...And we're back in Castle Walse after a brief hiatus.
As my last run of the castle's basement was interrupted, I do a little more scowering around and find a southernly entrance hidden by the black. There's a small path into one of the castle's canals here, and up behind a waterfall we find a watchtower. So, how is the Watch supposed to get in here again?
Even worse, somehow the entire tower is flooded. Yes, even the top floors. I'm trying not to think about it too much. There are also a couple of frog and guard enemies, which I receive an attack able to turn enemies into frogs from.
At the top there's a sparkle, who is apparently Shiva (Guess I didn't need the Water Crystal first. Eh,) and I promptly get my ass handed to me by her Blizzara spam and three knight bodyguards. Ouch.
Second go at it, then. Fares no better; Shiva's apparently immune to Silence.
Third time's the charm...? This time, I try setting Faris as a Black Mage, thinking this might be a Puzzle Boss of some flavor.
...No dice. Though Fire does some significant damage, I still fail to fell even a single one of her guards, let alone damage Shiva herself in any particular way. I figure I'll come back to this later, since it's almost as futile as fighting one of the Jackanapes.
That's probably all the secrets the castle holds, so I head on over to the adjacent city. I spend a night at the inn to recover MP, then head to the shops.
Surprisingly, despite the last town having been only a small spot away, we already have some upgrades to do in the armor department; we're still fine for weapons. The Magic Shop, interestingly, has a couple Summons and Time Magic for sale, so I can start to piece together which classes we'll be getting in the next set.
There's also something of a gorge here, which I wade into in order to go exploring. There's not a terrible lot there aside from frogs and a nice view of the fountain, so I leave fairly quickly.
To continue with the plot, I first head over to the fallen meteorite. Since it's named 'Walse Meteorite', I can now assume that they're named after the kingdom where they fell- which is why the previous one was 'Tycoon Meteorite'. Not a terrible lot there to see, so I hurry up and head over to the nearby tower.
The two guards talk about something called 'Garlua' that suddenly went berserk, so I guess we know who our boss is. King Walse ran after it, so props to him for that at the least.
The tower is shaped like every other tower we've seen before and the enemies are the same guards from Shiva's tower, as well as some sort of mage enemy. Neither are too hard, so we continue unimpeded to the fourth floor. Here we find King Walse, seemingly alive if winded, who tells us to handle Garula; like usual, it's all up to us.
On the ninth floor, we hear that famous Final Fantasy Prologue music accompanied by... a red thing. With a big nose. It knocks the last remaining Walse Knight defending the crystal, charges at us. Battle time!
...it's the exact same thing as a random enemy I saw outside the tower and didn't bother reporting.
...Well, that's kind of a letdown. Make no mistake though, he wasn't ridiculously easy; his Rush attack killed F twice, Lenna once and Faris once. Faris' Vampire attack came in all sorts of handy, transfering over 160 points of damage into health at one point, as did F's Chakra ability for self heal. The 90-odd points of health Lenna can heal with Cure are a bit too little at this point in the game, so I'm hoping we see Cura soon.
Then the crystal goes and shatters anyway. They really don't make Cosmic Keystones like they used to, do they? In any case, the injured Knight apologizes to 'Lord Galuf' for not being able to defend it, and the old man jumps on this shred of data like a starving lamprey.
Of course, the knight goes ahead and dies anyway, his last words being to defend the Fire Crystal. Big surprise there. In any case, Faris notes the crystal shards are glowing and F is genre savy enough to know they'll want to give us their power as well.
Unlike last time, we have to go around and specifically observe every shard to get its power; we receive the power of the Berserker, Red Mage, Mystic Knight, Summoner and Time Mage. There's one last shard hidden in a corner, but it's impossible to get to; in any case, the tower starts to shake after a while, and we evacuate post haste through an appearing door.
They fall into the ocean, but wouldn't you know it, Faris' water dragon has returned! It collects us all safely in its stomach (or, just eats us. You know.) and deposits us safely on a beach. I have to say, the tide effect they use looks rather impressive.
...Apparently the dragon's dying now. It used the last of its strength to save us...
I don't get it. Most certainly, it's been days in-game since it was drawn in by the whirlpool; surely, it would have recovered by now or else died. What about grabbing us and swimming a little bit tired it out to the point where it's now dying, especially considering it's a dragon? ...Whatever the case, the scene here is surprisingly touching, especially as F runs up to help Lenna in comforting Faris. Galuf, apparently, is either too old to get up or just doesn't care.
In any case, since we now have a new set of jobs, I should give you an update on the part's current staus.
F is currently a Berserker, equipped with the Monk ability Barehanded because I like the idea of a barefisted Berserker. I might switch to Chakra if I see a really nice Berserker weapon, however.
Lenna is now a Time Mage, equipped with White Magic so she can continue in capacity as a healer. With the spells I picked up in Walse, I predict her to be several times more useful than she previously was.
Galuf is a Mystic Knight equipped with Cover because it seems more convenient than Guard, though I'm sure I'll find that out on my own soon enough.
Faris was a hard choice, but I eventually decided on turning her into a Red Mage so she could continue in her capacity as a sword-wielding magic user. I gave her Blue Magic as her ability, though I plan to replace that with Learning when it comes time to learn new spells.
...And that's all for today. What, no cataclysmic event suddenly ending my game early? Hunh, I feel almost ripped off.
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