Sunday, May 4, 2014

TEXT PLAY: Final Fantasy 6 (SNES; Square 1994): Issue #022: Where Were We, Again?

Thamasa, just after Kefka killed off more Espers, wasn't it?

Just when I think I've got things sorted out, they get weird again. Believe me, it's not that I intend to just let these things go for as long as I do. If I know I'm going to be away from it for awhile, I'll do my best to say something.

Anyway, back to the game. This was more a “running around” issue than I've yet done in this game, in part because it was late and I'd forgotten where I was supposed to go. The first place I went to look was back in Thamasa. Nobody there could remind me, but then again, they were all understandably shook up after Kefka's attack. I did, however, run into a guy called Gungho. He's an old buddy of Strago's, who also seems to have come from Thamasa but had been away for awhile, only to return just after the attack. Gungho says the place is in a shambles, and then notices Strago and asks if he's still hunting a beast called Hidon. This will be a side quest in the second half of the game, which we'll be getting to in the next issue or two, maybe three at the most.

Gungho relates that when they were younger, he and Strago were always going after this monster called Hidon, but could never get it, and that Strago always seems to have an excuse as to why not. In this case, it's because Hidon lives on a small island called Ebots Rock, which got flooded “some time ago”, according to Strago. Gungho's response to this is to call Strago a buffoon.

Back on the airship, we have a cutscene where Setzer explains that the Empire's going after “some statues or something”, which is bad because we know it's the ones that control both magic and nature. After seeing Gestal and Kefka going through the Sealed Gate that the Espers had opened, Strago explains that the three statues really were gods that contained each others' power and sealed themselves, and if they're moved out of perfect formation, they'll pretty much blow up the world. Or in this case, make the continents split and shift at a catastrophic rate of speed.

As this explanation goes on, we see the island that the Sealed Gate was on fly off into the sky. It's not quite Angel Island, but then again, this is hardly a Sonic the Hedgehog game, either, though for quite a long time, this game was Final Fantasy III in my book. The official in-game name of this location is the Floating Island. We're given a choice to either go there right away or to go looking around first.

I went looking around for a bit, because some of my characters could have stood to learn a few new spells, and I wanted to pick up a few more Rages for Gau, too. It took some doing to find the Veld again, because we can't get the world map at the moment. It must be because of the Floating Island.

The surprising thing is that there were a few really early monsters I didn't realize I'd missed having on Gau's list. After about an hour or so of picking those up and stocking up on a few supplies I'll be needing for what's to come, I decided it was time to call it a night. The Floating Island is a maze that pretty much has to be done in one shot. There's a place where we can get off, but we'll have to start the whole thing again from the beginning, so we may as well just stock up and not have to worry about it later. There's also a save point at about the three-quarters of the way through, but that's for later. We'll be getting to that next time, when it's The End Of The World, Part One.

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