Part 4: I'm blue daba dee da ba di
Part 4 I'm blue daba dee da ba diThe Real Final Fantasy V Starts HereTM
Four Hearts (Pixel Remaster)
The route to the Wind Shrine is heading west from Tule.
Along the way we see this forest with some standing stones. We can't see the northwest edge of this forest, but something seems off, my sense of symmetry is offended.
Further west of Tule is the canal.
We can't proceed through now.
North of the canal is the Wind Shrine, hundreds of pictures and thousands of words to get here.
Sealed Away (Pixel Remaster)
As we enter we see some guys in the left room, they recognize Lenna at least.
What's happened? Is everything alright?
The wind suddenly stopped, and now monsters have overrun the shrine!
The king went up to the top floor... He has yet to return.
Something must have happened to him...
Faris... You're right! Come on!When those monsters overran the shrine, we fled to this room and haven't been able to leave...The Chancellor is lying, this whole floor has no random encounters. I think his Vizier is showing and he's plotting a coup.
King Tycoon went up to the top floor to check on the crystal... but that was some time ago... The crystal upstairs is controlled by a machine that amplifies its power. The crystal amplification machine suddenly stopped responding... Princess, please take these with you.
Please... be careful. Drink the water to restore your energy.
On the second floor we start getting into fights, I mean flights. I'm about to start throwing hands, but not against this guy.
Here is our first save point, for reference, tents revive and heal 1000HP and 100MP, while a cottage is a full cure.
I think I took this fight, just because Black Goblins have a chance to drop Leather Shoes, an accessory that boosts defense. Right now the accessory slot is empty so the defense can't hurt.
This is the third floor of five. Pictured here is a shortcut. If this isn't taken you'd have to go all the way up, around the back and circle back here anyway. The door on the right leads to an empty room, the one one step away has treasure. FYI there is another chest on this screen in the lower right corner, but you reach that from a second set of stairs on the second floor.
With this Galuf gets a weapon and everyone is equipped. Lenna has a measly knife, but its good enough for now.
I definitely take this fight, the Moldwynd is an important but dangerous enemy. Right now I can't make full use of one, but for now they're an easy source of Elixirs, their rare drop. Rare drops in this game are a 1/16 chance, which can translate into "2 rare drops in 2 fights" or "5 hours for 4."
We step up to the bird, since the only other bird sprite we've met is a friend, so this has to be one too.
The Fierce Battle (Pixel Remaster)
This is the first track where I'm upset that Square is being dicks about the music, the Remaster includes some strings and a trumpet to really make it pop.
What follows is a demonstration of how not to fight the obligatory Introductory Enemy Might Have Fancy Combat Scripts boss fight.
Step 1, turn on auto battle when everyone is at low level (Even if you have the "continue auto battle" option selected, the game turns it off for boss fights). The fight is balanced so that Wing Raptor has about 9 attacks worth of HP unless you've grinded. He'll switch to his defensive stance around your 8th attack, meaning you have to interact with his gimmick.
His gimmick is using !Guard, which negates all physical damage to 0.
You get a battle message warning saying you fricked it, and then the claws come out.
Requiem (Original)
welp
The main reason for this demonstration wasn't about how to choke on the tutorial boss, but to show how kind autosave is. Every screen transition is an autosave, meaning I'm right outside the Broad Sword treasure room.
The Fierce Battle (Pixel Remaster)
Now let's deal with him seriously. Breath Wing is a full party attack, its wind elemental as you might guess from the attack animation and the name.
The damage doesn't look that bad; its about half of his Claw counter. But its hiding something insidious. It deals 25% of each characters max HP, rounded down.
Wing Raptor does goes through the defensive phase again. Now if you're playing at home, be aware that as soon as he drops his guard he does still attack that turn, so if you've decided that hearing from me that he doesn't have enough health to survive the next attack to forgo healing while his tail is up, he might snipe you with a breath wing and take you down before you can do the same to him.
Victory Fanfare (Original)
One last thing: bosses don't give exp, so if you were so inclined, you can beat the game at very low levels.
This is the last enemy in the dungeon. There's nothing of interest so they too get fled from.
I see you out there, I know you're typing. So are several other goons. This is a hidden passage, but once you step into the hidden part the whole path appears in the Pixel Remaster. Previous versions of the game would make you fumble blindly in the darkness if you didn't have a thief.
Up the last flight of stairs and we reach the Crystal chamber.
The Prelude (Pixel Remaster)
It's shattered! What the-The camera pans to the west.
The fire crystal is surrounded by a smoldering flame, then a burst of fire erupts from the tip.
Faris takes a hadoken from half the world away.
Now we pan to the east.
The crystal is bubbling, and then releases a blast of water.
This one is aimed at Lenna.
Finally, to the south west.
We see the earth crystal in a fancier larger chamber and it too blows chunks
For Galuf.
Finally the minty fresh dying essence of the wind crystal comes to Seymour Butz.
What's happening?
Feel's warm... Are these the crystals'... essences?
Le...nna...
Father!
Listen, and listen well. You are the chosen four, the warriors of light... bearers of the four crystal essences.
The wind crystal has already shattered. The other three crystals are in danger as well. You four must protect them! An evil presence is awakening... One that wishes to return everything to darkness...
Go forth, warriors of light, and save the crystals... Wait! No, Father!!!
While this might be a place where I'd put in a gif, there wouldn't be much to it. The crystals yeet immediately from the far edges of the room to surrounding the party.
What are these? Guess they're pieces of the crystal...
Knight... Monk... Blue Mage... Thief... Black Mage... White Mage...
The crystal... It's lending us its power... I think it's time we got out of here. Lenna...
The panel would take us out, but it would also bring Boko to ask if I wanted a tutorial. I could just say no and go back to the overworld, but there are important things to do and can show how to deal with jobs along the way.
Step 1 - select Job from the menu
Step 2 - pick your job
Step 3 - pick what you want to be in your open ability slot
Step 4 - fiddle with equipment.
I'll explain each job in more detail in a side update, for now everyone being Blue Mages because they have work to do.
Sealed Away (Pixel Remaster)
Blue Mages don't get their abilities from shops like white or black mages, they get theirs from getting hit by it. For example, Goblins have Goblin Punch, getting punched by Goblin Punch by a Goblin teaches you Goblin Punch once you beat the fight.
Moldwynds after a few turns may cast Aero. Aero is painful. It's death at these levels.
I prop Faris back up, not because the target needs to be alive at the end of the fight, just because I want everyone alive. Then I start throwing hands.
Goblin Punch is effectively the Attack Command in spell form. Being a spell it can be used to full effect in the back row, and for 0MP to boot. It also does bonus damage if the target is the same level as the caster.
And now Aero is ours.
The other reason to stay in the Wind Shrine is the 43rd Tycoon Expeditionary Nerd Force has updated their dialog.
Sir, while I doubt that would work, I would think that praying at the top floor, or maybe outside would be more useful. I doubt that Wind Shrine Conference Room A has any particular benefit to prayer.
Wait a second... how did these scholars get here? Did they commandeer a row boat?
Princess Lenna... The Wind is becoming weaker and weaker...Which means that you've been outside, you've braved the encounterless lobby to go stick your finger in the air and managed to come back in and lived to tell the tale. Bravo Jaffar.
Even here, the wind grows ever weaker... If it were to stop completely, then what?You are the worst scholar ever. By the end of this update Lenna will tell us.
Perhaps the amplification machine overloaded the crystal, and that's why it cracked.You, you need to keep away from that guy on the other side of the room. The stupid might be infectious.
The crystals in Walse and Karnak are hooked up to the same type of amplification machines...We saw this when they were spewing us with their essences. No mention of the Earth Crystal here though but it definitely had the same type of dais rig.
If the other three crystals were to shatter as well, then... Oh dear...Well that was about equal parts concerning and incompetent. There's nothing left to do in the Wind Shrine, we need to go back to Tule, we walked by the house of the guy who built the canal, maybe he can get us through so we can deal with our next lead (Walse has the water crystal supercharged too and its accessible through the canal since there's trade ships between here and there).
Tenderness in the Air (Pixel Remaster)
Zok! It is good to see you.
You too. It's been a long time. Zok... I have a favor to ask. We need to pass through the Torna Canal so we can reach Walse.
Moreover... I-I seem to have lost the key to the canal somewhere... I'm sorry I can't help you with the key. Still since you've come all this way, won't you at least stay the night?A free night stay? This means only one thing... we're on the right path for plot progression!
*Nods* Wonderful! I'll show you to your room.Galuf, Lenna and Seymour Butz go to sleep, but Seymour wakes up in the middle of the night and wanders out.
Ambient Night Sounds
My Home, Sweet Home (Pixel Remaster)
Seymour Butz is the little kid in bed, for some reason they don't give his mom and dad name plates despite the fact the Pixel Remaster deemed his mom important enough to have a special palette for the woman sprite (baby Butz also has one too, originally he had the default teal colored hair for the kid sprite). His dad is Dorgan and his mom is Stella.
Listen, Stella... If anything should happen to me, never tell Seymour Butz about the crystals... They shouldn't be his burden to bear.
Oh, darling, please don't say things like that...
We cut back to Zok looming over Lenna. He walks out to Seymour Butz.
I thought that was normally a good thing, not something to be worrie- oh, his name, yeah.
Nothing... I just was reminded of my folks... They died a while back,though... ...Here. Take it. Huh? Take what? The key to the canal. With it, you can open the gate and travel to Walse.
Please! Take care of her!The three meet back up in the morning.
Tenderness in the Air (Pixel Remaster)
And like last time Faris comes back out when we try to leave.
Pirates Ahoy!
Sorry, lads. I'm leaving you laggards behind.
Cap'n! But why!? You know we'd follow ye to the ends o' the earth!
Cap'n!!!
We gotta help Seymour Butz while you watch the booty.
But, Cap'n!
Aye aye, sir! Wind at your back, Cap'n. Godspeed!And so the pirate crew swim back to their hideout I guess. It's time for more plot so they'll have plenty of time to get there before we set sail.
The wind crystal has shattered... Right now, the wind has only slowed... but soon it will stop blowing completely.
Father said that we have to protect the three remaining crystals. ...Three crystals?I'll give this one a pass since as far as Seymour is concerned, there's only 2 other crystals in the hands of humans right now.
Yes, the crystals of fire, water, and earth.
But it wouldn't be very long before the earth began to decay...
Guys! We've gotta protect the crystals! Huh? Did something trigger any of your memories?
Just like before when Galuf's first idea was "steal from a pirate," Galuf's plans are straight forward and only mostly completely reckless.
Well said, old man. I'm coming along too. Besides, we still have to find Lenna's father.
He still lives, I feel it in my bones! Never for a moment believe otherwise! Seymour Butz... Will you come with us?So right now Lenna knows things will get a lot worse if the crystals break. Galuf half remembers his wish to protect the crystals (and even if he didn't Lenna's description of the future would probably be enough to convince him), and Faris just wants to find out about why Lenna has the same jewelry. While Seymour...
But things changed... The crystal shard, it... We were given power to protect the world... The power of the wind crystal...
We've got some crystals to save! Sure enough! Let's be off!So while we do have a goal in mind in going through the canal, we did sort of leave our boon companion Boko out in the middle of nowhere.
Don't tell me he tried to go after us...Well there was two other reasons besides checking up on Boko, the first is throwing down with bats.
Anyone whose played FFIV might be twitching in rage right now.
Anyone whose played FFV Advance will be disappointed. Vampire is a Blue Magic, as you can see, but it's less potent than in that release, where it was bugged. In this game (and all other releases) Vampire did damage equal to your lost HP and heals half of that. In Advance it was a full heal, just like the Ings LifeShaver in FFVI.
The second reason is to loot the booty Faris sent the pirates home to guard.
We put that kwehin' bird to bed, an' be attendin' to its wounds. Cap'n! Take these with ye!
Pirates are 60% better than scholars.
Safe journey! Never ye fear. We'll protect the hideout!Even if they're better than scholars in charity they're still terrible at their jobs.
Never ye fear. We'll protect the hideout! We dound some strange bird lyin' in the cave. Wonder how it'd taste...
Hrmmmmm Cap'n.
Damn he's really feeling bad if he's making that horrible sound.
Oh! He's been hurt!Lenna's primary characterization is "loves animals" though all we've heard is "FATHER!" from her, that quickly falls away. There's one other driving motivation of Lenna too, we'll get to that shortly.
I didn't do gifs of either of these guys, but both this guy and Zok just randomly decide they need to jump.
Please, if you can help him...
Boko... Get better soon, buddy!
He just needs some rest, then he'll be right as rain! Ugh... I'm a pirate, but I still get seasick. Arr! We be pirates, an' we do as we please!Like getting seasick.
Those quakes must've opened up a path to our cove from outside. We'll hold down the fort while the captain's away! Cap'n... I...I l-l-love... ye...To end on a high note, let's go back to their barracks before we wrap up.
Now in previous versions of the game, things were very very slightly different:
That wall? Completely barren.
Now its got a little world map tacked onto it, a nice touch for them. Even if it'd be better for them to have a more precise chart of the lake seas of Tule and Walse.
Join me next time when we have an update that is probably only 40% or less plot by volume!