Sunday, April 5, 2020

TEXT PLAY: Final Fantasy IX (PlayStation, 2000, Square-Enix): Issue #056: Ibsen's Castle, Part Two


Generally speaking, I try to keep the swearing to a minimum in these things because I don't always know who reads them, but in this case, there's good reason to make an exception.

There's Tonnberrys in this castle. God damned Tonnberrys in this fucking castle. I mean, I'm pretty sure I knew they were coming, even the first couple times I played this game when it was new because by then, the damned things were kind of a thing, to turn a phrase, for the series. I'll say more when I get to the relevant part, of course, but it's still frustrating that I ran into as many as I did relatively unexpectedly.

But yeah, once we get past the room with the save point, the castle is all topsy-turvey and inside out and stuff. Really gotta make an effort to remember where you're going and how to get out in this place. There are a few places where we have to go down and back up or up and back down, depending on perspective, to get where we're going. Took me a bit to figure out where I was supposed to be going in a couple spots. On the way in, it was because I didn't think to look for the thing that looked like a ladder. When I found it, most of the rest was easy enough. One or two floors later, there was a room with a relief sculpture on the wall that Zidane can look at, push, pound on and then think about for a minute before moving on. Not sure what exactly the deal with it is, or if it does anything.

This is the room where I ran into the Tonnberrys. These things have always been nasty, regardless of the game they're in. The first game I know of where they show up in is actually 6, where there's one called a Pug in a chest. I think I mentioned where that was when I did my Text Play of it some years ago. I'm pretty sure they're somewhere in 7, too, but I don't remember having ever made it to where they are. Tonnberrys are part of a side quest that leads to a summon in 8 that I didn't bother with, and I doubt I ever will now. I'll be getting to why that is in another post. And they're here, now, too, and the fact that I can run into more than one in a fight annoys the hell out of me here for reasons I'll be getting to soon enough again. In all cases, the biggest problem is that they have one-hit kills that do 9999 points of damage, and I'm not sure anybody can get their health that high, let alone higher.

In the back of the room with the Tonnberrys and the carving is a lift that goes to the end of the dungeon. Amarant is there and says he's the winner because he got there first and then buggers off, aparently leaving the party for good. We'll see about that soon enough, though, in relation to what I was saying about the Tonnberrys a minute ago. In the room we come to, there's a wall with some mirrors on it. Each mirror has an inscription about earth, wind, fire, and air, and they're on the wall in positions on a map roughly similar to where the elemental shrines were in the original game. Zidane takes them all down and causes the boss to appear.

Said boss is a shrimplike thing called Taharka. That probably should have been my clue to use Ramuh on it, since I didn't have Vivi to do thunder spells on it. Kinda made things harder on myself by not figuring that out sooner than I did, but I still came through OK.

On the way back out, I forgot where the correct door was. It's actually under the middle walkway. Otherwise, getting out wasn't so bad, either, though I did run from most of the monsters. I did get the Doom blue magic for Quina along the way, from a monster called Vetran.

Once we get back to more or less the entrance, Quina stumbles on a pit trap in the floor, which makes what happens when we get all the way back out just that much dumber, really. When the whole party is reunited outside the castle, the others tell Zidane that they didn't see Amarant come out. I'll give them that it's reasonable to think that he's still in there, and that it might even be worth going back in for him. Thing is, though, Zidane tells the others to wait outside for him because he's gonna balls it and go in after Amarant all by himself, because he's a big boy like that or something. I know Zidane's motto is that he doesn't need a reason to help people, but this is one of those moments where it seems like he doesn't need a reason to be a dumbass, either.

See, the entire point of the conflict between Amarant and the others is that Amarant doesn't think he needs others to help him do what he thinks he needs to do. This would be a great chance for our hero to prove him wrong by bringing two other party members along to tell their runaway friend that hey, we're here to help and our chances of getting out of here alive are better as four than they are as one or two. But no, Zidane's gonna go it alone because that's how he rolls. So I left off with just Zidane back at the save point again. We'll pick up there next time. But first, I'll do some of the other Final Fantasy games I'm playing right now. Regardless, until next time, stay safe, have fun, keep gaming, and DFTBA.

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