Thursday, June 4, 2020

TEXT PLAY SIDE GAME: Final Fantasy II (Famicom 1988/PS 2003 [Origins]): Issue #020: It's A Trap!


It's also the obvious Star Wars line to use here, and I suspect it'll turn up in that LP I mentioned last time when the guy doing it gets to this part of the game.

The prep work I said I needed to do at the end of the last one of these wasn't entirely unneeded. I just didn't get the right stuff and wound up overprepared in the wrong ways. I'll get to how and why in a bit.

First, though, we'll start with the boss fight I think we all knew was coming here. Turns out, it wasn't as far off or as hard as I kinda remembered it being from the last time I did it. When the party goes into the Colosseum, they're going right through the main combat area right away. There's a doorway that leads to a viewing area where the Emperor is sitting to watch the fight. That gets barred shut and the Emperor himself announces that we're gonna be the ones fighting for the princess.

The monster he sics on us is a Behemoth. It wasn't as hard a fight as I remembered because I knew to be working on my stats and to have them up for this part of the game. Granted, it was still a hard fight, but a lot of the normal battles either side of it were harder by comparison. When the battle is won, the Emperor addresses Firion by name and then has his guards throw the party in the dungeon.

None of this should come as a surprise to anyone. Even by 1988, it was kind of a trope for this sort of thing to be a trap, and of course the main villain knows who the heroes are. After all, they're about the only ones in the world capable of getting anything done, and he wants them out of the way as quickly as possible.

Of course, even the party's time in lockup isn't all that long or difficult. Not long after everybody comes to, Pavel comes along and gets the guard out of the way, then opens the cell for our heroes before buggering off, for at least a good long while. There are a few good items in here, including an antidote that's oddly guarded by a monster.

There's also a lot of other monsters in this dungeon, and they tend to be harder than the boss we fought at the start. There are a few that take both HP and MP with each hit, most notably, one called the Parasite. There's also an undead monster that can use the Break spell, which turns its targets into stone. This one actually got me a couple times. The first time, the party got wiped out because I fell into that old bad habit of mine, needing to be clever about things. Two characters got turned to stone, the other two died. The second time, it only worked on Gordon, and I found out the hard way that the Esuna spell doesn't work on it, at least right now. From what I've come to understand, that might change as I level it up. For now, though, I guess I need Gold Needles or Soft potions or whatever the curative item for the Stone status effect is in this game.

Not long after, the party comes across Princess Hilda and rescues her. Gordon leaves the party to get her out safely. Fortunately, once we're through everything here, the rest of the trip isn't so bad. Better yet, things get even easier once we're on the ship and headed east towards Altair.

Once we get to Altair, there's this royal guard dude standing right by the entrance who says everybody important's gone to the north and made camp just outside Fynn, because they've come up with a plan to retake it. For now, though, the important thing is that the Inn's still available, because I needed to heal up before saving and calling it a night on this. I'll get started on the whole “retake Fynn” thing next time. Until then, stay safe, have fun, keep gaming, and DFTBA.

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