My expectations were low. The previous extra-goodies – FFII’s Souls of Rebirth and FFIV’s Cave of Trials – both had cool premises, but were fairly grindy in practice. I worried that the Lunar Ruins would be the same way: long, grindy, but with a fun and quirky story.
I get this instead. A trippy, hallucinogenic romp down memory lane that mixes combat challenges, good story, puzzles, mazes, humor, and mini-games.
Perhaps I’ll walk through what this path was like after Yang’s trial:
Start: Yang’s Cave
1)Giant of Babil floor?
2)Antlion Cave floor??
3)Underground waterway floor?!?
Wonderful changes of scenery, though all were basic combat stuff. Then hit Edward’s closed door, and kept moving to…
4)A Mysidian library
5)A sunny pig and chocobo farm
6)A maze-like waterfall floor
….
….
FUCK YES
The Mysidian library was a nice little puzzle where I had find a book in a maze of shelves. Got clues from the mages in the library (“It’s on a short shelf,” “The shelf is in sight of a clock”) and returned the book to the guy. No random enemies.
Some of the books in the library I found were pretty great too. My favorite: “Untoaded: Green and Back Again.”
The farm also had no random enemies. The farmer just told me to watch, and a bunch of pigs and girls and chocobos streamed into the farm. I had to count the number of chocobos that were in the pack, and once I got that, a chocobo blocking my path out of the room moved away.
The waterfall room was back to random enemies, but even there it was the puzzle of the room that was tricky. Each waterfall led to a couple of more choices, and at the end of each path was a door or treasure. If I took the wrong door, it sent me back to the start of the room to try a different path. LOVED IT!
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Rydia’s door was next. No Rydia in my party, so moving on…
7)A town where I hunted for (not kidding) “The Platinum Toad of Happiness”
8)Another town with pigs and frogs and mini people. “Village of the Moon”
The Village of the Moon was just a village with an inn and a chance to restock supplies. The first down (#7) was like “Where’s Waldo”. I wandered the town, and occasionally I would see a white toad flash on the screen and walk around a few seconds before fading away. It took a few tries, but I eventually caught him, gave him too some kid in the town, and moved on.
Then Cecil’s door.
Yang’s door fit a classic, archetypal martial arts movie challenge. The master (and his party) versus a horde of challengers. I expected Cecil’s section, “the Paladin’s Door,” to use the same template. Maybe fight off hordes of undead. Would’ve been okay I guess.
But no. The designers weren’t content. They pushed. They prodded. They created what really fit as trials of a paladin.
The Paladin’s Test:
Test #1: I started in the cottage of an old man. He told me of his favorite frying pan, made of gold, unlocked in the chest behind him. He then fell asleep. My first inclination was to go for the chest – after all, it’s a video game! You see a chest, you plunder it.***
I luckily remembered that Cecil was being tested as a paladin, so left the room with the frying pan in the chest. Not sure what would’ve happened if I took it, but probably nothing good.
Test #2: A sunny townscape with a lake. A person starts to drown, and we have to get to them in time before they drown to save them. Success!
Test #3: I stumble into a burglary in progress. The burglar offers to cut me in on the goods if I let him go. While I of course say no and stop him, I wonder what would’ve happened if I agreed to his terms.
Test #4: A cave. I cross the bridge in this cave, and a monster stops me – a goblin. Yeah, one of the dues with like four HP that I was one-shotting on my way from Baron to Mist back at the start of the game. It was so weird I just stared at the combat screen wondering wtf was up, before the goblin started talking.
“Please, don’t hurt me! I’ve been cursed! I’m human, but nobody believes me. You have to believe me…”
I do nothing. This has to be a test of faith. It was! After a few rounds of having all my party members defend, like the Ordeal, he transformed back into a human, thanking me for leaving him alone, for believing him when nobody else did.
That’s right. FFIV’s penultimate paladin trial required me to save someone who was essentially gaslighted with magic. (Sorta.)
Test #5: A farmer lost her chocobos! I have to go into the other room to round them up. As anyone who has tried to talk to chocobos in the Chocobo Forests, this is not as easy as it sounds. Those buggers are fast! But got them all eventually.
Final Test: I should add that the path from test to test in Cecil’s room hasn’t been direct. The path between rooms has been the same room each time, a carpeted walkway like in Baron’s castle before the throne room, with Baron’s music. It should be no surprise then that the final test is “Lunar Odin,” who’s hard as fuck. I just baaaaarely beat him. He got the “Zenketsu” (sp?) off on me, and only Yang survived. Before he could get another Zenketsu, Yang – low on HP – got in one last shot for the win.
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Bravo, Lunar Ruins develops. Bravo.
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***College Humor describes this phenomenon best.
