Part 38: Update Thirty Seven: Final Dungeon Preview

Update Thirty Seven: Final Dungeon Preview

Welcome back! Last time, on Final Fantasy IV, I did a short update where I went to a gentlemen's club and then I kicked Odin's ass. Today, we're going to be doing another short update, and, as the title indicates, it's just a quick preview of the final dungeon, so let's mosey.



We begin today outside of the Crystal Palace. Aside from the extra character stuff on Earth and something in the Dwarven Castle, this is where we're going to be for the rest of the game.



We're going to the final dungeon. It's a long dungeon, too, so we're not going to be doing the entire thing in one shot.



Rather, it'll be a series of trips. Our first trip is just going to be a small preview of what the dungeon is like and what we can expect.





All the Crystals are in this room, each of them in their little Crystal holder.



They each also have some dialog for us.



Some of them are helpful, such as this one. There's a ton of great shit in the final dungeon.



Some Crystals, like this one, aren't so helpful.





God, some of these Crystals are lame.





This guy must be mad as hell. Like he's hellmad or something.



Puddin, I think, was one of the best names we could have given him.



In the center, there is this spot. When we step on it, everyone splits and the Crystals begin speaking with us.



Several colors flash and these golden lights descend upon our party.



And here we are, in the Lunar Subterrane. This place is fucking massive.







Immediately, our hunt for great shit starts. There's so much of it in here that they could barely let you leave the teleporter before you get to go looking.





So far, encounters are with enemies we've encountered in Bahamut's place; Dark Sages mostly.



Eventually, there will be more enemies, but starting out, they're keeping things simple for us.





Fun fact: It wasn't until this screenshot when I remembered to hit Mega64's LP for the music link to this place.



I usually forget about the music links until much later. Most of the time, it's after the update is posted and someone mentions it.



Ooh! Treasure!



This is a common theme here; expect most chests to be packed with monsters.



Remember these guys? In case you don't, they still have 14,000 HP and have their same ineffectual Flamethrower attack.



If you fight them this way, be sure that it will kill them.





Because, as I learned, if it doesn't, they self-destruct.





Whatever HP they have left is dealt in damage. And these guys have enough, if they self-destruct, it will kill somebody.



But we get the Black Garb out of this.



It's for Goemon. It only adds +3 Agility, but the defensive boosts it offers are more than enough to convince me it's worthwhile.



That teleporter over there is our next destination.



Just to the left of the entrance is the path to that teleporter.



One of the nicest things in this dungeon is that you can leave at any time, which I fully expect you to do. Since the full heal tiles are just out in the Crystal Palace, if you need some levels, just troll around here for a while, go heal up and repeat until you feel you're strong enough.





See that chest there?



We'll open that in a later update. For now, we're going for something for Rosa.





This could have been a lot more threatening of an encounter. There's nothing too dangerous in these fights, except that the Dark Sages can cast Tornado.



This is one of the easier methods to deal with them.



And we win a Sage's Staff for Rosa.



In addition to a nice attack boost, it adds +15 Spirit. Considering her old staff already added +10, she only gets a five point boost, but hey, I'll take it.





That chest is taunting me. But have no fear, for soon, it will spill its contents.



In this next room, we spy another hidden passage.



This is about as good as it gets. I hope you weren't expecting anything too wonderful here.







Encounters are actually fairly frequent in here, so be glad I'm leaving them out. Actually, that's part of the thing about reading a SSLP, right? You don't get to deal with the tedium, usually, but experience the game nonetheless.



In the next room, that whore of a chest is still taunting me.



Over there is a new weapon for Goemon. Before we grab it, though, we need to prepare.



Float is fairly essential to making this fight go faster.



The chests are already trapped, so do you think a katana out in the open would be fair game?



Oh, Lord, we're being assaulted by Jubilee!





Meet the White Dragon.



He hits like you killed his mother with an axe, for starters.





He also has 32,700 HP to rip through.



And he counters all physical attacks with Slow.





As if that weren't bad enough, he also absorbs Fire, Ice and Lightning, so if you want to use magic against him, you need to blast him with something non-elemental.



Bowser takes to the air as Rosa prepares to Slow this jerkoff in return.





Soon, we'll have a new colored crescent moon slash! I'm so excited.





Generally, from now on, if I'm blasting an enemy with a summon, expect to see the God of Summons.



Because, really, it drops a ton of damage on him.



Finally, his counter to offensive magic is to attack with Earthquake. The first time I tried this fight, I forgot about that and promptly got my shit pushed in.



However, this time, I was more prepared.





Bowser needs a new weapon; he's rapidly falling behind Cecil and Goemon more than I would like.



Remember, if you fight this guy, be sure to Float yourselves up. If not, you'll have to use physicals to drop him and that'll take a hell of a long time.



Especially since his own physicals are so strong; look at Goemon's HP. He did that in one hit.



And, as a final "Fuck you!" from this jackass, he has Maelstrom. I was waiting for this, so I had a Curaja queued up.



However, let's say he does that and then you blast him with magic, unaware of his counter. That would end the fight right there and that's just discouraging.



Curaja is a great spell, but 40 MP is a bit high for Rosa to just spam it. I prefer spamming Curaga.







But, all in all, this guy isn't too tough. He's certainly not the worst boss we'll be fighting down here, but he serves as a nice intro to how this place is going to go. Generally, the updates down here are going to be me collecting items and fighting bosses, until we hit the bottom floors.



After the fight, we claim our prize.



This katana adds +5 Strength, Stamina and Intellect, while reducing Agility and Spirit by five points.



All in all, with the Black Garb, Goemon's speed isn't too heavily affected, but he can hit harder now. He's still hella fast, so all of this is a good thing.





But, that's it for your final dungeon preview.





This place is going to take a while.



But, not all updates will be as short as this one. The next one should easily surpass this one, in terms of length and content.





It's also not a bad assumption to make that, unless you see me hit a save point, I'll be leaving this place fairly often, just to heal up and such. Since it's free and I can use Teleport to do it, I see no reason not to. Working my way back down I can rack up some more XP and it should be easier, what with the new items and the higher levels.



Alright, folks, that's it for this update. Next time, on Final Fantasy IV, we'll explore more of the final dungeon, so stay tuned!