Day 28

Game - Final Fantasy 4, Day 28
Hours Played/Hours Total - 3 hrs / 8 hrs
Starting Point - Mysidia
Current Goal - Travel the Devil's Road to Baron. Obtain an airship to stop Golbez. Save the world.

What Happened - This game just keeps on amping up...so let's continue! Also a warning of another super long post, courtesy of massive amounts of plot stuff happening!
     I started off by Mysidia, and it was time to take the Devil's Road to Baron. It turns out that the Devil's Road is actually some sort of magical teleportation device. I am treated to a scrolling map animation showing me go from one end of the planet to the other. Finally, I reappear back in good ol' Baron. It took me right into the town of Baron, and it seems that everyone there was complaining about the King. However, before moving on, I decided to check the Inn. It turns out that checking the Inn was not only a good choice, but it was also a necessary choice to getting further into Baron castle. At the bar in the Inn, I found an old friend hanging out. It was Yang! Cecil was about to greet Yang and ask him what happened, but it seems that Yang was not his old self. He and his soldier companions immediately attacked! I fought off the two soldiers fairly easily, but I was unsure about Yang. Had I not tried to just straight up beat him, he could have easily slaughtered my group. His silly powerful Kick ability allows him to attack everybody for moderate damage. Had I left it unchecked and the damage unhealed, I would have fallen fast. Thankfully, I struck fairly quickly with only a few setbacks. The setbacks was the Mini status on Palom and Porom as well as Cecil being turned into a Pig. Yeah, I had not mentioned it before, but apparently Final Fantasy 4 had a lovely new status known as "Pig" where the character is tranformed into a Pig. I don't know what the negatives are, but it sure does look stupid/silly for your character to be a pig.
     With Yang "defeated", he finally snapped out of whatever he was under. It seems that the accident with the boat gave him amnesia WHICH the King/whoever took advantage of. With Yang back on our side, it was time to assault Baron Castle! Or it would be if I could get in...Yang had a key for it, but the front entrance was definitely not going to happen. Thankfully, I did some exploring of the Town of Baron and located some locked rooms. One was the Weapon and Armor shop, and the other one was a staircase to an old waterway appropriately named Ancient Waterway. It was your  basic sewerish dungeon crawl with enemies plaguing the area. Most enemies didn't put up too much of a fight, but they were generally annoying, especially the giant Flood Worm. His only attack he had (or only attack he used) was an attack that hit the entire party for a moderate amount of damage. This was super annoying and made me have to constantly heal the entire party. So much for keeping in MP in reserve! As well as monster fights, it also contained a large number of "hidden" passage ways that lead to all sorts of treasure. None of it was necessarily beyond amazing, but it is nice to get some free items here and there.
     Upon exiting the waterway, I found myself right inside the moat of Castle Baron. I walked along the moat until I found an exit into the castle. Woo! Made it in the castle! I ran to Cecil's room and was able to rest and restore my party. From there, I entered the castle and made my way for the throne room. Along the way, I ran into an old friend/person Cecil knew. It was the King's aide, Baigan, that reported of Cecil's doubt in the King. He claimed that he held no ties to Golbez and that he was in full support of the King. He "joined" the party, and we continued forward. That was until Palom and Porom felt something was odd about the Baigan. They could tell that he wasn't human! He gave an evil laugh, said that Golbez gave him new power, and that he would show it off to us. BOSS BATTLE TIME! Baigan turned into a giant snake-esque man with snake arms. Each arm had its own health (and so it begins...), which basically means he gets three attacks rather than just one. It's a smart move to make bosses harder, but I feel it tends to either 1. be pointless OR 2. make them silly hard. Why is it pointless? If a boss has multiple parts that you can attack, why waste attacks on them when you can aim for the body OR head and kill it off then and there? Exactly. Moving along, the boss fight was tough but fair. With 3 mages at my disposal, I was able to put up Protect and Shell on everybody while supporting my attackers with Berserk and Haste. With everybody boosted as they were, I had very little trouble with the fight. Thanks to a tip from a guide, I knew that Baigan would cast Reflect on himself as soon as I used a single spell. With that in mind, I was able to specially pick and cast the best spell at my selection to maximize the damage. Many rounds of fighting and healing later, the big bad boss went down! Woo!
     With Baigan defeated, it was time to proceed to the Throne Room. I approached the King, talked to him, and then dialogue happened! I realize that is a lame way to put it, but I don't remember exactly what he said. He did greet Cecil and claim something about Paladins being worthless compared to Dark Knights. Cecil realized something wasn't right about the King. The King then turned into a giant turtle-like monster. The monster revealed himself as Cagnazzo. He said that Scarmiglione was weak and pathetic in comparison to him, and that I could say hi to him and the King when I went to hell! BOSS BATTLE TIME! Cagnazzo looks like a strange giant blue demon turtle. I began with a round up of buffing (Protect, Shell, etc) and then began the assault! The biggest move Cagnazzo had was a two step attack that called water all around him like a barrier and then shot it all at me as a huge wave (Tsunami!). This dealt a considerable amount of damage, but I soon found out that certain spells (Thunder) would actually cancel out the barrier before he could launch it. With this in mind, I having my mages cast Thunder/Thundara on Cagnazzo to keep him from using Tsunami anymore. And it turns out...I actually think I had an easier time with Cagnazzo than I did Scarmiglione...
     With Cagnazzo defeated, the group was ready to find an airship. However, the only person that could get the airship would have to be Cid...Thankfully, as the battle just finished up, Cid ran in the room exclaiming something about stopping the King. He saw the group there and was glad to see Cecil. However, he did wonder where Rosa had gone. The group informed Cid of everything that had happened as well as Rosa's current status as a captive of Golbez. With the current circumstances, Cid decided to join the crew and give us his top secret super airship! The group then proceeded to leave, but...tragedy strikes! As we are proceeding through the hallway from the throne room, the doors lock and the walls start to close in. I hear Cagnazzo in the background yelling that if he goes to hell, we are going with him! Oh noes! Actually, it was getting pretty serious. The walls kept getting closer and closer, but before it could close in....sad time happens. Palom and Porom use their magic to turn themselves into stone and hold back the walls. Tellah tried to cure them with Esuna, but he couldn't do it since they willingly turned themselves into stone. I actually felt kinda sad at this point....but the story must go on. With the sad parting from the twins, Cid lead the group to secret hiding spot of his master airship...the Enterprise!
     With my brand new, kick-ass airship in my hands, I began exploring the world. Before I could get anywhere though, I was approached by Kain in his airship. He came with demands from Golbez. Golbez demanded the Earth Crystal in exchange for Rosa's life. The group didn't want to do it, but eventually Cecil decided to give into his demands. Kain flies off, and the group decides to head for the Kingdom of Troia. Before making the journey though (although I'm clueless how to get there), I decided to make use of my new found toy/vehicle and look around the world. Along the way, I discovered two new villages! One of them was the village of Mythril where animal-people abound, and it is possible to buy Mythril weapons and armor! I was able to buy some of it, but I didn't quite get all of it. I also didn't have the patience to farm up the money to buy it all, so I departed from Mythril for now and made way for more exploration.
     The next village I found while randomly flying around (for quite a damn bit...) was the dwarven descendents village of Agart. All of the citizens located there claim to be ancestors of a race known as dwarves. There wasn't a whole lot to see or get in this town, so after looking around I quickly took my leave. I flew around for quite a while until I happened upon a heavily damaged castle in the...direction. I really wasn't paying attention to where I was going. Upon landing, I immediately faced enemies that were very much above my level. Without the use of Tellah's magic, I would have never killed any of them. I actually got several Game Overs while trying to explore the area around as well as the trapped treasure chests in the castle. I went through this about 3-4 times before I finally knew which chests to avoid. On the plus side, I gained several levels from the entire side adventure! After dying more than enough times doing that, I decided it was time to continue. So, I flew around until I finally found a place that was probably the place I was supposed to be heading. I forgot what it was called...
     Thankfully, I quickly learned that the name of the place was Troia. The Kingdom of Troia was a fertile land with plenty of green, flowing waters, and healthy people. It was basically a super hippy village. Although I did find one funny thing about this village. One of the buildings was a "hotel" of sorts. They had lots of ladies, and there was even a secret area that required a pass to enter. I decided to check it out and coughed up the 10,000 gil to enter. Turns out...Final Fantasy 4 (and previous ones) have this huge thing about having these ladies dance for you. Seriously, every town in Final Fantasy 4 has a lady that will dance for you. Anyways, the secret area of the hotel had a huge dancing room where a huge lineup of ladies will dance for you. They even got Cecil involved who was getting very nervous being in the middle. It was kinda funny though. Moving along, I entered Castle Troia and learned many a things. The first thing I learned was that Troia was actually ran by women instead of men/a man. Very interesting but mostly pointless. Next up, it turns out that Edward (Prince of Damcyan, the bard) had washed up here and was very much alive. He was in critical condition, but the group updated him on the current status of everything. Edward said that the group would be unable to obtain the Earth Crystal here because the Dark Elf had it. He handed over the mysterious item Whisperweed and went back to sleep. From there, I proceeded to the throne room (?) of Castle Troia where I met the leaders of Troia. It was a group of ladies who revealed to me all sorts of information regarding the crystal's location as well as details about it. Apparently, the Dark Elf had a great weakness to metal and had magnetized the entire cave. An interesting yet silly strategy...with the new information at hand, I made way to the Dark Elf's cavern.
     As I traveled North-Eastward, I quickly found out that there was no way to directly walk OR fly to the cavern. It was separated from me by a thin line of water. Damn you thin lines of water! I started looking around the area for a Chocobo Forest. Why? Because I found out at one point that Black Chocobo's can fly. Putting two and two together, it was very obvious that I needed a black chocobo to get anywhere. After a bit of exploring and plenty of monster battles, I finally found the Chocobo Forest. Inside, I quickly grabbed the nearest black chocobo and took off. I made my way towards the cavern and landed nearby. I then entered the terrible Lodestone Cavern. Inside, the characters immediately described how all their metal objects caused them to be immobile. I found out in my first battle how bad their being immobile was. It gave them a permanent stunned status with no way to cure it. After that battle, I quickly looked over my characters and unequipped anything and everything that could be considered metal. It turns out that everything Cecil had on his person was...metal. I had to swap out everything on him for a crossbow I had plus some arrows. That sure is a great way to take my best character and make him into the worst character. With a highly nerfed Cecil, I continued downward into the bowels of this crazy cavern. The enemies weren't too much trouble (thanks to some extra leveling I did). This cave was long enough (kinda?) that it had two different safe rooms in it. I eventually happened upon a strangely placed crystal chamber where I found the Dark Elf. The only thing I question here is how he managed to make this perfect replication of a crystal chamber. Anyways, it was time to face the Dark Elf!...with a crazy nerfed team.
     BOSS BATTLE TIME! Or so I would say, but it turns out the battle was a timed and set thing where the Dark Elf gets to win no matter what. The team is quickly defeated, but there is a faint chance yet! Edward feels the fate of the team and manages to clamber to his instrument. He begins playing music that transfers to the group through the mysterious Whisperweed. It seems that his music keeps the Dark Elf distracted enough that I am able to use metal-based items again! It is a good thing. After re-equipping Cecil, I charged again at the Dark Elf for TRUE BOSS BATTLE TIME! The Dark Elf proved to be a formidable foe. His biggest strength was his access to powerful spells like the elemental -aras as well as the Tornado spell (which did massive damage to my displeasure). With the spells in mind, I immediately threw up a Shell spell on everyone and then started whittling down his health with attacks. Thankfully, with a fully equipped team and programming not being against me, I was able to slay the Dark Elf and reclaim the Earth Crystal! The only true problem I had with this situation...they re-used the same Dark Elf monster picture that was used in Final Fantasy 1 and Final Fantasy 2. Could they not have made something SLIGHTLY different at least? Oh well, not like it matters that much. With Earth Crystal in hand, I teleported out of the cavern and made my way back to Castle Troia. Seeing as my battery was getting low and that I had quite a bit in this post...I decided it was time to save my game and quit there for now.
     And yes, I did this post over a couple of days to add up to one bigger post. This game has lots of things happening in very little time. >_<

Ending Point - Nearby the Kingdom of Troia.
Current Party -

• Cecil  - Level 24
• Tellah  - Level 26
• Yang - Level 24
• Cid - Level 25

Goals Accomplished - Reunited with Yang in Baron. Traversed the Ancient Waterway and made it into Castle Baron. Defeated the corrupted King's aide, Baigan. Defeated the Water Fiend Guy Cagnazzo. Obtained the Airship, Enterprise. Explored a good portion of the world and found Mythril and Agart. Did a bit of level farming. Found the Kingdom of Troia. Found Edward safe and hurt...but still safe. Located the Dark Elf's lair, Lodestone Cavern. Defeated the Dark Elf and rescued the Earth Crystal.

Next Goals - Return the Earth Crystal to Castle Troia. Trade the Earth Crystal for Rosa. Defeat Golbez. Save the World.

~May the Crystals Guide Me~