Hello guys, today we're gonna look at the ability we were given to swap our party members. Back in Mysidia (which due to having 3 airships now, has become parking lot number 2), we can head into the Hall of Prayer, where we can find Cid, Edward, Yang, Palom and Porom, all with the equipment they had on when they left our party the last time. Cecil can not under any circumstances leave the party.
I make my party Rydia, Cecil, Palom, Cid and Porom. As we try to leave, though...
White Mage: Elder! Elder!
Elder: Please calm down and tell me what is going on.
White Mage: Th-the mountain! The mountain of Ordeals...
Elder: What of Mount Ordeals?
White Mage: The whole mountain is covered by a sinister cloud!
Elder: A sinister cloud? Could it be...? ...I see. Thank you for the report. Cecil, may I have a word? Here in Mysidia, there is an old myth. The people believe a new path will appear on Mount Ordeals for those who have fulfilled their fate. Perhaps something is changing now upon the mountain. Do you dare go to see what has happened?
Cecil: Yes, sir.
Before we do so, though, I head to Tomra and the Feymarch to outfit the returning characters, as their defensive equipment is rubbish. Then we head for Mount Ordeals.
When we enter, lightning strikes a spot on the mountain, opening a new path. This heads to the Cave of Trials. The first room is kinda similar to the place Cecil became a Paladin, and as we approach the mirror, a door opens.
Step inside if you wish to test yourself.
Okay. The Cave of Trials is a pretty big dungeon, where we can find the best equipment for our five returning characters. Most enemies are Underworld difficulty, so we smash them pretty easily. Our first find is the Red Jacket, for Edward.
Into B2. Rydia learns Thundaga while we look for the Hypnocrown, for Palom.
Down into B3, where we find the Cat-Ear Hood for Porom and the White Tiger Mask for Yang. Most of the really good stuff in this dungeon is behind hidden passages.
Next up is B4, then. We find the Red Cap for Edward here. Palom learns Tornado and Porom learns Curaja on the way to the next chest in here, the Brave Suit for Yang.
Onto B5, and I start noticing that this dungeon really overuses branching paths. We find here the Robe of Lords for Porom and the Sage's Robe for Palom.
B6 is next. We start encountering the most annoying enemies of the Underworld, so we start fleeing a lot. We get the Grand Helm and Grand Armor for Cid here.
We reach B7 after lots of running away. We encounter a Golden Toad here. Thing likes to run away a lot, but not until after casting Toad on everyone. Stop and two Megaflares takes care of the little bastard.
We finally reach the end of the cave, B8. By now, it's obvious the weapons we left our old party with just won't be good enough. So here, we get a brand new weapon for each of them. But they're guarded by annoying bosses.
Let's go after Cid's weapon first. We get attacked by the Death Machine, which has a lot of instant KO moves. It struggles to keep up with a Hasted Porom, though, so it falls easily enough.
We get Thor's Hammer for winning, which more than doubles Cid's current Attack, and deals lightning damage.
Next, we'll try for Palom's weapon. This weapon is guarded by the Flan Master, who has Reflect, but is not a flan, so we can just stab it. It also comes with 2 Black Flans and 2 White Mousses that will respawn, though, so we have Palom and Rydia go all out with Reflect piercing moves. The Flan Master will Reflect it's spells at us, but it's no real threat. Except when it uses Flare. Ow.
We get Triton's Dagger for winning, which can be used to cast a variant of Tsunami.
Porom is next. We make sure we have Float up before we get attacked by the Tyrannosaurus. We basically just spam our strongest attacks that aren't elemental spells, he's not a big threat when Earthquake can't touch us. The elemental spells trigger nasty counters, so we just have Rydia use Bahamut and Palom use Quake.
We get Seraphim's Mace for winning, which has some sort of use effect, I'm not sure what. That's all we can get right now, so we warp out and head back to Mysidia.
We switch our party to Rydia, Cecil, Rosa, Yang and Edward. Back underground to pick up some more Diamond Armlets, put on Edward and Yang's new equipment, and back into the Cave of Trials. The nice thing about Edward and Yang is they are both really fast with their new equipment. Speed in the 40s (1 turn every 3 or 4 seconds) fast.
We'll go after Yang's weapon next. We fight the Storm Dragon. It can hit really hard, and has several HP to One moves, and is weak to ice. Rydia's Blizzaga tears it to shreds.
We get the Godhand for winning. It has a small boost to Attack, an boost to Defence, and deals holy damage.
Last is Edward's weapon. This one's guarded by another hard hitter, the Gigas Worm. He's a counter attacker, and his counters get pretty brutal. 1000 damage to the back row brutal. It's a matter of killing it before it can kill us, really, nothing interesting.
We get Apollo's Harp for winning. Triples his attack and deals massive damage to dragons. If only Edward could take a hit. (His Evasion is 60% though, so not much CAN hit him)
That's all for now. Next time, the beginning of the end.
Stats:
Cecil: Lv 49 HP:3071 MP:202 Strength:69 Speed:30 Stamina:49 Intellect:26 Spirit:30 Attack:189 (10 attacks) Defence:64 Magic Defence:12
Kain: Lv 49 HP:2830 MP:0 Strength:53 Speed:36 Stamina:58 Intellect:10 Spirit:29 Attack:117 (9 attacks) Defence:73 Magic Defence:21
Rosa: Lv 48 HP:2222 MP:403 Strength:49 Speed:24 Stamina:29 Intellect:32 Spirit:62 Attack:92 (8 attacks) Defence:39 Magic Defence:27
Rydia: Lv 46 HP:1406 MP:396 Strength:24 Speed:23 Stamina:23 Intellect:58 Spirit:47 Attack: 57 (5 attacks)
Cid: Lv 47 HP:3557 MP:0 Strength:71 Speed:25 Stamina:66 Intellect:5 Spirit:25 Attack:218 (10 attacks) Defence:82 Magic Defence:23
Edward: Lv 49 HP:1037 MP:0 Strength:67 Speed:61 Stamina:29 Intellect:22 Spirit:37 Attack: 126 (12 attacks) Defence:51 Magic Defence:32
Yang: Lv 48 HP:4153 MP:0 Strength:97 Speed:56 Stamina:79 Intellect:2 Spirit:3 Attack:122 (16 attacks) Defence:75 Magic Defence:19
Palom: Lv 49 HP:1697 MP:383 Strength:24 Speed:30 Stamina:29 Intellect:84 Spirit:17 Attack:80 (5 attacks) Defence:46 Magic Defence:39
Porom: Lv 49 HP:1548 MP:378 Strength:18 Speed:29 Stamina:31 Intellect:17 Spirit:79 Attack:66 (4 attacks) Defence:47 Magic Defence:44
Edge: Lv 47 HP:2202 MP:148 Strength:47 Speed:38 Stamina:32 Intellect:23 Spirit:19 Attack:134 (8 attacks) Defence:55 Magic Defence:18
Just so you know, the layout of that is the order of how they appear in the inactive members list (other than Cecil, of course).
