Game - Final Fantasy 5, Day 34
Hours Played/Hours Total - 8-1/2 hrs / 11 hrs
Starting Point - Partway through the Ship Graveyard.
Current Goal - Make it through the Ship Graveyard. Protect the 3 remaining elemental crystals!
What Happened - Blargh. Haven't gotten any game time in a couple of days. Damn you Avengers movie! It's really good, but it isn't a valid excuse. SO! Time for the making up of lost time! ON TO THE POST!
And a huuuuge warning right now, this is one massive post! It's around 10 hours of gameplay. I kept feeling like I should stop, but then I just kept going. Next thing I knew...I did a lot of stuff. ON TO THE POST!
I began right where I left off (Can't really begin elsewhere...). I was around the middle of the Ship Graveyard, and I figured I only had a small distance further until I made it out. Thankfully, the enemies in here offered very little resistance, and I easily took them out with my group. As I said in my last post, the Monk is crazy overpowered near the beginning of the game. I'm assuming it doesn't hold out as well once regular weapons can do the same kind of damage, or maybe it's one of the best classes! I don't know. I didn't do any research on this game (and I don't plan to). A little travelling distance and many enemies later, I finally make it onto land, but then something happens.
As the group gets on land, strangely enough a woman appears. It turns out that it's Bartz mother! She calls out to Bartz who slowly approaches her but then seems to be knocked out. Next up, the King appears and attracts Reina to him. Faris tries to stop her, but then the two of them get knocked out. A mysterious young girl comes for Galuf, but his amnesia kept him from remembering anything. A mysterious woman appears and talks about eating everyone's life force. Seeing as Galuf has somehow escaped it, she promised to leave him alone if he were to be on his way. Galuf refuses because they are his friends. He runs around and slaps everybody awake. Upon doing this, all the random people disappear and the mysterious woman (who turns out to be Slyph) attacks! Oh no! BOSS BATTLE TIME!
The boss looked and sounded like a formidable foe. Unfortunately for her/it, it wasn't. The first thing it did was cast Protect and Haste upon itself. It then followed that up by changing its type to Undead. This was a mistake being that it was highly protected from physical and magical attacks in its normal form. As Undead, it gained the weakness of Fire. I used that to my advantage quite quickly. However, it was also quite able in dealing out physical punishment! It easily did 90 damage to anybody it hit (average HP of the party is around 180). With my need for Fire magic, I had to turn someone else on healing duty with potions (called Tonics in this one BTW). Despite her clear advantages, Slyph went down quickly and with minimal damage to the party. Upon its defeat, the group thanked Galuf for saving them all. With the group safe and ready to go, I left the Ship Graveyard.
After leaving, I found myself in a strange area. I was on the World Map again, but I didn't quite know where to go. So...I went south! I passed some mountains, some forests, and fought some new enemies. Nothing proved too troublesome though, and I eventually found myself in a port town called Kerwin Town. Once there, I healed at the Inn, bought new equipment and spells, restocked on my items, and started talking to the townsfolk. It seems that the recent loss of wind has ceased any chances of taking a boat to get to the next destination of Walz (home of the Water Crystal). So I started talking to everybody around, and that just resulted in Bartz constantly commenting to himself that "We can't go by ocean so..." Finally, I stumbled upon a villager that mentioned her husband's crazyness in seeing a dragon. I already put it together with that information, and I sought him out. He spilled the beans immediately about how he spotted a dragon at the north mountain. He mentioned something about it being armored as well. Reina recognized the description as her father's dragon, and she realized that it was at the mountain in search of Dragon Grass. Apparently Dragon Grass is eaten by dragons to heal themselves. With this in mind, I left town and made my way to the North Mountain...which was North of the town among some mountains.
A small walk later, I began the precarious climb up North Mountains. There were many monsters to face down as I went upward. Just as I had finally made a small ways up, Reina ran ahead of the group to pick up a random helmet, which turned out to be her father's helmet. Unfortunately, she ran at the wrong time! Just as she had picked it up, someone shot her with an arrow and poisoned her. A lady appeared by the name of Magissa and talked about catching dragons for horns. She decided she didn't need to do that though seeing as she had the Princess in tow. The group wanted to help her, but as she ran across, a portion of the path fell down and was unable to directly run there. Faris jumped the gap, almost fell down, and managed to make it across. She threw out a rope for the group to cross, and they confronted the villain Magissa for...BOSS BATTLE TIME!
The boss was one Magissa. She was some sort of archer/mage combo it seems. She shot arrows out occasionally, but she mostly stuck to level 1 black magic spells like Bolt and Fire. After a couple of rounds, she summoned/called in some assistance in the form of...not sure. It looked like a man, but it might have been a golem monster. Anyways, that jerk could pack a puuuunch. I actually had a team member faint during this! Luckily, I had more than enough Pheonix Downs to resolve that problem. I just continued the beatdown until I took out her friend, and then I refocused on her. She went down quickly. I'm assuming she summoned in the ally around half HP (or close to) as a sort of battle changer. It didn't really help her THAT much honestly.
Anyways...another boss bites the dust! I moved right along up the mountain. The mountain was also home to purple flowers that would poison the entire party if you stepped on them. And yes, I accidentally stepped on one and had to cast Antidote on everybody (lucky I had it). It wasn't a very long path up to the top, but once I got there..the dragon was already there! Reina ran up to it and confirmed that it was most definitely hurt. She ran over to a nearby bit of grass (Dragon Grass) that was behind purple flowers (of course it was). She hurt and poisoned herself in the process of getting it for the dragon. *insert sad dramatic sound here* After giving the dragon the grass, it was immediately healed, and then the dragon healed Reina. I had obtained a dragon! Woo! With the dragon, I'd be able to fly onward to the Water Crystal, which is located at Walz. Woo! Dragon is so much kick-assier than an airship!
Just a small ways south of Kerwin, I located the town of Walz (right next to Castle Walz). I went to the town first and bought up what I could. I didn't have quite enough to buy everything I wanted, so I spent a little time farming up some money and levels. After an hour of leveling, I came out with more money, more levels, and a few new Blue Magic spells. I had to fly all the way back to the Wind Shrine, but I got one. Anyways, feeling that was more than enough for now, I moved onward into the game. The next stop...castle Walz. I looked around a bit, but I didn't turn up much there. I entered the Throne Room and was greeted by King Walz. Actually, Reina was greeted by him (being a Princess and all). She immediately began to warn the King of his overuse of the Water Crystal. The King simply claimed that he couldn't do it, and that even if he wanted to, the people would object. Apparently the Water Crystal was the reason the people were able to live as they were. Being a Water Crystal, it supplied fresh water and protected from monsters. She tried to argue that the crystal would shatter soon if they didn't stop. He simply claimed that although he heard of the Wind Crystal's problem that the same couldn't happen to the Water Crystal. Just as Bartz was about to jump into the debate, an event happens!
I get another lovely cutscene of sorts showing another meteor. It flies down and hits nearby Walz Tower, home of the Water Crystal. The King and his men rush towards the tower, and I followed swiftly. The first thing I see upon entering the tower is a pair of knocked out guards. They said something about Garula going crazy and climbing up the tower, and the King followed with a lone warrior beside him. It wasn't a very large dungeon. I climbed upward, collected the handful of items available, fought off the general monsters, and finally reached the top. Near the top, I came face-to-face with the lone soldier attempting to fight Garula. Turns out...Garula is a giant monster mammoth. It knocked the soldier to the side and then came after me! Looks like it is...BOSS BATTLE TIME!
The Garula was a fierce fight. It didn't seem to have any real abilities, but it did come forth with brute strength and power. I had to keep after it to get some damage in. Unfortunately for me, he had a really strong counterattack. He was also able to inflect this status where I was constantly losing HP. I almost lost Bartz in the middle of all this (turns out the Monk's weakness is crappy defense). I had to quickly wrap him up, but I did manage to come out with the whole party intact. Upon defeat, the group looks up and watches as this crystal also shatters. We were just too late (storywise) to save the crystal. The mysterious lone soldier tries to crawl out of the room but collapses. He starts talking about being unable to save the crystal and apologizes to Lord Galuf. That's right! He brings up Galuf's name, and Galuf asks him who he is. However, it is too late because the soldier is dead. I grabbed all of the crystal shards (each one giving a new job) and just as I pick up the very last piece...The tower begins to come down! The group leaps out the back way while the tower (and a good portion of the land around it) sinks beneath the water. It seems we've lost another crystal. Where to go now...
Before moving on, I looked at my new assortment of jobs. I got Time Mage, Sorcerer, Red Mage, Berserker, and Summoner. I swapped out a few people to new jobs. I changed Galuf into Sorcerer, Reina into Summoner, and Faris into a Time Mage. I don't really plan to keep them all permanently in the new jobs, but I wouldn't mind having some extra levels in them either! Before going further, Sorcerer isn't quite what you think it would be. Sorcerer is basically a Sword Mage. You cast the spell beforehand ,and then every time the sorcerer attacks afterwards, it shoots out as a attack plus that spell. The spells available are based upon the Black Magic available. Moving right along, I flew back down to Walz, healed up, saved, and then went back northward. I was heading back to the meteorite because an NPC had mentioned something about a soldier from Karnak nearby it. They questioned how he got there since there weren't any ships around. Therefore...I went to the meteorite.
Once inside, it was a small walk inwards to a teleport of some sort. The party jumps on it and are thrown across the world to a mysterious land that is most likely...Karnak. I began my exploration around. I ran into several enemies along the way, but this just helped me try out all my new jobs. The Summoner was okay for the moment, but I only have 3 summons (Chocobo, Sylph, and Remora). According to a guide, those are the only summons you can buy, and I have to fight for the rest of them. Fun, fun. Anyways, one large span of walking and random battles later, I find myself in the town of Karnak. People there seemed to have the same general attitude as those in Walz. They were all excited and safe because of the Fire Crystal. A couple people mentioned the recent uprising of monsters coming from the Meteorite and attacking the castle. One man mentioned something about weapons being easy to make and cheap. I couldn't pass on that kinda deal! I went inside a nearby shop and tried to purchase a weapon. Unfortunately...someone saw the group come out of the meteorite and thought they were monsters. The party was captured and thrown in jail. Talk about a random twist!
In jail, it seemed hopeless. Namely because there seemed to be nothing I could do and nobody around to talk to except a random guy in the other cell (couldn't actually talk to him though). Eventually, he came to the side of the cell and blew it up. However, the blowing up the wall was a mistake (sort of). He was trying to blow a hole out of cell but had simply blown that hole into another locked cell. The group laughed at him, and then he revealed his name to be Cid. Yup...Cid is back again! Many things were learned within just a few seconds. One! Turns out Cid is the one who created the machines which allowed the crystals to expend energy and therefore caused the crystals to overexert themselves. He figured out too late and the first two crystals had already shattered. As he went to stop the 3rd one (Fire), the Queen stopped and jailed him. Just as he was finishing up his talk, a man came running in for Cid. He freed the group and reported to Cid that he was right. The crystal was starting to crack. Even after they turned off the machine, the crystal kept spinning. So the man (I believe he was a Chancellor) begged Cid to help him. Cid said he could do it, but that he'd need our assistance. The Chancellor wanted to refuse, but it was the one condition that Cid had to help. The group is freed and told to meet Cid at the Fire Ship.
Before doing this, I did another fun party switch up. Before my post is all said and done, I've switched each party member at LEAST 3 times, if not more. I also did a bit of exploring and leveling up. I took some time and went back to Castle Walz. Once there, I made my way around and into a secret dungeon there. It wasn't a very big one, but at the end of it was rumored to be the ice goddess Shiva. Seeing as I have to beat the rest of the summoning monsters to gain them, I figured I would go ahead and tackle Shiva now. I didn't think I would be ready for it when I first found this side dungeon, but I knew I was ready then! Not much to this dungeon, so I trekked through, found Shiva, and initiated BOSS BATTLE MODE! Now, earlier on in the game, this battle would have been impossible. Shiva plus 3 super ice soldiers would have killed me first round. However, with the extra firepower of more levels and some kick ass classing, I was able to push through her in no time. That and fire...lots and lots of fire! Shiva went down, and I gained a new summon.
After gaining Shiva, I decided I had wasted enough time and made my way back to Karnak and entered the Fire Ship. Apparently the Fire Ship was most literally just a wooden boat with metallic innards. Upon stepping aboard, I was greeted by Cid. He showed the group the door and kicked them on down. He was ready for us to fix it! Thus began a weird trip through the inside of the Fire Ship...a wooden-looking boat with robotic innards. Just weird sounding if you ask me. Anyways, the enemies here weren't too much of a challenge, but man did it have a fun puzzle-ish maze for me. After fighting my way down, I come upon a set of vents with conveyor belts and holes. A lot of climbing up and down later, I came out with a few items and
finally the actual path I needed to take. I spent like 20 minutes here because I kept forgetting which path went where. That was basically the end of the dungeon because a few rooms later (including a save one) I found myself face to face with...Queen Karnak!
Yeah, I think almost every game so far has had at least ONE royalty member that is either 1. evil or 2. corrupted somehow. Anyways, she was claiming something about unleashing or unlocking and then the group was attacked for BOSS BATTLE TIME! This boss battle featured the strange and fairly powerful Liquid Fire. It kept alternating between three forms: A hand, a man, and a tornado. Each from was supposed to have its own thing, but I never really figured it out. The biggest problem was its "Blaze" ability which was doing like 250 damage to everybody! When your best character only has around 500 HP, this isn't a good deal. I had to keep hitting him with Ice magic and Shiva while doing my best to heal with whoever was left. It wasn't going too well, but I managed to barely pull through with the entirety of the party still alive.
After defeating the Liquid Fire, the Queen collapsed in front of the group. She revealed that she was under control by some form of Darkness, and that it had forced her to do everything. After that, she pointed to the back door and told us to hurry and stop the Fire Crystal. I ran to the back to find the Fire Crystal safe and intact. Right after that, a strange wolf-man came in and ran to the group. They freaked out because he was the Werewolf from early on. I didn't mention it because it didn't seem relevant at the time, but this Werewolf had recently been supposedly causing havoc. The people feared it for...well being a werewolf and because it had came out of the meteorite (the same reason the group was thrown in jail). He was relieved to find the crystal intact, but he asked what Galuf was doing. Yet another stranger who recognized Galuf! Hmmmm. Anyways, just as the group was about to ask the Werewolf a question...disaster strikes!
A Karnak soldier came from the other side and flipped some switch on the wall. Apparently that switch was keeping the Fire Crystal's accelerator off and keeping it from spinning out and exploding. Upon flipping it, the Fire Crystal began powering up again and several vents beside the accelerator were reconnecting to the crystal. Fires started burning all over. The wolfman jumped in front of one vent to try and stop it, but it was already too late...The crystal had begun to explode. The wolfman told us to run and get out before it was too late. Before the party could react, they had already fallen through the floor. The crystal exploded and took the wolfman with it. As the party got up, they proceeded upstairs and found the whole place to be going critical! I had seven minutes to get out of the castle!
Yeah, the passageway I had taken out of the ship lead under the castle. I had to rush out of the castle while grabbing every chest from before that was unobtainable. There were quite a few chests, and every other chest had an enemy in it (a Gigas) that I had to waste from 15 to 30 seconds on. I kept running all about trying to find more chests. The timer kept ticking down unfairly in and out of battles. I finally grabbed all I could, and I only had 1 minute to get out. I was almost out of the gate when RANDOM SOMEWHAT BOSS BATTLE TIME! Goddamn that random enemy battle! It was a soldier and a set of attack dogs. According to the guide I'm looking over, the soldier (same one that's been bugging me through) was supposed to transform into something else after taking so much damage, but I didn't have time for that shit! I kicked his ass and ran out with TEN seconds to spare! Upon leaving the castle, I was treated to a lovely fireworks show...as the castle blew up. Right after the castle blew up...a handful of crystal shards rained on the party. They grabbed them up, and I got the Geomancer, Ninja, and Trainer jobs!
After changing the party lineup (again), I head towards the Fire Ship. On board, Cid was incredibly depressed and disappointed in himself. He felt that it was his fault about the crystal shattering and everything going wrong. He walked away sadly...and now onward for my group. When the castle blew up, it blew up a nearby wall that was blocking the path to the Library of Ancients. Apparently it's a big library of really old books. Anyways, my next goal was somewhat clear (NPC mentioned the wall being destroyed) so I made my way down. It was quite a walk, but I got through it okay. I finally located the Library of Ancients and went inside. The first thing I could tell was...someone named Mid was missing. After talking to a few others I found out the following: Mid was Cid's grandson. Mid had recently went downstairs to the basement in search of a book. The basement was full of possessed books AKA monsters. With that all in mind, I proceeded downstairs.
This was one heck of an annoying dungeon. I didn't get into too many battles, and the enemies weren't hard. So you might wonder...what was annoying? The enemies themselves. It was basically enemies popping out of a possessed book, but every time you took one down, another one popped up. The amount that would pop out of the book seemed to be random for each battle. Sometimes you'd fight two, sometimes you'd fight SIX. Thankfully, they weren't too hard nor did any seem to possess any strange or powerful abilities. With each one falling down quite easily, I made time to explore. Along the way, I happened upon a room with a single book in the middle. Upon examination, I found the book to contain the sealed fire demon Ifrit! He promised to pledge his power of fire to any who could prove to withstand it. So...commence BOSS BATTLE TIME!
Ifrit put up quite a challenge. His fire attacks and spells were dealing quite a bit of damage, but I luckily had Shiva on my side. Just a few turns later (to my luck) Ifrit gave in, and I gained a new summon! Huzzah! I continued down into the mysterious basement and with quite a bit of ease. Finally, I came upon a room with a man inside. Most likely it was Mid, so I continued forward. However, I was assaulted by books on the way for BOSS BATTLE TIME! The boss that popped out was a demon-looking fellow named Biblos. He was a fairly challenging boss for me. He was able to deal out decent amounts of damage, status effects, could halve my mana with MagHammer, and could heal himself while hurting me with Drain. Unfortunately for him, his weakness was Fire...My friend Ifrit saw to it that this battle went slightly easier than the alternative. Before dying, Biblos made a comment about a seal (damn you snobby foreshadowing!), but that didn't matter now. I talked with Mid who was surprised to see us. Apparently he completely and utterly missed a giant battle with a book demon taking place like 15 feet behind him. Anyways, he claimed he had found something interesting in the book and helped the group back to the top through a secret passage.
When back at the top, he quickly thanked the group for their help and then told us what he had found. It seems he discovered a way to power the Fire Ship without the use of the Fire Crystal. The group informed him of Cid's recent bout of depression ,and he rushed out to have a talk with his grandpa. So...backtrack to Karnak and a trip to the Pub reveals a drunk and depressed Cid. However, Mid rushes in while the group is talking to him and knocks some sense back into him. After seeing the book Mid found, the two rush out to fix up the Fire Ship. I ran out and onto the ship where the two asked me to wait below deck while they fixed it up. The group went inside and...story happened! SPOILERS AHEAD!
With all the recent run-ins of people recognizing Galuf, he was starting to really question who he was. And suddenly...things were kind of piecing together. The recent events of Mid and Cid reminded Galuf of his own events with his granddaughter. Then it finally struck him...Galuf was not of this world! He had come from space, which explains the meteors. He talked about how he and a group of comrades had used the power of the crystals to seal an evil wizard known as...X-Death. That is how the game said it, but I will say it how everything else says it after that...Exdeath. If the crystals were all destroyed, Exdeath would be free to escape his prison. It was upon the group's shoulders to go out, find the last crystal (the Earth Crystal) and, protect it! Anyways, he couldn't remember anymore so the group rested and then went back on deck. They found a passed out Mid and Cid there who were tired from the work. However, they had gotten the ship running and passed it off to me! Woo! Time to take this new boat out for a spin! Or I would if I knew where to go. I followed the two (Mid and Cid) to the Library of Ancients. They mentioned a Crescent Island, so I set my sights there! The World Map revealed a single island shaped like a crescent, so it was obvious where to go. Some sailing later, I found myself on Crescent Island in a city called Crescent Town. Very classy. Unfortunately for me, my high time was about to leave me.
An earthquake occurred as soon as the group got in town. The earthquake caused a whirlpool that sucked in the Fire Ship. Thanks game...thanks. Glad I got to enjoy that ship for two minutes. I explored the town a bit and thankfully ran upon talk of a Black Chocobo. For those who don't know, Black Chocobos possess the ability to fly! I ran down to the nearby forest and caught a black chocobo! The black chocobo was having a hard time flying and to the group's luck was being caused by a handful of crystal shards! The shards granted me the Hunter and Bard classes. Woo!...I think. Anyways, with the black chocobo I was airborne and ready to go! I then began to...explore! I've already made this post long enough, so I'm going to sum it up and end it in the next paragraph.
Flew to Reina's kingdom, kingdom rejoiced, slept there, details lead to Faris being Reina's sister, got items, and left kingdom. Flew northward and found Bartz's village. Bartz had a flashback involving his parents...was very sad. Bought stuff and left. Found another village called Easterly Village. Only interesting point involved an old man being in a nearby forest. Details pointed to Ramuh, the thunder god summon. Returned to the Library of Ancients and informed the twosome of the Fire Ship's demise. They said "meh" and would make a new one. They also informed me of someone spotting King Tycoon heading through nearby desert. They also mentioned it should be impossible (because of shifting sand) but another detail implied he was "floating" over it. Regardless, the group had to follow the King there. With what felt like a huuuge amount of time today, I finally forced myself to stop and save. I am ending it here!
Ending Point - Nearby the Librairy of Ancients.
Current Party - The party lineup changed many, many times over the course of gameplay. Their current job plus its level really doesn't do me or them justice. I might include extra details in future postings to give an idea what kinda setup I have going.
- Bartz Level 19 - Knight Lvl 2 with Monk's Counter Ability
- Reina Level 19 - White Mage Lvl 3 with Trainer's Control Ability
- Galuf Level 19 - Knight Lvl 3 with Sorcerer's Sword Ability
- Faris Level 19 - Ninja Lvl 2 with Blue Mage's Learning Ability
Goals Accomplished - Made it through the Ship Graveyard and defeated Sylph. Found the port of Kerwin Town. Climbed North Mountain and defeated Marissa. Saved and obtained the dragon! Flew the dragon down to Walz. Climbed Walz Tower but failed to save the crystal. Used the meteorite near Walz to teleport to Karnak. Met Cid in Karnak and agreed to help him. Defeated and gained the Shiva summon! Boarded the Fire Ship but failed to stop the Fire Crystal from being destroyed. Gained 3 new jobs. Traveled to the Librairy of Ancients and helped out Mid. Defeated and gained the Ifrit summon! Helped Cid through Mid and gained the Fire Ship! Lost the Fire Ship 2 minutes later to a whirlpool caused by an earthquake. Captured the Black Chocobo and gained 2 new jobs. Did some side questing!
Next Goals - Pass through the Desert and find out where King Tycoon was going. Find and Protect the Earth Crystal. Save the world from Exdeath!
SIDE NOTE - I'm reaaaaaaaaally sorry for this post length. This is composed of two days of play with one day only being around 1 hour and the second day being the other 7 hours. I meant to stop quite a few times on the second day, but I never got around to it and just got further in.
Unfortunately, I might have to figure out another way to post everything I do without being as detailed as I am. Maybe going to have to cut out details...although I already feel like I'm skipping corners. Currently undecided, but the future may tell more!
~May the Crystals Guide Me~
