Final Fantasy IV: The After Years

Part 28

Chapter 25

Starting things off today by showing off a Band. Palom Bluffs while Leonora casts Black Magic.

...Ick.

A Little Black Magic has Leonora cast a random spell. There's a 50% chance she will cast her horrible "Spell?" variation. There's a 5% chance she'll cast an -aga spell.

Not worth the risk, especially since Palom could probably do more damage with an -ara spell hitting a weakness anyway.

Class change! Leonora got upgraded to a full-fledged Epopt.

Interesting that so far, it's been the new characters getting class changes.

Marginally better.

Enough goofing around. We've got an Epopt to induct!

Ah, Leonora. You're back rather soon. And the Monastic Seal...?

Yes. I touched the tower's stone plinth with this very hand.

Very good. I knew you had the right sort of potential within yourself.

No...it was all thanks to Palom.

Still as modest as ever.

Huh...?

What do you mean by that, Lord Palom?

Hey, an actual good question! Why would a training place for White Magic users have elemental monsters?

...

Why do the Epopts need black magic? Why does Troia need it, for that matter?

We Troians need a way to protect ourselves.

What, are you saying your Crystal might get swiped again?

There is always the possibility of that.

Oh? Which kingdom is that?

...

You don't mean...

What!? You've got to be kidding me!

Oh boy. Here we go.

It is unfortunately the truth, Lord Palom.

That's ridiculous... He'd never do anything like that!

Palom's rampant Cecil fanboyism takes ahold of him and he leaves in a huff.

Leonora. I'm sure you are tired as well. Feel free to go. Take this time to rest your body.

...Yes. Thank you.

Now Leonora goes to check on Palom, now that some woman on the internet mocked his fanboy crush.

In FF4, Cecil is the second coming of Jesus, you see.

You don't need to apologize for anything.

But...

Maybe the Epopts need a way to protect themselves and the Crystal, and I believe that.

And here we go again.

We should probably both get some rest...

Yeah.

So of course, Leonora sees this as the perfect opportunity to get Palom into bed.

Not in her bed, of course. It would be a sin for a jRPG heroine to try to seduce the hero. That's why they brainwashed Aeris after she tried that stunt with Cloud.

Man, what's that smell?

This is the castle's infirmary.

If you talk as much smack as Palom, you pretty much have to possess a sense of humor concerning yourself. Else you're just a giant asshole, as opposed to merely a giant dick.

You've got to be tired too by now. Get some sleep already.

...All right.

Old habits die hard.

(Cecil himself took the Water Crystal away from Mysidia, no less. But that was all the work of Golbez, in the end. And Golbez is gone...he went away with the moon.)

Gotta give credit to Palom. Unlike Yang, he actually realizes Cecil may be brainwashed by some super-powered Mary Sue bore.

What is it!?

Ah... I'm sorry if I woke you up. I... You might not believe me about this, but...

What is it?

I knew it.

You felt it too, Palom?

Beyond the Epopts' chamber.

Let's go!

As you might have guessed, shit is about to hit the fan.

Lord Palom, I'm afraid I have some distressing news.

What!?

It seems clear that their objective is the Earth Crystal we possess.

So you want me to fight back against them?

That's not what we want to see. We must wait to see what their next move is.

Palom!?

What are you going to do with the Crystal?

Do not engage Baron's soldiers, okay? Tell them some bandit stole the Crystal or something.

But....

This... isn't that bad a plan. Palom's a bit rough around the edges, but he's reliable and has the resources to take care of himself. The Epopts wouldn't have to lie about the crystal being taken, and they might avoid some casualties. And it's a better strategy than trying to talk about their feelings with Baron.

It's pretty risky, but it's not like they're going to catch Palom and take the crystal, right?

...Right?

You'd just get in my way.

I am an Epopt who serves the Earth Crystal. I know I'm new, but...but still!

And of course Leonora's going to follow. At least she has a good excuse.

You've said it now...

I think this refers to Leonora saying she's an Epopt? It's a little unclear for me what this refers to.

I will make sure it is safe!

(Hey, my first opportunity to post the Prelude! Listen to it, won't you?)

Oh no, it's probably Kain again!

Or it's the Mysterious Sue actually doing her own dirty work. Boy, she gets around!

What purpose do you have for the Earth Crystal?

Is there a reason why I must tell you?

The Earth Crystal is a symbol of Troia itself. I'm afraid we cannot simply give it up to someone so easily. Is this what Cecil, the king of Baron, has in mind?

Mysterious Girl is one cold bitch.

Inferior species!? Are you trying to insult us!?

Yes. She is.

...This way!

I wonder if this path existed earlier in the Tale.

The Epopts built this escape route in case anything like this ever happened.

They thought of everything, didn't they?

Then we'll just have to run as far as we can before that happens.

It runs underground to an exit near the castle entrance.

Good, then let's keep moving until we get out.

The first couple of rooms are pretty simple. No music, no monsters, but some treasure.

Arrows have changed for the better in this game. Rather than having to buy arrows in bulk, you get infinite arrows from just one. It makes less sense, sure, but it also makes your life easier, plus you won't have to grind for arrows as much if you're the type to use stuff like Medusa arrows.

Thing is, we don't have a bow, so we can't use these. Yet.

Of course, we're actually going to go through another dungeon, because the developers need a way to pad this Tale out.

Namingway's there to warn you about saving and to sell you stuff. Time to buy Hi-Potions I'll never use thanks to having a White Mage!

The dungeon feels like a combination of the cave between Kaipo and Damcyan, and the Baron Waterway. Which means it's pretty dull, and has the usual waterway enemies like gators, fish, and clams. You know, stuff with elemental weaknesses that you can exploit.

The Ricardo Mage is a bit different, though. He shows up with weaker enemies, and has a pretty sturdy magic defense. Weaker spells like Fire or Ice do 0 damage to him, and he'll counter magic attacks with curse, and physicals with Fire, which does minor damage. So you either waste a -ra spell on him, or attack him with your pitiful rods and staves.

The enemies aren't that bad, but a bad moon means I pretty much have to spam -ra spells until I ran out of MP. So I manipulate things to get a better moon for myself.

That way, I can end battles even with a simple Blizzard spell.

Sweet! Now Leonora can actually contribute to battles now!

There's also Lightning Arrows in the other chest, so we've got the two big weaknesses of this dungeon covered. I also picked up Holy Arrows earlier, too.

Electrofish, like in the original, absorb Thunder attacks. Will Priest counters magic with Cure and physical attacks with Protect. He'll run away if outnumbered.

I don't bother casting magic on these guys, as they have high magic defense and getting countered with Osmose four times would hurt. Instead, I just have Leonora fire off arrows before they can move.

Leonora isn't really a sage, so much as a White Mage whose gimmick is learning select Black Magic spells. She's one of a low number who can cast from both schools, but she still specializes in White Magic. She won't learn a lot of the gimmick spells from Black Magic, which is alright since most of them suck anyway, and she learns Black Magic very late, which really hurts her a bit. But more on that in her character update.

Yeah, this counter was a kick in the balls.

Luckily, it wore off before they could do serious harm to me.

Overall, it's a pretty dull, straightforward dungeon. Like every other dungeon in this game.

Flood Worms love Tsunami, which doesn't do a lot of damage. They will also physically attack, which deals triple-digit damage.

This dungeon has a lot of hard-hitting enemies. Luckily, Leonora has all that MP for Cure spells.

Nice upgrade for Leonora, as it prevents Silence.

Palom starts off with a Silver Armlet, so between that and the Rune Armlet, what the hell is the point of this thing? If something actually were to cast Pig, both characters could cure it with Pig/Esuna, not to mention those Diet Rations I'll never bother using.

What a waste of a treasure.