Part 54: Update Fifty Two: The Twins' Trial

Update Fifty Two: The Twins' Trial

Welcome back! Last time, on Final Fantasy IV, we completed Cid's Trial, where we acted as a glorified taxi service. Today, we're going to be doing the final Trial, the Twins' Trial, so let's mosey.



I hope you people appreciate me doing this update; it's my birthday today.



'course, that's probably just a clear sign that I want to be done with these damned Trials. At least this one is kind of neat and not a pain in the ass.



This Floor of Remembrance holds one very special item.



You might have noticed that it is Mt. Ordeals, specifically the very top of it.



Over here, where we entered for Cecil to become a Paladin, is a final bit of armor for him.



It also adds +10 to his Spirit, in addition to being a great piece of body armor.



And that just about does it for this Floor of Remembrance.



This next one comes from deep within the Lunar Subterrane.



I didn't find anything interesting around here, barring a single treasure chest.



I have a half-dozen of these now. I doubt I will ever use more than two of them.





And now we're back in the Giant of Babel.



I don't remember exactly what part of the Giant this is, but it has a few treasure chests scattered around.



They're all pretty much on the main path, too, so I grab 'em. The Gysahl Whistle, if I haven't mentioned it before, lets you summon the Fat Chocobo from anywhere.





Goddamn, game, how many of these do you think I need?



And, finally, up in this corner is a new katana for Goemon. It gives him +10 Strength and Spirit, which complements Sasuke's Katana well. Oh, yeah, I found another katana for Goemon on one of my journeys down here, which adds +10 to his Agility and Stamina. Sorry I didn't mention it before; I kind of forgot about it.



Anyways, let's get on outta here.



And now we're in the next pre-Trial room.



This is one of the last Cottages we'll be popping this journey. Hell, it might be the very last one.



Let's start this last Trial.





At the end of this little corridor, the twins split away from Cecil and there's some sort of notice on the wall.





No wonder you're a prodigy of Mysidia, Mune. Just sharp as a tack.



Even Cecil, with his massive Strength stat, can't move it.



I already pointed that out!



...That sounds like blatant bullshittery to me.



: "the trials."



Sounds like we're going to need a midget. Thankfully, the twins are close enough.



: "entrance."



And so, they run off, Masa to the left, Mune to the right.



We follow Mune, as she isn't an arrogant twat who gets on my nerves.



: "Oh! Masa found an entrance as well? It looks like Masa and I are the only ones who can squeeze through such a narrow space."

: "You can count on me! There's nothing in this world I can't do!"

: "Wait a minute! Slow down. Remember what was written on the wall."



Well, there's two of them--



Yeah, just what I was about to say.



: "The rest of you, please stay here until we return."

: "Too bad there're two entrances. This was supposed to be my chance to shine and be a hero..."

: "Hush! Now come on! We have to get going!"

: "I'm coming, I'm coming."



We get a quick fade out...



...And come back to Masa, having entered his door.



There's a closed door straight ahead and a blue orb thinger on the left.



Upon closer examination, it turns out to be a switch.



Though, apparently, it does nothing when pushed.



And...Mune reacts.



I'm not sure how Masa can hear her speaking, since the distance between these two places looked to be a good bit.



And I guess this is some sort of twin telepathy. I don't know.



: "Oh, I get it! The switches here open the doors on your side!"

: "(Apparently so. Then we must cooperate to continue down our paths.)"



And that's the gimmick of this Trial; neither twin can progress without the other. Masa needs to hit the switches for doors in Mune's part, while she does the same for him. It works pretty well.



I don't know why I took a shot of this. I don't think any of you really care to see it.



Oh, and, at least in these rooms, there are random encounters.



They're nothing special, however. I guess they didn't want to overwhelm either twin with a powerful monster and have them be horrifically murdered.



Anyways, Masa's door is closed, so let's pop over to Mune.



Her room is basically identical to Masa's, but mirrored. Oh, and if you don't know the difference between the two, Masa is the boy, while Mune is the girl.



'course, I think most of you know that, but just in case. I can understand if you get them confused.



Let's continue forward with Mune.





I just want to point out, in these rooms, the fucking Calcobrina music plays. It's quite eerie.



There are these little tiles around, too. There are four in all, each of them causing a different status effect.



We'll need to use all of them to get past this Trial, which is pretty cool.



Over here, there's a Float tile and a pot. We'll need to Float to get over those cracked tiles, methinks.



The pot is one of those free MP heals.



And now we're a flying tiny person.



I think we could get to this switch without Float, but there's no way you'd be able to get back.



Mune, I didn't hear shit. How the hell did you hear a door over in Masa's section open?



Super-hearing aside, Mune is done for the moment. It's Masa's turn.





Inside, he has an MP healing pot right off the bat.



And quite the oddly shaped hole.



Hey, what's that toad doing?



Alright, I get it. We need to be a Toad to fit through that passage.





And just to the left of that passage is a Toad tile.



North of that is an open door, but we need to go through the Toad passage, so that Mune can continue forward.



I don't know why the hell there's another Toad tile in here, or why there's another MP pot. I honestly cannot fathom a reason for them to be here.



Anyways, Masa possesses the same type of super-hearing his sister does, as he, too, can hear doors open when he can't. I still didn't hear a Goddamned thing.



After hitting the Toad tile again, I pop through this open door.



And then immediately become a Pig.



There are still random encounters around here, but all I encountered were Tiny Toads and the Gigantoads (which were back in the Waterway leading to Damcyan, where we met Gustav). Considering that I saw Masa crack one for 1,200 damage, we don't really need his magic to fight here.



We find another closed door here, so it's time to go back to Mune.





Upon entering this room, we see another Mini'd person pop out of that hole, letting us know we need to be Mini'd to enter.



As he runs out the door, we pop into the hole he just left.



There's a pink door there, as well as a Pig tile.



Over to the right, there's a Mini tile.



As well as another switch to open a door over on Masa's side.



There's precisely jack and shit down here.



So, we pop back into a regular sized person.



And then become a Piggy.



I think you need to be a Pig to open this door, but I honestly don't know. I just assumed since it was pink that I needed to be a pink Pig to get through it.



Just inside that door is another Pig tile.



And another Mini hole.





I run back to the last room and hit the Mini tile, making Mune a Mini'd Pig.



And then through this little hole.



Which leads to this closed door. Since there's part of the room I haven't explored yet, let's do that.



There's another switch over here.



Which moves something, somewhere.



Mune goes to wait at her door, so it's back to Masa.





He now has his own Mini hole to go through, so he has to hit that Mini tile.



Masa now matches his sister as a Mini'd Pig.





Just beyond the hole is a switch for Mune's side, as well as another Mini tile.



Over to the left is this open door, so let's continue.



More cracked floor tiles and a Float tile greet him on the other side.



Masa is now a Floating, Mini'd Pig.





On the other side, there's a Toad passage, but no Toad tile, so we've gotta go back.



And in case you were wondering, you do have to be a Toad to fit in there. Even though I'm sure that the Mini'd Masa could fit...



On the other side of the room, there's a Toad tile.



So let's get through this passage.



Y'know, Pig, Mini and Toad all stack; Masa is a Floating, Mini'd Pig-Toad.



There's another one of those floor switches over here, next to a Toad tile.



Masa is no longer some sort of horrific chimera.







On the other side of the Mini hole, there's a green switch that does nothing when stepped on. How curious. Let's pop back over to Mune.





Jesus Christ, game, how much fucking MP do you think I need in this Trial?



Since Mune is already a Pig, I skip stepping on this tile.



I see a Float tile from here, so there's gotta be some cracked tiles around here.





Yep, here they are.





It's also only in these rooms that the Calcobrina music is playing. I don't know why, but it gives me the willies all the same.



Over here, we find a Toad passage, but not a Toad tile in sight.



So, let's hit this door and see where it takes us.



It takes us down to another switch, but I didn't see anywhere else for Masa to go...



But, there is another door for Mune, which leads to a Toad tile and passage.



So, let's-a go.



We pass through another Toad passage, which we saw before in that room, but couldn't do anything about.



In the room beyond that passage, there's another one of those green floor switches.



Nothing happens when she steps on it. Curious.





Well, pretty similar to how it looks for you, Mune.



: "(How odd...I pressed the last switch, too. What should we do?)"

: "...Wait, I've got it! 'Two must become one'...We have to do it at the same time!"

: "The words on the wall...Alright, let us try!"

:"Ready, set..."

: "Push!"





The twins step on the green switches at the same time...



And we pop back to Cecil, who has apparently been staring at the wall for the last fifteen minutes.





...They were too lazy to bother animating the thing dropping down a bit? Jesus Christ.



The twins return, apparently having found a shortcut out of there.





Someone who has never had the taste slapped out of their mouth, Masa.



This is also true. This Trial might have been the easiest of them all, if not for Cid's Trial.





They walk back as the screen fades to black.



And we come to on the other side. I...I really think we could have just walked through it ourselves.



And I make Masa leader, since Cecil is always hogging that spotlight.











And so begins, the final battle against the Lunar summoned monsters.



Lunar Leviathan has a pretty color scheme, if nothing else.



He also has 135,000 HP to tear through, so this fight can take a little while.



Like his non-Lunar counterpart, he begins the fight with a Tidal Wave.



It's...Eh, kind of weaksauce, really.



When he switches how he's laying there, he'll start casting Blizzaga on your party members.



It's quite pathetic.



He's horrifically weak to Thunder, so exploit that weakness as best you can.



As it's pretty much a guaranteed 9,999 damage.



I only saw him use Maelstrom once this entire fight, and he also gave me ample time to heal up before he did anything else. Lunar Leviathan is a fairly easy boss; it's almost disappointing fighting him.



Also, that was his entire repertoire, or at least that's all he showed me.



Either way, that's the end of this fight.



Hey, this is our final Grimoire, too!



I firmly believe that Masa could have soloed Lunar Leviathan.



Hell, Mune could probably do it, since she has Holy.



Actually, any of the people in my party right now could have soloed Lunar Leviathan. He's really a sad boss.





Somehow, I don't think that lesson would take, Mune. But, feel free to waste your time.



We actually get two of these, one for each twin.





It gives their Twincast a new spell, which we'll see soon enough. Just remember, both of them need these equipped to pull it off.





And with that, we're done with these Goddamned Trials. At least the last few weren't so bad.





Next time, we'll be fighting the bonus final boss around here, so stay tuned!

And since I don't feel like going through this fucking place again, the party you see here is the party I'm taking to that fight. Normally, I'd put it up to a vote, but fuck the Lunar Ruins. Fuck them so hard.