Part 30: Update Twenty Nine: Done Puttin' It Off
Update Twenty Nine: Done Puttin' It OffWelcome back! Last time, on Final Fantasy IV, we beat up the King and Queen of the Summoned Monsters and gained their power. Today, we're going to go to one of my least favorite dungeons in the game, so let's mosey.
We've got to leave the Land of Summoned Monsters now, as we've done everything here. Well, except for one thing, but that's just grabbing some treasure.
You can see the four boxes from here.
If you'll look just ahead of that pink robed fellow, you can see a square that looks a bit different from the rest of the tileset.
Step on it and viola! You're transported to this little area and you can just go and grab the boxes.
The other two treasures are a Dry Ether and an Elixir.
I can throw these on Rosa for a bit of good power; Yoichi's Bow also adds +10 Strength, so she could easily be used to pick off flying enemies. But, she keeps her Kinesis Staff, as I prefer her Spirit to be higher.
And just south of the teleporter that brings us here is this odd looking tile.
Which teleports us straight out of the cave!
There's only one more place I can think to go before the Sealed Cave.
I suppose I can only put it off for so long.
By taking a tour of the only smithy in the underworld!
Hmm...A master smith who's lost his spark?
I smell a sidequest!
In other news, fire is hot.
Let's see if we can bother the smith into making us something.
Not quite yet, but we'll return. Just you wait.
Alright, let's get to the hellhole.
Jesus, I've been dreading this place. I think I'd rather go through the Sylvan Cave again than this place.
This is where we use Luca's Necklace.
Which blows the fucking door open with a bolt of lightning.
Now, there's really only one thing that makes me despise this place and it really isn't that bad. I think a lot of my hatred stems from hating this place as a kid. It's hold-over hatred.
These little ropes connect us to different bits of walkable area in here.
Just shimmy up and down them to get to and fro. It's kind of neat.
Before we can get too far in, we run into our first encounter.
Remember the bitching I did about these types of enemies earlier? These guys are just the same.
They're still weak to Fire, with 1,014 HP. Goemon, Bowser and Cecil can one-shot these guys, no problem.
This is one of the big reasons why so many people dislike this cave.
With 5,000 HP, they've got a good bit of staying power. They also don't succumb to many status effects.
And this is how they start every fight. Every single one.
A little while later, usually two or three turns, they'll cast this on whoever they cast "Search" on.
Which will just straight up fucking drop whoever is hit with it. The usually spouted strategy to deal with these guys is to cast Reflect on whoever he Searched, then Ninth Dimension will hit the Trap Door and instantly kill it.
However, I never seem to be fast enough to pull that off, so I usually just have to take the hit and let someone fall behind in XP.
But, don't kill them fast enough...
They'll spew out a monster, usually one of these here Chimera Brains.
I was pretty well prepared to rant and froth at the mouth when Blaze came about, but, uh...I was not expecting it to be so ineffective.
Like, caught off-guard enough I was actually stunned for a second and didn't immediately react to attack.
These guys have 3,400 HP and other than Blaze, they're nothing special.
I'm seriously blown away by how shitty Blaze was. I'm used to it usually murdering someone and rendering everyone else close to death. It usually seems to really hamper any playing experience.
After the fight, Bowser gets revived and quaffs some Hi-Potions.
All the Trap Doors are real doors, too. There are rooms behind them all, some with treasure and some just to be irritating.
Behind this one is a new sword for Goemon.
The Mage Masher is finally retired. It served its duty well.
And on the other side of the room is an Ether.
There's quite a few treasure boxes scattered around the Sealed
Not all of them are useful.
There's another rope to shimmy up over here, leading us to a new spot.
Get used to these things being around. Trap Doors are annoying fuckers.
Good XP from these fights, whether or not you kill the Door or whatever it releases.
I don't mind Hi-Potions, really, but pretty much everyone, except Kim, needs three or four to be healed back to full.
An Ether on the other side of the room and two more Trap Doors. I'll be fighting all of them, but not reporting on every fight. Unless I mention it, assume nothing interesting happens.
These rooms remind me of a few red herring rooms from Final Fantasy II; they were just big, empty rooms that had a stupid high encounter rate. Sure, this room is tiny and the encounter rate isn't any different, but it makes me think of those rooms. They're just as pointless.
That's also exactly what lies behind this Trap Door, too. I'm starting to re-hate this place all over again.
So let's get to the next floor. This is only the second floor, too.
I would say this would be useful because of the Trap Door instant kill nonsense, but it actually turns out to be a non-issue.
It was at this door that I realized if I just mobbed them with attacks, instead of trying for the Reflect strategy, that I could kill them before they cast Ninth Dimension. That makes this dungeon a hundred times more tolerable.
Though, some of you might have noticed that I haven't shown off any new enemies lately, barring those Evil Bats. You might start to think that the bats and these doors are the enemies around here, but that's not true. I've had several encounters on my way here, and all of them have been with fucking Bats. I hate this place.
Anyways, in that door, there's just another one of those empty rooms.
There are many doors on this wall and I'm stopping by all of them.
Behind this door is a new sword for Cecil.
It adds +3 Strength and Spirit, but the Defender is just better, mostly due to the +15 Stamina.
This fight is worth showing, and not just because of Goemon's fuchsia katana.
Kim levels up and learns her first third-tier elemental spell. Before long, the elemental summons will be fairly obsolete.
There is also treasure behind this door. How oddly profitable.
If I remember that Goemon can throw things, this'll be handy. Fuma Shurikens have a good bit of power behind them.
I'd like to be excited about finding Elixirs, but since I never use them, it's just kind of a
experience for me.
This item casts Reflect on someone in battle, but I'll probably never use it. Again. I'm fucking terrible about items in this game.
The next door is boring and not worth showing off what's inside.
This one is marginally more interesting.
Just because of the save point, though. I heal up here, but we're not quite done yet. I can get through most of this place in one update, and I don't think anyone will blame me for wanting to get out of here.
Last door of this row. Jesus, there's a lot of them here.
And Rosa gets the kill on this one. Nobody levels up or anything, I just thought it was great that the White Mage beat something to death.
Eventually, we'll encounter other monsters, I swear.
If Goemon didn't have the Mutsunokami equipped, this would be his second sword, but the Mutsunokami is better, so it stays. Goemon only has one fuchsia sword equipped.
This adds +3 Strength, Agility and Stamina, and prevents Sleep. Goemon's current headgear keeps his attack power up, and he doesn't really need the Agility boost. I prefer to have his attack as high as it can be, since he's so damned fast, he'll make good use of the power.
His Stamina sucks and there isn't much I can do to improve that.
South from that door leads to the next area. We're almost done this update.
But first, as could be expected, there's a Trap Door.
Hey, guess what?
New enemies!
Well, okay, only The Screamer is new, but still, these guys aren't fucking doors or bats!
These guys have 1,400 HP and count as...Giant type? What the fuck?
They're fucking Mech type, too! What the hell?
Anyways, uh, there's an Ether here.
Fucking Mech? Why the hell...
Sometimes, I just don't have a lot to say. Plus, considering the area we're in, there's just not a lot to say.
Other than that enemy being a Mech in disguise, I don't know what to say right now. I'm still shocked at that.
I just feel so uninspired right now. I really do not like this place.
Especially when shit like this happens!
At the bottom of this room is this exit; I can understand why you might miss this, as it's kind of hidden.
Not much happened in this fight.
Except Goemon learned Image after it, which acts as a personal Blink spell for him; he can only cast it on himself, but he can make good use of it, considering how easy he is to tear in half.
Nothing in that door, but this Bell of Silence casts Silence on an enemy when used in battle.
It's kind of neat when you take this rope; you'll actually pass under this rock.
As for why I think that's cool, considering some of the shit in video games, I cannot explain.
To the right of the rope is this room, which is guarded by a Trap Door.
No real reason to show this, except for some new summon action.
Leviathan costs 50 MP to use, but he's got a ton of power behind his Tsunami attack. Thank God it didn't do this kind of damage to us when we fought him.
X-Potions restore a ton of HP when used. They're not the full HP heal items that they are in other Final Fantasy games, but they'll restore a good bit of health.
On the other side of the room is the staircase to the next room.
Miss Vamp is new, but just like the Vampire Girl from the Magnetic Cave; weak to Fire and easy to dispatch.
With 2,375 HP, Ifrit does a great job of dropping these gals like they're hot.
Down these stairs is where we're stopping for today.
Alright, folks, that's the show for today.
Next time, we'll finish off the Sealed