Game - Final Fantasy 6, Day 40
Hours Played/Hours Total - 6-1/2 hrs / 9 hrs
Starting Point - Inside the Returner's Hideout.
Current Goal - Talk to Baron of the Returners. Stop the Empire and save the world!
What Happened - Crazyness. I'm already to Day 40 of gameplay! It's probably at least 10 more days if I consider actual number of days played. Only a handful of days if I only consider the hours played...Not important. On to the happenings!
My first and foremost goal is to talk with Banon (I kept calling it Baron, but it's Banon...>_<). The conversation with Banon says quite a bit, but to put it simply, he believes that Terra is their only hope. Since she can use magic and talk to Espers! After that, Banon convinces Terra (me...kinda?) into helping out their effort. Next up is a looong talking session about what all is going on. Basically, the Returners are wondering how the Empire came up with the Magitek power that they wield. Apparently, the Empire has been putting people to work on Esper research, and so the group believes there is a connection between Espers and Magitek. Overall, the plan points to the need for Magitek to fight Magitek. They want Terra to talk with the Esper at Narshe and see if something can be figured out.
Of course, things have been going too well. Just as the plan is being discussed, a Returner soldier comes in and informs us that South Figaro has been taken by the empire. Banon sends Locke to try and halt the Empire's progress there while the rest of the group makes way to Narshe. The only available method is to float down a nearby river/stream to get away. With Banon by my side, the group floats down the river. The only catch is that Banon can't die. If he dies, then it's game over. It is fairly easy to keep him alive however since he has an ability called "Health" that heals a decent amount party-wide in mid-battle. Anyways, the river floating goes pretty easy. However, just as it seems the end is near....BOSS BATTLE TIME! The group is attacked by a large squid (quite similar to one in FF4). He's an awful talky boss too. Every time I cast Fire on him, he had a comment to say (something about Squid Soup I believe) and attacking Terra with his Ink ability, which blinded her. However, I kept after him and easily beat him. Banon's Health ability sure made it way easier as well.
I didn't defeat the Squid so much as he ran away. Sabin jumped in the water after him and gets separated from the group. Now, the party is split into three different groups, but I'm given an option! This is a very interesting idea and twist here. I can basically choose to either follow Locke in South Figaro, Terra and company as they go to Narshe, or find out where the hell Sabin went. I chose the Locke path first. It seems that Locke has done his mischief, but he's now stuck inside South Figaro with no way out. Somehow, someway, I have to find a way out. This is actually a fairly fun little series of events that go down.
First and foremost, I can't just waltz out of town. Any attempt to talk with guards in Magitek armor ends in my death (too strong for me to beat). However, it is possible to get around in multiple ways. The first thing I had to do was steal some merchant's clothes to get by this one kid. After that, I had to fight a captain and steal his armor. With that done, I could then have a guy leave his shift giving more access to the majority of town. The next step...took some time to find. Turns out, I needed to beat up another merchant and steal his Cider. I gave the Cider to an old man who revealed a secret passage from his house to the rich man's house. Once in there, I just had to explore a little bit to find the next part. It seems that one of the big time general's for the emperor has recently been deemed a traitor. And in comes the next FF6 character...Celes. She's a Magitek Knight (she has magic) and was being tortured. I freed her and joined up. With her by the side, it was time to escape this town. I had to crawl through some monster infested basement, but I made it out of town. Celes questioned why Locke was helping her, and he only commented on her reminding him of someone...also he wanted to.
Now that I was out of South Figaro, it was time to make my way North to Narshe. It had to revisit the same cave from earlier on to head north. Nothing too bad went down here. There was a strange sound going on all about the cave, and then I found out just as I was about to leave...BOSS BATTLE TIME! A giant robot named Tunnel Armor jumped out of the wall and attacked. Normally, this would be a fairly challenging battle, but it's basically been made into a "Look at this ability!" battle. Celes has an ability called Runic. It allows her to absorb magic attacks and restore her own MP at the same time. The Tunnel Armor mostly just uses magic, so the strategy for the battle is Locke Attacks, Celes Runic. You do that for around 6 to 8 rounds, and it ends. Nothing too challenging there...and the two of them leave the cave. As that happens, I'm taken back to the scenario choosing bit. I can now either find out what happened to Sabin OR follow behind Terra and co. I figure to go with Terra and co last, so next up is everybody's favorite game of "Where's that Sabin?"
Apparently Sabin floated downstream to an entirely different location. The first thing to investigate was a nearby house. Outside the house was a travelling merchant and our mysterious ninja friend Shadow. I talked to Shadow who agreed to help, but he made no promise to keep with me forever. I took what help I could of course. I restocked on what little the merchant offered and made my way the only direction I could...South. Eventually, the South came to a small bridge and a Empire war camp. It seems they were planning to invade and take down a nearby castle...Doma Castle. Upon entering the camp, some of the troops took off to begin their first (that I knew of) attempt to take down the castle. I was then shifted over to said castle. The troops weren't getting too far when suddenly...a new character appears!
This time it is the powerful swordsman known as Cyan. His special ability is the Sword Tech. It works kinda differently...Basically, I select it and a gauge appears. The longer I wait, the more powerful the sword ability he uses. He only had three available, but that was more than enough. He walked outside of the castle, slayed the commander (Sword Tech...woo!), and the troops ran off. I was then thrown back to the two-some of Sabin and Shadow.
They were trying to infiltrate and make it past the camp. Shadow (being a Ninja and all) comes with the Throw command and is able to toss most weapons, Shurikens, and specialized items for either damage or effects. He's a fairly powerful character and even comes with a dog. His dog randomly protects him and sometimes attacks random enemies for a large amount of damage. Anyways, it isn't a very large camp, but I learned a little bit while there. After sneaking halfway through, I'm introduced to an important person (not a character) named General Leo. He's one of Emperor Gestahl's leading generals. Despite his alignment with the Empire, he showed himself to be an honorable and decent man (unlike a certain evil clown-like figure). I proceeded to sneak my way through the remainder of the camp. Leo talked to Kefka before he left and said that he should remember that those of Doma Castle are people to. Kefka ignored this completely and dumped poison in the river. Shortly after (traded me off to Doma again with Cyan), the people of Doma began to fall ill and die. It seems that Kefka's evil plan was working. Pretty much everyone in Doma died...the soldiers, the King, and Cyan's wife and child. Everybody had fallen to the poisoned water. In both rage and grief, Cyan ran off to fight the Empire at the camp. He was met there by Sabin and Shadow who quickly joined up with him.
After many battles with the trio fighting, Sabin suggested that they make a break for it. Cyan was greatly opposed to this (anger and all), but Sabin said that they should try something different before they become overrun by soldiers. With that in mind, the group began to run away. However, it seemed that would be easier said than done. It would have been a rough time trying to directly run out of there, but Sabin got an idea. They jumped inside some nearby Magitek Armor and smashed apart the rest of the camp as they ran out. From there, I needed to get back to Narshe. Cyan said the only way was to go through the forest to the South. And South I went...to the Phantom Forest.
Phantom Forest. Now that kind of name suggests we are going to be dealing with ghosts and haunted things. And guess what? The enemies were mostly "Ghost" monsters and before it was all said and done, I did indeed board a ghost train known as the Phantom Train. The Phantom Train is supposed to ferry those of the dead to the afterlife. Unfortunately, the train took off with the three of them on it. They agreed that they needed to get to the front of the train and stop it. Along the way, I had to deal with a large assortment of ghosts and monsters. Nothing really came about that was incredibly strong though, and I made it through with very little problems. I finally made it to the front of the train and was just about to stop it when...BOSS BATTLE TIME!
The Phantom Train saw that we were trying to stop it and decided it was time to take us down. The battle was situated in a fairly interesting way. The trio was running in front of the train while it chased after them. He really didn't put up much of a fight, but he had several status effects he could cause on the group. For his first attack, he confused the group. Sabin and Cyan came out fine, but Shadow remained confused for the rest of the battle with no way to un-confuse him. I just kept pummeling him with the other two's special abilities, and the train was defeated quite quickly. The train concedes to let us off, but it has something it must do first. The train eventually stops and lets the group off. However, as things start to go right, sadness occurs. The train stopped to allow some of the newly dead souls to board. Among them was Cyan's recently deceased wife and son. Cyan chased after the train for a while, but his wife assured him that things were going to be okay. Cyan watched as the train went off into the distance.../end sad time.
Upon leaving the Phantom Train, I also left the Phantom Forest behind. I was allowed to move onward from there. The next location I happened upon (the only one available...) was a Baren Falls. Cyan informed me that the Baron Falls would take us south to the Veldt, but if we managed through there, we would find the town of Mobliz east of that. He said there was dangerous creatures there, but with the Empire behind us, we didn't have much of a choice. Shadow parted the group at this time saying he had "fulfilled his purpose." Sabin thanked him and said that he'd like to work with Shadow again. And then Shadow left...and then I jumped into the waterfall! The waterfall was built to be a giant and continuous battle between Sabin and Cyan and a pile of Piranhas. It went pretty easy...until I got attacked by a Pirahna with a name, Rizopas.
What was supposed to just be a mini-boss of sorts turned into an actual boss for me. You see...I actually died to it like twice before I managed to beat it. I had an easier time with the Phantom Train than I did with this fish. Lucky for me, the third time I managed to kill it before it cheated me even more. It had a move called "El Nino" that was able to do 250ish damage to both party members (whose HP was only 400ish), and it especially did it when I had one guy low enough that it would kill him. That basically sealed my fate in both losses. I lost one guy and couldn't revive him quick enough. I did manage to beat him of course, and the two floated down the Baren Falls.
They floated ashore nearby the Veldt. Upon doing so, they were approached by a weird wild boy (and the next character!) Gau. He helped them up but then ran off. I walked around the Veldt looking for the town of Mobliz. Along the way, I ran into Gau multiple times who simply demanded food and ran off if we attacked him. In Mobliz, I resupplied, upgraded equipment, and bought some meat. The meat was for Gau of course. After meeting him for the Nth time, I threw the meat out, and then a battle cutscene occurred. It seems that Gau was very happy about our giving him food, and that he wanted to join us and give us his "treasure" for doing such. It was a lengthy talk mostly for comedic effect.
Anyways, Gau brings a most unusual ability to the table...Rage. Basically, you use his Leap command (available only on the Veldt) to infiltrate monsters. That ends that battle. After travelling around the Veldt some more, he eventually pops back out and rejoins but with new Rages available. The Rage ability itself allows him to go crazy and mimic a monster by doing its attacks and abilities. The Veldt is home to all of the different monsters in game (as you meet them I suspect). It's a fairly cool ability, but once you select his Rage, he is stuck in it for the duration of the battle. You set him and can forget him, but you are also stuck with whatever monster you chose. Mostly just seems like you should find a good monster and stick with that Rage. You can do it for every monster available, but that also means finding every monster on the Veldt since Gau only learns from the current monsters he leaped into and the monsters you find him with. Short version of all this? Learn monster mimicry which is cool but lengthy and risky.
Now, time to head for Crescent Mountain. Man this part is lasting quite a bit longer than Locke's part. I've played through a majority of FF6 before, and I guess I forgot it was this long. However, as I say this, I began to go through Crescent Mountain, and it turns out that Crescent Mountain has no monsters and only contained Gau's treasure. The treasure he spoke of as being "shiny" was actually some sort of diving equipment. The group took it and dived into the nearby water known as the Serpent Trench...because that seemed like the next best thing to do apparently. The Serpent Trench worked a lot like the river rafting from earlier. The game propelled me forward while subjecting me to random encounters. After a large group of encounters, the group awakened in the port town of Nikeah. I looked around a bit, bought some stuff, refilled on other items that I could, and then I jumped on the nearby ship to South Figaro. From there...I was taken back to the scenario screen. Time for the final piece of this triple scenario puzzle. Curious to see how Terra, Edgar, and Banon held up...
It seems they got the easiest path of the three scenarios. I simply floated down the rest of the river rapids we were on and fought off a handful of random encounters. None of them were a challenge thanks to Edgar's Autocrossbow and Banon's Health ability. Once to the bottom, I was placed directly in front of Narshe. Woo! Finally to Narshe~ I was unable to go in the front entrance, so I made my way around to the secret cave entrance from the beginning. The cave was full of the beginning enemies so it was a cake walk through here. Along the way, I encountered the moogles from the beginning. Nothing really new besides that...then I found myself back in the beginning house with the man, whose name is Arvis. At this point, the third and final scenario is over as all the groups begin to approach Narshe at this point.
It seems that the Town of Narshe is neutral in all of this and plans to remain out of the fighting between the Empire and the Returners. The group speaks to the Elder and tries to convince him that they need to join the fight, or else they'll be brought in sooner or later. As this is being talked about, Sabin joins the group and introduces the newest members Cyan and Gau. They talk about the downfall of Doma. And although the Elder still doesn't seem convinced, Locke comes in with Celes and informs everybody that the Empire is on their way. Regardless of what the town wants, they'll have to start fighting ASAP. The Elder informs us that the Esper was recently moved into the hills to try and keep it away from the Empire. So...time for another tactical ground battle stuff! Basically, that part in the beginning with the multiple parties and moogles? Yup, i get to repeat that, but this time I have a large selection of random individuals to pick from! (The characters I gained along the way...). I made up three parties and began the battle! For those curious, my parties were the following three:
- Terra, Sabin, and Cyan
- Locke and Celes
- Gau and Edgar
A guide suggested I put all my power members in one team for this, but I didn't want to take a chance later on into this. Anyways...Kefka showed up with a whole pile of Imperial Soldiers and launched his attack. I piloted my #1 group straight at Kefka. I had to battle a few soldiers along the way, but they weren't too much of a challenge. Then...it was face-to-face with Kefka for BOSS BATTLE TIME! (I actually fought Kefka briefly earlier, but I didn't mention it for the following reason. It wasn't a boss battle or anything. Every time I got into battle with him, I would hit him ONCE, and he would immediately run away. It was just a chasing match, unlike this one. This was the real deal.) Kefka was a formidable enemy. He had powerful magic attacks and was downright annoying. He killed Sabin and Cyan at least one time each, and I had to keep reviving them. If not for killing them, I would have been able to beat him much faster. Nonetheless...I defeated him anyways! With his defeat, he yelled at us about "not going to get away with it!" or something along that line. And so...the Esper was once again safe from the Empire.
The group approached the Esper and hoped that something could be gained from this venture. Unfortunately, some bad things happened. Terra seemed to be drawn to the Esper, and the power built up between them and blew the other members away (like how it killed the soldiers in the beginning). Eventually, Terra and the Esper began to exchange energy between them, and then the strange thing happened. Terra's form changed into that of an energy-being looking thing. She took off, flew around a bit, and then flew off into the distance. Once the group came to, they knew their next goal was to chase after Terra and figure out what the hell just happened. Celes said that she had an "Esper" look to her when she transformed. She had been last seen flying to the West of the current area. The only way to get there was through the use of Figaro Castle and its fancy submarine-like abilities. So, I formed a group of four (Edgar, Locke, Celes, and Sabin) and made my way to Figaro Castle.
Once there, I took a short rest and was treated to an informative cutscene about Edgar and Sabin's past. Basically, it was just a look into why Edgar was King and Sabin had run off. It was emotional and stuff...Moving right along. The next day, I spoke with the right people, and the castle went underground and drilled (or whatever!) its way to the western area. There, I was to seek out the city of Kohlingen as my first stop. Once there, I talked with some people who talked of the shining creature (Terra). They said it flew to the south towards Jidoor. At the Bar/Inn was everybody's favorite ninja assassin Shadow! However, he wasn't interested in talking with anybody at this moment, so he told us to go away. While there, I also found out a bit about Locke. The love of his life got amnesia and forgot about him, and after Locke left, she had died during an Imperial attack but had muttered his name in her final moments. He felt horrible about this and of course couldn't get over it...Sad stuff. Anyways, that's all there was for Kohlingen. Time to find Jidoor!
Jidoor was a long walk south of Kohlingen. Lots of fun and random encounters along the way...Nothing was too stressful, and it most definitely loaded up my wallets for the next town. Jidoor is supposed to be a higher class town with a middle class and upper class section. Nothing much to see her, but one person directed me towards Zozo for finding Terra. I bought some new equipment, talked to some of the townsfolk, and set my goal for Zozo.
Seeing as I've typed up quite a bit here, I've decided to stop the post here and well...post it. Can't wait to find out more in the next episode of...RECURRING FANTASY!
Ending Point - Outside the town of Jidoor.
Current Party -
- Locke - Level 13
- Edgar - Level 14
- Celes - Level 14
- Sabin - Level 16
Next Goals - Travel to Zozo in search of Terra. Stop the Empire. Save the world!
~May the Crystals Guide Me~
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