Tuesday, December 27, 2011

TEXT PLAY: Final Fantasy 4 (SNES, 1991): Issue #11: Cecil Underground


There's a side quest or two I could do here, but I've always thought I was better served by putting them off until later.

The one that comes most readily to mind is Eblan Castle, but I like to wait for that until we've got our final party set up, which won't happen for awhile yet. I'll probably get there sooner than I think, though.

So, for now, it's off to the town of Agart to drop the Magma Key into the town's ancient and presumably bottomless well. This is a Dwarfish legend, according to the villagers, who claim that their ancestors were Dwarfs who once lived deep underground and needed magma the same way that surface dwellers need sunlight.

But let's start with a little exploring around the town, shall we? The main reason for doing this is that there are a few monsters that will drop decent items from time to time. The big three are the BlackLiz, that will drop something called Medusa arrows, which can turn their targets to stone; FlameDogs, which drop fire arrows, though those aren't of much use against the fire monsters coming up; and Ironbacks, which have silver shields. Granted, those last two aren't of much value unless you're in a pinch for such things, but they're not bad, either. I didn't get any quick, so I just went ahead and advanced the plot.

In the town of Agart, there's the bottomless well I mentioned before. Throw the Magma Key down it and it'll set off the volcano northeast of the town. The eruption will blow a big hole in the mountain range, but the town is still safe somehow. I'm not asking for logic. It's a video game with the word “fantasy” in the title, after all.

Fly the Airship Enterprise down the hole to start a cutscene where the Red Wings are seen fighting some tanks. The battle damages the airship, causing it to crash, rather conveniently, right outside the castle that dispatched the tanks.

Turns out this is the Dwarf Castle, headed up by one King Giott, who's daughter Luca is always with him. Talk to her before you see the king, and she'll say that her dolls are missing. That's some not-so-subtle foreshadowing to the two-part boss fight coming up. Go see Giott to get that started.

Cecil explains himself to Giott, who says in return that Golbez has two of the Dark Crystals, but the other two should be safe so long as Giott lives. He goes on to say that's because one's locked away in a crystal room that can only be accessed through a secret door beside his throne, making it hard to get through without going through him first.

Cid says he can fix the Enterprise, but he needs to go back to Baron and wrap the ship in mythril so it can work safely above the magma in the underground. He goes to do that, opening up a slot in the roster for another returning member. Of course, this also makes the first part of the boss fight a real bitch.

Just then, Yang's Kung Fu skills tell him that somebody' sneaking around behind the secret door. Giott orders the door open and the party rushes in. The good news is that they've found Luca's dolls. The bad news is that the dolls have been possessed by “TEH DEEVIL” and work for Golbez now. The dolls, called the Calbrena, are a compound monster kind of like Baigan was back in Baron, only there's six of them and they can merge into one giant doll for brief periods. Hand them their collective ass and Golbez himself shows up to hork the crystal in person. He tries to off Cecil and crew, but falls just short when Rydia comes back and helps the others put a beat down on Golbez.

After the fight, Rydia explains that there's a worse evil than Golbez at work, because the Queen of Summoned Monsters said so. Rydia's a Caller and black mage now, too, so no more white magic from her any more, at least not directly. Eventually, she'll learn a summon that can and dues use white magic for the party.

Unfortunately, the party didn't manage to actually kill Golbez in this round of fighting, so he turns into a giant hand and jacks the crystal anyway. After such a dramatic turn of stealing defeat from the jaws of victory, the party goes to tell King Giott.

The king is understandably miffed, but tells them that now's their chance to get the other seven crystals back from Golbez, because while he's busy trying to get the last one out of some place called the Sealed Cave, the rest are relatively unguarded in a place called the Tower of Bab-il. But since it's late and I've already had a boss fight or two, I'll leave that for next time.

With that in mind, next issue will be a Journey to Bab-Il. See you soon, folks!

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