Part 9

First order of business: Click the Tindeck link right now. The overworld music is generally fantastic in FF games, and this is certainly no exception here.

This is our first chance to explore the overworld. The Mist Continent is a pretty large continent and by far the most populated.



There's your overworld controls. The big thing is Square to Moogle.





Press it and Moguo will come from anywhere in the world to help you out, letting you save or use a tent.



Just don't be a jerk and waste his time, that would be rude.



A couple new enemies here, including Pythons.



They have a move called Rapid Fire that is just a boring old physical attack. Not nearly as cool as FF5's Rapidfire.



My plan of attack for randoms is to have Zidane steal 24/7, Garnet do essentially nothing since her attack is horrible and I rarely need her White Magic, and to have Steiner and Vivi do damage.



Steiner in particular loves his job.





Also these snakes can cast Thunder because why not.



But it's fine because Vivi can cast Blizzard, which this guy is weak to.



He also learns Fire. Unfortunately he has nothing else to swap to for the time being.



Garnet is a combo Summoner/White Mage, though she's a bit biased towards the former.



Buuuuut summons aren't relevant yet because they're ridiculously expensive.

Right now Garnet has the Moonstone because it teaches Shell, which halves magic damage. Her starting Rod teaches Cure, Panacea (heals Poison and Venom), and Protect (halves physical damage). If I didn't end up becoming rather overleveled and have a ton of nice gear ahead of time these would be great to have, but I'm sure they'll become very helpful later on.



There's also Mus.



They hit you with their tail and I presume fart in your face.







They'll also fire projectile feces into your face.



I also forgot to check out the Key Items, which are actually worth looking at because there's flavor text.







So inspirational.



Preemptive strikes and back attacks are still a thing, and if a back is exposed the target takes 150% damage.





Cure is a bit overkill for this stage of the game, being pretty much a full heal even party-wide. It'll likely be much more appreciated later on though.



Our destination is the Ice Cavern, but we can make a detour to the west to visit this place.

AMBIENT SOUNDS



Here's Zidane scratching his ass.



I think this is the North Gate. It's beneath the Mist. It lies between Alexandria and Burmecia.



Fresh footprints... And there's smoke rising.



How dare they commit crimes in the name of Alexandria! I should like to arrest and punish them if the circumstances were different!





The cavern lies to the left of this arch. We'll follow the ledge!

We can't pass through because the gate is closed for reasons.



We can loot some Eye Drops and a Potion though. We can also interact with the door.



(I can hear people...and something that sounds like metal grinding.)



Anybody there?



Th-That voice...!



(What a sexy, husky voice!)



...I sell medicine.
Wow... It must be tough. If you'd like, I can help...





Oh, Zidane. Anyway, we can stock up on Potions here.

Do you mind selling me some of your medicine?
...Sure.



I only buy one to be charitable. I can easily steal 99 of these if I wanted.



I think I showed off Goblins before but I didn't show off how buff this guy is.



Steiner's gonna feel that one in the morning.



Anyway, on to the next dungeon, the Ice Cavern.

WIND SOUNDS







What's up, Vivi?
Have you ever head of the Ice Cavern?
Sure... Is this the place?
I think so... It's supposed to be near Evil Forest.
...I've heard of it. It's supposed to be a beautiful place, covered in ice.



He said the cavern takes travelers to the top of the Mist.
Bravo! Master Vivi's grandfather must be quite a scholar! We must thank him upon escaping the Mist!



Oh... Forgive my indiscretion.
Don't worry about it.









The Ice Cavern is our second dungeon. It's a cavern full of ice.

So far the game is 100% accurate in regards to the contents of its dungeons.



Seeing the actual cavern is so much better than reading about it!





Can we get moving? I'm freezin' here.

For someone who travels a lot, I'd expect him to keep a jacket or something on him. Or at least steal one from an enemy.



There's a lot of loot here, most of it consumables. I'll focus on the highlights.

The next room over...





There's several of these odd-looking walls in this dungeon.



There's gotta be something behind it.



Y-Yes?
Can you break this wall down with your magic?
I...I'm coming.



There might be other walls like this... I'm counting on you, Vivi!
S-Sure!

There's just an Ether behind this wall, but the other ones have better stuff.



There's another gimmick that isn't explained in-game that catches people off guard. See that burst of air? They come and go over time in set places. If you walk into it while it's blasting, you're shoved into a forced encounter. No reason to mess with them if we can avoid them, right?





There are three enemies in this area, though I only ran into two of them. The first is the Cave Imp, which can be pretty pesky.



I'd show off how but Vivi one-shot them with Fire. Vivi can one-shot everything in this dungeon with Fire. These guys aren't even weak to it!



You're death incarnate, you deserve to be proud.



The other enemies are Flans.





They headbutt and cast Blizzard.





It triggered Zidane's Trance! Now we can-





Oh wait I forgot I had Zidane queued to Steal and Vivi to wipe the enemies already. Trance wasted!



I learn a good chunk of abilities while exploring this place. Vivi has already learned everything he possibly can, mostly because unlike Zidane and Steiner there's no good steals for him yet.



After getting the first chest (a Potion), Vivi can knock this thing down to get the second chest.



Which would be nice if we didn't steal one much earlier.



Behind an ice wall is an Elixir, which is always handy to have of course.



Cave Imps can do damage, of course.





It can also set characters to sleep. If Vivi gets hit, that means Steiner gets to do something until he wakes up.



A second Leather Wrist. Can't hurt.



The left leads to a save moogle. I accidentally go right first, which triggers plot. Don't worry, I'll show off the left path in the next update. For now, let's do plot stuff.

INTENSE WIND NOISES



I...I'm coming.





I like Vivi falling.



I like Steiner's waddle.



I like Steiner falling so much I cropped most of the wind out of this GIF so it wouldn't be too big.



What happened to you guys?







Garnet refuses to fall, the jerk.



Garnet? She's out cold...



-----



BELL RINGING



It's a bell ringing.



At this point, we regain control of Zidane.



We're solo though so you might want to switch to your best gear for this one.





Are you the one causing this blizzard?











Today, we're fighting Black Waltz No. 1.







And he's brought back-up!



I start off in the back row to reduce physical attacks by Wing. The Sealion will cast Blizzard and the Waltz can cast the basic elemental spells.



As you probably guessed, we're gonna dedicate some time stealing. The Black Waltz doesn't have anything special, just a Remedy and another Silk Shirt (which I actually don't need since I have three including one I took from Blank and Steiner can't wear it). The Sealion's Uncommon Steal is something definitely worth taking, though.



And I actually got it immediately after I got the Ether, which is nuts considering last time I played it took freaking forever.

The Mythril Dagger is huge for Zidane. The damage upgrade is nice, but more importantly it teaches the passive ability Bandit, which causes Steal to always be successful. Before, we had to roll a random number up to our level and Spirit combined and beat a roll up to the enemy's level to steal. Now, we just steal, 100% guaranteed. Of course, you still have to roll to hit the item you want to get, and good luck if it's a rarer one. It's just now there's a bit less bullcrap to deal with.



I go ahead and steal from the Black Waltz too because why not.

Also, these two guys are constantly hitting Zidane with attacks. So you know what this results in?



You want to kill the Black Waltz first, as it'll simply heal up the Sealion and then bring up another one if you kill the first one. Trance will let you kill him in one hit.







Black Waltz's HP was 223. Sealion's is 472.

Thanks to Trance, we'll be skipping the nasty portion of the fight, Sealion solo.







The Sealion has a jewel that determines what attacks it uses. It starts blue, using Blizzard. When it hits yellow, it switches to Blizzara. And at red, it uses Tsunami, which does some nasty damage. So yeah, ending this fight quickly is advised.







So I do so.



And quite handily, Zidane finished learning the abilities from his current dagger, so he's already set to equip the Mythril ones!





Wh-Who's there?



I've gotta go back and check on them!



Next time, maybe our lazy teammates will wake up already geez.