Part 6: Part Six: Down to Business

Part Six: Down to Business


We'll start this update here, after I've finished my preparatory grinding and updated my equipment a bit.


The last time I was here, these guys really ruined my time.


This time, though, I've got it under control. Golbez, by the way, has the highest attack in my party right now.



I find these on the third floor. Now I have enough Holy Arrows to actually do something with in the Sealed Cave, and then dump bows forever because they kind of suck.



This is the main goal of this excursion, but there's something I have to handle, first.


The Griffon. If I came here without doing any prep first, it would chew me up and spit me out.


So, uh, my plan is to hit it with Blizzard.


I also make sure Golbez is handling the Wightslayer, which boosts his attack even higher.


The Griffon has 230 HP.


Maybe I'm a bit stronger than I thought I was. The Griffon never even gets a chance to attack me.


The Griffon actually provides less EXP than the random encounters around here.


There's also one more random encounter I didn't see before, the Red Wisp.


Look at what kind of force Golbez can level against the undead now.





These are everybody's stats right now, by the way. Golbez is one level higher, just because that's where he started out.





And here's the equipment setup, too. I sacrificed a couple points on Golbez's attack score to boost Kuja's. I also gave Jecht the bow so that he could attack from the back row. Jecht attacks about five times the whole time I'm in this dungeon.

The theme song of the Djinn's curse, which I'll just put here:




When he does, though, it's good for killin' Mummies.




Fuck Skeletons, I'm the boss now.


Finding this Potion reminds me that I forgot to buy healing items before I came here, but I decided to risk it.



I also discover another Cure spell, and give to to Kuja as a safeguard. Then I forgot about it, but it never came up.


We have to go deeper if we want to find the Djinn.


There's one enemy in this cave that was never much of a threat to me, the Cursed Copper.


They're good money, though. This picture is from an encounter against three of them, but still, 52 gil each.


And then a chest with 500 more gil. I could buy a bunch of Potions with that. I won't, but I could.


As far as progress goes, you see that purple skull?



Press it and the rock wall drops. This is the "skeleton key" the king was talking about. Who rigs these things up, though? Wouldn't just a door be easier, guys?


On the other side of the wall is this woman. How did she get here without the wall already being lowered? Did she go through and then raise the wall back up, just to fuck with me?


Oh, look, it's Princess Sara, just right in the middle of a dangerous place. Good plan, Your Highness.

: Milady! You must hurry back to the castle. We will take care of the rest here.
: But before you go, we need to borrow your mythril ring.

Golbez and Kuja have the right idea here.

: There is no need--I will go with you.

Sara isn't having any of it, though.

: I have come here to banish the Djinn and save my people--just like you.
: Her Royal Highness has spoken. What should we do?

Tell her to go the hell home, because the last thing you want is to be responsible for the princess being killed.

: She should be all right, as long as Golbez looks after her.

This is definitely not what you should do, and Golbez shouldn't even be entertaining it at all. He should be the leader of the international "send Sara home" party.

: No harm will come to Lady Sara as long as I live and breathe.

You are bad at your job.

: Thank you, everyone.


And so, Sara joins our party.

Sort of, anyway.


We're not quite done, though.

: Oh, before I forget...press the Y button whenever you wish to speak with me. Now, let's hurry!

Nah, let's chat. There are three discussions I got to come up with Sara here.


The first involves her and Jecht, and provides useful information about the Djinn.

: So...it should be weak to the Blizzard spell, and the Antarctic Wind item.


This is the second conversation, where Princess Sara tells you about game mechanics. It's not really relevant to the LP, and this isn't a manual, so I'll skip it. It does mention quicksaving, which makes a temporary save and can be done anywhere, though. Moving on.


The third exchange involves Sephy, Kuja, and Sara.


Sephy is very nonchalant about the whole thing.


Kuja seems to find his conduct unbecoming, and becomes quite cross with him.


Sara enjoys it, though.

Sara, by the way, is supposed to be 16 years old, making her 2 years the playable cast's senior. Like them, and like most people in this game, she's not really much of a character.


As you can see here, she'll be following us around in this dungeon. The main thing she can do is chit-chat with us, but there's one other thing she's good for around here, even though I could only get her to do it once.



On the third level, I find this monster, the Larva. What has a larval form that's a tornado with an eye? Do they grow up to be hurricanes with faces or something?


And then I get turned around like a dumbass. I do this a bunch of times on this floor, and it ends up with me gaining more EXP than I'd like.



These are two other enemies, the Revenant and the Shadow. Neither of them is particularly long-lived at this point.


Eye Drops! I got lost pretty bad looking for these.


And I got into a fight where Sara decided to do this for me.


It's not much, but it's something. There are a few companion characters in this game, and they all have two little support moves they can do. Sara's other thing is to cast Aero on enemies, but she never did it for me.


All the way back near the stairs between the second and third levels is this. It's very handy in the fight against the Djinn coming up.


I also had to use a Potion because Golbez took a nasty hit.


It's around this point that I get sick of the encounters in this place and just start running away. Besides, I don't want to gain any more levels as a Freelancer.


This is the cool place to be in the Sealed Cave, as evidenced by the rug-with-fat man setup.


Oh, so that's the Djinn. Do your thing, Princess.



She holds up the ring, and it glows, but...

: ...Nothing's happening! But why?


The Djinn's hands are on his belly in this shot, his arms haven't melted into his stomach or anything.


Oh no, the Djinn has the powers of darkness on his side! I'm sure that nobody thought that the ring wouldn't work and that we'd have to deal with it.


Yup, now we have to fight the Djinn.


I had Jecht toss that Antarctic Wind at him. The Djinn has, uh, 600 HP.



I killed him in two hits. This wasn't my plan.


The Djinn had a lot of money shoved into his pants, I guess.


Garbage EXP, though. It's actually nice, because this means nobody levels up from it.




Sara does her thing again, but to greater effect this time.


And the Djinn is vanquished!


But all of a sudden, the kids start to fade out.

: ...Hey, what's going on?
: You must return to the castle, Milady! Do not fear for us--we will be fine!

Fine or dead. Something, anyway. Have a good time!

: What is happening?


But the kids disappear before they can say anything else, and Sara is kind of distraught about it.


After they disappear, they reappear in the crystal room in the Altar Cave.

The crystal room's music, if you were wondering:



: Wh-where are we...?


The camera just pans right over to the crystal, sitting there like a smug jerk.



It still takes Sephy a second to figure it out, though.

: It is I who summoned you.


Oh, hey, Wind Crystal. What's the action?



Oh, the opening credits? Well, okay.

"When the four were bathed in its light,
They knew its will, its fear, its hope,
And the destiny that awaited them."

: You must drive the darkness from this world, and restore light to its rightful place.




Then some sparkles come down.


And now we're Light Warriors.

: Now go--step on the shining circle behind this altar to return to the surface. Embrace your destiny, Warriors of the Light!


Before I can do that, though, a moogle shows up to tell me about switching jobs.

: You can access job-specific abilities by changing jobs, kupo! Be careful, though. You won't be automatically proficient in each job, kupo! You'll need to practice each new job to maximize its potential, kupo! Try it out! Good luck, kupo!

That's all true. Some jobs have unique commands, but they all start at job level 1. There's another thing about jobs that the moogle doesn't tell you, but I'll get there in a minute.


We regain control in front of the crystal. It has nothing to say if I talk to it, so let's just leave.


If I step in this circle...



Voilà! I'm topside!

Now, that other thing I mentioned:


Say I change Jecht from a Freelancer to a White Mage. You see that line about "Job adjustment phase"?


Well, if I change my job, my stats get lowered for a few battles (up to 10). That's what the yellow numbers mean. The game just straight-up penalises you for changing jobs, and the transition phases can stack up if you do it too often. In the original, there was a "CP" cost for changing jobs, where you gained CP after every battle and had to pay a fee to do the switch. I don't know why they changed it, because the other system worked just fine, and neither is actually necessary.

Anyway, here's the party:



Sephy is a Thief, because Thieves are always handy.



Jecht is a White Mage, so that he can heal me. Healing is good.



Kuja is a Warrior, because hitting things is the way to go in this game.



And Golbez is a Red Mage, so he can sling elemental damage, but also heal if I need it in a pinch, and he's none too shabby with a sword.