Under the Sea
-I checked the map while underwater, and see three points of interest. One is Ghido’s Cave, one is north of Surgate, and the last is south of Surgate.
-I know the northern one is what I’ve been thinking of as “Eyeball Lake,” where the dude in Surgate told me he saw an eye watching him, so there I go!
-The monsters in the underwater cave on the way there are nasty. These ironback monsters hit hard (but are weak to ice), and Druids are just nasty. They cast a spell that can halve my characters’ levels and basically negate their damage.
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Eyeball Lake Eyeland
-Made it inside that mountain ring to Eyeball Lake.
-Hm. Can’t seem to get into the lake, and just see normal enemies so far.
-OH HI! Catoblepas.
Weird looking-monster! Not as weird as the FFIII Catoblepas, which was a bull with little wings, but still.
Now eye get it! This is a really tough monster with only one eye. She really doesn’t mess around – the fight is a matter of who blinks first.
She retaliates to my attacks with “Evil Eye,” which petrifies my characters. This happens really fast, and the party goes down quickly.
Next attempt: happens AGAIN! Petrified three of us before the lone un-petrified Lenna ran.
Checked through my items and armor and eye don’t have any that prevent petrify. There were some really expensive rings that probably would’ve helped in the northwest town in World #1, but nothing now.
-Attempt #3: SUCCESS! Eye actually remembered how eye beat Behemoths in FFIV. They didn’t really attack hard, but they retaliated every time for massive damage. Beat them by attacking and then immediately healing up before attacking again.
Same thing here: attacked, used my unpetrified characters to Gold Needle the petrifieds, rinse and repeat. Catoblepas didn’t have too much health, so we won the stare-down. Past Final Fantasy games are great teachers, and I their pupil.
-Nice! She’s summonable. It’s interesting that in this game the gods of prior games in Ramuh, Ifrit, etc. are almost introductory summons compared to the more generic Rock Golem and Catoblepas. Or am eye mistaking “getting them earlier” for “being worse”?
-Found a new zone on the island!
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Chocobo Forest
-Still fun music.
-I see on Chocobo running around, a yellow one.
-Hm. Can’t use her.
What’s the point of this place then? My guess at the moment is that Boko will eventually come here and some chocobo romance subplot will be introduced.
-Onto the next underwater dot.
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Town of Moore
-In my sub, I went to the next dot. When I emerged, I was in a tiny lake in the wood. To the east, an immense forest (probably the Forest of Moore I was told about). West was a village. Moore.
-A legend holds that 500 years ago something beautiful was sealed in the forest. I guess this is Exdeath’s target.
-I love the recurring joke of having our party rock out at the pubs whenever there is an open piano.
-“From desire oftimes comes evil.” Interesting that I hear this quote right after learning that the thing in the forest is beautiful…
-There are wood sprites in the forest, and “helpful forest critters” discussed around town. Someone said that they say “Kepu kepu.” Are they moogles maybe that the townie just misheard?
-Stuff here is SO EXPENSIVE. Got armor and weapons, but only a couple of spells. Will have to grind gil for the rest.
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Forest of Moore
-When I entered the woods, the zone layout changed to look like a chocobo forest. We hold up Ghido’s branch, and the way opens.
-Grinded in the first part of the forest for a while, and just got all the spells from Moore.
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Next time: we see what awaits inside the Forest of Moore.
