Part 10: Update Ten: This Mountain Ain't So Bad

That was a chainsaw, not a spell. Though I agree, both are magical in their own way.

Update Ten: This Mountain Ain't So Bad

Welcome back! Last time, on Final Fantasy IV, Cecil had the shittiest day ever. Not only were his only friends and allies horribly killed by a gigantic sea serpent, he also washed up next to Mysidia, the town where he had slaughtered innocent people and stolen the Water Crystal. But, today, we're going to head to Mt. Ordeals to help Cecil become a Paladin, so let's mosey.





There's a lot of real estate to cross to get to Mt. Ordeals.



And this is just about the only new enemy we're going to meet on the way there. You might remember Cecil trouncing a Zu at the beginning of the game, using an attack item.





Well, this battle won't be much different. As you can see, the Deathbringer is a cool shade of red and Cecil is doing some impressive damage with it.



While the damage itself wasn't enough to one-shot the Zu, the Instant Death effect of the Deathbringer will always activate when fighting Zus. Anything else you encounter is either immune to the effect or will just die anyway.



Let's continue on.







This encounter here will help me show off the twins. Masa and Mune are very special children.



Masa has the regular Black Mage load-out; Mune's White Magic load-out is pretty much what Rosa's was.



In this shot, not only is Masa getting punched in the face, he's about to use Bluff, which is a very badass skill.



Mune has a similar menu to Masa, but she has Cry instead of Bluff. I'll get to Twin in a minute.



Anyways, when Masa uses Bluff...



...His magic power goes up.



When Mune uses Cry...



...It makes it easier for you to run from battle.



Anyways, it's time to show off Twin.



Now, it'll take up both twin's actions for a few turns. As you can see, they're doing some magic looking hoodoo up there.



This is just one of the spells they can pull off.



Working together, Masa and Mune combine their powers to royally fuck up the enemies' day.



Royally fuck up their day. Now, something like that has to have some severe drawbacks, right?



No, not really. It costs an entire 10 MP from each twin to use, and it only ties them up for a few turns. Pyro there shows up about 75% of the time; the other spell shows up about 25% of the time and takes 20 MP from each twin, but is far more badass. But, we'll get to that when we get to that.



For now, we're just continuing on.



Just about the only interesting thing in the forest is that a Zu can show up, with three of those birds from Mt. Hobs.



Cecil can one-shot any of the enemies in that fight. Masa is also pretty good with his magic, too, so he can make a dent in them, too.



Speaking of which, Masa and Mune both gained levels from a fight on my way over here.



Masa learned Pig and Blizzara at his level up, so he has the honor of learning our first level 2 magic! Mune wasn't so lucky in learning anything, but she'll get hers.



Anyways, you can see a tiny bit of Mt. Ordeals to the north, but I have something I want to show off real quick-like.



That bit of forest there sure looks suspicious, huh?





That's because it's full of giant chickens!

These are Chocobos, which everyone knows about. However, as you may have noticed, there are yellow Chocobos here and a single white one. We all know what yellow ones do, so what about that white one?



Well, once you catch him (which can be a pain in the ass, as they run around randomly and are kind of fast)...



...He gives you a full MP restore for those characters of yours who actually use MP. This area isn't a bad place to grind out a few levels for the twins because of this Chocobo.



But, I resist the siren call of the grind and catch myself a yellow chocobo.





As Cecil and crew can ride yellow Chocobos around the world map.



The Chocobo is pretty fast and will book ass around the map; there are also no random encounters while riding the Chocobo, so it's a great method of travel.



This time, though, we only take him as far as the mountain.



When you dismount the Chocobo, he just zigzags off, crossing whatever the hell is in his path, whether it be mountain, forest, oceans...The yellow chocobo does not give a shit.





Here we are on Mt. Ordeals, so let's get to scaling this thing.



Nothing is ever easy for Cecil, is it?





But, Mune, whatever can Masa do about these terrible flames?





...Oh, he can do that. You win this round, little mages. You win this round...



Masa has himself quite the ego, but in all fairness, he kind of deserves to have one. His major flaw there is that he's just...Well, he's kind of an asshole about it.



Enough of an asshole, in fact...



...That his sister donkey punches him for it. Masa is the asshole of this relationship, but Mune is kind of a bitch, too.



Did he also hit you two and that's where you learned this?



I'm fine with him! It's you I'm starting to have an issue with!



Ah, whatever. We'll talk about that later.





Because, for now, we've got some villains to check in on.



...Sweet Christ, Golbez, you're not half assing this kidnap thing.



Y'know, Scarmiglione sounds more like a type of pasta to me.



Before his entrance, everything turns dark purple.



In my mind, dark purple and Earth are nowhere near connected, so I don't know what the hell is up with that color shift. I guess it looks evil or something.



: I shall clip his wings now.

...Wait a second here. If you're just going to try and kill him here, why the fuck didn't you just kill his ass back at Fabul!?





His sword was fucking useless against you and Kain!





Scarry turns everything purple again and disappears.





If you two weren't a pair of doorknob humping retards, Cecil wouldn't even be around anymore!



Yes! Golbez, you're scary and badass, yes, but that does not change the fact that you're a fucking moron!





Well, he can't do any worse than you two have.



Bear witness to what? Unless you have a flatscreen TV just out of view, she won't be seeing shit!



: Instead of Scarmiglione, allow me the task of slaying him!

Golbez, do it! Seriously, Bowser did a great job!



...



You said it, pal.



...Should be Goddamn dead, Rosa!



After that little show from Golbez, we're back on Mt. Ordeals.



So, let's get to climbing this mountain.



But first, let's grab this chest.



Potions are good for Masa and Mune. That is, when Mune isn't blasting healing magic.



On the way to the stairs, we run into our first encounter.



All of these guys look like ghoulish members of the undead, right?



Hell, they hit hard, like you'd expect the undead to do.



Yeah, Cecil does full damage to these guys. The Spirit only has 86 HP, by the way.



The Spirits can cast Fire, which doesn't deal a whole lot of damage.



Fire is also the best thing for wiping out those Skeletons and the Bloodbones; the Bloodbones has 210 HP to tear through and they can hit pretty hard.





The Spirits absorb Fire, which is kind of a nasty trick, but since Cecil can one shot them, it's not too bad.



Mune is best for just healing people up, and she's about as good at it as Rosa was.



That's a pretty common encounter on the mountain, too. In pretty much every fight here, there is some sort of undead monster, too, so get used to seeing them.





Up here, I find another group of monsters.



And I whip out the Blizzara. Getting encased in a block of ice like that has got to sting.



And after the fight, Masa picks up Fira, so he can burn more efficiently!



Mune learns Protect, which increases a character's defense. I tend to forget it exists.





Wait a second...How the hell did we reach Station Three? Shouldn't it be Station Two? Or maybe one? Granted, I don't know shit about how mountains work, so maybe someone here can fill me in on the details.



And in this square here, I encounter one of my favorite fights on Mt. Ordeals.



Everything in this encounter is weak to Fire. Ghouls have 222 HP, and take full damage from the Deathbringer.





That encounter also gives some good XP, and I fought that exact group several times while climbing the mountain.



Before I could get much farther from the last one, for instance, I got into another fight like that and Masa learned Thundara, completing his level 2 elemental set.



Mune learned Cura, which costs 9 MP to use. It's a lot better than Cure and Mune can use it a bit more than Masa can use his level 2 spells, which cost 15 MP each to use.



Gustav? What are you doin' up here?





I bet Cecil feels kind of relieved to see Gustav; it's gotta be nice to encounter a friend.



Meteor? What do space rocks have to do with this?



Cecil is just as curious as I am.



It's not that foreign of a concept, Mune.



I'm not seeing the link here, Masa. Just because he--Oh, forget it, I give up.



I think "great" is stretching it just a little bit...



: our elder.





Wait a Goddamned minute, Mune. You take that punch back and let the man speak!



: Sir Cecil. My name is Mune.



: about you!



Well, uh...



Just a shitty, shitty day for Cecil...



Giant sea snake, Gustav! I'm no sage, but I don't think anyone would be making it out of there alive!





As Gustav bows his head, Masa runs over to speculate with his sister.



She's not interested in serving as the peanut gallery, though.



Y'know, Gustav, if you had just stayed with us, you would have already faced Golbez.



: the legendary spell, Meteor. I sense a strong aura on this mountain. I believe it holds what I am looking for.

Though, maybe it's better you didn't stick with us. If you need Meteor to take on Golbez, being in Fabul would have been useless.



: your age...



This cements Gustav as a stone-cold badass in my mind; "Eh? This spell would kill me? As long as it fucks up Golbez, I am giving no shits what it does to me."



Even Cecil is speechless there.



Pipe down, you little shit.



You're still just a kid, too, Mune. You might want to chiggity-check yourself.





: I cannot defeat Golbez with the dark sword...and I have longed to renounce this hateful thing.





He's also got pretty spookifying music.



Stupidity, too, but that's neither here nor there.



Pretty much, Gustav.





Remember when we had more than one physical fighter around here?



I miss those days. Gustav hasn't improved much from when he was last in the party, either.



Well, I suppose two children and an old man is a step up from the last time Gustav was in the party.



Pay no attention to the fact Gustav is leading here; when shuffling around the party, I had forgotten that Gustav was in Cecil's old spot, which would make him the leader.





We're coming close to the end of the mountain, too. Mt. Ordeals isn't a very big dungeon, but sometimes, it can be quite a slog.





The encounters are fairly frequent and they take a little while to get through, so it feels longer than it actually is.



If you could run through this place without any encounters on, it'd be so easy just to rush straight through it all.



I'm cutting out most of the encounters, so this place probably seems even shorter to you guys.





Though, with three mages around, it's nice that they're winging some Ethers your way.



It's just no bueno when your magic fueled death machines run out of magic fuel.



And here we are at the top!



What in hell is that?



I don't even know what that noise was supposed to be, Mune, so I don't think it's fair to blame him.



Exactly!



That save point over there is where we're stopping for today.



After a quick heal, of course.



And with that, we're done for today. It was a bit shorter than the last few, I know, but I'm sure some of you are glad about that.

Anyways, next time, on Final Fantasy IV, let's see if Cecil will become a Paladin or not. And where is that Scarmiglione...?

Stay tuned!