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[R^2]

Back on the world map, there are no more goblins and sasquatches and so on. The whole world map got a monster upgrade.


This is the village of Galtrea.


Or rather... was.




The guards in Castle Fynn have the skinny: the Emperor stepped up his game once again, and now has summoned a cyclone that is flattening cities across the world map. The game only had a half-dozen civilized areas to begin with, so we're talking genocide on an even greater scale than the Dreadnought was capable of.


So the Emperor got even more power from his infernal pact, and is straight-up destroying any settlement that offers any resistance to his reign.

[R^2]

Leila: I thought ye were dead for sure. It's good to be wrong now and again!


Hilda: Poft, Paloom, Altair, Gatrea... all were destroyed, one after the other. And now the Cyclone is headed for Fynn...

Ask about Cyclone: The Emperor himself is controlling the cyclone, no doubt.


Very little. I'm not grinding up to make it useful.

Gordon: Unless we can sprout wings and learn to fly, I don't see how we can get into that cyclone.


Yep.


...Yep.




The "failed a spot check" from before is now a passageway, leading to a room of middling treasure. The best of the lot is this Blood Sword, which takes 1/16 of an enemy's HP, no matter how much that is.


Explore if you want, but the other cities are simply not there anymore.

[R^2]

Seems legit. Where's this mirror?














How convenient we have someone in the party capable of talking to this little guy. I'm naming him Greg.


Despite being large enough for four people to ride on comfortably, Greg folds up for easy storage in the party's backpack.

[R^2]

Good thing we got here when we did. We're moments from the Cyclone hitting Fynn.






There's a floating fortress in the middle of the Cyclone for some reason.

[R^2]

The Cyclone is a five-floor dungeon, but despite being quite short it's full of dead-end branches, trap rooms, and damage floors. The sort of thing you'd expect from an endgame dungeon, really.




There are newer, stronger monsters, the sort of thing you'd expect from an endgame dungeon, really. Golems are a bit tricky, because they're one of the two monster classes that resist Matter magic (the other being Flans, which had me pulling my hair out in the Mysidian Cave). Matter magic includes Toad, Warp, and Teleport, so my usual shortcuts to victory don't work here.




But other monsters who don't resist Matter magic get the usual treatment.


Greg is a useable item, it turns out.


He uses Blaze... 9? 13? Something reasonably high-level,


but not particularly strong.


Defender does some pretty amazing things for your evasion stats.

[R^2]

Yeah! Your traps can't save you now!

Emperor: Yet still you are mere insects, unworthy even of being crushed under my foot.


He sics the Royal Guard on us.




Let's see how you fare against... THREE Royal Guards instead of four!


Emperor: It would appear I've sorely underestimated you. You should consider what I am about to do a great honor... I shall kill you personally!

That's right! We're going to fight mano a mano! Man to man! Just you... and me...


...And my guaaards!


The Emperor is quite fond if lightning magic. Run amok!




He also has a steady supply of Elixirs to quaff, restoring him fully. But drinking one takes his turn, and I'm still smacking him around, so it's a delay tactic at best.


All in all, the Emperor doesn't put up much of a fight. He spends too much time on casting effect spells that miss more often than not (he's fond of Slow), his recovery stalls him from attacking, and his magic is just too weak to put a serious dent in my party.


Metagaming: Why am I getting a treasure after the battle? Didn't I just win the game?

[R^2]

The Emperor throws his hands up and screams (UBOOOOOOAAAA!! in Japanese), then flickers away like everyone else in the game who has died.


Firion: We should get back to Fynn. They'll be waiting!


Hilda: The world was bound in darkness, but now the light of peace shines once more. Firion, Maria, Guy, Ricard... What more could we ask of you? The tales of your bravery will be handed down for generations. Now, let us celebrate. Many have come hoping to catch a glimpse of the heroes who brought down the emperor... I wouldn't want to disappoint them.






There's a grand gala to be had at the game's ending, where Hilda dances with Gordon, Firion dances with Maria, and Leila stands back and watches everyone else.


Oh yeah, forgot about that guy. Wait, Leon? Our Leon? How could anyone have seen that coming?!

That wasn't foreshadowed at all!

[R^2]

...we've slaughtered hundreds of imperial troops by ourselves, we saved the last wyvern, we personally blew up the Dreadnought, we killed the Emperor with our own hands inside his flying tornado fortress. And you're afraid of something so mundane as the Palamecian army?




Oh, now you're just being melodramatic.




Welp, ball's over.

[R^2]

Maria: I'll go to him. I'll make him understand... He must be acting under the spell of the emperor! I know it!
Hilda: If he's ascended the emperor's throne, there's only one place he can be: Palamecia.

Ask about Palamecia: Castle Palamecia is a fortress situated high in the mountains. It cannot be approached on foot.


Firion: This is our battle... you have to let us finish it.
Gordon: I had a feeling you'd say that... Just make sure you come back.

Ask about Palamecia: It's an impregnable fortress. Luckily, Paul doesn't know the meaning of the word. I've heard him bragging about breaking in.


Paul: The Dark Knight has to go and louse things up again.


Cid: Ooh! My body isn't taking too kindly to the idea of moving around.


Guy: Cid okay?
Cid: I'm a mess is... what I am. But my airship made it through without a scratch. I wanna lend it... to you... That's LEND... you hear? I'll be wantin' her... back. You take good care... of her...
Firion: Cid? Cid, no! Hold on!




Paul: He knew he was dying, and he was ready. He'd planned on giving you the airship when his time came. He loved that ship with all his heart... and he entrusted it to you. Think about that...

Ask about Palamecia: The time I snuck into the castle, I used a kite to land on the roof. The only way in is from the sky... The sky! If there was ever a time to use Cid's final gift to you, I'd say this was it, wouldn't you?

How incredibly convenient! There's nowhere left to explore on the world map, so really all the airship does is let you into Palamecia.

[TA]

I bet you do, you saucy savage man.

[R^2]

[R^2]

So I got into some battles. A lot of battles. And I spent them with Maria casting Toad on Ricard until she ran out of MP every time. Eventually:


Toad level 16.


Then, to the snowcraft. Hold down the A button and press B twenty-plus times...


And you're taken to an undocumented minigame, like the sliding puzzle on the ship in Final Fantasy 1 that I forgot to document.


It's a memory game. Sixteen cards, flip over two, if they match they stay flipped, you know the drill. If you do this without maxing out the Toad spell, the pictures are of Firion, Maria, Guy, Gordon, Josef, Minwu, Leila, and Ricard. If you max out Toad before you play, the pictures are all of toads instead.


I will admit this makes it rather more difficult, but nothing save states won't fix. If you don't want to outright cheat using save states, you can write down the pattern and then decline to start the next thirty-one games. There are thirty-two patterns the game cycles through each time you play, so it'll cycle around eventually.


If you win without any misses, you get:


The Masamune, the most powerful sword in the game.


And it's niiice.


Miss once?


Aegis Shield.


Miss twice?


Genji Armor.

So I do that a bunch, equipping Firion, Maria, and Guy all with Masamunes, Aegis Shields, and Genji Armors. Because I've ground up enough, and I'm going to blaze through the endgame from here.

[R^2]

On to Palamecia!


H... how do you land?


In a move that probably made more sense when Palamecia was a square area on a flat world map, you have to land a square or two behind the castle instead of directly on it. In the original version, this was probably the top of the castle. Here, where the castle stands up into the air, it seems like you're landing in the mountains a short hike away.

[R^2]

Brief dungeons, new monsters, etc. etc.


Sup Leon.


Leon: Do you really think you can kill me?
Maria: Stop! Both of you! Why do you insist on fighting, Leon?
Leon: Weak words, from the weak. Do you know what rules the world? Power. Sheer power! The imperial throne is mine! The weak cannot survive without the strong to control them! How many lives did the rebels throw away when they chose to oppose the empire?


Strong words, but as the throne starts to leak out purple smoke, Leon hops up like something bit him on the backside and stands next to us to figure out what's going on.






Oh, hey Emperor Mateu-- hey! We killed you!

Emperor: Though I find the thought of you as emperor quite deliciously absurd, it ends now. This world can have but one emperor, and I am he!
Leon: You're alive? What are you!? Not that it matters. The empire is mine now, and I have no intention of handing it over.


Emperor: All the world shall fall by my hand and the powers I gained in Hell. And your blood will be the first to spill!


That's right. Emperor double-crossed the lord of hell and usurped his throne, and now his infernal pact is with himself.


Firion: Ricard, what are you doing?
Ricard: You may have a little trouble spilling the blood of Ricard Highwind, last of the dragoons!
Emperor: Pathetic insect! I will enjoy making you rue those words!
Ricard: May the spirits of the dragoons lend me their strength...
Maria: Ricard!


Greg flies past and picks up everyone but Ricard, since he's stalling for time.

[R^2]

Palamecia castle explodes, with a series of spires rising from the ruins. So Ricard didn't really accomplish much other than... yes, freeing up the fourth party slot again.

[R^2]

Hilda: You... You're the Dark Knight! You'd best start explaining.
Firion: The emperor has risen from Hell...
Maria: Ricard... Ricard died so we could escape. Josef... Minwu... Cid... Ricard... All dead... I don't know how much more I can take.
Leon: While the emperor lives, more will die.
Firion: Leon... Princess... Let Leon join us. Please...
Hilda: The Dark Knight! A rebel? ... I leave the decision to you.
Maria: Leon! Let's fight the emperor together! Please!
Leon: Maria... Firion... Alright.

...and... that's that. Leon takes the fourth slot, which is about a 80% chance of a death sentence.

[R^2]

Hilda: They entered using a path known as the Jade Passage.

Ask about that: I've heard there is a place in Mysidia known by that name.


Gordon: It's said that those who enter the lake are taken to Hell...




Boy, look at that Evasion. Leon's got some decent weapon skills, but no magic, and with those stats he's pretty well resigned to deadweight.


Well, that helps.


That helps more.




That must be the place.






Final dungeon time.

[R^2]

The Jade Passage is a cavern complex. It's got everything you'd expect from a dungeon by this point.


You can't take two steps without tripping over Gigas Worms, for instance.


And sometimes things somewhat more dangerous than Gigas Worms.




There's a hidden shop behind the waterfall that sells some hard-to-find spells. You know when's a great time to start the process of leveling a new spell, a task that takes literally hundreds of castings? The final dungeon! Perfect time.


The dungeon ends with a teleporter, whynot.


What... gaudy decor.

[R^2]

Still more new monsters, including the series mainstay curly-cats.


And Lamia Queens, same as the one that ensnared Firion with her feminine wiles. Ribbons are their rare drop, and they do the Final Fantasy 1 thing where they raise your resistance to all elemental magic (which in this game includes elements like death, time, matter, etc.) rather than the later-game status ailment resist. It actually does nothing for status ailments, since those spells are mostly non-elemental.


Man if I coulda taken down one of these guys in the beginning of the game I could have skipped so many fetch quests.


Borghen was right, he did see us in hell. He's... not appreciably stronger than he was alive.


There's an unmarked secret door here, leading to...


Well, that'd be a better prize if I didn't have three already from haxxing the snowfield game. But now Leon has a nice sword too and can stop trading off weapons every time I find a new one. (He went Poison Axe -> Holy Lance -> Rune Axe -> Masamune in this dungeon alone.)


Fiend of Wind, everybody. Like Zombie Borghen and many other monsters, he was stuffed into a chest to guard treasure. A piece of Genji Gear, I think.


A freebie I don't have to fight a Lamia Queen for.


...but one I have to fight Astaroth for instead. Dude loves him some Death magic, but I have Protect Rings for that kind of thing since Lamia Queens drop those twice as often as Ribbons.


There are occasionally hidden passages that keep you from taking the long way around some passages, so that's nice. A bit more merciful than I was expecting from hell, honestly.

[R^2]

The starfield means this is the end.


And that's about where my dudes are at. Leon hasn't cast a single spell, because again, why start training that now?


Emperor: But the hand of man, which deals in false justice and forsaken love, can never hope to defeat the lord master of Hell!






The Emperor has only a couple of attack spells, but he wallops pretty hard and drains HP when he does it.


Guy unleashes Ultima! For 158 points of damage. Totally worth Minwu dying, I tell ya.


The Emperor is still fond of casting Slow, despite my magic defense being pretty awesome and resisting it every time.


Oh yeah, I got some of these things that max out Intelligence and Spirit, so I guess this is the time to use them. Couple of these, a few zaps of Holy -- which is much higher level than Ultima -- and I'm doing over 1000 damage a pop.


He didn't even get to use his signature spell, Starfall XV. Which is understandable, that thing takes forever to cast in Dissidia. I just didn't give him time. HEAVUNZ!!