The Final Fantasy You Never Played (But Wish You Had) [4 Heroes of Light]

Unfortunately I only recently learned about The Secret of the King’s Shortsword and as such parted with it near the start of the game. I wish I’d known, it would have been a good way to show off the upgrade shop in Urbeth.

So, uh, whoops I guess.

Update #16: Help!

Click here for update 16!


:radio:YouTube Link: Another Space
When we last left off, we were about to start some very literal soul-searching with Rolan!



The first thing we find is this sweet-ass armor, so already we know his psyche isn’t a complete loss.


The opening room consists of a quartet of doors with the largest one sealed off. We head through the leftmost door first.

Said door deposits us in this void inhabited by a cyan silhouette.


The silhouette warps a handful of feet away and we need to catch it quickly, otherwise we get this message and the puzzle resets.
It’ll warp four or five times then return to its original position:




Now for the middle room!

It’s the same deal; chase the silhouette, get some Rolan backstory; the only difference is the positions the silhouettes teleport to.


Also, the random encounters here consist primarily of Fomor-like doppelgangers of the main cast (bizarrely including John and Paul despite Rolan having no knowledge of them).
There’s also the occasional encounter with more standard ghost-type enemies but that’s really less important.

They’re mere shadows of the characters that they are imitating, in more ways than one. It helps that they’re weak to light and Spelvia has provided us with an abundance of light-elemental attack power.
Anyway, the matter at hand:



Now for the last unsealed door.

Same ol’, same ol’.



After chasing down the three silhouettes, the large door in the middle finally opens.

Through the door is… another Rolan.

: I was weak, I was powerless, but they still made me a hero.
: Save the world, they said. The world? ME?
: …
: But, but we need your help. Horne needs your help!
: You’re the only one we can turn to.
: I’ve been alone for so long now. Why should I care what happens to you humans?
: There’s nothing more wonderful than having people rely on you, having people turn to you in their time of need…
: but by turning away from them, you are making yourself as lonely as anyone can be.
I really like this scene in conjunction with the backstory the silhouettes drop earlier in the dungeon. Rolan is a nice foil for the main cast and a nice look at how they might have turned out if they hadn’t had their friends…



Not even Rolan had thought his issues were so bad they could take physical form.
I couldn’t get a shot of it but here the “other” Rolan runs into “our” Rolan and the two apparently merge.

: No! No way! I can’t do it…
: It’s okay, Rolan. You’re not alone any more (sic)!

:radio:YouTube Link: Strong Enemy
Rolan’s issues manifest as both a fire dog and an ice dog.

They’re weak to what you’d expect them to be.
When one of the dogs is hit with magic the element it’s weak to it loses its aura, reducing its attack power for a few turns until it gets its aura back. (This only works with magic, physical attacks won’t remove the aura even if it’s the correct element.)


Both of them have party wide breath attacks of their respective elements.

The fire dog is primarily a physical attacker while ice is primarily magic and both have buffs to their respective attack type.


:radio:YouTube Link: A Desperate Situation
I don’t get a chance to show it, but if one dog dies and it takes too many turns to kill the other then the one that dies is revived.

Fortunately, it never comes to that.

: Were those beasts of darkness the same monsters that controlled Rolan’s heart?
: D-did we win…? Did I…?
: Yes, you did, Rolan! You’re free now. You don’t have to hide away any more (sic)!
: Thank… you…
:3:

The game allows us to talk to our party at this point but they say nothing new.
Then again, Ringo does have a point here, we should probably stop intruding.

Just as we leave the fountain, the ground shakes…


And the skies turn a decidedly unfriendly color.
Well, the sky witch has generally known what’s what up to this point, let’s ask her:

:spy:: It began the moment that Rolan’s soul was released…
:spy:: Somehow, his soul had kept the darkness trapped, but now it is free to pour into the world.
:spy:: If this continues… No! You MUST find Rolan!
Welp. No good deed goes unpunished, it seems.

On the plus side, we see quite the sight for sore eyes to the north.

: Er, hi, John…
: Looks like you’re back to your old self. That’s good.
: …Y-yeah.
: Ringo, I’m really sorry I left you in Guera without saying anything.
: I owe you an apology too, Ringo.
: It’s okay, really. I know I wasn’t strong enough to adventure with either of you.
: But you don’t have to worry about me any more (sic). No more holding you back, I promise.
: But we’ve got more important things to worry about. The darkness is overflowing, pouring out of Rolan’s soul…
: Then we’ve got to find him!

:3: Finally, after the entire first half of the game, the team has sorted out their personal problems and is now… well, a team again.
(There’ll be a poll for crown distribution after the next update instead of this one, I’d like to establish a few things about the second half of the game first.)



: What’s important is that you do your very best all the time, and never give up, no matter what!

I think it’s safe to say we’re all better people than that at this point, Ringo.

And it’s just in time, too, seeing how Rolan has taken on a decidedly ominous new look.

The game’s lack of targeting usually isn’t a problem, but I remember it being kind of a pain for the ice and fire dog fight.

Don’t Let Me Down

Click here for update 17!


:radio:YouTube Link: Cursed Town
When we last left our heroes, our efforts to help Rolan deal with his issues resulted in us covering the world in demons.

Rolan himself is looking less-than-stellar as well.

The most important thing for what’s coming up is protecting ourselves from dark damage.

Also, our healer needs protection from light.

Welp, sounds like there’s no problems here!
: Rolan, snap out of it!
: It’s no good. He can’t hear a thing we say!
: DIE, HUMANS. DIE!

: R-run… while you still… can…!

:radio:YouTube Link: Strong Enemy
Rolan is… kind of a rude fight, quite frankly.


The majority of his attacks are dark-elemental, hence the darksteel shields, which he also absorbs.


His one attack that isn’t dark-elemental is Thundara here, which does light damage and can paralyze.


He is also resistant to all other elements.

:radio:YouTube Link: A Desperate Situation
Fortunately, we have the attack power to get past his defenses.

He’s still pretty good at keeping our healer busy, though.

It takes some doing, but he goes down in time.


:radio:YouTube Link: Victory
We also get our hands on our first diamonds, the rarest variety of gem, which is required to upgrade crowns to their highest level.



: I don’t care about saving the world, but I care about you, Rolan!
: You’re my one and only brother. Hang in there!
: Rekoteh…
:3: It was a long, long time coming, but we finally have our happy reunion.


Oh, hey, it’s you. We were kind of in the middle of something, pal.
:mount_fuji:: Long ago, Rolan was the hero who received our gift of light.
:mount_fuji:: He drank up the darkness in others’ souls 'til his own heart grew black and dark.
:mount_fuji:: In his mind he forgot the Light, and his soul was closed to all.
:mount_fuji:: The darkness has been released, but now it threatens to engulf each and every land in this world.


It’s only natural that we end such a dramatic scene by gaining the ability to be something called “Party Host.”
:mount_fuji:: Go forth now, Heroes of Light…

Ah well, crisis averted, at least.

…oh.

: Please! My brother can’t do it all on his own. Help him to drive back the world of darkness!
That… sounds like an awful tall order.
Well, the Sky Witch out front seems to know a lot about this sort of thing, I guess information gathering is as good a place to start as any.

Ayy, it’s John and Paul’s boy! Dunno where he went after he dropped them off here but now he’s just hangin’ out here.

:spy:: Brave people - brave HEROES - must travel to each nation of the world and quiet this raging storm of darkness…
:spy:: And as they do so, they will need to gather the legendary weapons that the hero Rolan once bore.
So, not only did our efforts to help Rolan unleash all the demons he was holding back, we actually unleashed so many demons onto the world that it broke time itself.
Dunno about you but I feel pretty damn accomplished.

Anyway, now that our boy’s back within reach, we can go dragon-ridin’!

:radio:YouTube Link: Riding on the Dragon
Setting aside the ominous new direction the sky has apparently chosen to take, the dragon is this game’s airship, FFV style. (Actually better, since this one can actually go over mountains.)
Also note the return of the excellent dragon-riding theme song. (I think this is part of why I like it so much; it stands out drastically compared to airship themes in the rest of the series.)

The dragon can be called anytime while on the world map with the dragon harp. Handy!
With this, we’re given free reign of the entire world; we can go anywhere and do anything. Like the witch said, each town in the world has its own quest to take care of and they can all be done in any order we desire (with the exception of Horne, which must be handled last). In addition, monster strength now scales to the party’s levels, so difficulty is largely the same regardless of the order things are handled in.
Therefore, there is only one logical course of action…

Head right back into Spelvia.
While Spelvia is included in the whole do-things-in-any-order setup, I figured that I’d handle it first regardless since, well, it’s right here.



Our party has more lines in town, but not a lot to say.

Except for George, who points out that Rolan has apparently disappeared.

Curious. Most curious.

(I lied when I said we immediately returned to Spelvia; I took the dragon to the various towns to get equipped with dark-elemental offensive gear and light-elemental defense.)
(Honestly it’s worth just going on a worldwide shopping spree regardless of your chosen course of action; all the shops have new inventory.)

Well, it’s not a very big island; Rolan can’t have gone too far, right?

Plus, this gives us a perfect opportunity to show off our new crowns.

Hero is the first crown we obtain for ourselves that we first saw on a guest character. Since we’ve already seen the basics from when Rolan was in the group, let’s see what we couldn’t do with him.


Bladeblitz is basically the regular physical attack only it hits all enemies at once for an extra AP.

Party Host, sadly, is much less interesting than its name would suggest.


Party Host’s whole deal is the psych up mechanic. Charm here psychs up a random party member until the end of the turn and its upgrade abilities do the same for the whole party. Since the psych up mechanic on the whole is just kinda “meh” the crown is honestly fairly unimpressive.


Anyway, our goal in the Spelvia Dungeons is the very bottom, where Ringo came from the first time.

Oh hey, there’s Rolan! Looks like he lost his little crown, too, and must have gone searching for it. Nothing weird going on here!

: Visitors, here? But why…?
Um, Rolan, it’s-
: Ah, you came at Father’s behest, didn’t you? You have come a long way just to check on my welfare.
Oh, right, the whole “there are so many demons running around that it literally broke time” thing. It appears this is Rolan from the past!
: But you’re wasting your time.
: I won’t open my heart to anyone. Not any more!
Well, it looks like we’re at a point where he’s just kind of a curmudgeon and not millions of demons…

…maybe we can give his soul a jump start on the whole “fixing things” front.

:radio:YouTube Link: Another Space

: They scare me… war and fighting scare me to death!
: Rolan the Hero, Rolan the Hero… That’s all I’ve ever heard. But no one asked ME if I wanted to be a hero.
It appears things are still going to hell pretty early on, though.

Our destinations are, unsurprisingly, the three void rooms.

Instead of silhouette chasing, however, it’s just a short walk to a monster, which in this room is to the west of the entrance.

I know I established “dark offense, light defense” earlier, but for now we actually want the opposite. Also, bring echo drops and/or remedies as well as curse-resisting gear.
Just mentioning it here since I forgot to get shots of myself doing it. :V

:radio:YouTube Link: Battle With Demons


Unsurprisingly, the Arch Demon here is weak to light…

…and dishes out dark. This attack can also inflict curse, hence the aforementioned preparations.

It has a pretty big bag of HP on top of its status effects but it goes down eventually.

When we go back out of the room, we get a scene:

: I sheltered behind her, hiding from the battles I was supposed to fight. I lived a lie…
: …and that lie let the demons into my heart. They came to steal the power of the hero buried within me!


The only difference between void rooms is the placement of the Arch Demon.


More of the same. After this fight:

: All I ever did was run… Run from people’s hopes, run from my own destiny.
: If only I had a little courage, perhaps I could have driven away the demons myself.




One final Arch Demon.

No scene when we leave the room this time, so now it’s time to check up on Rolan himself.

The tendrils of darkness disappear and Rolan walks through the door. Inside…

We see what can only be the demon head honcho.
This may be a familiar face to those of you who fought a lot of Norende nemeses in Bravely Default.

Now this is the guy we need dark-based attacks and light-based defenses for.

: Besides, we like to see things through to the end.
: I want you to be reunited with your sister and your father, the chief of Invidia…
: Thank you, my brave comrades! With your help, I’ll finally become the hero I was always meant to be!
: Hey, what are friends for? We’d never leave you in the lurch, ever. And don’t you forget it!
I mean, I’m pretty sure this is the version of Rolan we aren’t friends with, yet, but whatever floats your boat.

See what I mean? Head honcho. Duder’s literally named Lucifer.

:radio:YouTube Link: The Demon King’s Servants
I will admit that Lucifer kind of gave me some trouble here.

Lucifer, as his name suggests, does light-based damage…

…while being weak to dark.

The worst thing about him is his tendency for causing status effects; his thunder spells cause paralysis while his physical attacks cause silence.
(I can’t really guard against these because I forgot to pick up the accessories that block it and they stop being available in stores post-time-break. :V)

Also obnoxious is Aeroga; we could equip shields that block wind, but that would mean not equipping shields that block light, so the choice is either take extra damage from this or take extra damage from his light attacks. More of his attacks are light-based than wind-based, so Aeroga is his heaviest-hitting move by default.

He’s also another boss that takes flight after awhile.

While he’s in the air, he has access to the second-worst thing about him: Judgment Bolt. Contrary to its usual function and appearance, this time it’s a big ol’ laser that completely destroys your party’s AP.
As a result, the best course of action to take while he’s airborne is to just boost the whole time, since it reduces the damage he does and it’s unlikely your healer will have the AP to do anything effectively.

Lucifer ends up kicking my ass enough times…

…that I choose to bring out the nuclear option.

I make John the Elementalist as he’d been taking the most damage, then upgraded it twice for its most useful ability (arguably the most useful ability), Mysterio.
Truth be told, I honestly prefer to avoid using Elementalist when I can, but sometimes the situation just calls for it.

:radio:YouTube Link: Approaching Dread
Lucifer is fairly challenging even with Mysterio active, so it seems the situation did indeed call for it.
(I might have been able to handle the fight without Mysterio if I’d thought to get the aforementioned status-blocking accessories when I could, but that’s just speculation at this point.)


This is much more manageable.

Paul’s accessory made him double resistant to light so with Mysterio the boss is actually more likely to heal him than hurt with it on.
(Not shown here is that the same goes for John due the the Elementalist’s passive resistances.)

No protection from this awful thing, sadly, which is the chief reason this fight is still challenging, as it makes it difficult to heal and renew Mysterio when it wears off.

After taking enough damage, Lucifer starts casting Cura on himself.

It doesn’t do him much good.

You’d think a big-name demon wouldn’t be such a sore loser.


Back so soon?
:mount_fuji:: You find yourselves in an alternate world, a world that was destined to be saved by the original Rolan of legend.
:mount_fuji:: The demons you face are mere servants of the Dark Lord himself.


We go almost half the game without a crown that uses swords and along come two in a row!
:mount_fuji:: O, Heroes of Light.
:mount_fuji:: Join now with Rolan the champion, and bring Light back to the world.

With that, Spelvia has blue skies again.

:spy:: If you can only repair the distortions that are even now appearing in each land, then perhaps this world can be saved.
Travel the world, fix- oh yeah we got a new toy from that, didn’t we?

Paladin is… well, the typical Final Fantasy Paladin class, really. High defense, abilities to keep damage off your buddies, that sort of thing.




We should probably see what Rolan has to say before doing anything else.

It’s worth noting that the golems are now fine with us in human form. Anyway, Rolan:

: I will forever be in your debt. At last, I can stand on my own two feet.
'Bout time, after all that rigamarole.
: I shall travel the world with my dragon. I will learn more of its people and become a hero to everyone.
: Then, at the end of my journey, I shall return to Father and Rekoteh.

I mean, is it really likely, given how time itself is broken?


This just goes in a loop until you say yes. Finally, “but thou must” in its purest form!

: It was once wielded by a great hero, but I have no more need of it now.

And with that we’ve completed Spelvia. This is basically the rest of the game until the end; head to a town, sort out its demon problem, get a crown and a piece of equipment.
You might remember that Bravely Default tried to emulate this and it ended up basically being that game’s biggest flaw. This game actually handles it much better. While there’s some backtracking involved, this half is actually much more involved than just the recycle-the-first-half approach that BD took.


We should probably be on our way as well…


…because while Spelvia is fine again, the rest of the world is not looking so hot.

New Crowns

Click here for new crowns!

Party Host

The Party Host has forgettable stats and is based around a mechanic that’s not especially useful. One of its later abilities, Pot Luck, has a random effect a la main series mainstay Slots, but that’s about it.
Stats:
HP: 1.1
Strength: 1.1
Intellect: 1.1
Spirit: 1.1

Hero

A solid physical attacker. Bladeblitz in particular is useful as it’s a powerful move that hits all enemies on the field. It has balanced enough stats that it can use magic somewhat proficiently but that’s only really good for some backup healing.
HP: 1.1
Strength: 1.1
Intellect: 1.1
Spirit: 1.1

Paladin

Heavy defense, high HP, protects friends, all the standard Paladin stuff. It also hits a bit harder than the average tank.

See next post for important polls!

Probably too many polls ahead!
This’ll be the only time there’s so many at once, I promise. I should have had the foresight to prevent this but it’s been a busy past couple weeks. Sorry!
So, we’ve gotten the band back together and reached the non-linear “sandbox” portion of the game. The rest of the game, until the final dungeon, is a sort of demon-exorcising world tour: we go to each of the towns, solve their demon problem, and get awarded with a new crown and a piece of Rolan’s old gear. A side effect of this is that crowns are now given out one at a time rather than pairs like they had been for the first half of the game. Additionally, with the exception of Horne, which cannot be completed until last, the demons can be dealt with in any order (this includes Spelvia, but I chose to handle it now for the sake of demonstration). On top of all that, we still need to distribute the crowns from when we were still getting them in pairs.

Here’s how this breaks down:
First, four polls to redistribute the crowns from the first half of the plot. This is why there are no less than six in this post; luckily this is the redistribution in the game. We’re distributing 12 crowns so everyone gets three each.
Second, since Paladin came from taking out Lucifer, we have a poll for who it is given to since we’ll be doing that with every crown we get from now on. (Note that I’ll be trying to keep distribution even so whoever gets this won’t be allowed any new ones until things are even again.)
Last, since all the towns can be completed in any order,we have a poll for our next destination.

Click here for old crown distribution!

Crowns for Paul

[poll type=multiple min=2 max=3 public=true name=PaulPoll]
  • White Mage
  • Black Mage
  • Bandit
  • Bard
  • Salve-Maker
  • Elementalist
  • Ranger
  • Fighter
  • Scholar
  • Party Host
  • Hero
  • Seamstress
[/* [poll ]

Crowns for John

[poll type=multiple min=2 max=3 public=true name=JohnPoll]
  • White Mage
  • Black Mage
  • Bandit
  • Bard
  • Salve-Maker
  • Elementalist
  • Ranger
  • Fighter
  • Scholar
  • Party Host
  • Hero
  • Seamstress
[/* [poll ]

Crowns for Ringo

[poll type=multiple min=2 max=3 public=true name=RingoPoll]
  • White Mage
  • Black Mage
  • Bandit
  • Bard
  • Salve-Maker
  • Elementalist
  • Ranger
  • Fighter
  • Scholar
  • Party Host
  • Hero
  • Seamstress
[/* [poll ]

Crowns for George

[poll type=multiple min=2 max=3 public=true name=GeorgePoll]
  • White Mage
  • Black Mage
  • Bandit
  • Bard
  • Salve-Maker
  • Elementalist
  • Ranger
  • Fighter
  • Scholar
  • Party Host
  • Hero
  • Seamstress
[/* [poll ]
Click here to vote for the Paladin crown recipient!

Who will be given the Paladin crown?

[poll name=poll5 type=regular public=true name=paladin]
  • Paul
  • John
  • Ringo
  • George
[/* [poll ]
Click here to vote for our next destination!

Which town should we head to first?

[poll name=poll6 type=regular name=destination]
  • Guera
  • Liberte
  • Urbeth
  • Arbor
  • Invidia
[/* [poll ]

The new boss theme and its critical health version are two of my favorite tunes in the game.

One fun thing you can do with Rolan is if you go into the fight with 3 merchants and a freelancer, you can farm diamonds off him with the merchants’s gem finding ability. Since freelancer prevents you from losing gems on death, you can get up to 3 diamonds a fight.
Also mysterio is broken.

Intermission: History Lessons

Something I meant to mention before but forgot to: now that we’ve reached the midpoint of the game and shifted to the second half’s more open-ended structure, I’m going to be taking a break from updating for awhile. I know I’m saying this after the previous update came after a bigger gap than usual but I was actually planning this one (and given the circumstances that caused said gap it came at a pretty good time).

That’s not to say I have nothing to offer, however. 4 Heroes of Light, being the retro throwback that it is, is chock full of homages to other games in the series. I don’t mean in terms of the things that make it a Final Fantasy game in the first place – your firagas, black mages, and so on don’t count – but cameos and shout-outs and the like. Some are easy to see – the “airship” of the game being a dragon is pretty obviously a riff on Hiryu from Final Fantasy V – while others are more esoteric – a FFXII cameo in a single background detail in a single shop, for instance.
Aside from a few off-hand mentions, I haven’t really been talking about these because there was never really a way to work it into the LP proper without messing up the flow of things. As such, I decided I would take this intermission to go through my screenshot repository – meaning this is just what there is in the first half of the game – and see what sort of references they snuck in:

It's like Where's Waldo, in a way. (Final Fantasy series blanket spoiler warning)

Disclaimer: All the images here not from 4 Heroes are from the Final Fantasy Wikia since I cannot be assed to replay these games – or even scour another Let’s Play, really – just to get images for a minor intermission.

Final Fantasy I

The plot is kicked off by the king’s request that the heroes rescue a princess, before revealing that said rescue is merely the start of a larger adventure; in FFI, rescuing princess Sara being only the beginning of the whole story was in defiance of the then-conventional structure where rescuing a princess signified the end of the game.

Final Fantasy II

During the first half of the game, the party is separated from one another by a variety of circumstances. To make up for this, a quartet of guest characters rotate in and out of one of our free party slots; in FFII, Leon goes missing at the very start and the fourth party slot is used in much the same way. (The difference, of course, is that 4 Heroes’ guest characters all bring something useful to the table and our missing friends don’t do brief stints as the villain.)

Speaking of guests, the first of these is the Mystic Knight Krinjh. Krinjh is somewhat stronger than our heroes when he joins them and has access to abilities the rest of the party won’t gain for quite awhile (in this case the Mystic Knight crown), plus he has an air of mystery about him, not unlike Minwu of the Wild Rose Rebellion. (The Mystic Knight crown’s appearance is even based on Minwu, as Krinjh’s crown icon on the interface shows.)

Final Fantasy III
Final Fantasy III is perhaps the game that 4 Heroes draws the most influence from:

The Transform Staff, which changes our form to-and-from animal form, allows access to places and services not otherwise available to normal humans, much like toad and mini from FFII. (The Transform Staff not relying on your spell charges makes it much more elegant, of course.)

One of the main members of our party is George/Aire, the headstrong princess of Horne; in FFIII, we are joined early on by Sara Altney, the headstrong princess of Sasune. (That said, Sara isn’t a permanent or even playable character.)

Our crowns are provided to us by an ill-defined-but-implied-to-be-divine crystal, much like the jobs in FFIII being obtained from the four elemental crystals. (Crowns are given only one or two at a time, however, where jobs come in bigger waves, plus the elemental crystals’ nature is much more clear.)

Speaking of jobs, while the crown system is obviously another iteration of the recurring Job System, the relative simplicity and lack of using abilities across jobs makes it most resemble the version seen in FFIII.

Final Fantasy V

Our primary mode of aerial transportation is the dragon we hatched in Invidia, who is not dissimilar to Hiryu the Wind Drake in FFV. (4 Heroes’ dragon is more versatile, however, functioning more like a traditional airship.)

Same deal with the crystals as FFIII.

Final Fantasy VI


Near the end of the first half of the story, the party magically ventures directly into the soul of Rolan to confront the demons, both figurative and literal, that had taken up residence in his mind; Cyan’s friends in FFVI do very much the same (although some manifestation of Rolan is kind enough to join us in battle while Cyan is rendered helpless).

Final Fantasy VIII
The amount of influence from FFVIII is honestly kind of surprising (another disclaimer: I’ve never much cared for VIII so my memory of it is kinda fractured so I may be remembering things wrong here):

Spelvia, a city far more advanced than the rest of the setting, is entered by the party through its back entrance(s), a la Squall and co. entering Esthar.

Its ruler, the ancient hero Rolan, is confronted and defeated, much like SeeD confronting and defeating ancient Estharian ruler Adel.


Finally, our heroes end up literally breaking time itself, much like VIII’s time compression. (That said, the breakage in 4 Heroes is the result of the world crawling with the demons that escaped upon Rolan’s defeat while time compression, like most of FFVIII, is just a whole lotta nonsense.)

Final Fantasy X

The dragon, unlike most other forms of aerial travel in Final Fantasy, is not placed on a tile of the world map that requires trekking back to; rather, it can be called from anywhere on the map with the dragon harp, similarly to the Fahrenheit from FFX being accessible from any save point.

Final Fantasy XII

The weapon store counter in Urbeth – that is, the same counter used in the shopkeeping minigame – features a cameo from, of all things, the limited edition bottles for that Potion energy drink tie-in from FFXII.

Did you catch anything I didn’t? I wouldn’t be surprised; I mean, I’m honestly kind of surprised I didn’t find anything from IV or IX, especially considering how much VIII influence there is and how I only really looked at the numbered series. Let me know anything I might have missed! (Just keep standard courtesy in mind, in terms of both this game and the rest.)

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Just over one month is a long enough break, I think. Here’s what’s going down:

Poll Results:

Paul has been given the Bandit, Salve Maker, and White Mage crowns!
John has been given the Elementalist, Seamstress, and Ranger crowns!
Ringo has been given the Hero, Fighter, Bard, and Paladin crowns!
George has been given the Black Mage, Party Host, and Scholar crowns!

The first (well, technically second) town on our demon-extermination tour shall be Arbor!

And with that out of the way, the next update should be up sometime tomorrow.

Update #18: The Satanic Panic

Click here for update 18!


When we last joined our heroes, we had just learned that :illuminati:demons rule the earth :illuminati: and are now so omnipresent that they have broken time itself. This resulted in us meeting the past version of the hero Rolan, back when he was just kind of curmudgeonly and not yet the demon-possessed misanthrope he had become by our present.
Fortunately, we were able to free Spelvia from its infernal oppressor (nothing less than :illuminati: Lucifer himself :illuminati:) and prevent Rolan’s darkness from overtaking his mind.
Less fortunately, that still leaves us with a whole lot more demons to deal with.

Luckily, defeating said demons is decidedly quite rewarding. Rolan’s sword here is leaps and bounds above everything we currently have (so long as we’re not fighting anything that absorbs light, obviously).

Spelvia has parked itself in the northeast corner of the world map, no longer moving like it has been for most of the game up till this point.

First order of business: Arbor. Maybe the current state of the space-time continuum landed us at a point where they weren’t so xenophobic.

:radio:YouTube Link: Cursed Town
The place sure is looking like they’ve seen better days.
Get used to that song, by the way; it plays in every town that hasn’t had its demon problem taken care of and it gets old irritatingly fast.

On the plus side, there appears to be a decidedly-quite-human mage just walking around unhindered. There may be hope for the place yet!

:question:: I travel the whole world, searching for answers to its many mysteries.
:question:: Arbor is FULL of mysteries! The Great Tree, fairies, magic… it is the most wondrous place I’ve seen!
:question:: I cannot wait to explore it all. Farewell, till we meet again!

And he just waltzes on into the tree. Guy’s enthusiastic, if nothing else.

Legendary magic, y’say? What a coinkidink, we’re currently on the hunt for some Legendary stuff.
(This is me talking to the ferret in the last screenshot in animal form, by the way, since the text box blocks the view of the both of us.)

…well, crap.

This response isn’t really anything important but it is a moderately more interesting reaction to the transformation staff than we usually see.

The only really interesting thing to see in the stores here are the Leaf line of black magic spells, which do non-elemental damage.

It’s kind of a weird little coincidence; at pretty much the same time as this game, FFXIII introduced the Ruin spells as the “normal” (that is, not like Flare or Ultima or Meteor) non-elemental spell line, which then became a mainstay thanks to the A Realm Reborn version of FFXIV giving it to Arcanists, meaning Leaf ended up just sort of falling to the wayside. Kind of a shame, really, I think Leaf’s concept is a bit more interesting.
Still, you wait 20-odd years for a non-elemental spell and two come along at the exact same time!
Also around town:




Well, considering the lifespan of mice, Torte probably hasn’t even been born yet, so neither of you really have anything to worry about.

Oh, uh, yeah, I wouldn’t get too attached to that, if I were you.
Just… just sayin’.

Well, I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about; I’m sure a normal-ass volcano’s got nothing on all the magical guff you have going on here.

Glad to see you’re not all pricks about this, I suppose.


Aha, so that’s where our new friend was off to in such a hurry.


Been awhile since we’ve been down here.

:radio:YouTube Link: Cave of Wraiths
Luckily, we won’t be staying for very long.

Hey buddy you’re making an enormous mista-


I mean, sorta-kinda, I guess, but mostly we’re here to warn you this is a bad ide-

Okay yeah we’re after the legendary stuff too.

:question:: They say there is wondrous magic sealed up somewhere in these warrens.
Whether you answer yes or no he gives us another option:

Seriously bro this is a terri-

uh
:question:: Very well. The race is on!

…and he just runs off. Maybe cooperating with him is the better course of action:


Nope, dude runs off like an over-excited puppy regardless.

Seeing as time is literally broken and we haven’t just been sent into the past, all the treasures we obtained in the future remain gotten here in the past.






Excepting, of course, the one that was no longer there by the time we first arrived.

Right on cue.

No offense, but you don’t particularly strike me like the kind of individual who’d be responsible with this sort of thing.


All right, fine, if you’re going to pull the old “go on forever” trick.

You’re filling me with such confidence.


Wait, what?
Figures. We open potentially-dangerous treasure chests and get turned into cats; overly-enthused dopes open potentially-dangerous treasure chests and get off scot-free.


…or perhaps not.



:illuminati:Belphegor :illuminati:, you say? I dunno, sounds on the level to me.



Watch it, buster, only one of us has been demon-freeingly incompetent here and it ain’t any of us.

:question:: I must take this new spell to the queen. Fear not, I shall save Arbor, if it is the last thing I do!

…and he runs off. Again. The fade-to-black is new, at least.
We’d better get to the queen ourselves, given the circumstances.




Well, he is very… puppy-ish. Birds of a feather, et cetera.
Anyway, on our way to meet the queen…

…we see a familiar face. Huh, guess he was alive this far into the past after all.

No explanation for his conspicuous absence up to now, though.
Or for our new mage friend’s own sudden, conspicuous absence. Maybe the queen knows something.

”Over there?” There’s nobody else in the room but the same guard as usual and Torte-
…oh. Well that certainly explains things. Quite a few things, in fact, and not just from this particular encounter with him…
:crown:: The demon has gone to the volcano in the north. He intends to make it erupt and bury Arbor under the ash and lava.
:crown:: Arbaroc flew after the beast to try and thward its plans, but I fear the demon is too powerful.
:crown:: You are strong and brave warriors. Will you go to the volcano and thwart his plans?
:crown:: The volcano in the north is easy to reach - if you have a dragon to take you there.
See, this is what Bravely Default missed when it tried to recreate this half of the game in its own context. We’re not just re-treading the same ground again and again, the volcano is actually a new place.

: Yet I must accept responsibility. The demon has to be returned to its prison without delay!

…and he runs off one last time. Guess we’re off to kill a demon and stop Torte from getting himself killed.

Not quite sure how you’d know the boss’s gimmick but I appreciate it nonetheless.

Looks like somebody doesn’t quite get this whole non-linearity thing.


I will freely admit that the mental image of human!Torte and this random ferret fighting each other amuses me far more than it should.

What he’s after really doesn’t matter if everyone’s dead, just saying.

…Paul, the queen just told us- oh, never mind.

It’s funny how Torte was all “ew gross humans” when we first met him… and then we find out the whole deal was his fault to begin with.

Well, I’m sure this is good advice and not at all one of the most annoying ways to actually fight him. Thanks for the advice, Ferret Hidden in the Text Boxes!

The volcano isn’t hard to miss, especially considering how foreboding it is on the upper screen map.

…then again, these places never really look as impressive in person as they do in the brochure.

Update #19: It Will Vanish and Shrink

Click here for update 19!



As unimpressive as this lava-filled pothole looks, it’s still part of :illuminati: Belphegor’s :illuminati: plot to blow Arbor to smithereens, so we’d better put a stop to him!

(After some obvious preparations, of course.)

:radio:YouTube Link: Cave of Wraiths
Mount Gulg, for those who don’t know, was a volcano in FFI (where it was also known as Mount Gulug or Gurgu Volcano, depending on which translation you look at), where it was host to the fiend of fire, (who was known as either Marilith or Kary, dependent on which translation you look at). It would also make another appearance in FFIX as Mount Gulug.
Something Mount Gulg is known for (well, kind of, but still) is its distinctive musical theme, which makes it kind of disappointing that we’re just getting the normal-ass dungeon theme here, so instead, I would advise you listen to this, this, or perhaps this.

Gulg starts out simple enough. The first floor has two mostly-symmetrical paths left and right…

…that are split into an inner and outer path each.


The outer paths lead to treasure…


…while the left branch’s inner path leads to progress. (The last path is just a dead end.)

The second floor is where this place gets interesting.




Bits of the ground are covered in lava. Technically, if we really, really wanted, we could just walk through the stuff and heal the damage we take. Unfortunately, we aren’t made of potions or AP, so we instead have some puzzling to do.

(Also here’s what’s in that treasure chest)

To the immediate right of the entrance to this floor, we find this device.


How this works, I can’t say.




It’s a moot point, however, since it gives us access to places we could not reach before…



…including a nice piece of treasure…



…and the entrance to the next floor.
Again, if you’re willing to take a metric shitton of damage, it is perfectly viable to just make a beeline to the next floor; take damage to save time and so on.


That goes double for this next floor. If we wanted, we could just keep running to the west and we’d bypass something like half the dungeon in exchange for a near death experience.

Honestly, though, where’s the fun in that?

The puzzle here is started by pressing this switch, immediately south of the one blocked by lava above.


For the record, there’s another damage shortcut to the east of this switch, but we will be resisting the temptation for the time being.


Instead, we activate the device, which gives us access to the first device we passed.

Which, in turn, removes the lava blocking a third switch to the west of the first one we pressed.

We now, technically, have a lava-free path to the boss.


Of course, since the lava is not removed, just relocated, we still have some navigation to do.



The safe path is, of course, at the southern end of the floor.



Aside from a neat accessory obtained from a not-at-all difficult fight, this last floor is just a winding passage to the end.


Although we pass by the damage shortcuts from earlier, of course.


The only trick here is save point guy being slightly more out of the way than usual.

One last staircase and…

We meet quite a sight.
A sight that makes for a good stopping point because I need to work on curbing my habit o making these updates like 100 images apiece.

So, uh, bad news and good news about this thread.

:tw: Mentions of mental health issues
The bad news: Well, it’s not so much “news” anymore. The thread died about a year ago! Immediately after I was supposed to be done with a hiatus, even!
This happened because I’ve been dealing with a sort of mental health crisis since about a month before this LP started; I ran out of medication at an incredibly bad time (finding a doctor that takes your new insurance policy is a nightmare with un-medicated ADD), which in turn exacerbated other, at-the-time un-diagnosed mental health issues. The result of this was that I essentially retreated into a metaphorical turtle shell, reducing my (already fairly reclusive) internet presence to basically nil. (I have since learned about Avoidant Personality Disorder and Social Anxiety Disorder, hence the whole recluse thing.)

The good news: I never really meant to abandon this thread; I like this game and I enjoyed the change of pace in playing it for an audience, the LP only stopped because of extraneous circumstances, all of which are, if not under control, at least more managed than they were before. Furthermore, it’s healthy for me to exist in a mode other than “hikikomori” and “at work,” so I’d rather like to get reacquainted with a community I had at least some sort of foothold in (even if it was only just).
As such, I’m going to try to get this adventure on the road again and see if we can’t see this LP through to the end… We’re well into the second half of the game already, after all, and just leaving things hanging where they are would just make me feel bad. Hopefully, I’ll be able to finish what I started!

Apologies for the enormous delay, and thanks for reading if you did.

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Update #20: Back at it Again at Krispy Kreme

Click here for update 20!


:radio:YouTube Link: Cave of Wraiths
Hoo-whee, why does it feel like we’ve been hanging around this dreary-as-hell cave for like a year? We have work to do, dammit!

…just give me a second to remember what that work actually was.

:radio:YouTube Link: The Demon King’s Servants
Oh right, right, the whole “:illuminati:demons secretly rule the world :illuminati:” thing. At least :illuminati:Belphegor :illuminati: and Arbaroc were kind enough to wait for us to get here before starting anything important!

Also Torte, I guess, but it’s past Torte so it’s not like there was much he could do anyway.
(Torte’s dialog in this scene is only intelligible if your lead party member is in animal form, for what it’s worth.)

:illuminati:: I shall possess your body and use it as my own. Then no one will be able to protect the great tree!
Not a bad plan, considering the difference in how your respective boss fights go, but we’ll get to that in a bit.
: Arbaroc! You can do no more!

Torte tries to involve himself in this little altercation.

It does not get him far.
:illuminati:: The rat dares interfere? Then the rat must die!
: Torte!
: Okay, now I’m mad!
Luckily, someone more capable is also on the case! Time for a boss fight…

…with Belphegor… and cubes! Demonic cubes!
Belphy’s gimmick is that he is a Barrier Shift style boss; he attunes himself to a particular element and both his offense and defense change to reflect this. Recall some advice an NPC in Arbor gave us:

The thing about this advice is that it a) sucks and b) is bad, largely because this description of Belphy’s ability is only partially true.

What actually happens is that you’ll cast a spell on Belphegor and/or his cubes (the cubes are basically miniature versions of the big guy, gimmick and all) to exploit their weakness…

…and they change specifically to the element you hit them with, nothing “at will” about it.


More importantly, the fight will always start with them fire elemental…

…so all one really needs to do…

…is gear up the party to resist fire.

He’s not entirely a pushover this way unless one is using an elementalist (ball of fire here still kind of hurts), but he’s far and away the most manageable boss from this part of the game even without one.
Honestly, trying to exploit his weaknesses here is really kind of a trap.

No, our ace in the hole here…

…is to turtle up…


…and non-elemental the shit out of 'em…

…so that we may continue to take advantage of our fire resistance.

Belphy’s physical attack can put party members to sleep, but as long as one remembers to always be healing it’s still nothing to worry about.

:radio:YouTube Link: Approaching Dread
The cubes are pretty much a non-entity and die fairly quickly.

Although, the non-elemental approach is working better for some members than others. What the hell was that mess, John!?
(Most likely that mess was me having plans for John that weren’t just sniping every turn then forgetting them over the course of the year. Hahahaha whoops.)


He’s not entirely a pushover (check out those HP values), but it’s not hard to see from this fight why he was so keen on possessing Arbaroc.



Hey, buddy! I think I missed you most of all from this game!
:mount_fuji:: You have defeated the demon of fire and saved good Arbaroc.
:mount_fuji:: The future of Arbor, once in Peril, is assured for all.


Oh hey, another recurring Final Fantasy job! (Just not the one you’re thinking of; more on that in a bit.)


With that, Belphy has been taken care of. Meanwhile, our party members all have things to say:

Being in full “humens are teh sux” mode at the time probably had something to do with it, remember?

Oh yeah, that was a thing. Ineffectual as he was, Belphy sure was an asshole, wasn’t he?

Couldn’t, like, we do it? With the staff we have? The one that’s made for this exact sort of thing?
Maybe she just doesn’t want to get on the queen’s bad side I guess.

Oh right, you weren’t there for that. Yeah, he was a boss fight that took like seven tries to beat.
Speaking of Arbaroc, animal form gets us more dialog from both 'Roc and Torte.

:bird:: I must thank you all. I doubt that I would have been able to defeat him on my own.
The disparity in boss fights says otherwise, buddy.

But of course! We’re the player characters and your stint as a guest is simultaneously long since over and decades from now.

That’s more than enough time inside a volcano right next to flowing lava, I think.

:radio:YouTube Link: Riding on the Dragon
It’s time to report back to Arbor and, more importantly, use this excuse to listen to the dragon theme again; it’s been far too long.

:radio:YouTube Link: Arbor
…I just don’t have the heart to tell 'em.





:illuminati:Demons rule the world :illuminati:, y’say?


Wait, why? Letting strangers into Arbor is the only reason the crisis was averted in the first pla- Oh, I get it, gotta prevent those time paradoxes, good call.


Player characters. Accept no substitutes.

Well given that we’d already beaten Rolan himself before even seeing Belphy…


Luckily, she’s like two feet away right now. Let’s find out!

:crown:: In doing so, you saved the realm of Arbor and the entire natural world.
:crown:: In gratitude for everything you have done, I shall return this one to his original form.


:crown:: Do you need to ask? I think there is only one group of people who could be entrusted with magic so powerful.
: Yes, of course. My friends, take this. Such a spell is too great for one such as I. But in your hands…

Oh hell yes.

You know, I don’t think we’ve seen him cast a single spell post-time-broken-by-demons.
I guess it was sort of brave of him to try rushing Belphy in the volcano, maybe? Still not very mage-like, though.
: Why, thank you, George, you are too kind. But…
:crown:: If she speaks the truth, perhaps you would be willing to serve me awhile, Torte.

:crown:: Yes, we have need of men of your caliber in the court of Arbor.
: I cannot tell you what an honor that would be!

: O-of course, Your Highness! Although, I didn’t really mind being a mouse…

With that, the Arbor leg of our little adventure in time and space is now complete!
…after a bit more dialog, of course.

Yes, yes, :illuminati:demons rule the world :illuminati:. It’s on our to-do list!


Honestly, I get you wanting to be a puppy more than I get Torte wanting to be a mouse.

Again, I don’t think we’ve seen Torte actually use any magic this trip.



_Now, how’s about a look at that cool new spell we just got our hands on, eh?

:radio:YouTube Link: Battle With Demons
Lux costs a full 5 AP (for White Mages 4) but is well worth the cost:


Most immediately, the entire team’s max HP is raised to 1.5 times its normal value…

…and the party is given health regen, AP regen, and all abilities are buffed.

We also have a new crown, the monk:


(Unfortunately, actually showing it off requires setup that I didn’t really have time to do. I’ll still talk about it at the bottom, though.)


In any case, we still have four towns to liberate!

New Crowns

Click here for new crowns!

…well, okay, only one new crown:
Monk

No, it’s not the typical Final Fantasy monk; we already knew that’s Fighter in this game. No, this is actually a return of Final Fantasy Tactics’ Mystic (or Oracle if you prefer):

(Technically they’re called different things in both Japanese and English but they’re both clearly based on Taoist priests.)
Monk here is a very high-risk, high-reward crown, for one simple reason: using it requires deliberately letting party members die. The actual Monk gets stronger every time they are killed and resurrected, their first two abilities are all about animating dead party members, and their third ability is a sacrifice attack that does damage based on how many times the user has died.
Monk can do ridiculous damage with enough deaths under its belt, but it cannot be overstated that this requires deliberately letting party members die and all the risks that entails.
HP: 1.1
Strength: 1.1
Intellect: 1.1
Spirit: 1.1

Polls for next location and recipient of the monk crown are in the next post!

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Two things I wanna know: who gets access to the Monk crown, and which town are we freeing next?

Who will be given the Monk crown?

  • Paul
  • John
  • George

0 voters

Which town should we head to next?

  • Guera
  • Liberte
  • Urbeth
  • Invidia

0 voters

:tw: objectification :tw:

Update #21: Kaleidoscope Eyes

Click here for update 21!


:radio:YouTube Link: Riding on the Dragon
With :illuminati: Belphegor :illuminati: out of the picture, our work here in Arbor is officially done.
Of course, the world is still :illuminati: ruled by demons :illuminati: , and we still have to do something about that, so…

Hello, Liberte! Saving the world and seaside vacation at the same time, baby!

:radio:YouTube Link: Liberte
…or maybe not so much at the same time, place looks like it’s seen better days.

Although the locals are apparently none too concerned about it. Getting here just in time for a fair? That’s how you plan a vacation, people.

…leave it to you to be a downer just before a party, I guess.

Not just any party, a decennial party.

At least one of us is having a good time.



To the west, you say? Well, I’m sure nothing important will ever come of it, be it in the immediate future or ten years from now.

Sure, as long as you just don’t look up.
Which seems how everyone is approaching the situation anyway, so I consider it a win!

…well, crap. I guess there are a few reasons for some of us to be unhappy here after all, eh?

And some of us are actually paying attention to the sky! Liberte’s just nonstop making a fibber out of me today!

That doesn’t even begin to make sense but I suppose a lead is a lead.





He also know his legendary weapons, apparently.

…I mean, I’m pretty sure that’s the single least interesting thing going on hereabouts right now, but whatever floats your boat, kid.


And now, after ten trillion years, this door no longer taunts us!


And provides us with goodies! (Also a free remedy.)


The fancy looking house, if you recall, was where we stayed when we first came to Liberte at the beginning of the game.





I know, right? What kind of bastard just up and ruins a perfectly good fair like that?

As if to deliberately contrast the treasure house from before, this tower still stonewalls us. Mysterious!




Inland sea to the east, eh? Oh, I’m sure you have nothing to worry about there.



So, information gathering brings us two bits of information: Fairies live out to the west, and there’s this big important artist in town by the name Pione.

Alright, enough procrastinating, it’s high time we paid a visit to the famous and fabulous Pione. No doubt we’re going to be floored by the stunning display of-


…of art block.
Happens to the best of us, I suppose.

:paintbrush:: I’m embarrassed to admit that my own entry isn’t ready yet. It still lacks a certain “je ne sais quoi”…
:paintbrush:: I’m looking for something unique and beautiful to set it apart. If you see anything, do let me know!
Well, Pione was a dud. Let’s go do that other thing!

…but not without making some preparations.
A smart thing to do here is get ourselves ready to deal with water-elemental enemies, doubly so since this very town sells water-damage-negating ice shields. Not necessarily something to deal with right away, but since we’re setting out now it’s good to keep in mind.

:radio:[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6w3tjIlqxXc&index=5&list=PL7259723079A70316]YouTube Link: Walking the Ground[/url]
Westward, ho!

If you remember our first trip here, this place was only accessible while in animal form.

:radio:[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igwc2eShB1c&list=PL7259723079A70316&index=8]YouTube Link: Cave of Wraiths[/url]

We won’t be spending much time here…

…because it’s pretty much a straight shot to what appears to be a fairy caught in a spider’s web.

I mean, those fairies back at Arbor were kind of dicks before we helped them. Why should we bother with you?

…oh, right, “before we helped them.” Sorry!


Well will you look at that, an old (new? old-new?) friend.
:beetle:: I’m sorry, do I know you? How do you come to know my name?
:beetle:: …Ah, but never mind that. I owe you my thanks! If you happen to visit Liberte, look me up and I will repay your kindness.

At any rate, we accomplished more than we did talking to Pione.



I… suppose Lilibelle is close to what Pione had asked us for? I guess, maybe? I’d kind of assumed he was looking for, you know, an object and not a person (or even a critter, really).
I dunno, maybe she could be a model for a sculpture or they could do some sort of performance art or something.


Well, let’s hope George’s sensible idea and Ringo’s questionable one synergize reasonably well…
:tw: ahead, BTW.



By the power of plot convenience!

:beetle:: Will you let me rest here a bit? My wings are all dirty and it’s very hard to fly.
:paintbrush:: Look how she sparkles! Gorgeous!
:beetle:: Ahhh, that’s better. Thank you.
:paintbrush:: Let me have that fairy! It’s just what I was looking for to make my work complete.
…I’m sorry, what?

Yeah, you tell him!
:paintbrush:: But why not?
Because that’s fucked up is why, dang!
:paintbrush:: It’s like the Liberte Vase was MADE for her. Together they will be so beautiful.
:beetle:: Oh, well. If you put it that way. But I don’t have to stay inside it forever, do I?

Maybe lead with that part next time, goddamn!

At this point we get control back.

Whatever makes you happy, I guess.

I’d really rather not at this point really.
:tw: over

Well, that was needlessly creepy times seventeen. It’s a good time for a rest, I think.



Maybe Pione will be less fucked up today.

…aw, crap.

Welp, looks like we have a situation.

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I do not remember any of this part at all. I guess for good reason.

I don’t remember to well the details of this game, but well, in this entry we’ve seen how poor Lilibelle ended up trapped inside that thing at the start of the game.

Poor fairy can’t catch a break, caught in spiderweb, imprisoned for years at a glasswork and then killed protecting someone…

One of these days, I’m going to have my shit together to the extent I can do this more than once every couple of weeks.
One of these days.
Update #22: Yellow Submarine

Click here for update 22!


:radio:YouTube Link: Cursed Town
We’ve found ourselves trapped in, at minimum, two nested predicaments.




Predicament 1: Our good friend Lilibelle has been captured by pirates because of her involvement in Liberte’s art festival.






…as has Pione, Liberte’s “premier” glassworker…




…not to mention all the art actually intended for the fair.

The townsfolk are, of course, in a panic of this turn of events.

However, there is one thing they are not entirely aware of:

Predicament 2: Pione is actually kind of a creepy jerk and a friend of ours has agreed to work with him at the fair, which has in turn led to her getting kidnapped by pirates, ergo, nested predicaments.

Luckily for us, we at least have a solution to one of these predicaments.

The place is exactly where we left it.

:radio:YouTube Link: Cave of Wraiths


It’s exactly how we left it too, including the password.

Remarkably shortsighted of Drake to use the same password at the same hideout for nigh on a decade, really.


It’s… basically the same dungeon again with tougher enemies.






…to the point that the treasure boxes and such all remain opened.
(Recall that we have not merely traveled back in time 10 years but that time itself has been broken (by the over-abundance of demons in the world, no less) and this makes sense in a fantasy bullshit sort of way.)

As such, all there really is to do here is a straight shot back to the original boss room.



Never done me any good with random encounters but whatever floats your boat (heh) I suppose.


Not really much to it anymore, place has already been taken care of.


We eventually come to a familiar-ish sight.

:butterfly:: Stay away, my friends! He’s too dangerous!
:man_artist:: Listen, you can keep my vase, I don’t care about that. But please free Lilibelle first!
That sure ain’t the tune you were singing before, Pione.


Oh right, three nested predicaments.
Predicament 3: the world is :illuminati: still ruled by demons :illuminati:
:black_circle:: Do as I say, now. Squish the fairy!

:black_circle:: Bah, you pathetic fool!
With that, we’re thrown into a boss fight.

:radio:YouTube Link: Battle With Demons
Well, “boss fight.”




I’m reasonably sure this thing has the exact stats it did in the early game because it goes down pretty much effortlessly.

That’s what had you under its thumb, Drake?

Post-battle conversations ahoy!

Pione has entered “covering my ass” mode, where he will hopefully stay from now on.


At any rate we’ve saved who we actually care about.

Paul’s bringing his “That was cool! I wanna be a [thing currently relevant to quest]!” routine back with a passion, I see.


John, meanwhile, is getting just a wee bit ahead of the script.

:sailboat:: In one of the boxes ye’ll find a Rusty Compass. It fits the pedestal in Liberte’s Art Museum.

Couldn’t be that impressive if the most important thing is a rusted-out old compass, but I suppose it’s worth a look.

Then again…

!

!!

!!!

!!!

!!!

!!!


Well, he offered it, we may as well.


Either way, it looks like Liberte has been freed of its demonic yoke, may as well do the whole “here returns the conquering heroes” bit.

…although the unchanged skies seem to say otherwise.

Not to mention we never did get that legendary equipment that we’re questing for.

…what was that about a pedestal in the museum?

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Update #23: The Blue Meanie

Click here for update 22!


Last time, we stymied the pirate attacks on Liberte and rescued our good friend Lillibelle in the process.
…so why does everything still feel wrong? Sky’s still looking awfully borked…

I mean aside from Pione’s creepiness.




Something that hasn’t actually been dealt with, you mean?
I think you may be onto something there, guy.

Sacred beast, eh? We ARE missing a legendary something-or-other…
Ah well, probably nothing.



This man is relateable, I will admit, but it still feels as if we’re missing something…



Come on now, the script’s been treating you completely unfairly since the beginning of the game.

You, on the other hand, are barely even worth a brain cell.



I can relate. We just time-traveled your relevance to the plot out of existence, I’d be unhappy too!







Still awfully nonchalant about that freaky sky, these folks.
Well, the art museum’s just downstairs…

Looks like we have no choice: we do the thing Drake talked about with the rusted-out old compass.

Upon placing the compass on the plinth, the entire town starts to rumble…

…the northern half of the town begins to split away…

:radio:[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQWoIfCRXQY&index=23&list=PL7259723079A70316YouTube Link: The Legendary Whale[/url]
…and appears to be mounted on the back of an enormous whale!

A whale we appear to have control over, because we can still move as usual on the world map!

…and allows us to land on the beach, apparently.
Is… is the town alright with this?



”Sacred beast,” eh? “Liberte’s secret treasure,” hm?
Could it be that Rolan didn’t leave Liberte an artifact at all, but instead a sweet new ride?

:man_artist:: You have shown me wonders I have never dreamed I would see. Thank you, my friends, thank you!
:man_artist:: When I see something beautiful, I feel it deep in my heart. It makes me want to recreate that beauty with my own hands.
A ride by the name of Cetus, it seems!


Responses to the situation appear to be mixed.


A :illuminati: demon, :illuminati: you say, out on the high seas?

Alright team, what do you all make of this?


Pione:

Opinions are, again, mixed.
Wait, could… could Cetus have been that gross flesh dungeon from the first time were here? Damn, I’m beginning to see the trepidation here.



Again, sorry for writing your plot relevance out of existence.



:guardsman:: The secret, and the treasure itself, have been protected by a chosen few this many centuries.
:guardsman:: Mighty Cetus is awake. Something very, very serious must be happening.
:guardsman:: Face the compass and press the A button. Then you may steer Cetus to the place you wish to go.
:guardsman:: If you wish to disembark, steer Cetus next to a beach and press the A button.
Apparently that elite “chosen few” include this random museum attendant. Also, you can’t actually see his tutorial already having its subject material figured out. (It doesn’t matter, really, since mechanically Cetus is just your typical boat-on-JRPG-world-map and is super easy to figure out, but it still amuses me.)


I mean, the nightmarish sky and sudden pirate attacks were no big deal, but a whale suddenly being awake? The end is nigh!
Now one might wonder: where does one go with Cetus that one couldn’t already with our dragon? Honestly, there’s not a lot, but…

…we do, nonetheless, have a plan. To the east!



Indeed, we have something awfully suspicious right here.

Awfully suspicious.

:radio:YouTube Link: The Demon King’s Servants
Suspicious in a Final-Fantasy-mainstay sort of way, even!
Also, an actual boss fight after the filler from the pirate cave. Don’t be misled by the little bit we see here.



Leviathan, at first, seems pretty straightforward: water-elemental attacks, weak to fire. We’ve already equipped ourselves with water-negating gear and fire-based attacks are easy enough to come by, so no problem, right? Well…


As Leviathan loses health, more of its tentacles will surface (this is what the “broken” indicator a few screenshots back signifies), which gives it more actions it can take per turn.



The damage can add up, for sure, but it’s still manageable with water resistance so that’s not the real issue.

The real issue is that Leviathan’s physical attack has a chance of causing instant death and more attacks per round means more chances for that to proc.


:radio:YouTube Link: Approaching Dread
Eventually, Leviathan itself surfaces from the water. While it could already be inferred from the multiple tentacles already involved, this is where we see that this is… decidedly not the Leviathan we know and love.


Leviathan surfacing brings about two changes to its patterns. The first is that it starts casting Thundaga and thundara, which has a chance of causing paralysis and is very much not negated by our water-based equipment.



Charge, meanwhile, reduces damage it takes but is broken by fire attacks- think Cagnazzo’s water shield from FFIV.


Reduced damage or no, fire attacks and water defense is the key to taking Leviathan down.

With Leviathan defeated, we see a familiar flash of light.

:mount_fuji:: You resurrected mighty Cetus and defeated the demon Leviathan.
:mount_fuji:: Yet throughout the world darkness still grips men’s souls.
:mount_fuji:: But you have the power to drive it back and bring forth the Light.


If you recall, Dancer was the job Rekoteh used when she was with us, making this the second crown we’ve obtained that was originally seen on a guest character.

And that is Liberte solved.

For real this time!

It’s still divided in half, of course, but let’s not split hairs.
So, uh, remember the first time we were in this area and what was here? Turns out that awful fleshy dungeon was Cetus all along. Problem… problem solved?


The folks in the south part of town are also handling the situation in their own ways.
Regardless, Liberte has been squared away, which means one important thing: new toys!

The in-game description here is so misleading as to be comical. While their shortsword proficiency is nice, what’s actually important about dancer is that it revolved around AP manipulation.
(Also note that this particular crown is not a hat at all but a rose held between one’s teeth, which I’ve always thought was neat.)


:radio:YouTube Link: Battle With Demons

Pretty straightforward; the basic dance restores AP for the user and improving the crown allows one to do more AP manipulation for more party members.

Liberte is (fortunately) done and over with, but there’s still plenty of world to save.
(see next post)

New Crowns

Click here for the new crown!

Dancer

Dancer is an alright physical fighter that specializes in AP restoration and manipulation. It starts out with the ability to restore its own AP and works up to party-wide buffs. It’s alright, but it’s kind of boring and gets outclassed by the end of the game.
HP: 1.3
Strength: 1.3
Intellect: 1.0
Spirit: 1.3

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Who will be given the Dancer crown?

  • Paul
  • George

0 voters

Which town should we head to next?

  • Guera
  • Urbeth
  • Invidia

0 voters