Part 7: Update Seven: Playing With Fire

Update Seven: Playing With Fire

Welcome back! Last time, on Final Fantasy IV, we recovered the Sand Ruby needed to heal Rosa's desert fever. Today, we're going to not only cure Rosa, but snag a new party member, so let's mosey.



Champ has been successfully renamed.



So now, let's go cure Rosa.





Well, it looks like she hasn't died yet, so that's a good sign. Or else this old man just hasn't moved her out of his only bed.



Cecil, I don't think yelling at her is going to help.



Yes, we actually have to choose the item to use on her. There's nothing interesting if you use the wrong item, so let's just use the Sand Ruby.



Apparently all we had to do was just hold it over her head. Good thing it wasn't me doing that, otherwise I would have melted it down and injected it into her veins.





It makes the entire house's lighting blink on and off. It's one hell of a gem.



And then, uh...Somebody put in the piss filter.



Try not to be upset, Rosa. I have no control over the piss filter.



Well, shit, she perked right up. That's one hell of a cure.



I can only imagine how pleased those two look.





Really, Rosa, did you expect anything else? It's Cecil!





: They told me you died in Mist when the earthquake hit.

Well, I can understand why you'd think he was dead, then. That earthquake did alter the landscape...



And Cecil's just all, "Huh? Oh, yeah, that. About this Golbez, though..."



Well, that was awful quick. Cecil couldn't have been gone that long and surely there had to be other people within the castle who were just as qualified for the position.



: Crystals for himself. With Mysidia's Water Crystal in hand, he'll surely go after the others, which are the Fire Crystal of Damcyan, the Wind Crystal of Fabul, and the Earth Crystal of Troia.

Funny thing about that Fire Crystal, Rosa...





I like to think Cecil forgot about Champ for a minute.



: I wouldn't have been able to get the Sand Ruby and cure your fever without their help.



She doesn't seem to understand we just saved Cecil's love; she's just very casual about this, like, "Oh, yeah, I helped save a life. No biggie."



Champ, you're being kind of rude, you jackass. At least say hello to the woman you helped save.



We must slap the taste out of Champ's mouth for bein' a dick.





Alright, we'll buy an ice pick on the way out of town and Champ will prove his worth.



Uh...I don't think anyone wants to talk about that.





Rosa! Keep Fire on the DL, woman!



Too late for coughing! You already done the damage!



And plus, I think the one with harmful magic could possibly be upset with you!



Goddammit, she's totally right, too. White Mages are awesome.



She was also dying ten minutes ago, Champ!



At least you recognize a lost argument when you see one, Cecil.







The scene begins to fade to black.





And I guess everyone is staying in that old man's house tonight.



"Rosa died in her sleep. Champ was killed in retribution and nothing of value was lost."





Never mind. Champ's still alive.



Darn it. Maybe he'll trip into the water.



For some reason, I doubt that he knows how to swim.



...Uh-oh. Do you think he heard me?



Even if he did, he's just going to play his harp.





Very loudly, in the middle of the night, practically in the middle of town. I hope nobody minds.





Hey, who the hell is that?



Cripes, I think he's going to kick Champ's ass!



Maybe your girlish scream will alert Cecil and he'll come save you.



...Champ, it's just a Sahagin. Even you can handle this.



The Sahagin occasionally attacks, but not for a ton of damage.



Huh. That wasn't a bad hit, Champ.



GREAT CAESAR'S GHOST



I like to imagine this line from Ghost-Anna is just dripping with sarcasm.





That's really the best thing you can say to him, Anna? Don't you have some ghostly powers you could use to help?



Maybe even possess the prince for a minute and have him actually just bash the Sahagin in the noggin with the harp?





And now she's gone. Wonderful work, Anna. You didn't even make sure he lived through the fight!



That's her name, don't wear it out.



...Maybe her crummy pep talk actually did something.





Sweet Jesus, Anna. You have a way with words.



I imagine if I got my ass kicked with musical notes, I'd make this exact same noise. Or else I'd just shout "Fungah!" as loud as I could.





Alright, trivia time while I've got the amount of gil up. In the Japanese version, Champ's name is actually Gilbert. Later on, this name was shortened to "gil" and is now the currency used in Final Fantasy games! At least, this is what the Final Fantasy Wiki tells me, so if it's wrong, take it up with them and let me know, so I can correct it.



Also, Jesus Christ, why does this asshole get the good XP amount?



Oh, so Anna did make sure he won the fight before taking off.



You also just won a fight solo, so this is the night of never ending wonders.





Well, you actually did a pretty alright job of it in the Antlion's Cave.



Ghost Anna floats back over the water.



Y'know, that sounds like real sound advice for a future king.



Anna is now gone, having done her best to inspire Champ to new heights.



By staying in the back row and tossing Cecil a Potion or two when he needs.





Jesus Christ, man, you just got to talk to your dead girlfriend one last time; quit the pouting crap and man up.



The scene fades to black...





And we come back to back inside the old man's house, our party intact.



Rosa, what the hell are you doing in the front row?



There we go, that's better.



Being a White Mage, Rosa isn't really built for combat, as you might imagine. Her stats are more geared toward magically inclined things and her Spirit stat is miles away her best one; it helps fuel White Magic power, so it's good that it's a very high stat.



However, that isn't to say she can't deal some damage in combat. She can use either bows or a staff in battle and her bows will deal full damage from the back row. Though, any time she's attacking is a time she could be healing or casting Slow on the enemy to help them get their asses kicked.



She doesn't have much magic right now, but this list will fill out quite nicely. Cure isn't very powerful when spread out across the entire party, but it'll perk up one person quite well. Scan reveals the HP and weaknesses of an enemy, while Sight lets you look at a mini-map.



The weapon shop in town does sell a Staff that Rosa can use, but I did some testing and found out that it didn't affect her Spirit stat in the least. I was quite surprised to find this out.



Anyways, let's scoot on outta here.





I zoom on by Damcyan Castle. Had I needed to, I could have stopped and hit the healing pots for a full heal, but we just got one, so it wasn't needed.



We head east across the shallows, toward that mountain I showed you earlier.



This mountain right here is pretty important, for a couple of reasons that we'll soon see.



Behind the text box, you can see part of the ice blocking the way.



That is a hell of a lot of ice.





Huh, Rosa. I don't think she wants to.





Wait, wait, wait...Champ never found out the story here? I guess he knew her village had been destroyed, but...





Is anyone really surprised that Kim doesn't like fire?



I hate it when games just give someone a punctuation mark in a text box. At least add a word or something so it doesn't look like they're saying "Question mark!"



And that's why she hasn't learned a Fire spell yet.



Man, that's gotta be hard to bring up, for both of them.





Despite that, though, Rosa recognizes that Kim is the only one who can get them through this.



I can't imagine she likes having to push Kim like this, considering all that's happened, but it's necessary.



For this exact reason; these guys are going to try and save a lot of lives and Kim's Black Magic powers are needed to do that.



Personally, I still like the plan of giving Champ an ice pick and sending him on his way.



"Don't make me have to do manual labor..."



Really, in a way, Kim, it's just helping more people. You just don't know their names.



Ah, hell, game, you're good; you've got me agreeing with Champ.







In a way, I think Kim is the bravest member of this party.





The screen darkens...



And turns purple? I don't remember this happening when Gustav was casting Fire...



Well done, Kim.



And so, now, Kim can call upon Fire whenever she wishes.



If it was anyone but Kim, I'd be mocking them right now.



Instead, I'm just cowering in terror.









Alright, let's continue. We've got a mountain to climb!



It's not a very big mountain, though.



I'm not sure about the state of staircases on mountains, though. I don't think this is a natural thing.



But, ascending this staircase leads us to our first battle!



Skeletons! Members of the undead!



Well, ain't it just convenient that Kim just learned a spell these guys are weak against?



It's a great thing, too, as these guys got some power behind their attacks. They can also cast Thunder to dish out some elemental damage and they're fairly quick, too, so it's best to drop these guys as fast as possible.



Anyways, Rosa is kind of interesting in combat; Pray just has a chance to restore a very small amount of HP to the whole party. It's generally not worth using in battle and we all know what White Magic does.

Aim, however, is interesting. It takes a bit longer to pull off than a regular attack, but it will, without fail, allow Rosa to hit an enemy with a bow, 100% of the time.





They have 135 HP a piece, so this is a great start on dropping an entire group of them.



See how Rosa is aiming her bow up there? She's about to attack.



She also has the Holy Arrows equipped, so get ready to see some shit.



Like I said earlier, Rosa isn't terrible in combat. She'll never be your best fighter, but I'll be damned if she can't pack a wallop sometimes.



This doorway here leads to a side-path on the mountain.





And also to our next encounter with new enemies!



The Gargoyle and these Cockatrices are, from what I've seen, the most common encounter on the mountain. I think I fought four or five encounters with this group and only one of those skeletons.



This place is where Champ's ability to confuse enemies really shines, though. He just confused that Cockatrice.



Since Champ was running low on HP, I decided it was time for Rosa to prove she wasn't going to be a burden.



At the very least, she can create sparklies, so she's on the same level as Jubilee right now.



Hey, it's not great healing, but it'll get better later on, I promise.



Champ just confused the Gargoyle here.



Ah, the confused Cockatrice is acting!



Peck attempts to inflict Petrification on the target.



And since his buddy has no way to resist being petrified and enemies don't get the benefit of Gradual Petrification like the party does, he is instantly killed.



The Gargoyle will cast Tornado when confused.



Now, it doesn't deal any visible damage. What it does is reduce the target's HP to single digits.



And after that, he's easy enough to pick off for any of our party members.



With our new enemies out of the way, let's continue down our side path.



There's a save point and four treasure chests along this way.



This tent is useful with that save point right there.



The Potion, though? Not so much.



In case we're petrified ourselves; handy.



And free cash is always cool.



With that out of the way, let's move on.



We're very nearly done here.



See? We're at the top already.





And we find more ammunition for Rosa here.







I'm not sure what this is, but I'm sure it's not good.



I don't think he's wearing any pants!



But, no matter. This man is a bad motherfucker.



He leaps in the air...



...And comes down on that poor fool.



He spies his next target and moves into ass-kicking position.





With those two dead, their buddies finally decide to step in and help.





Yang isn't scared, though. He'll fight the next iteration of Imp with no hesitation.



This is one of his special abilities; it's called Kick and it will hit all enemies on screen.



The damage dealt isn't spectacular, but at least it's an option that'll hit everything.



This fight is also automatic, so there's no input to be done here. Yang will just beat these guys up all on his own; he uses Claws for his weapons, as you can see from the slashes on that Domovoi.



After cleaning those guys up, the Bomb up there takes notice.



And rushes straight into Yang's grill.



Oh, God, Kim, I hope you don't realize these are the things that destroyed your village.



Either she doesn't notice or just doesn't care at this point, as there is a man in trouble.



And so, it is now time for a boss fight.







Mom Bomb can't be confused, but Champ can deal damage. It's a better option than using any of his other skills right now.



Chocobo Kick is still pretty damaging, dealing over 200 HP of damage.



Mom Bomb can do some decent damage with her hits, and you'll want your HP to be high.

You'll also notice that we can see Yang's skills here. We already know what Kick does. Power will have him charge up for a little while, then unleash an attack that deals double damage. Gird, which I imagine should be "Guard" or "Brace", is basically like some sort of a Super-Defend that will raise his defense for a little bit and make it hard to harm him.



This is Gird in action.



And now, he guards, when he could be punching Mom Bomb in the teeth.



Beyond what I've mentioned above, there's not a lot of strategy to this fight.



Just beat on Mom Bomb for a while.



Here's Power in action. I like Power.



It's not a ton of damage, no, but Yang is also only level 10.



After a while, Mom Bomb will transform into this form. Just keep beating on her, as we're nearly done with this fight.



When you receive this message, you've very nearly won the fight.



But, first, you have to survive an Explosion from her; you can see me select Champ's Heal ability to help with the damage.



As you saw, it wasn't a ton of damage, but now there are six enemies to fight. The regular Bombs aren't too bad, but the Gray Bombs there hit like a lumberjack.



Cecil's Dark ability actually has a fair shot of killing some of the regular Bombs.



Regular Bombs only have 55 HP, while the Gray Bombs have 111 HP.



They're not very tough, really, and they have no weaknesses to exploit, so just beat 'em up.





After the fight, Yang introduces himself.



It's a good thing we showed up, then.



Though, uh, that statement worries me. If they were the strongest Fabul has to offer, what are they doing to do when Golbez comes knocking, looking for their Wind Crystal?



Cecil wastes no time in telling Yang what's up.



: Crystals.



Right you are, new friend. Also, you got some big-ass earrings.



You're not going to mention he just, y'know, fuckin' blew up the castle?



No, Champ? Just keepin' that quiet? Going to let it surprise Fabul when the time comes?



I can't imagine monks would stand well against an airstrike, but hey, what do I know?



Wait, wait, wait! Golbez can control monsters?



How the hell do you know that, Rosa? Why didn't you mention this before?





That's why we were coming this way, anyhow, Yang.







:Rosa and I are citizens of Baron, and this girl is one of many victims of our kingdom's recent attacks...which I have personally led.

Damn, Cecil, that's some big shit just to pull out and admit right there, especially after telling the guy you're coming to help.



Kim can't even bring herself to say anything.



Yang, however, understands what's going on here.







And now, we have a fist fightin', badass monk in the party. Rejoice, everyone.



For being only level 10, Yang's stats are pretty good. His HP, in particular, is quite high.



He didn't come with that Leather Cap or Iron Ring, but he did come with the garb and the Fire Claw.

Yang's claws are interesting weapons; they rarely add anything to his attack stat. Rather, they will help his precision and most of his claws will add either an element or a status effect to his attack. Nearly all of Yang's attack power will come from his raw natural strength, so keep that in mind while we travel around with this dude.



And now, let's get the hell off this mountain.



Regular Bombs and Gray Bombs can now be encountered as normal enemies. I don't know if you could find them before you fought Mom Bomb, but I never have. That doesn't mean you can't, though.







And there's the exit outta here.



Back on the world map, we're now forced to walk. Our sweet-ass hovercraft can't cross mountains.



We don't walk long before we get into an encounter though. This is pretty much a joke, since the Domovois only have 37 HP to tear through.



This Dark right here will actually kill all of these enemies and it's one of the quickest ways to end a fight with them.







And just past this forest will be the Kingdom of Fabul, where we'll be stopping. I know this has been a long one.



But, hey, there's the final new enemy! The Gatlinger has 115 HP and one very nasty thing to remember.



When you hit them with a physical attack, they always counter with this attack.



I don't know why it hit Champ, as Yang was the one who attacked, but whatever.



It hits pretty hard, but it'll only take a pair of attacks from Yang and Cecil to drop it, or some magic from Kim will deal damage and not trigger the counter.



East from that forest is a little clearing and some mountain ranges.



There's also an ocean.



And the castle! Oh, thank God!



Alright, just hit the Inn and the Weapon Shop and we're done.







The Inn is to the left of the entrance.



The Item Shop is packed in with the Inn.



One hundred gil for a night, which hell, we make more than that after a fight.



And to the right is the Weapon/Armor Shop.



I don't know why this castle sells new armor for Cecil. As someone mentioned in the thread, Cecil has to bolt this armor to his skin.

In addition to the Thunder Claw for sale, there is also Ice Claws and Fire Claws for sale.



Cecil bolts his new armor on and I start to wonder how he isn't completely evil.



On Yang's status screen, you may have noticed he was listed as neither left nor right handed; he's ambidextrous. This is only further evidence for Yang's awesomeness.

And with that, folks, we're done here for the day. Next time, on Final Fantasy IV, let's see what the king of Fabul has to say about the imminent attack. Stay tuned!



Voting Time

Alright, folks, we picked up two new characters today. If you think they need new names, bold a vote and tell me! I've thrown out my names for them, so if you like them, say so! If you think you have a better idea, let's hear it!





Yang becomes "Leave", as someone in the thread suggested that he be renamed after me after he heard of the twenty some-odd bones I broke at once and how many internal organs I bruised. Now, as you might imagine, Yang is a tough-ass motherfucker. Personally, I like this, but my original idea was to just change his name to "Andrew", but maybe that's a touch too egotistical.



Rosa becomes Peach, as we've seen a lot of names from previous things I've LP'd. Personally, I think Peach fits her pretty well, but maybe that's just me.

Still, VOTE away and I'll see you all on Friday! Voting will end Thursday at midnight, GMT -5:00 EST (US & Canada). And why yes, I did just copy that from what time setting my computer has.