Part 85: Doin' This, Honest Promise

well shit


it's like that fuckin' alfred hitchcock movie












Well I mean it's like The Birds if at the end of the movie they killed the fuck out of those birds






"Why...? How did he know to show up here?"
"No idea, I mean up until about ten seconds ago I didn't know that we had to show up here"










i honestly can't even tell what's happening in this screenshot




This track is a lot like Dancing Mad-SNES in that it has in-game-related cues. It has loop indicators to prevent it from going to the next part of the song; comparative to the Black Mages version, this FMV contains the cue for about 1:10, I think.




FF9: even at a time like this








It's like if theater plays didn't have a climactic murder, suicide, or banishing of the secretly evil character, but if they culminated in a giant choreographed battle against a musclebound D-cup god with a demon-headed penis.






As always, those of you at work or at school or find yourselves otherwise unable to access the Youtube can add in the sound effects for these screenshots yourself.




Our opponent this time is Nova Dragon.




Unfortunately, I didn't get a screenshot of the particular frames,


but summoning Ark in this fight in particular shows off FF9's dirty secret in its indoor battlefield backgrounds:


They're actually kind of bowl-shaped. The ground you stand on is flat, of course, but once it reaches the sides, it either turns up sharply or in a curve-shape (the latter is the case on this battlefield), then curves outwards again and terminates in empty black space.


You can also sort of see this in forests, but it's not quite as evident there where the empty black space is just an extension of the green or gray-brown coloration of the forest, and it's not as evident in other indoor environments where the background texture slowly gradates to black as it reaches the top of its "bowl."



•••




"Alright... I guess it's no use worrying."










At this point Kilika looks around while everyone else rolls their eyes and makes crazy-twirlyfingers at each other.






"Why only me?"
"Well I could speak to everyone, but it amuses me to watch them make faces at you."




"Yes, your memories brought forth this place...
Here, you shall witness the entire truth.
You have no choice. Now go..."




"... Looks like I was the only one who heard him.
I was just talking to Garland.
He told me that our memories created this place.
I don't know what the hell he's talking about...
I guess we'll just have to move forward."




This "?" prompt will take us back to the ship and the world map.


These weird orbs replace the Moogles. They also let us warp backwards to other orbs we've been to, but never forward. What a pain in the ass.


The monsters here are all gigantic, and all incredibly speedy. They all have at least enough HP to tank two 9999 attacks, and if you don't have Auto-Haste (or really high speed), they'll get at least two actions for your party's round.




There are also Card Spirits here. If you press X, you'll just look around, but if you press Square at those "!" prompts, you'll be able to challenge them. Some of them have rare cards you can't get anywhere else, but this guy isn't one of them.


Continuing on,


there's a scripted encounter on the following screen. But I always think it's on the screen in the previous screenshot.




"Kneel before my power!"


Today, we're fighting Real Marilith.


The weird thing about these bosses is that their steals are sub-par crap that you've had since the third, or sometimes even second, disc.




Marilith does have a cool suicide attack, though.




I don't even know how this damage is calculated




*Not to scale










"You're too dumb
You weren't with us at the time, so it's not in your memory."




We also pick up Makie's best flute-type weapon.




"You shouldn't go anywhere. There's a storm.
Watch out! You're gonna get washed away!"




"Yeah, it had to be. What I just saw definitely isn't one of my memories."


"(Why was Kilika able to see it?)"




"But... why was I able to see something from your memory?"






"What!? I don't ever remember being in a storm at sea."
"You still don't understand... You will find out soon enough..."
"What do you mean? Can other peoples' memories become a part of my own?"


See, it's this exchange here that led me to believe that Kilika was the one who piloted the Invincible when Madain Sari was destroyed. Even though it's suggested that others' memories can become your own, it's what Garland says right here that's like, "Yeah no. You were there and you destroyed the village, accept it you shit"


"They were terrified and broke the jewel into 4 pieces... and they prayed never to see it again."




These are Kawelo's best--second-best, to the Duel Claws, maybe?--weapon. Unfortunately, they are also Wind-element.

At the top of the stairs, we get another scripted encounter.





I mean romanized words have a lot of room for interpretation, but wasn't there already an established continuity-name for Marilith at this point? Maybe not, I seem to recall FF1+2-PSX coming out in like '01 or '02.






I mean, theatrically, this is only appropriate, right?


Unlike Marilith, he doesn't get a 0HP final attack.

NEXT TIME



Oh and a present for you guys
actually have a whole bunch of fuckin' presents, i hate you guys