Party's All Here

...kinda wish they weren't.

Before doing anything, head to Mist. We'll see it's rebuilt, and it's doing pretty well. No one mentions Rydia, and only one dude states the town was even destroyed. In the northwestern house is a glowing sparkly thing. That sparkle is the MP +50% Augment. I put it on Rydia because summons are expensive!

The Cave of Eblan is west of its castle. The first floor is a dungeon floor, but just after that is a small alcove of survivors. The Eblanese are a kingdom of ninjas who won't take the destruction of their home lightly. They're digging a cave to the upper parts of the Tower of Babel through the mountain and hiding out "right under the enemies' nose." Inside are the usual town shops and people. We learn that the Prince of Eblan has gone ahead with a small assortment of his ninjas to get their revenge on Rubicante, the man in the red cloak we saw with Dr. Lugae. Beyond a door in the back is the rest of the dungeon. Out here, we see gravely injured ninjas telling us the Prince has gone ahead. If we keep following the people crumbs, we'll run into their leader.

Prince Edge is talking to the Archfiend of Fire and vows revenge. A scripted battle takes place where Edge does weak damage before healing Rubi with a Flame Ninjitsu spell. Rubicante then casts Inferno and ends the fight. Rather than slay the Prince, Rubicante suggests he should focus more and become a fine warrior. He then walks away. The party runs up to the disheartened Edge, who has become hellbent on vengeance even it means his own death. Rydia is tired of seeing people die and starts to cry, which causes the womanizing Edge to rethink his actions. Rosa cures him, and he hits on her too. Really, Cecil? You're gonna let this happen right in front of you? After he tells us stuff we already know and inferred, he joins the party.
 
Edge kinda sucks. He lacks physical defense to be good, and his magic skills are wanting, but his physical damage ends up pretty good late game. He's the game's ninja, which grants him the Throw and Steal abilities. I hate using Throw, and his Stealing rate is one of the worst in the franchise. Plus, as I said, he's a womanizer. I don't like those types of characters. It has something to do with sexism, but I also find them boring people. It's always a character's most prominent feature that overrides any other quirks. I don't like my characters being one dimensional! And it has nothing to do with the fact he's after Rydia, too!

We follow Rubicante to some scaffolding outside the Tower of Babel. Edge uses his Ninjitsu magic to walk the party through walls, which everyone seems excited about. How did Rubi get in? Welcome back to Babel! I'm pretty sure we start at floor one and work our way down. The enemies are stuff we've already fought and are nothing too bad. All of the scary stuff from the earlier floors aren't up here. The Mythril Golems are the hardest, but only because they're so tanky. I started using the Augments before this. I equipped Cecil with the Draw Attacks and Counter Augments. This means he took ALL the damage, which he's built to do, and hit back every time. Rosa only had to focus on healing one person, and everyone else sailed smoothly through this place. This will probably come back to haunt me soon, but I like this strategy!

Nothing happens until we reach B5. Two people block our path forward, and Edge knows them well. They're his parents! They try to get Edge to join them, but Edge has no idea what's going on. They quickly reveal themselves to monsters and attack the party. They're quite easy. Wail away on one, and, in time, the two of them come to their senses for a moment. The experiments done on them have changed them into terrifying monsters that warped their brain. Us attacking them has caused them to momentarily revert, however. During the time, they say farewell to their son and wish us luck. Edge doesn't want them to leave, but they know nothing should exist like this. It's presumed they kill themselves and disappear from the battle.

Rubicante teleports in, and Edge becomes furious. Rubi tells the party, "it was Dr. Lugaue who turned them into chimera." He made it rhyme for some reason. The anger rising in Edge causes him to learn two new Ninjitsu magics, which hypes up Rubicante. Rubi gives off the noble warrior type shtick, but I'm not buying it. He warns the party that "even the frozen winds of of the ninth circle of hell cannot pierce [his] robe," and a fight breaks out!

Edge is so, so fragile. Rubicante has two forms: robed and unrobed. When his robe shrouds him, do nothing but act defensibly. Have someone cast Shell, and Haste up Rydia, Edge, and Rosa (if you want). If you attack him now, you heal him, and he counters with a strong Fira spell. When he takes his robe off and shows his legs, use Shiva and Flood. Cecil and Kain should still do nothing, even with Ice weapons, as it'll cause the same counter. With Haste, they should be able to get two spells off before Rubicante re-robes himself. Shiva, for some reason, causes him to counter with Blizzara on himself, doing even more damage. When he gets cold, he'll cast Inferno on us. Edge died every time, but Rydia can sometimes survive. Kain and Cecil can take it like champs, though. Revive the dead and buff up again. It takes a while, but he's unlikely to kill Cecil even with his drawing of attacks. Probably shouldn't have equipped Counter, though. Cecil healed the boss so, so, so many times...

Rubicante will be shocked that emotions evoke so much power and is even more surprised at the glory of teamwork. Regardless, he congratulates us on winning and leaves. Edge's seneschal and back-up will approach us, and Edge tells them vengeance is ours (even though it's not). The seneschal wants Edge to return to help rebuild, but Edge knows Golbez, who he just learned of, is the bigger issue. Edge will then walk towards the room that was behind Rubicante, prepared to fight Golbez. The party informs him we're here to take the crystals, which Edge will play off as "I meant to do that." The party's menu thoughts are of Edge's lack of humility and false bravado, but we enter the crystal room.

As we approach the seven crystals, the whole party falls through a pitfall trap. We fall for several floors and end up across the gap from where we killed Lugae. The party regrets being so close, but we now have to get out of here to get back. We descend to B8 and collect the missing map bonuses until we stumble upon an Airship. Edge calls it the Falcon, and we all leave the tower to the Underworld. The Falcon sucks since it's not heat resistant and can only fly over the ground. Since the exit to the Underworld is blocked, the only place we can go is Giott's castle. But I'll do that...

...tomorrow!

I really don't like Edge. He feels like the least plot relevant character in the game even though he's not. He's no worse than Yang or Edward, but he's just out of place. Worse is, he's not even good. He's five levels lower than the party! Why do I hate thief characters?