Part 13: Chilly! ..Is Kary male or female?

When last we left off, Rock had just volunteered to kick some monster ass in order to get a chance to talk to Cibba.



Unfortunately, there's a few trees in the way. At least we've gotten an upgraded axe since the first one.



Conveniently enough the snow fields are separated from everything else by a bridge.



Unfortunately, we can't take Choco with us...evidently Chocobo are tropical birds? I'm kind of puzzled as to the reasoning behind this and I have to think that they actually did this for atmospheric reasons.



In addition to the animate snow men we've seen thus far, there are also walrus men and...disembodied wolf heads? I'm not sure exactly what those are. The walrus men throw icicles about, but they don't seem to do anything but cause damage. Off to our left is the shop we could see coming in, but its contents are completely pedestrian and unworthy of notice.



Kary's den doesn't really look like much more than a hole in the wall, but looks can be deceptive.



Holy crap, it's full of tauntaun! Well, not exactly...I'm pretty sure that the tauntaun in Empire Strikes Back didn't turn people into moogles. Other than that, they're slow and easy to kill.



These guys are also making a return appearance. Unfortunately the flame chain isn't much good against the floating eyes.



Looking at this room you'd be tempted to think that there's some kind of horrifying puzzle coming up where you have to slide around on the ice to move the snowman and press the switch. Instead, you step on the switch and the snowman moves around in a pattern until it comes off the ice, and then the door opens.



Logically enough, there are a LOT of chain related puzzles in here. If you didn't buy the flame chain in Ish, this would be pretty painful.



Yet another new enemy here. I don't know their actual name, but due to their choice of headgear I think of them as Kaiser Ducks.



I'm... fairly certain this opening was not here a moment ago.



Ice is a one way barrier, so rooms like this force detours.



They've gone back to obvious hidden passages, leading up to our first set of stairs. You know, I might have been mistaken thinking that the designers are trying to give a chance to get keys in each dungeon. Maybe they just think it's not a good dungeon without skeletons?



The next floor has a number of frozen slideways with convenient places to try and stop yourself with your chain. Strangely enough, I don't think I actually used any of them.



Stepping on this ice in the right place will result in you sliding around the border until you reach the other side. It's actually kind of fun.



..another set of stairs?



This time we get to slide around on the ice and find our way around until we reach another stairway and climb to..



This rather unusual room. I don't know if having to pull out the morning star to break some boulders actually counts as a puzzle per se, but there's also a hidden passage here in the north wall.



Which passage leads to a rather useful healing spring if it's needed.



Going down and killing all the enemies will net us an elixir, the first one we've seen thus far. It pretty much does exactly what you would expect it to do.



This makes about four stairways thus far. This dungeon is actually fairly huge.



I really like this strange architecture. Is it an ice shelf? Some kind of stone arch?



Sometimes I think that these posts and such to haul us across the ice are kind of frivolous.



This is another one of those rooms that's actually far simpler than it looks. You're going to slide around the room in a circle once you step in, but all you have to do is catch one of the poles with your chain and step on the switch in the center. That opens up holes in the ice, allowing you to walk down and step on the bottom switch to open the door.



They were actually fairly creative with the ice layouts in this dungeon, all things considered. I'm surprised that they didn't have at least one room where you had to put snowmen on switches while a couple of the animate snowmen were moving around to confuse the issue.



This time we actually get to ride the ice, although contrary to what you might expect it's not a loop.



The southern ice slide only goes down one screen.



Somewhere along the eastern ice slide is an opportunity to visit another healing spring. As long as this dungeon is, these are very welcome.



After yet another set of stairs we're in the outdoors, evidently having climbed enough to be looking out at the clouds.



This room stuck with me because it's a rather bizarre dead end. I'm just a bit confused as to why this little room exists.



When you find yourself on the wrong side of a locked door like this, it's a sure sign that things are about to get serious...

Boss Fight: Kary


Kary Boss Battle

There's no discussion or posturing to begin this fight. As soon as you and Kary see each other, it's pretty much on. I'm not sure what's going on with this boss, to be honest.. the features are masculine, but it almost looks likes there's some cleavage there. Are those supposed to be exaggerated pecs since Kary has four arms?

Kary's only got about two or three real methods to attack you. The icicle barrage is useless against our flame shield, and straight forward charges are predictable and end at the same point. The really dangerous one is the tail attack, which can do more than 100 damage. You have to hit Kary in the face, which is best done from the left side or the bottom. The chain gives us plenty of reach.



The entire screen flashes when Kary is defeated in a very distinct manner that's different from bosses we've dealt with so far.



Kary leaves behind a new weapon for us, that's actually a bit stronger than our flame chain. This would be more noteworthy if we weren't about to have a deluge of weapons thrust our way.



Luckily for Rock's burgeoning separation anxiety, Chocobot is waiting for us in the screen below the snowfields.



Returning to Lorim, the waste of space inhabitants have thawed out.



At least the king is actually grateful. It's a rather nice feeling compared to how many beneficiaries of heroic actions act in other games.



Aaaah! Warn a guy before you shove things like that in his face!



Go beyond the Ammonite Coast to Float Rocks. Use this key at the cave in the Floatrocks! The guardian monster has the legendary sword.



Would it really hurt matters to give me more than one set of instructions at a time?



What? GOOD MORNING?! That's all you have to say after I used a key to come in here? Give me back the 4 gold I just wasted on coming in here to talk to you!

Next time: Another fiend bites the dust and we get a rather...questionable... legendary sword.