allow us to leave. Several citizens tell us the Beastmen become feral at night, which would the time to escape. We’re then introduced to the concept of time. In a SNES game? This would have blown my mind twenty-five years ago. While in town, we see the two characters I’ll be traveling with later, but they don’t join yet. I wonder if it’s happenstance they’re here now? To advance, sleep at the inn until night, or enter and exit a building when the lights go down. When it’s time, the guardsmen turn into animals that are easily dispatched. We then wander around the Rabbite Forest, trying not to kill the adorable rabbites because they’re adorable.

We head south until we come to the town of Astoria. To the northeast of the town is a cave we need to go to first. Try to enter, and we’re repelled by an unseen force. Return to the city and talk to various NPCs. One mentions seeing a light over the lake last night and wonders if he’ll see it again. Here, I make a minor mistake. I traverse more of the Rabbie Forest, killing the now waken rabbites I just claimed to love, and come to a place I’ll be back to soon. There’s nothing here now but the same NPC and dialogue. I got to level three, so it’s not all a waste. The way to progress is to stay at the inn overnight. In the middle of the night, we’re awoken by a bright light. We chase after it until we come to where I just was. The light reveals itself to be a fairy. Fairy mentions the Mana problems and says she’s out of energy. She then, sorta, possesses Riesz...but in a friendly way. A red light then appears from Astoria. We travel back and see the city in ruins with no survivors. Riesz and Fairy assume it’s the Beastmen.

They then travel back to the cave, and we see Angela there. She says the cave is blocked. Riesz says she can open it, Fairy does, and Angela joins up.

She gives us her backstory, which is a trounced version of what her tutorial would be. Her mom sucks, Angela got kicked out by an evil foreign mage, she gets minor amnesia, finds her way to Jadd, and is now here. We saw her sleeping in the inn there, so it checks out. Oddly, Angela says she’s not a dedicated mage.

Anyway, the three make their way through the Cascade Caverns until they stumble upon a child named Charlotte. She’s one of the could-be characters, so we get her backstory. She has the hots for one of the priests in Wendel and chased after him when he left. He was attacked, tried to save him, failed, and was locked out of her home in Wendel. When we opened the cave, she followed in and fell off a cliff where we save her. She has an annoying accent. Lotte runs off, and we casually go to Wendel.

After getting better gear, we go see the Priest of Light. The two characters ask for help in their overarching plots, with Angela being a bit snotty before Fairy pops out and says that the Mana Tree is dying. This then takes full precedence. The priest says that we need a hero to travel the world, going from Mana Crystal to Mana Crystal and repair everything. If we combine all the powers of the Mana Spirits, we should be able to venture into the Land of Mana and find the Mana Sword. The Mana Sword can save us all, somehow. The topic of Benevodons, ancient mana beasts, is also brought up. This likely means fighting a big bad boss somewhere, too. As luck would have it, the Light Mana Crystal is in the Cascade Caverns.

As we return, we see Charlotte beg us to let her join us. Had I picked her, I assume this is where she’d join us. Instead, we break her heart and leave her behind. We reach the deeper areas of the cave after Fairy siphons magic from a waterfall, allowing us to fly across small gaps between ledges. We continue on until we meet the first real boss of the game.

This dude is hard, man. Focus on its head and give your characters diabetes pounding candy, what this game calls potions. Angela died to poison, so bring some poison heals, too. I accepted Angela’s death and soloed the Fullmetal Hugger. Afterwards, we meet the Spirit of Light, Lumina. Fairy informed them of the plot while we were fighting vis telepathy, and Lumina teaches Angela some spells. I think. I didn’t check, honestly. I have a strange relationship with mages that I’ll get into somewhere else. With one spirit down, we start the search for the second. On our way out, we’re ambushed by Beastmen, who push us to the bottom of the cliff and kidnap us. They thank us for opening the cave to Wendel, and we switch to Fairy’s backstory.

She and three friends set out one day from the Forest of Mana to find the hero needed to save the world. Three of her friends had to return as their powers began to wane. She ended up alone until she found us. She needs our body to survive because of how low Mana levels are. Her form cannot subsistence in such conditions. The priest in Wendel also said we’re stuck together forever now. I hope she’s nice.

We return to Riesz and Angela, stuck in prison. We’re not there long as Durran tricks a guard into freeing him and then opens the door for us. With the first Mana Spirit aligned with us and a jailbreak about to happen, I called it a night.

I almost didn’t want to stop playing, and if I had read the Star of Bethlehem couldn’t be seen at 1 AM, I might have continued. Instead, I’ve been here for two hours, so good night.

If I were ten years younger...

In the middle of a global pandemic, where depression rates have gone up, I sometimes wonder about how Dark Aged me would be handling this lockdown. I’ve alluded to this period in my life a few times in these writings, especially while playing Legend of Dragoon. It was the most depressed I’ve ever been in the two to four years after high school.

I was all alone; not even my dog didn’t wanted to be around me. All my friends were doing their things: work, school, relationships. My family, while always combative, seemed to consider me less a son than a cancerous rat. I was unemployed. I hadn’t even gone insane and fell in love with my stuffed animal yet. I was truly all alone. All I was doing was writing terrible poems, playing video games I don’t remember, and watching sad anime. I made a suicide pack I never followed through on, and it was just a terrible time to be alive. One I’m still dealing with the effects of.

It’s, honestly, a lot like it is now. However, I’m actually feeling rather cool these days. Maybe it’s because I have a good excuse and simply aren’t a total failure, but I’m not having any of the social deprivation problems I had. I’m, mostly, happy, active, and, until recently, kinda hopeful.

I have some contact with friends via the evil social media and phones. Youtube is a thing, and, while not being an active participant, conversations between friends are oddly welcoming. Spotify has a constant stream of new and good music and podcasts. I’m eating better and moving more. I’m avoiding my family by sleeping through the day. Lucy is cute, soft, wonderful, and keeps me alive. I wish I was still writing poems or something, but what can ya do?

Honestly, I’m kinda regretting the vaccine development. If the world goes back to normal, what’s gonna happen to me? It’s for selfish reasons, and I still want to get it. I know my feelings here are wrong, and I do want the world to go back to normal. I can’t wait to Smash my friends with Sephiroth, Cloud, Greninja, Inkling, Simon, and Rosalina. Please ignore my terrible reasoning that not even I believe in.

Like, my life still sucks for all the same reasons. I’m probably even worse off, considering I wasn't in thousands of dollars of student loan debt AND have wasted ten years of my life. Why am I happy!?

I don’t know how to answer this, and this whole update was a complete waste of time. It’s just something I’ve thought about for a while and wanted to jot things down. Maybe I’ll update this, maybe I won’t. I was re-editing some old stuff over the last few days, and it's was delaying the start of a new game. I'm done now, so all is set to play Trails of Mana (SNES) on Monday.

A tale of love and despair in a ruined world.

Final Fantasy VI was released as Final Fantasy III in 1994 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It was a very different game from what came before. Other installments had a set cast of characters, many of which the player could build as they saw fit. VI, however, had a wide cast with a mix of set skills and an open learning system. In the years since its release, it has become known as a classic loved by millions worldwide. And for good reason, too.

The most notable thing Final Fantasy VI does is have a massive list of playable characters with no true main character. Including the secret characters, there are fourteen in total, and four of them can be viewed as the main character. Each had a unique playstyle and interesting character arc. With this comes good and bad. There are a handful of characters that anyone can get attached to. There are also a handful of characters that people can hate. I often spoke about how much I think Locke sucks, so let's finalize that here. I’ll just talk about in battle characteristics, for now. I never found his damage to be good and his unique skill, Steal, has such an awful success rate that it’s more detrimental to have him on your team. Setzer is a gambler through and through. His special, Slots, is something that I never really understood. You select his stuff, and a slot machine interface shows up. I used it as often as I could, and I only “won” once. A mini-airship appeared on screen to do nominal damage. Every other time, I was healed for a few dozen hit points. He’s unreliable, and hitting the jackpot is underwhelming compared to the damage other characters do. Some characters also aren’t very unique. Strago is the clear Blue Mage, but Gau and Relm also have specials that involve enemy skills. The last two involve borderline random, unreliable damage. Relm has a lot of utility if you equip her with a FakeMoustqche, allowing her to control the enemies, so she gets a pass. Gau's massive list of nothing, though, is disappointing. Mog would also fit into the random and unreliable category. You can’t control what Dance he does, and I found their damage, in the rare event they actually hit, to be pretty low. Many of his dances can inflict death on an enemy, but the ones you need that to work on are immune to the effect, meaning it's another wasted turn.

Several other good characters also have questionable skills. Cyan’s SwdTech meter charges so slowly you never get to the max charge unless you want to risk your other characters being killed. Celes' Runic has odd timing, sometimes letting spells through before you select another action. I never used Terra’s Morph skill. I think it’s supposed to double damage given and received. On the flip side, Edgar used his spear to attack less often than I used Slots. As far as I'm concerned, he's the first drill user in RPGs. Shadow uses Throw as a special, which is something I rarely do in games. It’s nice, and I have nothing negative to say about it if you're into that thing.

While we’re on the topic of battle, let’s talk about the leveling system. It's awful. You only gain stats when an Esper is equipped, and that stat is dependent on the Esper. It’s tedious, annoying, and wasteful. If you’re trying to learn a spell, you run the risk of losing out on stats. And there’s only so many stats of a particular type around. There are two good Vigor and Magic training Espers in the whole game, and two of them are found late into the plot. If you’re trying to level two physical attackers, one will fall behind. The same can be said for mages. And other stats are mostly useless. The HP/MP trainers are so small you’ll never notice the difference, and Stamina has no bearing on the game. Period. Some Espers don’t give you anything. In between the two worlds, some characters advance fifteen levels. They gain no stats during that time. This is my least favorite thing about FFVI by a wide margin. It's even worse than Locke.

My second least favorite thing is how indifferent half of the characters are to the overarching plot while having terrible personalities or no reason to be playable. First up is my least favorite character in any video game: Setzer. Firstly, he was going to rape Maria. He’s not a hero and doesn’t belong in the party for that alone. Secondly, he has no reason to be with the group. In the original Japanese script, he says the Empire is costing him money, but in the NA script, they’ve made him money. Even going by the JP version, why does he stay with the crew? How has Gesthal affected him? Have they outlawed gambling, his only character trait? He’s even given up on fighting in the WoR. Locke keeps the corpse of his dead girlfriend in his basement. There are a lot of red flags there, Celes. He does, though, give us a reason why he joined the Returners, but it’s one line and has no follow-up. This is odd because we know Rachel was killed by the Empire, so just make mention of her and not some random person who got locked up and died in jail. Also, Locke sucks. Gau has even less reason to join the party. He wasn’t affected at all by the Empire. Even the end of the world didn’t change him. The same can be said for Mog. "Ramuh told him to" is his only reason. Why did Ramuh tell him and not, say, General Leo? There’s a third of the cast that doesn’t belong. I believe that if those four characters were gone, then what the game does best would shine even brighter. Let us know more about the important characters, or make the less important ones (the Thamasa Crew) feel like they belong.

The characters that do matter are among the best in the genre. Celes is a, literal, tortured former general of the enemy who ends up being the driving force of change in the second half of the game. Her arc from being a lost soul, unsure of her place in the world because her friends don’t trust her, to being the last bit of hope in a dead world is deserving of a main character nod. Cid dying and her attempted suicide may be profound, but the finding of a family and wanting everyone still alive to be happy is the whole plot in the WoR. And couple her with the main villain, Kefka. They both were generals of the Empire who were human guinea pigs for human-magic hybrids. Celes could just as easily became what Kefka is, and I’ve always wondered what made the two different.

Terra is a young woman who’s never had a past. She’s been controlled by the Empire her entire life, never allowed to live. She was confused by love and emotions, unsure of herself and her lineage, before finding love as a motherly figure for a group of orphans in the WoR and ending her journey. It’s a simple and understandable twist.

Edgar and Locke are two sides of the same coin. Both fair and strong with similar goals, but each has different ways of reaching those goals.

Cyan saw his entire kingdom, king, and family die. The last he witnessed three times. He could have easily attempted suicide, like Celes, but didn’t. He remained resolute, even through despair, and wanted to keep others from feeling the same. I almost started crying typing that.

Locke has plot relevance, but, again, the corpse of his girlfriend is in his basement...

Kefka is an over-the-top villain with a number of funny and witty oneliners, as well as capable of mass destruction without blinking an eye. He's memorable and someone you want to kill. Not only that, but he's one of the few villains to actually achieve his dream of world destruction. Why isn't he in Smash?

Now, it’s not perfect. I like Relm and Strago, but what are their arcs and character growth? I’m fine with them lacking individuality, but they don’t change throughout the game. They have a reason to join the party, but there should be more there. I also like Mog, but I won’t restate what I've already said. The point I’m trying to make is the “bad” characters bring down the amazing ones. How much more could we learn about the first six characters if the boring ones were gone? I want to know more about Celes and Terra’s upbringing. There’s some dialogue where Celes says she’s known of Terra. Go into detail! The same can be said for the Figaro brothers. Why is Sabin a monk while Edgar is a nobleman? I'd like to have seen more Cyan and Celes' rivalry. It's worth more than just the introduction scene.

Another thing VI does amazingly is the music. Terra’s theme may be the best overworld theme ever. Celes, and the opera scene it shares a motif with, are as iconic as any Uematsu, Mitsuda, Sakuraba, or Kondo song ever composed. I’m a sucker for One Winged Angel, but Dancing Mad is just as deserving of praise. The calming songs are perfect and meditative, while the action tunes are catchy and get me in the mood to fight. There’s a reason FFVI has so many remixes on OverClocked Remix.

I just want to say a quick thing about a potential remake. I think VI was more deserving than VII. Clean some things up, remove the technical limitations the SNES brought about, and a lot of my problems would be gone. All they'd have to do, storywise, is let Locke bury Rachel. I’m not upset he’s not over her. It took me four years to get over my first broken heart, so I understand, but why did he steal the body from the grave? Why would Celes fall in love with that creep? Feel free to make him an Unquiet Grave type character. As for Setzer, have Daryl killed by the Empire and make him an opera fan there to see Maria. Ultros tries to kill Celes/Maria, and Setzer joins us to save her. Give the other characters some depth and make the leveling system better, and you have a game that’s as good as the most diehard VI fan thinks it is.

Lastly, I’ll talk about my Job Class Challenge. I feel like it failed. Due to the magic system being tied to Espers and stat games, a lot of characters learned magic I didn’t want them to. Sabin and Cyan shouldn’t have learned all the early Black Magic spells, but the best Vigor gain Esper was Bismark, who teaches them. A lot of green and debuff spells are also mixed strangely for this challenge. I tried not to use them, but early on, I had to. If I try again, I will end up using the Brave New World mod, even with its difficulty stuff, just to properly experience such a challenge. It was something that brought me closer to FFVII, so maybe it can do the same for VI.

Final Fantasy VI is regarded by many to be a masterpiece. It’s probably not, but it has a plethora of things going for it. It’s a shining light in a desolate world, dirtied by a few major problems.

The final wretched laugh of a mad clown.

With my deadline approaching and out of stuff to do, I fly to where the Imperial Capital once stood. What stands there now is the Tower of Kefka. At the top sits the man who started everything, killed the Espers, and brought about the end of the world. We fly over, land, and we’re asked to make three parties.

Before we do, everyone mentions that they’re about to save the world by destroying the Warring Triad and ending all magic. They then wonder what will happen to magic and Terra when they do. I feel like the Warring Triad took a back seat to Kefka in the second half of the game, almost being brought up from nowhere here, since I kinda forgot about them. They're important figures and deserving of more time.


Party One:
Celes, Cyan, Mog, and Locke.

Party Two:
Relm, Edgar, Strago, and Umaro.

Party Three:
Sabin, Terra, Shadow, and GOGO.

Each team gets a world breaker General, a high quality commander, and a character who is perfectly okay. I thought One was the strongest, so I gave them a handicap by straddling Locke, who sucks, onto them.


Kefka’s Tower is a little like the Phoenix Cave. The need to open up paths is lessened but still there. Party Two and Three can advance as far they want, but they do need to open a route to allow One to reach the top of the Palace. The layout resembles fleshy walls with rooms that fit right into the Magitech Research Facility strewn about. We even wind up in the Esper containment room towards the end. The enemies can be very tough unless you have a few characters with Ultima. I didn’t get the Cursed Shield repaired, so only Relm had that spell, and why I now believe FFVI is the story of an angry ten-year-old who blinks and destroys everything. GOGO can Mimic it at about half effectiveness, by the way. Everything is manageable, but be afraid of the Madam fights. She causes a lot of magic damage, and her ninja boyfriends attack every two seconds. The Behemoth can be rough, and the Malboros are, well, Malboros.

There are a few bosses around, as well. Party Two gets the Gold Dragon; it’s a joke. Party Three gets the last dragon, Skull, and it’s also a joke. When we fell the last of the eight legendary dragons, we magically get the Crusader Magicite. Never summon it but feel free to learn Meteor. It’s not as good as Ultima, but Celes made use of it. Party Three also runs into Inferno, who resembles the boss of the minecart section. It’s actually quite hard, being able to one-shot Sabin. Use lightning and try to keep an arm dead. Have a Life 2/3 ready.

There are also four more bosses when everyone gets together. Either Two or Three can fight the Guardian, but it’s easily felled. Its death reveals a save point, so enjoy your ability to tent! After this, we now have to take each party to fight a member of the Warring Triad, the statues that created magic, and what Kefka moved on the floating continent to destroy the world. Two of them, Demon and Fiend, and total pushovers, but Goddess, oh man. Maybe it’s because Locke sucks, but even a pincer attack doesn’t give us an edge. Her Bolt 2 can wreak Celes’ face, so consider equipping Thunder Shields... She also likes to turn people into zombies. She lacks weaknesses, so I used Duel Casted Meteor and charged up Cyan’s level seven SwordTech during the animations. Locke sucked, and Mog, well, Mog was there. Honestly, his zombie attack did more to help than Locke did. With enough well timed Phoenix Downs and luck, I was able to take her out. Also, why was she standing on Ultemecia's head?

Their deaths also reveal a safe point and open the way to Kefka himself.

"Life... hope... dreams? Where do they come from? And where are they going?"

The twelve people I brought along are all together again. Kefka welcomes his "friends" and shows off his power. He uses the Light of Judgement on the ocean and throws Locke and Terra around with telekinesis. He then shows that he’s a nihilist and wonders why everyone fights?

“Why do people insist on creating things that will inevitably be destroyed? Why do people cling to life, knowing that they must someday die? ...Knowing that none of it will have meant anything once they do?”

In response, everyone gives their reasons to fight. Terra fights for love. Celes, for the man who believes in her. Cyan and Edgar fight for their kingdoms. Sabin is here for his brother. Relm and Strago stand side by side to each other. Mog loves his friends. Locke battles for the future. Shadow, oddly enough, fights for his family. I don’t know what Gau and Setzer do, and Umaro and GOGO don’t get lines. Kefka decides those are stupid reasons and promises to create a “monument to nothingness”, and we enter the final battle. NOTE: I looked it up, Setzer fights for Daryl, and Gau also fights for his friends.

Everyone gets a chance to fight in this epic, four staged battle. You decide the order, and a new character appears when one dies, and we transition to another stage. So keep your heavy hitters alive when you think you’re about to win, or else you’ll lose them forever. Poor Sabin got wiped in the first round. Fortunately, Relm has more than enough power to make for it. Sabin might not have even been that helpful since most of the stages are multi-person fights. I've read each stage is supposed to represent the Warring Triad and is ripe with religious imagery, and I can kinda see it. The last stage is full blown God-mode Kefka, complete with one last wretched laugh of a mad clown. It’s also probably the easiest. Any damage he does can be Cure 3’d or Life 2’d away. My plan to accidentally make everyone a white mage kinda worked, even if only Celes and Terra have Life 2. Enjoy Dancing Mad, what many say is the best final boss theme in all of RPGs. It’s a little too chaotic for me, but I understand the hype. Be careful using Pearl/Holy for any stage. With twelve people coming at him, Kefka dies, in strangely easy fashion, and returns to the nothingness he feared the most.

As Kefka starts to fade away, his tower collapses with him. Terra turns into an Esper as we notice the magicite beginning to leave this world. Thus begins the ending cutscenes. It’s as though it’s out of a picture book with each character having something that represents them being on a table with their name appearing over it. Everyone’s themes are mixed into the background music, making in a wholly unique thing that only Final Fantasy VI has done. Most of the scenes are also humerus in nature, making for a good release at the end of this fairly depressing game.

Cyan, represented by a sword, shows technology whos boss when he saves Edgar by stepping on a pressure plate.

Setzer, heralded by playing cards, dies in an explosion due to a faulty gamble when rolled a nat one. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Sabin saves Edgar from a falling piece of stricture and says why he left the kingdom: he knew he'd have to save Edgar with his "stupid muscles". Both men are represented with a duel-headed coin.

Mog, with his windup tree and dancing Moogle figures, is saved by Gau but complains about the touching of his hair/Pom-Pom.

Umaro busts down a wall when Edgar couldn’t open a locked door. His skull-and-crossbones alter is shown here.

The mask of Gogo mimics Celes to open a path. ...and falls down a hole when they leave.

Gau, with a throwback to his “shiny” diving suit, finds a short cut by fallible down a cliff. I guess he's imitating a goat.

Celes is saved by Locke from falling down a hole when she went back for her dropped “silly trinket.” The trinket, as well as their book icon, seems to be Lockes’s bandanna.

Terra’s dad, which raises questions about the nature of magicite, says farewell to his daughter but said if her emotions were strongly attached to someone, she’d remain in this world. Why is Terra represented by martini glasses?

Relm, with her trusty paintbrush, helps her aged grandpa with the rough terrain. She then says she’s gonna paint his portrait...but for real this time. Presumably, there's a portrait of Strago somewhere after all of this.

Shadow tells Interceptor to go with the others while he takes a different path and runs away. He promises his dead friend he betrayed he's gonna start over again. What’s he got to do with apples? Shadow is the only party member not onboard the airship at the end.

Strago remains undaunted in the face of turmoil. His icon is the same book that appeared when these scenes started. Is FFVI a story he’s telling?

We’re in the credits somehow, also represented by the book.


After this, Terra, still an Esper, guides the airship away from the debris, I guess, even though her magical power is beginning to fade. She can only get so far before changing back into a human and falling from the sky. The ghost of the would-be rapist manages to guide the Falcon into a position to catch her, and everything is fine.

The credits roll, proper, as we see life begin to return to the planet. Birds are back, ships already sail a new, and greenery has started to replace the badlands. Most notably, the sickly orange sky is a beautiful blue once more. The clouds that look like the dragon from The NeverEnding Story are still there. After the credits, the Final Fantasy Overture plays, and we see the people brimming with hope. People I failed to talk about in the blogs are having their dreams come true. In Thamasa, the burnt down house is repaired. A single new tree has taken root in Kohligen. Katarin gives birth to her baby.

The, as far as I’m concerned, final shot we see of the party is Terra untieing her hair and letting her GREEN locks blow in the wind.

THE END

I’m terrible at planning.

But you all knew that already. I said I wanted to crush Kefka tomorrow, but that ain’t happening. Tomorrow is tomorrow; tonight is now! I accomplished nothing. PS: I’m gonna edit this until I storm the final dungeon. I made a giant post at the start, and I’ll end with a giant post at the end.

What I did do was get Raiden and found Terra’s extra dialogue. It’s one line and boring...

Next up was taking Cyan, Sabin, and Gau to meet Gau’s dad. He’s the crazy person who wanted us to fix the clock at the start of Sabin's story. He still wants us to fix things even after the world has ended. We walk out of the house, and the wheels start spinning in Sabin’s head. He wants to reintroduce the two to each other. We fly to Jidoor, and some mildly funny scenes happen. The party tries to teach Gau manners and grammar and then go buy him new clothes. They return and learn Gau’s backstory: his father thought he was a demon. One day, he took his demon child onto the Veltd and left him there. Before Sabin can punch the guy, Gau stops him. The dad says that Gau, in his flashy digs, is a good kid who any father would be proud of, and the party is leaves. Gau says he’s happy that his dad is still alive. Gau’s better than I think he is. He’s a good person, but I still think he’s a bad character. Maybe in a different game...

My next task was finding Blue Magic. I had wanted to do Ebot’s Rock tonight, but I ran out of time. We found all the good ones: Aero, Big Guard, Doom. Most of the rest are on the Veldt, which is too random, or in bosses and late-game mobs, so who knows if I'll be getting the rest.

Lastly, I took Locke back to Narshe for that thing I’ve been dreading. In one of the treasures chests is a fight with three Pugs. Locke can steal the best female armor from them, Minerva’s Bustier. They’re also supposed to drop one. Sadly, everything sucked. I won but gained nothing new. Despite trying for ten minutes, Locke failed to steal anything. Locke sucks.

I also found Doomgaze for the first time and felled the Blue Dragon in Narshe. There are six more to go.

I felt like I did more, but I guess I didn’t. I will do the last two dungeons tomorrow and, hopefully, finish things on Friday. I’m giving myself a hard deadline of Sunday to finish the game. I really dig the quality and quantity of extra stuff in Final Fantasy VI.

From here on out is day two of pre-final dungeon prep. Today involved taking down the last two proper dungeons.

First up was Ebot’s Rock, so return to Thamasa with Relm and Strago. Despite it being the end of the world, Strago is relieved that everything seems fine. Relm ran ahead but hurriedly returns. She says a man named Gungho, an old friend of Strago’s, is hurt, and the two go to his side. Gungho says that Ebot’s Rock has risen from the ocean and a beast called Hidon, along with it. Hidon is a monster that Strago and Gunho hunted decades ago but were never able to slay. Gungho gave it a try, but that’s why he’s injured now. Strago leaves, promising to get revenge. Relm wants to come, but her grandpa says this is something he needs to do alone. Despite saying that, nothing changes if you bring a full party, even one including Relm, along.

Ebot’s Rock is straight north of the town and is a small cave with an odd gimmick. Navigation is difficult because vision is limited. You also randomly teleport around when you step on a plate. To advance, we need to find 22 pieces of coral, in one lump sum, located in randomly placed chests throughout the dungeon. In the second room of the place is a sentient chest that eats the coral. When it’s sated, the chest steps aside, seemingly unwillingly, and clears the way to Hidon, himself.

Hidon is joined by five Hidonites. Each has an elemental weakness and strength, but three died with no problem before I could figure them out. One has reflect on, which is the only real problem here. Ideally, you don’t want to beat Hidon too fast. I don’t know what triggers it, but Hidon has a Blue Spell that only he can teach. Ultimately, Sabin does his OP stuff and easily kills the ancient beast. Strago takes credit, and we return to Thamasa.

We inform Gungho that his nemesis is dead, and he gets out of bed in a fashion reminiscent of the old dude from the first Willy Wonka movie. He doesn’t dance, but he does have some overreactions. That night the two men recall their youth until Strago falls asleep. Relm thanks Gungho for acting, which only Strago could fall for, and we wake up the next day.

Last up today was a dungeon that took two hours to successfully finish. And even more in failed attempts... The Cultists Tower is surrounded by mountains on the risen Serpent’s Trench. The gimmick is characters can only use the magic command. Not even Lore can be used. This takes quite a bit of pre-planning before climbing. Ideally, bring as many Fire Shields as you can and cast Float on everyone. Equip a Wall Ring on everyone too. Enemies can also only use magic, so reflect negates MOST of the spells. Float removes another (Quake), and Fire Shields cancel a third (Merton). You’re still not safe, but you’re as close as you can be. Level60 and Level80 Magics are the only things to be wary of. Lastly, you’re gonna need a lot of MP or expensive tinctures because there are no save points to tent up at.

Once you’re ready, it’s a very straight forward climb. Climb fifty flights of stairs, open the four (and one hidden) chests, kill the Holy Dragon, and gain a lot of AP. Mobs don’t give EXP or Gold, but it’s the best place to learn spells. At the top is a room that contains a Gem Box. The Gem Box allows the user to Duel Cast magic. As we try to leave, two dozen cultists join us. They’re upset because we stole Kefka’s favorite thing, and a ghost attacks us.

There are two methods of doing this. Option one is to cast Rasp 82488484 times to drain Magic Master’s MP, making his last attack fail. Option two is to treat it like a normal fight. He changes his element weakness and strengths every time he attacks, and is attacked, so it can be really tedious. Ultimately, he’s easier than most of the mobs we’ve fought getting up here. But he has one tricky last-ditch move against us. Once he dies, he’ll cast Ultima on us. It does over 5000 damage to everyone. So, for even more preparation in this dungeon, use Phoenix’s Life 3 on everyone. Life 3  is re-raise, so the party, or whoever it was cast on, will be revived upon death. It’s unaffected by reflect, so as your will.

All the cultists are gone when we return from the battle, and we take the long climb down. Warp doesn’t work here... There is still a conga line of cultists at the bottom, but, otherwise, all is well.

I leave, save, and call it a night.

We’re mostly out of story now. Shadow still has some, but I won’t go through the tedium of sleeping in beds in hopes of a flashback scene. The scenes show him go from murderous bandit, to traitor, to father, to deadbeat dad of Relm. Yeah, he’s Relm’s dad, and that’s why Interceptor liked her. Nothing comes from this knowledge, so who cares? That means all that’s left is a Penta-Dragon Hunt, maybe some colosseum stuff, and some final levels for Kefka’s three partied dungeon. But probably not Doomgaze. Sorry, Bahamut.

Day Three:
Today I found some of the missing Dragons. There’s one in the Opera House, another in the Ancient Castle, and the last one that isn’t in the final dungeon was in Mt. Zozo. There are still two more, but they’re in Kefka’s Tower. I’m pretty sure the point of no return is dropping in there, so I’ll have to wait.

And that’s all. We’re finally out of things to do. There are still a few items we can find in the colosseum but, since it’s random and we can’t control our character, I’m not doing it. I don’t like gambling, and the rewards, while nice, won’t change any outcomes. I spent the rest of the night grinding spells and levels. I’m half done, so I’ll finish it tomorrow. Sunday WILL be the final night of Final Fantasy VI. I’m ready.

A full party!

Terra is one of the most popular and iconic characters in Final Fantasy, and for good reason. I’ll go into why in another update, but the fact I’ve waited this long to get her is a bit shameful. Let’s fix that.

We return to Moblitz and follow a dog into a secret room under the western house and find Terra and Katarin. Katarin is pregnant and her boyfriend, Duane, is unsure if he’s ready to be a dad. They’re both still teenagers, so it makes sense, apocalypse or otherwise. This crisis ends promptly as Duane returns and says he’s ready to give it a try. And then another crisis happens as Phunbaba returns. The party immediately runs outside and beats it up. This lasts a few turns until he sneezes out two of our members. He kicked our Sabin, so we know he’s a smart demon. Terra comes outside and has a realization. She turns into an Esper and joins Celes and Edgar in the battle. It’s an easy fight if Celes uses Runic and heals, while Trance Terra spams her strongest spells. Edgar should use Drill instead of Chainsaw to avoid the immune to death misses.

After the fight, all the kids will come outside and be afraid of Terra, still in Esper form. One girl will eventually realize that this is “Mama” and all the others will come too. They accept her, and Terra vocalizes her realization. Terra finally knows what love is and that you sometimes need to fight to protect those you love. She’ll tell the kids she’ll be back when she’s made a better world for them and all the kids yet to be born.

The only person we’re missing now is Locke. The emperor’s portrait in Jidoor drops a letter telling us about a star-shaped mountain range. This location is north of Tzen. If we land there, we’re asked to make two parties. My second party was Terra, Mog, Relm, and Umaro. It was bad, and I shouldn’t have done it. Relm had no chance to do anything with two berserkers in the party. I have to Moogle Charm their way through. The goal here is to guide both parties through the dual paths. Each party opens and closes pathways that allow the other to advance. There are a lot of mobs that can cause Zombie status and have some decent HP and power. Even my main party had the occasional problem. All the treasures are empty, and there’s an ancient dragon guarding one that isn’t. He kills parry B twice. Fortunately, shortly afterwards, the parties meet up, and we can take party A to fight. Runic nullifies the Red Dragon, who drops Cyan’s best weapon, meaning I don’t have to bet it at the Colosseum. At the end of the dungeon is Locke, opening a treasure chest that contains a broken magicite named Phoenix. Locke still isn’t over his dead girlfriend, and we all return to Kohligen and enter his creepy basement. Locke places the Phoenix magicite on Rachel and it, after an interesting graphical overlay, breaks. Rachel can wake-up and says that she loves Locke, but it’s time for him to get over her. “I’m setting you free.” She then tells Phoenix to be reborn and dies. In her place is a functional Phoenix magicite. It doesn’t give any stats but does teach all cure and revive spells, as well as Fire 3. I’ll let Locke use it if the time comes, but there are two others first, and Locke sucks.

Sadly, I still need him for a thing. He can unlock the doors in the abandoned Narshe, where there are two houses we need to open. In the weapon sellers' is the man who’s been waiting for us. He’s come into possession of a sword that can function as either a sword or an Esper. The sword is one of the strongest in the game, but I like the Esper more. Ragnarok can morph mobs into items, some are probably useful, and also teaches Ultima. I gotta figure out how to get Relm into the party to teach her some spells. There’s also a Cursed Shield in the house by the Relic shop. It’s highly detrimental now but ends up being the best gear in the game after 256 battles. It can also teach Ultima. Give it to Celes, and equip a Ribbon on her. With that combo, the only thing you need to fear is the Countdown spell, which is rarely a problem at this point.

Before going elsewhere, I follow through on what Duncan’s wife in Figaro said: “Duncan is alive and north of Narshe.” He’s actually East, but take Sabin there and his master, after an anime fight scene, will teach him his ultimate Blitz, Bum Rush. It’s pretty good but about to be obsolete.

My last action tonight was getting Figaro Castle stuck again. We come to the Ancient Castle, where Edgar tells us a story. During the War of the Magi, there was a battle here. The legendary Esper Odin resided here and fought for the inhabitants. We see several flashbacks, including one where Odin kills six soldiers in one “Atom Edge” but gets turned to stone by a ghost. If we walk up to the stoned Odin, it turns into a magicite. In a room to the right, we read a 1000 tear old diary about the Queen of the Castle, a human, falling in love with Odin, an Esper. We can also turn Odin into Raiden by finding the petrified Queen through a secret passage. Odin teaches Meteor and gives a speed boost at level up. Raiden teaches quick and gives +2 to strength. Quick is OP, giving the caster a second action, so our time mage might be duel wielding Chainsaws soon. There’s also an item called Offering hidden behind a samurai. The Offering allows the user to attack four times. With the Genji Glove equipped, though, the user can attack eight times. Sabin now does 8000 damage in one round. It's mostly effective in single targeted fights, which most bosses are...

Alas, it does not help me against the Blue Dragon, who down here. I fought the ancient beast, thinking it was weak to fire. It isn’t, and it uses solely teamwide water attacks. I died, without saving, so, for the first time in my blog history...

... I called it a night on a loss.

 I’ll redo everything tomorrow, which might be for the best. Terra has unique dialogue if she’s down here, and, since she’s important, I wanna hear it. We’ve still got the Cultists Tower and Ebet's Rock to do, as well. And then I get twelve characters up to snuff...

Secrets of the demon paintings.

Today we get everyone but the first two characters we played as.

First up was the main character, Mog. Why? Because a woman in Miranda, the one who told us about the Veldt Cave and ...another one, also told us about the new whereabouts of Narshe. As we enter the mining town, a wolfman pickpocket informs us that everyone in the village left except for one Moogle. Entering the caves and going past where we saved Terra, we see Mog all alone, staring at the wall. When we talk to him, he becomes ecstatic that we’re still alive. He joins up and tells us about his friend/underling in the caves that we should bring along. Before leaving the caves, check the wall that Mog was looking at, and we’ll find the Moogle Charm. It can only be equipped on Mog, but it completely removes random encounters. Mog might be a permanent addition to the team. Also, are all the other Moogles dead?

Bringing Mog into the party and venturing deeper into the caves, we come across the frozen Esper that started all this. I should have brought Terra along... Tritock can only cast magic and is weak to Fire. Have Mog summon Carbuncle and reflect all Fires off the party. Celes has the first 9999 damage of the game. He’ll lose and thank us for freeing him from his frozen prison. He then wonders if the War of the Magi is still going on as he recognizes our desire to end this. He’ll turn himself into Magicite, which is weird because it means he killed himself, and we can finally learn level three magic. Not only that but the cape he was on collapses, revealing the Yeti Cave. We’ll return here when we get Locke, but, for now, avoid the pitfalls until we find a prehistoric altar looking thing. Inside a skull on the pedestal is the magicite Terrato. When we pick it up, heavy footsteps are heard, and the Abominable Snowman busts in. We bust him up, and Mog tells him he’s joining the party. Umaro is a yeti and in a constant state of berserk. He's an uncontrollable party member but might have the highest physical strength in the game. While he can’t be equipped with items, he does have some interesting relic combinations. He’s a secret character, and speaking of secret characters...

I fly off to Triangle Island, where I failed to kill Intagir. There probably is someone to tell us about this, but I suck at hide and seek. Take the Moogle Charm off until you fight an enemy called Zone Eater. Do nothing until your Vore fetish has been sated, and we’ll be in the belly of the monster. Reequip the Charm, get past the puzzles, and we’ll meet Gogo. S/he’s shrouded in mystery and has a full assortment of abilities. Gogo can do anything any character can do. The perks of being a mimic. There’s a lot of fan theories about who they are, Daryl or Gesthal, but Gogo’s probably just the same Gogo from FFV.

Next up is Relm. There’s a man in Figaro who says he painted the emperor’s portrait, but he didn’t like it and sold it to Owzer. Owzer is the guy who’s house we met The Impresario in, so fly to Jidoor. Climb the stairs, get pushed back by an unseen force, turn the lights on, and read the diary on a nearby table. We’ll learn his new obsession, a painting, is in the basement. There’s a new painting in the gallery, so check that and beat the Dahlings that come out. Make sure to check the flower painting, too. Descend the stairs and explore the basement for a while. Use the rightmost moving door, examine all the pictures, and we’ll eventually come to a well dressed Jobba the Hut. This is Owzer, and he's become obsessed with the painting hanging before him. And the painter is Relm. We’ll try fixing it, but the painting comes to life, and we fight it.

I’m not sure the strat but don’t summon Alexander. Celes spammed Fire, which seemed effective. Chadarnook does a lot of magic damage, so I should have used Carbuncle. Instead, I needed to have Edgar heal. What a twist!

Afterwards, Owzer, still in his Jobba cosplay, tells us about the rock he bought at the Auction House that caused his change. It ends up being the Lakshmi/Starlet magicite. Lakshmi is the model for the painting we just blew up. Relm says she’ll finish painting after she saves the world and joins the party. This is all very wierd.

Lastly, take Relm to the Cultist’s Tower where the Serpent’s Trench is. At the base, we see Strago has joined the cultists. Relm insults him, and Strago snaps out of it. He joins up...

...and I called it a night.

Only Terra and Locke are left to save. Locke has a long and multi-partied dungeon, so I’ve been keeping him for last. There are also a few side dungeons and quests to do, which I’ll try to finish up tomorrow. And then another free day to finish loose ends, get final spells learned, gear, and then we’re done. Let’s dance like we’re mad on Thursday!

Searching for Friends

First of all, this overworld theme is my least favorite in the franchise.

Secondly, the first thing I did tonight was walk into Miranda, Not Jidoor, and definitely not Albrook, but Miranda. The city looks fine, as though nothing's happened, but the soldiers are gone, and there’s new stuff in the house owned by the woman whose boyfriend was wounded in Moblitz. It’s filled with beautiful, handmaid, silk flowers. She’s also been receiving daily romantic letters from her boyfriend. We’ve been to Moblitz and know her beau is dead, so who’s pretending to be him? She asks us to attach a letter to a return pidgin, and we follow it to Zozo.

Zozo is still the same. It’s got the same mobs, sketchy dudes, and dead bodies. Home sweet home! We find the only honest man in town, who sells us a Rust-b-gone to knock down a door leading to Mt. Zozo. The path we need is straight forward and filled with easy mobs. Watch out for the bear who steals your gold. There is an offshoot that leads to a dragon god, so don’t step on any clear pressure plates. Go far enough in, and we see our old samurai, Cyan, sending a letter. He’s felt sorry for the woman since her boyfriend died and has been pretending to be him to keep her hope alive. He didn’t want her to be like him. After he joins the party, he’ll confess his plan. The woman will say she’s known her boyfriend died but is glad to whoever’s been keeping her active in this trying time. If we return to Cyan’s perch, we can find a book on machinery and, uh... ”certain things” that a lone, adult male may need.

When we got Cyan, he mentioned Gau came by looking to get stronger. That means he’s on the Veldt. Making a party of three, we quickly find him in the same fashion we did before.

While on the Veldt, we find a new cave in the southwest. When we enter, Interceptor gets our attention. Following him through the winding paths and finding a new weapon for Sabin in a trapped chest that gives him over 450 attack power, we see a heavily wounded Shadow. When we go to him, we understand what wounded him.

Two King Behemoths. Both have a fire weakness, as well as a 4000 damage Sabin weakness. Use Runic to protect against Fire 3, and abuse the punching power of Sabin.

We’ll then pick up Shadow and take him to Thamasa. There, we see a flashback to a man fleeing Thamasa while a dog who looks like Interceptor tries to get him to stay. The man tells the dog to protect the girl, but he disobeys and follows after. Hmm...wonder who that is? We wake up and see Shadow is conscious. He says Interceptor will guard him, so we can feel free to leave. Another thing we found in the Cave was a knife called Striker. Rumor has it, there’s a man at the Colosseum looking for that. I’ll talk more about the Colosseum when I can defeat things there, but, for now, if we wager the Striker, we end up fighting Shadow. He goes down like a chump. Outside, we question Shadow about why he’s fighting, to which he responds, it’s all he knows. Celes asks him to join us, for real this time, and with no fanfare, he does.

The last thing I did tonight was head to Doma Castle. The destroyed home of Cyan is still abandoned, so we find a place to rest our heads for the night. When we wake up, Cyan remains asleep. Suddenly, three children named after the Three Stooges enter and say they’re gonna eat Cyan’s soul and jump into his mind. We follow.

This dungeon sucks. It’s filled with mobs that randomly kill us and turn us into Imps. To make matters worse, the Charm Bangle doesn’t seem to work. If it did, then I’d hate to play this without it. The party is split up, and we, randomly, can play with any of the three. I died with Celes the first time, but the poor bastards let me use Sabin the second time. Equip a White Cape to negate Imp and wander around the MC Escher world, picking up our party members. When we get close, the boy guarding our party member will leave but promises to attack with his brothers. We end up fighting the brothers, and this sucks. They spam high level magic, cause debuffs, and have a spell that they use to turn a character to stone. Kill the floating kid, as he can revive the others, and it gets a lot easier. The wannabe Magus Sisters got me the first time, but I got the last laugh.

The next portion is an area that looks like the Phantom Train but has a terrible yellow filter over it. There are eight gazillion battles here, and I hate it. We see a few scenes from when Cyan was here before and solve terrible puzzles. We got another Genji Glove for Shadow. There’s no boss here, but upon reaching the conductor, if we exit right back out, we stumble into a mountain cave. We’re in Magitech for some reason and see Cyan running from Imperial troops. I think this is when he became averse to technology? Enter the second room on the cliff, then turn around to exit. We’re back in Doma Castle and meet Elena and Owain, Cyan’s family. They ask is to save him from the manifestation of his fear, doubt, and hate, Wrexsoul. "Cyan doesn’t deserve this." Around the castle are a few scenes that endure us to the Garamonde family. Our target, though, is in the throne room.

This battle sucks. Wrex hides in one of our party members, and the only way to draw him out is to almost kill them. Turning them to stone works too, but no one on my team is a Saboteur. While we do this, we’re further attacked by two adds that can’t be killed and use high level magic. Alternatively, you cheat the system and cast X-Zone until it removes the adds, and we win. We don’t get the cool item Wrexsoul drops this way, but after two hours and a rage quit, I don’t care.

After the fight, Elaine and Owain say how much they love Cyan and how proud they are of him. Cyan doesn’t believe himself worthy of such praise, seeing as he failed to protect his home and has no honor. His wife says he actually has too much and needs to let the past go. It’s similar to what he said to Lola in Maranda. Before they leave, Cyan pleads for them to stay a little longer. They don't, but they promise to always be by his side as a sword drops to the floor. The party wakes up, for real this time, and equips Cyan’s second beat weapon. We proceed back to the throne room and pick up the new Esper, Alexander. It offers no stat-ups but teaches Cure 3 and Holy. Because it’s gotten in Cyan’s sidequest, I’ll allow him to equip it after Celes learns everything.

And here I called it a night.

I wish I wasn’t as upset. I felt the early tingle of emotion as Cyan said one more farewell to his family, but rage overcame me. Tomorrow we gain more old friends, and I’m thinking three more days left in this playthrough. Unless I want to go Blue Magic hunting again... (I do)

Relm, Terra, Mog, and secret characters tomorrow!