Part 17: "Now! Be glad to be killed as the very first ones!!"

So Lion is the new Emperor. This opens up new goofy dialogue, so let's get to talking.



We will try to persuade him. He must be under some spell of the Emperor.



Even this late, we get the new password, Palakia.

Palakian Castle is surrounded by a mountain. You cannot walk.

If only we had an airship.



But .... We have to take care of this by ourselves.
.... I knew you would say so .... Promise me to come back alive!!

We can also ask Gordon about Palakia.

Impregnable fortress. Paul was bragging that he stole in.



And we can also ask Reila about Palakia.

Paul was bragging about when he stole in there. I've heard it 100 times!!

Sounds like Paul's our go-to guy for getting inside.





Please defeat the Emperor and bring us back the peaceful days!!





Highlights.





Money is ridiculous now. The problem is that I can't even really buy Elixirs because I have no more room for any of this shit.



Actually, Paul doesn't tell us how to get into Palakia. Instead, we have to talk to the new person hanging out at Paul's pad.





Cid then proceeds to walk very slowly to the bed.



I..am wounded like this, ..but my Airship is ..flawless. I will lend it to you until ..I get better. Remember! Only lending!! Make.. sure.. to take a good care of it ..







And so Cid dies.

DEATH COUNT: 68

On the bright side?



He loved it .... Understand his feelings.

We now have Cid's Airship/former lover! Of course, we've got to go to Poft to pick it up.



This is probably the latest of any game in the series that we have access to the airship, probably because you can pretty much go anywhere in the game by walking/Chocobo.

So let's play the last dummied song in the game, the Airship theme!





I've heard it was dummied for being too upbeat for this game. I'd buy it.

Of course, there's not actually anything unlocked besides the next dungeon. It makes going to Mysidia less of a chore, but otherwise we don't get to go anywhere new, so the airship's kinda disappointing.



Next up is landing on the roof of the castle.





Alright, time for another dungeon.



StoneGolems are defensively tough, as you'd expect. Nuke and Fade still roughs them up, and Blood Sword doesn't care about their high defenses.







Those are the animations they chose for falling. Anyway, we end up getting sent to the first floor, so now we need to climb back up to the top to meet Lion.



The strongest cuirass/bracelet in the game, though it doesn't have any stat bonuses like the other high-end light armor. I let Edward have it and switch him to a Tiara for defense/agility, since he's still wearing a Giant Helm.





Nuke's starting to get decent, Fade does a ton of damage now that Dude's Will is skyrocketing, and Luna becomes damn scary with Powr cast on her, as seen here.



DarkNites are "tougher" versions of their brown palatte swaps, tougher being relative as they're still pretty tame.



Generals from a chest in the last dungeon are common here, and they have a ton of hits that can hurt. They're probably the only physical enemy that can threaten Luna so far.



But yeah, it's just a bunch of paths to various treasures of various importance.



For instance, this Thunder Spear is a nice upgrade for Luna. The enemy?



A Revenger, or rather an undead shadow of the Emperor. It can cast scary stuff like Death or whatever, but I kill it before it does much.





Skulls mainly cast Ice12, which is wimpy at this stage of the game. The confusion from EvilRoses is much scarier.



For example, here's a mad Edward beating down Nathan Fillion.



This version of the Heal Staff doesn't do anything when used as an item. Instead, it sets the tradition of later games of having it heal whatever it hits. Of course, it also wrecks undead.



The higher we go up, the weaker the enemies get. These guys popped up ages ago.



A nice upgrade from the Defense Sword. The catch?



It's not the Lamia Queen, though she's also pretty scary.



No, it's the...Quirls. Their physical attacks have a chance of inflicting instant fucking death.



They also have a party-all paralyze attack that can't be resisted. Hi, bullshit encounters!



All sorts of nasty status effects in this one, though at least I didn't get close to wiping.



This is what happens when you cast Powr on Luna twice. It's not pretty.



Generals have a chance to drop all sorts of Diamond gear, though most Diamond gear sucks because heavy armor sucks.



I don't know why they send in VampGirls and Mantises at this stage of the game.



There's a nice room with three Elixirs, as if I needed my money to be even more useless.



Finally, the last floor.



And another Windfife. I've still have yet to use the first one!



Sixteen updates in, and we finally deal with Lion.





Please! Stop!! Why do we have to fight?
What do you think rules this world? .... It's the power!! I became the Emperor! I will not waste that power!! Now, Luna! Clear my way!





Plot twist! The emperor's back!



You .... the Emperor? Don't make me laugh! We do not need 2 Emperors! And I am the one!!





Then black flames appear and apparently we're in big trouble.



I am here again to kill all living things and destroy the whole world!!

And I'd say he's been doing a good job of it so far. Besides, FF2 world is so depressing the Emperor's doing everyone a favor.





Retreat! Get on the Dragon!
Edward! Where are you going!!







Then the dragon picks us up as Edward sacrifices himself so we can escape.

DEATH COUNT: 69



And of course, the castle explodes and becomes a bigger castle because this is Final Fantasy.

-----





We are immediately teleported to Fin to figure out what the hell we're going to do next.

As a fair warning, there's a lack of text wrap for some of these dialogue boxes, so some text is missing, as you'll see below.





.. Are all gone!! We've had enough!!



.... Is it alright, Princes(s?)
As you may wish!
Oh! Lion, Let's do it together!!
Alright, Luna.



And so our days of fourth-character swapping are finished! We now finally have Lion in our party, able to be developed however we want!

Next time, the final dungeon!





STR -1, AGI +1, VIT +1, INT +1, WILL +3, MAG +1, Fire +1, Ice +1, Nuke +2, Powr +1

Nathan Fillion didn't really grow that much in the dungeon. His INT is alright, though I wish it were higher. At least his spells are slowly getting there. Phys, Nuke, and Psyc are going to be invaluable, as is Powr for boss fights.



STR +2, AGI +7, VIT +4, INT -1, HP +215

71 Agility, L8 evasion at 99%. Also, solid strength. Yeah, I'm happy with how Luna turned out.





STR -3, AGI +2, VIT +2, WILL +10, HP +193, MP +21, Hel2 +1, Fade +1, Xtal +1

More agility? Other than that, Dude's will growth is becoming obscene. His natural Will is 82, so he could very well be maxing it before the game is over. Fade is scary as hell in Dude's hands, as much as one of Luna's physical attacks but without caring about pesky physical resistance!



At least Lion's got some weapon levels and decent physical stats, so he's good to shore up any physical weaknesses the party has (which we have). He has alright INT and MAG, but he has no spells and it's simply not worth leveling him in any at this point, besides maybe giving him Life in case things go sour (and Hel2 if it wouldn't take forever to make it useful). Also, his shield level is crap and is going to leave him pretty vulnerable, as is his low HP. I'd rather have kept Edward, honestly, especially since we're getting this guy right before the final dungeon.

Anyway, might as well give you guys some choice on the matter. What weapons should Lion roll with? No Fists, Bows, or Spears, as his Fists are low and would kill his evasion, Bows are crap, and Luna's got spears covered.

Basically, Knives, Staves, Swords, or Axes?

Cases for each:

* The ultimate knife is called Cat Claws in other translations, though who knows what it's called in this one, so they'd theoretically fit his name.
* Heal Staff would give us nice healing, not that we really need it, plus the ultimate staff/mace is as strong as the ultimate spear.
* The end-game swords are the best in the game, plus Blood Sword would trivialize a lot of encounters.
* The ultimate axe is the strongest non-sword weapon in the game. Also, axes and bows are the only weapons I haven't had a character use yet, and Lion already starts with a high axe level.

Whichever has most votes wins.