So, part 7's pictures are also down. The good news is it looks like we figured out the issue - when copying the update from its published gdoc format, doing it while logged off produces different picture URLs than doing it while logged in, and it appears that the logged-off URLs are perishable after about a month while the logged-in URL are durable, so the updates will be fine going forward. The bad news is I have to reupload updates 7 through 13 as they all use the wrong URLs, so that's going to be fun.
I mean, the thread title is "every Final Fantasy game", not "every numbered Final Fantasy game excluding direct sequels". (Though I think Omi can be spared playing the various gachas, rhythm games, and other assorted spinoff titles.)
If Omi doesn't have to play through all 32819457 entries across a dozen different platforms in the sprawling Kingdom Hearts clusterfuck, does it even really count as a complete Final Fantasy LP?
(/s a billion times, to be clear; I'd say that while spin-offs like Tactics might be nice, the title really only implies all mainline games and while that probably means things like X-2 and XIII sequels 1 and 2, it doesn't necessarily have to. We've already skipped FFIV: After Years, after all, to no-one's disappointment as far as I can tell.)
All main mainline Final Fantasy games are guaranteed, with the very slight possible exception of FFXI as the investment for a full new MMO and not one he's already played and can therefore focus things in the right direction to not waste too much time on.
Probably the direct sequels that actually released in a timeframe for being direct sequels, like X-2 and XIII-2 and 3. This leaves out things like FFIV After Years because, well... it's a sequel written decades later rather than a presumably intended sequel written while its predecessor is fresh on the mind.
Maybe more famed spinoffs that are highly recommended like Tactics or Crisis Core, while leaving off more obscure or disliked ones like Dirge of Cerberus or Crystal Chronicles.
And if we go all the way down the rabbit hole, Final Fantasy adjacent RPGs like Chrono Trigger might be on the table.
Of course in the end this is Omi's thread, so it's up to him how deep he wants to go. There are a lot of Final Fantasy spinoff games when you start to dig.
Now, while I will happily say that Tactics is worth playing (and, in fact, a better game than FF XII), this comment is in no way true. As in, there's literally no connection between Tactics and XII other than the names of a handful of names (mostly of monsters) shared between the two; and those, even the monsters, have very different powers, story-roles, and even looks, to the point that calling them "the same creature" is an absurd stretch.
This similarity is no closer than how Bahamut's is present in both the first Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy V - in one he's a talking character who offers a powerup, in the other he's a boss who provides a spell if defeated, and they don't even look alike.
Literally nothing else in FF XII has anything to do, or otherwise references, FF Tactics, and obviously nothing in Tactics itself references FF XII. So... I see no way in which this sentence makes sense. Maybe you could elaborate, in spoilers or PM or something?
Again, I'm all for Omicron including a playthrough of Final Fantasy Tactics, especially if he takes my suggestion and goes with the LFT mod, because Final Fantasy Tactics is one of my favorite games ever and I'm always happy to see what other people think of it, but trying to justify that by saying there's connections between it and FFXII (which... I don't think there are; now Tactic Advance, sure, but original Tactics, not at all) seems disingenuous.
Now, while I will happily say that Tactics is worth playing (and, in fact, a better game than FF XII), this comment is in no way true. As in, there's literally no connection between Tactics and XII other than the names of a handful of monsters shared between the two, and those monsters have very different powers, story-roles, and even looks, to the point that calling them "the same creature" is an absurd stretch.
This similarity is no closer than how Bahamut's is present in both the first Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy V - in one he's a talking character who offers a powerup, in the other he's a boss who provides a spell if defeated, and they don't even look alike.
Literally nothing else in FF XII has anything to do, or otherwise references, FF Tactics, and obviously nothing in Tactics itself references FF XII. So... I see no way in which this sentence makes sense. Maybe you could elaborate, in spoilers or PM or something?
Again, I'm all for Omicron including a playthrough of Final Fantasy Tactics, especially if he takes my suggestion and goes with the LFT mod, because Final Fantasy Tactics is one of my favorite games ever and I'm always happy to see what other people think of it, but trying to justify that by saying there's connections between it and FFXII (which... I don't think there are; now Tactic Advance, sure, but original Tactics, not at all) seems disingenuous.
Its mandatory mostly in the sense of the "look at recent dates in the bestiary, look at dates in Tactics, then look at who you just freed from Occuria imprisonment while telling the Occuria humans don't need them anymore" implications - heavily implying that there's a direct link between Ashe's obtaining a bonus Esper and that same esper blowing up civilization a hundred years later
If you compare the before/after pictures of Albrook, the structural damage was largely already present, but it is obvious the vegetation is withered and and the brickwork worn out.
This is Albrook, what was once a port town controlled by the Empire, from which we sailed to Crescent Island. The town is still populated, many of whom still the same NPCs from our last visit, still alive, but the town has obviously suffered severe damage. Wasting no time to deliver exposition, the very first facts we learn upon talking to anyone here is that there is a tower at the center of this continent, from which rules Kefka. With the power of the Warring Triad at his command, he is using something called the 'Light of Judgement' to smite any who dare act against his rule in any way.* He's also a fan of collective punishment, destroying entire towns if one of their inhabitants goes against him - a great way to foster distrust and enmity among neighbours for his own amusement.
*It's not clear how Kefka is controlling the Triad's power instead of them breaking free and smiting him along with everyone else as we were warned, but at this point we've just gotta roll with the fact that Kefka claimed Big Bad Rights when he betrayed the Emperor and so he gets to be the main villain regardless of in-story logic.
That poor guy just can't catch a break, can he.
Additionally, we learn that many ancient monsters once sealed away are now running rampant across the world, our in-story justification for stronger random encounters as well as presaging of new bosses, including Humbaba (take a shot for the Gilgamesh reference-), Deathgaze, and 'eight legendary dragons.' Interesting; I wonder if hunting each of these dragons is going to be part of a loot quest, like the old legendary weapons?
In fact, a scholar mentions a text which reads, "Eight dragons seal away its awesome might; the might of the one called Crusader. And when the eight shall fall, the one again shall rise…" Could this be some kind of superboss quest? Intriguing!
We're also told about a 'young martial artist' who visited Albrook not long ago with 'the same determined look' as Celes, and a woman mentions that a man came through recently, asking for a woman whose description Celes fits perfectly, before leaving for Tzen.
Looks like at least some of our party members shouldn't be too far, then!
Albrook doesn't offer much in store for us (aside from a funny flashback to the innkeeper reminiscing about how great it was when imperials attended his club), so we just check the shops, resupply and head out. Next destination: Tzen. But on the way…
This is it. Kefka's tower, standing where Vector once was. According to the townsfolks, debris from all over the world gravitated towards the center of the continent on the day of the Apocalypse and fused together to form that tower - and you can see the spiral shape around that tower showing a trace of that whirling motion. Really neat design.
Just, huh, shame about Vector and all its population.
Encounters in the World of Ruin. Even for a solo party member, they're not too hard to deal with.
Townsfolk tell us that the Great Serpent Trench is now a landmass, and that a 'Cult of Kefka' built a tower there.
Okay so there is a "Cult of Kefka" now. Of course there is. Dude might as well be a god now, and I think he'd find the idea of ordinary people worshiping him funny.
There's not much time to explore what's going on with Tzen, though - the moment we reach the top of those stairs, the screen starts shaking and rumbling, and the townsfolk start running around in a panic. From what little we can tell talking to them, the town was struck by Kefka after someone opposed his will, and now there's a house collapsing, full of monsters who petrify anyone who enter - and there is a child trapped inside! Which, given that I don't have any anti-petrification Relic that Celes can equip, is just great news for us.
But then, as we go to help, surprise!
Sabin is here! And he doesn't seem to be too shocked seeing Celes, not that there's any time to really talk; as you can sorta see from his start, Sabin is busy keeping the house from collapsing with his mighty arms (I love it when characters do that kind of ridiculous shit) and he can't hold on for much longer, so we have to go in and get the child out before, you guessed it, the timer runs out.
FFVI loves these timed missions, and I suspect that there must be a number of quality of life improvements (sprint button? Wait mode for the ATB system?) that weren't there in the original SNES versions of the games, because I can consistently beat those without much trouble while grabbing every item available.
The monsters aren't as much of a threat as I'd worried, and the prophesized Petrify abilities that I have no counter for never materialize - some of the monsters can be wiped by a Thundara omnicast, others I have to kill one by one but they do low damage, all in all Celes's Magic makes this all relatively trivial.
No bosses either, the 'boss' is the twist that grabbing the child doesn't magically end the timed sequence the way reaching the objective always does, we do in fact have to race all the way back which is a little hairy (but we still make it with a fair margin). And there, the child is safe! "Took you long enough!" Sabin says before jumping away and finally allowing the house to collapse.
That singular beam he was holding must have been really load-bearing.
"Sabin!" Celes exclaims, "You're alive!"
"Of course I am!" Sabin laughs. "Did you think the end of the world was gonna do me in?"
That's Sabin alright. If there's one character who would manage to make it through the apocalypse and still stay an upbeat who takes everything as it goes and still goes around saving people with good cheer, it would be our unproblematic meathead. God I love him. Not every character needs an arc!
Look at him. He's gratuitously flexing just to punctuate his sentences.
Yeah, if there's one character who would be perfect to be the first one Celes meets up with and who inspires her with hope that some of the others, maybe even everyone, might have made it out alive, it would be Sabin. He just radiates good vibes. Which could be a good or bad thing, depending on how much you want to drag Celes's arc - it's a very welcome reprieve after the slow, harrowing piece of Cid's death, but coming off the 'saving Cid' arc it kinda makes the apocalypse feel like it's not that big a deal in terms of the characters' feelings.
Celes says they have to find the others, "and then," and Sabin concludes, "Smash Kefka, and deliver peace to the world!"
Yeah. They might not be able to heal the world back to its previous state, but at least they can kill its mad ruler and give people a chance to rebuild and for life to return.
Talking to the people of Tzen, we learn that Mobliz - which was once, if you'll remember, part of the Eastern continent, is now part of this Southern continent, the landmasses having been shuffled around and smashed into each other like an angry toddler playing lego - but it was one of those places which Kefka burned to the ground with his Light of Judgement (again, there's repeated emphasis on that name as a specific Thing, it's clearly not just a generic term for Kefka's power). All the adults of Mobliz perished trying (and failing?) to save their children.
People talk about Kefka "watching their every moves," and it's not clear to what extent that's true - he can't really be omniscient, but it's quite possible he might have far-sight and be able to scry on anyone who makes enough trouble to draw his attention; or else, he's just using the rumor that he is to keep everyone in fear.
We don't even truly know what we're up against, here. Sabin's confidence is welcome, but things are dire.
There's also mention that ships are still sailing out of Nikeah, so there is some semblance of trade and sea travel left, which is good news.
Also?
Can't keep a chocobo farmer down.
Mobliz has fared much, much worse than Tzen and Albrook. Both of those towns were fairly damaged, but not that much more than they'd been pre-apocalypse, save for that one collapsing house. Meanwhile, Mobliz is a smoking ruin, ravaged by Kefka's Light of Judgement. At first, it seems empty - but once we venture a little ways in, dogs come out barking in warning, and a child peeks out, before immediately running to hide from us.
At least there's some good news there: the adults' sacrifice to protect their children from Kefka's smiting did succeed in, if nothing else, saving their children. Sad, but it leaves some measure of hope - and it makes it pretty obvious where to head next: we follow that kid right to his hideout. Sorry, but kids are terrible at OpSec. If at all possible, try not to have the security of your entire operation dependent on children not literally leading people to your hideout. Thankfully, the dogs don't try to stop us, so we're not forced to add more good boys to our tally after all those Imperial hounds.
And a hideout it is - we enter an underground shelter where a group of children are hiding around beds, and the blonde kid from above bravely stands in our way, saying we'll have to fight him to get through. Thankfully, we are kept from having to smack that kid around by the timely intervention of…
Terra!
And, surprise of surprise, the kid turns around and asks - "Mama! Are these people your friends?"
…I was not expecting the "Terra becomes adoptive mom to an entire brood of orphans" off-screen arc. I see now that Sabin undergoing little growth during the timeskip was a clever set-up for maximum whiplash.
Okay, so we're all still friends, she didn't somehow go edgy and estranged during the timeskip, that's always a risk with these things. The group immediately asks Terra to join them in defeating Kefka once and for all and saving the world, and Terra…
Immediately runs off to hide in her room.
Hm.
First, let's talk to the children - and that include those two 'adult' sprites at the top of the screenshots; those are Duane and Katarin, the oldest of the children, are only sixteen and referred to by the other children as 'big brother and sister' (although their relationship with each other is much less familial, as one of the kids tells us excitedly she saw them kiss). And between the children saying that everything will be alright because they have Terra, asking us if we're here to take Terra away from them, and Terra being "the glue that holds their village together," it's starting to be apparent what issue caused Terra to panic when we asked her to join us.
That would be the wounded soldier for whom we delivered all these letters. Oof.
This is confirmed when we go to see her in her room and talk to her, and she tells us plainly that she 'can't fight anymore.'
Mobliz, it turns out, was the very first village struck by Kefka's Light of Judgement on the very day of the apocalypse - why, we're not told; what could have been so special about Mobliz? It was a remote village who'd barely even heard of the war, what could it have been that drew Kefka's ire? The only explanation I have is that it was random - a whim of the world's new master on the day of his ascension, destroying them just to show that he could.
A flashback plays out out of a family trying to run away from the destruction, only for the village to be shaken apart and the parents to fall into a great chasm.
Terra says that the children "clung to her from the moment she arrived," and needed her - and as if to emphasize these words, Duane busts into the room just at that point, yelling at us that we can't "take Terra from them." His girlfriend is apologetic, but no less certain about Terra's importance.
Now, if this was simply a matter of Terra feeling like she can't abandon these kids, nthat would be one thing. But what she says is stranger - that she doesn't know why they need her, and that nothing is forcing her to stay, but a strange feeling has taken root inside her, and once it did, she lost the strength to keep on fighting. She says she feels like she is "on the verge of understanding something important," and the more she looks for an answer as to what that is, the more she loses her strength to fight. That's where the conversation ends, with Terra staring off into the distance. Prompting more conversation with any of the characters only repeats what they've already established.
"Losing her strength to fight" sounds like a figure of speech - Terra wants to protect these kids and has lost the taste for battle (if she ever had it), but as we're about to find out, she is being extremely literal. Just as we head out of the children's hideout, one of them comes running with a warning - "Humbaba is coming!" Humbaba, you'll recall, was mentioned in Albrook as one of the great monsters released by the apocalypse. Immediately, Terra rushes outside to defend the children, faster than Celes or Sabin can follow:
Humbaba is pretty beastly. It attacks with -ra tier spells that hit for upwards of 900 damage, taking out most of Terra's health in one blow every turn. However, by casting Haste on Terra to get more turns than Humbaba does, I am able to stay ahead of the curve by alternating Cura casts to heal her to full HP and my own attack spells.
Which doesn't matter, because, well:
All of Terra's spells and attacks deal 0 damage. Humbaba cannot be beaten by her. She has literally lost the strength to fight - she can't defeat that monster even when she's the only thing standing between it and the village. Though it's possible to drag this battle out a fair bit, after enough turns have passed, Humbaba escalates to -ga tier spells, and it's over.
Humbaba is significantly more manageable with Celes and Sabin. Its spells and attacks straight up deal half as much damage as they did against Terra, and he takes damage like any other enemy - the problem isn't Humbaba being invincible, it's literally that Terra can't fight anymore. Which, put a pin in that.
With only two characters in the party, this is a pretty brutal matchup still. Aura Cannon and Celes's Fira both hit for 800-900-ish damage, which is respectable, while Humbaba alternates between omnicasts that take out a bit less than half of both characters' health, a basic attack that does virtually no damage, a Solar Plexus move which hits one character for most of their health bar, and, well, this:
Thousand Needles was introduced as a Blue Magic in FFV, and so it is here, and its gimmick remains the same: it always does exactly 1,000 damage. And we're smack at the edge of where this would stop being a one-hit kill, but not there yet. With both Sabin and Celes having a hair under 1k HP, 1000 Needles kills them instantly, and again, I have only two characters, so I have to immediately use Raise and Cura before Humbaba can finish off the survivor/kill the character I just raised while they're still in critical range. It's rough.
I experiment with having Celes use Runic to absorb Humbaba's spells, but that's not worth it - it means Sabin can't use spells either, and he needs to be able to heal himself and Celes, and it does nothing against Solar Plexus (and I don't know if it would do anything against 1000 Needles), so I switch Celes back to offensive duty and focus on putting as much damage as I can into that massive beast. And eventually…
…it runs away, the coward.
I initially thought that we might not be able to pick up Terra and add her to our party because she felt she couldn't leave the kids behind, but it's even worse than that: she would be useless. She literally can't fight, even to protect the village.
I, hmmm.
I have some very mixed feelings about the deprotagonizing of the game's first female character, especially as it comes in the form of Terra finding a bunch of children, immediately being adopted as a mother figure, taking on a nurturing role and subsequently losing all her combat power. I'm not a fan, conceptually. It plays into some very old sexist tropes.
Of course, we also have Celes as the central protagonist of this leg of the game, so maybe it's nothing like that. I guess it depends on what it is that Terra is 'on the verge of understanding,' and of what actually is the source of her loss of strength - if it's just psychological, or if it's something more complex and with a more concrete source.
Anyway, Celes tells us she'll stay there for now; she wouldn't be any help, and the children need her. She suggests things might change "after a little more time has passed," a fairly unsubtle hint that we shouldn't treat Terra as gone forever and should come back later, but for now, that's it.
That thing, it turns out, is the Fenrir Magicite.
Damn though, that sucks. Terra is my strongest character by far, I was really hoping to get her back. Ah well. Nothing to do but grab a chocobo at the inexplicably surviving rental place nearby and head on.
This tower is most likely the one built by the Cult of Kefka in emulation of their figure of worship.
If you look at the map, you can see that we're going up a long, narrow stretch of land - that used to be the Serpent Trench, which was more or less inverted into a surface landmass in the apocalypse. Which means, just like it did back when it was underwater, it connects Mobliz to Nikeah, at the top where the 'head' of the snake is.
Nikeah is doing… Okay. According to the townsfolk, they try to keep a low profile to avoid Kefka's ire, and their open market is still thriving, with some new higher-tier items like Enhancer, a sword that boosts Magic (this instantly goes to Celes).
There are also more rumors regarding the state of the world - according to a traveler, he woke up after the apocalypse alone inside Castle Doma, and when he tried to sleep, monsters came for him in his dreams - spooky, and intriguing. More dramatically, there are terrible news from Figaro Castle - it ran into trouble while traveling underground and is now stuck underneath the sands, with its population rapidly running out of breath. That's worrying! Thankfully, investigating the local pub shows a band of thieves who are planning a daring heist into the buried castle, which might be just the in we need. Looking closer, that's the group of thief we met in Figaro waaaay back at the start of the game, the ones who were sure they were going to be freed soon. Looks like they got their wish in Figaro's accident, but…
Hm.
They have a new boss. Whom they just met in town. Who wants to break into Figaro. Whose name is Gerad.
"Gerad." I get that "Edgar" doesn't give you a lot of options for an anagram, but come on.
Talking to one of the pub's female patrons, she even tells us that Gerad is "kinda handsome" and was flirting with her earlier.
To the game's credit though, it makes zero attempt to bluff us. As soon as we've talked to all the thieves and learned their plan (Figaro is stuck near sandworm tunnels, which they can enter from the surface to reach the castle), the thieves file out of the pub and head for the ferry to South Figaro, and on the marketplace we find…
Look at this poor excuse for a disguise. DID YOU DYE YOUR HAIR, EDGAR? DO YOU THINK THAT'S GOING TO FOOL ANYONE? YOU STILL WEAR THE SAME CLOTHES JUST IN A DIFFERENT COLOR! WHO WEARS A CAPE?
Anyway, 'Gerad' pretends not to recognize us. Because this is Final Fantasy, my immediate assumption is 'hit his head when falling from the Blackjack and lost his memory, rebuilt himself as a gentleman thief in the year since,' and to my great amusement, Celes leans on the fourth wall by coming to the exact same conclusion:
"Listen…" Gerad says, "It grieves me to disappoint such a beautiful lady, but I've been Gerad since the day I was born!" Then he turns around and heads for the ship.
Celes's immediate conclusion is that nobody would try to flirt with someone at the same time as trying to shake them off his tail, and thus this must be Edgar. I love you, Celes.
Sabin and Celes then sneak onto the ship, and hide behind a crate while 'Gerad' gives orders, asking the thieves to lead the way to the castle (that's why he needs them - only they know their way through the sandworm tunnels), and the ship heads out to sea!
And that'll be it for today, I think. Shorter update than usual, I could have pushed as far as Figaro Castle, but then I don't think it'd be out before tomorrow.
Interesting stuff here. We didn't stay in Celes Alone mode for very long, which is kind of necessary on a mechanical level - the game is built for party-based fights and can't really work with only one party member, much as I love my post-apocalyptic lone wanderers. As for said post-apocalypse, with the Cid scene behind us, the game is navigating a fine line between misery and light-heartedness here - the world is obviously devastated in ways it may take centuries to recover from if it ever will, Kefka's Light of Judgement hangs over everyone's heads like the sword of Damocles, monsters run rampant, places like Mobliz stand as testament to the ruin that happened during the apocalypse… But it's kind of striking as to how most of the towns endure as recognizable entities; Albrook, Tzen and Nikeah are all recognizably themselves, with most of the same NPCs, almost as if the destruction had happened around them rather than to them, and the game still knows when to lighten things up with some comedy. This update was a lot less heavy than the previous one - basically as soon as Sabin shows up he brings with him his good cheer and optimism.
Something I'm curious about, for the future FF games, are you going to explore more of the post game content, or just stop at the final boss, thus far you've fought superbosses at every opportunity, but going forwards the game starts to stuff them way out of the beaten path.
Fun fact: Sabin is completely optional. While basically nobody playing normally will do this, you can just walk straight on past the town he's in and skip recruiting him entirely (and skip meeting Terra, too!).
Fun fact: Sabin is completely optional. While basically nobody playing normally will do this, you can just walk straight on past the town he's in and skip recruiting him entirely (and skip meeting Terra, too!).
That Crusader mention? The name Crusader is a Woolsey-ism made in response to censorship practices of the time - in the Japanese version it was Jihad. Needless to say, they kept the censored version for obvious reasons (the Pixel Remaster changed Jihad to Doomsday in the Japanese version, apparently agreeing with the translators that maybe the word "jihad" is a little too politically charged, especially in a setting where everything else is European-ish or Japanese-ish).
That Crusader mention? The name Crusader is a Woolsey-ism made in response to censorship practices of the time - in the Japanese version it was Jihad. Needless to say, they kept the censored version for obvious reasons (the Pixel Remaster changed Jihad to Doomsday in the Japanese version, apparently agreeing with the translators that maybe the word "jihad" is a little too politically charged, especially in a setting where everything else is European-ish or Japanese-ish).
I mean, if they wanted to avoid the politically-awkward connotations of "Jihad", they could at least have not gone for the similarly-dubious "Crusader".
If you compare the before/after pictures of Albrook, the structural damage was largely already present, but it is obvious the vegetation is withered and and the brickwork worn out.
I assume the early encounters at least are balanced around the fact that you're playing solo Celes, who might not even be that high of a level depending on how much you used her back in the World of Balance. Would be kind of a pain if your entire journey after escaping Cid Island was "and then Celes died to random monsters like twelve times".
The Relic shop in town actually sells an anti-petrification relic for super cheap specifically because of this, but it's kind of understandable if you don't decide mid-crisis to go "hmmm I think I'll go check out the jewelry store".
FFVI loves these timed missions, and I suspect that there must be a number of quality of life improvements (sprint button? Wait mode for the ATB system?) that weren't there in the original SNES versions of the games, because I can consistently beat those without much trouble while grabbing every item available.
I think sprint button wasn't in the original, though sprint shoes at least brought you up to that speed. Pretty sure Wait mode has been around since the original games, though. At the least, you could adjust ATB speed in original FFVI.
That's Sabin alright. If there's one character who would manage to make it through the apocalypse and still stay an upbeat who takes everything as it goes and still goes around saving people with good cheer, it would be our unproblematic meathead. God I love him. Not every character needs an arc!
Yeah, Sabin's arc as a character is just... kind of pre-solved in FFVI, he had his backstory about wanting to be a free man untethered by the bonds of royalty, so he fucked off and became a free man fighting the good fight. And that's what he continues to do, all game. Not complicated, but in a good enough way to have a fun character compared to a few other party members.
First, let's talk to the children - and that include those two 'adult' sprites at the top of the screenshots; those are Duane and Katarin, the oldest of the children, are only sixteen and referred to by the other children as 'big brother and sister' (although their relationship with each other is much less familial, as one of the kids tells us excitedly she saw them kiss).
Fun fact, Duane and Katarin were both named NPCs you could find in Mobliz back in the World of Balance, too, and were a tee-hee young couple dancing around their love. At least that survived the apocalypse.
Humbaba is pretty beastly. It attacks with -ra tier spells that hit for upwards of 900 damage, taking out most of Terra's health in one blow every turn. However, by casting Haste on Terra to get more turns than Humbaba does, I am able to stay ahead of the curve by alternating Cura casts to heal her to full HP and my own attack spells.
Tbh I'm surprised you even accomplished anything at all with Terra, both times I ran this fight Humbaba immediately screamed "SOLAR PLEXUS" and eliminated her entire health bar in one go.
Damn though, that sucks. Terra is my strongest character by far, I was really hoping to get her back. Ah well. Nothing to do but grab a chocobo at the inexplicably surviving rental place nearby and head on.
Suffice to say this was also my thought, since Celes and Sabin (and Edgar) were all barely level 20 for me... while Terra was not only level 27, she also had mastered about 90% of the Esper spells available at this point in the game. "Hm, do I want Sabin with seven spells, Celes with 12, or Terra with twice the magic stat, Trance, and 40 different spells?" is kind of a no brainer. Also, not helped by my own brainworms deciding to kick in around now with character recruitments.
See, it's already true that new party members scale to the current full party average when you obtain them, back in the World of Ruin. But for whatever reason, re-recruited members joining up with Celes? Get the same effect of a level boost. One party member you get later already jumped six levels of wasted esper stat boosts on joining me, and now the "gotta stay low level until I have everyone" brainworms are in full effect.
Don't do this, it's a stupid way to play in an already not super difficult game.
Look at this poor excuse for a disguise. DID YOU DYE YOUR HAIR, EDGAR? DO YOU THINK THAT'S GOING TO FOOL ANYONE? YOU STILL WEAR THE SAME CLOTHES JUST IN A DIFFERENT COLOR! WHO WEARS A CAPE?
Fun fact. When you said the Floating Continent felt like an endgame dungeon? You were right. That was supposed to be the endgame.
They were only through half of their planned development schedule, and said "fuck it, let's go double or nothing". So one could say you're now basically playing a sequel now, free of charge.
I mean, if they wanted to avoid the politically-awkward connotations of "Jihad", they could at least have not gone for the similarly-dubious "Crusader".
I was thinking the same. At least this was in the mid 1990s, so there wasn't the Islamophobia of later decades. Then again, I'm not sure people back then were as conscious of what the crusades meant as now.
I think sprint button wasn't in the original, though sprint shoes at least brought you up to that speed. Pretty sure Wait mode has been around since the original games, though. At the least, you could adjust ATB speed in original FFVI.
You know, reading this update I was putting together a little something on how Celes would've been a better starting character, what with her back story, sorta magic thing, her thing with Locke and the empire and all that, and how Terra didn't do much for me with her plot mandated double superpowers and amnesia.
Then Terra comes back with an entire adopted village worth of kids she's ready and willing to die for even as her double superpowers go away, and that might even be okay as she's got a third set of superpowers on the way.
I don't know if that makes up for my earlier apathy for her, but she's definitely a lot more interesting now.
In fact, a scholar mentions a text which reads, "Eight dragons seal away its awesome might; the might of the one called Crusader. And when the eight shall fall, the one again shall rise…" Could this be some kind of superboss quest? Intriguing!
As someone unfamiliar with ff6, my first guess is that you're going to need to beat up the eight dragons to be able to get the power of this crusader dude so's you can fight Kefka at all.
Mobliz, it turns out, was the very first village struck by Kefka's Light of Judgement on the very day of the apocalypse - why, we're not told; what could have been so special about Mobliz? It was a remote village who'd barely even heard of the war, what could it have been that drew Kefka's ire? The only explanation I have is that it was random - a whim of the world's new master on the day of his ascension, destroying them just to show that he could.
Could be it's not random. Could be he picked an intentionally remote, insignificant population center as a show of his ability to do this while trying to leave more people alive to terrorize.
Like, maybe there's a smaller, less significant town I'm not thinking of, but obviously word's been traveling around and people won't necessarily believe he could destroy them without some proof of that.
Spoiler stuff like that please, per Omi's request.
If I recall there was a spoilered discussion on that previous, but I could be wrong.
Kefka, the Warring Triad, and the Light of Judgement. Headcanon alert!
The Light of Judgement is a spell souped up by Kefka drawing on the Triad's naturally emitting energy. It has some problems though. Namely, it drains him badly to cast, and recovery is slow. His ability to scry has a similar limit. This isn't so much a drawback as it seems though - Kefka, in addition to being totally batsh$% insane, is a sadist.
He likes to watch people squirm, twist, and loves to mess with peoples' minds.
So the people of the world scurry about their lives while Kefka takes the time to look in on people and make sure they're appropriately dreading his attention. And if it seems they're getting better... well, they didn't really need that half of the town, now did they?
As for the Triad,
they're still mostly asleep. They really wanted to not wreak the world, and so they're fighting to stay down. Problem is, Kefka is still drawing on their power, and with them no longer balanced to keep each other in check the chance of them actually waking is a real the growing more likely event.
Said event being spurred, perhaps, when we finally land our characters on the top of the tower and fight our way through and eventually come face to face with each one...
I was thinking the same. At least this was in the mid 1990s, so there wasn't the Islamophobia of later decades. Then again, I'm not sure people back then were as conscious of what the crusades meant as now.
Something I'm curious about, for the future FF games, are you going to explore more of the post game content, or just stop at the final boss, thus far you've fought superbosses at every opportunity, but going forwards the game starts to stuff them way out of the beaten path.
