Skeeter Davis

So yesterday was a waste. Blue Magic gathering got me two new spells. Strago can now kill himself (Exploder) and unreliably heal the party (White Wind). Good job, me! I tried to defeat the Intagir, but I trust you understand what “try” means.

The Floating Continent looms above, and it is time for us to end this. I’m urged to make a party of three, not four, and fly to the mass. It’s defended by the Imperial Air Force. I guess Setzer didn’t have the only airship after all... We’re attacked by them, but there’s nothing too bad. The weak ones die to a Sabin attack or Edgar Drill, while the harder ones go down in two hits. Eventually, we see a pink creature coming towards us. As it lands at the back of the ship, Ultros pops out!

Despite only having three characters, this is probably the easiest Ultros fight. He also promises this will be our last battle. After a few hits, Ultros will introduce his new friend, Choupon. Choupon doesn’t do much, but it will sneeze everyone off the ship when we win.

And right into another boss fight. This portion functions like the Barron Falls section with Sabin. More IAF stuff until we reach the true boss, Air Force. AF has three targets, it's self and two missile launchers. I managed to destroy the launchers, which counter everything, and one of the summonable adds. The adds can absorb magic, like Runic, but a swift Sabin attack ends them. Once everything but the main body has died, a countdown begins. I don’t know what happens when that countdown reaches zero, but I doubt it would end well. During the countdown, it takes no additional actions, so wail away with everything you've got!

After the battle, Celes and the team land on the Floating Continent. We see Shadow lying nearby, lamenting that the Empire paid him and threw him away when they were done. To get revenge, he joins us, and we now have a full party. Shadow kinda sucks, so I don’t know if it’s a good party. He has a lot of HP, especially for a ninja, so I guess he’s a shield.

The floating continent isn’t a long dungeon, but it sure feels like it. All the enemies have a lot of HP and attack strength. There are so many behemoths. So, so many counters and status effects. There are also only four treasures. A dagger I forgot to equip behind the toughest guy up here, a sword for Cyan, a beret for Relm, and an elixir on the other side of the world. Traveling through here is done through strange, subterranean transportation and pressing buttons to collapse a few walkways. Some paths open up when we approach for some reason, too. After one last teleporter, we see a large beast blocking our way.

Atma Weapon is an ancient being of power manifest. It hates us, apparently, but what can ya do? I didn’t find him particularly hard. Drill and Sabin may be OP. I had a few shurikens for Shadow to throw, and Celes should be on heal duty. Late game can get pretty dicey, but Sabin knowing Life and my accidental make-everyone-a-white-mage plan came in clutch. Prepare for magic defense.

After the fight, Shadow will decide against fighting his payers and leave the party. This is also the point of no return. We can go back to the Blackjack just behind us, but, not wanting to traverse the whole continent again, I march forward. We see Kefka and Gestahl around three statues. These statues are the Warring Goddesses Strago told us about in the Esper Cave. These, however, are the real ones from 1000 years ago and not a pale imitation. They turned themselves to stone to bring about peace, but they’re easy to break. Move them from their right triangle formation, and everything goes haywire. Kefka will try to talk Celes into re-join the Empire, since they were raised in a similar way, to rule the world. She appears to join up when Kefka stops the rest of the party but quickly re-turns traitor to stab the clown. He starts yelling and screams how much he hates (x12) bleeding and grows even madder. He decides ruling the world isn’t good enough and now wants destruction. As he tries to move the Warring Triad, Gestahl tries to stop him. Gestahl wants to rule the world, and he can't rule over a dead planet. The Emperor's magic doesn’t work, as the statues negate magic, so he stands no chance against his creation. Kefka throws the dogman off the continent, never to be seen again. Celes is knocked to the side as Kefka begins adjusting the Triad. Shadow then floats in and stops him, for now, pinning him between two statues and helps Celes up. Kefka fails his concentration check and releases the magic stopping the others. Shadow stays back while everyone gets away. Travel the rest of the continent, kill the easy boss, and, just above the airship, we have a choice. We can wait until five seconds are left on the timer or jump now. If we jump now, Shadow dies. I don’t hate Shadow, so I hang out and do nothing for two minutes until he catches up, and we jump together.

When we were running from Kefka, the sky was black. Now, the planet begins to move. Plates shake, creating mountains and valleys. Villages and rent in two and countless people die as the camera shifts to space and reveals large portions of the land are burning. Even the airship isn’t safe as it’s blown into two, and the party spills out across the world. Kefka got his wish, and the planet is destroyed.

Well, mostly. The camera cuts to Celes, alone in a ruined house on a desolate island. Cid is there as she wakes up and informs her she’s been out for a year. The two connect emotionally and decide to be family now. Relm and Strago are no longer the only grandpa/daughter team in the game. He continues, saying everyone else who was here died, leaving just the two of them. All of her friends were never here. It’s great she can move, as it’s time for Cid to die now. We, however, can save him. It’s through a terrible mini-game where Celes has to catch fish. The good fish aren’t always there, and there’s an annoying bird in the way, so it takes me thirty minutes, and I now hate Cid. I should have let him die. Some people like the “bad” ending more and find it more apropos, but I’m a nice guy who likes Celes. The bad ending has her jumping off a cliff, in a scene reminiscent of the opera scene, and winding up in the same place we will anyway. In the good ending, Cid reveals he’s been building a raft. He gives it to Celes, leaving the banana man alone, and she floats off to where the southern continent is.

And we’ll explore the remains of Miranda tomorrow.

What happens if we didn’t bring Celes? Or only brought Celes? Or Terra? Or Locke? Man, I want to reply that scene now, which is always signs of a good game. It’s also signs of a bad game, forcing us to use Shadow. At least give us the option to change characters after Atma.

Aside, Kefka is the only final boss to actually get his way, that I know of, in video games. Most of them get thwarted by the main cast, but we failed. So I guess we’re not gonna save the world this game, but repair it. Don’t they know it’s the end of the world?