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blazinghydra2011-05-09 19:38:51

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Zombies, Dragons and Jackanapes

Five Blind Heroes(Advanced)

And we're back, this time with more Savestates kept in case of sudden freeze. As you might recall, we left off in a Sunken Ship, under water and decidedly NOT drowning.

Well, not for much longer. I head up a staircase back on dry land; F complains about a fish in his pants, and Lenna figures anything not underwater is a satisfactory rest spot. She heads into a different room to change clothes and warns the boys not to... peek...

Wait. Where would she keep an extra set of clothes dry if they were under...

Nevermind.

F starts up a fire so the others can dry off, while Galuf tries to strip Faris ostensibly because he'll catch pneumonia otherwise. Or possibly to confirm his gender. One of those two, at any rate.

Faris fights them off with his sudden super strength, and Lenna comes running out to check what's the matter. Both Galuf and F seem shell shocked, and Galuf delivers the appropriate line:

"Oh my stars! HE'S A SHE!"

...Well Duh! Seriously, this was obvious even without the Wham Line being quoted on a page I already potholed to.

...In any case, Faris tries to brush it off rather ineffectually, asking if they have a problem with her transvestite habits. Lenna, being a Princess and presumably used to mediating in awkward circumstances like this, asks her why she was hiding her gender.

Melancholy music starts playing and Faris explains that as a child, she was taken in by a band of pirates. She hid her gender because, uhm, Pirates.

Galuf is relieved now that he's confident in his sexual orientation again, and Faris threatens to shank anyone who makes fun of her for the whole crossdressing or being-a-woman thing. She turns in for the night at the conveniently placed beds, and the other four follow suit.

...Wait, nobody's keeping watch? On a haunted ship? Where they had to cut there way through hoards of the undead to get to in the first place?

...*sigh*

Faris wakes up the earliest of the three and shocks the other three out of bed. Galuf falls off in comic style, then makes a comment about Faris hiding her "assets" and not being particularly ladylike. Perhaps fortunately for him, Faris doesn't appear to hear and the other two just make lighthearted comments about Faris being Faris.

Anywho, since none of the party seem to have been possessed by malevolent spirits in their sleep, we head off through the nearby door. I make my way off of this ship and onto the next bit of driftwood; funny how all the ships here seemed to crash with the bow facing extreme south. Hop across a couple planks and a map, and I get into another sunken boat, picking up a new World Map along the way.

Three chests in a row; I figure at least one's trapped, but I've got nothing better to do. The first two hold an Antidote each, and the last, a Phoenix Down. Hunh. Maybe I'm just used to the undead/water level of games being needlessly cruel.

I head back up, across more rocks and find a solitary chest on an island. Opening this chest, oddly enough, causes an entire ship to resurface. While the door on this boat is sealed, it does act as a nice bridge onto what I assume is dry land...

F, however, mimics my skepticism via fish pun and thinks something's up here. Suddenly, in a flash of blue light, F's mother appears! (Do we have a trope for ghosts taking the shape of the hero's dead loved ones?) F, unfortunately, seems to be rendered helpless by this and walks over to her.

Not to be outdone, Lenna's father also comes up. Not only is Lenna taken over by this apparition, but Faris as well, for whatever reason. Considering Faris' earlier response to the King's departure, I'm beginning to think they have some untold history here.

Finally, the last glow forms into a girl that calls Galuf her grandpa. While this strikes a chord with the old man, his amnesia saves the day; Unable to fully recall who the girl is, he resists the ghost's temptation, even as the other three party member's souls are taken. A tall woman appears behind the ghost and encourages Galuf to give up his soul.

Galuf refuses, however, and we learn this woman is named Siren. She offers to let Galuf go if he runs now, but being the Cool Old Guy that he is, he sticks around and slaps them so hard their souls come back.

The three barely have time to converse before the Siren comes right at them, and we're launched into a new boss battle!

The Siren was an interesting fight. 900 Hp, which is a big step up from the last guy, and she starts by casting Slow on Faris; in a battle system based off of ATB gauge, that's a killer. It's business like usual until a significant chunk of health was ripped off and she became a Zombie. Her defenses at that point skyrocketed, so I switched to casting Cures on her and using Potions to heal my guys; eventually, I chucked a Phoenix Down at her to see what would happen, and she returned to normal form. With her defenses back to normal, she dropped like a brick, even after casting Haste on herself.

F thanks Galuf for saving their lives, and they have an "Everybody Laughs" Ending about him blushing at compliments.

We're back on the world map; rather convenient that ship graveyard was on the coastline.

Geeze, the wild life sure has buffed up. We've moved now from giant squirrels and gangly imps to radioactive porcupines, horned demon pigs, and what appears to be a deformed demonic bulldog on enough steroids to reduce it to a blob of muscle. [[Squick Ick.]] None of these seem to display anything that could possibly be a Blue Magic Spell, so I move on.

I find a small town called Carwen to the south and HOLY CRAP is the theme of this town good. It's a jaunty irish sort of thing that's going to be playing in my ears for days now.

I update my weapons and armor and sell the useless equipment before heading off, as well as stop by the inn. Usual 'New Town' checklist stuff before I start to explore around. For new Spells, I've acquired Silence and Protect as White Magic, and Sleep for black.

There's a lot of chat about dragons in the pub, and about Knights doing it Two-Handed. There's something valuable called 'Dragon Grass' up north being choked out by poison grass, so I can assume we'll be heading there rather soon.

In any case, casual interrogation reveals that our destination, Walse, is directly south of here and is a rather easy trip by sea. Heck of a time to lose our boat, then, especially since there aren't any OTHER dragon-powered ships capable of sailing with no wind (let's get a canoe).

With all this talk of Air Drakes and Dragon Grass, I think it's time we got some air support. Draconian air support, if you get my drift. Rather annoyingly, F mentions that they can't get anywhere by sea or land multiple times as you talk to the civilians, which gets old fast. I also find a Frost Rod in a semi-hidden spot.

I find a mountain up rather north and... Heck, this song is pretty badass too! Well, the music is certainly making up for the sub-par artwork, at the very least.

Among our usual enemies here are living Headstones with faces on them, who I would assume have something worth copying. They try to use an attack called 'Flash', seemingly confirming my suspicions... until it fails because they didn't have enough MP to cast it even at the start of the battle. Sigh.

Near the top, I encounter some purple flowers that, I found out the hard way, poison you if you step on them. I also fight a cockatrice, where I can presumably have my Blue Mage learn a Stoning-move eventually.

On a cliff face, Lenna finds her father's helmet... and promptly gets hit by a poison arrow. Dammit Lenna. Unfortunately, the mountain chooses that moment to shift and separate Lenna from the group, leaving her in the clutches of... some creepy white-haired person. Magissa (It's what she's listed as, I have no idea how F and Co. know her name) had originally came to hunt the Wind Drake for Black Market ingredients, but figures that the Princess of Tycoon would be an even better prize. She considers it a prize for [[Squick her husband]].

Faris gets pissed, dashes the gap, but ends up causing even more of the ledge to collapse and falls off. Where any normal person would then just up and die, Faris takes the opportunity to [[Determinator claw her way back up the sheer side of the mountain without a hitch, cast a rope across to bridge the gap and bring the rest of the team to the other side in ten seconds flat.]] Badass.

Lenna gets up and, of course, Magissa attacks. Lenna starts off poisoned, which I figured would be the case, but it's easily rectified.

Alright then. Since I had to Poisona first turn rather than Libra, I didn't get Magissa's HP count, but we can assume it's not -too- bulky. As her name implies, she comes out with all offensive magic... which is easily neutered by a single Silence. After a few good hits, she calls out her husband Forizza (Or something along those lines), who's a bit more problematic. Forizza hits like a truck and essentially ignores magical damage; Luckily, Faris could still regain her health by using Vampire on the now-powerless Magissa. After that, it was just a matter of F and Galuf beating Forizza down into a fine red paste as Lenna tries to stop the same from happening to them.

Lenna thanks Faris, and we continue on our way. Only a few steps further, we come to a rather symmetrical clearing with a Wind Drake in the center; Lenna recognizes it as Hiryu, the gargoyle-thing from the opening.

Noticing that he's hurt, Lenna barrels her way though several bushels of Poison Grass to get to the Dragon Grass by the cliff, making this the second time in a quarter of an hour in which she's gotten poisoned by running ahead without thinking.

Hiryu uses some Wind Drake magic juju in order to heal Lenna again, and they start to saddle up... except F, who has a fear of heights. If I need to remind you, towards the start of the game, F was the one chosen by the Wind Crystal. This is what we call Irony, kids.

As it turns out, flying a wind drake is just like flying a chocobo. Except higher. In any case, we land to the south, by a castle that turns out to be Castle Walse. There's a town next to it (I assume the Township of Walse), and a tower to the north that I presume holds the Water Crystal.

The guards of Castle Walse don't seem to understand the notion of Tempting Fate, considering how much they brag about their Castle being impenetrable as long as it has the Strength of Water and a hidden cache of treasures that you should under no circumstances take. King Walse seems happy to see Lenna at the least.

Lenna tells the king to stop using the amplification machine on the Water Crystal to prevent shatterification, but the King is a bit reluctant to turn down the juice, worried about the public backlash. Just as F starts to put his foot down, something starts happening and he actually utters the words "Holy moly. Another meteor falls, this time in the mountain fields next to the Walse Tower -which, of course, houses the Water Crystal.

I take the moment to explore the castle. There's some talk about Shiva in the castle, and I find a hidden researcher who mentions Shiva is kept trapped by the Water Crystal's power. Guess I should come back a little later, then, after I get the Water Crystal's power.

I head downstairs into the dungeons, and past a couple doors. There's a random battle against a Jackanape. Fair enough, I-

Oh.

Comments

EponymousKid Since: Dec, 1969
May 10th 2011 at 8:57:03 AM
Blue Magic is almost more trouble than it's worth by my money. Especially considering how some spells are Lost Forever after a certain point. I actually had Bartz as a Beastmaster, controlling monsters just so I could learn their moves, it was a big hassle.

Anyway, what jobs are you looking at for your guys after the Water Crystal? To my recollection, my setup was something like Blue Mage (Bartz), Red Mage (Galuf), Berserker (Lenna), Mystic Knight (Faris).
TriggerLoaded Since: Dec, 1969
May 12th 2011 at 8:37:50 PM
Yeah, I tend to ignore Blue Magic when I play Final Fantasy games. I just find it too much of a hassle.

I wonder if trying to pass Faris off as male worked better in Japan?
PataHikari Since: Dec, 1969
May 14th 2011 at 11:54:24 PM
"Blue Magic is almost more trouble than it's worth by my money."

Only the most powerful spells in the game, plus once you do get !Control it's easy.
Kinkajou Since: Dec, 1969
May 19th 2011 at 9:46:11 PM
Blue Magic tends to suck early on due to its gimmicky nature, but it becomes more useful than Offensive Magic by the end.

@Trigger Loaded: Well, them Japanese love long haired bishies.
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