- Location
- Canada, probably
Oh, he can become a Dragoon just fine. Most players don't, though, because his screams of terror get pretty annoying after a while, even though they're funny the first few times.
Let's Play Every Final Fantasy Game In Order Of Release [Now Finished: Final Fantasy Tactics]
- Thread starter Omicron
- Start date
- Let's Play
- Location
- Amman, Jordan
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
"Faris? Don't you think putting rockets in his boots was a bit much?"
"No, lassie, if he can't face his fears a' flyin, he be not fit ta be an adventurer. It was either this, or keelhaulin' him in the Seas of Doom... an' we can't sail a ship anymore, remember?"
"No, lassie, if he can't face his fears a' flyin, he be not fit ta be an adventurer. It was either this, or keelhaulin' him in the Seas of Doom... an' we can't sail a ship anymore, remember?"
- Location
- Florida USA
So been a while since I checked the thread. Nice to see you're mostly enjoying FFV.
Since everyone's explained what Mystic Knight does I'll refrain, but I'll add it's one of my favorite jobs in the game and one I really would like to see adapted to FFXIV. I just love the aesthetic of magically charging swords to deliver magic hits along with the physical strike. It's kinda like FFXIV RDM in reverse (and why I hope it's still eligible for FFXIV inclusion some day as a DPS or tank class). And it can be truly broken in late game. I used it to turn Faris into a boss-deleting human blender in my last playthrough (Android port of the GBA version, played it in 2015) by combining it with a couple other abilities and casting the level 6 super-spells every battle.
As for grinding ABP for jobs, there is a point in the game where that becomes pretty easy and lets you build up cash too, just have to invest time and maybe setting your auto-battle to always reuse the prior command. But I'll share that when you're at the right point. It's not too far from now, but definitely at the game midpoint.
Since everyone's explained what Mystic Knight does I'll refrain, but I'll add it's one of my favorite jobs in the game and one I really would like to see adapted to FFXIV. I just love the aesthetic of magically charging swords to deliver magic hits along with the physical strike. It's kinda like FFXIV RDM in reverse (and why I hope it's still eligible for FFXIV inclusion some day as a DPS or tank class). And it can be truly broken in late game. I used it to turn Faris into a boss-deleting human blender in my last playthrough (Android port of the GBA version, played it in 2015) by combining it with a couple other abilities and casting the level 6 super-spells every battle.
As for grinding ABP for jobs, there is a point in the game where that becomes pretty easy and lets you build up cash too, just have to invest time and maybe setting your auto-battle to always reuse the prior command. But I'll share that when you're at the right point. It's not too far from now, but definitely at the game midpoint.
So, I know this is a bit late, but I just want you guys to look at and behold this commercial japan made for FFIV.
View: https://youtu.be/3uB8gbWAuV4
View: https://youtu.be/3uB8gbWAuV4
- Location
- Florida USA
In passing, but I'm not sure the FFXIV character can't be considered more a homage with his own personality and such.
Final Fantasy V, Part 4
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
So!
Last time I left us with our new set of jobs. I deeply appreciate everyone's input and advice regarding the various jobs and their usefulness. Sorry if I left everyone on read, I was just mulling the whole thing over.
This actually gave me decision paralysis, which played a not-insignificant role in how long it took for this new update to release, lmao. And I can only imagine it'll get worse as more jobs are added!
For now, though, I have decided on our current crop of jobs:
I'm making Bartz a Mystic Knight with some Thief secondary skills equipped in the hope that he can kick up the party's DPS and so I can play around with Spellblade, which is a power-set I always like. Not sure how much use I'll be getting out of it, granted, mainly because it seems to rely on advanced knowledge of enemy weaknesses that I'm not sure I have, but we'll give it a shot! Lenna stays a Monk because she's been a sturdy damage dealer so far and there is no obvious upgrade for her, so I'll stick with it until Mastery and then hopefully get her a job from the next set. Galuf is a Summoner because I need to have a Summoner, I just do, and Faris is a Red Mage because after mulling it over for a long time I decided to commit to Vergang and the long, long road to Dualcast mastery. It's not that I think it's the best choice, it's that if I abandon my darling just because they're "inconvenient" or "time-consuming," who am I to call myself a RDM player?
Big loss out of this roster is Time Mage. Love the concept, would really like some buffs, but I don't want to field three mages and I already have Summoner and Red Mage locked, so it has to be left out. Hopefully I can teach the job to someone later, probably while grinding RDM mastery.
With all that in order, let's proceed with the story!
We paused in the middle of a cutscene, so without further ado, let's resume picking up the pieces of the Water Crystal, and…
Uh-oh.
Looks like shattering the Water Crystal had some unfortunate consequences. This did not happen with the Wind Crystal, but then, I'm not sure what wind-related catastrophe could have happened to its shrine that would make sense in the same way as "sinking" does here.
Unfortunately, the tower is big, and no matter how fast our heroes run…
…they can't outpace the watery earthquake that just deletes the entire peninsula. Our heroes are stranded at sea with nothing to do but doggy-paddle to try and stay afloat. Things look grim, until an unexpected hero returns!
Syldra is alive! And she came back for us! Old girl must have swam across an entire ocean, goddamned. You go, Syldra.
What happens next is that… she eats everyone in the party? Everyone but Faris appears to have passed out from exhaustion, and Syldra swallows both Galuf and Bartz. Lenna starts drifting away, but Faris swims to her, grabs her, and pulls the both of them into Syldra's mouth.
I'm going to resist very hard making vore jokes here.
Syldra swims up to the nearest shore, and spits back out the whole party. Galuf, Bartz and Lenna only manage to make it a few feet on the beach before collapsing again. Lenna manages to get up shortly after, though, and she and Faris turn to thank Syldra, and…
That's bullshit, man. Why does the cool sea dragon BFF have to die for such contrived reasons 😔
But alas, Syldra withdraws into the sea, presumably sinking beneath the waves with her strength expended, and Lenna quietly thanks her for her sacrifice while Faris only mutters her name with sorrow.
Such a good dragon to lose so soon after meeting her…
At least we still have King Tycoon's flying dragon (and I'm now concerned for his survival chance given that he at least theoretically stands in the way of our mandatory upgrade to an airship).
Returning to Walse, the townsfolk now all have updated dialogue to inform us that things are very bad now that the Water Crystal is gone. The King is grievously injured, the water is turning bad, and so on. They also inform us that they found a soldier from Karnak, a kingdom halfway across the continent, unconscious near the meteorite, which he appears to have come out of; y strange stuff.
We pay a visit to the ailing king, and he informs us that Karnak, too, is using a crystal-amplifying machine, and as a result we must hurry to warn them about the danger.
Looks like we have our next destination already set!
Before we leave to explore the meteorite, though, I take time for some shopping, getting everyone up in gear and getting Summoner its first summons, and then I head back into the dungeons of Castle Walse for a rematch.
Hello again, Shiva, you icy strumpet.
…
Okay, so yeah, the new jobs are more of a side-grade than a straight upgrade at this level. I can't just swap into the new job and kick Shiva's ass. My summons aren't that powerful (it's basically just Chocobo, which is a single-target damage spell that isn't rocking anyone's world, Sylph, which is back as a "hit one opponent, drain HP to heal the whole party" spell but isn't high-level anymore and so isn't enough to put up with Shiva's damage, and Remora, which is a paralysing move I assume doesn't work on bosses), Red Mage offers versatility but against such an opponent is wasted because Faris is just healing every turn to make sure the party survives and so doesn't get any benefit from having access to black magic while also having worse healing magic due to lower stats, and Mystic Knight isn't surviving long enough to matter given Spellblade takes a full turn to set up. I manage to take out two of the Ice Generals, but I never even reach Shiva.
We'll shelve this and deal with it later.
Which I like, by the way! "This fight has a unique reward but is too challenging for now, make note of it to come back later or bust your ass trying to get it ahead of time with proper strategizing or cheese" is good design. I like it. But I'm not so into it that I'll spend more time trying to break the encounter for now, we'll just move on.
Magic Shell is a support ability that causes Mystic Knight to cast Shell on self when entering red HP, and here is my question to veterans: do I have to equip that skill for Mystic Knight to use it, or does it get innate access to all support skills from its own class and is needing to equip it just an other-job thing?
Okay, wait, one more thing.
A character mentions that, since we now have a wind drake, it might be nice of Lenna to fly to Tycoon to tell everyone she's alright and what she's up to. And you know what, that's… totally sensible? Yes, this is absolutely what we should be doing next.
It's nice that Lenna's character is fully integrated in the setting and people treat her like you would expect. Here, the Chancellor tries to convince Lenna to stay in Tycoon to guide her people, who are demoralized after the King's disappearance. He argues that she has a responsibility to her kingdom, but she counters that she has an even greater responsibility to the world, and that her father is still alive and she needs to find him. The Chancellor is swayed, but asks her to at least stay the night, and the party agrees.
It's interesting that the game is using the "stay the night" motif repeatedly. It lands a kind of… groundedness to the game's world and scope, where traveling takes time and it makes sense to rest in friendly places before going back on adventures, which the previous games lacked. It lends… weight to the journey, so to speak.
As before, this rest is an opportunity for characters to get up in the middle of the night and do some Character Drama, which the game uses to reveal that I've accidentally George Lucas'd my read of this story:
They're not gay, they're just sisters!
Faris denies this and leaves the room, and Lenna is a bit shaken by this immediate rebuff, but as she notes to herself, they have the same pendant. This would explain Faris sparing the captives as soon as she realized who Lenna was and constantly coming to her aid, as well.
What follows is an extremely odd wake-up scene. Bartz is sleeping in his bed, alone in the room at night, then he hears a voice calling out to him, he wakes up and literally rolls out of bed, hitting his head on another bed, then… the room lights up and everyone is there around him?
I have no idea what happened there. Lenna is giggling and just behind Bartz, so I think the intended reading is that Lenna played a prank on Bartz somehow? I'm not sure.
We are told by the castle's servants that the Chancellor is looking for us and has something to give us. There is also one particular older servant who has some interesting stuff to tell us:
From 'Sarissa' to 'Faris,' this has strong "Eric to Erica" lazy trans energy. Which basically confirms that Lenna is correct. I wonder how Sarissa/Faris came to stay with the pirates and never try to reunite with her family, though?
If Faris were trans, a chain of events in which they're found by a new group of people who don't know them and decide this is their opportunity to say "I'm a boy btw" and then live out their life as a man, turning their back on their family to whom they would have to explain and justify themselves, would make a lot of sense, but it's not quite where the game sits at present.
The Chancellor gifts us the Healing Staff, which is… nice? But I don't really have a use for it right now; most of my party is still using Barehanded as their main source of damage. It does cast Cura for free, though, which is nice. Also, these other chests behind the Chancellor are interesting in that they act as 'job previews'; they contain a Shuriken, a Diamond Bell, and an Ashura dark blade, which suggests that we're soon set to unlock Ninja, Geomancer and Dark Knight. It's a nice touch.
Exploring a little more, we find an isolated tower which contains another chest, and in that chest…
…
…
I refuse to reflect on the consequences of my actions. I never make mistakes.
Anyway, let's head out.
Our objective here is the meteorite fallen near the Water Shrine. When we get there, it turns out to be hollow!
Interacting with this glowy thingie causes Bartz to disappear in a flash of light. The group quickly deduces this is a warp device, and one by one enter it. Before doing so, Galuf muses about how this place looks familiar, and how the soldier in the tower knew him, and wonders again who he is.
The warping pad teleports us halfway across the world - you can actually see our location in red and where we come from in blue (Hiryu's current location):
And after a short trek overland fighting some giant tortoises and wolves, we find the city of Karnak!
Wrong Karnak.
No, not that one either.
That's the one.
Wait a minute, is that a fucking lava moat?
Sick.
If Walse was using the Water Crystal Amplifier to ward off monsters and keep the waters clean, Karnak is, if anything, even more reliant on the Fire Crystal: they're a town of blacksmiths, and they're using its power to make the highest-quality arms and armors at ludicrously low prices. This is reflected in gameplay; when we head for the nearest store, mythril goods are available at bafflingly low prices. But as soon as we purchase a single item…
…we get mistaken for monster allies and promptly arrested without being given a chance to explain ourselves.
Thankfully, it looks like we're about to make a new acquaintance…
Incidentally can I note that the localization on this game really kicked things up a notch in terms of colorful language? The scripts used in the Pixel Remasters of I to IV were… unremarkable as prose, so to speak; the story was good, but it didn't really have a lot of quotable dialogue, quirky speech affects, and the like. It was workmanlike, plainly conveying meaning, for the most part. Here the characters feel livelier, with a wide register of tame swears, Faris having a slight piratey affect, and so on.
Anyway, this old geezer turns out to be none other than this game's Cid - who could maybe have been mentioned earlier, considering what Lenna is about to drop:
It really feels like there is a missing connecting piece where we went from the neutral statement "kingdoms are using machines to amplify the crystals" to "this is a terrible thing that must be stopped." Like, last time, Garula was actively trying to smash it to bits, yeah? That doesn't seem like it's related to the machines at all.
Lenna apologizes for saying this so bluntly, but Cid tells her that she is completely right, and it was his great mistake, and that he's "to blame for everything." According to him, many years ago, he found a book in the Library of the Ancients which said that thousands of years ago, the crystals were much more powerful than they are today. He built the machines in order to bring them back to the power they used to hold, which is… interesting, because it suggests that there is, in fact, some kind of entropy or decay going on, a fading of the power of the world, which isn't good? Something bad is definitely happening, but Cid's solution was ham-handed and made everything worse.
The picture is starting to become clearer, though we still don't know how the meteorites (with built-in teleport pads???) fit into this. An honest mistake spelling disaster is a pretty good plot, but this is Final Fantasy, so the odds that this plays into the hands of a greater evil are 100%.
Cid explains that after the crystals in Tycoon and Walse were shattered, he attempted to save the one in Karnak by switching off the machine, but seeing as how it's key to the kingdom's prosperity, people didn't listen to him and threw him in jail.
Interestingly Cid only mentions three crystals, in three cities. There's no indication that he built a machine for the Earth Crystal, wherever it is.
The group explains to Cid that they have the same goals as him, but before they can go in-depth about it, they are interrupted by someone:
Cracked, but not shattered yet. It looks like we're going to head on another doomed race against the clock to save the Fire Crystal. The Chancellor at least had enough brains to turn off the machine - unfortunately, that did not do anything; the crystal's power output is still increasing. A consequence of it being damaged? No, as it turns out - there is another machine drawing power from the crystal:
Karnak built a new ship, one that can sail without wind (or a friendly sea dragon) using the power of fire - basically a steamboat, or a modern ship, but only possible through the magic of the crystal. Cid explains that they have to stop the ship's engine, but the ship itself is a dangerous place, and so he needs the help of our party. The chancellor exclaims that we've been seen coming out of the meteorite, so we must be "in cahoots with that werewolf," whoever he's talking about. Cid says he won't help without us, and so the Chancellor relents and lets us out. Cid heads for the ship, leaving us free to explore the town and castle in the meantime.
It looks like Karnak has a mild case of its shit being on fire. These little flames have popped up all over the castle and town, and the townsfolk and guard seem shockingly chill about this. There doesn't appear to be any effort to put out the fire, but nor are they spreading, so… I guess it's fine?
Talking to people here mostly reiterates what we know, Karnak has been using the Fire Crystal to power engines, they built a no-sail ship, there is a werewolf on the loose… Said werewolf keeps trying to get to the crystal, but hasn't attacked the town yet, which the guards find strange. Also, the Queen is missing!
As soon as we leave the castle, we're treated to a cutscene illustrating what the guards were just telling us about:
The werewolf is here and tries to rush past the guards, who use explosives devised by Cid to scare it off.
Is that Lone Wolf? It would make sense for it to be him, but that seems like a big plot point to tie to whether or not I released one NPC from his cell in that one town. It's either Lone Wolf, or it's the Queen of Karnak turned into a monster by magic. Either way, I am pretty sure the guards are mistakenly assuming the werewolf is evil and its true motives are not what they seem.
Also, it turns out everyone was warned about the crystal-amplifying machines, and they refused to listen:
I can't believe someone replied to my last update saying they didn't see the climate change metaphor.
We do a shop run, upgrading everyone's gear and splurging on lv 2 magic - my summons still suck (I might have to just swap Galuf out to Time Mage, tbh), but at least now Faris can cast Fira/Thundara/Blizzara. Then it's time to head to the ship!
…
How?
How did the ship get overrun with monsters?
How did that, like, happen? Don't they have guards? Wouldn't that place have been, like, in use? Wait, how big is that ship? I've been assuming 'steamboat' but, as we're about to find out, that thing is really more like a cruise liner or a modern warship - basically an entire small town unto itself.
And it is.
Miserable.
A scholar in town warned me about these guys. They have a special mechanic where you have to time your attacks correctly because, if one Crew Dust is the last remaining opponent on screen when its turn is up, it will cast Flash, blinding the entire party. This happens to me in my first fight with them, which is when I realized that I was packing 0 Eye Drops, and so I have to walk all the way back to the Karnak item shop to buy a dozen of them and return to the ship for a second run.
As you can see, despite its wooden exterior making it look like a sailship, the interior of the place is much more like the Dreadnought - it's like a modern warship is hiding inside the hollow shell of a wooden sailship, an odd design choice.
And also…
It's full of conveyor belts.
So many conveyor belts. You step on them, and they push you into one direction, meaning there are a number of one-way connections across the ship.
It also has platforming puzzles where I have to switch levers to move across a room and I cannot figure it out:
It is simply too late for me to be dealing with this bullshit. I'm stopping here. See you next time!
Last time I left us with our new set of jobs. I deeply appreciate everyone's input and advice regarding the various jobs and their usefulness. Sorry if I left everyone on read, I was just mulling the whole thing over.
This actually gave me decision paralysis, which played a not-insignificant role in how long it took for this new update to release, lmao. And I can only imagine it'll get worse as more jobs are added!
For now, though, I have decided on our current crop of jobs:
I'm making Bartz a Mystic Knight with some Thief secondary skills equipped in the hope that he can kick up the party's DPS and so I can play around with Spellblade, which is a power-set I always like. Not sure how much use I'll be getting out of it, granted, mainly because it seems to rely on advanced knowledge of enemy weaknesses that I'm not sure I have, but we'll give it a shot! Lenna stays a Monk because she's been a sturdy damage dealer so far and there is no obvious upgrade for her, so I'll stick with it until Mastery and then hopefully get her a job from the next set. Galuf is a Summoner because I need to have a Summoner, I just do, and Faris is a Red Mage because after mulling it over for a long time I decided to commit to Vergang and the long, long road to Dualcast mastery. It's not that I think it's the best choice, it's that if I abandon my darling just because they're "inconvenient" or "time-consuming," who am I to call myself a RDM player?
Big loss out of this roster is Time Mage. Love the concept, would really like some buffs, but I don't want to field three mages and I already have Summoner and Red Mage locked, so it has to be left out. Hopefully I can teach the job to someone later, probably while grinding RDM mastery.
With all that in order, let's proceed with the story!
We paused in the middle of a cutscene, so without further ado, let's resume picking up the pieces of the Water Crystal, and…
Uh-oh.
Looks like shattering the Water Crystal had some unfortunate consequences. This did not happen with the Wind Crystal, but then, I'm not sure what wind-related catastrophe could have happened to its shrine that would make sense in the same way as "sinking" does here.
Unfortunately, the tower is big, and no matter how fast our heroes run…
…they can't outpace the watery earthquake that just deletes the entire peninsula. Our heroes are stranded at sea with nothing to do but doggy-paddle to try and stay afloat. Things look grim, until an unexpected hero returns!
Syldra is alive! And she came back for us! Old girl must have swam across an entire ocean, goddamned. You go, Syldra.
What happens next is that… she eats everyone in the party? Everyone but Faris appears to have passed out from exhaustion, and Syldra swallows both Galuf and Bartz. Lenna starts drifting away, but Faris swims to her, grabs her, and pulls the both of them into Syldra's mouth.
I'm going to resist very hard making vore jokes here.
Syldra swims up to the nearest shore, and spits back out the whole party. Galuf, Bartz and Lenna only manage to make it a few feet on the beach before collapsing again. Lenna manages to get up shortly after, though, and she and Faris turn to thank Syldra, and…
That's bullshit, man. Why does the cool sea dragon BFF have to die for such contrived reasons 😔
But alas, Syldra withdraws into the sea, presumably sinking beneath the waves with her strength expended, and Lenna quietly thanks her for her sacrifice while Faris only mutters her name with sorrow.
Such a good dragon to lose so soon after meeting her…
At least we still have King Tycoon's flying dragon (and I'm now concerned for his survival chance given that he at least theoretically stands in the way of our mandatory upgrade to an airship).
Returning to Walse, the townsfolk now all have updated dialogue to inform us that things are very bad now that the Water Crystal is gone. The King is grievously injured, the water is turning bad, and so on. They also inform us that they found a soldier from Karnak, a kingdom halfway across the continent, unconscious near the meteorite, which he appears to have come out of; y strange stuff.
We pay a visit to the ailing king, and he informs us that Karnak, too, is using a crystal-amplifying machine, and as a result we must hurry to warn them about the danger.
Looks like we have our next destination already set!
Before we leave to explore the meteorite, though, I take time for some shopping, getting everyone up in gear and getting Summoner its first summons, and then I head back into the dungeons of Castle Walse for a rematch.
Hello again, Shiva, you icy strumpet.
…
Okay, so yeah, the new jobs are more of a side-grade than a straight upgrade at this level. I can't just swap into the new job and kick Shiva's ass. My summons aren't that powerful (it's basically just Chocobo, which is a single-target damage spell that isn't rocking anyone's world, Sylph, which is back as a "hit one opponent, drain HP to heal the whole party" spell but isn't high-level anymore and so isn't enough to put up with Shiva's damage, and Remora, which is a paralysing move I assume doesn't work on bosses), Red Mage offers versatility but against such an opponent is wasted because Faris is just healing every turn to make sure the party survives and so doesn't get any benefit from having access to black magic while also having worse healing magic due to lower stats, and Mystic Knight isn't surviving long enough to matter given Spellblade takes a full turn to set up. I manage to take out two of the Ice Generals, but I never even reach Shiva.
We'll shelve this and deal with it later.
Which I like, by the way! "This fight has a unique reward but is too challenging for now, make note of it to come back later or bust your ass trying to get it ahead of time with proper strategizing or cheese" is good design. I like it. But I'm not so into it that I'll spend more time trying to break the encounter for now, we'll just move on.
Magic Shell is a support ability that causes Mystic Knight to cast Shell on self when entering red HP, and here is my question to veterans: do I have to equip that skill for Mystic Knight to use it, or does it get innate access to all support skills from its own class and is needing to equip it just an other-job thing?
Okay, wait, one more thing.
A character mentions that, since we now have a wind drake, it might be nice of Lenna to fly to Tycoon to tell everyone she's alright and what she's up to. And you know what, that's… totally sensible? Yes, this is absolutely what we should be doing next.
It's nice that Lenna's character is fully integrated in the setting and people treat her like you would expect. Here, the Chancellor tries to convince Lenna to stay in Tycoon to guide her people, who are demoralized after the King's disappearance. He argues that she has a responsibility to her kingdom, but she counters that she has an even greater responsibility to the world, and that her father is still alive and she needs to find him. The Chancellor is swayed, but asks her to at least stay the night, and the party agrees.
It's interesting that the game is using the "stay the night" motif repeatedly. It lands a kind of… groundedness to the game's world and scope, where traveling takes time and it makes sense to rest in friendly places before going back on adventures, which the previous games lacked. It lends… weight to the journey, so to speak.
As before, this rest is an opportunity for characters to get up in the middle of the night and do some Character Drama, which the game uses to reveal that I've accidentally George Lucas'd my read of this story:
They're not gay, they're just sisters!
Faris denies this and leaves the room, and Lenna is a bit shaken by this immediate rebuff, but as she notes to herself, they have the same pendant. This would explain Faris sparing the captives as soon as she realized who Lenna was and constantly coming to her aid, as well.
What follows is an extremely odd wake-up scene. Bartz is sleeping in his bed, alone in the room at night, then he hears a voice calling out to him, he wakes up and literally rolls out of bed, hitting his head on another bed, then… the room lights up and everyone is there around him?
I have no idea what happened there. Lenna is giggling and just behind Bartz, so I think the intended reading is that Lenna played a prank on Bartz somehow? I'm not sure.
We are told by the castle's servants that the Chancellor is looking for us and has something to give us. There is also one particular older servant who has some interesting stuff to tell us:
From 'Sarissa' to 'Faris,' this has strong "Eric to Erica" lazy trans energy. Which basically confirms that Lenna is correct. I wonder how Sarissa/Faris came to stay with the pirates and never try to reunite with her family, though?
If Faris were trans, a chain of events in which they're found by a new group of people who don't know them and decide this is their opportunity to say "I'm a boy btw" and then live out their life as a man, turning their back on their family to whom they would have to explain and justify themselves, would make a lot of sense, but it's not quite where the game sits at present.
The Chancellor gifts us the Healing Staff, which is… nice? But I don't really have a use for it right now; most of my party is still using Barehanded as their main source of damage. It does cast Cura for free, though, which is nice. Also, these other chests behind the Chancellor are interesting in that they act as 'job previews'; they contain a Shuriken, a Diamond Bell, and an Ashura dark blade, which suggests that we're soon set to unlock Ninja, Geomancer and Dark Knight. It's a nice touch.
Exploring a little more, we find an isolated tower which contains another chest, and in that chest…
…
…
I refuse to reflect on the consequences of my actions. I never make mistakes.
Anyway, let's head out.
Our objective here is the meteorite fallen near the Water Shrine. When we get there, it turns out to be hollow!
Interacting with this glowy thingie causes Bartz to disappear in a flash of light. The group quickly deduces this is a warp device, and one by one enter it. Before doing so, Galuf muses about how this place looks familiar, and how the soldier in the tower knew him, and wonders again who he is.
The warping pad teleports us halfway across the world - you can actually see our location in red and where we come from in blue (Hiryu's current location):
And after a short trek overland fighting some giant tortoises and wolves, we find the city of Karnak!
Wrong Karnak.
That's the one.
Wait a minute, is that a fucking lava moat?
Sick.
If Walse was using the Water Crystal Amplifier to ward off monsters and keep the waters clean, Karnak is, if anything, even more reliant on the Fire Crystal: they're a town of blacksmiths, and they're using its power to make the highest-quality arms and armors at ludicrously low prices. This is reflected in gameplay; when we head for the nearest store, mythril goods are available at bafflingly low prices. But as soon as we purchase a single item…
…we get mistaken for monster allies and promptly arrested without being given a chance to explain ourselves.
Thankfully, it looks like we're about to make a new acquaintance…
Incidentally can I note that the localization on this game really kicked things up a notch in terms of colorful language? The scripts used in the Pixel Remasters of I to IV were… unremarkable as prose, so to speak; the story was good, but it didn't really have a lot of quotable dialogue, quirky speech affects, and the like. It was workmanlike, plainly conveying meaning, for the most part. Here the characters feel livelier, with a wide register of tame swears, Faris having a slight piratey affect, and so on.
Anyway, this old geezer turns out to be none other than this game's Cid - who could maybe have been mentioned earlier, considering what Lenna is about to drop:
It really feels like there is a missing connecting piece where we went from the neutral statement "kingdoms are using machines to amplify the crystals" to "this is a terrible thing that must be stopped." Like, last time, Garula was actively trying to smash it to bits, yeah? That doesn't seem like it's related to the machines at all.
Lenna apologizes for saying this so bluntly, but Cid tells her that she is completely right, and it was his great mistake, and that he's "to blame for everything." According to him, many years ago, he found a book in the Library of the Ancients which said that thousands of years ago, the crystals were much more powerful than they are today. He built the machines in order to bring them back to the power they used to hold, which is… interesting, because it suggests that there is, in fact, some kind of entropy or decay going on, a fading of the power of the world, which isn't good? Something bad is definitely happening, but Cid's solution was ham-handed and made everything worse.
The picture is starting to become clearer, though we still don't know how the meteorites (with built-in teleport pads???) fit into this. An honest mistake spelling disaster is a pretty good plot, but this is Final Fantasy, so the odds that this plays into the hands of a greater evil are 100%.
Cid explains that after the crystals in Tycoon and Walse were shattered, he attempted to save the one in Karnak by switching off the machine, but seeing as how it's key to the kingdom's prosperity, people didn't listen to him and threw him in jail.
Interestingly Cid only mentions three crystals, in three cities. There's no indication that he built a machine for the Earth Crystal, wherever it is.
The group explains to Cid that they have the same goals as him, but before they can go in-depth about it, they are interrupted by someone:
Cracked, but not shattered yet. It looks like we're going to head on another doomed race against the clock to save the Fire Crystal. The Chancellor at least had enough brains to turn off the machine - unfortunately, that did not do anything; the crystal's power output is still increasing. A consequence of it being damaged? No, as it turns out - there is another machine drawing power from the crystal:
Karnak built a new ship, one that can sail without wind (or a friendly sea dragon) using the power of fire - basically a steamboat, or a modern ship, but only possible through the magic of the crystal. Cid explains that they have to stop the ship's engine, but the ship itself is a dangerous place, and so he needs the help of our party. The chancellor exclaims that we've been seen coming out of the meteorite, so we must be "in cahoots with that werewolf," whoever he's talking about. Cid says he won't help without us, and so the Chancellor relents and lets us out. Cid heads for the ship, leaving us free to explore the town and castle in the meantime.
It looks like Karnak has a mild case of its shit being on fire. These little flames have popped up all over the castle and town, and the townsfolk and guard seem shockingly chill about this. There doesn't appear to be any effort to put out the fire, but nor are they spreading, so… I guess it's fine?
Talking to people here mostly reiterates what we know, Karnak has been using the Fire Crystal to power engines, they built a no-sail ship, there is a werewolf on the loose… Said werewolf keeps trying to get to the crystal, but hasn't attacked the town yet, which the guards find strange. Also, the Queen is missing!
As soon as we leave the castle, we're treated to a cutscene illustrating what the guards were just telling us about:
The werewolf is here and tries to rush past the guards, who use explosives devised by Cid to scare it off.
Is that Lone Wolf? It would make sense for it to be him, but that seems like a big plot point to tie to whether or not I released one NPC from his cell in that one town. It's either Lone Wolf, or it's the Queen of Karnak turned into a monster by magic. Either way, I am pretty sure the guards are mistakenly assuming the werewolf is evil and its true motives are not what they seem.
Also, it turns out everyone was warned about the crystal-amplifying machines, and they refused to listen:
I can't believe someone replied to my last update saying they didn't see the climate change metaphor.
We do a shop run, upgrading everyone's gear and splurging on lv 2 magic - my summons still suck (I might have to just swap Galuf out to Time Mage, tbh), but at least now Faris can cast Fira/Thundara/Blizzara. Then it's time to head to the ship!
…
How?
How did the ship get overrun with monsters?
How did that, like, happen? Don't they have guards? Wouldn't that place have been, like, in use? Wait, how big is that ship? I've been assuming 'steamboat' but, as we're about to find out, that thing is really more like a cruise liner or a modern warship - basically an entire small town unto itself.
And it is.
Miserable.
A scholar in town warned me about these guys. They have a special mechanic where you have to time your attacks correctly because, if one Crew Dust is the last remaining opponent on screen when its turn is up, it will cast Flash, blinding the entire party. This happens to me in my first fight with them, which is when I realized that I was packing 0 Eye Drops, and so I have to walk all the way back to the Karnak item shop to buy a dozen of them and return to the ship for a second run.
As you can see, despite its wooden exterior making it look like a sailship, the interior of the place is much more like the Dreadnought - it's like a modern warship is hiding inside the hollow shell of a wooden sailship, an odd design choice.
And also…
It's full of conveyor belts.
So many conveyor belts. You step on them, and they push you into one direction, meaning there are a number of one-way connections across the ship.
It also has platforming puzzles where I have to switch levers to move across a room and I cannot figure it out:
It is simply too late for me to be dealing with this bullshit. I'm stopping here. See you next time!
Last edited:
ZerbanDaGreat
Daemon Noble of D E M O G R A P H I C S
- Pronouns
- They/them
It depends. When you use a job it will always have some kind of innate ability - Learn for a Blue Mage, Sprint for a Thief, Barehanded for a Monk etc - but the extra ones you learn subsequently like Two-Handed, Find Passage and Counter need to be slotted.
you fool, you fell for the oldest trick in the book. 'they were
I think Bartz was just starting to have a nightmare, then jerked out of bed and made a scene. He has some backstory stuff you have the chance to learn soon that makes that the more likely answer.
Findommed by a furry daddy, Omi I'm surprised at you...Exploring a little more, we find an isolated tower which contains another chest, and in that chest…
…
…
I refuse to reflect on the consequences of my actions. I never make mistakes.
WELCOME TO BIG BILL HELL'S HOME OF CHALLENGE [PUZZLES]And also…
It's full of conveyor belts.
So many conveyor belts. You step on them, and they push you into one direction, meaning there are a number of one-way connections across the ship.
It also has platforming puzzles where I have to switch levers to move across a room and I cannot figure it out:
WE'LL FUCK YOUR WIFE
One proztip here: if you've got someone in the party with access to white magic anyways, libra is an extremely cheap first level white spell that detects elemental weaknesses. Good to throw out once in a while.
Can confirm, decision paralysis and overwhelming mindgoblins tend to be the bane of many a class-system game I play. Luckily FFV doesn't have stuff like "individual classes permanently effect stat growths across the board" or the min-max part of the brain would never recover.
Generally, almost all passive abilities a class learns are automatically in play from job level zero for them, and also once learned the freelancer gets them. There's some exceptions in either end like Knight needing to learn Two-handed to use it, or Berserk learned from Berserker not being automatic on freelancer (lmao imagine), but most others like magic shell or counter are Always On for their classes.
Not gonna lie; since Castle Tycoon is optional for now? I was desperately hoping you would miss it until way later and we could get a dozen updates of "look they're totally into each other" misinterpretations
Well then, get used to not-reflectioning.
Granted, I don't think Lone Wolf takes anything actually important mostly just consumables, but still.
- Location
- California
They're all needed in town to keep the climate protestors away.
The fact that you need to state this says more about you than the scene in question, I feel.
I, for once, had no thoughts of vore during this scene whatsoever. None. Not a one.
Could always hope for a dragon-powered airship.
Absurdly so. And you aren't even at the ~best~ part yet!
- Location
- Canada, probably
Syldra's final cry as her stamina gives out is haunting. It gives me chills every time I hear it.
There are basically three types of abilities: command abilities that give you a menu option you select in battle to use; innate abilities that are active just from swapping into the class (or mastering the class and going back to Freelancer); and equip abilities that are passive, but need to be equipped even for the class that grants them.
Most passives, including Magic Shell, are innate abilities (so is Berserk technically, but mercifully, Freelancer does not inherit it). Equip abilities are most often named "Equip X," like "Equip Shields" or "Equip Axes." These do exactly what they sound like, plus provide situational stat bonuses based on the class they come from.
I think the only other equip abilities are the "HP +X%" or "MP +X%" ones, and the Knight's Two-Handed. Really don't know why that last one's not an innate, but maybe they thought it was OP to be able to use it the instant you get access to the Knight? It's annoying though because Freelancers and Knights need to equip it to use it.
There is exactly one good item that Lone Wolf steals: the Blitz Whip from Jachol Cave. The rest are just cottages.
Also, fun fact: in Pixel Remaster, at least, Blue Mage actually doesn't start with Learn. You have to level up the job once to get it (at which point it's always active on your Blue Mage). It mostly doesn't matter because you level up in 10 battles at this stage, which is usually less battles than needed for you to encounter the right enemy who would use the right ability on the right character, but I did manage to get my BM punched with a Goblin Punch before obtaining Learn, so Lenna refused to learn from the goblin. Took me a while to figure out what was happening.
- Location
- Canada, probably
What!? Yeah, that's not the case in any other version, I'm pretty sure. That's super weird.
FunkyEntropy
Occasionally insightful, possibly grumpy
- Location
- Los Angeles
Mystic Knights have Magic Shell right out of the box.
Sadly Summoner really doesn't get going until you get the elemental squad under your control, but once you do they become a really convenient source for clearing random encounters.
Yeah, Red Mage works best as pinch DPS/Healing depending on circumstances, but isn't great as your primary source of either.
I know I've mentioned it before, but to really get the Mystic Knight pain train going you're going to want to dip into Knight for two levels in order to get Doublehand. Then they become absolute murder units. Yes it'll take up your other ability slot but it's totally worth it.
Healing Staff is hands down the best item in the game right now. You can heal your own party members by smacking them in the face with it and at this point it'll probably be for more than their total HP. It's great.
Last edited:
In early game, anyway. Late game, there is a strictly superior ability that's part of a mega-combo. If you aren't too tolerant of grinding, it may be wiser to wait for that instead.
(Then again, Omicron has comitted to mastering Red Mage, grinding is now obligatory, so maybe dipping into Knight would be worth it.)
FunkyEntropy
Occasionally insightful, possibly grumpy
- Location
- Los Angeles
In my last playthrough I made the conscious decision to get the doom combos and let me tell you it was pretty great annihilating everything I glanced at. And it's not too colossal of an undertaking as long as you plan out ahead which characters you want to be physical dps and the other ones as casters.
Anyway, Doublehand is only like 120AP to get which isn't huge. But you're right that it might be too late to make that investment worthwhile.
Last edited:
Dang, sounds like poor Lone Wolf really needed somewhere comfy to sleep.
As for the Blitz Whip, yeah I guess but it's not like your tamer (if you use one) is attacking most of the time instead of using !Control.
Honestly this is probably for the best. Time Mage takes a while to get most of its best magic.
Definitely something FFV does well, especially in the earlier segments of the game. The flexibility of the job system also allows the power gamers out there (myself included) to get things a lot earlier if they know what they're doing which I appreciate.
The Bell and Ashura can both be used now if you're willing to set a character back to a Freelancer at this stage. Bells are odd little weapons that scale off a character's Agility & Magic stats and hit at the target's Magic Defense. Ashura on the other hand is just a strong weapon with a chance to crit.
You probably noticed, but you also get the -ara spells for your Mystic Knight at the same time.
Yeah, the Steamship is one of the more annoying dungeons to deal with. On top of the environmental issues you pointed out, the encounters also love to throw enemies that are immune to or absorb the elements the other foes are weak to.
- Location
- The Great Beyond
- Pronouns
- He/She/They
All support skills of that sort are either intrinsic to the class (which magic shell is, for one), or must be equipped even by the class to benefit.
So it's either useless to equip because they already have it, or it's necessary if you want the benefit, and unfortunately it's not immediately clear which a lot of the time without consulting a guide.
But skills from job level ups never help unless you equip them (and the game doesn't stop you from wastefully equipping certain skills that either are already what the class has, or are something Freelancer is inheriting anyways because you mastered the class in the first place).
What follows is an extremely odd wake-up scene. Bartz is sleeping in his bed, alone in the room at night, then he hears a voice calling out to him, he wakes up and literally rolls out of bed, hitting his head on another bed, then… the room lights up and everyone is there around him?
I have no idea what happened there. Lenna is giggling and just behind Bartz, so I think the intended reading is that Lenna played a prank on Bartz somehow? I'm not sure.
We are told by the castle's servants that the Chancellor is looking for us and has something to give us. There is also one particular older servant who has some interesting stuff to tell us:
I think the screen starts black to simulate not the lights being out, but Bartz (and thus you) simply having your eyes closed; it was well lit and he was surrounded by friends trying to wake him the whole time.
It should go without saying that Fira would make it considerably easier to go get Shiva. Heck, you could probably just make everyone a black mage with some healing and such slotted in, run over, and nuke down her and her generals with relative ease now.
Given you've already seen the tower of Walse go bye bye, you may wish to consider that locations are clearly not automatically permanently available, too. There is stuff you can permanently miss if you put it off too long. No comment as to if Shiva specifically is one.
- Location
- Alberta
Once again I feel the need to point out a bit of silliness from the PS1 version, where instead of Sarisa they went with...Salsa.
Clearly this is like early versions of Dwarf Fortress where being on fire just made dwarves want to go get a drink.
- Pronouns
- He
Why not both?
- Location
- Phoenix
You're not supposed to fight Shiva for a long while, iirc she's to wait until you get into the 30's before you right her.
Also Omicron, you are 5 games into this series, how many times do the mobs need to teach you that lesson to always have at least 10 of every stat curative on hand! lol (insert spongebob meme here)