Summary:
Lots of introductions! Not!Rydia is Terra (amnesiac), we meet Locke
(who reminds me of Bartz off the bat), we meet Kefka (ice cold), we meet
the Emperor (or at least hear his speechifying), we meet the Returners
(sort of).
Narshe
-Not!Rydia is up and walking. The old man caring for her removed the “slave crown” from her head. Ok, fuck the Empire.
-Her memory’s still gone, but will return.
-Whoa! We get this brief character synopsis screen. Cool.
-The empire’s name is the “Gestahlian Empire.” Not!Rydia’s name is Terra.
-The awesome music from the credits is back.
-Uh-oh. Narshe’s guards want Terra, not knowing she was enslaved to the Empire rather than riding Magitek of her own volition, but the old man helps her escape. Nice of him.
---
Mines of Narshe
-Even the music in the mines is good, in a chill way.
-Since it’s been 1,000 years since the war of the mages, Terra having magic must be pretty unusual.
-I see what looks like a secret door, but can’t open it.
-I leveled up and got a new spell, a poison cure. I guess we’re back to the FFIV system of getting magic automatically on level-up.
-Guards surrounded us. We backed up into a corner and crashed through the floor, falling unconscious on the lower level.
---
Flashback
-KEFKA!!!!!!!!!! There you are. That was fast.
-“With this slave crown, you’ll be mine.” I guess Kefka’s a villain.
-Now she’s using Magitek armor… on imperial soldiers while Kefka laughingly cheers her on?? Is Kefka not in the empire then?
-Now we see Emperor Gestahl himself giving a speech to an array of soldiers on that metal tower from the intro. Kefka’s there, as well as the enslaved Terra with Magitek armor. That means that Kefka was gleefully torching his own soldiers to test the armor.
WAIT. SO WHEN BIGGS AND WEDGE SAID SHE FRIED 50 OF THEIR MAGITEK ARMORED SOLDIERS IN 3 MINUTES, SHE WAS ORDERED TO BY KEFKA? I thought it was going to be some "Oops, I couldn't control my magic and it came out in a spontaneous burst, sry guyz" thing.
That is some ice cold shit, Kefka.
The Emperor.
-Well. There we are. We’ve met the Big Bad Emperor Gestahl and his minion, Darth Kefka.
---
Old Man’s Home
-A thief walks in (“treasure hunter” lol). Another of those dramatic intro screens.
Meeting Locke.
-They’re part of “The Returners,” a resistance group. This is so far very reminiscent of FFII. Evil emperor versus the resistance, rather than any crystal shenanigans so far.
-Locke will take Terra to Figaro to use her for the Returners I guess (WITH HER CONSENT K? NO SLAVE CROWNS), and for safety from the Narshe guards.
---
Mines of Narshe
-Locke finds terra unconscious, and guards appear in the distance.
-“Kupo…”
-NO WAY
-YES. WAY.
-MOOOOOOOGLES TO THE RESCUE!! A flock (Fleet? Pod? Gaggle?) of moogles come, and divide into three groups. I have to control each of the three groups to stop the guards and kill the boss guard. Really cool combat minigame.
-Also… the moogles names are THE BEST. Moglin, Moggie, Mog, Moghan, Moguel, Mugmug, shit like that.
-Boss is pretty easy. Thanks, moogles. See you around.
-Locke bears her out of the caves. She wakes up near the end, but still remembers little.
-This feels a lot like a mixture of FFII and FFV. FFII for the reasons I said earlier, and FFV because you have the young rogue-type (Bartz/Locke) meeting the girl (Lenna/Terra) by saving her from enemies (goblins/guards). He even has Faris’s general job (“treasure hunter”/pirate) while Terra took on Galuf’s amnesia.
---
Next time: escape to Figaro.
Narshe
-Not!Rydia is up and walking. The old man caring for her removed the “slave crown” from her head. Ok, fuck the Empire.
-Her memory’s still gone, but will return.
-Whoa! We get this brief character synopsis screen. Cool.
-The empire’s name is the “Gestahlian Empire.” Not!Rydia’s name is Terra.
-The awesome music from the credits is back.
-Uh-oh. Narshe’s guards want Terra, not knowing she was enslaved to the Empire rather than riding Magitek of her own volition, but the old man helps her escape. Nice of him.
---
Mines of Narshe
-Even the music in the mines is good, in a chill way.
-Since it’s been 1,000 years since the war of the mages, Terra having magic must be pretty unusual.
-I see what looks like a secret door, but can’t open it.
-I leveled up and got a new spell, a poison cure. I guess we’re back to the FFIV system of getting magic automatically on level-up.
-Guards surrounded us. We backed up into a corner and crashed through the floor, falling unconscious on the lower level.
---
Flashback
-KEFKA!!!!!!!!!! There you are. That was fast.
-“With this slave crown, you’ll be mine.” I guess Kefka’s a villain.
-Now she’s using Magitek armor… on imperial soldiers while Kefka laughingly cheers her on?? Is Kefka not in the empire then?
-Now we see Emperor Gestahl himself giving a speech to an array of soldiers on that metal tower from the intro. Kefka’s there, as well as the enslaved Terra with Magitek armor. That means that Kefka was gleefully torching his own soldiers to test the armor.
WAIT. SO WHEN BIGGS AND WEDGE SAID SHE FRIED 50 OF THEIR MAGITEK ARMORED SOLDIERS IN 3 MINUTES, SHE WAS ORDERED TO BY KEFKA? I thought it was going to be some "Oops, I couldn't control my magic and it came out in a spontaneous burst, sry guyz" thing.
That is some ice cold shit, Kefka.
The Emperor.
-Well. There we are. We’ve met the Big Bad Emperor Gestahl and his minion, Darth Kefka.
---
Old Man’s Home
-A thief walks in (“treasure hunter” lol). Another of those dramatic intro screens.
Meeting Locke.
-They’re part of “The Returners,” a resistance group. This is so far very reminiscent of FFII. Evil emperor versus the resistance, rather than any crystal shenanigans so far.
-Locke will take Terra to Figaro to use her for the Returners I guess (WITH HER CONSENT K? NO SLAVE CROWNS), and for safety from the Narshe guards.
---
Mines of Narshe
-Locke finds terra unconscious, and guards appear in the distance.
-“Kupo…”
-NO WAY
-YES. WAY.
-MOOOOOOOGLES TO THE RESCUE!! A flock (Fleet? Pod? Gaggle?) of moogles come, and divide into three groups. I have to control each of the three groups to stop the guards and kill the boss guard. Really cool combat minigame.
-Also… the moogles names are THE BEST. Moglin, Moggie, Mog, Moghan, Moguel, Mugmug, shit like that.
-Boss is pretty easy. Thanks, moogles. See you around.
-Locke bears her out of the caves. She wakes up near the end, but still remembers little.
-This feels a lot like a mixture of FFII and FFV. FFII for the reasons I said earlier, and FFV because you have the young rogue-type (Bartz/Locke) meeting the girl (Lenna/Terra) by saving her from enemies (goblins/guards). He even has Faris’s general job (“treasure hunter”/pirate) while Terra took on Galuf’s amnesia.
---
Next time: escape to Figaro.
