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[R^2]

Hilda: It was a long struggle... But with the emperor gone, we've nothing left to fear. Thank you. With all my heart, I thank you.


Gordon: Together, Princess, we will create a kingdom even fairer than the old. Though once a coward, I now stand here a new man. I have all of you to thank for that. You have my deepest gratitude. I'm sure Scott is smiling down on my from above.


Paul: Who am I supposed to steal from with the empire gone? You put me out of a job! I guess I'll just have to start stealing from you. Better watch your backs!


Leila: You're every bit the bloke I pegged ye for! If ye ever feel like tryin' yer hand at piratin'... What? That not sit well with ye, Maria? Haha! Looks like your next battle's already begun, Firion!

(Despite growing up as brother and sister, Maria has a dear-Japan-this-is-not-okay crush on Firion.)


Nelly: I'm going to be working here, serving the princess. I just wanna do whatever I can to help out!

There's a flicker behind Nelly, and...




We'll make a list. It's pretty short: "Everything."

Well, Mysidia's left. I guess there's that.


Firion: Yes.
Maria: We can live in peace again. Together.
Firion: ...
Maria: Right, Leon?
Leon: For us, there can be no going back.
Maria: But... why? Don't go! Firion, stop him!
Firion: Maria... Leon is right. We've been through too much. I can't stop him. Not now...

[R^2]

I'm skeptical of that, since the Emperor's machinations killed about 90% of the world's population.


...ditto.

[R^2]

...from somewhere, a transmission...

[Brentai]

I know the LP's technically still going, but it might as well be time to show you all what the deal with Toad is.

[R^2]

Oh. Yeah, the Wall bug was fixed in this version. I tried it earlier and didn't document it since it didn't work.

[R^2]

Black Knight: ...
????: Not much for talk? Then let's see how you bleed. I'll not flee before a shade of the empire. This I swear on the honor of House Kashuan!

Hey guys guess who that is. Hint: he looks a bit like Gordon and is part of Kashuan.




As with the main game storyline, this part starts with a fight against some Black Knights.


Unlike previously, I'm strong enough to win.


(I won't lie, Minwu knowing Teleport helps.)


The fight isn't easy, just winnable.

[R^2]

Scott of Kashuan: It's me, Scott of Kashuan.
Minwu: Prince Scott? I heard you fell in Fynn...
Scott: So I did. I gave a ring to a young group sent by the rebels, and then...
Minwu: That means this place must be...
Scott: So... you're dead too? Then, Hilda and Gordon...! Are they...?
Minwu: No. Princess Hilda and Prince Gordon are well... Or at least they were when I died.
Scott: Then it is true. You're as dead as I am.
Minwu: Yes. Seeing you here has removed all doubt.
Scott: How did it happen? Let me guess. The imperials?
Minwu: No. The decision to yield my life was my own. It was the only way to break the seal on the ultimate magic.
Scott: Ultima!? Has the empire grown so powerful that we must resort to such a terrible magic?
Minwu: I am confident my death was not in vain.

Well, we did get Ultima. On the other hand, we didn't really need it.

Minwu: By now the young warriors to whom you gave your ring should possess Ultima.
Scott: Them!?
Minwu: Firion, Maria, Guy... They form the core of our rebel forces.
Scott: I see... But where exactly does that put us?
Minwu: The afterlife, I suppose.
Scott: And Hell at that, judging by the scenery. I did take the lives of many foes while fighting the empire...
Minwu: Hell... or perhaps Jade!
Scott: The passage to Hell?

What difference would that make, anyway?

Minwu: I don't know. Let's find out.


That was a lot of words!


Since Firion, Maria, and Guy had all the gear in the real world, your inventory is reset to a handful of Phoenix Downs and Ethers for this sidequest. All those scrolls you collected? Stockpile of consumables? Spellcasting implements? Powerful equipment? All gone.




Minwu is exactly as he was when he left the party. Scott is about as powerful as Ricard was when he joined, and carries a full set of Mythril crap.

Nice callback, though.

[R^2]

The enemies are mostly new, but with a few from the Jade Passage thrown in. Since you're down to a party of two at early-to-midgame power, it's a hell of a fight just to keep everyone on their feet. Minwu is still a white wizard of some repute, while Scott starts with Fire, Blizzard, Thunder, Cure, and Life -- although everything but Life is at too low a level to be really helpful.




Borghen: Now we have all eternity together!
Josef: Borghen! Hmph, what a surprise... Alright. It's about time I settled your hash!
Borghen: Die here and you'll come right back! I can kill you until the end of time!
Josef: What!?
Borghen: Yes, the immortal body I've so longed for is mine at last!
Minwu: Careful... he's undead.
Scott: Borghen, you traitorous dog!
Josef: !?


Everyone teams up against Zombie Borghen. Since this is Final Fantasy and Borghen is an undead creature, the most important character in my party now is the white wizard.


Cure!


Borghen paralyzed Minwu to stop him from doing that anymore, but a Borghen retread is still just Borghen.


Minwu: So you're here too, Josef.
Josef: The prince of Kashuan! I heard you were mortally wounded in Fynn...
Scott: I was... and you?
Josef: After fighting Borghen, we fell into a trap he laid.

Yeah, I still have a lot of questions about that whole scenario.

Josef: It was a sorry way to go, but at least I helped those kids escape...
Scott: So you were also with them when--
Josef: And I don't regret a thing. They're young, but they've got spirit. Now, can either of you tell me where we are? Aren't we supposed to be dead?
Minwu: We think this may be the passage to Hell...
Josef: Jade!? The passage they say the beasts of Hell used to enter the world of the living? What are we doing here?
Minwu: There may still be some task for us to do. Something left unfinished...
Josef: An unfinished task, huh? Then we'd best finish it!


Josef, too, is exactly as he was when he left the party. While he was a fine fist-fighter against early monsters, he's even more fragile than Minwu now.




Since all of these party members are from before I really got anyone's Agility up to survivable levels, any little bit of armor helps. Thief's Gloves increase Agility (and thus Evasion) rather than being so encumbering that those stats drop, so that's a double-bonus.




Battles are still quite difficult -- probably about as difficult as the whole game would have been on the NES, haha. Josef adds a little more offensive power to the group, but he's so fragile that Minwu spends most of his time healing him.


On the upside, winning fights here nets you some mid- to endgame-level items. Check out the boost from that one weapon upgrade!


Totally worth it! 


My favorite part of this quest is the sheer number of monsters who can effortlessly partywipe you. Glasya Labolas is one of those.

[R^2]

Most of these screens are the same layout as places in Jade Passage, only flipped horizontally. The magic shop behind the waterfall is here, only now I don't have any money in addition to not having the effort to spend on leveling magic.


A worm? Great, another boss-ish fight.




Ricard drops from the ceiling, the only nod from this game's Dragoons to the rest of the series'.


Ricard: That's the grudge to end all grudges!


The Roundworm fight is the same as before. Perhaps a little easier? It was over quickly, anyway.


Minwu: So, you too have lost your life... What of Ultima? What of Firion and the others?
Ricard: Don't worry. The spell is theirs now. We confronted the Dark Knight, who'd proclaimed himself emperor. But as we faced him, his master returned, risen from Hell. I'm sure it was here that he gained such hideous power...
Minwu: Then Firion and the others...
Ricard: With any luck, they escaped on my wyvern. I bought them as much time as I could.

Which is to say, the Emperor ignored Ricard and went about redecorating.

Josef: You too, huh?
Ricard: And you are...?
Josef: I'm Josef. I was traveling with them, same as you.
Scott: I am Scott, prince of Kashuan. I, too, shared my last words with them.
Minwu: We all have one thing in common: We traveled with them and lost our lives...
Ricard: Are you saying that our meeting here is no accident?

Yeah, those kids are bad luck.

Minwu: The emperor acquires power from Hell... We find ourselves in Jade, the passageway to Hell... It seems that some fate unknown even to me is at work.


It's kind of funny how the Soul of Rebirth thing turns out. Minwu and Josef were awesome when they joined the party, and now they're liabilities. Ricard was deadweight almost the entire time he was with Firion, but now he's the strongest party member and a crutch character to make it through the rest of the cave.


In no small part because he too is the same as when he died, only he died a lot later than everyone else.

[R^2]

The cave ends in... a town, oddly enough.

Fynn Royal Guard: I'm charged with patrolling the area. The city is not safe, so we must remain vigiliant.

Fynn Royal Guard: I wonder if Princess Hilda is alright. I'm worried, but there's nothing I can really do...

Oblivious: Why are we in this hellish place?

Taverngoer: We lose so many to the monsters... I've survived so far, but what good can these old bones do?

Heavy Drinker: It gives me hope to see people like you here.

Underage: The monsters got a lot of us before we finally made it here...

Pirate: Afterlife or not, this is our home! Ain't no way we're letting even one of those beasties in!

Server: The monsters around here are unlike any I've ever seen. Keep your guard up!

Wench: What are we doing in a place like this? We're supposed to be dead!

Cid's Underling: I get to be his underling even in the afterlife! Talk about lucky!

Speaking of...




Cid: And to top it off, everyone here died fighting the empire. How do ya like that?
Minwu: ...
Cid: I gave up the life of a white knight for the lure of the skies, and here I am. Never thought I'd wind up in Hell for it, but... Any way you slice it, this place is different than any story I ever heard about Jade.
Minwu: You don't think this is Jade?
Cid: If this is the entrance to Hell, what are innocent little kids doing here? When I first got here, this place WAS just how you'd picture Hell. Monsters fed on anyone they could catch -- the old, children, you name it. By the time we found a place without monsters to build this makeshift town, most of the people were already done in.

That explains why "the town of people killed by the Empire" doesn't have a videogame-representative population in the hundreds. Seriously, dude genocided almost everyone.

Minwu: Terrible...
Cid: Since you all showed up, people have started to show some hope. As long as I'm defending this village, I'll help you in any way I can. So I'm asking you, find out what in blazes is going on! Where are we, and what are we doing here?






There are shops here, with items of various utility and equipment of dubious quality. Most of the armor here is just plain useless, being too heavy to allow good Evasion growth and too weak to block the powerful monsters' hits. And as always, the spells aren't worth grinding up.

[R^2]

(If you don't have all four party members, there's no warp gate out of Machanon.)

Guard: The other side is crawling with hideous monsters. Stay away if you know what's good for you.


There are two warp gates out of Machanon, actually...


One of them leads to Pandaemonium, or at least a flipped version of it, same as the Jade Passage-like caves we were in before and the Poftlike city that brought us here.


The other warp leads to...


The top of the Mysidian Tower? It's called the Chamber of the Seal.


Yes, the Chamber of the Seal.

Ricard: You mean Ultima exists here, too!?
Minwu: The seal I gave my life to break... But this time I will not fall! Everyone, stand back!


Same as before, the wizard MINWUKENs the seal away.


Well, maybe we can go get Cid in the party now... he keeps saying he's a retired White Knight, yeah? Maybe he has some useful white magic along with his sword skills to reflect that...


Minwu: I died once... That was my destiny. Yet this time I lived... There must be some vital reason for our presence here after all.


As in the actual Mysidian Tower, there are crystal balls that raise your stats.


Crystal Orb: Minwu, White Wizard of Fynn, art thou worthy of wielding the mightiest of spells? Prove thy strength. Defeat me.


Oh dear.


Ultima Weapon is about as powerful as you'd expect. Remember as you view this screenshot: Ricard has 4x99% agility, so he nulled four of Ultima Weapon's hits here. He also has the best armor in my group, so this is as soft a tap as Ultima Weapon can possibly do.


That's more like what he does to everyone else.


Right.

[R^2]

So, we have access to Pandaemonium, where the monsters are strong and likely to give us good stat boosts when we win fights. Let's grinding!


Shit.


Resurrection.


Resurrection.


Shit.


Shit.


Resurrection x3.


Resurrection x2.


Resurrection x2.


Resurrection.


Hey, nice.


Back to business, though.


Hey, some light armor that provides decent defense!


Back to business, though.


Shit.


I hope this screenshot montage properly conveys how tedious this level-up session is.


Because limping back to the church and the inn after every fight gets prrrrretty old.


5% drop off of Orukats. Sometimes I'm super lucky, but mostly I'm just fighting a lot of monsters.


Ho hum, dee dah...


Oh, these guys are new. They don't have bad breath, but they do cause pretty much every status ailment when they land a physical hit. I have two Ribbons, but remember: they don't prevent ailments in this game!

[R^2]

Well, that's a few giant eyeball slimes I don't have to fight.


Oh, right. I'm in Pandaemonium.


The scenario gives you a white mage, a gish, and two fighters -- then most of the bosses have extra-high defense. The Steel Giant is a good example.


Got majorly lucky on that drop, though. I didn't even get Excalibur in the main game! (I didn't need Excalibur in the main game, but still!)


That's not much of an attack power increase, but I read somewhere that Excalibur does extra damage against dragons, beasts, spellcasters, giants... pretty much all monsters that have a particular class or type. I can't find that information now so I'm not sure if it's true.




Get used to this.


I missed Beelzebub in the main game somehow, but he's guarding a chest item in Pandaemonium. Perhaps it was one with Genji Armor or something inside, and I skipped it? Oh well.

In the original Japanese, this guy was unambiguously "Satan". You know, the guy the Emperor made his pact with so the world would be overrun my monsters and the Emperor would gain some mighty magic power? The guy the Emperor usurped when he took over Hell and claimed Pandaemonium for his own? Yeah, he ended up getting stuffed into a chest like Zombie Borghen did, then killed (uh, presumably) by Firion and company.

This dungeon being one where dead things show up, Beelzebub's Soul haunts a similar chest to the one he inhabited before. He's big on poison attacks and stuff, but at this point Minwu can layer Protect, Shell, Blink, Barrier, and Wall while the other three just smack bosses around. It takes a damned long time, because of their high defense, but chip damage adds up.




The reward is an armlet for Josef that sets his Strength and Stamina to 99. When a character gains HP, they get as many added to their maximum as they have Stamina. So now when Josef gets more HP, he gets 99. And that's a lot.




Surprised?


High defense, Protect Shell Blink Barrier Wall chip damage, etc. etc.


The Stardust Rod is Minwu-exclusive. It does not cast Meteor or anything like it when used in battle.


It does, however, cap his Intelligence, Spirit, and Magic. Since Spirit determines MP growth, Minwu's MP is going to start shooting up like Josef's HP.

[R^2]

The Dark Behemoth isn't a boss, but it is very strong. But it outlines a bit of a problem with these lategame encounters. With my Protect Rings, Ribbons, and emphasis on Evasion, I can dodge or minimize most special attacks. Physical attacks will kill between zero and one party members each turn. Everyone on my team knows a Life spell, and when MP runs out, I bought a load of Phoenix Downs back in Machanon. Fights aren't really dangerous anymore -- just tedious.






Oh come on, you're not even trying this time.


Black Dragons show up as uncommon random encounters here, so I happen to know that they are susceptible to Teleport.


Ricard finally gets a weapon upgrade. Minwu and Scott have been swapping out weapons every time I find a new one, but Ricard hasn't found much better than that Flame Lance until now.

The Wyvern Lance boosts Ricard's Strength and Agility to 99. Which means he doesn't really need that shield anymore...


I bet dual-wielding lances gets really awkward, but Ricard can handle it.

[R^2]

It's the mirror reverse of the chamber I found Masamune in.






He's fond of casting Fire spells at level 16, but his defense won't save him. He dies like Steel Giant and Beelzebub Soul did before him.




The Wild Rose casts Berserk 16 when used as an item, boosting the attack power of the entire party. Really wish I had known that before instead of finding out while looking up the stats for Excalibur a minute ago. It also boosts Scott's Strength and Intelligence to 99, cementing his intended status as a sword-mage.


I'm far enough along that monsters aren't popping out of every chest anymore, but on the other hand, my characters walking around with Ice Shields or Gold Shields already have an Evasion of 99% -- the only party member who needs the boost is Josef, who is shieldless on account of that interfering with bareknuckle combat. I give the Aegis Shield to Scott, letting the Shield take the duty of halving all elemental damage, so I can give Scott's Ribbon to Ricard.

At some point Ricard also picks up a Holy Lance, which is something I probably should have screencapped because it turns him into a slayer of all beasts that stand before him.

[R^2]

I've taken out all the other optional bosses, so why not?


chip chip chip chip chip

Blink is obviously set up here, but the yellow or green glow from Protect or Shell didn't get picked up.


Blink reduces the number of hits, Protect reduces their severity, and everyone's HP is drastically higher than before. Ultima Weapon has a hard time cranking out enough damage that Minwu can't keep up.


That goes double if he tries to spread a single attack over the entire party. I guess the Aegis Shield isn't as effective as the Ribbon at halving damage, huh Scott?


Chip chip chip. These battles take a long time without posing much of a challenge anymore. I guess I could try to grind Josef and Ricard into decent spellcasters since their Strength isn't going to go up any more, but man, that'd take a long time. Ricard's Magic stat right now is nine.








I got this screencap mostly to show that he learned Ultima, but check it: Minwu has Cure at level 13. That's how much patching up he's been doing of all the other characters, and shows how much grinding it takes to get through this bonus dungeon. In the main game, a dedicated spellcaster is going to hit about level ten with his favorite spell by casting it throughout the entire game.

[R^2]

So let's look into Ultima a bit. Here's what Minwu looks like -- scattered weapon proficiency since mages don't get any special benefit from using staffs (or avoiding axes and swords) in this version of the game. He still has most of the spells he started with, although he's gotten more practice with many of them. Protect and Shell and Teleport have gone up several levels, Swap and Basuna just don't come up that often. His skills with everything else are at levels 13, 8, 8, 8, 8, 7, 7, 7, 7, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 5, 5, 5, 5, 4, 4, 1, 1, and 0 (for the empty sixteenth spell slot, which I'm pretty sure still counts). That's an average of 5.54, for whatever that's worth.






Now to be honest, getting triple-digit damage out of a level 1 spell is pretty impressive. A level 1 Fire or Blizzard might -- might -- do 15 or 20 damage. But Minwu could do more damage whacking the monsters with his staff.


Ultima's graphic effect turns into lasers and shockwaves as it's leveled up.




Level 6 is the major practice curve. I haven't counted precisely, but it seems like it takes about as many castings to get from level 1 to level 6 as it does to get from level 6 to level 7. Grinding really starts to slow down at this point, and getting a spell past level 6 generally means it's part of your main repertoire and it's used in most battles over the course of several major plot points in the game. This being the bonus dungeon, I don't have that kind of time.

So anyway, what kind of damage does Ultima do at level 6?


About 200 points more than Flare level 6, and about as much as Minwu can do by whacking something with that legendary staff carried in his admittedly noodly arms.

[R^2]

So...

I'm going to cheat. I'm using a Codebreaker code to speed up the leveling of Minwu's magic skills. There isn't one just to pump one spell at a time, so all of his stuff is going to increase over the course of a handful of battles.


I stop at Ultima level 10, because again, that's the game's practical limit. His average level for weapon and spell skills that aren't Ultima is now 8.8.






Nice! Four-digit damage!


...that's less than Gordon can do by swinging a sword...




...and about a third of Ricard's total damage output.


...

...Ultima sucks.

[R^2]

But if I can beat Ultima Weapon, I can probably try my hand at whatever's at the end of this dungeon.




ha ha ha what

Minwu: The emperor!
Emperor: But not the emperor you have come to know.
Ricard: He is somehow different from the creature I fought...
Emperor: You must permit me to apologize for his indiscretions. Firion and his companions did indeed defeat me. I died once at their hands. Then came the rift -- the split between the light half and the dark.
Minwu: A light half?
Emperor: Yes. My dark half plummeted to Hell, where he gained his fell power. There he became master of Pandaemonium.
Minwu: Then... this isn't Pandaemonium?
Emperor: Though they look alike, you now stand in Arubboth, palace of the heavens. The passage you thought was Jade is in fact Raqia, realm of fallen angels. Angels who have sinned are twisted into beasts and cast out into its depths. I found myself here and became lord of Arubboth. As for you, Minwu, who forfeited your life to lift the seal on Ultima... Scott, who fell defending the remote Kashuan Keep... Josef, crushed by a falling boulder in Borghen's Trap... And Ricard, the last dragoon, who sacrificed himself to my dark half... You who lost your lives fighting the empire -- it was I who brought you here.
Minwu: Why?
Emperor: To beg your forgiveness, of course. The good must pay penance for the deeds of the wicked. And I mean to.
Minwu: You want us to forgive you?
Scott: Hmph. Is that all?
Josef: You've got some nerve!
Ricard: You mock us!
Emperor: I expected you'd say as much. Reluctance to forgive has long been a human failing. It is man's nature to sin, yet you answer sin with violence upon violence. Is that not itself a sin?
Minwu: ...

Man, Minwu, now is not the time. God, it smells like something died... er, no offense.

Emperor: Forgive me and you shall have life eternal. You can live in this paradise for all time.

You can have life eternal now that you're dead, and live in this paradise that's a mirror image of hell and stuffed with monsters. You need to work on your sales pitch, chief.

Scott: Forgive you?
Josef: Eternal life, huh?
Ricard: In paradise, no less.
Emperor: Again I offer my apologies for the discourtesies committed by my dark half. Now you... you must forgive me.








What are you all even doing here none of you are dead


At Hilda's prompt, the party looks from heaven into hell and sees that, yes, at this moment Firion and crew are battling the Emperor's dark half, lord of Pandaemonium.


He even demoes the spell I missed when I was actually fighting him before, outside the cutscene.


Ahahahaha!




HEAVENS!






So that's what that looks like.


Man this cinematic doesn't pay attention at all, I taught Ultima to Guy, not Firion, and never got it up to the level where it'd look like that.

[R^2]

Kain: I'm gonna be a dragoon!
Nelly: Don't worry about me!
Gordon: You are the pride of Kashuan, my brother!
Hilda: I will never give up. You can do no less!

Pah! You all sound like chapters from a self-help booklet! The apparitions disappear.




Can't argue with that.

Josef: I didn't come this far to dishonor myself now!
Ricard: My hopes live on in those who remain!
Minwu: We chose to die. But we died so that others might live.
Emperor: Foolish men... If you will not have eternal life, I will give you eternal suffering!


You have to fight him. I mean, it's the what-are-you-even-doing-in-heaven you're-obviously-still-evil half of the Emperor's soul, and he's sitting in a mirror-image throne of where the Lord of Hell half of him was sitting, so it's no surprise or anything.


Nice threads, though.