So let's finally get around to getting
that special sword, shall we?
Back at the lab, Shaia brags about how
he can fix the ship in a few seconds now that he has the Alumina we
got for him. Given the way time tends to work in these things, it's
to be expected that he will, but I'm still a little skeptical of the
guy's bragging. After all, when Cid bragged like that in 1991's
Final Fantasy 4, he he
managed to back up his bragging by not only fixing several airships
quickly, but also by fighting in the party for awhile and still
having time for a daughter.
Anyway, once the
ship is fixed so it can dive, Shaia and Brandt direct us to the atoll
that formed when Doom Island dropped after Maxim and the others beat
the Sinistrals a century ago. There's a village on the northeast
side of that called Soshette that's sort of a last place to buy
equipment and items before going into the sunken Fortress of Doom.
Not a lot of people there, but not much to say about what happens
next, either, I suppose. It comes in handy, though, because this
next part's going to be a little long, to the point that it took
multiple play sessions to get through.
And even though it
did take me two attempts to get through the undersea cave and the
castle, it was worth it. The cutscene that follows finding the Dual
Blade is somewhat on the long side for an SNES game, kind of like the
one in FF4 where Kain tells Cecil about rescuing Rosa. In this case,
though, it's multiple locations and multiple topics, and I'm not sure
I'd have been willing to sit through it all had this been just one
attempt.
There are multiple
routes through the undersea cave that leads to the titular fortress,
of course, and also quite a bit of treasure. I may indeed go back
for some of it, because I get the sense I may need to level grind a
bit before I go to finish the game, if I remember how it was last
time I made it this far.
The Fortress of
Doom itself is exactly the same as it was when we went through there
with Maxim's party at the very beginning of the game. It's so exact,
in fact, that all the treasure is gone. I can't remember if I picked
it up when I was in there as Maxim, but if I did, it was kind of dumb
of me, because that party is leveled up extremely high and is
overstocked with items they don't really need or get to keep, so if I
ever play this game again when I'm done with it, I'll have to
remember not to get the treasure, because it would have come in handy
for the main party now.
Getting to the Dual
Blade means following pretty much the same route as before, and
actually touching the sword triggers the cutscene I was talking about
earlier. Four statues of the Sinistrals rise out of the floor, and
Aguro notes that the one that's supposed to be Erim, the Sinistral of
Death, looks exactly like Lufia. The others say it's just a
coincidence that can't mean anything, but the other three Sinistrals
show up and say that yeah, Lufia's really Erim, and there's not a
damn thing the party can do about it. It's all very Star Wars-esque,
and we even get a classic “NNNOOOO!”
out of Lufia. With that, the three confirmed Sinistrals reactivate
Doom Island and take off, while the party escapes back to Sochette to
mull the issue over for the night.
In the morning, the
hero and Aguro discuss what they'll do if it turns out that the
Sinistrals weren't just messing with them by saying that Lufia was
one of them. Eventually, they agree that they have to stop the
monsters even if it means stabbing Lufia in the face to do it. And
of course, in true RPG style, Lufia got up early and heard the whole
thing while standing outside the door. When the guys go to wake up
the girls, Lufia hoofs it back to the other room at the inn, where
she pretends she didn't hear anything.
From there, it's
decided that the party should go see Shaia at Lab Three to see if he
can fix the flying part of the Falcon the way he fixed the diving
part, because it can do that. We'll need to fly to get to Doom
Island again, even though it's floating above a place called Glasdar
Tower. I can't remember the exact connection between all these
things, but we'll get started on figuring that out next time. See
you then, folks.
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