Part 5: Revenge

Welcome back to Final Fantasy 2! Now for you viewing pleasure, epic punch off: staring Josef's face!





The judges are unanimous: Vivian, best at punching.

So we actually have to go back to Semite Falls to get our new vehicle. Fortunately for us, it's right next to the entrance.



It's that weird blue thing!



And you still don't do anything with it. It's nice that Josef's ghost doesn't hold a grudge, though.

After we pick up the Ice Sled, we go all the way north.



And here's what we needed the ice sled for. Also, this is the only snow field in the game and the only time we will ever need the sled. Yup.


Snowman
Rank 2, HP 45, Attack Power 9, Attacks 1, Accuracy 60%, Defense 4, Evasion 1-20%, Magic Resistance 2-40%

Snowman, like their yeti cousins, are uninteresting. They have a weakness to Fire. Even a multi-targetted Fire 2 kills 'em.



The snow field is big, but the encounter rate seems to be very low. The only thing in it is a cave at the far right side.





The Ice Cavern is a small step up in difficulty.



However, unlike Semite Falls Exit is disabled here. That's actually a little unusual for this game, so something must be afoot. In any case, if I want to resupply I'd have to walk all the way out, so I'm doing it in one go. Since we're a lot stronger now, that's not a such a tall order.


Deadhead
Rank 2, HP 45, Attack Power 17, Attacks 1, Accuracy 60%, Defense 9, Evasion 1-20%, Magic Resistance 2-40%

Zombie
Rank 1, HP 30, Attack Power 17, Attacks 1, Accuracy 60%, Defense 0, Evasion 0, Magic Resistance 1-50%

Ghoul
Rank 2, HP 60, Attack Power 17, Attacks 1, Accuracy 60%, Defense 4, Evasion 1-20%, Magic Resistance 2-40%

It takes a while, but we finally run into undead enemies. The undead changed a bit from the first game.



This was the first FF where Cure damages undead. Life is also an instant kill, drain spells are reversed, and all undead enemies are weak to fire. All these things became staples for undead enemies in FF.

Apparently the Ghouls have a chance to paralyses when they hit, but I never saw it. Believe it or not, even with only 22 percent evasion (17 when wearing armor) Viv dodges a decent amount of the time. Enemies tend to have low accuracy, and the absurd amount of evasion levels Vivian has tends to bolster her evasion. (I couldn't tell you the exact math going on, though.)

EDIT: I can't do math but Fister Roboto can:



Icicle
Rank 2, HP 60, Attack Power 17, Attacks 1, Accuracy 60%, Defense 17, Evasion 0, Magic Resistance 2-40%

They're kind hardy, so Vivian needs to punch them twice, and they're super weak to Fire.


Grenade
Rank 2, HP 60, MP 10, Attack Power 25, Attacks 1, Accuracy 65%, Defense 17, Evasion 0, Magic Resistance 2-50%

The Grenades never seemed to show up by themselves or even in a small group. They're always in these big groups. Of course, in this group only the Guard Goblin and the Grenade can do any damage. Unlike their little brothers, they're much harder to one-shot (right now anyway) and their explosion hurts a lot more. All these enemy types are weak to fire (yes, fire) and lightning though, so that helps.



And FF2's streak of giving you trash treasure goes on strong!



Hm there's a door we don't go through. HM.



Sadly I can't say I get four (I still can't believe it...) agility ups in this update, but even one is a welcome surprise.



And the pleasant surprise train keeps on rolling.


Dual Head
Rank 2, HP 80, Attack Power 25, Attacks 2, Accuracy 50%, Defense 17, Evasion 1-20%, Magic Resistance 2-50%

The real bastards here are the Dual Heads. They're one of the first random encounters that get two hits, and their attack power is pretty nasty.



This IceWind is on the third floor. It casts a powerful multi-target ice spell when used. This is actually useful for the "boss" at the end, but I can do better than to cheese a boss with an attack item.

The third floor actually has a branching path. The staircase in the upper right leads to treasure.



But it's all kind of not great. Axes aren't that great if only because most of the good weapons are swords anyway, and there are very few axes in the game all told. Although if you're using them, and can't afford a mythril axe, this is okay.



Although I fight a Dual Head not too long after that gives me another one anyway. Go figure.

Another chest is an antidote, which I'm really not needing, and the the last one is...







Since I just got that unarmed level, plus some strength, I'm back to mostly one-shotting everything. Not even a problem.

The Mythril item we got was the mace. Maces (or canes; the terms are kinda used interchangeably in the game) are surprisingly decent weapons, but still not the best.

After grabbing the treasure, back to the third floor, and we go down and to the left.



GUYS THERE MIGHT BE AN ENEMY WITH AN ICE WEAKNESS AT THE END OF THIS DUNGEON.



There's just a medley of weapons in this place, isn't there? Anyway, this mythril weapon is a spear, and spears tend to get overshadowed by swords too, although I'd say there's more good spears than axes in the game.




Shadow
Rank 2, HP 45, Attack Power 17, Attacks 1, Accuracy 60%, Defense 9, Evasion 1-20%, Magic Resistance 2-40%

On the fifth floor there's another weapon guarded by some undead, including a new face. Shadows can apparently inflict blind with their attack, but I never saw it.

The Ancient Sword is neat, I guess. It can inflict Curse, which is permanent and pretty useful, but its accuracy is shit.

And now that I think about I'm not even sure why I'm bothering to get everything when I know the bulk of I pick up over the game isn't going to help me. Habit? Speaking of which there was a mythril shield in the corner I forgot to get. Oops.





And suddenly, beavers.



This fan translation didn't put it in, but Loq is supposed to speak like Tarzan. It's because he was raised by animals or some shit. He's also supposed to have the ability to talk to animals, but this is the only time you ever see it. It's also the only time Loq will do anything interesting.



Or not. If you know there's a secret wall here you don't need that beaver to tell you. Besides, corpses can't talk to animals that'd be silly.

This leads us to the last floor. There's not much there.



I guess I could have saved my money? (Because 400 gil's breaking the bank...)



Anyway, boss!


Adamantoise
Rank 5, HP 450, Attack Power 50, Attacks 2, Accuracy 75%, Defense 60, Evasion 0, Magic Resistance 1-50%

The Adamantoise is just a beefed up Land Turtle: same ridiculous HP, same weakness to ice.



It can hit hard, but at this point my HP is so high I'm just shrugging it off. What I was worried about was MP.



And I shouldn't have worried. Even with a mere level 2 Ice this battle's over very quickly. (Which is probably why I only got vitality out of it. Lame!)



It did drop a Diamond Shield, though. It's really too bad I'm not using shields; this is a nice get.



Believe it or not, I'm not gonna sell it. Why? Because of another aspect of Evasion I haven't mentioned yet. Evasion percent also determines chance of getting preemptive attacks, getting ambushed, and chance of running away. The thing is, as far as I can tell it's unclear whose evasion determines that. I've been told that Solo's evasion percentage, and only his, determines how often you get ambushed or ambush the enemy. Experience suggests this to be true, even when he's dead. I would think that I would get a massive hit to preemptive chance strike when Solo's dead, if that's how the game calculates ambushes/preemptive strikes. But I've played a few solo runs and I really, really think the game just counts his evasion and doesn't care if he's dead. At the end of the day I can't really prove it, though. Still, it couldn't hurt, so Solo will get any evasion boosting equipment that I'm not using. He'll be the prettiest corpse at the ball.



The area the Adamantoise was standing in front of has a plaque. Examine it and you just get the bell. Yeah, it doesn't say you got the Goddess Bell, but you do. Okay.





The game designers showed some mercy and put a one-way door leading to the first floor. Of course, if you forgot to get the bell (or didn't realize it was there) you gotta go through the whole dungeon again. Fun. The remakes at least make it so you have to get the bell before they let you walk through the one-way door.

Vivian's almost out of MP and I don't really wanna use the one Ether I swiped from Minwu, so I'm glad it's over. Time to walk out.



Damn it.


Borgan
Rank 4, HP 240, MP 20, Attack Power 25, Attacks 1, Accuracy 75%, Defense 17, Evasion 1-40%, Magic Resistance 3-50%

Hey, it's the first boss fight who isn't a re-purposed random encounter. Good job. Too bad he's a chump.

I'd like to tell you that I killed him a single punch, but I didn't. Not that it was even remotely challenging; he never landed a single hit on me.



No, the bastard just kept healing himself.



But he can't hold out forever. Gravity bomb that, fucker.



But wait oh no




: *squish*



Well that was a stirring dramatic scene I guess. It occurs to me that the original doesn't tell you why there's suddenly a boulder out for your blood. In the remakes Borgan, right before he dies, pushes it. What a fucker.

Time to head back to Salamando, inn, sell off all the crap, and head to the item shop.



I have nothing to spend my money on for quite some time, so I figured the hell with it and picked up an ether and a cottage. Might as well.

We don't have to report back to Hilda; we can just go right to Kashuon. But where is it? If we pay Cid he'll just fly us there, and by this point the 400 or so gil he charges is chump change, but I'll just walk. First, we go to Bofsk, and from there head south.



Kashuon is the middle of the mountain circle, surrounded by water. It's a bit of a hike, but nothing we haven't done already. No new monsters along the way.



Next time, Castle Kashuon.




Power +4, Agility +1, Vitality +5, Intelligence -1, Evasion +1, Magic Defense +2, Magic Power +2, Unarmed +1, Fire +1, Bolt +1, Blink +1, HP +154

Hm, I feel like I forgot something.