Part 26: Cecil Gets Defensive

Chapter 26 - Cecil Gets Defensive






Between the Sealed Cave and the Sylph Cave is the Land of Monsters.



Thankfully, this is by far the least-annoying dungeon in the Underworld, as it's rather linear and the enemies are rather benign.



I forgot to mention that Rosa learned Wall in the Sylph Cave. Wall, as you remember, bounces spells off a character back to the caster's party. It's fun to play with, and has some actual uses.




Conjurers can summon any of a number of enemies, including Imps. Poor bastards only have 6HP and get hit for quadruple-digit damage.



Rydia learns Drain, which just plain sucks ass because of how weak it is.



I decide to give Kain the Avenger, as there's another weapon to get here that I want Cecil to have instead.




Remember that Mute dagger I threw to Edge? Turns out that's actually the translated name for what is commonly known as the Mage Masher, a dagger persistent throughout the series known for, well, mashing mages. Thus Edge makes ridiculously short work out of Conjurers.





There's also the Clapper, which shoots lightning. Good thing Cecil's Diamond equipment reduces lightning damage.

...Clapper? What, because thunder sounds like clapping? Just call the damn thing Thunder then.



Those hooligans are always up to no good.



Edge picks up Smoke, which guarantees the party to run away from a battle. Considering Edge doesn't really have much else to waste MP on, it's not that bad.



Arachne pretty much does nothing but cast Quake, which is hilarious considering this is another dungeon where Float is recommended to evade damage floors.



One cool aspect of this area is that you can actually see the next floor below you. The differing tile set below us suggests we're almost done with the dungeon part of this area.




The Poison Axe requires two hands and can inflict Poison. It's pretty lame compared to the other weaponry Cecil and Kain have access to. Ninja is yet another weapon upgrade for Edge, replacing the FullMoon we just got in the Sylph Cave.



There's also these guys. I don't know what they do because I killed them too quickly.







Hello! The Defense Sword is pretty awesome, as it gives a nice Vitality bonus on top of a couple extra points of defense. Plus it's the third-strongest sword in the game, stronger than anything else we'll get for awhile. I figured I might as well give it to Cecil so he can be further tankier.






The dungeon's finished. Now we're at the town section of the area.




This tile leads to a secret treasure trove.



We got a Samurai bow and arrows. The Samurai Bow is the second-strongest bow in the game and gives a nice ten-point boost to Strength. It's a nice offensive boost to Rosa.





For this chest, you have to exit and re-enter to be able to go south.



Our reward is...a rat tail? Sick.

It's a callback to FF1 where Bahamut wanted you to go through a castle to bring back a fucking rat tail because he's a sick fuck of a dragon. We'll save this for the tail fetishist in the upper world.




This inn is actually more expensive than buying a Cabin.



Not that I give a shit.




There's even a save point next door.



Our objective is in here, but before we do so, let's do some shopping.




Weapon-wise, I get Charm arrows for Rosa since Charm's a great status to inflict and a Lunar staff for when I want to boost Rosa's healing with its ten-point boost to Will. The Aegis Shield boosts Magic Defense a bit, while the Sorcerer Robe boosts both magic stats a bit.





You can read all the bookshelves here, many of which focus on particular monsters Rydia can summon. This doesn't include the secret monsters, but it does include monsters Rydia can't yet summon.



Huh, so the summoned monsters existed long before humans.



The fuck!? I mean, sure, I've heard of sending whales to the moon, but from them? That's just silly.



For some reason, this makes me think of The After Years. Ugh.



So the King and Queen of the Summoned Monsters live at the bottom of the local library. They don't even have any chairs or anything to sit down in. We can't talk to the king until we talk to the queen, so let's do that.



I am willing to... But first I must see your worthiness.



The whole point of coming here, besides more stuff, is to gain Rydia a couple more summons. We have to defeat the king and queen before they lend us their power, so let's get to doing that.

Then shall we test!






This is Asura. Like the past few bosses, she also has a gimmick.





Asura likes to heal herself. A lot. Her healing is also pretty powerful, which means in most cases you're going to lose in a damage race, because she'll counter every attack for some big damage.

Note that I said "most cases."



You see, Edge has the Mage Masher. Asura's a mage. Edge gets to mashing.



As I said, Asura counters any physical attack with an attack of her own. If you really wanted to, you could manipulate your characters to low health and have Cecil defend them all in the back row with his tankiness. You know, if you want to actually put effort into a battle.

Now, the trick to this battle is to stop Asura's healing, and since you can't Mute her, the best way to do it is to cast Wall on Asura. By doing so, her healing spells bounce off her, both healing you and allowing you to damage her without your hard work being undone.








That said, I never cast Wall on her. That's right, I beat Asura in a damage race. She couldn't heal fast enough to beat fucking Edge. I managed to beat a boss without exploiting its gimmick and I made Edge of all people look like a badass.




With that, Rydia can now summon Asura in battle.

After healing and saving, we talk to the king.



You must have an even stronger will to guide your powers toward good.







Remember Leviatan, the monster that wrecked our boat, injured Edward, and ate Rydia? It's time to get revenge.





Leviatan is the first boss in a long time to have no gimmicks. He simply hits you with Big Wave every now and then, mixed in with other attacks.




He also has Ice2 to hurt your party.




Leviatan takes a bit to take down, but it's a nice little slugfest before we knock him out.




That's the other summon.



One exit spell later, and we're ready to try out our new summons.







Asura will do a random beneficial effect, depending on what side of her face pops up. She can heal for a lot, as above, or revive everyone. A bit too random to rely on, but when it works in your favor it's great.





Leviatan is much simpler, doing huge water damage. Suck it, Edge.



That's it for sidequests. Next time, we tackle the Sealed Cave.