Overworld
Cyan’s Bushido #4 is AWESOME: “Flurry.” He bounces around to four different monsters, laughing between each strike.
There’s no need to worry. Just laugh while you Flurry!
-DAMMIT SHADOW. “My job is done. I earned my pay.” Then he leaves.
NO, DON’T ABANDON ME!! Jerk.
-Found Doma Castle, but it’s barred off by imperial soldiers.
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Phantom Forest
-A side-scrolling map! Sort of.
-Ghosts for enemies. This is literally a phantom forest – a forest with phantoms in it. Aura Cannon must be holy magic, because it obliterates ghosts.
-Fork in the road. Up or down? Coin flip (heads) says up.
-The ghosts hit really hard with magic. I’m nervous I’ll run out of potions, but I don’t want to run from fights.
-Sabin learned a new blitz: Rising Phoenix. Does group damage.
-Is that… ok. No. That. Wait.
A classic woodland setting, complete with ghosts and a locomotive.
Really?
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Platform
-It’s a train. This is surreal. A train in a forest. And I think I know which train.
-Sabin gets on board, despite Cyan’s protests.
-IT’S THE PHANTOM TRAIN! We fought it in FFIV: The After Years. Now we’re on board.
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Aboard the Phantom Train
-This is a ghost train. Like, it’s a ghostly train, and it’s a train for ghosts, carrying them to their final rest.
-Spookily awesome music!
-Our goal is to stop the train. That seems… unlikely.
No one can stop Death.
-The conductor says we have to get to the engine room and fiddle with stuff to stop the train.
-The book of timetables for the train is blank. Too many people are dying for the train to stay on any kind of predictable schedule. That’s pretty grim stuff.
-Sabin messes with the controls in the train, and Cyan gets freaked. Interesting! He seems freaked more by the machinery than by the fact that they’re on a train to the afterlife. Some horrific incident with technology?
-Wandering ghost sprite. Wandering sprites worry me due to my experience with Omega.
-When I talk to this one, however, awesomeness happens rather than instant death. HE WANTS TO JOIN!!!! HAHAHA YES. I GET A GHOST PAL. Named “???????”. Rolls right off the tongue.
-THIS IS SO COOL
-I tried using the ghost’s Possess, but didn’t work, and Sabin’s Rising Phoenix ability wipes out monster groups so quickly I don’t get the chance to try again.
-Most of the wandering ghost sprites attack me, but then a second one joins. Now it’s a party.
My wisecracking (not really) ghost sidekicks. I call them Bertha and Gulliver.
-There’s a ghost vendor LOL – huzzah for stocking up on potions.
-Next car. Ghost says: “. . . N o . . . e s c a p e . . .” It’s intensely creepy. Especially since ghosts surround us, forcing us to the top of the train car.
Nowhere to run.
-Sabin. Dude.
-Ok, he just jumped across two train cars. On a moving train. Going forward. Well, I’ll say this for him: what he lacks in foresight, he makes up for in chutzpah.
-We then detach the rear cars to fend off pursuit. Really? Seems selfish. These ghosts don’t get their eternal rest now, just because you all jumped on a train you had no business being on?
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Next time: More train time.
