Plotwise, we're pretty much headed
right back to a place we just left.
Before we get to that, though, there
are a couple things I forgot to do last time. One was to get one
more dance for Mog. It's called Desert Aria, gained by having him
fight in one of the world's desert areas. One of the attacks this
set has is called Sand Storm, which Gau can get from one of the
desert monsters he Rages as, too.
The other was that I had wanted to go
back to Figaro Castle with both Edgar and Sabin in the party. Sabin
temporarily leaves the party to go looking around on his own while
Edgar and whomever else is in the party can go looking around as they
please, so long as they wind up using the free Inn at the end.
When they do, there's a cutscene where
Sabin remembers how it was just before he left to train as a martial
artist. It was the night the King of Figaro, his and Edgar's father,
died. Sabin took it like a nuke to the face, which was only made
worse by the fact that everybody else seemed to be handling it too
well, in his mind. He thought the Empire had poisoned their dad,
and he had a fire in his belly because of it, in part, at least,
because it was the king's last wish that his sons split the kingdom
between them, and that just didn't sit well with him.
Sabin ran off to be alone, followed by
Edgar, who told him that they were going to settle their dispute with
a coin toss, and that if it came up heads, Sabin would get his way
and the brothers would each do what they thought was best, without
regret. Of course, it was heads because Edgar was using the same
coin that Celes would later use on Setzer to get him to join the
party.
As the scene concludes, Edgar shows up
again and tells Sabin that it's hard to believe that it's been ten
years since that day and wonders if their father would be proud of
them.
From there, it's back to the Empire,
where we're off to the cave that leads to the sealed gate that leads
to the Esper World. This dungeon is on the short end of medium
length, but since the monsters are a lot tougher than they have been
for awhile, it can be a real challenge. What's worse is that most of
these monsters are undead type, which is interesting because some are
actually healed by fire and damaged by ice.
There are a few interesting treasures
to be had along the way, most notably a sword for Cyan called the
Tempest that randomly casts Wind Slash with each attack. There's
also a knife for Shadow called the Assassin. I could have sworn
there was a chest in this cave with a monster called the Pug in it.
I can't remember what we get for beating it because I've only done it
once, and it's been a very long time now. The thing about the Pug is
that it's a very early version of a series classic monster called
Tonnberry. These guys were always hell to beat in the games I've
played that have had them, and I'm assuming the more recent sequels
have changed nothing in that regard.
There's also a Ninja in here that will
show up and fight the party. I'm not sure how it is that ninjas have
an elemental weakness against lightning, but by this point, I've got
two people who can cast Bolt 2, which is enough to take him out in
one hit. Before he dies, he says he thought he had dibs on a
treasure that's kind of a puzzle to get to. I can never remember the
exact sequence to push the switches in, but the treasure is a Genji
Glove, a relic that lets whoever's got it equip a weapon to each
hand.
There's a character-specific relic in
this cave, too, called the Coin Toss. It's for Setzer. It changes
one of his battle commands to Coin Toss. The good news is that it
can do a lot of damage, but the bad news is that for every point of
damage it does to its target, it takes one gold from your money
supply.
At the end of the cave is the gate.
Just as Terra starts trying to contact the Espers on the other side
so the party can ask them for help, Kefka shows up and says that the
Empire's whole plan was to let the Returners have Terra so she'd lead
them back to the Sealed Gate, where they could get into the Esper
World and take more of them.
Beyond that, he doesn't really mess
anything up here, but the party does have to fight him to keep him
away from Terra long enough for her to get a message through to the
Espers. It's really not that long of a fight, all things considered,
because after one round, the Espers come through.
Of course, things go wrong, and the
gate is blocked off in the process. The Espers that made it through
head for Vector and start wrecking everything that gets in their way.
Unfortunately for our heroes, this includes the airship, which
crashes in the far west end of the Empire.
In order to figure out what the deal
here is, we're going to have to make for Vector on foot again, which
shouldn't be as difficult the second time as it was the first, but
that's a tale for next time. We'll see you then, folks!
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