Summary: Kuja captures the party and forces four of them to go to the Forgotten Continent on an errand.
Kuja’s Prison
-Zidane wakes up in what seems to be a high-tech prison cell with the Frog Regent.
-Kuja starts talking to Zidane. Through words on the screen. Telepathic? Or just from a distance? We’ll see if Cid can hear it too.
-Kuja continues his path towards Bond Villainy by opening a small lava pit in the middle of Zidane’s and Cid’s prison cell. Says the others are in similar cells.
-Interesting. I was wondering why Kuja didn’t just kill everyone, and it sounds like we’re about to find out. If Zidane says yes to Kuja’s next request, he’ll free everyone. We get the chance to answer either “Never” or “Dammit, I don’t have a choice” (lol). I go with the latter. I know Zidane is hot-headed, but not when his friends are on the line.
-He opens Zidane’s cell, lets him out. This prison looks rad. Is that a Leviathan statue I spy?
-ZIdane walks to an open platform. Kuja tells him to stand between two black mages there. This is getting seriously creepy.
---
Kuja’s Room
-They teleport him to Kuja’s room. And let me tell you: Kuja may be a magical arms-dealer, probably a semi-immortal, a melodramatic villain, and essentially a mass murderer, but the man has got STYLE.
-I love this room! I want this room! The fireplace, the purple and gold coloring, the ornaments, the bookshelf. Wonderful.
-Kuja wants to send Zidane on an errand. To retrieve something from Oeilvert. South of the Seaways Canyon on the Forgotten Continent. There’s an anti-magic barrier around it (answering why he needs someone like Zidane). Wants us to get the Gulug Stone.
Ah, this must be the snowy continent. I seem to remember the area outside of Esto Garza being called the Gulug Plains or something.
-Kuja will send us on his boat, and with three friends. He then says something that makes me SUPER curious about what comes next:
KUJA: “Besides, nobody likes to fight against himself.” Is this going to be some mirror match, Dark Link shit coming up?
-I go with Freya, Quina, and Eiko. Freya is the lowest level and I want her to keep up, Eiko is my only combat-ready white mage, and I want to give Quina as many chances to eat blue magic as possible.
-He summons them from their prison cells, teleports them to his room, and teleports all of us down to the dock.
-The Hilda Garde 1. Sleek ship.
-We fight through some tough enemies and reach the ship. It flies out of a hole in the mountain that I can probably reach on Choco.
-Farther north is the Yuanshao Peninsula. Ran into a Catoblepas in the wild and fled. Nobody had Jelly, and that was NOT a fight I wanted. Equipped Jelly all around to protect against petrify.
-There’s a castle in a valley that I can’t reach in the north of this continent. I think I noticed it while sailing, but now that I’m closer I see a strange property: it looks…mirrored. Like, the top half is a normal castle, but the bottom half is the top half upside down.
-Eiko can get a new passive ability called Healer, the description of which is “Restores target’s HP.” I’m not sure what this means. Auto-Regen is something separate. Auto-Potion is also something separate. Maybe it’s like auto-potion without using a potion? We’ll see. [Later edit and non-rhetorical question for y’all: still don’t know what this means after trying it out. What am I missing?]
-Ran into a couple of Jabberwocks.
Beware the Jabberwock, my son.
Makes sense, in a world with Bandersnatches. They cast Float on all my party members… why? Are they setting me up for some combo? I didn’t think Float made me specifically vulnerable to anything.
-DISASTER! I used Matra Magic on one of the Jabberwocks to try to set it up for Quina to eat. Matra Magic in this game reduces its HP to 1. But then it used Limit Glove, that blue magic that does something when your HP is at 1. Turns out it does 9999 damage to the target. RIP Zidane.
This gets me thinking. If I can have Quina use Matra Magic on themselves against a tough enemy, pray that they survive the round, and then use Limit Glove? Wombo combo.
[Later edit: was able to land the combo on an unsuspecting Cactuar.]
-Ah. Now the “Light/Float” spell makes sense. They cast Aera, and that does enhanced damage against flying enemies. They also cast Heavy sometimes to remove float and then follow it with Earthquake. Cool enemies.
-Incredibly intense fight against a pack of Cactuars. Almost got totally wiped out – I was not at all prepared for them spamming Confuse on me.
But Eiko had a key Phoenix summon that turned the tables at the last second. Adrenaline high.
-The western part of this continent is Seaways Canyon. Has a series of rocky, finger-like outcroppings reaching into the sea.
-Moved into the southern half of the continent. Sunset. New enemy too, with Adamantoise. Freya ate the Adamantoise and learned Earth Shake.
If you ever want to experience terror, look up videos of snapping turtles.
-This continent is quite the labyrinth of canyons.
-Just got an achievement, “Backstabber.” Lolol I think that’s what I get for being back-attacked enough.
-Most of my exploration on the Forgotten Continent has been for naught. A lot of dead ends and random encounters. Would love Choco about now. Though I’ve leveled up a ton so can’t complain too much.
-Found Oeilvert. I’m a bit surprised – I was expecting some big green anti-magic bubble, but it looks duller than that. Like a worn-away thing. Not like a regular city or castle though – stranger shape.
---
Next time: Oeilvert.
Kuja’s Prison
-Zidane wakes up in what seems to be a high-tech prison cell with the Frog Regent.
-Kuja starts talking to Zidane. Through words on the screen. Telepathic? Or just from a distance? We’ll see if Cid can hear it too.
-Kuja continues his path towards Bond Villainy by opening a small lava pit in the middle of Zidane’s and Cid’s prison cell. Says the others are in similar cells.
-Interesting. I was wondering why Kuja didn’t just kill everyone, and it sounds like we’re about to find out. If Zidane says yes to Kuja’s next request, he’ll free everyone. We get the chance to answer either “Never” or “Dammit, I don’t have a choice” (lol). I go with the latter. I know Zidane is hot-headed, but not when his friends are on the line.
-He opens Zidane’s cell, lets him out. This prison looks rad. Is that a Leviathan statue I spy?
-ZIdane walks to an open platform. Kuja tells him to stand between two black mages there. This is getting seriously creepy.
---
Kuja’s Room
-They teleport him to Kuja’s room. And let me tell you: Kuja may be a magical arms-dealer, probably a semi-immortal, a melodramatic villain, and essentially a mass murderer, but the man has got STYLE.
-I love this room! I want this room! The fireplace, the purple and gold coloring, the ornaments, the bookshelf. Wonderful.
-Kuja wants to send Zidane on an errand. To retrieve something from Oeilvert. South of the Seaways Canyon on the Forgotten Continent. There’s an anti-magic barrier around it (answering why he needs someone like Zidane). Wants us to get the Gulug Stone.
Ah, this must be the snowy continent. I seem to remember the area outside of Esto Garza being called the Gulug Plains or something.
-Kuja will send us on his boat, and with three friends. He then says something that makes me SUPER curious about what comes next:
KUJA: “Besides, nobody likes to fight against himself.” Is this going to be some mirror match, Dark Link shit coming up?
-I go with Freya, Quina, and Eiko. Freya is the lowest level and I want her to keep up, Eiko is my only combat-ready white mage, and I want to give Quina as many chances to eat blue magic as possible.
-He summons them from their prison cells, teleports them to his room, and teleports all of us down to the dock.
-The Hilda Garde 1. Sleek ship.
-We fight through some tough enemies and reach the ship. It flies out of a hole in the mountain that I can probably reach on Choco.
---
The Hilda Garde 1
-It’s on auto-pilot. Flown by the black mages.
-Zidane tries talking to the black mage pilots, stirring trouble (“Hey, can we really trust Kuja?”) but they don’t respond.
-Zorn and Thorn appear, because why not.
-They claim that the black mages were just designed for war, for attacking, but came to possess a sense of self which the clown jackasses believe will be destroyed. They know how short a lifespan the mages have, and gloat about it.
-Thank the lord for Zidane. He trolls the shit out of Zorn and Thorn like he was born to it, saying that the jesters are as much pawns as the mages are. He strikes a nerve and follows-up their annoyed response with “LOLOL U MAD” basically before he yawns, drops the mic and walks away.
BLESS YOU ZIDANE
-The ship comes to the Forgotten Continent. I see an island with a ring of mountains surrounding… something. Hard to say what, but I have to remember to come back there to check it out.
-Oh, I was wrong. The Forgotten Continent isn’t the frozen one, but rather the dry one to the southwest.
---
The Forgotten Continent
-Tried getting back on the ship, but Zorn tells us we need to go south to finish the mission before reboarding. That means I’ll first head north to explore.
-Zorn also is an item vendor. Standard stuff mostly, but one new thing: Vaccine, to cure virus. I make sure to equip everyone with the Antibody ability in case that’s an indicator of this area having virus/poison monsters.
-We start out on the Blairsurpass Plains, in the northern part of the continent.
-The overworld music is Kuja’s music which gives this whole mission an eerie quality.
-Found a Qu Marsh where I caught some more frogs. No Quale this time. I’ll admit to a bit of disappointment that the Qu Marshes have all been so similar to one another in layout, but a) it’s not a big deal and catching frogs is nice, and b) I could be missing something, some secret areas here that differentiate the marshes from one another in major ways.
-Leveling up Frog Drop through eating frogs is a cool mechanic, don’t get me wrong! But Frog Drop just isn’t that good. Perhaps it gets better.
-Now THAT’S a weird enemy. A house in the forest with a lot of little legs called Armstrong. Reminds me of Hell House from FFVII.
-I miss having Dagger for her Scan.
The Hilda Garde 1
-It’s on auto-pilot. Flown by the black mages.
-Zidane tries talking to the black mage pilots, stirring trouble (“Hey, can we really trust Kuja?”) but they don’t respond.
-Zorn and Thorn appear, because why not.
-They claim that the black mages were just designed for war, for attacking, but came to possess a sense of self which the clown jackasses believe will be destroyed. They know how short a lifespan the mages have, and gloat about it.
-Thank the lord for Zidane. He trolls the shit out of Zorn and Thorn like he was born to it, saying that the jesters are as much pawns as the mages are. He strikes a nerve and follows-up their annoyed response with “LOLOL U MAD” basically before he yawns, drops the mic and walks away.
BLESS YOU ZIDANE
-The ship comes to the Forgotten Continent. I see an island with a ring of mountains surrounding… something. Hard to say what, but I have to remember to come back there to check it out.
-Oh, I was wrong. The Forgotten Continent isn’t the frozen one, but rather the dry one to the southwest.
---
The Forgotten Continent
-Tried getting back on the ship, but Zorn tells us we need to go south to finish the mission before reboarding. That means I’ll first head north to explore.
-Zorn also is an item vendor. Standard stuff mostly, but one new thing: Vaccine, to cure virus. I make sure to equip everyone with the Antibody ability in case that’s an indicator of this area having virus/poison monsters.
-We start out on the Blairsurpass Plains, in the northern part of the continent.
-The overworld music is Kuja’s music which gives this whole mission an eerie quality.
-Found a Qu Marsh where I caught some more frogs. No Quale this time. I’ll admit to a bit of disappointment that the Qu Marshes have all been so similar to one another in layout, but a) it’s not a big deal and catching frogs is nice, and b) I could be missing something, some secret areas here that differentiate the marshes from one another in major ways.
-Leveling up Frog Drop through eating frogs is a cool mechanic, don’t get me wrong! But Frog Drop just isn’t that good. Perhaps it gets better.
-Now THAT’S a weird enemy. A house in the forest with a lot of little legs called Armstrong. Reminds me of Hell House from FFVII.
-I miss having Dagger for her Scan.
-Farther north is the Yuanshao Peninsula. Ran into a Catoblepas in the wild and fled. Nobody had Jelly, and that was NOT a fight I wanted. Equipped Jelly all around to protect against petrify.
-There’s a castle in a valley that I can’t reach in the north of this continent. I think I noticed it while sailing, but now that I’m closer I see a strange property: it looks…mirrored. Like, the top half is a normal castle, but the bottom half is the top half upside down.
-Eiko can get a new passive ability called Healer, the description of which is “Restores target’s HP.” I’m not sure what this means. Auto-Regen is something separate. Auto-Potion is also something separate. Maybe it’s like auto-potion without using a potion? We’ll see. [Later edit and non-rhetorical question for y’all: still don’t know what this means after trying it out. What am I missing?]
-Ran into a couple of Jabberwocks.
Beware the Jabberwock, my son.
Makes sense, in a world with Bandersnatches. They cast Float on all my party members… why? Are they setting me up for some combo? I didn’t think Float made me specifically vulnerable to anything.
-DISASTER! I used Matra Magic on one of the Jabberwocks to try to set it up for Quina to eat. Matra Magic in this game reduces its HP to 1. But then it used Limit Glove, that blue magic that does something when your HP is at 1. Turns out it does 9999 damage to the target. RIP Zidane.
This gets me thinking. If I can have Quina use Matra Magic on themselves against a tough enemy, pray that they survive the round, and then use Limit Glove? Wombo combo.
[Later edit: was able to land the combo on an unsuspecting Cactuar.]
-Ah. Now the “Light/Float” spell makes sense. They cast Aera, and that does enhanced damage against flying enemies. They also cast Heavy sometimes to remove float and then follow it with Earthquake. Cool enemies.
-Incredibly intense fight against a pack of Cactuars. Almost got totally wiped out – I was not at all prepared for them spamming Confuse on me.
But Eiko had a key Phoenix summon that turned the tables at the last second. Adrenaline high.
-The western part of this continent is Seaways Canyon. Has a series of rocky, finger-like outcroppings reaching into the sea.
-Moved into the southern half of the continent. Sunset. New enemy too, with Adamantoise. Freya ate the Adamantoise and learned Earth Shake.
If you ever want to experience terror, look up videos of snapping turtles.
-This continent is quite the labyrinth of canyons.
-Just got an achievement, “Backstabber.” Lolol I think that’s what I get for being back-attacked enough.
-Most of my exploration on the Forgotten Continent has been for naught. A lot of dead ends and random encounters. Would love Choco about now. Though I’ve leveled up a ton so can’t complain too much.
-Found Oeilvert. I’m a bit surprised – I was expecting some big green anti-magic bubble, but it looks duller than that. Like a worn-away thing. Not like a regular city or castle though – stranger shape.
---
Next time: Oeilvert.
