FFIV After Years – Part 46: Baigan, Reagan, Palestine (The Crystals)

Summary: The entire gang – and I mean the ENTIRE gang, it’s a full house on that ship – lands the Lunar Whale on Moon #2. I gather the main party that I plan to finish the game with (unless the ones left behind get auto-leveled up, in which case I may swap around a bit as I go). The surface of Moon #2 is really tough, and we move on towards the Lunar Subterrane, which looks depressingly similar to the cave of the same name on Moon #1. And then, the game throws a curveball: Baigan.

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Lunar Whale

Cecil, not in great shape.

-THE SECOND MOON seized the whale? Gravity or something more sentient?

-What if… what if the second moon itself is the villain? I mean, I doubt it, but the image is kind of terrifying anyway.

-Cecil’s awake! …Well, no, but he’s definitely affected by the moon in some way.

-Crash landing incoming.

-Whoa! I can change my party and customize them. Sweet mechanic. Going to go with my highest level party:

Golbez (43)
Rosa (30)
Cecil (40)
Rydia (37)
Luca (36)

-My working plan is to stick with this party rather than swapping around. I hope that’s viable.

---

Moon #2

-Moon #2’s lack of music is creepy.

-Hm. Cecil sucks. Gonna replace him with Edge or Kain.

-Oh, OF COURSE HE SUCKS, Coldrun. You just got like a four cutscene things showing how Cecil’s mind is not in fighting shape, but still brought him into your party. Smooth move.

-Outside of my ship are a vendor and a non-functional interdimensional elevator.

-FUCK GRAY COEURLS. They are seriously brutal mobs.

-And now I encounter a boss-style Gray Coeurl, that can’t be “Pressured” by Golbez.

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Subterrane

-Is this place just a reskin of Moon #1’s Lunar Subterrane? If so, bad job game. Major league bad job.

-Pile of broken glass near one of the doors? Why?

-Found a crystal! Um. Randomly. Just on B3.

-Someone’s waiting? The crystal shatters. Out pops…

-…Baigan?

-………..

-…………………

-………………………

-I’m really confused. If you gave me 50 chances to guess who popped out of the crystal, what villain awaited me, Baigan wouldn’t have been on the list. This is so weird, and so intriguing.

-He’s begging?!?!?!? “

-Doesn’t seem like the typical “Muahahhaha! I live once more, and can avenge myself on you meddling fools!” speech. Although in fairness, we only saw Baigan under Cagnazzo. No idea what he was like otherwise.

-“Because… it still lives…” WHO? Zeromus?

-At least all the party had the same questions as me.

---

Somewhere at Night

-Ceodore and Ursula. Cecil is still unchanged.

-I like this conversation. Ceodore’s changed. He felt family was a burden, and had to learn how to see it otherwise, and did from Kain, Biggs, Wedge, and his dad’s other comrades. Ursula can kind of understand.

Nice parallel themes in these stories.

-Learned “Twin Rush” band for Ceodore and Ursula.

---

Next time: going down.

FFIV After Years – Part 45: Evil Moon Cecil No More (The Crystals)

Summary: The appearance of Rosa, Ceodore, et al. shocks Odin out of his shackles, and he turns on his captors. Cecil wakes up as well, and our party endures another fight against Evil Moon Girl and her summoned Leviathan. We win, but more EMGs teleport in, and take the crystals away. We close out of this section on Cecil enduring a whirlwind of flashbacks, the aftershocks of mind control.

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Baron

-…The glow around Baron is gone! Just by virtue of a critical mass of Eidolons getting unshackled?

--Game won’t let me wander around the castle. Makes sense – things are kind of time-sensitive in the throne room.

-Odin awakens! Yesssss!!

-He remembers Cecil, Rosa, everyone!

-AND THEN TURNS AROUND ON EMC

-Wait.

-What?

Will the real Cecil please stand up?

-I thought Cecil was dead and this was his copy, not the mind-controlled version of the real Cecil.

-He called Golbez brother, and LOL at Golbez sassing him.

-EMG boss fight. And she summons Leviathan. I’m surprised she hasn’t busted out Bahamut yet.

-Such a relief to have a white mage in the party again.

-Oh. Shouldn’t have spoken. There’s Bahamut.

-And now EMG has a weird… bubbly… aura thing going on. She’s really throwing the kitchen sink at us, including Meteor.

-Rydia’s “Sylph” summon is very useful here for nice extra healing.

-BEAT HER. BARELY.

-Oh, right. Golbez rains on my parade, reminding me she’s one of many. Goody, that’s not hopeless at all.

-And the two more EMGs basically put capslock and exclamation points on what Golbez said by showing up.

Now it’s a party!

They take the crystals.

-Golbez confirms that the falling moon is different from the Lunarians’ moon. Time to travel back to the moon. MOON #2!

-Golbez calls down the Lunar Whale.

---

Cecil’s Brain

-Flashback central here:

#1) Hooded Man meeting Evil Moon Cecil. He’s not sure if he knows HM, but has a tickle in his brain.

#2) Harley and Edward’s visit.

#3) The bombing of Mist with Kain, and how he could repeat that by giving Edward the same ring.

#4) The main party meeting of Cecil and EMG.

-Poor Cecil is really confused by all of this. Mind control sucks. It’s trippy, too. In these visions, he seems himself as a dark knight again.

#5) Cecil falling to EMG and Bahamut during the initial assault on Baron.

---

Next time: To the (other) moon.

FFIV After Years – Part 44: The Tropical Face-Palms of Kaipo (The Crystals)

Summary: The Agart Subterrane ends up amounting to a big dead end. The answer to progressing in this part of the game lay in Kaipo, where Yang and Ursula were lying the whole time. We bashed them over the heads to wake them up because of science, and the Sylphs joined up, fully unshackled. Mist Mom helps out Rydia, and it’s onto Baron.

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Agart Subterrane

-Whole mess of hidden passages down here

-I wonder where it leads. Dwarven Castle? I lali-hope so.

-Lots of “Quake” mobs here, both Arachne and Tunnelers.

-When will Golbez reveal himself? I hope someone doesn’t discover it and then accuse him of being on EMG’s side or something.

-I admit I’m a bit stuck again. There’s a save point on B2 which is promising. But no way further down. Just a dead end near the save point. Am I being trolled?

-Hm. Disappointing. Emergency Exiting out.

-WHY CAN’T I USE THAT

-I’ve been everywhere, man. No idea where to go.

---

Mist

-Trying back here, but Mist Mom says we have more Eidolons to free still.

-I mean, Asura and Leviathan seem left. I think they’re underground. I honestly don’t know how to get there. Grrr.

---

Overworld

-Wandering for about an hour, longer maybe. WHAT AM I MISSING FJDHLSFDJLS

-Got six small tails.

-And now a seventh.

-Another 30 min wandering and retracing my steps……………

---

Kaipo

-Wow.

-Just, wow.

-I was in Kaipo before, and must have forgotten to check this house fully.

-Because it’s YANG AND URSULA. In the Bed of Desert Fever.

-Seriously. All that wandering, and the answer to moving forward was right under my nose.

This facepalm is purely for myself.

-Now the frying pan and ladle I got back in Fabul from Sheila come into play, to wake these two up. As soon as I whack Ursula on the head with a ladle, her immediate reaction is, “Mom?” This is pretty fucked up, and no social services to call. I get that this is supposed to be cute and charming that the family hits each other on a regular basis, but yeesh.

RIGHT?

-The Sylphs! They admire Yang, and return to Rydia.

-Still not 100% sure why the Sylphs love Yang so dearly. What did I miss?

---

Baron

-Full party versus Cecil.

-Oh, son of a…

Evil Moon Cecil summons Odin.

Yeah. This is bad.

---

Mist

-Just in case, checking back here. It’s a long shot, since I know Asura and Leviathan and Odin are still shackled.

-The mist is departing! People are coming outside!

-Village Chief: “Looks like you’ve freed all the Eidolons.” Huh? What? No, I didn’t. We literally saw Odin still shackled like forty seconds ago.

-Kind of nice. The kids of the town saved the Mist Dragon and have been maintaining it. Also kind of fucked up. They pretended to be Rydia’s mom for no good reason. Or did I make an inferential leap that was unwarranted? Probably.

-WHOA! That WAS ghost mom! I guess working in conjunction with the kid.

-Alright, EMC. Here we come.

---

Next time: Baron. About time.

FFIV After Years – Part 43: Titan Unshackled (The Crystals)

Summary: Ceodore stands up to Cecil, then more wandering. We go to Agart, and after a brutal fight, unshackle Titan. The Cave of Eblan and most of the rest of the Overworld are dead ends, but just as my hope was fading I find a new place to try: the Agart Subterrane, a possible path to the underworld.

---

Baron

-GO CEODORE! Standing up to Evil Moon Cecil! Seriously. I’m really proud of him. He thinks it’s his real dad. [“Angel” spoilers] Guvf erzvaqf zr bs "Yvarntr," jura Jrfyrl fgnaqf hc gb NAQ FUBBGF jub ur guvaxf vf uvf erny qnq sbe guerngravat uvf sevraqf naq ybirq barf, ohg vg gheaf bhg gb or Ebob-Qnq.

-Rosa really has terrible dialogue. Half her lines are just names. “Ceodore!” “Kain!” “Cecil!” “Kain!” “Kain!” “Ceodore!”

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Agart

-Nobody in the streets

-Random monster encounters in town. Ogres and golems, mostly.

-LOL I tried “Goblin,” Rydia’s new summon spell, and it is the worst. It summons a goblin who punches a mob twice for basically zero damage. “Goblin Punch.”

-Evil Moon Girl! Or one of them at least. Chilling out in Agart. Why?

-EMG: “I’m done with this planet.”

-It’s TITAN!!

Poor Rydia.

-Oh god. This is awful. Titan and Rydia have the closest relationship. He saved her as a kid, and I get the sense that they were like family when she was in the Feymarch. This is like Rydia fighting a close uncle.

-None of my characters have levitate. I sense pain.

-Here it comes.

-“???: Float!” WHO

-POROM! Thank you, you rock. After casting this on us, she collapsed and then we went back to the fight.

-Float wearing off…

-OW. “Crush” from Titan = instakill.

-YAYAYAYAY!!! He’s back! Porom better not be dead.

-Whew. She’s safe.

---

Exploring

-Only place left for me to explore really is Cave of Eblan, and I may try there, but first just in case, I’ll check Baron out again.

-Yeah, no luck in Baron.

-Ooh! Gnomish Bread sowed me a placed I hadn’t seen! “Chocobo Isle.”

-But nothing really there. Just another summoner spell in a treasure chest. “Chocobo.” Hope it’s better than “Goblin.”

---

Cave of Eblan

-Arachne (spams Quake) and no Float? NOOO!!!

-LOLOLLOL

Ok. A “Summoner” mob shows up. We attack her once. She summons a Goblin (one of the little green dudes we one-shot back at level one), and then she runs away. Leaving our massively powerful party on one side. And the goblin on the other. I can just hear the goblin saying, “Really, dude? Really?”

-Found a Small Tail vendor here, but didn’t have enough.

-Note to self: Arachne = weak to Blizz.

-Yeah. No luck in the Cave of Eblan breaking into the Tower of Babil. The pink glow repels us.

-Golbez calls the Tower of Babil an Interdimensional Elevator. I guess the Evil Moon Gang is using this to teleport the crystals to the moon.

-OH GOD MARQUIS MALBORO

-Hey game, stop giving me these horrifying plant tentacle flower monsters.

Goody. I was running a bit low on nightmare fuel.

-beat it… but a really brutal fight. Emergency exit.

---

Overworld

-Not sure what’s next.

-Can’t get to the underworld.

-Yeah. Feeling stuck.

---

Agart

-Maybe Corio, that astronomer from the cutscenes, can help.

-…No.

-OH HELLO AGART SUBTERRANE!!! I’M NOT STUCK!! This is like being stuck on a crossword puzzle and then finding out the right answer at the last minute.

-First, though, I’ll restock.

-Wow. Really glad I checked that well in Agart where I first dropped the key to open the path to the underworld.

---

Next time: Agart Subterrane. Hopefully I’ll get to the underworld, maybe get to the Feymarch, find Yang, bring him to the Sylphs, get them on our side, and… I dunno, go from there. It’s a plan.

FFIV After Years – Part 42: A Song of Fire (The Crystals)

My headcanon theme music for a pretty epic game segment.

Summary: The party wanders over towards Eblan, which is on fire. It’s under attack by Ifrit and his toasty minions. Ifrit hunts them through the castle, but eventually Edge confronts him to save the Eblanians. Rydia joins him, then the rest of the party, before finally unshackling him. The slowest confrontation in the history of time itself continues in Baron.

---

Mithril

-Not much here. Just some potions.

---

Overworld

-Found another meteor in a forest, but this was a Monster-in-a-Box. With three Dark Sages (moon mages).

-Ow.

-Died about seven times before finally winning. They move SUPER fast, usually getting in two full cycles of attacks before I got one. Eventually I remembered Spider Silk to slow them down, which helped, and had to use multiple Firagas per Dark Sage.

-Nice reward, a knife for Edge called “Mage Masher,” but HOLY CRAP was that hard.

---

Eblan

-Castle’s on fire! It’s Ifrit!

-Shifted phase to the Waning Moon before entering to boost my melee.

-Ifrit is just at the entrance to a tower, not in the throne room or wherever a boss would be. Interesting.

-He keeps popping up, hitting us, and running away.

-Melt Golem looks REALLY cool!!

It’s not as creepy as Malboro, but I do not want this guy angry with me.

-Ifrit shows up, but I have to run since magic can’t touch him. This is like the end of Edge’s Tale.

-While mechanically I don’t love Ifrit popping up, since I just run, I like the story feel of it. Instead of killing trash and then a boss fight at the end, it’s like a monster is stalking us through the castle. Like a horror movie.

-Not having a white mage really hurts here. Yes, Edge has “Heal Pill,” but it’s single target only, and pretty weak.

-Fire blocks me from some of the tower treasure. Maybe once I kill Ifrit, I can reach it.

-Luca, I like you, but you’re slow as fuck.

-Hee! A save point, so I set up a wooden cottage and take a nap. In a burning castle. While being stalked by an enraged Eidolon fire god.

-Throne room. The citizens of Eblan are trapped in here.

-And so Edge CHALLENGES Ifrit! To distract him, so the citizens can escape.

Uh oh.

-Aaaaand he gets WHOMPED by hellfire. Last words: worry for Rydia.

-wtf

-is that

-IT’S RUBICANTE!!! WTFWTFWTF


-How the FUCK is Rubicante here? Why the FUCK is Edge back to full health? What the FUCK is happening? Is he trying to help Edge?

-Seriously. I feel like Jay at the end of “Dogma.” Head to 2:50 of the following clip to see my reaction seeing Rubicante again. Spoilers for the movie, of course.



-Rydia came to help!

-“Flood” does no damage, although Rubicante isn’t covered in his cloak. Melee seems to be the way to go.

-Rubicante hasn’t attacked. He just stands there taunting Edge. “What’s the matter? Have you been defanged?” “Is that all the spirit you’ve got?”

I am rubber, you are glue.

-RUBiCANTE: “Now recall it. That true flame which has been etched into you.” He then cast “Inferno” on Edge and Rydia, a fiery tornado spell. It doesn’t do damage, but ends the combat, and Rubicante disappears.

-This fight (or hallucination or SOMETHING?) gave Edge an idea, that an explosion will help quell Ifrit’s fire. Fighting fire with fire, literally. Um. Is that a science thing that ever happens? Either way, it’s pretty cool in this context.

-New band attack with Rydia, “Inferno”!! WOOHOO!! Part of my joy is that a band attack between the two brings my ship of them a step closer to reality.

-BRING IT, IFRIT

-The rest of the party joins in!

Attempt #1: Death. Fiery, brutal death.
Attempt #2: Death. Even more fiery and brutal.
Attempt #3: Success! Barely. Ifrit may have a soft enrage timer, since near the end he was spamming Firaga.

-I’m still not really sure who Rubicante was. A vision? A piece of Edge, like with Kain? A ghost? That he was actually Rubicante’s spirit is entirely possible. Rubicante definitely seems like the kind of dude to help out Edge just because he wants to see Edge be his best. The fact that Rydia was in combat makes the ghost theory even more likely.

BFFs.

---

Baron

-Evil Moon Cecil challenges Kain, and demanding Ceodore’s help. How about you die in a fire, EMC?

When paladins collide

-Jump, Kain, jump! We’re doing good damage, but then Cecil whacks us, we fall to our knees (wow, that sentence didn’t come out exactly right), and then the fight fades back to…

---

Eblan

-Some of the treasure blocked by fire now opens to us.

-Everyone’s like, “I got this, do you thing.” Time to move on.

---

Next time: more world exploration, possibly more Eidolons to unshackle.

FFIV After Years – Part 41: A Song of Ice (The Crystals)

Summary: Our party pursues the path of the Earth Crystal into the Lodestone Cavern, now blessedly magnetic. They run into approximately 73,015 random encounters, but eventually make it to the crystal room and fight Shiva. They win the fight, and manage to unshackle Shiva rather than killing her. The frozen Leonora and Palom become free, as does the entirety of Troia. The two of them join us, and we see the eternal Baron confrontation still going on.

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Lodestone Cavern

-YES!! No more magnetic pull. No need to switch gear to wood and cloth.

-My party needs to get their heads out of their asses. They keep getting back-attacked and ambushed.

-Lot of monsters.

-Chimeras, cave bats, nagas. Chimeras, cave bats, nagas…

-SO MANY MONSTER. Stop it, dungeon.

-Blah. BORING.

-This makes me wonder. What is it that makes some dungeons interesting and others not? Why does this place feel particularly boring? Well, a lot of it feels pointless, like I go down a road, hit four encounters I’ve seen before, and hit a dead end. I then turn back, and hit another four encounters when I just want to get to something a bit new.

This means that when I’m in a dungeon I already didn’t love, with monsters I don’t really like (the cave bats and their Bloodfeast cast times), down paths I already know, the place already has a few strikes against it.

-Crystal chamber.

Palom and Leonora, still frozen.

-SHIVA!

-Luca: “Give me back my Palom!” Is FFIV: TAY going the love triangle route?

-…Ok. We were doing ok against Shiva, but then Rydia said that Shiva had stopped, and we should stop too to let her regain her senses. The problem is that a spell already was queued. It hit, and Shiva spammed Blizzaga until we died.

-Attempt #2: Way more careful this time, and managed my DPS. Just cast Firaga and healed up. It worked, and Shiva returned to Rydia as a summonable.

Shiva unshackled.

-Palom and Leonora awoke!

---

Troia

-Immediately ported out to Troia. I’m happy that we’

-Back to Troia. Palom will come with us, but he’s going to hang in the basement of the ship (not sure on nautical terminology; is it the hull?).

-Leonora’s coming too!

---

Baron

-Flash over to the confrontation in the throne room.

-Evil Moon Girl just flat-out snagged the crystals from Rosa.

-Kain’s portrait is disconcertingly similar to Cecil’s. Kind of cool, actually.

-EMG says the crystals are “back” in their grasp. Is her race or creators or whatever the people who made the crystals in the first place then?

---

Next time: the world tour continues.

FFIV After Years – Part 40: Mere Anarchy Loosed (The Crystals)

Summary: Our party starts wandering the lands, trying to find some way to breach Baron. They hit Mist, Kaipo, Damcyan, Fabul, and Troia, seeing how recent events have impacted all these places. Some cities are hunkered down, some are overrun (by sylphs or antlions), and one, Troia, is frozen solid.

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Overworld

-I really like the changes to the overworld in the face of the meteors and falling moon. Things are darker, even though it’s daytime. Almost sepia colored, like when it’s really overcast and two seconds away from a thunderstorm.

-Also, the ground is now pockmarked from where the meteors crashed.

-Time to get in my airship and FLY!

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Mist

-Started here, since it’s close.

-It’s covered in… well, mist.

-Aw. Rydia calls out for her mom, who had the mist dragon protect in the first place.

-“You must leave at once, Rydia…” Her mom IS here! Guarding the village!

-She wants Rydia to return once the Eidolons are unshackled. “You have what you need for the task [of unshackling the Eidolons]. I am waiting for you…”

-COLOR ME INTERESTED

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Kaipo

-The city is littered with sylphs. And they all want Yang!

Missing Yang.

-Hm. Maybe that’s a clue! If I head to the Feymarch, maybe I’ll find Yang, bring him back to Kaipo, and get the sylphs to bust open Baron.

-The environmental impact of the falling moon is that it’s darkened the sky and drastically reduced the temperature, even here in the desert.

-Wait. The sylphs are angry. They are here. THAT MEANS THEY’RE FREE? How’d they get unshackled?

---

Damcyan

-Very quiet inside.

-WTF? Antlions are running through the castle. They’re not hostile unless you talk to them, but it’s still surreal.

Running wild in Damcyan.

-Unlike Kaipo, no vendors around.

-Throne room. HI HARLEY!!!!! She and the Chancellor share their knowledge with our party.

-Harley wants to join! YES! At least until we see Edward. She’ll chill in the Falcon.

-Moment #45 of Recognition of How Great Edward Is: The memory of Edward’s songs serve as inspiration for the townsfolk in this time of fear.

---

Fabul

-The monks all know Edge and Rydia. Nice little acknowledgment of the time between Interlude and now.

-LOL the sylphs have sieged Fabul.

-We actually meet the brother of a monk who died to EMG in the Impact Crater, back in Edge’s Tale. So cool.

-Sheila gave us her beloved Frying Pan. I’m touched. And a Ladle for Ursula, though I can’t remember why that’s significant.

---

Overworld

-Cool! Some of the big craters have treasure chests in them.

-The bottom floor of the airship has assorted party members standing by. Currently, Harley, Gekkou, Tsukinowa, Zangetsu. And an empty bed for Izayoi. STOP GUILT-TRIPPING ME, GAME.

-Found a small and new cave, “Southwest Cave,” with a small tail.

---

Troia

-Townsperson saw the “queen of ice” (Shiva, I guess) fly away from Troia Castle.

-The castle is frozen. Yeah, probably Shiva. Rydia seems to think the same thing.

-OH GOD THE PEOPLE ARE FROZEN TOO

-Super creepy. This is some White Witch/Queen Mab bullshit right here.

-Poor Epopts.

-Uh oh. I think it’s time for Dad Joke Husky again.

-……

-Anyway.

-Yeah, the Troian crystal is gone.

-Oh, right! Palom and Leonora took it! Then they got it taken from them, but still.

-I guess we’re heading to the Lodestone Cave. BAH.

-No more chocobo forest, so how do I reach the cave?

---

Next time: Lodestone Cavern.