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...