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[R^2]

You can fight Golbez however you want, but I wouldn't recommend wasting consumable items or anything.


Golbez: Such is your power? I expected more.


Unavoidable paralysis to the whole party.

Golbez: Open your eyes... and gaze upon true terror. Shadow, come forth!









The Shadow Dragon sets about killing everydamnone with its Black Fangs.

[R^2]

In a flash, Brent vanishes and... transforms into a dragon? I didn't know he could do that!






An Esuna-like effect covers the whole party... to get Brent whichever position he's in, I guess.

Voice: Are you okay? You can move now.
Brent: That voice...


(Brent didn't actually transform, of course, that was Rydia doing a summon spell from offscreen. :durr:)


Wherever she's been, she's learned a lot!


Beats the hell out of getting kicked by a giant chicken!






And he went down like a chump. If you think about it, it makes sense: we killed his bonded summon beast. And what happens to a summoner when its phantom beast is slain?

Clearly Golbez was not in top form in that battle, reeling from the summoning backlash that would have killed a lesser sorcerer.

[R^2]

Brent: What happened to you?
Rydia: Leviathan took me to the Land of Summons, a world of the summoned monsters. We became friends during my stay. I learned a lot there. I can't use white magic anymore, but I've grown strong as a summoner. Time flows differently there, so I may have aged quite a bit.
Friday: That explains why your appearance has changed.
Mars: Brent, who is she?
Brent: It's the girl we found in Mist.
Kabbage: Fortune favors us indeed.
Brent: Rydia, we owe you our lives. Thank you.
Rydia: You don't have to thank me. The queen of the Land of Summons said to me... "A great force is secretly at work. We must confront it together."

[R^2]

Golbez withers away, leaving only his hand...


...which scuttles around on the floor without anyone bothering to, like, step on it or anything...




...until it grabs the Crystal and teleports away with it.


Giott: One Crystal left... We must protect it at all costs.
Friday: Yes. Where can we find it?
Giott: In the Sealed Cavern to the southwest, where Golbez is heading. Do not worry. He cannot enter without the key.

"Besides, you dunderheads have handed him three of the damned things already. I have an idea that involves you being as far from that Crystal as possible."

Giott: I have a request.
Brent: We will do anything. It was our fault the Crystal was stolen...
Giott: I want you to retrieve the seven Crystals at the Tower of Babel.
Kabbage: I presume it will be fortified.
Mars: ...by Golbez's forces, yes. It won't be easy.
Giott: I have a plan. You will sneak in and seize the Crystals while our tanks distract them. The plan must be executed immediately before Golbez returns from the Sealed Cavern.
Mars: What do you think?
Friday: It's a risk.
Kabbage: As they say, "Nothing ventured, nothing gained."
Mars: As His Majesty says, now might be our only chance.
Brent: Alright. We'll go to the tower and reclaim the Crystals.

[R^2]

It is possible, due to a loophole in the SNES version, to cast Warp as soon as the conversation with Giott ends. This takes you back to the Crystal room as it was when the party entered before the Calcobrena fight: with the crystal still sitting there. You can then pick it up and add it to your inventory. The game continues as normal, but you can skip a harrowing dungeon later if you have the crystal with you going in.

This was fixed in the GBA and later versions, clearly.




Better get to work turning them into transforming warmachines for your own use instead, kiddo.




There's a moderate equipment upgrade in these shops. You can outfit Mars with the stuff Brent found in the Tower of Zot, and get some new armlets for the casters. The weapon shop has a Fire Lance for Mars that's 80 attack power, high enough that the extra power from the Blood Lance doesn't outweigh its myriad disadvantages in accuracy and stat penalties.


Between the counters is a semihidden passage.

[R^2]

The dwarf actually shoves you out of the way as he spins around the room during his routine.


But there's a hidden passage behind the odd spot on the floor.


Ow, the fourth wall!


You can talk to the game development staff! Like any devroom, it's full of injokes and references only other staff members get. See my SaGa Frontier LP for more details!


Some of the staff programmed themselves in as encounters.


The one dressed up like a bomb occasionally drops nudie rags.


It would be, wouldn't it.


Brent, got a new sigfile for you. Or whatever.

[R^2]

Back in the castle, the dwarves invite you to loot the towers of their treasures.


One of them has a Namingway, too, allowing me to change Rydia's name t -- oh god Lyrai is going to kill me

[MarsDragon]

As usual, the central protagonist is the last to wake up. You'd think Friday would have taken care of Brent first.

The rest of us never went down.

[A²]

>:|

[Classic]

The first time I played this scene, Paladin got killed in the previous fight and I was out of MP and Life-items. So the scripting with the just-in-time Summoner save didn't trigger. Seven year old Classic was like: whu~uh?
I think I once managed to save Dragoon by having him jump before the bind and the devouring. Which meant that getting the party back up to 100% was a very fast process.

[Mothra]

Oh god no.

Noooo, don't make me! Aaaahdfgafjdghgadhjjjjj

She has returned for me. She has unfinished business.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH

Nobody... nobody tell my wife... about the giant baby...

[R^2]

Getting everyone back on their feet makes the Golbez fight harder, not easier. He keeps pounding on your party if you go on the defensive, but you can wipe him out in a couple of turns of paladin swordplay and summons.

[Brentai]

I miss your wife.

[R^2]

Every RPG had a midgame slog. This is the one for this game!

Music: Land of Dwarves. The underworld theme is a slightly different rendition of the overworld theme.


The Tower of Babel is a hike across the magma plains. It's more or less linear, though.


Since we're in a new map entirely, it's no surprise that the monsters have grown up a bit. Most of them are weak to ice, though, and we have a summoner with Shiva.




Upon approaching the Tower, we find the tanks already locked in combat against Babel's defenses.


Since it worked so well last time we saw them, we just stroll up between the tanks and their intended target and let the shells fly where they may. What's the worst that could happen, we already crashed the airship!

[R^2]

Music: Tower of Babel
The dungeon was called the "Tower of Bab-il" in the SNES version, but come on, it's a structure that reaches from the lowest foundations the world has to offer into the heavens. It's obvious what they mean.


As outside, most of the enemies in the Tower are weak to ice attacks.


And as expected for the enemy base, most of the treasures worth anything are trapped.


Security Eyes do nothing on their own but try to confirm the presence of hostiles.


But if you hit them, they sound an alert...


Summoning a monster.

They're like the Puppeteers from that other tower dungeon. I kill Chimeras, then have Lyraidia (my weakest physical attacker) whip the Security Eye for a little damage to summon another one.


The fire arrows are an enemy drop, probably from a Chimera. The Ice Brand is the prize in the treasure chest.




The next trapped chest summons Stone Golems instead, but gets the same treatment.


The reward is an Ice Lance for Mars. It's awfully obliging of the game to give you elemental-themed equipment in the dungeon where it's the most useful!


Monsters occasionally show up as Mystery Eggs, which hatch when struck. The baffling part is that, given the high encounter rate in the Tower of Babel and the general cluelessness of the party, it's not uncommon for these eggs to ambush or even sneak up behind the party.


The Tower doesn't have any puzzles or traps to speak of. It's just a lot of twisty passages, occasional treasure, and lots and lots of enemy encounters. It's my least favorite part of the game.


Finally, we reach... well, not the top, but at least a landmark.

[R^2]

Rubicante: Not to worry. Eblan has been decimated along with its ninjas. Take care of things until I return.






Once Rubicante teleports out, the old man does a rather lengthy happy dance in celebration.


Lyrai: What's with him?
Friday: Shhh.
Doctor: Who's there? Brent! How did you get up here!?
Mars: Caught you at a bad time, eh? With Rubicante away, what are you going to do?
Doctor: How dare you disrespect me! Fools! I may not be an Elemental Lord, but I, Dr. Lugae, am the brains of Golbez's operation! On my honor, I will protect this tower!
Mars: That's a laugh!
Doctor: I've heard enough out of you! My great creation will shut you up soon enough!


Mars, what have we told you about provoking obvious villains?

[R^2]

Dr. Lugae commands his giant robot Barnabus to attack!


So he hits the Doctor. 


Lugae continues to scream commands at Barnabas, who turns his attention to the party and clobbers them instead.


Well, he tries to.




Lugae climbs into his ruined creation to continue the fight, such as he can. He's a comic-relief inept villain, so he's barely a speedbump.

If you kill Lugae first, Barnabas will instead grind down from lack of maintenance and explode at someone.

[R^2]

Lugae transforms into the Lugaeborg, shredding off his fleshy exterior to reveal the gangly cyborg underneath. Which is kind of scary I guess, but he's still a joke of a fight.


He counters every attack with Sleeping Gas, but that almost always misses. Nonetheless, it's a good time to have Mars jump and Kabbage use Power attacks -- better now to hit extra-hard once than to hit normally twice.


He opens the fight with Poison Gas, which... causes poison status. Mars avoided the attack by being airborne. I have two party members who can cast Esuna and plenty of Antidote items. This is not a major setback.


I don't remember if Lugaeborg is weak to anything, but if your enemy is a robot, try lightning. It's a Final Fantasy rule as well established as roasting undead with fire.


Laser is Lugaeborg's only scary attack, and even that's HP based. The lower his HP gets, the less damage Laser does -- so as the fight drags on, he gets less and less dangerous.


He was made much... well, perhaps not harder, but certainly trickier, in the DS version. There he had a move called Reverse Gas that made damaging effects heal and healing effects damage. He'd cast Cura at the party once they were Reversed, Reverse again, and nail them with Fira. He had a habit of Reversing between giving the command for your spells and those spells resolving, so to an extent the party works against themselves.




Dr. Lugae: ...taken all the Crystals to the surface. The dwares will be annihilated with my cannons! Victory is mine! Mwahahaha!


Kabbage: We've got to stop the cannons!
Mars: What are we waiting for? Let's go!

...are you telling me that the dwarves just sat there firing at the tower after we'd entered? Do they not understand that they can go home after the diversionary tactic is complete?


Incidentally, the Lugaeborg makes occasional cameos in later games.

[R^2]

Of course, even though we passed a locked door several floors ago, Lyrai can't just magic us back down to that level. We have to walk, retreading half the twisty passages that got us here.


So here we are, at the cannon control room.




Brent: You cowards!
Monsters: You! How did you get in here!? Kill them!


We're almost to the point where Kabbage can kill these guys with one kick.






So now the cannons will fire without aiming or... reloading... why are they still a threat, exactly? The dwarves can just move their tanks out of the space the cannons are pointing to.




Lyrai: No!
Brent: It's going to explode!
Kabbage: Go now!


FALCON


PAWNCH


Kabbage punches everyone hard enough to shove them out of the room.

Brent: Kabbage!
Kabbage: Brent, everyone, I thank you.
Mars: Open the door!
Lyrai: Kabbage!
Friday: Please don't do this!
Kabbage: Tell my wife... ...I will always miss her be with her.
Brent: Kabbage!!!
Kabbage: Farewell.



The theme of sorrow plays until you get into a random fight, which in this case took three steps. Way to kill the moment, monsters.

[R^2]

The party walks the rest of the way out of the tower.


Brent: Golbez!
Golbez: When the cat is away, the mice will play. The game ends now.






Golbez destroys the bridge into the Tower. Cecil runs as fast as he can, but there's only so much footspeed available to a guy in plate mail.


Crraaaaaaappp!






Niku dives in on his remodeled airship, catching the party before they splatter on the stones below. Let's just ignore that the airship flies because of massive propellers pointing upwards, like a helicopter, that everyone would have fallen through.


Niku: Where's Kabbage?
Lyrai: *sob sob*
Niku: ...We've lost another good man. And who is she?
Brent: Lyrai. She's a summoner from Mist.