Part 46: Update Forty Four: The Monk's Trial

Update Forty Four: The Monk's Trial

Welcome back! Last time, on Final Fantasy IV, we kicked the asses of a bunch of bosses. Today, we're going to be starting the Lunar Ruins, so let's mosey.



This face on the Moon opens up after defeating Zeromus. It contains the Lunar Ruins, which will be the final thing we do in this LP.



There's a certain order to the Trials, and I'll be tackling them in order. Leave's is up first, as indicated by this update title. Champ's is after his, which will be next update.



When you enter, you're informed that there are seventy floors, including the Trial floors. I originally thought I had this dialog recorded, but apparently, VBA decided that I didn't actually want to record that and I didn't find out until I had saved later on. I already hate this place and not just because it's making me look like an incompetent asshole.



You're going to hear a fair bit of complaining from me about this place, I imagine. When I say I hate this place, it's only a touch of hyperbole. As I told a poster in this thread, if The Dark Id is fueled by rage and alcohol, I'm going to be fueled by painkillers and anger.



As such, unless there's something important on the floor I'm on, we're going through this as fast as we can. If you've played this before, you understand why and won't blame me. If you haven't played this, be glad that I'm not doing a comprehensive run of these Ruins. This update alone would probably be 400 more images than I already took (180, if you're interested), just because of the raw size of this place, plus all the secret passages and bullshit treasure chests.



Not that this is going to surprise anyone, but there are random encounters down here.



And they are Goddamn fucking annoying bullshit that's only difficult because it's going to take stupid long to get through some of them. Wicked Masks are already dickbags to fight, just because of their Reflect bullshit, but also giving me a Gold Dragon to fight (which isn't difficult) is just artificially lengthening the fight. Gold Dragons are no more threats than a retarded woodchuck would be.



However, this does give me a good chance to prove a point. When I say Champ is fucking fast, make no mistake about what I mean. Combined with Apollo's Harp, with the Fire damage and effectiveness against Dragons, Champ can wreck some shit in the right circumstances.



Anyways, let's get off this floor. Exiting the floor will take you to a new one.



But, you can't go back. You can't Teleport out of here, either, so you've gotta find the floor that has the warp out if you want to leave. Make sure you're ready when you set foot in here, otherwise your trip to the Lunar Ruins could end rather nastily.





So far, we haven't strayed from the generic Moon tileset, which is okay. It's not awful to look at.







Well, not that awful to look at. It could use something to spice it up, like maybe some dancing imps in the black space.





There are new enemies in here, though. Goblin Princes are weak against Lightning and have 8,929 HP. They can also attack twice in one turn, but their attacks aren't very powerful, even when both attacks hit one person.



Great Malboros, despite being part of the Malboro family, aren't very dangerous either.



With 12,180 HP and no weaknesses, they take a bit of doing to take down. They still have Bad Breath, but we have a better response to that than we used to.



Expect to see Bahamut a fucking lot down here. He's still as effective as he ever was, plus I still have a lot of Dry Ethers and about 50 Elixirs in my inventory. 60 MP doesn't mean dick to me any more.





Gil and experience points flow like water down here, too, so we're going to be hella rich as well as super powerful when we're done here.



Let's continue.



I don't even give a shit what's to the right. When I say I hate this place and we're doing it as quick as we can, I meant it. We're going to be rushing through this place like madmen.





Sure, it doesn't look too bad to you folks at home, but remember, I'm cutting out the random encounters. There's also Behemoths wandering down around here as regular enemies, which means those fights take a long time, too, simply because of all the attacks.

I haven't mentioned this before, I don't think, but whenever an action is taken in battle (such as attacking, casting magic, throwing an item or whatever), the ATB bars freeze. They will not start moving again until that action is completed, meaning if enemies are rapidly casting magic and you have a summon queued up that goes right after they do, it can be a while before you enter your next command to keep the battle moving. It's fucking irritating, to say the least and makes fights last just that much longer. It might not seem like much, but after a while, it adds up and makes me want to punch the nearest living thing.



This next floor, you can see there's a treasure chest over there. We're not getting that chest.

Because fuck it, that's why.





Echinda back there is another step up in the line of Vampire Girls. They're about as threatening as they were, too.



They still have Vampire.



As you can see by the 1 damage Rosa took, it's about as effective as it ever was.



She also has Thundaga at her disposal.



It's not very powerful, either. She also counts as an Insect. I don't know why.



She's also Undead, so Leave's new claw is going to fuck her day up.



Echinda has 9,130 HP, so Leave and Cecil can one shot them.





There are only a few things I like about this place. It's mostly the massive amounts of money and experience that tickle my fancy down here, which shouldn't surprise anyone.





Much like in the Lunar Subterrane, there's a lot of secret passages in here.



Just to the south of us, there's a treasure chest. I actually bothered to grab it.



Remedies, X-Potions and Dry Ethers seem to be fairly common in these chests, so I'm not too worried about grabbing them. In certain later sections, there are chest with better loot in them, so I'll be snagging those. As for these chests, I'm not going out of my way to grab them.



Continuing on, we're going down these steps.



Over to the right, you can see just a bit of another staircase.



That's the staircase we just went down.



And just south of those stairs is the exit to this floor.



In this screenshot, you can see the save point, to the left, and the teleporter out of here, to the right. Taking that teleporter, you can completely leave the Lunar Ruins, but you have to come all the way back to where you left.



There's nothing special to mention about the save points. They're just places to pop a Cottage up and save.



These doors will only open if you have the correct party member with you. If Leave weren't in the party, then we couldn't enter this Trial and complete it.



However, since he is with us, we'll start our first Lunar Trial.



Oh, Cecil, I'd love to.



There's something pretty special around here, Leave.



Let's check it out. Since this is Leave's Trial, we'll let him lead the party for now. You can have anyone lead, but I'll just let the character under trial lead. It seems proper that way.



Y'know, you could be talking to anyone in this party with that statement. It's fairly generalized, mysterious voice.



!



Ah, so Bahamut isn't the only Summoned Monster hanging out on the Moon.



And since it's Titan, we'll be Floating throughout this Trial. I don't want to get caught with my pants down and have an Earthquake rip my ass in half.



You would think that he'd have mentioned that when he was talking to us before. Though, I guess it was probably a given before. Maybe he's just making sure we know.



Hey, these guys look kind of familiar...





Leave's Trial, as could be expected, is just a shitload of fighting. Initially, this looks intimidating, as there are twenty-four fucking enemies on screen there. However, each enemy is made up of three individual monks, which all count as one. If that makes sense.



This is about as threatening as they get. Being monks, like Leave is, physicals are their only form of attack.





They've got a nasty weakness to Fire, which Champ is specializing in right now. They also only have 6,000 HP, so Champ is perfect for quickly killing off some of these guys.





Leave, while hitting like a truck, doesn't have the proper claw equipped to capitalize on their weakness. It's not that big of a deal, though, since these guys are a joke.



Also, as you can see, some of the monks disappeared. Remember Octomamm and his tentacles? How they would start disappearing after we did enough damage? These guys are just like that, only that monks die instead of tentacles.



Honestly, did you guys expect anything else from me?





Especially since Bahamut is more than enough to instantly kill these guys. Though, surprisingly, some of them were just barely killed by that attack.





The shitloads of gil and experience continue.



Moving on, we see more Soldier Monks down there, training.



And going further forward, more monks pour out.





It's the same as the first fight.



I think I even took the exact same actions, too.



After that fight, we continue forward again.



We're only a third of the way down with the fighting this update, by the way.





Man, that is a lot of monks. I almost feel bad for invalidating their training as easily as I am.



But, we're not fighting regular Soldier Monks anymore. We're fighting their Super Monk cousins.



They're still weak to Fire and with 8,000 HP, Champ is still super effective against these guys.



As is Bahamut. Did you really think I was going to do anything different?





This is just Goddamn ridiculous.

Seriously, I'm not cutting much out of these fights. They're just as easy as they look. If you brought either Masa or Kim, you've basically won these fights already. As you've seen, Bahamut is an excellent choice for dropping these guys like a sack of taters. If it were Masa around, I'd reckon Meteor would achieve the exact same effect, just for 99 MP instead of 60. I know it's not super interesting for you folks at home, but playing it isn't that much more exciting. It's mostly just waiting for Kim's turn to roll around so that I can hit my win button. Sure, it's not the flashiest way to do things, but would you do things any different?



And that question was rhetorical. Please hold all smug answers and punch yourself in the genitals for thinking of them.



Since there's nothing to the left or right, except dead ends, let's just move forward.



Jesus, Fabul only had like, a tenth of these monks and that was their main schtick.



Is it really considered training if you get the holy fuck murdered out of you during it?



Rock you like a hurricane.







I can't think of anything interesting to say here. I'm sorry.



These monks have some brass balls; I'll give them that. I knew if I saw over twenty of my training buddies blown to smithereens by a dragon, I'd be fucking out.

Hell, as soon as I saw the dude blow some of them away with a fucking harp, I'd quit. I'd rather be branded a coward than get my ass whipped by a harp.





But, hey, we've got a new enemy this time around!



Still weak to Fire, but with 10,000 HP, so there's no chance of being able to one shot these guys.



I still recommend Bahamut to clean these guys up. I guess you could use Ifrit, to hit the elemental weakness, if you wanted to.









If you're dropping that kind of cash and experience, I'm in.



Second verse, same as the first. I'll spare you the shot of Mega Flare this time. If you really want to see it again, just look at the last screenshot of it.



Jesus, don't these fuckers know when to quit?



The ground shakes as he says this.



Considering that he had to be there as Zeromus died and that he had to be around just to open the door leading here, I would fucking hope Leave is the first to come all this way.



Lunar Titan is the pinkish human. I'm not sure why his sprite is that color; you'll see why I say that in a second.



Hell, that was simple.



Oh, never mind. He apparently doesn't believe that we know how to kick ass and chew bubblegum.



So, let's show this asshole we're all out of gum.



Anyways, Lunar Titan is fucking grey. I know they had to differentiate his sprite somehow, but c'mon, they didn't even try and make the colors seem similar.



Lunar Titan hits like you fucked his mom and wiped it on the curtains.



He has no weaknesses, so Champ isn't as effective as he was just a few seconds ago.



It really shows that he's no longer hitting an elemental weakness. However, considering it's Champ, I'm still impressed.



Leave powers up for a stronger attack, while Cecil prepares to smack Lunar Titan with his sword.



Flare is a good thing for Kim to do during this fight; it's 10 MP cheaper than Bahamut, which isn't a lot cheaper, but it'll be just about as effective.



I have Rosa prepare a Curaja, as I don't know who Lunar Titan is going to hit next. I'd rather be ready to have them healed up, rather than waiting, just in case he decides to bash their skull out of their ass before Rosa's next turn.



Lunar Titan also has 120,000 HP. That's about double of what Zeromus had, for reference. It's also a stupid ridiculous amount of HP for an enemy to have, since I can only do 9,999 damage (maximum) at a time. There's no fancy sort of X-Fight or Offering shenanigans to do here, so I can't deal 9,999 four times in a row. It's irritating for bosses to have that much health, since it takes for-fuck-ever to whittle it down.



After a little while, Lunar Titan will flex his arm. You might remember regular Titan doing this, waaaaaaaaay back at the beginning when Kim tried to murder Cecil and Bowser for burning down her village.



However, his next action isn't necessarily going to be an earthquake move. He decided to punch Leave, who still hasn't attacked.



Hell, I think Champ might have gone three, maybe four times before Leave did. Power is pretty good, considering it doubles the damage he does, but it has such a long charge time, I think Leave can attack twice, maybe three times before it fires off.





However, knocking off 7,000 HP in one go, from a physical, is fairly impressive. Despite that, though, I just have Leave regularly attack, as I do think that he can attack at least twice before Power fires off once.



As that book in the Land of Summoned Monsters library mentioned, Titan (Lunar or not) is an idiot. He also knows regular Quake, but it's just an ineffective. Thankfully, Lunar Titan never figures out it'd be more effective to keep punching people in the face/crotch (as they're floating, so maybe a punch that would hit the face ends up in the crotchal region).







I love Kim. I really do. Sure, she's only a tad tougher than a titmouse, but since she can blow your fucking head off with a thought, I'm willing to overlook that.



Oh, yeah, I almost forgot that Lunar Titan can inflict Gradual Petrify on a character. It'd be more effective if he could just instantly Petrify them, but he can't do that. I'm kind of surprised.



If Rosa doesn't need to restore any HP, Holy is a really good thing for her to be doing. I thought I had a Gold Needle in my inventory, but that Remedy will do just as well. I'm not going to use it for anything else.



Crush is the last trick Lunar Titan has up his sleeve. Demon Wall had this attack, too, but he never got to use it. It'll just straight-up instantly kill someone.

Well, it would have, but Lunar Titan missed with it. Since that pretty much covers everything in this fight, let's just skip to the end.









Lunar Titan gives out the regular shitload of cash, but his experience is rather low, considering what we were getting just a bit ago. However, considering we got 13,000 a piece from just one enemy, Lunar Titan does drop quite a bit of experience.



These Grimoires allow you to summon the corresponding Lunar summon monster in battle when used. They also have a different function, which I'll stay quiet about for now.

Oh, yeah, there are Lunar versions of the other summoned monsters. I'm sure you're all very surprised.



To be honest, buddy, I overestimated you.



Man, that fight would have been hard as fuck if it had been Leave all by himself.



And don't get any ideas, folks. Just doing this dungeon is enough, I won't be taking on challenge requests.





A unique accessory for Leave. And it's damned nice, too.



...Was a pushover, honestly.



Cecil also says this at the end of each Trial, no matter how it ends. At times, it makes him seem like the most hilariously insensitive dick.



This here is the exit, but before we go too far, let's slap on Leave's new armlet.



It doesn't add or take away from any stats, but it does have a function that I'll be showing off in a little while. If you know what it is, keep quiet about it, as it's more effective to see in action.



And I just wanted to point out that Leave is a fucking monster. He's pretty fast, as strong as Cecil, but with better Stamina. Sure, he's dumb as Jill Valentine with about as much spirit as a dead guy, but he's got enough raw HP to survive pretty much anything thrown at him. He's definitely a welcome addition to any team.



But, with that Trial done, we're finished here for today.

Next time, on Final Fantasy IV, we'll be tackling another Trial. I think you'll find it a bit more interesting than this one, so stay tuned!