I think I hate this game.

But let's wrap up Moria.

The next five floors are much of the same but with an added effect: darkness. And also floor spikes.
Floor six is just us trying to find our way with no lights.
After that, we're gonna have to walk across a lot of spikes, open a chest, hit a switch, pull statues, find a new switch, and put the statues back.
Floor seven has us teleporting around before we get to the treasure. Go the long way around the room to reach the goal. You'll come back to the main room three times, but you'll be in a slightly different place each time you trigger the teleporter.
Floor eight has us using the Sorcerer's Ring.
Floor nine is a decoy. Don't use the ring on the candle since it's a switch. Make sure to open the shortcut back to floor one after this. Find the combo link and hit the switch behind it to open the path to the final floor.
Floor ten is a bit better. Find the Turquoise Ring before pulling the switches to activate the teleporters. The right one tells us how to solve the puzzle in the left one. There's an obelisk with Elven script on it that only Arche can read. Klarth calls it "moon writings," which is a lotta bit racist. In the second room, Klarth needs to summon the four spirits on the correct spots. Clockwise, up to left, Ifrit, Sylph, Gnome, Undine. We'll all hear a voice ask us who summons "me."

The voice is back at the obelisk, and it is the leader of the four spirits, Maxwell. He asks us what we want, and Klarth says for the door behind him to open. To do that, we need to beat him.

Maxwell is pretty easy. He'd be easier if the game didn't make Cless run away randomly. Max is hard to pin down since his attack causes him to rush across the screen, attacking everyone at the same time and repositioning himself. He has no elemental weaknesses.

Maxwell opens the door, and he even joins as a summon. He also powers up Gungnir, the spear Cless was using. Beyond the door is a mast amount of (useless) treasure. The team splits up to find the ring, but they only find two halves of one. If this is Luna's ring, it'll need to be fixed. Perhaps the court mage at the castle can be of help.

Nope. We all go outside out of fear of someone listening in, but wouldn't being outside allow for more prying ears? Either way, the mage tells us a man named Edward can help us. He lives in a house far to the west, so he gives us a letter of recommendation. As we leave, Cless' head starts "buzzing" with a voice telling him, a mortal, he's dealing with things beyond him.

The rest of the night is a game of hide 'n' seek. Edward isn't home, but his wife, Sif, tells us he went to Olive Town. A man there says he went to the oasis. So on and so forth until we return to Olive town. The innkeeper informs us Ed is looking for basilisk spines, so we're gonna need to grind for a rare mob drop...

... tomorrow!

The battle system is garbage. Between the mage spam and the game forcing you away from mobs, you're not allowed to play most of the time. I think this was the reason my second play through stopped just before this. I'm bored. Not only that, but why is EVERY fight a pincer or a back attack? What's the point of the formation menu if it doesn't mean anything? It's frustrating, not fun, and far from rewarding. If the story doesn't pick up soon, I'm dropping this. Or if Klarth says anything racist, sexist, or pedophiliac again...