Part 18: Cecil Steals Another Crystal

Chapter 18 - Cecil Steals Another Crystal





Time to show how badass we area by flaunting the Earth Crystal around before promptly giving it to Golbez. Before we do that, let's do one quick thing.



Considering Edward saved our lives and all, it's probably a good idea to pay him a visit.



But where did you learn that tune?
When I was wandering about as a Bard, I heard the tune to bind evil fairies...
You saved us all, Prince Edward.
No... Not really... Ouch!



Edward!






Master Tellah...
Anna was happy to be loved by a brave man like you.
Tellah...
I will avenge Anna with Meteo! I'll take yours, too.

Must be a mistranslation. It seems like a lot of the minor translation errors have to do with revenge and such.

At least the Tellah/Edward strife is resolved. To be fair, Tellah's rage has been focused primarily on Golbez after talking to Anna anyway, but at least Tellah has accepted Edward as his son-in-law. It's nice to see Tellah get some development beyond "MUST AVENGE ANNA MUST THROW MAGIC ROCKS AT GOLBEZ" mode.

Thank you.
You really are brave, Edward!



And thus ends Edward's character arc in the game. He never rejoins the team, as he spends the rest of the game recovering from his wounds. Still, even if all Edward did was get out of bed and play a harp, he still took the initiative to save his friends at the risk of his own health, not even giving it a second of thought. Edward was never really a fighter, yet he still managed to show courage and helped Cecil's cause the best ways he knew how, from his political pull in Fabul to the songs he learned on his travels.

While not perfect (they could've added higher stakes for Edward's health or something to make his action seem more heroic), it's another example of FF4 creating a concise character arc that gives you an idea of what the character is about and how they impact the story. Not every character gets a lot of time in the spotlight, but almost every character gives you a reason to at least care a little bit for them.

But enough of that. We've got a job to do.




Make sure you get your shopping done before you meet the Clerics. You won't be completely railroaded for the next part, but I suggest you be prepared ahead of time.







...Kain!?
Go outside and get on your airship. I'll take you to where Rosa is.



The story automatically advances when we get on our airship. You could still use the Black Chocobo, though it can only land in forests.



Heh, these poor fools actually think they're going to get their Crystal back.



Hey, some insight about the crystals! Then again, the power of the crystals is always vague in this game, as they're really nothing more than Macguffins to drive the plot.



Oh yeah, free loot.





The loot is pretty damn awesome. There's some high-end consumables, including two Ether2's and Elixers, plus a GreatBow and some elemental arrows, in case you didn't get any in Toroia's town.




As I said, as soon as you soar in the airship, Kain interrupts you.





It's here! Where is Rosa?
Follow my airship!




All of a sudden, we're in this...odd place.



Do not hurry. Master Golbez wants to thank you personally.
Golbez!





Be a bit more patient. I want you to receive the reward.
Reward?
I'm at the top of this tower with Rosa. Bring the crystal, and I'll return you the girl.





Though Golbez failed to mention this, this location is the Tower of Zot, floating high in the sky. This is also our next dungeon, and it can be a bit of a tough one.



The enemies here can hit hard. It may not be a bad idea to get some beefier armor for Cid, though Cecil will find some good stuff here.




Now that Cecil can finally use the Slumber sword, I can show off how it can make enemies fall asleep, which can be very useful.



Once again, keeping up with elemental weaknesses will reward you with huge amounts of damage.



And since I don't have much else for Tellah to do, I give him the Cure Staff.



There's also Centaurs, though they aren't too scary here.



In the top-left of the first room is our first piece of elemental armor. Fire armor is resistant against ice attacks, which can happen but aren't a big concern in this dungeon. More importantly, though, is that you'll be weak to fire wearing this armor, which doesn't make much sense but is important to note.




Slimes are another breed of Flan, weak to fire.



There's also Marion and his Puppets, which are more fodder than anything else.




This chest will catch you off guard if you're not prepared.




That's because this fucker likes to open with Fire, which can really hurt. FlameDog's Fire attack damage depends on its HP, so if you whittle it down, its next attack won't hurt as much.




Luckily, Yang kills it with one hit of his IceClaw, netting the Fire Sword as a reward. This will be nice against some of the ice enemies around here.



Speaking of which, there are also IceDogs, though they don't open with a powerful move like their fiery brethren.



This dungeon's a bit lengthy, and the enemies can wear you down, so make sure you bring plenty of healing supplies.




This room has a Fire Shield for Cecil, and a Poison Claw for Yang. Poison's pretty crappy compared to Charm, and Yang deals so much more damage hitting elemental weaknesses, so I ignore it.




EpeeGirls are essentially guards for the Witch, which likes to piss you off with annoying spells.



Oh hell yes.





In addition to giving Cid a large attack boost, he can use it in battle to cast Quake, a spell Tellah can't even cast. It's not big damage, but it definitely has its uses. At the very least, it hurts everything enough to go down in one hit instead of two.




Cecil picks up Heal during this dungeon, which heals status effects. This is also the last spell Cecil learns, which means we now know all six of Cecil's spells. And yet this guy has more MP than Tellah.



There's also a nice robe upgrade for Tellah, which also boosts his Will.



Be careful with your magic, as these Gremlins will counter with Charm, which is never a good thing when used against you. This is "Confuse" Charm, by the way, not to be confused with "Charm" Charm.



Thank god for futuristic save points.



Alright, now all we have to do is enter this door and kick Golbez's ass.









Of course things couldn't be that easy.








These girls can be a rather large roadblock. At least they were for me when I was a kid. Their gimmick is the power of teamwork.




Sandy will cast Wall on Cindy.




Mindy will give a pretty underwhelming attack.







And then all three will bounce a spell off Cindy to another character, cycling between the L2 elementals and Virus. Remember, Cecil's weak to fire attacks because of his armor, so this isn't as bad as it seems. Still, it's easy to get overwhelmed if you don't know what to do.

Common sense suggests killing Mindy, as she's the easiest to die, and then Sandy, as she's responsible for most of the team's magic. The problem with that Cindy can revive both of them, so killing Cindy is your top priority. Killing Cindy is easier said than done, as she's in the back row thanks to Mindy and has Wall to stop magic.



Good thing Sandy will bounce repeat Wall castings off Cindy, saving Tellah the trouble.





You'll still need luck to hit Cindy (my first spell hit Sandy), but if you get lucky it'll definitely speed things up. Cid might as well stick to attacking, though his Quake will bypass Cindy's Wall.




With enough persistence, Cindy will fall.




With her out of the way, the other two go down rather easily as well.




And that takes care of the Magus Sisters.

Next time, we tackle one of the most memorable sequences of events in the game. Seriously, some of the highlights of this game will be in the next update, so come back and watch some shit go down!