Well, OK, King Edgar of Figaro isn't
nearly as bad as the Looney
Tunes Character I'm comparing him to, but he is as close as any
Final Fantasy character I can remember has come.
And to be honest, I'm much more willing
to put up with Edgar than I am of the classic cartoon skunk or the
last bit of royalty we played, back
in the early parts of Final Fantasy 4. Simply put, Edgar may be
a womanizer like Pepe, but his “lust-mode”, if you will, is much
less overbearing, which is a plus, as is the fact that unlike FF4's
Edward, he's actually useful in battle. Not only can he fight, but
he's got quite a collection of tools he can use in battle.
But first we've gotta get him in the
party, so it's off to Castle Figaro. It's a good chance to use
Locke's thief skill, even if it doesn't get much this early in the
game. It only works about a third of the time, but it does get some
healing items when it does.
Once we actually get to the castle, the
guard takes a minute to ID Locke, but lets us in once he does.
Castle Figaro is actually a pretty damn cool castle. At first look,
it doesn't seem like much, aside from all the ventilation fans on the
top. There's a couple shops here that sell various potions and
recovery items, on the left, and Edgar's tools, on the right. That
is the downside to those, that they do have to be bought or found, as
we don't get to see him just invent them on the fly at certain
levels.
After we're all stocked up on stuff,
it's off to actually meet King Edgar. He and Locke discuss business
for a bit, part of which is introducing Terra. After Edgar makes a
fool of himself, he says that he and Locke still have a bit of other
business to discuss and that he's getting a bit rusty at hitting on
women.
As Terra, we're free to look about the
castle for a bit. There's a key person we need to talk to in the
west wing of the castle, who tells us about Edgar's twin brother
Sabin. I won't say he's gone so far as to actually renounce the
throne, but he'd certainly left all the royal duties to Edgar several
years earlier when their father got sick and died. I don't recall it
ever being said what happened to their mother, presumably the queen,
which I find interesting.
When that story's told, Edgar will be
back in the throne room, waiting for Terra to show back up. He'll
ask how she likes his fancy castle. It's OK, but we really haven't
seen much because we're not allowed very far into the lower levels.
The Chocobo Guards are the best things so far. One comes in to tell
us that Kefka has come to visit the castle on behalf of the Empire.
On his way to the castle, we see that
Kefka is not a well man, psychologically speaking. He only seems a
little crazy right now, ordering his two soldiers to brush the sand
off his boots because he can, I guess. Naturally, he gets worse
before the end, especially once he learns how to get his own magic.
This first encounter has two parts. In
the first part, Edgar bluffs and says he doesn't know where Terra is,
since that's who Kefka's after. Later that night, Kefka comes back
and tries to burn the castle down. It doesn't work as well as one
might think, because not only is there not as much flammable stuff
around as one might think, but the castle can actually dive beneath
the sand to put the fire out, too. This is the first of many cool
scenes in the game, seeing the wings of the castle retract before the
whole thing sinks in the sand to leave Kefka on his ass.
Of course, Edgar has Chocobos ready to
get himself, Locke, and Terra to ride off into the desert on before
the castle does dive. This is only one of two times I can think of
where we can get into fights while still on Chocobos, as these birds
will, for the most part, prevent battles. And in Final Fantasy 7,
fighting with Chocobos is how we catch rides with them.
What happens here is a mini-boss fight
against two MagiTek Armor Units. The funny thing that happens here
is that Edgar and Locke start loosing their shit when Terra uses
magic in this fight, because it's the first time they've ever seen it
get done. Once the fight's done, the men try to convince Terra to
join the Returners because they'll need her help to stop the Empire
from taking over the world with magic. They explain themselves on
the way to the next town, a place called South Figaro.
The thing about the Chocobos is that in
each game, with the exception of 2 and 4, far as I can tell, each
game handles the iconic yellow-feathered mounts a little differently.
In the initial encounters, the birds were found in forests and could
be ridden by talking to them. In this game, there are barns around
the world where they can be rented. This is the only time I know of
where we get the sort of 3-D experience with them, too. I can't
really speak to how it is in the later games, because I've not played
them nearly enough.
Once we're done with our little ride,
there's a cave that leads to South Figaro. Edgar tells the guard to
head back to the castle and tell the Chancellor that everybody's
safe, and the party proceeds through the cave. The monsters here are
a little tougher, but that's to be expected, and the increase is
gradual over the course of the game. This cave is not so hard, and
there's even some decent treasure in the twists and turns.
Since we're all leveled up a bit, it
would be smart to use the inn before saving for now. As we enter the
town, we see a man all dressed in black headed to the inn as well.
Keep him in mind, as he'll be important later. But for now, it's a
quick trip to the Inn to get all healed up before we get into a few
more details next time.
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