Friday, July 18, 2014

TEXT PLAY: Final Fantasy VI (Super Nintendo, Square, 1994): Issue #032: Moogle HQ

And to think I couldn’t come up with a decent Harry and the Hendersons joke for the issue title here…

This is one of those entries that took longer than it should have, but that’s mostly because of my own stupidity. When I first set down to do it, I thought I’d run around a bit, get a few more rages for Gau, maybe see if I could get another party member or two. I wound up in Narshe, where Mog is, and also the second unlockable character: a Yeti named Umaro, who lives in the mines just past where the villagers hid Tritoch from the Empire before the end of the world. After getting a bit turned around on this first attempt, I wound up stumbling into a fight with one of the dragons that got released when Kefka made a mess of the world. As a result, I got my ass handed to me in no time flat.

So, it’s been about a week, week and a half now, and after a changeup in strategy, I found my way to where Mog is. He’s where all the Moogles were living before. Mog’s the only one there now, and he’s guarding his unique Relic. It’s called the Moogle Charm. I take it to mean that he’s the only one that can use it, which I guess is the price for having an item that keeps random battles from happening. Since I only had three party members going in, Mog joins, saying that what we need is some Sasquatch muscle, and lucky for us, there’s one who lives in the mines. Better yet, Yetis in this game are pretty much subservient to Moogles in this game, so Mog can order Umaro to join us, and he’ll have to do it.

The Moogle Charm will come in handy in the very near future, so it’s worth finding it on the wall where Mog was standing. Just examine it to find the Relic. It comes in handy when getting through town, although, having it off for a bit in the snow maze is a good idea, too, because there’s one last dance move for Mog to be had there. Just be careful of the ice dragon flying around on the map. It’ll still kick our asses at this point. And having the Moogle Charm on Mog the rest of the way will come in handy, too. I’ll explain why in a bit.

Just beyond the snow maze is where the people of Narshe hid Tritoch. Approach it this time, and it’ll attack. This is not a particularly hard fight, especially if you’ve got two or three party members who know Fire2. Tritoch is weak against fire as a result of the ice he’s encased in, I would think. Melt the ice away, and the Esper says he’s surprised that humans let him loose, because he senses the fight going on, and wonders if it’s the same that was going on when he was frozen. He then says he knows we want to end it, so he decides to join us by turning into Magicite, and says we need to prove our valor.

After we get Tritoch, a path opens up behind him. It goes to a new area of the mine, where Umaro is, with another Esper. This is where it really comes in handy to have the Moogle Charm equipped. In this part of the mine, there’s a monster called Pug. This is basically an early name for a famous monster in the Final Fantasy series: Tonnberry. Regardless of name, he’ll beat the hell out of the party, so it’s best to avoid them altogether. This isn’t really that hard a maze to get through, but since I’m writing this at the tail end of my day, per usual, describing it is harder than it probably should be. It’s one of those “keep right” sort of things. Flipping the switch on the far right side of the room with the bridge between two switches will drop you into Umaro’s room.

At first, there’s just the party and a bone carving of a skull. Examine it, and someone will comment on how nicely done it is, and then notice a piece of Magicite in it. It’s one called Terrato, this time. I’m not exactly sure how, but Umaro will notice this and come charging in and fight the party.

This is one of those fights that was actually way shorter than I had expected it to be. There’s a point where Umaro will use a Green Cherry on himself. It really amps up his battle power and defense. I figured I’d see what happened when I had somebody cast Dispel on him. In this case, it was Mog. Interestingly enough, the spell hit just before Umaro did a jump attack, and the fight ended before he came down. I’m not entirely sure how that happened or why, but I’m not complaining. When we talk to Umaro, Mog orders him to join the party, and he complies, saying he’ll meet us on the airship. And that’s where I’m gonna end this. We’ll pick up back at the airship next time, which hopefully won’t be as long a time from now as this was from last time. Until then, stay safe, have fun, keep gaming, and DFTBA!

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