Well, yes, I did make this UltraFunk
reference at the end of my Final Fantasy Text Play, but it was either
this one or a Coke reference, and this seemed the better choice.
But anyway, picking up from last time,
we were going to the Inn to rest up and saw a dude dressed up as what
Internet geeks, nerds, and dweebs like me would call a ninja. The
dude's actual name is Shadow, and he's technically an assassin, but
we'll get to him in a bit.
Before we get there, though, an
important thing to note about South Figaro is that this is the first
place in the game where we can get special pieces of equipment called
Relics. Generally speaking, these things can be equipped by anyone
who joins the party, though there are a few that only specific party
members can use. I'll try to mention important and/or unique ones as
I find them, but for now, this first one I'm getting is probably the
most important one in the game. It's something called Sprint Shoes.
If you put it on somebody in the party, you can move around in caves
and towns faster. It's not that the walking speed in this game is
bad or anything. It's just that this was before many games like this
had a toggleable sprint move, and it just makes things a little
easier to get around the towns if you can move quicker.
As for where to find Relics, there are
special shops in a lot of towns with a hexagon-like symbol on them
that sell a variety, though not all can be bought at all stores, and
some can't be bought at all.
And with that out of the way, let's get
on to looking around South Figaro. This is not only the first Relic
shop in the game, and our first meeting with Shadow the Ninja, but
also our first encounter with a Rent-A-Chocobo barn. There's hardly
any reason to use this or any of them, but they're the barns with the
Chocobo icon on them, the bird.
There are some major plot points that
happen here, but all the ones I was thinking of happen later.
There's a scene where we have to take an old man a drink to get him
to tell us something. I had thought it was here, but to get the guy
his cider, we have to hork a merchant's costume, and we don't get to
do that until Locke comes back here on his own later.
So what we have to do here is get new
equipment, stock up on supplies if we need, and then head north,
first to an empty house in some foothills where Edgar looks around
saying things like “Oh, look, these are his favorite dishes.” and
“This is his favorite tea.” It seems that Edgar knows who lives
there. As we leave, Edgar says it's his brother Sabin. Back
outside, there's a guy outside who says we need to go into the
mountains to find the person who actually lives in the house.
The actual path along the mountains we
need to follow is east of the house. Edgar's tools come in immensely
handy in this part of the game. I don't think I've explained the
ones I've got at this point. The first one on the list is one called
the Autocrossbow. Basically, it's a crossbow combined with a machine
gun, which attacks all the monsters at once. The second is the
Noiseblaster, which puts out a sound wave that confuses enemies. The
last, for now, is the Bioblaster. This one shoots poison gas at the
enemies. So far, this has been the least useful one, because a lot
of the things we're fighting here are either resistant to poison, or
are actually healed by it. The other two are pretty good, because
the crossbow attack is pretty strong, and confused enemies beat on
each other instead of the player party.
Some of the monsters have good things
to steal as well. There are these guys called Brawlers that have
bandannas that can be stolen and used for armor on Locke and Terra.
I had hoped to get three, because we get Sabin at the end of this,
and I think he can use it, too, but I only got enough for Lock and
Terra, so that'll be good enough, I guess.
On the far side of this mountain,
called Mt. Koltz, we meet a guy called Vargas, who was training in
martial arts under his father, alongside Sabin. Thinking that his
father had chosen Sabin as his successor, Vargas killed his father
and went after Sabin, but ran into the party first, so he's going to
fight us, too, for some reason. He's got two bears we have to kill
off before we can even touch him. Once the bears go down and we've
beat on Vargas for a little while, he gets bored with us. Just as he
does, Sabin shows up and explains that their master had actually
chosen Vargas as the next master. Naturally, Vargas won't have any
of it and tries to blow the party, along with Sabin, away. Somehow,
Sabin knows how to resist, and it's up to him to finish the fight.
Funny thing, this moment in the game.
See, Vargas has this slow death move he uses on Sabin. Sabin, of
course, has his own special moves that can be used in battle, too,
but it's one of those things that's never really explained how
they're used. Apparently, we're just supposed to know how to use it.
It does say in the instruction manual, but that assumes players like
me would have read it before getting to this point. I can't remember
how I figured this out the first time.
So, Sabin's got Tekken moves by way of
a Blitz command on his battle menu. There are D-pad-and-button
sequences that translate into kung-fu moves. Using the simplest one,
a quarter clockwise turn on the D-pad, is enough to beat Vargas, who
realizes that his rush for power has cost him everything before he
dies.
Afterwards, Sabin discusses things with
his brother Edgar and says he's joining the resistance because it's
what his master would have wanted. From here, it's off to the
Returners' secret base in the mountains, but that's for next time.
I'll get started with that in Issue #004: Three Concurrent Paths: the
Introduction.
Until next time, stay safe, have fun,
keep gaming, and DFTBA.
Oh, and one last thing before I go for
the night. There's a Let's Player I've been watching a bit of
lately. Guy's name is Sooo Mungry. He does quite a lot of
interesting stuff, from the looks of things, but I've been watching
his Sly Cooper LPs, because it looks like a fun series. Here's
a link to the one for the first game. Enjoy!
Anyway, see you next time, folks!
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