Part 25

EITHER WATER NOISES OR , I DELETED THE VIDEO THIS SECTION IS FROM SO I DON'T REMEMBER WHICH, IT DOESN'T MATTER BECAUSE THIS SCENE IS SHORT ANYWAY BUT CONSIDER THIS THE "CHOOSE YOUR OWN SOUNDTRACK" PART OF THE LET'S PLAY, HELL SCREW THIS LET'S JUST DO GILGAMESH'S THEME INSTEAD







Please...protect Bur...me...



I will protect Burmecia. You have my word.



Yeah, that's it for that scene. Yet another rat soldier dies in front of us, feel free to keep track of rat people we watch die if you get a kick from that sorta thing, I've already made too many death counters for these Let's Plays.





We're in a new area of the overworld. There's not too much to do, but there is stuff.



For instance, there's these horrible abominations to scar us for life with their mere presence.



Also they attack and stuff. They can actually inflict blind, which is annoying to deal with, and Blizzara, which hurts.





Hey, Freya achieved Trance for the first time!



At first, it seems like nothing's changed for Freya. If you look closely, you'll see Jump is multi-target now.



You see, Tranced Freya doesn't come down from her Jump until her Trance is over. Instead, she'll repeatedly throw down spears from the air, hitting all enemies. The damage formula for these spears seem to be a bit weaker since for the Trance Jumps it changes part of the Jump formula from adding Freya's Strength to roughly a random number from 0 to Freya's Strength (not exactly this but pretty close). The damage is also then split between enemies. It's not the most exciting Trance, but it's not Cook-tier bad either.



And here's a better shot of Freya in Trance form. Like the other designs, it looks pretty badass.



After this battle, I remember I have an Ice Staff I worked hard to steal from Gizamaluke. Vivi's been down in the gutter offense-wise for the last dungeon, so I'm hoping this will help him pick up the slack.



Anyway, here's a fucking gate.

WIND NOISES



There must have been a huge battle on the other side of that gate...





...Quina does whatever s/he feels like doing. I must learn from his ways.
I don't think it's intentional, Freya.



Zidane, this flower taste good!
See what I mean?
But stilll...





The whole point of this area is to get a Hi-Potion and Tent while watching Freya contemplate following the ways of the Qu. That's reward enough for me.



Anyway, this is a Lizard Man. This is the true form of every politician apparently.



It actually uses those hatchets, too.



And it likes Protect.



OK Vivi this damn stick better be worth the effort I put into-





HOLY FUCKING SHIT

So, uh, Lizard Man has an ice weakness, sure. There's one other thing, the Magus Hat we got two updates ago. You see, that little beauty boosts ice damage. And the -ra spells are roughly twice as strong as their tier-1 counterparts (spell power of 29 compared to 14). So that power combined with Vivi's magic and multiplying damage by 150% twice, and Vivi's breaking quad-digits before we even finish Disc 1.

Only downside is Blizzara costs 12MP and Vivi only has enough for ~6 castings but I've got a ton of Ethers so no biggie.



Anyway, here's a sand tornado.



This is a Nymph.



It likes to burn things with Fira.



It also likes to kiss with its feet for some reason. Silence sucks because it lasts after battle and prevents casting of magic.



Naturally, Quina wants to eat this thing to learn the meh Night spell. Night puts everyone to sleep, including your own party. Of course, if you have everyone equipped with Insomniac, this suddenly becomes a good bit more useful. Up to you if the support stones and the 14MP cost is worth it.





Finally, there's Chocobo tracks here that we can use to summon Choco. This is useful because...



There's a Chocograph we can access here.



This treasure is a bit different, though.





This chest isn't full of tattered old robes or worn-out shoes.





No, the chest is full of acid trip.



This is Chocobo's Dream World, which is a place that exists.





And this is Fat Chocobo, a series staple that has a bigger, larger, fatter role than the holding extra items role it had in FF3 and FF4.



Choco... You seek a quiet life with other chocobos. ...Am I right?
Kweeeh!
Wanderer... We await your return...



Like FF7's Chocobos, Choco has different forms that can access different terrains. Now Chocobo can tread shallow water like most other ordinary chocobos in earlier games, and thus now has access to any Chocographs requiring this. These Chocographs will say they require the "Reef" ability.

You can only get to the lagoon through a beach.









Despite all that, there's nothing else to do out here. There's no more Chocographs on this part of the map. We could backtrack to Lindblum but I'll do that next update since there's something else later that requires backtracking.



Alright. It's finally time to tackle Burmecia, the last area in Disc 1.





What are you doing? Get over here.



I've been away for so long. Not a night went by when I didn't dream about home.



I am no longer the selfish child I was five years ago.



I'll do what I can to help!
I help, too!
Me, too!







This is not the time.

This is Burmecia, the realm of the rat people.



It has seen better days.



Also we now have Cancer.



Oh, Cancer's the next Stellazzio. Alright, then.

Nothing else to this screen, so moving on...





Black mages!





Two more Type A's. Vivi out-mages the shit outta them.



Yes! Very scary, it is, when the general gets mad!



Oh yeah I go inside and get punked.



Most FF games have chests trapped with enemies, but this game is one of the few where the chest is the enemy. Meet the Mimic.



Every Mimic summons a Magic Vice, which is actually nice since, if you want my advice, you can steal an Ether once or twice (or even thrice) from them for no price, and Quina will gladly eat them with rice since they teach Magic Hammer, which reduces MP by a roll-of-the-dice random amount up to the enemy's total MP mice lice Brice.

I grab a few Ethers but since Vices have such low HP and can run away at whim I wasn't able to grab Magic Hammer. Oh well.



As for the Mimic itself, it shares similar interests to Quina.









...As Zidane learns the hard way.



But he gets vomited up and takes decent damage, no biggie.



Oh yeah Blizzara wrecks everything Vivi OP please don't nerf.





Walk, don't run to get these boots I already have two pairs of.



OK now run. Running on the walkway causes it to fall down and lets us make more progress. You see, we go right to advance progress to go to the left so we can make progress back in the right because that's how it always works in real life.



Meanwhile we deal with these attractive fuckers.



Gradual Petrify gives a ten second countdown until petrification, being a lot more helpful than previous games, though it's also faster-acting.

It ends up being a non-issue because two or three people are already immune but hey.



They're also fragile enough that even a mere Blizzard spell one-shots them.





This is a callback to FF6 where you jump between buildings to advance because Zozo was laid out in a manner that made no logistical sense. At least this place has the excuse of being pretty trashed.



Get the bell...by the bed, and...go to the palace... Protect the king, please...



I'm still shaking from each rat person that dies in front of me. Probably because I turned it into a drinking game but still.



At least he died with nothing embarrassing under his bed. That's always the first priority when your home gets caught up in war and your friends and comrades start getting mowed down by giant blobs of robes and pointy hats.



HEY GUESS WHAT MORE BELL LOCKS.



This one is special because it's an even more blatant callback to FF2. "Minu" in this case is the character Minwu, the first temporary member to join your party in that game and one of the better ones due to the boatload of awesome magic spells he came with. He ended up giving up his life so the party could get a terrible spell they'd never use, then he went to purgatory heaven hell to help kill a guy the party already killed twice. So yeah, Minwu knows a thing or two about mortality.



Back to the right side so we can enter this door.





Burmecia's royal palace is beyond these steps. It must be in ruins, just like everything else. I can't bear to see it like that...
I understand, but we can't go back now. We have to find out who's behind this.



Look, Vivi's scared, too. But we have to face reality.
Come on, Freya. It'll be okay...



Do you really know what you're doing? The answer you seek may forever change your life for the worse.



Y-Yeah... But... But I have to...I have to find out who I am...



Vivi...

This is a powerful moment that's easy to miss. Both Freya and Vivi are scared as hell about what's to come, but Vivi's already been through a lot of tough shit and knows he'll have to weather a lot more to get what he wants, while Freya's still struggling with her issues about essentially abandoning her home. Vivi's already grown a lot since he got swept up in everything and had his very existence called into question. Freya's supposed to be the much more mature one, but she hasn't had the time to take in the massive weight of what's surrounding her that Vivi has.



Also Quina's still here.





Are you in league with the black mages!?
No!
You're lying! There's a black mage right behind you!



Lies!





It's good to see you, Dan.
Damn, I haven't seen you in years! Where've you been!?



We've gotta get out of here fast. There are black mages swarming all over this place.





Where is the king?
I don't know. I didn't see him in the palace.



Freya, forget about the king and get out of here! We're no match for those black mages!





Freya's scared, but she's also possibly the only hope her kingdom has. There's no turning back now (until I turn back to get treasure later anyway).



This place has another cutscene so enjoy.





No! I can't do that! Remember that promise we made each other in front of Master Gizamaluke?
How could I forget... But my only wish now is for you and our child to survive. Please bear a healthy child, darling. Raise him to be strong.
Oh, Kal!



I'm sure Regent Cid will protect you.
But my husband... He was hurt by those black mages. He can't move. How can we possibly escape to Lindblum!?



Whew, that was close!
Geez... Thanks.
Thank you.



Yeah, we survived, somehow. Can you give me a hand?
Sure.



Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. Take care.

We see a rat man about to die but instead we save his life and force his ass to live. How's that for a twist?



There's more treasure but nothing too exciting so let's move on.



Going straight railroads you to the end part of this disc so make sure you explore the left and right buildings first. I start with the left.





This spear...



It's pretty light and easy to use.



Good timing, too, as I just learned Dragon Killer from the Javelin. The Mythril Spear teaches Reis's Wind, which gives the entire party Regen. It's a pretty handy ability to have.

And of course, Reis is a reference to the character from Final Fantasy Tactics that was transformed into a dragon until she got turned back into a human from side-questing. She could still bracelet breathe fire as a human though so that was pretty cool.



Jesus Christ dude



I know... But...



Vivi...



We'll end the update exploring this right area.



The Lightning Staff teaches Thundara and Poison, both handy spells to have. It'd also be the source of our first -ra spell if we didn't grab the Ice Staff earlier.



Hey, buddy. Do you wanna buy something?

We also get to buy stuff from Stiltzkin for the first time.



You want to do this because if you miss buying from him, you don't get the good reward at the end of this chain. Plus he generally gives a really great one-time deal on items to begin with.

Thanks. This'll keep me going for another week or so.

If we talk to him again...

I can't stand all this rain.

Let's talk to the other moogle.





Stiltzkin is my hero! I'll give you this in exchange for delivery!



Another Kupo Nut. We can backtrack to Gizamaluke Grotto to give the Kupo Nut to the moogle that's nuts for Kupo Nuts, kupo.



Also another letter.





This moogle also sells items and gear but the only new item Atla sells is the Barbut, a helmet that teaches Alert and Dragon Killer. Freya can't learn the former and has already learned the latter, but the defense and Spirit boost doesn't hurt.

Next time, we'll backtrack a bit to pick up a few more items and then finish off Disc 1 with one hell of a finale.