Part 11

Chapter 11

Before we check in on our old friends the dwarves, let's check out our new party member.



Luca may be the Dwarven Princess, but her job title is Shop Hand.

She also has more HP than Rydia despite being five levels below her. Rydia's the glassiest cannon ever made of glass.




Her stats are what you'd expect them to be. Analyze is as useless as ever, but Big Throw's pretty awesome. It's pretty much an out for her to do full damage from the back row, and it counts as a special ability, so she can evade lunar handicaps.





I love the dwarves. They're so uncouth yet earnest.




Looks like our old friend the Mysterious Girl came by, with some more pals besides Bahamut no less.



That's not good.







Guess we better talk to King Giott.



My stars! That's what I want to ask you, Luca! Blundering around on that airship of yours... but never fear! My fortress was built to stand strong against bombing assaults as feeble as that one.



Ah! Welcome, Rydia! It's been ages, it has!
The Crystal, Father! Is it safe?
We weren't able to protect it... Unfortunately, it was taken, and by just one young woman, no less.



I like to think responding to stuff with "What!?" and "Huh?" is an inside-joke among the old crew, and Ceodore just got carried away with it.

At least, that's what I have to tell myself in order to not get increasingly annoyed by it.




EXCLAMATION MARK!



That's correct. She used that power to shrug off my most battle-hardened dwarven guards and snatch away the Crystal with ease.
How could something like this happen?
But why are the Red Wings involved in this!? Where is Cid!?



If you've played FF4, you know this is quite the understatement.



There's no other explanation for why they'd bomb this castle without reason.
The wars of the past are about to spring forth anew. That much, I fear, is certain.



So where's the last Crystal...?

No no no no no no....



Dammit.



Luca! You have already put yourself through enough danger! If you go there...
Oh, Father. I'll be fine! We aren't going alone, anyway.



It's spreading.



I want to be the one who uses it this time. It's all I have left from Mother!
Luca...
I never thought I had raised such a stubborn child...
Like father, like daughter, you know.



And the worst part is that this is only the beginning, I fear. Rydia, make sure my daughter doesn't get into trouble.

Yes, Your Majesty!
And I'll be here to help you out, Rydia!

That... doesn't make sense in this context. "Make sure my daughter doesn't get killed, alright?" "Don't worry, I'll help!"

Alright, got some plot out of the way. Time to enjoy the massive labyrinth that is Giott's Castle.



As has been alluded to, the Tower of Babil's activated again. That's not good.



Oh, you poor fool. You don't realize that we have a fucking airship. Walking is for chumps.



Below this pot, you can exit into the overworld. This makes for a great place to grind. But we'll do that later.




Huh? Oh, dammit.

Anyway, Rydia or Luca can't equip these. How mysterious.



I pick up a Crescent Axe for some extra oomph. I consider getting a bow for Rydia, but then realize she shouldn't be using physical attacks anyway.





This guy's version of dancing is just spinning around in a drunken stupor.

I love dwarves.



No fourth wall breaking in this tale!



There's a ton of stuff in these towers, including more of this mysterious Ore.



Yeah fuck you too.



Seriously, you can't fuck up dwarves. Well, unless you're Chrono Cross.





We've cleaned the place out. Time to get on our airship and soar the... underground?





Wait, who the hell are these two.



I told you we weren't alone, didn't I?



Remember that weird-ass boss fight from FF4? They're back, and this time they're on our team.

More of Cid's work?
I fixed them up, actually. My airship expertise gets me a pretty long way with these things!




Oh for fuck's sake



I suppose so.

We have Black Magic, and that's all we're going to need.







Haha, the moon changed during that scene. Wonderful.

Welcome to the one of two whole parts in the entire game where you get an airship. You're restricted to the underground, too. Joy.



Calca and Brina both start off at L1 with pretty low stats.




Jive does random black magicky effects, Dance does random white magicky effects. Jive is useless trash, but Dance is pretty useful, especially in this chapter when we have no real White Mage.




And here is our gimmick with these two. They start out with horrible stats, but they can equip sets of clothes which enhance certain stats. For instance, Warrior's Clothes drain Calca's Intellect and Spirit, but they give him a huge boost to Strength and Stamina, rendering him into a rather effective fighter.

There's several such clothes sprinkled throughout the chapter. It adds a bit of customization, and there's a set I'll get in a future update which turns Brina into a pretty awesome character.





First, let's get some smithying done.




This particular tale has another gimmick.



You can forge knives and hammers from Kokkol Ore.




Hey, it's that Dancing Dagger everyone loves!



You need a weapon and a specific amount of Kokkol Ores to create a weapon.

I'll probably actually mess around with this later. God knows there's a ton of these things lying around.



Including the fireplace. Kokkol Ore is hidden in places you normally wouldn't search, like pieces of armor, so explore everything.




Angel's Clothes gives Brina a slight boost to her Spirit. Serviceable, but we'll find something much better later.



Now let's do some more shopping.



You definitely want to do Sylph Cave first. Like in the original, it's completely optional, but there's a ton of great loot that'll make your life a lot easier.




Dwarves.




This is like our fifth piece now.



I remember this place being referred to as a backwater village in the original. Note they didn't actually change anything in the village. That would require effort.



This is what you've opened yourself to for wearing that outfit, Rydia.



I buy an Ice Rod for the Intellect boost and a Dagger so Calca can hit harder. I also buy some cheap armor for the dolls.



Swimming with the fucking things.



To finish off the update, let's do some light grinding.





Big Throw's pretty awesome.




Dance is pretty damn awesome.




Jive is pretty damn lame. Granted, part of that is the Warrior's Clothes, but come on. Random Curing/Haste/Protect/Shell/other benefits rocks the shit out of damage, damage, and status effects that rarely work.

Let's end the update by showing off some bands.




Rydia's Black Magic + Luca's Attack. Luca comes down on an enemy along with a bolt of lightning upon one enemy.




Calca's Jive and Brina's Dance. The two combine to form the giant doll Calcabrina, whose head attacks an enemy before forming.






Luca's Analyze, Calca's Jive, and Brina's Dance. Calcabrina forms, then limbs go everywhere as it emits fire and lightning damage on its enemies.

I don't know.



Pretty awesome damage, though.



Anyway, next time we tackle the Sylph Cave.