FFIX – Part 58: Upside Down

Summary: Into the disorientating Ipsen's Castle. Elemental seals. Amarant growth. Odin's sword.

Approaching Ipsen’s Castle

-For my party, going with Zidane, Amarant, Quina, and Dagger.

-This is in the Hadris Basin.

-The whole party is at the entrance. Zidane taking three with him.

-Amarant challenges him. He starts to go full-on Kung Fury with his “I WORK ALONE” nonsense.

-Amarant wants to go by himself to try to find the key Hilda mentioned, to prove he’s better on his own. Lol. I guess I’m not taking Amarant in my party after all.

-I get the choice to “let him go” or “don’t let him go.” I don’t want him to go, but I want him to WANT to stay. I just hope this doesn’t come out as “FINE I HATE YOU DO WHATEVER YOU WANT.”

-Phew. Zidane’s thoughts come out more or less as I hoped. I don’t like what he’s doing, but he’s not sworn to obey Zidane or anything. He can do what he wants.

-Swapping Steiner in place of Amarant.

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Ipsen’s Castle

-The music here is another version of the title screen music. With especially ominous deep vocals backing it.

-Found Aquarius! I think I’m now only two Stellazzios short of a full set.

-A sign near the entrance: “Do not be restricted by your knowledge and experience. This place turns logic upside down. What’s big is small, what’s strong is weak, and heaven is earth.”

This clearly refers to it being upside down, and likely portends a trippy, puzzle-laden atmosphere. I wonder if there’s more to it. Like, if mechanically they reverse our party’s levels or something like that. Will keep my eyes open.

-Kumool is in here. Gave him Mogki’s letter. It’s wondering what’s up with Mognet Central. Kumool gave me a Kupo Nut in thanks.

-First random enemy. Let’s see what we got.

-Cerberus. Extremely resistant to physical attacks.

-Frog Drop is now doing very respectable damage! Similar to Thievery and No Mercy.

-I can go up this fireman’s pole, down it, or laterally through a door. Hm. Laterally to start.

-Dead end. Up the pole is a dead end too. Down we go.

-The next enemy I see here, Veteran (a floaty eyeball) is also strong against physical. I’m regretting not having brought Vivi.

-This is more than a bit disorienting to run through.

-Strange. Some of this loot is very early game.

-Found Amarant. He reached the thing first and is rubbing it in our faces.

-AH DANGIT. He left. He pulled a Shadow and left the party, saying he proved to himself that doing stuff on his own is better. That sucks. He didn’t even open the door, just found the key.

-Not going to try solving the mural yet. I want to explore the rest of this place first.

-lol, Zidane is trying to do something with this stone frieze and gets new options as he gets more frustrated. “Push!” “Pound!” “Do something drastic!”

-hahahaha – after all that, he leans against the frieze to rest and it opens up a secret door. How did I not see that coming?

-This might be all I can explore. When I try to go too far on a ladder, the building starts to shake.

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Ipsen’s Castle – Mural Room

-…no. no no no. Three Tonberries. I fled. For the first time, I used “Flee.”

-There are a few glowing plate things on the mural.

FIRE MIRROR: “My power is protected high atop a fiery mountain.”
WATER MIRROR: “My power is protected underwater, surrounded by earth.”

Wait a second. Is my initial prediction about the game about to come true? That FFIX would involve elemental crystals? Maybe. There’s definitely something about the elements in play.

WIND MIRROR: “My power is protected behind a tornado.” Major, MAJOR FFIV vibes here.
EARTH MIRROR: “My power is protected under the shaking ground.”

-At first I thought we were about to travel to Terra and these were four things we had to do there, but they seem to be four seals in our world that keep Terra locked away. The castle on the Outer Continent where we see its turrets peaking out as the earth shakes must be the Earth location, for instance.

-Ruh roh. Something’s not happy with our yoinking this.

-AAAARGH!!! GIANT INSECT THING

-We stopped the energy flow to Terra? Perhaps the Terra-Gaia relationship is different than I had assumed. More parasitic.

GIANT INSECT THING: “You dare get in the way of Terra’s master plan?”

-It’s Taharka. Demands that we return the mirrors, and bless Zidane’s sass: “You should say please when you ask for things!”

-Boss fight. Physically resistant like all the other monsters here, but each of my party members can still do stuff. Dagger heals and summons, Quina uses Mighty Guard and Frog Drop, Zidane just tries stealing, and Steiner uses Shock. (Sure, he got Shock from Ragnarok, but I like to think he was inspired to learn it from watching Beatrix fight.)

Resistant to physical. Not resistant to Bahamut.

-Not too bad of a fight. Taharka’s dying words: “All is one, one is all…You’ll never break the seal...” I’m not even certain whether he died or not. He didn’t just fade away – rather, he dwindled as if leaving this dimension.

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Ipsen’s Castle

-We get back to the entrance of this place, and I have no doubt we’ll return.

-A hole opens up – Quina almost falls in. Seems like we activated some trap.

-Saved the game then walked around to find some traps… success! Fell down to reach a treasure I couldn’t get at before.

-There are two other trap floors I see on this main lobby area, but not sure how to get them to open.

-Ooh!! This is interesting. The mural with the warning about how things here are reversed is gone, and a stairway opened.

-Found a room with a giant lightning-filled sword, and two “bottles.”

-A voice: “To obtain my power, fight against the flow of time.” Um. Ok. How?

-I’ve been rejuggling these pots randomly, but I gotta think. The room is clock-like. Perhaps if I shift them counter-clockwise.

-It worked. Not immediately, and I don’t know what ultimately did it, but I kept shifting the pots and walking them counterclockwise around the room and then the sword’s electricity shot into a pot.

-The reward was “Ancient Aroma.” A female-only accessory that allows a passive ability, Odin’s Sword. Description: “Attacks with eidolon Odin.” I don’t quite understand this. Maybe it means that sometimes when the character attacks, Odin will take over. Like Odin in FFVIII.

-Time to leave.

-The others are outside of the castle here standing guard. We’re the first to come out…? Ah shit, what happened to Amarant?

-Zidane runs back inside to find him. We’re about to get some one-on-one stuff I guess.

-Let’s try the Mural Room.

-Not there. Odin’s room? Nope.

-Fell down a trap door, and heard a voice say “uh…” I guess Amarant must’ve done the same.

-Here he is. Lying down, injured.

-He wonders why Zidane came back. Keeps wondering what Zidane’s angle is. To put Amarant in his debt? To mock Amarant? No and no. He’s helping because he wants to help.

ZIDANE: “You’re a part of the team. That’s all that matters.”

-This whole team concept is new to Amarant. I think he’s starting to understand.

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Next time: unraveling the mysteries of the seal.