Final Fantasy V, Part 16
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
It's been a while! Where did we leave off?
Oh right, the Barrier Tower and King Surgate's sacrifice.
It was a really strong moment and one thing that sometimes happens when I'm playing a game, hit a really good bit, and then quit after it's resolved, is that I'm… satisfied? I had a good meal, I'm full, so I wander off to do something else for a bit. The story isn't over and I still want to see the end, but for the time being I'm good, so I wander off doing other stuff that I'm interested in for a while.
But now I'm back! I think. I played like another hour or so broken up into bits here and there, just exploring with the sub, and that's now in my backlog, so let's check out what we have here.
One thing I find interesting in what FFV is doing is that it doesn't always resolve character beats before giving you back control of the party. In FFIV, if a character is off sulking, or injured, they're going to leave the party. Even if something is unresolved, like Edward's grief at the start of his arc, there'll still be a kind of visual confirmation that his head is in the game. Here though, the last time we saw the group, Bartz, Faris and Lenna were talking about how Galuf was resting in the bunk room, still grief-stricken, but that he would be okay, then we're handed back full controls of the game. We go from Galuf being visibly distraught, to characters talking about him in the third person while he has some alone time, to him being a full combat-ready gameplay entity.
And that's… fine? It sends a message that the party, as a whole, are always ready to function as a heroic unit sticking by each other's side in battle even when one of them is sad or isolating themselves. Lenna can say "he'll be fine, give him some time," and next time we roll a random encounter, it turns out he's fine, we just had to give him some time.
I just think that's neat.
Samurai Lenna looking pretty dashing; Black Mage Faris is bothering me because while I love the trademark black hole face of BLM, I don't think it works well with hair.
The map of the underwater world. While it may look like a photo negative of the normal world map, there are actually a number of identifiable points where the overland passes of the surface do not exist underwater, allowing the sub to move through them to new locations.
After a quick rest at an inn, we set out to explore some…
Looks like the entrance to Ghido's cave. We'll pass for now.
More interesting.
This cave is a simple, minor underground passage which serves mainly to connect the underwater map to a surface location otherwise inaccessible at this time, a lake valley ringed by mountains.
Heading south along the interior of the ring, we land in another Chocobo Forest! However, this one doesn't prove much use - there's only one chocobo in there, and interacting with it gives us the message "this one's a female, we can't ride her." Which is an interesting tidbit of chocobo lore, although that's not elaborated upon.
There's also an… interesting random encounter there…
Mechanically this isn't particularly remarkable, but ew. Look at those sprites. "Déchirer" is a French word; "it means "to rip, to tear apart." These sprites seem to depict a particularly awful-looking creature (all we see of its body are claws, a jagged mass of fangs, and two beady glowing eyes) in the process of tearing a hole into reality; its two claws posed either in the fashion of someone about to push themselves through a narrow opening, or actively tearing it apart like one might a film of plastic.
What are these intruders from another place? I don't know, but I'd wager they're using a smaller, less stable form of the same kind of dimensional opening Atomos was using - only instead of a giant monster maintaining a permanent portal as part of a broad strategy, this is a predator on the hunt opportunistically tearing a momentary hole between places to target defenseless prey on a 'softer' world.
Alright, with that out of the way, let's explore some new surface locations - we can do that, since the submarine allows us to travel the sea just as a ship would, meaning we have access to a wide range of the planet!
Oooooh. That's Surgate Castle!
We attempt to enter and are stopped by the guards, who do not recognize Galuf; they are immediately called out on it by a superior officer who lets us in.
'Retainers' is an interesting piece of wording. To Galuf, the others are his friends and peers, but of course that doesn't quite mesh with aristocratic hierarchies and the royal chain of command, so they are 'his retainers,' his personally attached, loyal subordinates. To the eyes of these soldiers Galuf is Arthur and Charlemagne, and the others are Lancelot and Roland.
Unfortunately, since we haven't linked up with the fleet, it falls to us to break the news of Xezat's death.
Bartz turns around in sadness, remarking that it was one of his father's comrades in arms who's died.
The guards invite us inside the castle, and tell us that with the king's death, we can take any weapon we we desire from the castle, since there is no one left to use them (which seems odd; the guards are still there!)
The sidequest about collecting Bard songs with bits of lore attached is pretty neat.
Castle Sugate also has a vast library.
Oh, hey. There was someone in the Library of the Ancients who had that exact same dialogue. Could this be two halves of the same book? No way to verify this for now, as we can't go back to Bartz's world for the time being, but I suspect this will be a quest later on. We do get some more information, as one of the scholars mentions the book's titled is the "Sealed Tome," and that it is over one thousand years old (I knew we'd be dealing in long history). There's also another book "chronicling the atrocities visited upon the land by Exdeath thirty years ago," but unfortunately we don't get a closer look at what these atrocities were, so we're still as "doing evil things evilly."
Talking to an old woman unlocks a surprise minigame:
Basically, we pick up books, check their title, and must file them in the shelf with the appropriate first letter. It's no Dewey Decimal System, but hey, they're ancient people. The books are "Forbidden Book," "Registrar of Monsters," and, interestingly, "Weird Ronka" - which means that Galuf's homeworld somehow had contact with Ancient Ronka! Not much to do with that for now, but we'll keep it in mind.
Our reward for tidying up is that the woman says thank you and that she can finally go back to her room… and in doing so opens a secret wall door that we can follow through.
Hey, they snuck a build suggestion in there! Neat. According to thread feedback, Lance has the issue that it builds off the Magic stat and so is weak when actually used by Dragoon, its native job - I'm guessing this is the game's way of hinting that you might try to put Lance on a Mage instead so it works off their strong Magic stat.
Huh. Spooky as they were, I don't think he's referring to the Déchirers enemies. Maybe I should head back there?
Following that path eventually leads us to a chest containing 5000g, and more importantly, the Float spell! While technically a low-level spell, this valuable tool granting immunity to earth-based attacks was not available anywhere to purchase or loot until now. This is a great find, which could potentially let us tackle the Gil Cave!
Injured soldiers lie in bed, lamenting the loss of King Xezat, nursing their injuries, and reaffirming their resolve to defend the castle. The infirmary receptionist tells us that "the wounded from the assault on Exdeath's castle just keep coming" and that all the beds are full - it looks like Xezat's diversion had a high cost, even beyond his own life.
Worth it?
I don't know. We'll have to find out…..
….right! Castle Exdeath! That place we did all that stuff with the barrier to access! We should check it out now!
…oh, okay, the soldiers have seized the castle's lower level outright. Damn. Didn't expect that.
Unfortunately, that's all the news. The door to the lower levels only lead us to places we've been before with no new content, while the door to the higher levels is locked, meaning Exdeath is still safe in his tower. There's nothing to be done there, hence the plot suggestion to seek out the sage Ghido.
First, though, let's follow up on that rumor and head back to the mountain-circled lake in the northwest to investigate that 'evil eye.' It takes a little time, but running around eventually procs a different and altogether more dangerous encounter…
…catoblepas.
The catoblepas is a legendary creature which comes to us from the Romans, allegedly living in Africa, and taking on the form of a buffalo with its head always pointed down, whose stare could kill or turn to stone; it's thought to be a description of a wildebeest. I myself first knew them from Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, where they are armored bulls whose breath petrifies you. Considering all this, you'd think I'd be ready to apply Gold Needles freely and quickly.
You'd be wrong.
Catoblepas's Demon Eye ability fires quickly and instantly petrifies up to two characters. Before I've realized what's happening, he's fired it twice, and my entire party has been petrified. Catoblepas sustained a lot of damage, but it wasn't enough to race him.
So. That's not good.
It looks like we're dealing with a special encounter, and it should accordingly have a special reward. The big question though is, how do we win? I don't think outracing the beast is in the cards when it fires so quickly and instantly disables characters, but playing catch-up with Gold Needle is just trapping ourselves in a losing spiral.
However…
…Dancers can equip the Ribbon, making them immune to all status effects, while everyone can equip the Bone Mail, making them immune to 'most' status effects. This should grant us a floor of capability - no matter what happens, Bartz and Lenna can't be petrified, so they can rescue the rest of the party.
…okay, it turns out the Bone Mail doesn't prevent petrification. The Ribbon does, though, so Lenna is fairly safe. Catoblepas has more attacks, such as Drain to heal itself, but with Lenna being a 'wasted' turn on his Demon Eye effect, I manage to throw around enough Gold Needles to keep everyone in the game, and Dualcast + Dual-Wielding Twin Lances ultimately seals the deal.
And our reward is…
…Catoblepas! As in, an item which teaches us the Catoblepas summon when used. It looks like its effect is Demon Eye, a single-target petrification effect, but attempts at using it in random encounters haven't been crowned with success. A shame.
Alright, it's time. Let's finally head to Ghido's sunken cave.
Ghido's Cave is another unremarkable underwater cave, save for two features:
The Metamorph is the most common (only?) encounter in the cave, and it's funky. Basically, the Metamorph has 7000, a huge amount for this stage of the game, and after a little delay, its first action in the fight is to use Transform and turn into a new monster, randomly chosen from a list. Said monsters range from the cute and harmless…
…to the "actual fucking summon."
Thankfully, our damage at this stage of the game is so high that even Shiva and Ramuh present little threat, as they are disabled before being able to attack. In this respect, the Metamorph is seeing the Ditto issue years ahead of Pokémon; its initial transformation move is too slow, and by the time it's operational and a threat, it's already dead. I make a sport of trying to kill them before they can transform a couple of times, although there is no particular reward.
The other feature of the cave is this simple puzzle:
The central chest has a stone, and in each chest is a button. Taking the stone causes all five doors to this room to close, and putting it into one of the chests causes the door linked to that chest to open. It's not very complicated and just doing each chest in turn clockwise gets us through the series of doors required to push a button and open another path.
At the deepest part of the cave, we find a turtle.
Our group promptly jumps into the water and follows the turtle through a watery passage before tracking it down to its lair.
Which Bartz then promptly proceeds to bully.
This kid, I swear to God. Do you want an unnecessary boss fight, Bartz? This is how you get unnecessary boss fights.
Oh, well.
A TALKING TURTLE!
…this, in fact, turns out to be the Sage Ghido himself.
Which tells us three things:
Faris, I don't even think Neptune exists in this setting's world or its mythology.
Bartz, to his credit, immediately apologizes, although the sage does rib him for "picking on defenseless turtles," with the implication that this still wouldn't have been okay if Ghido had happened to be a perfectly normal turtle, which I appreciate.
However, we quickly move on to more important business: Exdeath.
I'm curious how the localization landed on the term 'warlock' for Exdeath. It's pretty specific.
This exchange is funny because Ghido is clearly messing with Bartz. It's obvious that when Bartz asks "The forest of Moore?" he is enquiring where that specific forest is and what is important about it, but Ghido decides to play into his image as the dumbass by explaining to him what a forest is. I like that this sage has a snarky edge to him.
Additionally, this is where Ghido finally drops on us what we didn't know so far: Exdeath's origin. The forest of Moore is his birthplace…
…because he was originally a tree.
I had already heard this going into the game, but it's still extremely funny as a development. That dude who threatens entire planets and who has been bedeviling us through two worlds with gleeful, gloating evil? An actual fucking tree.
Specifically, the trees of the Forest of Moore are sentient. Once, centuries ago, people decided to use one tree in this a presumably then-ordinary forest to seal away evil spirits. However, they were reckless, or simply overdid it, and the sheer concentration of evil awakened the tree into a dark being with a mind of its own.
So that's why Exdeath is so unambiguously, uncomplicatedly evil. He's literally a critical mass of evil stuffed into one tree until it burst. No word as to whether he's truly a unitary being, or more of a gestalt consciousness of all the many 'evil spirits' sealed within him, but either way, there's no sympathetic motive or redemption twist to be found there, just a guy who's evil and revelling in it.
Thirty years ago, however, Ghido's seal broke - which is when Exdeath was unleashed and fought the Dawn Warrior, who sealed him in turn. "Somehow," however, he escaped.
I like how the sage is assuaging the heroes' guilt under the guise of berating them for their arrogance. He generally looks like a fun character, for how little we've seen of him. Also, he's a wise turtle, which is inherently funny.
Ghido tells us that 'seals are meant to be broken,' which is a statement I'm not sure I agree with, but most importantly tells us that, sealing having failed twice again now, it's time to simply destroy Exdeath for good. How? We don't know yet. First of all, we need to actually get to him.
And according to Ghido, we can find him - and thwart his plans - in the Forest of Moore. There is something within which Exdeath seeks to claim, and we can't let him.
That sure is convenient!
And with this gift, we are ready to head for the Forest of Moore and finally try to take on Exdeath with our own two hands. I do not value our chances of success highly, given the power displayed by Exdeath so far, but maybe we can at least thwart his plans while there.
Hmmm. Okay, so Exdeath is definitely not an alien. I got that wrong, it seems. I still think the rest of the Atomos Space Portal theory holds up - he's reaching out into space and/or other dimensions to pull monsters into this world to which they're not native. I stick by that theory.
I also still think there's a third world on its way, because it seems way too early for the ending and we only have a few locations left. But if Exdeath is not from there, what will lead us there? Assuming I'm right, we'll find out!
A fucking evil tree, man. Top tier game.
See you next time!
Oh right, the Barrier Tower and King Surgate's sacrifice.
It was a really strong moment and one thing that sometimes happens when I'm playing a game, hit a really good bit, and then quit after it's resolved, is that I'm… satisfied? I had a good meal, I'm full, so I wander off to do something else for a bit. The story isn't over and I still want to see the end, but for the time being I'm good, so I wander off doing other stuff that I'm interested in for a while.
But now I'm back! I think. I played like another hour or so broken up into bits here and there, just exploring with the sub, and that's now in my backlog, so let's check out what we have here.
One thing I find interesting in what FFV is doing is that it doesn't always resolve character beats before giving you back control of the party. In FFIV, if a character is off sulking, or injured, they're going to leave the party. Even if something is unresolved, like Edward's grief at the start of his arc, there'll still be a kind of visual confirmation that his head is in the game. Here though, the last time we saw the group, Bartz, Faris and Lenna were talking about how Galuf was resting in the bunk room, still grief-stricken, but that he would be okay, then we're handed back full controls of the game. We go from Galuf being visibly distraught, to characters talking about him in the third person while he has some alone time, to him being a full combat-ready gameplay entity.
And that's… fine? It sends a message that the party, as a whole, are always ready to function as a heroic unit sticking by each other's side in battle even when one of them is sad or isolating themselves. Lenna can say "he'll be fine, give him some time," and next time we roll a random encounter, it turns out he's fine, we just had to give him some time.
I just think that's neat.
Samurai Lenna looking pretty dashing; Black Mage Faris is bothering me because while I love the trademark black hole face of BLM, I don't think it works well with hair.
The map of the underwater world. While it may look like a photo negative of the normal world map, there are actually a number of identifiable points where the overland passes of the surface do not exist underwater, allowing the sub to move through them to new locations.
After a quick rest at an inn, we set out to explore some…
Looks like the entrance to Ghido's cave. We'll pass for now.
More interesting.
This cave is a simple, minor underground passage which serves mainly to connect the underwater map to a surface location otherwise inaccessible at this time, a lake valley ringed by mountains.
Heading south along the interior of the ring, we land in another Chocobo Forest! However, this one doesn't prove much use - there's only one chocobo in there, and interacting with it gives us the message "this one's a female, we can't ride her." Which is an interesting tidbit of chocobo lore, although that's not elaborated upon.
There's also an… interesting random encounter there…
Mechanically this isn't particularly remarkable, but ew. Look at those sprites. "Déchirer" is a French word; "it means "to rip, to tear apart." These sprites seem to depict a particularly awful-looking creature (all we see of its body are claws, a jagged mass of fangs, and two beady glowing eyes) in the process of tearing a hole into reality; its two claws posed either in the fashion of someone about to push themselves through a narrow opening, or actively tearing it apart like one might a film of plastic.
What are these intruders from another place? I don't know, but I'd wager they're using a smaller, less stable form of the same kind of dimensional opening Atomos was using - only instead of a giant monster maintaining a permanent portal as part of a broad strategy, this is a predator on the hunt opportunistically tearing a momentary hole between places to target defenseless prey on a 'softer' world.
Alright, with that out of the way, let's explore some new surface locations - we can do that, since the submarine allows us to travel the sea just as a ship would, meaning we have access to a wide range of the planet!
Oooooh. That's Surgate Castle!
We attempt to enter and are stopped by the guards, who do not recognize Galuf; they are immediately called out on it by a superior officer who lets us in.
'Retainers' is an interesting piece of wording. To Galuf, the others are his friends and peers, but of course that doesn't quite mesh with aristocratic hierarchies and the royal chain of command, so they are 'his retainers,' his personally attached, loyal subordinates. To the eyes of these soldiers Galuf is Arthur and Charlemagne, and the others are Lancelot and Roland.
Unfortunately, since we haven't linked up with the fleet, it falls to us to break the news of Xezat's death.
Bartz turns around in sadness, remarking that it was one of his father's comrades in arms who's died.
The guards invite us inside the castle, and tell us that with the king's death, we can take any weapon we we desire from the castle, since there is no one left to use them (which seems odd; the guards are still there!)
The sidequest about collecting Bard songs with bits of lore attached is pretty neat.
Castle Sugate also has a vast library.
Oh, hey. There was someone in the Library of the Ancients who had that exact same dialogue. Could this be two halves of the same book? No way to verify this for now, as we can't go back to Bartz's world for the time being, but I suspect this will be a quest later on. We do get some more information, as one of the scholars mentions the book's titled is the "Sealed Tome," and that it is over one thousand years old (I knew we'd be dealing in long history). There's also another book "chronicling the atrocities visited upon the land by Exdeath thirty years ago," but unfortunately we don't get a closer look at what these atrocities were, so we're still as "doing evil things evilly."
Talking to an old woman unlocks a surprise minigame:
Basically, we pick up books, check their title, and must file them in the shelf with the appropriate first letter. It's no Dewey Decimal System, but hey, they're ancient people. The books are "Forbidden Book," "Registrar of Monsters," and, interestingly, "Weird Ronka" - which means that Galuf's homeworld somehow had contact with Ancient Ronka! Not much to do with that for now, but we'll keep it in mind.
Our reward for tidying up is that the woman says thank you and that she can finally go back to her room… and in doing so opens a secret wall door that we can follow through.
Hey, they snuck a build suggestion in there! Neat. According to thread feedback, Lance has the issue that it builds off the Magic stat and so is weak when actually used by Dragoon, its native job - I'm guessing this is the game's way of hinting that you might try to put Lance on a Mage instead so it works off their strong Magic stat.
Huh. Spooky as they were, I don't think he's referring to the Déchirers enemies. Maybe I should head back there?
Following that path eventually leads us to a chest containing 5000g, and more importantly, the Float spell! While technically a low-level spell, this valuable tool granting immunity to earth-based attacks was not available anywhere to purchase or loot until now. This is a great find, which could potentially let us tackle the Gil Cave!
Injured soldiers lie in bed, lamenting the loss of King Xezat, nursing their injuries, and reaffirming their resolve to defend the castle. The infirmary receptionist tells us that "the wounded from the assault on Exdeath's castle just keep coming" and that all the beds are full - it looks like Xezat's diversion had a high cost, even beyond his own life.
Worth it?
I don't know. We'll have to find out…..
….right! Castle Exdeath! That place we did all that stuff with the barrier to access! We should check it out now!
…oh, okay, the soldiers have seized the castle's lower level outright. Damn. Didn't expect that.
Unfortunately, that's all the news. The door to the lower levels only lead us to places we've been before with no new content, while the door to the higher levels is locked, meaning Exdeath is still safe in his tower. There's nothing to be done there, hence the plot suggestion to seek out the sage Ghido.
First, though, let's follow up on that rumor and head back to the mountain-circled lake in the northwest to investigate that 'evil eye.' It takes a little time, but running around eventually procs a different and altogether more dangerous encounter…
…catoblepas.
The catoblepas is a legendary creature which comes to us from the Romans, allegedly living in Africa, and taking on the form of a buffalo with its head always pointed down, whose stare could kill or turn to stone; it's thought to be a description of a wildebeest. I myself first knew them from Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, where they are armored bulls whose breath petrifies you. Considering all this, you'd think I'd be ready to apply Gold Needles freely and quickly.
You'd be wrong.
Catoblepas's Demon Eye ability fires quickly and instantly petrifies up to two characters. Before I've realized what's happening, he's fired it twice, and my entire party has been petrified. Catoblepas sustained a lot of damage, but it wasn't enough to race him.
So. That's not good.
It looks like we're dealing with a special encounter, and it should accordingly have a special reward. The big question though is, how do we win? I don't think outracing the beast is in the cards when it fires so quickly and instantly disables characters, but playing catch-up with Gold Needle is just trapping ourselves in a losing spiral.
However…
…Dancers can equip the Ribbon, making them immune to all status effects, while everyone can equip the Bone Mail, making them immune to 'most' status effects. This should grant us a floor of capability - no matter what happens, Bartz and Lenna can't be petrified, so they can rescue the rest of the party.
…okay, it turns out the Bone Mail doesn't prevent petrification. The Ribbon does, though, so Lenna is fairly safe. Catoblepas has more attacks, such as Drain to heal itself, but with Lenna being a 'wasted' turn on his Demon Eye effect, I manage to throw around enough Gold Needles to keep everyone in the game, and Dualcast + Dual-Wielding Twin Lances ultimately seals the deal.
And our reward is…
…Catoblepas! As in, an item which teaches us the Catoblepas summon when used. It looks like its effect is Demon Eye, a single-target petrification effect, but attempts at using it in random encounters haven't been crowned with success. A shame.
Alright, it's time. Let's finally head to Ghido's sunken cave.
Ghido's Cave is another unremarkable underwater cave, save for two features:
The Metamorph is the most common (only?) encounter in the cave, and it's funky. Basically, the Metamorph has 7000, a huge amount for this stage of the game, and after a little delay, its first action in the fight is to use Transform and turn into a new monster, randomly chosen from a list. Said monsters range from the cute and harmless…
…to the "actual fucking summon."
Thankfully, our damage at this stage of the game is so high that even Shiva and Ramuh present little threat, as they are disabled before being able to attack. In this respect, the Metamorph is seeing the Ditto issue years ahead of Pokémon; its initial transformation move is too slow, and by the time it's operational and a threat, it's already dead. I make a sport of trying to kill them before they can transform a couple of times, although there is no particular reward.
The other feature of the cave is this simple puzzle:
The central chest has a stone, and in each chest is a button. Taking the stone causes all five doors to this room to close, and putting it into one of the chests causes the door linked to that chest to open. It's not very complicated and just doing each chest in turn clockwise gets us through the series of doors required to push a button and open another path.
At the deepest part of the cave, we find a turtle.
Our group promptly jumps into the water and follows the turtle through a watery passage before tracking it down to its lair.
Which Bartz then promptly proceeds to bully.
This kid, I swear to God. Do you want an unnecessary boss fight, Bartz? This is how you get unnecessary boss fights.
Oh, well.
A TALKING TURTLE!
…this, in fact, turns out to be the Sage Ghido himself.
Which tells us three things:
- It sorta kinda makes sense now that Galuf didn't see the entire island sinking as an obstacle to getting to Ghido, seeing as he is a water-dwelling creature who was likely in this underground environment all along, although that perhaps could have been better foreshadowed.
- Once again, Galuf is fucking with his friends by hiding valuable information just to see their faces when the truth jumpscares them. King or not, this guy is definitely a trickster archetype.
- …a sage… who is a turtle… whose unassuming appearance initially fools our brainless shounen hero… Yeah, this game has definitely decided to expand FF's repertoire from "Star Wars" and "D&D" into "Early Dragon Ball."
Faris, I don't even think Neptune exists in this setting's world or its mythology.
Bartz, to his credit, immediately apologizes, although the sage does rib him for "picking on defenseless turtles," with the implication that this still wouldn't have been okay if Ghido had happened to be a perfectly normal turtle, which I appreciate.
However, we quickly move on to more important business: Exdeath.
I'm curious how the localization landed on the term 'warlock' for Exdeath. It's pretty specific.
This exchange is funny because Ghido is clearly messing with Bartz. It's obvious that when Bartz asks "The forest of Moore?" he is enquiring where that specific forest is and what is important about it, but Ghido decides to play into his image as the dumbass by explaining to him what a forest is. I like that this sage has a snarky edge to him.
Additionally, this is where Ghido finally drops on us what we didn't know so far: Exdeath's origin. The forest of Moore is his birthplace…
…because he was originally a tree.
I had already heard this going into the game, but it's still extremely funny as a development. That dude who threatens entire planets and who has been bedeviling us through two worlds with gleeful, gloating evil? An actual fucking tree.
Specifically, the trees of the Forest of Moore are sentient. Once, centuries ago, people decided to use one tree in this a presumably then-ordinary forest to seal away evil spirits. However, they were reckless, or simply overdid it, and the sheer concentration of evil awakened the tree into a dark being with a mind of its own.
So that's why Exdeath is so unambiguously, uncomplicatedly evil. He's literally a critical mass of evil stuffed into one tree until it burst. No word as to whether he's truly a unitary being, or more of a gestalt consciousness of all the many 'evil spirits' sealed within him, but either way, there's no sympathetic motive or redemption twist to be found there, just a guy who's evil and revelling in it.
Thirty years ago, however, Ghido's seal broke - which is when Exdeath was unleashed and fought the Dawn Warrior, who sealed him in turn. "Somehow," however, he escaped.
I like how the sage is assuaging the heroes' guilt under the guise of berating them for their arrogance. He generally looks like a fun character, for how little we've seen of him. Also, he's a wise turtle, which is inherently funny.
Ghido tells us that 'seals are meant to be broken,' which is a statement I'm not sure I agree with, but most importantly tells us that, sealing having failed twice again now, it's time to simply destroy Exdeath for good. How? We don't know yet. First of all, we need to actually get to him.
And according to Ghido, we can find him - and thwart his plans - in the Forest of Moore. There is something within which Exdeath seeks to claim, and we can't let him.
That sure is convenient!
And with this gift, we are ready to head for the Forest of Moore and finally try to take on Exdeath with our own two hands. I do not value our chances of success highly, given the power displayed by Exdeath so far, but maybe we can at least thwart his plans while there.
Hmmm. Okay, so Exdeath is definitely not an alien. I got that wrong, it seems. I still think the rest of the Atomos Space Portal theory holds up - he's reaching out into space and/or other dimensions to pull monsters into this world to which they're not native. I stick by that theory.
I also still think there's a third world on its way, because it seems way too early for the ending and we only have a few locations left. But if Exdeath is not from there, what will lead us there? Assuming I'm right, we'll find out!
A fucking evil tree, man. Top tier game.
See you next time!
