Part 23: Cecil Encounters an Idiot

Chapter 23 - Cecil Encounters an Idiot





We're back in the overworld, but there's not really much else to do besides progress the plot, so let's do that.

Video: Airship Maintenance



Cid told us to visit his workers. I don't know why he didn't add the hook while making the airship magma-proof, but considering we'd probably be dead if he took the extra time to add it, I guess we don't really have a right to complain.








There's a bit of slapstick here that you can only really see in the video.



To hook or let go of the Hovercraft, press A over the craft. Now you can go to the Cave of Eblan by the Tower of Bab-il! Bring the Hovercraft to the shore and detach it there, then use it to get to the cave!



Cid is...
Oh, I can tell you are having trouble handling him. But I won't blame you! Well, good luck!






So now the Enterprise is outfitted with a giant hook to pick up the Hovercraft.




This allows us to take the Hovercraft anywhere in the world now, though it doesn't really unlock many new places.



Really, this opens up only two new locations, one of which is this cave southwest of Silvera.





We don't have any tails to offer now, but you'll want to remember this guy's location in the future.




Eblan is southwest of Baron. We already looted the castle earlier, but we can use the cave to reach the Tower of Babil.





This cave is full of secret passages and high-end consumables.



It also has these god damn fucking bats FUCK BATS.

Bats are weak, doing only a weak Vampire attack that does low damage and inflicts Sap, but they're speedy and spam that attack a lot and the attack is slow and it just ruins the entire pace of battles so FUCK THEM.



Kain's spear destroys them, plus they're weak to projectiles like Rosa's arrows.



We also start finding Shurikens, which nobody can use right now. Hmmm...



There's still some enemies from back in the underground.





There's also some new enemies, such as these Skulls. They hit hard and have a chance of inflicting Curse, which halves your attack power. Not great when they hit Cecil or Kain.






Yeah, fuck Skulls.




Stalemen also hit hard, and have a chance of inflicting Sleep with their attacks. Unlike most other games in the series, physical attacks don't wake sleeping allies, so it sucks when you're hit with it. On the other hand, this also applies to enemies, and usually you'll be sending them to sleep more often than they will to you.



The second floor has... Wait, what?




There's an entire town on this floor, complete with shops and an inn.



Gives me an opportunity to get rid of all my extra crap. I'm already close to 200k GP.




This location is where the Eblans have moved to after their castle was ransacked by monsters.





There's some new equipment here as well. There's no point in buying more Ice armor since I swapped the Fire and Ice armor to give Cecil and Kain resistance to both. I buy the Black robe, thinking it'd give Rydia a nice Wisdom boost, but it actually gives a five-point boost to Will. Yeah, the Black robe boosts White Magic. I don't know what the fuck.

I buy a Boomrang despite nobody being able to use it because as you probably guess we'll get a new character soon who can use these ranged weapons and items. I buy Rosa 99 Poison arrows because I have a ton of money, they're cheap, and Rosa has nothing else to do on her turns.




Oh yeah, Eblan is a nation of ninjas. The fact that a nation of ninjas got ambushed and driven out by monsters is pretty damn shameful.




The entire royal family is gone, with the Prince attempting to save his parents by digging further into the cave to reach the tower.



I don't know whether to be surprised that they left in this version that she's pregnant. I guess it's not that big a deal to even the censorship-crazy Nintendo of old.




Alright, enough dicking around. Let's get to that tower and steal those crystals.





As I said, there's lots of hidden passages here, fitting for a nation of ninjas. There's also a lot of injured guards littering the cavern.





Insert Prince joke here.




East of this save point is a trapped chest.




The reward is this piece-of-shit Drain sword. It doesn't have a hit penalty like the spear (though it doesn't boost it either), and it reduces all stats only by five instead of ten like the spear, but it's also much weaker than Cecil's current equipment, plus there's a few undead enemies here. Waste of fucking time.



Once we reach the end, we encounter Rubicant and some mysterious man.

Video: Fighting Fire with Fire



Have I met you before?
I am Eblan's Prince Edge!
Eblan? What's that?
Don't play the fool with me!







Edge, like Yang, is ambidextrous and wields weapons in both hands. In this case, he wields ninja swords.






...What the hell, Edge. He's a fire fiend, he's dressed in red. It's pretty fucking obvious he absorbs fire, so why the fucking hell did you use a fire spell on him?

As you can tell, Edge is a brash, hot-headed youth who can be rather stupid. He's probably one of the more annoying characters in this game, to be honest.



I will show you how!






Welp.




Indeed you're strong...but still no match for me. Challenge me after you've become strong enough!






...W...Wa...it!



Well, so much for that.



Warning, this is one of those scenes that's a little weird due to the wonky translation.

You Okay?
How could I lose?
We're also after Rubicant for his crystal.
Why don't you stay out of this?
He is one of the Fiends of Elements!
Haven't you tasted enough of his power!?
Think I'm just a spoiled prince, huh? The Royal Family of Eblan is trained as Ninja! I can take care of this myself, okay?








Hey, come on!




This. This right here is a pretty powerful scene that many often overlook. You've got this arrogant idiot willing to throw away his life because he's a fool, and after everything else that's happened, the normally strong-willed Rydia has reached her limit. In just a short time, she learned of Tellah's death and had to watch Yang and Cid sacrifice themselves in the span of minutes. To have yet another person throw their life away because of their recklessness when they've already lost so many good people is just too much.

It's not too often that you see a game deal with the emotional stress of fighting a war. It can really break even the strongest people. To see the party's cheerleader, the same person who rallied a depressed Cecil into saving Rosa, break down from the loss drives home just how much loss the party has faced.

When people think of memorable moments from FF4, they think of Cecil becoming a Paladin, or Tellah sacrificing himself for vengeance, or a couple of scenes to still to come, or even Cid jumping out of an airship and blowing himself up. When most people look back to this scene, they think of Edge's rivalry with Rubicant, as Rydia's break down is rather brief and doesn't really come up again. Still, it's nice to see even a brief moment where the characters are actually vulnerable, where we see the effects of low morale driving characters to their breaking point.

Rubicant is the strongest of the Four Fiends. But we still have to recover the crystals!
Can't keep this pretty girl crying. Why don't we work together on this?
Considering the fact that he's wounded, he sure bluffs! Well, Rosa!





Of course, Edge wasn't actually dying, he just had his ass kicked and needed a nice boost.








Now we've added a ninja to our ranks, and our team is once again at a full five people.

Next time, we take a look at our new ninja companion and infiltrate the Tower of Babil.