Part 6: Blubicante

Christmas is saved!

Yes, Christmas is canon in the Final Fantasy universe thanks to the FF5 GBA translation.



I also got a bunch of money in that dungeon, but I already bought all the gear I wanted. More HiPotions and Phoenix Downs never hurt, though. This game actually expects you to use items!





Today we'll be tackling the other two dungeons in the Underworld. They're both pretty much the same, the only difference being this dungeon has a couple long secret paths that wrap to the exit so you can skip a lot of the damage floors in exchange of having to walk more and thus risk triggering more random encounters.



Conjurers summon a variety of monsters, but aren't that bad themselves. They're also a handy source for stealing Ethers!





The twins pick up two useful spells, though obviously Palom's would've been much more useful in the last update.



The RockMoth can blind, I guess?



The Clapper uses Blitz for lightning damage. Shocking, I know.



The HugeNaga is like the rest of the Naga enemies in that it exists and that's pretty much everything of note.



Warriors hit hard, Devils can inflict Charm.



...which can be nasty if it lands on the wrong character.



Finally, Arachne is a bit more annoying since we don't have free Float. In particular, it means you can't just run through the dungeon without healing, since a back attack will cause a wipe (like it did here).



Third tier of ninja star.





Another wipe later, and I finally reach our destination.





Some stuff is changed and shuffled around, but the basics are the same.



The Yoichi arrows are the only other arrow other than the Wooden ones to add to attack, in this case a whopping 30 (as opposed to the Wooden's 10). The other arrows are all elemental ones.



Hi!





It's still cheaper to buy a cabin and rest at the save point next door.



Speaking of which!

Rydia! Are you ok? What happened?
The sylphs saved me from falling and carried me here... I'll stay here for a while. I'll be ok.

And now we're caught up with Rydia! She's still her young form at least.





After saving and making a quick run through the town, I backtrack to this chest. The fight here isn't so bad.



And the reward is pretty good! The Blood Sword is the first dark sword to not be dark-elemental, and as you expect it'll drain HP from whomever it hits. It still gives 5-point penalties to all five stats, but now the attack is good (it's now Cecil's strongest weapon!) and the hit rate isn't terrible, so it's actually a nice get.



Back to the summoned monsters. The Fairy Rod is the second-best in the game and inflicts Charm, which is very handy for random encounters. Kikuichi is the next step up for Edge, but it's also crazy expensive and the Ashura's holy element still wrecks a lot of enemies. The Rune Bow wrecks mages. Dark Arrows are dark-elemental and are the only arrows that can inflict a status effect, in this case Blind.



The Diamond Armor and Helm are straight upgrades that also resist Lightning. The Zeus Gauntlets are kind of a rip-off compared to the Power Gauntlets. They add two whole defense but give no stat boosts compared to the Power's 5 STR and only protects against Berserk (which Cecil's actually fine with!) and Charm (which the Power Gauntlets already protect from, along with a bunch of other status effects). Finally, the Aegis Shield protects more against magic attacks than physical, also protecting against dark-elemental attacks as well as petrification, instant death, and sleep.



Anyway here's the crystal.



My name is Cecil. A man named Golbez is attempting to collect the crystals for evil ends. My companions and I are trying to keep him from them.
I see. Our Shadow crystal helps keep us hidden, but you may borrow it to keep it away from Golbez as long as you promise to return it when the threat abates.





That was...ridiculously easy.



Who's there!?







Oh and randomly the Scarmiglione palette-swap shows up.



His minions are much bulkier, but Edge rips through the undead like butter.





Ciriatto counters all damage with Stop, which is a good bit more scary than Scarry's counters.





Also, the Reapers' Drain attacks hurt a heck of a lot more.



I think this was the first time I died in a boss fight. This means I can adjust my strategy to "Haste Edge and keep him healed as much as possible".



Once the Reapers die, Ciriatto starts spamming Bio. It may not be a bad idea to keep one Reaper alive. But then again he only has 7000HP so he goes down quickly.



Leviathan gives no fucks about what just happened.







Also who didn't see this one coming

Hear the song of the fallen angel!





This nasty beauty lowers the party's HP to single digits. The end of his attack pattern is a party-wide attack so better heal up!





Next up is DarkHoly, which does massive dark damage.



And gradual petrification because why not.



Again, Edge and his holy-elemental katanas are our primary offense.







Then Bio, Death, and finally Dark Wave.



It was a struggle keeping everyone healed and alive. I mainly stuck with Porom, Rosa, and Edge, and by the end a Berserk Edge won in a damage race.



And that's it for the Feymarch!



Now we're much better prepared for this cave.





Charm helps a ton here.



And Drain Sword in action. The DarkTrees are a pain since they can cast Blink.



Rosa picks up Stop here.





Not worth the effort to fight.



Most of the treasures are consumables or stuff on sale in the Feymarch. This room still has three Elixirs, but also another Yagyu shuriken.





Palom and Porom's new spells are...alright.



Cecil's seems a bit late for this stage of the game, but then again maybe not.



Another Wizard (Dark Elf wannabe) guards the Avenger. It boosts Strength, Agility, and Vitality by 10, but also reduces Wisdom and Will that much. Dark-elemental with the same attack as the Blood Sword. It does require two-hands, but like the original it automatically inflicts Berserk at start of battle. Cecil doesn't do much besides attack anyway, so what the hell.



Final item is the Mystic Hammer, which has high attack power and also hurts mages and robots, but the big note are the massive 15-point boosts to Wisdom and Will. Thus Porom actually wants to wield it, even if she'll never actually use it outside maybe her Bonk! command.





Later in the dungeon, the twins pick up two very useful new spells. Cure3 in particular feels long overdue.



Thirty holy arrows. These are kinda hard to come by, so they'll be nice to have.





Another Frost Dragon guards the Mage Masher. Small boosts to Agility, Wisdom, and Will, it inflicts Mute and of course mashes mages. It's actually only a couple points lower in attack than the Ashura, but again, Holy element is too great to have.



Eventually I reach the house within.





Well this is convenient.



Hmmmmm.







Wow, what a nice guy.



You're no prophet!







Draghinazzo, or should I say...


...is the Holy-elemental themed.



He casts Holy.



He's one of the first holy-elemental foes I've encountered so far, or at least it feels that way when I watch Cecil shit out massive amounts of damage on him.



This is just cute.





Drain is also dark elemental!



I didn't even get through his entire attack rotation. Berserk Cecil just made absolutely short work of him.



And there's crystal number three!







The Black Robe resists Holy and Air, while the White Robe resists Fire, Ice, and Lightning. They also give massive 15-point boosts to their respective stats.



Now we're farther in than the last time I played. Everything from here on will be a complete mystery to me.

So next time, who the hell knows?