Thursday, February 2, 2012

TEXT PLAY: Final Fantasy 4 (SNES, 1991): Issue #21: Excalibur Side Items


There's really only one thing that I can guarantee to actually happen here.

We're gonna get Excalibur for Cecil. It's at Kokkol's Blacksmith Shop now that we're back from the moon. That's what he wanted the Adamant and the Legend sword for when we were there last. He gives you the sword and says that he's got his confidence back, so he opens a weapons shop that sells throwing stars for Edge and Samurai arrows. They're good items, but, at least for my style of play, not worth the price being charged for them. We'll find the throwing stars as we go along and the Artemis arrows we get on the Moon are better.

From here, it's sort of a world tour of places I could either just ignore or have already been. The plan is that I'm just go around to most of these places again, for the most part, cloning swords and other items that Edge can throw via his Dart command. These things will be just as good or better than what we could have gotten at Kokkol's, with the added bonus that we might get some more levels and additional summon spells that there aren't specific quests for. With the exception of a few things, this will be something of a compilation of single-paragraph mentions of where I went and that, more than likely, nothing interesting happened. Of course, if something interesting does happen, there'll be more.

The first place we're gonna go is Eblan Castle. There's some good stuff here, at least. There's a Drain Spear in a well-guarded chest at the top of the right tower. To get to that particular chest, you need to find a secret passage and come at it from behind due to a pit that leads to another chest on the floor below blocking the one we're after. In the other tower is the Slumber Sword. Both these weapons are imbued with effects that heal the user for the damage given to the enemy, in the case of the Drain Spear or put enemies to sleep, in the case of the Slumber Sword. And aside from that, there's just potions to add to the stockpile. They'll certainly come in handy later on.

Once we're done with that, things begin to get a little tedious, since we're not especially likely to find anything new. With that in mind, I'll try to throw out as many distractions and stream-of-consciousness stuff as I can along the way. I'd like to think that'll help keep this from being as boring to read as it is to actually do. Maybe I'll even have a bit of success with it. So here we go.

Let's begin this little trip All Around The World by going a few places we can't go with the Big Whale. I probably could have gone back to the Sealed Cave, the Land of Monsters, and the Sylph Cave while I was in the underground to get Excalibur, but I wanted to do Eblan first because I knew there was new stuff in there. Now that we've got it, we're going back to Cave Magnes.

The good thing about Magnes now is that once the magnetic field is gone, it never comes back. Between that and our markedly higher levels, we're now free to kick pretty much as much ass as we want without impediment. The only way that isn't quite true is if and when we take our weapons off to clone them.

I've set myself a limit of six of everything, and a dozen of whatever Edge can equip, because he can have weapons in both hands. What's really going to make this long and boring, at least for me, is that it seems that I've already hit that limit for everything I'll want to actually use. I don't want to go too overboard on it because I know that unless I get really liberal with throwing things, I'll probably never use what I've already got, or if I do, it'll be too late in the game for it to really matter much if I do run out. The only thing of interest I really got out of the trip through Magnes again was a ton of Poison Arrows, so I went and sold those off when I got back to Toroia. So, it's time to move on.

From Toroia, it's off to the Underground with a quick stop at the Big Whale to drop off the stuff I've already cloned with the Fat Chocobo so I don't use it before I mean to. This includes the Spoon, since I can't use it as an equipped weapon.

Once we're done there, our first stop in the Underground will be Sylph Cave. I think I got everything out of here, but my luck is that if I don't go again, I've forgotten something that might come in handy.

Of course, just my luck I'd forget how complex this cave is. It took some time getting through here the first two times I was here, and this was no different. So, after finding my way back to the Sylph House on the first try, which was bound to happen, I guess, I got lost on the way to the only treasure left in there that I hadn't already gotten. The worst part of it is that none of it was really worth the effort. So I just got out of there and had done with it.

That got me to thinking, though. Chances are, I've already gotten everything of any value out of the other caves I was going to go to, and since I've already farmed up enough throwing weapons for Edge, I'll just get on with a couple other little items of interest before moving on. After all, why delay the inevitable longer than I already have if there's nothing interesting likely to come of it?

First, may as well stop at Kokkol's and pick up a few Shurikens for Edge, since I've got a ton of gold that I'm not likely to be using anyway. Between the other stuff I've farmed up and what I'll find later, 20 more should be sufficient.

There's also the matter of the nightclub in the village of Toroia. I don't think I mentioned that before. It's an optional area there that really doesn't have much of a purpose. It's mildly entertaining to have nine dancers come out and put on a show, but there's a special pass that you need to get in and it costs ten large to get the pass. While it's entertaining, it's not worth the ten grand unless you're looking to waste a little gold like I was here.

For those of you who have endured this far, allow me to recommend and ongoing Let's Play of this game by one HCBailly of YouTube. Perhaps he's not CLG's Apple, but I've quite liked other LPs, Bailly has done. I'm also making my own playlist of this one. Check it regularly for updates.

With that, though, I think I'll wrap this up by inviting you all to keep an eye out for the next issue, when we take on the first part of the final dungeon in the game. But that's for Issue #22: Moonraker!

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