Part 9: Tropical Vacation

Welcome back! We're at some unknown tropical island, for no in-story reason, just because there's a thing I know we need later. Good enough!



Before we start, I want to make a little change. As nice as stuff like the Goldpin is, I've decided that getting agility bonuses will make this too easy. So, new restriction: no equipment that increases agility or evasion at all. The pin moves onto Solo (the restriction's only for Viv!), and the Thief Gloves are on the block to be sold.


Dual Zombie
Rank 5, HP 300, Attack Power 40, Attacks 5, Accuracy 65%, Defense 25, Evasion 1-50%, Magic Resistance 3-50%

Other translations call them Dual Deads, which is way more fun. Also five attacks fuck me.



These formations are the most dangerous in the dungeon. With as many attacks as they get, it's not uncommon to eat around 100 to 200 damage for each Dual Zombie. In addition Vivian's attack power isn't quite enough to one-shot them, so it's best to take them out one by one with Fire.


Jelly
Rank 2, HP 45, MP 6, Attack Power 17, Attacks 1, Accuracy 60%, Defense 210, Evasion 0, Magic Resistance 2-40%

Mallow
Rank 3, HP 100, MP 45, Attack Power 25, Attacks 2, Accuracy 65%, Defense 210, Evasion 0, Magic Resistance 2-50%

Really, this whole dungeon is an MP sink. Jellies are weak to Ice and Fire, spells you've probably got decent levels for, and have low HP. Mallows, on the other hand, have a bolt weakness and can't be one-shot with Viv's current level of the spell. Each of these battles are just going to require a goodly amount of MP.



Niiice.

You may wonder why I don't just run from those fights, or run from more fights in general. So FF2's also really annoying in how it handles running from battles. I've not seen any definite explanation on how running chance works, although it probably runs off Solo's evasion like preemptive strikes do. While I'm not sure else effects it, I do think enemy formations also impact run chance. I'm pretty sure certain formations, such as any with slime enemies, just forbid you from running entirely. This, right here, is why a no-magic run of FF2 almost impossible. (If you've managed to beat this game using no magic whatsoever, please, tell me.) You're gonna run into these guys, and you have to kill them somehow. With over 200 defense, though, attacks just won't do it, unless you have the masamune or max level fists.



There's not much on the first floor, mostly some rubbish treasure, but there's some gems in there.



And just some otherwise interesting items. Threads cast multi-targetted Slow 9. Slow does what it did in FF1, that is, it reduces the enemies number of attacks. Normally I end up selling this item, but I'm thinking I should reconsider. As you've been able to tell, the number of attacks the enemy gets is very important, so slow can downright cripple dudes. Unfortunately, we don't get the tome until much, much later, and I don't see the point in leveling slow and curse. But I could experiment with this item. Moreover, many attack items in FF2 have a random chance of being used up, rather than always being a one-shot. I'll have to think about it.

(Fortunately, there are actually two Threads in this dungeon, so while I sold one of them I can always try out the other.)



Up on the second floor, Vivian finally gets her subscription filled. Actually, this casts sleep on the enemy. I'll pass.

Right below the chest there's a staircase. This dungeon's quite sprawling, with lots of different paths. So let's explore this one.



On some parts of the dungeon there is this vine overlay. Considering how samey and cookie-cutter a lot of dungeons are in this game, I appreciate any effort to spice it up.



And at the end of this little diversion we reach... here.



The mask this dude mentions is actually what we can here to get, just so you know. Still no reason as of yet why we need it.

Now you don't have to come here, it's a dead end, and most of the masked dudes just say the same thing.



But there is a shop. The demon axe and spear are useless; we can get much a better spear or axe in Mysidia for only a little bit more. The ruby cuirass is actually pretty nice, though. It's only got five more defense than the silver cuirass, but it has the same small evasion and int/soul penalty, and it's very cheap. Might as well buy it. (Yeah, I lied; there was one more non-item purchase in the game. Sorry.) The Earth Drum casts Earthquake 10 on all enemies. You can't actually cast earthquake any other way, and it does decent enough damage. And like the thread, it has a random chance of disappearing after use. We're getting one for free later on, and I'll probably never use that one.

Since there's nothing else to do here, and I'm already out of MP (partially due to the slime enemies, and partially due to me trying to grind up all these new spells.) Let's exit out, save, pop a cottage, and start again.



And I immediately get into a losing battle with some dual zombies. Here we have a fine example of running not working.



Oops. Yeah, don't underestimate these guys.



Back to the second floor. Yeah, you'll notice this dungeon loves throwing duplicate items at you, even on the same floor. I guess I understand, you can't buy this spell after all, but do you ever need more than one Aero caster?



Same thing with Blind. I end up having Viv learn it; honestly I don't forsee it ever being that useful, but why not? At least the blind tome sells for a lot.


G. Toad
Rank 4, HP 300, Attack Power 35, Attacks 3, Accuracy 70%, Defense 35, Evasion 1-30%, Magic Resistance 3-50%

I have no idea what "g" is supposed to stand for. Giant, I guess. Anyway, they're weak to ice, and have kinda high HP. With three attacks they have better chances of hitting Viv, and they can poison you upon hitting, so they've got that going for them. Although they did hit Viv plenty, poison only hit once. A mild annoyance at best.



On the fourth floor there are four different staircase we can go through. The first one, directly south of where we can in, just leads to a single treasure.







....okay.

From this staircase we go directly right.


Tusk
Rank 5, HP 300, Attack Power 40, Attacks 3, Accuracy 85%, Defense 35, Evasion 1-30%, Magic Resistance 3-50%

Tusk! It's the big horn's little brother! And somehow, the little brother has a higher rank. Go figure. They're much like the toads; a mild annoyance at best.



And this is what's at the end of this path. Don't get too excited; it's just two valiums and an earthdrum. While that would make a rockin' party, not what we want.



One of them is trapped with toads and tusks, so that's... something.



It's a good something, that's what it is.

Back down to the fourth floor. This time we want to go to the top left corner of the floor.



I actually already picked up one of these from a toad. It casts fear. Yeeeaaaaah not tempted.


Changer
Rank 3, HP 140, MP 80, Attack Power 35, Attacks 2, Accuracy 70%, Defense 25, Evasion 1-50%, Magic Resistance 3-40%



Changer's big gimmick is casting Swap on you. With Viv's 6-48% magic defense it's fairly unlikely to hit.



It's not impossible though. The changers have 80 MP, so it's not an awful trade-off. Although I had to spend most of that healing up again.



Enjoy this rare shot of running actually working.

Anyway, back again to the fourth floor, and to the left. This time we're finally moving forward.



One last bit of treasure on the fifth floor. At least it's not another valium...





And we're at the end of the dungeon finally! You know, some people have mentioned that this dungeon's difficulty is more suited for this point in the game, which is why I'm doing it. (Also because I can.) While you can do the dungeon now, you're actually expected to do it after the cave at Dist, the colosseum after it, and the liberation of Phin. Hell, it probably expects you to do it after the castle dungeon. This... doesn't make a lot of sense. Yeah, it's rather long, full of MP-draining slime enemies (ended up using two ethers!), and the Dual Zombies can be kind of nasty, but right now it's only a slight bump up in difficulty. It's kind of weird that this dungeon is so easy. I'd venture to guess that this dungeon's difficulty is more suitable for this part of the because you can easily stumble upon it when you first get the boat. Which is what I'd guess if this were a sane game. Not in a game where you can easily fight mid to late game enemies right out of the gate. So I ain't got a fucking clue. I think you might have guessed that the design of this game often makes no sense.

Anyway, our boss is an enemy we've seen before.


Big Horn
Rank 4, HP 1,140, Attack Power 50, Attacks 4, Accuracy 85%, Defense 50, Evasion 1-60%, Magic Resistance 6-30%

Big Horns are a bitch to fight in a group, but by itself it's nothing. We've fought worse.



It's really not worth talking about.



And here is the thing we came for. And yet another inventory space that I'll never get back. Yay!



And once again the game designers give you a bit of a break, in case you had no MP for exit or something.

All right, now that we did... the thing, next time we'll finally go and do what we were supposed to do.




Power +2, Agility +2, Vitality +6, Intelligence +5, Soul +6, Evasion +4 (!!!), Magic Power +1, Fire +1, Ice +1, Curse +1, Holy +1, HP +340, MP +21