Took me long enough to get back to
this, I'd say.
Since I was still in a place where I
could get random battles when I picked back up, I put the Peridot
accessory on Dagger so she could at least get started learning the
Ramuh while I finished up getting Fira for Vivi. I had considered
getting other stuff for all the characters available here, too, but
then decided I'd have a chance to grind later on, once I get Quina
back in the party, so I figured I'd just get on with the plot.
There's not much actual playing to do
here, but given the nature of these games, that's sometimes necessary
to advance the plot, which RPGs tend to have in abundance, sometimes
to their own detriment.
One good thing I can say about all this
is that Lindblum actually looks
like it got the shit blasted out of it, since that's what actually
happened here. It's certainly a better rendition than what we got in
previous games in the series where something similar happened, but
that can reasonably easily be chalked up to limitations that the
earlier systems had that were, at the very least, greatly reduced
starting with the PlayStation and other similar consoles of its
generation.
As I
mentioned last time, Vivi got left behind at the entrance to the city
while Dagger and Zidane go to check things out. When I talked to the
Alexandrian soldier who asked about if we were going to resist or not
this time, I went with the “no” option and got a relatively
brainless “Yes, leave it to our Fearless Leader to Make Alexandria
Great Again” bit before she says that resistance will only lead to
death. Life has a funny way of imitating video games sometimes, and
that's kind of scary sometimes.
Moreso
when the party comes across an old man and a young man debating how
to kill a Black Mage who's barely hanging on by a thread. Zidane
steps in and begs for mercy on its behalf, saying that the mage is a
person just like them, but the NPCs say they won't believe it unless
Zidane can make it understand the damage it's done and/or feel
compassion for having killed the old man's only son in the attack. I
think even Zidane knows that's not going to happen, because that's
where the scene ends.
Further
on, there's more destruction, including the toppled pickle cart that
Steiner was at before. There's one Alexandrian soldier who realizes
they may have screwed themselves by taking the Black Mages and the
eidolons. There's also a rare card in the rubble. It's the Lindblum
Castle card. I'm not sure I've ever managed to find it, but then
again, I've never really put terribly much effort into the card game,
which might explain it.
Still
further on, Minister Aritania is talking to an officer who says that
the Industrial District is just gone, baby, gone, and the rest of the
city is in crappy shape, too. Aritania says the best thing they can
do is get to work fixing things so that the citizens can get on with
their lives as best they can. When Dagger and Zidane show up, the
officer goes on his way and Aritania says that the castle's in the
best shape of any part of the town, and that Regent Cid's still alive
and waiting to see them, so he takes the pair to him.
Cid's
got a few ideas as to what needs to be done next. He says that
Kuja's the guy who's really behind Her Yugeness's power and stopping
him is key to stopping Brhane's crazy attacks against the rest of the
Mist Continent. Kuja's backstory is that he came from the north on
the back of a silver dragon. There are several unexplored continents
in this game world, and the first of them is the Outer Continent,
which is conveniently located directly to the north of the Mist
Continent. Cid suggests that going there might yield results in
stopping Kuja or slowing him down.
At
first, the party thinks there's no way to get there because the
standard airship tech in this game doesn't work without the magical
mist that seems to only exist on the continent of the same name and
Brhane demanded the prototype for the steam-powered version as part
of the terms of surrender. The regular sailing port is out of the
question, too, because it's being used to screw with Alexandria.
As
they discuss this, guards bring Vivi in, thinking he's one of the
actual Black Mages that helped blow the place up. Zidane and the
others explain that he's on the good guy's side and just dressed that
way to spy on the others. Cid then says there is indeed a way to get
to the Outer Continent. He says there's this tunnel they dug up for
reasons and monsters not found on the Mist Continent tend to show up
there. How they stay contained there isn't really explained, but
we'll have to go there in a bit.
In the
meantime, we'll need to stock up on stuff before we go. Vivi's going
to stay behind in the castle while Zidane and Dagger do their stuff.
The guy who's acting as the party's escort says that once they're
done and gone, it'll be awhile before they can come back because it's
Alexandrian territory now. Reasons and stuff, you know.
There's
some decent weapons to be had for Freya and Steiner, even though
they're not going to be back in the party for awhile. It's also
smart to make use of the Synth shop before heading out, because
there's some decent stuff that it's time to have made, including the
next weapon for Zidane and a few bits of armor. I probably spent
more than I needed to here, because in true Final Fantasy fashion,
I'll probably find duplicates for some of the stuff I bought, and
some better stuff, too. But, as had become an all too familiar
mechanic in this sort of game by 2000, it's smart to hold onto the
duplicates and old stuff so it can be made into other, better items.
It makes slightly more sense here than it did in the previous title
in the series or Legend of Mana, as here we can at least learn stuff
from the weapons, armor, and stuff.
In the
process of exploring what's left of town again, I found an
Alexandrian soldier looking for a resistance group called the
Vigilanties. She asked if I knew about them. I said no, of course,
because I'd kind of forgotten since last time I played this game. My
thought was that I knew plenty about the Returners and a thing or two
about Avalanche, but not so much about these Vigilanties. At any
rate, we're supposed to report back to that guard if we find any of
those guys, but I think I'll just skip it unless I mistakenly find
that guard again on my way back out.
But
since this was about an hour's worth of gaming, I decided to take
advantage of the Inn before heading out and save with the Moogle
there. There's another letter to take with us, and I think we'll
find the addressee at the excavation site next time. That's when
we'll get started on our quest to find Captain
Eleven. Until then, stay safe, have fun, keep gaming, and DFTBA!
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