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[R^2]

Lenna: Hiryu!
Faris: He's hurt pretty bad...
Lenna: Hiryu... Don't worry, I'll take care of you.


Lenna then goes traipsing off through the poison nettles.




She does!




The dragon grass fixes Hiryu right up, but Lenna's covered in thorns and dying of poison. So I guess Hiryu will join the party once Lenna dies!


Or Hiryu will use some dragon magic or something to deus ex machina Lenna back to perfect health.




Don't be an idiot, riding the dragon was your idea in the first place.




Hiryu can't fly over mountains, but water is no barrier. He's a bit like a black chocobo, only he lands on plains instead of in forests.

[R^2]

Music: The Dragon Spreads Its Wings
If I can't find GBA music of some of the better tracks, I'll just go with the SNES version.


There's a tower that looks awfully familiar from the scene where Lenna got the blessing from the crystal of Water. This must be where it's kept... but the tower guards say I need permission from Walse to enter.


Before that, though: the wind drake lets us fly over that meteor crash site...


...and return to Tycoon. Well, "return" in Lenna's case. Bartz started the game southwest of here and Galuf we found at the meteor impact site.




They sure are surprised to see us.

Chancellor: Princess Lenna!
Lenna: Forgive me... I didn't mean to worry you.
Chancellor: No need to fret about that now. But please, you must return to the palace! Our guard has been severely weakened by monster raids, but there is no way we can recover without our princess!
Lenna: I'm sorry... I cannot stay.
Chancellor: Princess, you have a responsibility to this kingdom!
Lenna: Yes...but more importantly I have a responsibility to the world. Right now, we are all in danger... What's more... Father is still alive, and I--
Chancellor: ...I understand. Princess Lenna, we will protect the kingdom, I swear it!
Lenna: And I swear to return, and bring Father back. Until that time, please hold things together here.
Chancellor: For now, will you at least stay the night?
Lenna: Certainly.


Lenna awakes in the middle of the night.


Faris is already up.

Lenna: Faris?
Faris: Hm? Ah, Lenna. It's late...you should be in bed.
Lenna: So should you...Sister.
Faris: ...!!!
Lenna: I'm right, aren't I? You're my older sister...
Faris: Wh-what are you going on about? Me, your... That's daft!
Lenna: But...
Faris: Besides, a buccaneer like me, really a prince -- er, princess? 'Tis a bit much, that!


Faris gives a quick chuckle, then runs back inside.

[R^2]

Well, at least Lenna wasn't making up the whole "I have an older sister" thing.


And, well... Faris is the sort of person who could conceivably have been found by seagoing folks. It's not entirely implausible.


The chancellor gives us a Healing Staff, and the chests have a katana and a bell inside. The Staff is for white mages who want to restore HP with physical attacks, but no one can equip the katana or the bell.


Other than a few well-wishes from nameless NPCs, that's about it for Tycoon. The area south of the aforementioned water crystal tower has a town and a castle. Must be Walse.

[R^2]

This shaggy thing? I wonder how that's important.




The magic shop stocks spells we can't use yet.


Oh yeah. Final Fantasy 5 has a lighter tone than Final Fantasies two and four, and this is reflected in the item and ability descriptions. Anyway, I'm selling outdated gear for the Walse shop equipment upgrades. It's not much, but every little bit helps.

[R^2]

Wow, sounds great!


...oh, you!


Lenna: King Walse. You look well. I come with a request. Please, stop amplifying the power of the water crystal!
King Walse: Ho ho ho... You must be joking. I could never do that! My people live comfortably thanks to the crystal's power.
Lenna: King Walse, if left as it is, the crystal will shatter!
King Walse: Hmm... I have heard about the incident with the wind crystal... However... No evidence proves that the same thing will happen to the water crystal. Furthermore, I am certain that the people would be opposed to ceasing the crystal's amplification.
Bartz: Look, we don't have time to be arguing over this...


He's right!


...another meteorite!?


It lands near the Tower of Walse!


I just said that!

King Walse: What!? There is no time to lose. Assemble the guard! To the tower at once!
Soldier: Yes, sire!
King Walse: Pardon this interruption... I believe you understand the severity of the situation. We'll continue this later.

That went well! We're left to our own devices in the castle.






Talking to this scholar makes me feel like I could fly twice as high as a butterfly.




You can release any of the prisoners you like, but Lone Wolf will loot a cave we'll be visiting later if you let him out of jail here.

[R^2]

There's another tunnel not far from the jail.


With monsters inside!


Oh, crap! We're up a creek!






Physical strikes are useless...


...using elemental magic is worse than useless.


Faris's Knight training lets her Guard the Jackanapes's attacks, but that's a good way to get nowhere.


We didn't have a prayer.

[R^2]

There's a secret passage behind the waterfall, of course.


There are monsters here, too!




When left alone, Elf Toads will use Pond's Chorus, which turns the target into a frog. So that's another blue spell learned.


On the fourth floor of the water tower is a globe with a flame inside. Say, that looks an awful lot like Rydia's spellstarter from the last game...


Why would we command you? We don't even have that job yet.


The Ice Commanders use physical hits. Shiva herself casts Blizzara every turn, first on the front row, then on the back. If everyone's on the same row, she just blasts the entire party every turn, making for an extremely difficult battle.


As it is, we have a hard time chewing through her front guard anyway. Those spells add up!


Once Bartz and Lenna dropped, I moved Faris to the front row so Shiva couldn't hit both Faris and Galuf at the same time. It didn't help.

[R^2]

Well, Walse Castle is full of monsters stronger than we can handle. Perhaps the Tower is less bad.


It's there or the Meteor site, and there's nothing to be found at the impact crater.


Shy until they go on a homicidal rampage... I dated a girl in high school like that.




As you might expect from a Tower dungeon, it's all upstairs from here.


It's quite linear, though.




The enemies here are quite unremarkable, except that they show off how terrible the initial translation attempt was. In the Anthology version on PlayStation, those Wyverns there? The game called them "Y Burn". Close, but even Bordam Daravon looks like an English professor by comparison.


I'm assuming that was supposed to be "Richard Mage" but had to be compressed for space constraints. Could they just have named him "Gareth" instead?

[R^2]

In the Crystal room, the shaggy beast we met in Walse town is staring down a soldier of some sort.




Well, good try, nameless soldier dude.




Garula is a physical hitter. But this one's enraged to the point where it gets multiple counterattacks, so each hit you do means it thrashes the party even more. Its only special attack is Charge, which does damage continually as the fight continues. Garula's only spell is Toad, which it will cast on itself to reverse the effect if you succeed in using Pond's Chorus to transform it.


Other than that, it's just a knock-down drag-out brawl with a rampaging elephant-sorta-thing.




Even without Garula smashing the crystal or its machinery, the crystal breaks anyway.

[R^2]

Galuf: ...Me? You know who I am?
Knight: Lord Galuf... Couldn't protect it... For-forgive...
Galuf: Hey -- stay with me, man! Please, tell me who I am!
Knight: Fire crystal...protect...ngh...

And with that, he expires. He crawled over to the doorway to die, blocking the way out since no one wants to step over his corpse to leave.






The crystal shards also give the group access to Mystic Knight, Red Mage, Summoner, and Zerberker.


Then there's a big earthquake!


There's no time to climb up the landing there for the last crystal...


...not with the whole world map changing out from under us!


*glub*

[R^2]

Suddenly... Syldra out of nowhere!


Syldra starts snatching people up in its mouth. Beats drowning, I guess...




Syldra horks everyone up onto a beach.


Syldra cries in confirmation.




Syldra gives another long, mournful cry, and drifts out to sea.


Once again, Faris has to be physically restrained from diving into the water after her.

[R^2]

The Zerberker is a strong physical fighter. They can't take any commands because they're too busy chopping things up with axes. The job only has two levels: one teaches Berserk as a passive ability, the other allows Equip Axes.


Mystic Knights enchant their swords with black magic and hit monsters with them. It's cheaper in MP in the long run to drop Blizzaga on a sword and use the sword to kill a fire enemy, or however the elemental weaknesses work out. Their job levels teach Critical Shell, protecting the user when their HP is too low for it to make a difference, and then allow the !Spellblade command over various levels of magic.


Time Mages -- better understood if you know the Japanese name covers both time and space -- are much like they appear in Final Fantasy Tactics. They get Haste and Slow and Stop, control gravity with HP-splitting skills, and can eventually learn to throw enemies into alternate dimensions or summon meteors. Their job levels allow the !Time command, so any class can cast Time magic, culminating in the damn-useless Equip Rods.


Summoners summon. As in Final Fantasy 4, only the most rudimentary spells are available from the start. The rest you earn in trials by combat. Their job levels give other jobs the !Summon command, ending with the ability to !Call a monster at random for no MP cost. Summoners have the highest Magic stats in the game, and mastering the job gives that boost in power to Freelancers.


Red Mages are as they've always been -- decent fighters and mixed black-and-white magicians. They only have four job levels, because they can only cast up to level 3 black and white magic. !Red just isn't that useful after the early-to-midgame. But their last job level is !Dualcast, allowing them to cast two spells in one turn -- and with any other kind of magic as a secondary ability, they can !Dualcast advanced black or white magic, time magic, or summons... assuming they have the MP. As you'd expect for such a great power, !Dualcast is expensive -- it's 999 ABP to learn, after picking up !Red level 3.

I'm saving Galuf's training in Zerberker and White Mage for later, on account of Plot Reasons. Further suggestions for party makeup are welcome.

[Rico]

Worth noting that when you get to -aga magic !Spellblade instakills on weakness. Flare also has the effect of halving defense. Black Magic really gets the shaft in this game, between Rapid Fire Spellblade being broken-amazing to the point they had to invent gimmicks to make the bonus bosses immune and Summons doing all the elemental damage without a multi-target penalty.

[Zaratustra]

Dualcasting is important, but you're highly unlikely to get it unless you spend the whole game as red mage or grind some Movers. Mystic Knight looks like a good pick.

[A²]

And even with Dualcasting and Spellblades, there's a way to go even further beyond breaking the game like prison currency.

[R^2]

Well, I don't have chemists yet.

[R^2]

Old guy: If ships aren't sailing, how in the world did he get here?


It's the plot setup to a Final Fantasy game. I'd give them fifteen minutes.


Sounds pretty suspicious!


Oh sure, a few minutes ago you were all "Pff like I have to listen to you" but now you're going "You have to save the last two crystals from people as stupid as me hur hur"


So, this meteorite thing.


It has a door now, for no readily explained reason. I guess the guy from Karnak punched it open when he realized he was stuck inside a meteor.




Step on the thing, and Bartz vanishes.


Everyone else jumps in, because why not?


Not without some JRPG-style self-reflection, in Galuf's case.


The world map pans past Tule, to points west. To places we've not yet been!


Crazy!

[R^2]

It's a long hike through hills and vales, but eventually we reach a town and a castle.


Welp, there you have it.


Um guys excuse me your town seems to be on fire does no one care


Man: They were so bothersome, the queen built a giant wall to shut them out! Er... Obviously, now you can't get to the library anymore.

Kid: Professor Cid's the guy who made the crystal amplification machines. He's a genius!

Townsperson: A horde of monsters crawled from that meteorite trying to get to the crystal... Now they won't let anyone in the castle!

Youth: The monsters haven't tried to attack the town yet... Small favors, huh?

Lady: The Library of Ancients is to the south of here. Professor Cid's supposed to be from that area.

Barkeep: Did you hear? They've got Professor Cid locked up in the dungeon of the castle!

Engineer: Thanks to the crystal, it's nothing to make weapons and armor. That's why we don't only have the best-quality goods in Karnak, but the best prices, too!

Drunk: Weapons and armor from Jachol are all super-strong!

There's an engineer outside who might wish to have a word with you.


The pub has another piano to practice with.


The magic shop is locked up tight.


But the engineer outside was right, this stuff is super-cheap!


STOP RIGHT THERE CRIMINAL SCUM

What what did we do we were gonna pay for the sword

[R^2]

Accuser: They're with the monsters! We saw you all crawl from the meteorite -- don't try to deny it!


The screen fades out as the party is dragged away by soldiers.


They awake in a prison cell.


But they did get their cheap Mythril Sword. (Whatever you choose to purchase in Karnak town to trigger the arrest cutscene is added to your inventory as though you bought it legitimately. Unfortunately, you can't get more than one -- a shame, since the weapon store sells Fire, Frost, and Thunder Rods.)


There's someone in the next cell over, but we can't talk to them.




Eventually the person explodes a hole in the wall!






Everyone laughs at him.

[Büge]

Everyone laughs at him.

Hee hee, just like in The Count of Monte Cristo.