Part 2: "He lost his mind to an airship."

So we've got out party. Nathan, Lion, Luna, Dude. Let's begin!





The game begins with a battle involving our party and these DarkNites. As you can see, enemies have a eight-character limit.



As you can notice from this screenshot, we're not supposed to win this one.







Now for the good stuff, the translation!



First text box of the game and we have Hilda playing off MingWu like some overexaggerating show-off. Completely unintentional, I'm sure, but I still like the sense of goofiness this game has.

This Mystic Circle amplifies vitality. We should let him sleep.
Then let us go. We must do something about the Warship Empire is making in Bafsuk!! They will start attacking us as soon as it's done!

As a reminder, If you see any spelling errors or awkward sentence structure in the dialogue, it's probably the game.





For some reason, MingWu does the standard "walk away but look back one last time" thing that a lot of sprite-based RPGs love to do. He may have been the first character in this series to do that.

Let that important piece of history sink in for a moment.



Meanwhile, Nathan Fillion wakes up from his death nap.







After calling for his comrades Lion and Luna, Nathan Fillion is so overwhelmed that all he can do is exclaim, "Dude!" To be fair, being brought back from the dead is a fairly Dude-worthy moment.





Thankfully, Luna and Dude are waiting right outside.



First off, Dude's dialogue isn't so much a translation error but rather the way he speaks. Dude has no fucking patience for passive verbs. Meanwhile, Nathan Fillion is still letting slang out left and right, as he just won't stop saying "Dude!"

But yeah, Lion disappeared and won't be popping up for a long time. That's OK, because Nathan Fillion is confident in one thing:



He sure is!





Now that the team's mostly-reunited and have nothing else to do, they go talk to Hilda, who was nice enough to resurrect three slain orphans.



This game loves to pluralize the "Rebellions" and "Empires," even when it's not necessary. It simply adds to the charm.

It is dangerous. You should go back home.
We have no place to go back.
Oh, I am sorry. If you know the password, you can live freely in this town. The pass word is Ivy. Do not forget it.



And so we come to the first gameplay mechanic that pops up in this game and never shows up again, the password system. In a way, it lets you explore the world in a way you want while using passwords to prevent you from skipping parts of the story. Of course, tough-as-shit monsters tend to do the same thing.



When a word is in brackets, you can use Note to learn that word, and then Ask to ask about it.



Luna's missing brother, Lion may be in the town of Fin also.

Not all NPC's will respond to all passwords, and this prompt generally only shows up for important people. I think it's a neat mechanic, at least, and encourages talking to people.



Go to Fin. It will lead you ahead.

We can also ask MingWu about Ivy.



But it doesn't teach us anything useful.

In the other translations, Ivy is known as Wild Rose, which pops up a bit in future games. For example, one of the passwords you can use during Locke's scenario is supposed to be "Wild Rose," a callback to this game. At least until Woolsey translated it into "Rosebud," but then nobody would've gotten the reference anyway even if we got this version, so it's all good.



I'll post generic NPC highlights, which means I'll be posting 90% of the dialogue I get from NPCs. Some will be more entertaining than missing articles and what-not, of course.



Go to Village Gathea in north first.

This guy suggests visiting Gathea, a completely optional town that serves as a pit stop between the short trek between here and Fin. We'll go for more goofy dialogue.





There's a couple rooms this way, though the bottom one's empty and useless.





My daughter, Hilda is taking my place. Talk to her.

We can ask him about Ivy, but he doesn't have anything to say about it.

Before we continue, let's check the menu!



Five options, all pretty obvious. This game does away with FF1's weird saving system and goes to the more-practical "Save on the world map" system. It'd still take a couple games before we would get save points in dungeons, but it's still a nice start.



The top stuff's obvious, unless it isn't. Skills show competence in each weapon category as well as shields. Using a weapon enough levels that weapon skill up, letting you get in more hits. Magic works similarly, as casting it levels up the magic to a higher power. This is the game's system in place of EXP the other games use. Likewise, stats will go up when they're involved. Hitting things a lot increases Strength, getting hit a lot increases Vitality and HP, and so on.

I'll go into this more in the future, and I'll show off everyone's stats at the end of the update. Meanwhile, where exactly are we?



Ah, right.

Agitating Point of the Rebellions
People Count: 12

There's a reason I'm counting useless NPCs.



Hilda's not a bad leader, either, as we'll see. Or maybe she is, it's been awhile since I last played this.



So the actual city we're in is Altea. Also, fucking Gordon.



Free Cure potion, by the way.





Speaking of which, welcome to Altea.

Altea
People Count: 11 (not including the two important NPCs)

Let's start off talking to the ninja.



This is too adorable to make fun of. Let's ask him about Ivy.



Mr. Paul's motivation to steal is to spite the people who took his house. I'm fine with that.



But .. how long will us be safe ....

Some greeter you are.



The inn charges money relative to the amount of HP and MP you've lost. It's cheaper to recover HP, of course.



I ran away when my brother Scott fell in a battle.

Meet Prince Gordon. To everyone who's made fun of FF4's Edward or FF8's Squall or whoever the fuck else for being mopey sadsacks, know that they have nothing on this guy.

Let's ask him about Ivy.

Oh, you joined them. I am so afraid that Hilda may refuse me ....

She'd have every right to.

Let's listen to music that didn't actually make the game!





The official soundtrack included four songs that ended up being cut from this game. The shop theme is one of them, and as you can imagine the worst of the bunch. I won't miss it.

Meanwhile, the item store has three people selling four items each, because this game can't handle selling more than four items at a time. This game also increases the amount of items available from Potions, Antidotes, and three varieties of Tents. Here I'm showing off the high-end stuff, including Ethers which FF3 didn't even have, and Elixirs.



You can revive dead people here, for free in fact. Yes, the game does show you mercy.





Good people in bad spots because Empires.



You can buy or find magic tomes and assign them to anybody. Everyone's essentially interchangable in this game besides stat differences. I hold off on magic for now because I'm going to let you guys decide how I raise these characters.



Which is why he has a password prompt. Ask about Ivy...

I was disguising as an ordinary old man! I am Tobuel, the best smithy of the Rebellions!!

He doesn't do anything yet, though.





I skip this stuff for now. Let's go explore the world!





Welcome to the most depressing overworld and overworld theme in the game. This is the most uplifting part of the game.



Random battles exist, of course.





The first encounter, and probably the most dangerous one of the ones in this area, are Hornets. They're dangerous because they can poison you.



Your guys will whiff a lot of the time, and this game doesn't redirect attacks if the targeted enemy is gone, so battles can take a bit of time.





Fortunately, poison wears off quickly and doesn't stick around after battle, so it's only a minor nuisance at best.



Nathan Fillion attacks with a sword, Maria with a bow, and Dude with an axe. Of course, you can give them any weapon you want.





When you win a battle, your characters celebrate and promptly leave.



You also sometimes get stat gains and even decreases. For instance, since Luna gained strength, she lost Intelligence. I'll do summaries rather than show each screenshot.

Luna: INT -1, STR +1, HP +5!
Dude: HP +15!



Another uneventful battle with Hornets later, we arrive at Gathea.





Gathea
People Count: 10

I'll have to double-check all these later.



Now that we've lost some HP, it costs money to stay at an inn. At least it's not too bad so far.







More gossip. There's also some shops and a reviving station, but nothing too exciting otherwise.



We have to walk around this lake to get to Fin. Along the way, random encounters!





LegEaters are so weak, even Maria with her fiddly bow can kill one. You know, when she actually hits.



Enemies also run away from battle sometimes, which is annoying when you've targeted one and end up wasting an attack.

Dude: HP +15!



Goblins are just as pathetic as LegEaters.



And we've made it to Fin.





Fin also has random encounters with monsters, because why not?

Luna: VIT +1, HP +5!





If you talk to any of the soldiers here, they will destroy you.





Like so. Always save!





The trick is to go north and east to get to the pub.



Also, Luna died along the way because I was too lazy to revive her. Thankfully, the lack of EXP means you don't have to be as OCD about leaving everybody alive.





Busy place.



Let's ask about Ivy.

Oh! A secret door here! And a wounded warrior is inside!



So now we own a bar. Neat. Too bad we're underaged.



Down here is our wounded warrior, and three Cure potions.



.. I do not want to be captured alive ....

Cowardice must run in the family, huh? Better tell him about Ivy.



Please tell Gordon, my brother, to be more self-confident. He has the ability.

Though he certainly doesn't seem like he does.

Tell King of Fin .... Sir Borgen betrayed .. He is working as a captain for the Empire.



You can't make this stuff up. "His betrayal FORCED us to give up easily!"



"Maybe tell her a version with more words and less ellipses."

I am dying .... She should love someone else ....



.. I ..am a little tired .... Please ..let me rest .. ..

...... Received Ring ......

So we got a ring, which is nothing more than a key item to get a reaction from people much like passwords.



And then Scott dies.

DEATH COUNTER: 1



Not including my deaths, of course, because I can bring my people back. Also, the tombstone was a cross in the other version, which makes sense because Nintendo.

On the way back...

Dude: HP +15!



Dude dies too!

Nathan Fillion: VIT +1, HP +10!









Then Luna and Dude get back up!

A trip to the inn later...



Oops! Forgot to move Dude back to the front row. This is the first game with rows, and it works different from other games. If you're in the back row, physical attacks straight-up won't hit you. However, you also won't be able to hit anything unless you have a bow, like Luna. I left her in the front row earlier to gain HP, and I switch them both back up after the battle.

Nathan Fillion: VIT +1, HP +11!



There we go!



You can also see the world map, though it takes forever to move it around.

Dude: INT -1, STR +1!

Back to Altea! Paul's already gone, but Gordon's still moping around! Let's show him the Ring.



Gordon doesn't really get that much more courageous from seeing his dead brother's ring. Let's try showing Hilda the Ring.





Did .. did he say anything?
No .... Just this Ring.
You keep it then. It is for the brave ones. And .. Please join us!



Hey, she recognizes us as brave worriors, and we finally get a new password! Let's talk to her about Silver.



In other versions, it's called the more-exotic "Mythril." Of course, FF4 also referred to it as Silver because it's the same damn thing, except Mythril is magic silver that actually has practical applications as weapons and armor.

I think the main reason is that they prefer daily weapons.

They found it somewhere .. We ordered Josef in Salamand to investigate, but received no reply yet. Will you please go to Salamand with MingWu?

You know what this means?





We have our first new party member! I'll show him off next update, but he's pretty damn good for this stage of the game.



In the meantime, have some more nonsense.



Warship, eh?



Airship, eh?

A man name Cid used to be the leader of the Honor Guard of Castle Fin.



He is spending all the money he earned to improve his machine.

Hey, the first Cid in the series! Like other Cids, he loves his airships, though in this particular version of the game they apparently made Cid go insane. Sure, why not.

Let's talk to everybody!





Fledgelings like you will never get there on foot!





Oh, hey, slavery in a NES game! That might've been cut!





The King is now more receptive to passwords. Let's try out Warship.

W .. What is that?! Nobody reported Empire was making such thing! Oh, so .... Not to make me worry ....

Welp, that was news to the king. Let's try Silver.

Much Silver was used far long time ago. Silver was mined at the Semite Falls in north.

And though he didn't talk about it before, new information will make him talk about Ivy.

Our emblem was trampled by the Empires. There must be a betrayer. Borgen?! Oh ....!!

Well, that's enough giving the king a heart attack. More peons!



Our next destination is east using the canoe.



Getting the Silver will get us new weapons and armor, so that's nice.





Hey, we haven't depressed Gordon enough! Let's ask him about the Warship!



But ...... What can I do?

Whine, apparently. Hey, can you find a way to complain about how useless you are when I mention Silver?

Scott had a legendary sword of our family made with Silver. It was a great sword.

Guess not.



Parm to Poft to Salamand.

Let's talk to the smithy about Silver.



And now, to end this update with this fitting quote.



Now, I need you guys to choose how to build our characters! Feel free to suggest whatever. For reference, here are the characters' stats at the end of this update, though feel free to make them do whatever they want.



Nathan Fillion starts off average across the board with all tens, besides magic. He starts with a sword and shield, and is making nice progress in both.



Luna starts with higher Agility and Intelligence, but lower Strength and Vitality, though that's evened out. She starts with a bow.



Dude has low Agility, but has boosts in Strength and Vitality, meaning he has a nice stat advantage. He starts with an axe.

So, how should we build them? What weapons, types of magic, battle tactics, all that. I'm fine with whatever craziness you give me, I probably can handle it.