Part 37

WATERFALL SOUNDS



Vivi... We made it?



We're at Pinnacle Rocks. It's supposed to be near Lindblum Castle...
Pinnacle Rocks...? Lindblum...? The gargant took us this far?



Where's Freya? Steiner? And Beatrix?



He went to check the area.







Where is everyone, Zidane?
I don't know... We're really far from Alexandria.



It's almost nightfall. They're probably in Treno by now.
Do you think we can borrow an airship in Lindblum? Treno is only steps away if we can reach South Gate.
Yeah...





That is up to you...



I've heard your name somewhere...



I've seen your name in a book I read about summoning magic...



Ramuh is another FF staple summon that has appeared since FF3, though he often gets the short end of the stick compared to the other summons, getting snubbed in 8 and 10 in favor for birds. He is pretty plot-important in FF6 since he's the one that tells the party about espers and how to learn magic from magicite. He's also kinda important in FF14 for being one of the only primals who isn't a psychotic asshole that wants to destroy the world.

Also note that Dagger does not start off knowing Ramuh's summon at the start of the game. She knew Shiva, Ifrit, Atomos, Odin, and Bahamut, but after the extraction she now has none of those. She's a pure White Mage for now, though obviously that may change soon enough.



An eidolon follows its summoner's orders... It responded to the orders of a woman filled with greed this time...
No... Mother...!



I was confined while Cleyra was destroyed...
It wasn't your fault, Dagger. They knew. That's why they stayed behind.
Everyone...
True, you were not the one who caused the destruction. But I must ask you... What will you do now?





And cause more destruction?
No... I was afraid of my summon magic, but not anymore!





...Many years have passed since I last served a master... I must test to see whether you are truly fit to be my master.



Each one will carry a piece of the 'Hero's Story.' Collect all 5 pieces and tell me the story.





It's okay, Dagger.
I'll help you, too.
Thanks, you two.





For this section, Dagger's actually the face of the party since this is her quest and all.





Escaping the petrified Evil Forest was quite a task! Kupo! I escaped by following some suspicious-looking people.



The treasures are all things we've had access to before.



Anyway, exploring this small area will lead us to visions of Ramuh, each with a part of the story. I ended up getting these in the order of the story, but you can collect them in any order.





He'll give you a bio and then the title and how many you have left.



And this is pretty much the entire area, with a seperate screen below.



I'll go over the story in a minute, but this one is called Cooperation.



Silence...



Human...



...and Hero.





There's randoms here but nothing exciting, Vivi can one-shot the scorpions with multi-target Blizzara.



We have to jump to get this Mythril Bracelet but it's a short jog back up here anyway. This place is pretty small.



However, the story comprises 4 parts.



And that's the twist. One of these is unnecessary.



Anyway, this story is actually a callback to a similar scene that happened in FF2. Josef was the mayor of a town called Salamand and a rebel sympathizer. Your party ends up helping rescue his daughter from imprisonment in the nearby mines, and later they have to collect a bell to unlock a castle to get a strong enough flame to blow up an airship. Josef knows where this bell is and joins the party as a pitiful monk wannabe and leads them to a sled so they can reach the cavern of ice.

The 33 small countries thing is fluff since as you probably guessed there aren't even half that many towns in FF2. Otherwise, all this flows pretty closely to the story of the original so far.



Two things wrong here. First, the castle isn't the empire's, it belongs to another royal family, the last survivor of which ends up allying with you. More importantly though, Josef doesn't help at all. The Adamantoise is very resistant to physical attacks and Josef honestly is probably the most useless side character you get in the game.

You may also remember the Goddess Bell coming up during our trip to Burmecia. There's a surprising number of FF2 references and callbacks in this game even considering all the others.



The traitor was Borgan, who's essentially FF2's version of Palmer. He gets punked, then sets off a rolling boulder trap as he dies. Josef sacrifices himself to stop the boulder because he knows he's useless, saving the rest of the party.

That said, in FF2 you can visit his daughter Nelly and tell her Josef died. It's not even a cutscene, you just go in and when you talk to her she says a line about how sad she is that her dad died. Of course, you can also skip the town since you'll never need to go back there and thus not tell her either. Either way, this random NPC woman who's obsessed with Josef (Josef never acknowledges her existance and she hangs around outside his house) claims she'll take care of Nelly.





The last two are simply different morals to glean from this story. As you may have suspected, the twist here is either one of these endings work. Either you pick the party's human failings in not having the courage to tell Josef's daughter about his death, or you focus on the heroic sacrifice Josef made.

I went with Hero for no particular reason, honestly.



And we get one last chance to change before locking our choice in.



How come you chose 'Hero' for the conclusion?
People follow a person who keeps on track. That's why I think a hero who acts in a straightforward manner is remembered for generations.
...I want to know what you think, in your own words.
Me...?



...Your soul is very tense right now.



Thank you!
There are many paths. Remember that you alone choose the path on which you walk.



This is a gem add-on that teaches Dagger the Ramuh summon. We won't be seeing Ramuh for a couple more updates, unfortunately, but I will show him off in video once we get to that point.









What's wrong?
I wanted to ask him why he made Dagger play such a silly game. Heroic? Human? Those are just things people say after the fact.





That's the impression I got.





It's not what the people say afterward... What's important is being true to oneself. She may not have realized it, but when she wished to learn how to use summon magic... The summon power returned to her.



She is still young, but there is room for growth... So I chose her as my master.





-----







Once we leave, we're done here. But we're done here, so let's leave.

FADE TO SILENCE



I want to use summon magic to protect everyone...
I know you can do it, Dagger!



Look...



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsgWK_1tpro







Seems Brahne took no time after Cleyra and the events at Alexandria to turn her sights on Lindblum.





And of course our good friends the black mages are the ground troops.



We do get to see them fire off spells in a neat way, though.





This isn't good.



In Cleyra, they used summon magic afterwards...
No...! Mother...







https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LogSZPQf8LE









This is Atomos, another summon extracted from Dagger. This guy's only other appearance is FF5, though he's a memorable enough boss from there to show up as a bonus boss representative in games like FF4 The After Years and FF1's remakes. In FF5 he'll spam Comet until someone dies and then slowly suck them in until they're revived or he consumes them, then more Comets. He can't actually kill you though while dragging in people, plus he's vulnerable to Sleep.

He's a lot scarier looking here, though.









Yeah, compared to FF5's boss this guy is nightmare fuel.



Understandably, Dagger is losing it right now.





And with its job done, Atomos disappears.





So what do we do now? Can we really stop this level of destruction?