Part 17: Cecil Murders an Elf

Chapter 17 - Cecil Murders an Elf



Welcome to Cave Magnes.



What is this magnetic field! Metallic things will be too heavy to control!
My claws seem okay.
Do not worry! I'll do it with my magic!





So we're wandering through our fourth generic cave area, except of course this one has the wonderful gimmick of weighing down metal equipment. This only hurts Cecil, so I've given him a Cure Staff so he isn't completely useless.



The enemies are a tad annoying, and if you're unlucky they can ruin your day. Not these guys, though.




This is what Cecil will be doing every single turn in this dungeon. It's small healing, but every little bit helps.




Piggy kinda blows because enemies still maintain their attack and defense stats. Still, it prevents special attacks, which is useful against some of these enemies, plus it gives Tellah to do during easier battles when he doesn't need to blow his MP.



Pythons will entangle you. Speaking of which, when you are equipped with metal, the character is simply paralyzed for the entire battle and can't act. If your entire party is wearing metal, the instant you go into a random battle is a Game Over.



Yang's claws are awesome, as between Fire and Ice he can hit the weaknesses of most of the enemies in this dungeon.




Panthers are pretty fragile, but their special attack, Bluster (a mistranslation of Blaster), is pretty damn scary, as it can either paralyze or instantly kill a character. At least these guys don't counter-attack with it that often.



Ogres are powerful and have a decent chunk of HP. Fortuntately, they don't have the insane speed and magic resistence that their Mad variety possesses.




CaveNagas are pretty unremarkable other than that they'll counter magic attacks with Slow. They're kind of fragile, though, so it's not a big deal.




For the more daunting battles, I let Tellah release a few Viruses. Surprisingly, I never bothered using an Ether, even though I planned to. Honestly, you don't even really need Tellah's magic that much, as Yang and Cid can handle most of the enemies themselves.



This room's a bit of a pain since there are large gaps that you have to walk around, especially if you're hunting for treasure.




There's actually a save point in the middle of the dungeon, which is a great opportunity to cap everyone off and restore Tellah's MP.



Cave Bats. Ugh, fucking Cave Bats. These guys aren't as bad since they don't have crazy speed, but they'll spend every turn using the slow, weak Vampire attack, which inflicts Sap. They aren't deadly, merely annoying. VampGirl can also Vampire, but usually sticks to regular attacks.




Shit.



As far as I know, you can't actually buy these. This is the first one I've found so far, even though I have maybe three Elixers by now.

Speaking of which, I actually end up using Cure1's and Cure2's in this dungeon to save on MP. Which is actually what I used to do as a kid, yet usually these days I use MP to save on consumables, which I end up never using anyway. Go figure.



Oh hell yes.




The Charm claw has a chance to confuse an enemy.




Suffice to say, it's a much-welcome addition to Yang's arsenal.



It even does big damage to giant enemies.



There's a second save point right before the boss. For having such an annoying gimmick, this dungeon sure likes to hold your hand for you.



There's also Mages, which I believe can paralyze you. They also have an interesting drop that I'll get into later since it's a tad spoilerly.






Anyway, here we are at the Crystal Room. Yes, apparently there's just a random Crystal Room in this dungeon. Or maybe every time the crystal is taken somewhere, it creates its own crystal room? Perhaps Golbez is merely taking the crystals to redecorate his evil lair.

This is one of those moments where I recommend watching the video if you don't recall this scene.

Video: Battle with Dark Elf



YOU CANNOT USE METALLIC WEAPONS. YOU CANNOT DEFEAT ME.
Don't worry!
We'll do it!






It's time to fight the Dark Elf. Our strategy is-







JESUS CHRIST



Oh...
We can't...
My dear...





If I can use my sword...!









Don't worry. I just want to get to...my...harp. ...Ouch!
I told you! Do not overstrain yourself!












Oh!
This melody is...
Edward's harp!







That's right, Edward saved the day by getting his ass out of bed and playing his harp. They could've found Edward a more badass way to save the day, but eh, at least he gets his moment.



At this point, you can re-equip all your metal items, as Edward's music is so horrible that the Dark Elf can't concentrate on his seal.

Of course, I forget to move Cecil to the front row. Oops.




Melody of Lute continues to play during this battle.




Dark Elf will once again use the three L2 elementals consecutively, but this time they deal laughable damage.



He still has Weak, though, so he's not a complete joke.




The Dark Elf can also turn a character into a Pig. Right while Cecil was charging Cure2. Since Cecil can't do much damage from the back, I just put him on healing duty.







This is where the true fight begins. The Dark Dragon is not the pushover the neutered Dark Elf was.





The Dark Elf has a pretty nasty attack that will deal significant damage to everyone. Even with a Slow, Cecil could just barely keep the damage healed every round.




The Dark Dragon also has high magic defense. Fire3 only did around 500HP damage to him.




He's tough, but not unstoppable, and soon enough he goes down.





Thank you, Edward!



So after all that bullshit, we've finally got the Crystal of Earth. We must be getting pretty close to the end of the game, since this is the last crystal and all.





Yeah, I'm not fucking backtracking through that bullshit dungeon.



Next time, we head out to save Rosa once and for all.