Topic: We're cute! We're scary! We love to LP Final Fantasy IV Advance! (Read 37064 times)

R^2 · « **Reply #380 on:** August 09, 2013, 11:56:01 AM »

...the Tower that served as a link between the Earth and the Moon wasn't even involved in anything! I beat up the Kamen-derived superweapon that teleported down from the moon, but I assure you the Tower of Babel is intact.

Unless summoning the Giant wrecks the Tower itself, but that doesn't make any sense either.

Blue Lunar Crystal: Powerful weapons that once posed a threat to lunarians are sealed away in the core along with Zemus.

Yellow Lunar Crystal: We shall guide you to the core.

Silver Lunar Crystal: You must head for the moon's core.

Orange Lunar Crystal: We are the Crystals of the moon.

Indigo Lunar Crystal: A tremendous energy field exists between Zemus and our people.

Golden Lunar Crystal: Containing Zemus's madness within strains our power to the utmost.

Robin's-Egg Crystal: FuSoYa and KluYa's son entered the core more than a while ago...

All right, the Lunar Subterrane! Unless the game wants to drop a whole other new world map on me again after I'm done, this is very probably the final dungeon!

R^2 · « **Reply #381 on:** August 09, 2013, 12:05:14 PM »

Music: Lunar Subterrane
Is it really "Subterrane" if "Terrane" implies the Earth and this is on the moon? It seems the GBA and DS versions didn't include this in their sound tests, so you get SNES music rips instead. It's kind of obnoxiously bombastic anyway -- especially if you have to listen to the first ten seconds over and over again because random battles keep restarting the music -- so no big loss.

The Lunar Subterrane, as befitting a final dungeon, is chock-full of hidden passages.

And trapped treasure chests. In this case, the chest holds endgame armor for D.Ni, whom the game will continue to assume is in the party.

Not surprisingly, the monsters in here give rather a lot of experience and money. Friday only has one spell left to learn and several experience levels left before she learns it, but Lyrai has several holes in her list of black magic to fill.

Because labyrinths are far too simple to use as a final dungeon, there are teleporters scattered about.

R^2 · « **Reply #382 on:** August 09, 2013, 12:12:39 PM »

It's obnoxious to have to fight a battle for half the treasures, but for now the game sticks to mobs that appear in random encounters. The Sage's Staff is endgame equipment of sorts for Friday, increasing her Spirit and allowing her to cast Life for free. I keep her with her bow and arrows.

But I got rid of Deathbringer back in act two!

"Pale Dim" in the SNES version, and it's anybody's guess why. The White Dragon counters physical attacks with Slow and magic attacks with Earthquake. Counterattacks reset his initiative gauge, though, preventing him from using his physical hits or his Maelstrom special attack. Keep whacking him and he's locked into doing nothing but casting Slow, making for an easy victory.

It's a katana for ninja, who are assumed to still be in the party.

R^2 · « **Reply #383 on:** August 09, 2013, 12:19:45 PM »

This chest is at the end of a twisty hidden path. Inside is a Flame Whip for Lyrai.

The next several chests aren't trapped and contain a set of Dragon armor for Mars. Each piece gives a little extra resistance to fire, ice, and electric attacks.

Called the "Tricker" in the SNES version to give you some hint that they may not have your best interests at heart, the Li'l Murderer will cast Scan on himself over and over to reveal his elemental weakness to lightning. But if you take the bait, it laughs at you and blasts the entire party with Thundaga again and again.

So if you do that, set up Reflect first.

MUSTACHE POWER

Okay the holy-elemental claw might have something to do with it too.

Now when I fight counter-happy behemoths I just let Kabbage power up and punch them out. My reward for this one is the Stardust Rod, giving Lyrai a boost to intelligence and the ability to cast Comet for free. I remember Comet being more powerful at this stage of the game, but it only does a couple hundred damage to enemies...

R^2 · « **Reply #384 on:** August 09, 2013, 12:25:09 PM »

Sadly, it's not long before the chest monsters get a major upgrade -- but they're still just random-encounter mobs. Eek! Red Dragons are as weak to ice as you'd expect, but that doesn't work for Blue Dragons. Those guys absorb all elemental attacks.

Also, you can't flee from colored dragons short of using a special skill that allows you to do so, like a Teleport spell.

The reward is the first piece of Crystal gear for Brent, which reduces the damage he takes from undead monsters.

Surprisingly, a Protect Ring isn't out of a trapped box.

Are you getting as sick of these as I am?

I've always wondered about this little outcropping. Why is it there?

R^2 · « **Reply #385 on:** August 09, 2013, 12:50:22 PM »

Another room, another chest. Nothing unusual to see here, folks.

Unless you have the Siren item, which automatically throws you into a fight with the rarest mob in the area. In this case, the rarest mob is...

...the elusive Flan Princess! They were Pink Puffs in the SNES version, and these guys are legendary for their ability to not show up and drop items. Their rarest drop is the Pink Tail, which can be traded in at Adamant Grotto for a suit of Adamant Armor.

Once the battle begins, the Flan Princesses will invite you to dance, changing the music from the usual battle score to Samba de Chocobo. Then they slap you around, causing Berserk to anyone they hit.

So before you're put down on their dance cards, cast Blink on Lyrai. A berserked summoner is almost useless, but a couple of Mega Flares take the Princess Flans down quickly.

I use up all three Sirens, making scads of money in the process, but with only a tiny chance of getting a Pink Tail I walk away without anything else to show for it. I've read that between the rarity of the monster, the rarity of it dropping items, and the rarity of that item drop being a Pink Tail, the total odds of any encounter in this room leading to Adamant Armor are in the neighborhood of one in ten thousand. That seems a bit much, but I gotta say: I've never gotten a suit legitimately before.

R^2 · « **Reply #386 on:** August 09, 2013, 12:56:35 PM »

This Protect Ring was better-guarded.

Whew. This is an optional side area, but the chance to stop and rest is a welcome one.

Hmm, another altar.

Dark Bahamut -- which is kind of a generic, cheesy name and I vastly prefer "Wyvern" -- doesn't screw around with the countdown and opens with Mega Flare. And I'm not sure exactly how, but the girls are immune (although I guess it's Protect Rings since both of them are wearing one).

DUAL DRAGON DRAGON DUEL

Mega Flare still bounces. Usually I protect Friday and Lyrai first, since they're the most fragile party members, but again -- they're not taking any damage anyway.

Eventually Dark Bahawyvern gives Mega Flare a rest and just starts bouncing regular Flares off his own Reflection.

It's a tough fight, mainly because the guy can crank out so much damage and partially because you can either defend yourself with Reflect or keep the party fighting with Cure-class spells, but not both.

The reward is totally worth it, though.

MarsDragon · « **Reply #387 on:** August 09, 2013, 12:58:00 PM »

Quote from: R^2 on August 09, 2013, 12:19:45 PM

The next several chests aren't trapped and contain a set of Dragon armor for Mars. Each piece gives a little extra resistance to fire, ice, and electric attacks.

I AM BECOME DRAGON

R^2 · « **Reply #388 on:** August 09, 2013, 01:08:46 PM »

At this point I should be getting preemptive attacks against every monster-in-a-box. There's no way they're taking anybody by surprise anymore. The Minerva's Suit/Plate/Bustier is a great piece of armor for a female fighter, since it's ladies-only and boosts physical stats at a penalty to magic stats. So it's perfect for... uh... um... who were the female fighters in this game again?

A not-after-a-hidden-passage-on-an-optional-dungeon-branch save point is waiting on the seventh basement level.

Right before two rooms with guarded treasures.

Man why you gotta be like that? Is it because you're mad you didn't get a whole altar to yourself like the other guys did?

Plague Horror casts Doom on the whole party right off. There's no immunity to it, there's no curing the status -- you have until the timer counts down and everyone dies to beat him.

In a dick move, he tries to speed up the timers, too.

I mean, it's pretty good. It's not bad. It's not GREAT. It's not all that. It's not Ragnarok good. It's not Colonel-FUCKING-Campbell good. But it's alright.

These guys sit in a weird place for me. I keep forgetting they exist, and occasionally the surprise me by being kind of hard to kill.

But for whatever reason, this was not one of those times. (Kabbage's holy-power ~~mustache~~ claw may be a factor.)

R^2 · « **Reply #389 on:** August 09, 2013, 01:19:11 PM »

The eighth level of the Subterrane is the entrance to the Lunar Core.

It's pretty dull, honestly. A bunch of switchback paths to make sure you take as many steps as possible...

...To provoke as many random encounters as possible. Behemoths and Blue and Red Dragons are all random encounters down here, as are some new monsters, like the Reflect-happy Wicked Mask.

Another altar? Sheesh, how many of these things are there?

Oh right. Ninja, who the game assumes is still in the party, can dual-wield.

As Dark BahamuWyvern was a powered-up version of Bahamut, Ogopogo makes Leviathan look like a pushover.

That Leviathan is actually a pushover once you have Thundaga is not the issue here.

Ogopogo opens with a doublecast Tidal Wave for some significant damage. He is fond of counterattacking incoming magic: lightning spells are countered with Whirl (a variation of Tornado), other magic is countered with Ice Storm.

Well, I'm sure D.Ni will appreciate this whenever we see him again.

I got an item drop! One of the first in the game, that's how rare item drops are even when they're not rare item drops. Of course, it's a powerful enemy granting me some character-exclusive equipment I already have...

On the last path in the Lunar Core, monsters are replaced by Zemus's Breath -- who is mostly harmless, casting Scan over and over on the party as long as you don't provoke his magic counters...

...and Zemus's Mind, who has crazy-high defense, counters incoming physical and magic attacks with Protect and Shell as appropriate, and is fond of Confusing the party into killing each other. Zemus! Mind control! Get it?

R^2 · « **Reply #390 on:** August 09, 2013, 01:23:00 PM »

Speaking of Zemus, mind control, and the Lunar Core...

In the DS version, when you go to the subscreen menu, the person in lead of your party gets a little speech balloon indicating what they think of the latest plot point or reminding you what your next goal is.

As you proceed through the Lunar Subterrane, those thought balloons indicate Cecil struggles with the burden of whether to forgive Golbez and accept him as a brother. Edge battles with being scared out of his wits and too cocky to admit it. Rosa is worried for everyone's safety.

Kain is fighting off Zemus's hypnotism commanding him to betray the party again.

Only this time, Zemus decides that a good first target for Kain's betrayal isn't Cecil -- it's that nigh-defenseless white mage over there.

Zemus tries to mesmerize Kain into killing Rosa. For a psychic villainous mastermind, it seems like a pretty dumb move, because it only pisses Kain off.

R^2 · « **Reply #391 on:** August 09, 2013, 01:26:32 PM »

Brent: Golbez, FuSoYa!

Hold fails, of course. It's low-level paralysis magic and Zemus has all the boss immunities.

R^2 · « **Reply #392 on:** August 09, 2013, 01:31:48 PM »

Golbez: Ready!
Zemus: Die trying.

Huh, Golbez and FuSoYa can Twincast like Palom and Porom. How'd that happen?

In the SNES version, this move is called "W. Meteor". The letter "W" is occasionally used in Japanese as an abbreviation for "Double" -- it's a Double-U, after all. See also Final Fantasy 7's W-Summon and W-Item materia, which let you cast two summon spells or use two items in a single turn (or duplicate consumables, but that's another story).

But in the slew of other retranslations, abbreviations, and censorship, the spell "Holy" got changed to "White". Since Golbez had cast all the black magic and FuSoYa had cast only white magic on Zemus so far, my friends and I had concluded that W-Meteor was instead "White Meteor", a combination of the most powerful white and black spells.

It made sense to early-teenage me. So many dumb things did at the time.

Whether it's two talented casters using their most powerful spell, or a yin-yang bomb forged from white and black coming together, it's enough to kill Zemus either way. I didn't have to fight at all!

R^2 · « **Reply #393 on:** August 09, 2013, 01:35:34 PM »

Golbez: We did it...
FuSoYa: You have much strength. It is a shame Zemus had control of your powers.
Kabbage: Great!

Kabbage: It was a great battle.
Golbez: Brent...
Brent: ...
Friday: Brent...

A wrathful spirit rises from Zemus's body, immolating the corpse.

We... speak in the Royal Plural for no readily apparent reason...

A blast of malice knocks the party unconscious. Only FuSoYa and Golbez remain.

R^2 · « **Reply #394 on:** August 09, 2013, 01:40:56 PM »

Makes as much sense as anything!

Golbez: Zemus... No, now you are Zeromus! This time I will see to it that you are completely destroyed!
FuSoYa: It is time for you... to disappear!

Being a ghost (technically), Zeromus is incorporeal and thus immune to having meteors dropped on him.

It looks like Flare, but blue. Or as they called it in Final Fantasy 2, Flare.

Zeromus: The Crystal cannot cleanse your sins. You are bound by darkness forever!

It's just an extra piece of Lunarian ultratech, but it's no good as a focus for turning undead when the user is as irredeemably evil as Golbez.

R^2 · « **Reply #395 on:** August 09, 2013, 01:42:34 PM »

Fade to black.

R^2 · « **Reply #396 on:** August 09, 2013, 01:48:37 PM »

Elder: So I see... Now is the time to pray for them! Pray for them and this earth! Zara, MCE! We must pray hard to send our prayers to Brent!

Music: Theme of Final Fantasy
If there's one time you open a new browser tab and let the music play while you read the LP, this is it.

Airship crew: Please return to us safely!

King Giott: Do it for this land!

Luca: We are supporting you!

Troian Clerics: We will pray as well!

R^2 · « **Reply #397 on:** August 09, 2013, 01:50:22 PM »

Brent stumbles to his feet, and heroically approaches the wraith of Zeromus...

R^2 · « **Reply #398 on:** August 09, 2013, 01:52:30 PM »

Golbez: Give to the Crystal the holy power within you. Zeromus! Show your true self!

R^2 · « **Reply #399 on:** August 09, 2013, 02:01:26 PM »

The prayers from Earth have given everyone a full restore. You can fight, but Zeromus is still in his wraith form, immune to pretty much everything. He occasionally quakes a bit, which silently removes any positive status you've put on your party. You didn't think you could warm up for the last battle by casting Haste and Shell on everyone before it had even started, did you?

Music: The Final Battle
Now shut the tab from before and start this music instead. The heroic and inspiring Theme to Final Fantasy giving way to the creepy and vaguely discordant Final Battle does a lot to reinforce the "oh shit" moment of Zeromus erupting into his true form to kill you.

I will grant, however, that like most Final Fantasy endbosses Zeromus isn't really much to look at. I mean, I guess that's a face there in front, and arms off to either side? And wings? Fins? His carapace is too damn complicated to work out what's what. It's not as bad as Chaos's crotch-face or Cloud of Darkness's "wait, the vile elemental force is actually a shapely woman?" but it's kind of bad.

Flare? FLARE? How about I give you...

MEGA FLARE?!

Pff, you're gonna need to do much better than that, boyo.

(So he does.)

Ooof! I'd rather you stuck to casting Bio!

Splat. Did you wonder why I haven't updated my LP in a few days? I've been grinding after Zeromus nigh-effortlessly mopped the floor with everyone's faces.

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Author Topic: We're cute! We're scary! We love to LP Final Fantasy IV Advance! (Read 37064 times)