Part 17: Part Seventeen: A Bit More Flavour

Part Seventeen: A Bit More Flavour


Let's start this update off by grabbing a bird.


Chocobos in this game can cross rivers like this, but they can't run along them, or at least I couldn't get the bird to.



The reason I came this way is that there's something swimming around in this lake. It's a little difficult to see in the first picture, but it should be pretty visible in the second. It's just a shadow moving in a circle, nothing major right now, but you might want to keep it in mind once we're at the end of the game.



These shots are just so you can see where Sephy is compared to the other physical attackers (Golbez and Kuja are about equal right now). Those few fights that he spent out of the game put him a bit behind the curve.


And now, onto this creepy-looking castle, which is one of the few destinations we have left to just explore at this point. Soon I'll have to actually move on with the story.


Castle Argus! We were looking for this place.


But something's hinky...


And Desch swoops in to explain exactly what it is.


Golbez is...missing something, maybe? If you've been paying attention, you should be able to figure out why nobody's hanging around this place.


Or Kuja could explain it for you, if you're lazy. Since we've been to Tokkul, we already know what's up with the absence of folks.

What this really means, though: we're not getting an airship today.


Might as well take some time to explore and loot the place, though.


First sight to see: a slight irregularity above the wall here. I can't go through it, though, so it's not a regular secret passage.


Second sight to see: a big table.


There isn't really a lot going on in Castle Argus right now, as you might expect. Pretty much the only thing we can do in this room right now is leave.


That exit isn't the front door, instead plopping the kids out on a balcony or whatever the word for a castle balcony is. I think there's a specific term for that, but I can't remember.



The balcony has a pair of wellsprings on it, in case you need healing. It probably wouldn't be a horrendous idea if I were to grind out a couple of levels around here, but I leave it. I'll be going into the next dungeon at a lower level than most people probably would, but that's because I'm a dangerous man who lives completely on the edge. True story: I'm typing this update while I'm in the middle of a gunfight.


Remember that secret passage I couldn't used earlier?



This comes as a huge surprise to everyone, I'm sure.




A cool 3,000 gil makes it sort of worthwhile to come here. I could buy some useless spells or other crap!







4,700 more gil makes it even more sort of worthwhile to come here. Somewhere down the road, I'll use this to buy something really useful.


There's also another part of the castle to explore! Hooray!



And a new gameplay thing to introduce: locked doors. These can be opened with an item, which is available in a few places, but none we can get to right now. It can also be unlocked by having a Thief at the front of your party. Since the items are consumable and cost money, and Thieves are free and not a horrible class to have around, there's a clear winner there.


Looks like we just did a break-and-enter on somebody's study. Maybe we're heroes more in the classical sense than the modern one.


Playing with their drawers opens up another passage.




Oh, wow, look at this haul.


There's another door on the other side of the place, and I need to use Sephy's abilities again. What's inside?


Aw yeah, look at all that treasure!


Crap.


Shit.


Trash.


Garbage.


Rubbish.


Poop.

Fucking game!


After that disappointing showing, it's back to the table room. See where I am, right behind that big stone area?


Oh.

My.

God.

It's a secret stairway! What a shock!



Just a couple of elemental attack items.


That's the last thing to do in Castle Argus right now. What a letdown.


I get into a fight and Desch shows up to dispense some real pain. I'll forgive you if you need to change your underwear after seeing those kinds of numbers.


Sephy gets his act together, and now he can hang with the big kids.


Or even beat them out, if they decide to whiff half of their hits like real losers. This is with the damage bonus from Advance, too, so it's extra disappointing.


Damn, look at all that gil.


Ooh, and 230 EXP, too.

Haha, nah, I'm messin'. Nothing around here is really that exciting.


But there is a cave around here. You know I gotta check that out.


Gulgan Gulch. Maybe there's something important or cool here.


Is it this moogle? Probably not. Where do moogles even come from in this game, anyway? I wonder if we'll ever find out.


This is like a little vacation picture I took. Look at this rad dude, with his green robes and red face zone.


Also look at Desch, talking about some stuff when it's really out-of-place. What are you doing, Desch? Get your head in the game.


Oh, Kuja. You're pretty prissy for someone who ran away from home multiple times out of sheer laziness. If a magic talking rock hadn't given you its blessing, you would probably be dead right now.


Desch, you are a child I think. Childhood is the time for scraped knees and the slow breakdown of innocence and hope, not getting venereal diseases from strange women who think you're hot shit because you're on someone's boat.


Back to Gulgan Gulch. We've heard about these guys before, but now we get to see them!


We also get to see their bridge! Who built this bridge? Was it these blind people? Were there, like, a whole lot more Gulgans before they decided to live right next to a big pit?


More Gulgans.


First guy tells us about what kinds of crystals there are. The elements aren't particularly important in a lore way, but they do make for easy dungeon themes. An interesting thing to note: the standard crystal elements are Fire/Water/Wind/Earth, but the standard spell elements are Fire/Ice/Lightning, with Wind/Earth/Water sort of rotating around as a fourth set when there is one. I'm not sure why this is, but it probably has something to do with Dungeons and Dragons and the fact that the first Final Fantasy ganked a lot of stuff right out of there.


Again, Light and Darkness need to be balanced.


I wonder, though, would the world be consumed by the "Void" either way, or is that a Darkness-exclusive thing? Voids are just empty space, so it's not like they have an immediate affinity, though they are traditionally associated with dark-type forces; think of the void of outer space. It's really damn dark and cold, so the void-dark association is easy to draw. Of course, a lot of times, when you see something like extra-universal space in media, it's just an empty white space, and pretty bright to boot, so the void-light association isn't impossible to make, just less immediate.


But I digress. I guess there wasn't a lot of lore just waiting to be exposed, so this guy just tells us more about Gulgans. Foresight leading to misfortune is a pretty common thing in narrative, too. It's not really a big deal in this game, though, the Gulgans are just lore dispensers.


This is a hint about where our "next" destination is.



Downstairs: waterfalls! Also this Gulgan, who reads off that text that was shown on the title screen. Did you even remember it!?


What do the crystals do? I thought they just sort of kept balance between Light and Darkness, or handed out the power to do that when things went bad, but do they have a more mundane purpose in regular times? Are the crystals aware, or do they just work on auto-pilot? Like, was it just chance that these four kids ended up being the Warriors of Light? There are implications that it was something more than a simple coincidence, but who really knows?


This guy needs some context for us to make sense of his line. We'll get it in a second.


And this guy tells us about another place we can go. We'll check it out once we're done here.


The last Gulgan, in the middle, is obviously important, because he takes us into talky view.


Toad is, like Mini, a spell that's only ever really needed as a way to get through somewhere, a key that requires MP to use. Only even more pointless in that role. Theoretically, it could have other utility, but blah blah blah MP shortages blah blah need to do damage.


The machinery that keeps the continent aloft, right? Gotcha.




I also got your treasure. I could make use of that Mage Robe if I wanted to, and I didn't need to buy an Ice Staff, but I won't and c'est la vie, respectively.


Final thing to see in Gulgan Gulch: Desch's new dialogue.

: I believe what the old man said. I have to go there and fulfill my destiny!

I like the first bit there. To me, it says that Desch doesn't remember what he has to do, he's basically taking it on faith, and he's totally happy with it. Amnesia can be a really cheap device used to create a tortured character without creating a reason for them to be tortured, and it tends to be really overwrought and just a dirty shortcut, but Desch doesn't do either of those things. He's having fun hanging around with these people, and he was probably having fun with Salina, and he's going to have fun doing what he has to do at the Tower of Owen.


Kuja, of course, is not as optimistic. It's pretty rare in RPGs, and in narrative in general, that "facing destiny" means taking an office job that'll keep you in groceries even if it does bore the hell out of you.


On my way to the Living Woods, Sephy picks up a level. He could already handle himself in a fight, but now he's that much better at it.


I'm not walking to the Living Woods, so I grab a bird.


Over here, to the north, is the Tower of Owen.


And next to it is a real problem: we can't get past this whirlpool in the Enterprise. It's been there the whole time, I just never came this way until now. The first time I played this game, I hit all these places I've been to in the last few updates anyway, and never even knew there was a block here until after I dealt with it.


Anyway, Living Woods.


They are inhabited by these little characters.


They are also blessed with life. Hence, "Living Woods".



The Elder Tree is both that hole in the middle of the place and that weird thing we saw chillin' and floating around in the desert before.


Hmm, I wonder if this could be advice about an upcoming boss.


Hmm!


Will I have to rescue the Elder Tree? I am literally so far from savvy that I cannot understand this at this point! Every word I type is pure chance!


That's an old tree, man.

I feel like I should have gone around this stump the other way, maybe, but clockwise is the way I usually go around a chat circle in a game. Anticlockwise just feels contrary.


Of course, maybe they only had two points of information but put more than two characters into the place.


Oh, we've been talking to faeries, by the way.


Desch, they're not really a big deal, it's just a bit of spice.


Wha'cha ponderin', Jecht?


Uh, got what?

: The soldiers of Argus are being controlled by the wizard Hein!

Okay. I guess that's another reason to kill him, then? I mean, I was already on board with the murder plan, you didn't need to convince me.


Bitchin' floating tree castle not enough for you?


That's all for the Living Woods, so I just wanted to show what happens if you try to go past the whirlpool: nothing! You don't even get pushed back, it's just like running into a wall.


I also make a quick trip back to Castle Argus, because next time we're taking on the Tower of Owen!

Mognet



Our first letter from Sara! This is written specifically to Golbez, because Sara has a bit of a crush on him, if you didn't know.