FFVI – Part 74: Beneath the Sands

Summary: After taking longer than I probably should have, I find the way to the buried castle. We find evil incarnate, a.k.a. Master Tonberry. Eventually, we reach the castle itself, and see some flashbacks to its activity in the War of the Magi, and its champion esper, Lord Odin.

South Figaro Cave

-Ok. No caves or anything in either Figaro-adjacent desert. I didn’t walk through them again, but I did fly over just to be sure.

-Next theory (and a more likely one tbh): that sand worm hole that we went through with the Crimson Robbers has a branch that leads to the buried castle.

-Bah. I’m lost, and this isn’t looking promising. All the monsters are still the old weak monsters. Going to try this from the other end, through the Figaro Castle prison.

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Figaro Castle

-Can’t get into that cell with the open door. Going to try moving Figaro Castle to the eastern location instead of the present western one.

-HELL YES FINALLY

-The subway operator here says that we caught onto something, and gives us the option to stay or keep moving. Are you kidding me? Stay.

-Prison door is now open. Just as weak monsters in the South Figaro Cave were a bad sign, this is a good sign.

-Another good sign: the fact that this cave is now called “Cave to the Ancient Castle.” I’m going to guess that this leads to… well, to the ancient castle.

-New music down here. I like!

-NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

hfadjklshfadklshfadlshas

-Monster-in-a-Box. It’s “Master Tonberry.” As if my brief encounters with regular Tonberry in FFV weren’t terrifying enough, we have to meet his master now. Ugh.

He one-shots Umaro with Traveler. Thank goodness for double Ultima. That doesn’t even kill him alone. Takes a few stabs from Mog to finish the job. Reward: Gladius.

-We picked up Death Tarot, a weapon. I feel a bit weird saying this, but Setzer with Death Tarot and Gladius dual-wielded thanks to Genji Glove? He’s kind of kicking ass.

-This cave is tricky in how it plays with depth.

Many overlapping layers.

-We reach the ruined castle.

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Courtyard of the Ancient Castle

-What an intro to this place. We see a flashback to the War of the Magi, with this castle under siege.

-A chancellor saying that “Lord Odin” is the only esper left for them to use. I guess that’s another piece of continuity. I also smell yet another timed fight coming.

-WHOA! We see Odin’s famous “Zantetsuken” sever the bodies of his attackers. One ghosty monster appears to fight him one-on-one. He tries to use his Zantetsuken attack on the ghost, but it doesn’t work, and the ghost turns Odin to stone.

-One day, I will no longer find Umaro picking Mog up and chucking him at an enemy funny. But it is not this day.

-Mini-boss guarding a treasure chest out here.

Samurai Soul.

One insta-kill on Celes, but not too bad otherwise. Got “Master’s Scroll.”

-WTF – How is this not overpowered?

-Doesn’t seem to work for Umaro. Let’s try it on Mog.

-Answer: A BIG YES. It’s basically that FFV ranger ability, Rapid Fire. Seems to weaken each individual strike, but the combo is just massively more powerful, and turns the complete effect almost AoE.

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Next time: into the castle itself.