The Road to Giruvegan
-I head into a new zone, the Feywood. The music is doomy.
-I get the same fuzzy mini-map interference that I got with Earth Tyrant. I wonder if this signals another boss is near. [Later edit: I now think it’s related to the “Jagd,” not a boss. Tbh though, I’m still surprised that the Earth Tyrant is the only one of the eight legendary dragons I’ve seen so far. I’ll have to hunt around for them at some point.]
-Looks like it. I reached a part with a dense mist that stops me.
-IS THAT THE GHOST OF PRINCE RASLER? He’s leading us on.
-There’s a plant boss here: Rafflesia.
It summons some malboros and goes down quick.
-A section of the Feywood is called “White Magick’s Embrace.” Fittingly enough, I find Dispelga there.
-Part of the Feywood leads a section of Henne Mines I didn’t know existed. The enemies here are mid-60s. The path to the rest of the mine is blocked off – I have to unlock the way from the other side.
-Yay, Behemoths! First sighting.
-The Feywood is disorienting. A sense of snow blindness, plus the Mist that shows me my reflection. Dizzying.
-There are a few abandoned shrines here. Not sure what to make of them.
-A Lost Woods puzzle. There’s an illusory exit that makes me repeat. The shrines have clues to get around this etched in the middle.
“In this sanctum shall the pilgrim find truth and illusion both. Illusion betokens the true way.”
-I go back and forth between the various shrines here, finding glyphs with that message. When I find glyphs at all but one shrine, I can progress.
-The next area is barred by a gate:
“Gigas summoner, gate’s power is yours to claim. Beyond the One gate lies sacred Giruvegan. Over the One gate the Gigas holds sway.” Smells like a boss fight.
Or not? Hm. I have to summon a gigas somehow.
*some time later after fruitless wandering*
WAIT – what if Belias is the key? The one mandatory esper. That’s the Gigas I can summon.
HELL YES WOOOOOO!! I summoned Belias and had him approach the gate. He opens it.
---
The Ancient City of Giruvegan
-This place looks so frigging cool. Like an ancient temple set in misty waters.
-Fran notices how thick the Mist is here. She senses “Venat.”
-Cid hasn’t arrived yet. Balthier wants to wait here for him, but Ashe sees the ghost of her prince leading her in.
We head inside.
---
Hunt: Vyraal in the Cerobi Steppe
But first, I notice there’s one lone hunt I’ve missed. I want to take it out before progressing: a vyraal in the Cerobi Steppe, for a Viera in Balfonheim.
-Shield Wyrms, my most hated enemy from FFV, make an appearance here.
-Finally got Telekinesis in the Cerobi Steppe. This lets some of my melee characters attack flying enemies.
-The vyraal itself isn’t too bad. I wish there were a way to zoom out so I could fully see the enemy’s design rather than just looking at its feet.
[Non-rhetorical question: is this possible, aside from running away and checking out the enemy from a distance?]
-There’s a puzzle here in the Cerobi Steppe. Craftsmoogles are trying to fix the windmills. The moogle at windmill #10 specifically says she can’t figure out how to get the windmill working against despite her effort. I’ll keep an eye out for a windmill key or something going forward.
-I head back to Balfonheim to turn the quest in. The Viera thanks me with an Aegis Shield (astronomical magic defense on that thing) and a Dragon Scale.
---
Hell Wyrm
-I retraced my steps, winding up back at Windmill #10. A “wyrm philosopher” who’d fallen asleep emerges from the windmill. That’s why the moogle couldn’t get it working – someone was sleeping in the gears!
I feel like I just got lucky finding this guy rather than solving a puzzle of any sort. The item description on the dragon scale suggested I find a wyrm philosopher. I’d assumed I was supposed to head back to Archades to find the guy who started me on the Earth Tyrant quest. I only discovered this by chance when checking whether a new weather system fixed the windmill.
-The philosopher takes my Dragon Scale and gives me an Ageworn Key. It apparently leads to some big boss dragon in return.
-However, now that I have this Ageworn Key, I have a solid guess where to use it: that locked door in the cave with the clock puzzle. The Something of the Wroth God. One of the guards in Nalbina already said that a sleeping dragon lies in that dungeon.
So. Let’s check that out.
-Yup. I head back to that locked door in Sochen Cave Palace, the Hall of the Ascetic and get the option to unlock the door with my new Ageworn Key.
-HAHA THAT’S AWESOME! It’s this giant, glowy, super Saiyan version of a ring wyrm. Hell Wyrm.
-Mother of God. It has, like, seventy billion health bars I have to get down.
This is the first enemy I feel comfortable calling a superboss in XII.
-This is taking forever, even at double speed. I prefer someone like Zeromus: tactically hard as hell, but didn’t take forever. I have no doubt that Hell Wyrm will get brutal, but I won’t even get to the brutal part where I need to try new strategies and practice new methods until like a half hour of AFK gambiting.
*some time later*
-The fight’s still going on. Comfortable with my gambits, but even at double speed I’m basically random YouTube videos and every so often checking back on the fight to change the party leader when they go down. It’s pretty boring.
-Okay, finally reached critical HP and am ready to manage the fight more actively. Unfortunately, its damage ramped up and obliterated me. Maybe I’ll try again at higher level. (But probably not.)
This isn’t an outright condemnation of Hell Wyrm as a boss fight. Some people probably love this! It’s just not my cup of tea on a blind run, as with all prior superbosses in this series. Glad I got to see it!
---
Next time: Giruvegan.
