Game - Final Fantasy 4, Day 30
Hours Played/Hours Total - 5-1/2 hrs / 16 hrs
Starting Point - Nearby the Tower of Babil in the Underworld.
Current Goal - Climb to Tower of Babil and retrieve the seven stolen crystals. Defeat Golbez. Save the world.
What Happened - Time to shift into high gear and kick some Final Fantasy butt! Also, Wooo! Day 30!
I started off nearby the Tower of Babil, but I quickly made my way into it and started the climb. It was quite a ways up the tower. Floor after floor...and so many enemies. It seemed a lot like the Tower of Zot, but the enemies were mostly weak to ice. Of course, they started giving me piles of Ice-based equipment and weapons. It was awesome having a team of five again of course. A dedicated black and white mage are basically just the best way to go. Add summons on top for the Black Mage, and this is just a great group! It wasn't the easiest trip up, but I never really came close to dying. Some groups of enemies (namely the flan jerks) were decently annoying/challenging, but otherwise everything went fairly smoothly. It also helps that my mages have 200+ MP! Up until this point, none of them had much more than 100, if they even had that.
Many floors and a couple of save areas later, I finally arrive to a cutscene between the last elemental archfiend and a mysterious old man (who looks kind of like Doctor Wily...). The man reveals himself to be Dr. Lugae. He claims to be the brains behind the entirety of Golbez's operation. He then attacks us with his great creation Barnabas for BOSS BATTLE TIME! But it turns out that it was mostly a joke fight, and I took Lugae and Barnabas down quite quickly. After losing, he said it was time for us to face his true power! Time for BOSS BATTLE TIME 2! FOR REAL THIS TIME! But it seems that I was in for yet another disappointing battle. It was just regular Lugae when I first entered, but then he transformed into some sort of skeleton-monster thing. All he did was use sleeping gas and poison to attack. A few rounds into it and he was already beaten. Upon defeat, he revealed that the Tower of Babil was already done and connected the Underworld to the Overworld. Also Rubicante, the remaining elemental archfiend of fire (assuming), had already taken all of the Crystals to the surface. His final word as he disappeared was that his cannons would destroy the dwarves! Realizing that the dwarves would be in trouble, the group moved forward in the tower to try and stop the cannons.
With a new goal in mind, I began to look for a way to stop the cannons. Dr. Lugae dropped a key upon defeat, and I remembered a door a few floors down that was locked...So I put one and one together and realized the obvious choice of what I needed to do. After unlocking the door, I ran into a trio of monsters operating the cannons. They were just simple goblins, so I easily took them down in battle. Unfortunately, they did something drastic after their defeat and destroyed the cannon controls. The group started to panic, but then Yang stepped forward and threw the group out of the room. He locked the door behind him and said that he would stop the cannons. Sad time. Yang gave his parting words and then he was gone...
I was unsure what to do, so I just started going down the tower. It wouldn't let me teleport out, so I figured there had to be SOMETHING left to do. I continued onward until the I finally hit a special event. As I was about to leave the tower, Golbez showed up! He started destroying the bridge from the tower to the Underworld. It didn't look good for the group...but then Cid flew in and rescued us! It seemed we weren't out of trouble yet though. Just as we were flying away, one of the Red Wings' ships started chasing us. Cid did his best to try and outrun it, but it was to no avail. Then Cid gave Cecil control of the ship. He planned to seal the entrance to the Underworld with a giant bomb. He was going to sacrifice himself to save the group. It's like this game just WANTS to kill off characters. The group flies up and out as Cid leaps into the hole to blow up the entrance. He has a last moment of parting words in the game, and then it blows up. I was treated to a small cutscene showing the ship flying above the smoking crater of what used to be the entrance to the Underworld.
Before jumping out, Cid had instructed the group to return to Baron and talk with his crew. He said they would help us out. So I traveled to Baron and entered the castle. After a bit of looking around, I finally found Cid's crew. They installed a wench and hook on the airship so we could pick up the hovercraft (waaaay back from the beginning of the game). Cid's crew informed me of a cave I could enter nearby the Kingdom of Eblan. I figured that would be the best place to start. I flew around the map until I finally found Castle Eblan. I had previously explored the castle and taken some of the items, but I missed a few so I went back in for round 2 of castle exploration. After cleaning it out, I jumped on the hovercraft and made my way to the cave. The Cave of Eblan (such a complicated name!) seemed to be another typical water cave dungeon, but just a small ways into it, I found out that it was home to the remainder of Eblan. Early on in the made-up world's timeline, the Kingdom of Eblan was attacked and destroyed by Golbez and his troops (most likely one of the elemental archfiends as well). It seems that some people managed to survive this and evacuated to this cave. It had an item shop, weapon & armor shop, and even an inn! I bought what I could, healed up, and traveled further into the cave.
Apparently the Prince of Eblan had continued further into the cave. The cave supposedly leads to the Tower of Babil, and he went further in to avenge his parents and the kingdom. With that in mind (and no other current goal), I decided to delve further inside and hopefully find my way to the Tower of Babil. Along the path, I ran into the Prince of Eblan going up against the fire archfiend, Rubicante. It went into a battle scene where Edge went down very quickly with little effort from Rubicante. After defeating him, Rubicante left the scene. The group approaches the severely hurt and down Prince (named Edge). He didn't want anybody to take Rubicante other than himself, but after some talking with the group (and healing from Rosa) he decided to join up. And the party goes back to five! Woo!
A short time later, I found myself just outside the Tower of Babil. With a little help from Edge, the group was able to get inside ,and we started the climb up. It's cool to finally have a Ninja in the group! I didn't say it before, but Edge is a ninja. He's got Ninjitsu (slightly different magic) and a Throw ability (throws weapons and special items). Unfortunately, he's also not super powerful yet. He's got a decent attack but lacks in defense and HP. Going to hope that later Jitsus he gets are fairly powerful. Moving along...Now that I was inside the tower, I was starting to run into some decently annoying enemies. They were not horribly hard, but they generally dealt out enough damage to require healing almost every battle. Anyways, I continued upward and onward into the Tower. I found a few trinkets on the way up, but the only really good item I had found so far was an Ogrekiller Axe. It was nice for dealing with the damn ogres that took what seemed like FOREVER to kill. Everything was going well until strangely enough, we ran into the King and Queen of Eblan (Edge's parents). This was quite strange (and obviously a trap) because they were supposed to be dead! Edge goes to talk with them, but then they mention something about taking him to HELL...and begin BOSS BATTLE TIME!
The enemies of this battle were demon-ized versions of the King and Queen of Elban. They were quite horrific looking, but of course, I soon found out that was a story battle and not a battle-battle. I kept fighting regardless...and eventually the King and Queen are able to come to their senses. However, they feel they aren't meant for this world anymore, and they say goodbye to Edge as they part from the battle and life. After the heartfelt scene, we are greeted by Rubicante. He seems quite shocked by the King and Queen's demonic appearance. He damns the dead Dr. Lugae and claims that he would have never done that. Apparently, Rubicante (despite being evil) is the most honorable of all the Archfiends. This is probably my favorite type of bad guy. The one that despite being evil, he upholds honor and generally is just looking for a challenge among his foes. I have nothing wrong with the general evil or SUPER evil, but these guys tend to stand out as being more than just evil. Basically...I love the idea of Lawful Evil. It means that he's a bad guy, but he has a bit of class about it. He might even be trying to take over the world, but it's probably to eliminate what he sees as a faulty system of justice and such. Anyways...end rant. Begin BOSS BATTLE TIME! (for realz this time).
Rubicante immediately exclaims how his fire cloak is great and impenetrable...as he opens it up to fight. Basically, this was a fairly straightforward battle. He fights with fire spells and his super spell Inferno for one part, but then he jumps inside his cloak for the next part. The cloak seemed to absorb and heal him whenever a magic spell was used on it, so I had to fight physically for the most part. And even then, any physical attack that hits him seems to let him counterattack the entire party with Fira. Lucky for me, that didn't do a whole lot of damage. His most powerful attack/spell was Inferno, but he only cast that one time. It did kill Rydia, but I quickly revived her and continued the battle. My first idea (after seeing his initial spell action) was to cast Shell on the party. This greatly helped against the Fira counter. After that, I simply attacked and healed as necessary. I kept Kain set to Jump every turn he could. Edge (right before the battle) learned a Water Jitsu, so I kept him on that until he ran out of MP. Rydia was a mixture of Shiva summoning and Blizzara spells. He put up a decent fight, but outside of the Inferno spell, he never really got any great damage out. Upon defeat Rubicante congratulates our team effort in beating him, but then he simply leaves parts with us for the moment. Going to see him again most likely.
As we defeated Rubicante, some of Edge's people came charging in and were ready to fight by his side to beat Rubicante...who was already beaten for the moment. After explaining to them that we already helped him, he asked who Golbez was. So the group then filled Edge in on Golbez's general plan. Edge realizes that this takes priority and decides to help the group out. His people try to convince him that the Kingdom needs him otherwise, but Edge simply says that the Kingdom will be okay and must wait. I'd agree...considering that Golbez's plan reeks of world destruction. So Edge's people leave, and then I'm allowed to continue on. Turns out the next room is the crystal room! Woo! But then the first panel I touch turns out to be a giant pitfall trap...damn it. The group is thrown down several floors, and now I'm left here to try and crawl back up the tower.
I was thrown back down to the lower floors near the Underworld. It turns out that the portion of the rooms I could see but not get to before are now being gotten to...by me! I walked around a bit and finally came upon an enemy vessel. Edge saw this airship as a means to escape. Of course, the group was apprehensive about flying out with an enemy ship. Edge doesn't pay that much mind, names the ship Falcon, and takes the ship up and out. The first thing I notice is that we are back in the Underworld, but I kind of figured we'd be coming back here soon. And the sucky part for our group is that the ship, Falcon, is unable to fly over the lava ocean. I fly on back along the path, land at the Dwarven Castle, and proceed inside. It seems that was the correct thing to do, because when I reach the throne room, we are greeted by King Giott. He of course hopes we have reclaimed the crystals...which we have not. He informs us that Golbez is currently trying to force open the Sealed Cave with the last crystal. He appears to be close to succeeding so the King asks us to try and get the crystal before Golbez can. He gets a necklace from his daugher Luca and gives it to the group. He explains that it is the only key to the Sealed Cave, and that there is no way to enter without the necklace. With the necklace in hand, it's time to head to the Sealed Cave.
Of course, that would be the plan, but I figure that the Sealed Cave is somewhere across the lava...which I can't pass with my current airship. Thankfully, some random NPC talk points to Cid being alive and currently in the castle infirmary. I ran around the castle until I finally happened upon the infirmary. Cid was simply sleeping away, and the group was quite delighted to find him alive. After some talk, Cid gladly offers to fix up the ship. Around a minute of jumping and moving sprites later...(To explain, this game really loves to move the character sprites around and have them jump and do stuff. Basically, many cutscenes are done with characters moving about and doing things. This particular one involved Cid jumping around the airship and getting it super-flight capable.) The group was back surrounding Cid in bed, and it started to make give a foreboding feeling...Until the group realized Cid was simply sleeping after working on the ship. With the ship ready to go, I jumped on the Falcon and took to finding the Sealed Cave.
Before going to the Sealed Cave, I did a bit of exploring and located a few places. One was the home of a fabled blacksmith whose name I already forgot. The next stop was a mythical cave named Slyph Cave. It was rumored to lead to the fayrealm. I tried to go inside and make it somewhere, but I got my ass handed to me by everything in there, so I quickly made for the exit and didn't look back. After circling around, I managed to find another town. It was a small town of dwarves. They were surprised to see other visitors there. This is quite easy to see...considering they are both in a far off edge of the underworld AND separated by massive lava ocean from their castle brethren. Anyways, they had a new assortment of armor for my armored fellows (Cecil and Kain), so I bought all that I could in that capacity. I was a little short funded so I did miss out on a few items. After stocking up, I healed at the Inn and left the town.
After the town visit, I decided to fly to the Sealed Cave and make good on the unsealing of it. I entered, used the necklace, and was given first dibs on all the contents inside. This was a fairly generic looking cave dungeon at first, but that all quickly changed with the first door...You see, it turns out that they should have called this the Monster Door cave, because that's basically all it has inside of it. Every door was just waiting to turn into a monster door. The first couple of doors weren't so bad, but then it just started getting annoying and unoriginal feeling. By the 6th door, it just felt stupid. The biggest annoyance with the Monster Doors was that they had a way to one-hit kill my party members. They generally only accomplished this once before I destroyed them, but it still remained an annoyance nonetheless. I didn't take a count, but I believe I fought at LEAST 15 of these door monsters, if not more. These stupid doors doubled if not tripled the time it took to get through this place. Many of these doors were extra doors that had nothing within them.
Several, several monster doors later, I finally found myself in the crystal chamber. I grabbed the crystal inside and made a hasty retreat. However, it seems that the crystal had ONE more defense up its sleeve. The wall started to move, and I came face-to-face with BOSS BATTLE TIME! It was a demon wall that was slowly and surely moving towards the party. I'm not sure what would have happened if it had gotten close, but I didn't want to find out. It was pretty much just beat-it-to-death battle. I didn't really put any effort to strategize either...just threw what all I could at it. It went down. End of story. With the Demon Wall down, I continued upward to get out of the cave. Because yet again...it won't let me teleport out. That means I have some great surprise waiting for me near the top.
Fast forward to the very last room (entrance) at the top and guess what happened? Plot happened. As I was just entering the room, the screen went a shade of blue, and then I hear Golbez speak. He tells Kain to take the Dark Crystal and bring it to him. Kain claims that he's all himself and that Golbez has no control over him. However, that is quickly seen as a lie when Kain stabs Cecil and takes the crystal. The group implores Kain to fight it, but that doesn't seem to work. Kain walks out with the Crystal, and now Golbez gets to make it to the moon. This does not bode well...
Seeing as I have a lot of stuff done, I figured now was as good a time as any to sign off for the day. I saved my game outside the cave and called it good.
Ending Point - Underworld, right outside of the Sealed Cave.
Current Party -
- Cecil - Level 41
- Rosa - Level 40
- Edge - Level 35*
- Rydia - Level 39
Goals Accomplished - Climbed the Tower of Babil. Defeated Dr. Lugae. Stopped the cannons from destroying the dwarves. Escaped the Red Wings and closed the hole to the Underworld. Got the Enterprise upgraded with a tow hook. Located and transported the hovercraft to the Kingdom of Eblan. Looted some goods from the remains of Castle Eblan. Used the hovercraft to gain access to the Cave of Eblan. Rescued Edge, the Prince of Eblan, and gained a new party member. Climbed the Tower of Babil (part 2) and sent Edge's parents' souls to rest. Defeated Rubicante, the elemental archfiend of fire. Almost got the crystals but then fell down a hole. Got a new airship, the Falcon. Got Cid to upgrade the Falcon so it was actually useful. Located Sylph Cave and immediately left. Found and unsealed the Sealed Cave. Fought like 2 dozen Monster Doors (actually called Trap Doors). Found and claimed the final Dark Crystal. Defeated the Demon Wall trap thing. Lost the Dark Crystal and Kain turned on everybody...happy days.
Next Goals - Find a way to stop Golbez from using the moon somehow. Save the World.
~May the Crystals Guide Me~
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