Part 9: Mac's Ship

We've unlocked all four crystals, so now it's time to set up the final dungeon.

Buckle up, because this is where most of the game's new content starts popping up.



Please, help us find a way to help Dad!
Let's speak of this later. There's someone here I think you would like to meet.



Reuben!
Long time, no see, Benjamin!
Reuben! Are you okay?
Yeah! And who is this young lady with you?



I'm Kaeli, from Foresta.
Nice to meet you. I'm Reuben from Fireburg.



What?





Benjamin's losing it.

Yeah, there's quite a few text boxes that have the wrong person speaking. You're going to get that in any game you pay money for.



But how?
Go to Spencer's tunnel. Set a bomb there which will destablize (sic) the land Captain Mac's ship is sitting on. That will make it fall into the lake!
But Spencer's tunnel has caved in.
If you power the Rainbow Road Machine with Thunder Rock, you can reach Spencer's Place! I'm sure the Mobius crest is there!
Dad will know about this!
I'm coming too. I've always wanted to see Fireburg.





Reuben's back now. No new moves or gear, though.



This is as meaningless a trip as in the original.





Time to get the Mobius Crest!



This unlocks the entrance from under Phoebe's house.





We could've gotten here as soon as we reached the tunnel, but even with Mega Grenades you can't blow up the rock until the plot asks you to. This also has the side effect of knocking Mac's Ship into the sea, letting us reach it now.



You warp to that section with the Libra Crest, and with the rock gone you can finally grab the Mobius Crest. This actually unlocks quite a bit of stuff.





For instance, there's a crest on top of the Giant Tree that leads to this small area in Alive Forest.





The reward is a simple accessory that boosts Wizard by 40.

As for the rest, well, it's better to wait until after Mac's Ship to show that off.





We use the Mobius Crest to reach the dock from some random house in Windia.



Mac's Ship has the exact same enemies as Pazuzu's Tower, excluding a couple early ones like Garudas and Beholders. Except now we're higher level and have a new body to lay on the damage, so encounters end up being uneventful.



So are the treasures, honestly. This was one of only two "special" chests, and this one is garbage.





The other one is at the very end of the dungeon, new armor. I give it to Benjamin and let Reuben take the Terra Armor.

Also I literally skipped showing the entire dungeon because there's literally nothing new to show. It's a less complex version of the same dungeon from the original. That said, there is something new here...



I was worried about you when we heard of the news. You look awful!
I'm OK, but I have some bad news...
The crystals? Because we have saved all of them now. The world is back to normal again!
You are the knight of the prophecy?! So the legend is indeed true after all!



You are the second one to call me that. I'm Benjamin, but I'm no knight from a prophecy.
Whether you except (sic) your fate or not, the fact that you are standing in front of me confronts the worst of my fears. It has long foretold...
Dad, tell us about the Prophecy later! Let's return to Windia and get those wounds of yours healed!





Oh yeah CAPTAIN FUCKING MAC JOINS THE PARTY.



Not that I get to use him in battle since I literally cleared out the entire god damn ship first, but his stats are terrible and his only magic is Heal and Life. You really don't need him since, again, the only monsters in this ship are ones that Benjamin and Kaeli took on by themselves ten levels ago. I honestly have no idea why Captain Mac is a party member here.



Spencer?
So, you've rescued Captain Mac.
Yes, and I thank him for that. However, there's very disturbing matters regarding the last peice (sic) of the prophecy I discovered.



Spoilers Phoebe joins for the final dungeon like in the original.

OK, Let's all head to Aquaria.
One more thing. Me and Tristam discovered something known as the Celestial Keys...
What are they?



Unfortunately we couldn't discover where the keys actually are, so finding them is all down to you. I can only assume that your best place to start looking for them is in the Kaidge Temple. Anyway, I'm going to return to my place and continue the treasure hunt with Tristam. Take care of my grandaughter for me, she's stubborn but not invincible.



The Celestial Keys are the big new addition for the remake. They add "ultimate" weapons and spells that require some rather tough and/or tricky fights to obtain. More on those after we recruit Phoebe.



Oh hey Kaeli, Kaeli and I got your and her dad back. Aren't you excited to see him?



To finish this part, we need to visit Phoebe.



Benjamin...and, no, is that really you, Uncle Mac? How?
All thanks to Benjamin, Kaeli and Reuben here.
Hi Phoebe!
We meet again, Phoebe!
Now that we are all here. I must now tell you all of the last peice (sic) of the prophecy. Something that dooms us all.
Please, tell us what you have learned.
The one behind the 4 is darker than the night, and rises midst the land...



But, won't you come with us?
No. The prophecy tells of only the four virtuous knights. Those knights are you four.



Now, please, you must not delay any further. Confront the Dark King in his castle, and hurry, before it is too late. I will stay here and watch over the towns.



I will follow you to the ends of the earth.
Let's end this once and for all.
I will provide you all support with my magic.
Well then, let's go!





And we have our final party for Doom Castle. Fuck Tristam.



Right. Before we tackle the final dungeon, let's do those Celestial Keys.





So you may remember this area as "the place where those locked doors were". With the Mobius Crest, we can now get the keys for these locks.





You're teleported to two halves of the Light Temple, with each half housing three more teleporters to old areas.



Each area has a simple block puzzle to solve before you can progress.



Ultimately you'll enter an old area and get a Celestial Key. The Key of Virtue lies in the Bone Dungeon.





The Key of Acceptance is that weird chest in the Ice Pyramid I couldn't find a way to. You know it's the Key of Acceptance because the block puzzle is the word "TAKE".





Alive Forest has the Key of Sorrow as well as three of each kind of refresher.



Key of Fear is in Focus Tower.



Key of Blessing in Pazuzu's Tower...



...and finally the Key of Anger in Lava Dome.





This first door is Sorrow.



You can do these as soon as you get the Mobius Crest, but there's a couple reasons to wait until you get Phoebe to do these. One, of course, is to have an extra able body to help with these fights.



Four of these are simply regular encounters against powerful enemies. Shadows are the next and presumably highest tier of the ninja enemy. Hastega, party-wide blind, and strong physicals. They're vulnerable to the likes of confusion and paralysis, though, so they're easy to take down.





Charge! seems a gimmicky command. I tried it and Benjamin ended up attacking the entire party despite being confused. Reuben attacked all enemies, which inflicted paralysis on one or two. Kaeli and Phoebe did a single-target attack.





This chest unlocks Ultima, what I have to assume is the most powerful spell in the game. Only Phoebe and Kaeli can learn this and the other ultimate spell. I chose Phoebe for this one since she has the better potential for Wizard stat growth once she catches up to Kaeli in levels.





It's pretty nice, but it's 200 FREAKING MP. Phoebe can almost cast it three times.



Anger Key unlocks this one. This is our first bonus boss.





So, uh...this is Yu Yevon. Yes, the final boss of Final Fantasy X is a bonus boss here.

...Sure...why not...







The gimmick is similar to that of the FFX version. The Pagodas do nothing but cast Curaja. Yu Yevon itself does nothing but cast Pyroja, which as a reminder absorbs each character's damage. The damage is enough that you'll want to be curing most turns to counter it.

That's literally it. My strat was Angel Bless to buff the party, have Reuben and Benjamin focus on the Pagodas, Phoebe spam Ultima, and Kaeli spam Curaja with the rare Giga Flare when she had an opportunity. It was a long fight, but not really too terrible overall, especially since Osmose recovered a ton of MP.

Also there's no music for this fight.





Each character has a Celestial weapon, or two in Reuben's case. They all have high attack of course, but also all inflict a variety of status effects, which...might trivialize things once I tackle Doom Castle proper.



Blessing unlocks this room. Don't know what the Dark Sages do, as the Celestial Stars and Dragon Claw nullify them quite easily.





Kaeli's ultimate weapon.



Virtue unlocks the second bonus boss.



This is Hades, a secret boss from FF9. He gets special music here, a poor-to-mediocre MIDI version of Hunter's Chance from FF9, the music that plays when you fight him in that game.





Doomsday is his most impressive attack, dealing huge damage and applying a large variety of debuffs.







He also has Mega-Flare, which hurts, and Fatal, which can actually land with his stats. I wiped the first run, then got lucky with weaker attacks like Pyroja and single-target Flare.



Luckily he doesn't have a lot of HP, so he goes down quickly enough.





The reward here is Benjamin's celestial weapon.



Acceptance unlocks this fight. Bombs just cast a weak Fira spell, not much else.





The last celestial weapon, this one for Phoebe.





Fear unlocks these guys. Grand Gorgons can use Mess Up (didn't really do much to my party, whatever it's supposed to do) and Mediggo Flame, which can hurt. They're also immune to status effects. Otherwise, not too terrible.





This is Meteor, the other ultimate spell, and the one last spell from the original that hasn't been represented yet. It's only 120MP, same as Giga-Flare/White. I give Kaeli this one.



Next time, maybe a couple loose ends, the final dungeon, and hopefully the end of the game!