Part 20: All the old paintings on the tombs They do the sand dance don't you know?
Part 20 All the old paintings on the tombs They do the sand dance don't you know?Four Hearts (Pixel Remaster)
Last time we left Boco to go into a cave.
Beyond the Deep Blue Sea (Pixel Remaster)
They mentioned some turtle so I've already cast float on everyone and made Faris a Kn-
This puddle looks familiar.
That location title looks familiar.
Alley-oop!
Oh! Thank you! I suppose you can be helpful after all.
I guess that explains why Koko warks like a North Surgatean. Doesn't explain how she got over to the Pirate Cave though.
What do you mean, "worlds merging"? I see you're just as slow on the uptake as before. It's an ancient legend, but I never imagined it was true... According to this legend, a thousand years ago, Seymour Butz's world and Krile's world were one and the same. The same!?
But... why did the worlds split? To seal the Void. The Void? I fear no matter how often I allude to your ignorance, my dry wit just goes over your head, so I will simply explain.Reminiscence
Oh dear, he's getting into the exposition nook, we're in this for the long haul.
One thousand years ago, there existed Enuo, a presence of the strongest evil. Enuo created the Void and possessed the power to control it. After a long and harrowing battle, the people were able to defeat Enuo using the twelve legendary weapons. However, the Void could not be erased.
The Void was sealed within the space between the two worlds- a place called the "Interdimensinal Rift." That means Exdeath was telling the truth... He really did want to return the world to how it used to be... However, without the crystals... The wind's power will never return... Nor will that of earth, fire or water.
Ghido's done in the exposition nook, so Krile walks over to the contrived coincidence corner.
Ouch! Ooh, this splinter really hurts...The Evil Lord Exdeath (Original)
The 4 foot long splinter makes its way to the exposition nook...
Note that there's nothing special about Ghido's Cave and the moment was simply "funniest time I could think of."
Now you can understand my true goal- to take the sealed power of the Void for my own! What!? Why do you think I merged the worlds together? Mwa-hahahahahaha!
The screen begins to shake
Hope you got those cottages from that little tower on that side of Tycoon...
Actually maybe all of the swag.
Wait, slow down! Are you saying that this Void- whatever that is- is coming here? Yes... The Void shall be released from its thousand-year prison into my keeping! The matchless power of the Void will be mine! Not a chance, Exdeath!
*zap*
Seymour tries again with similar results.
This time he gets pushed back further and Ghido gets knocked into the pond.
Castle Tycoon... Lenna!
Lenna runs back inside as the fires rage stronger.
Behold! Isn't it beautiful? Gaze upon the unlimited power of the Void! Watch as it engulfs all in its path! Soon it will belong to me! Lenna... Exdeath, you-
Seymour keeps Faris from flying further or falling down.
They finally remember that they work best as a team and come at Exdeath united.
Still not good enough though. They barely beat him as 4.
In the GBA he talks about viscera seeing the light of day again. I'm glad they varied it up a bit since that's a terrible catchphrase.
Fun fact. Ghido paints his shell.
It's actually blue and Exdeath is in first place right now.
A considerably better catchphrase.
...Not bad, for a reptile! You think I sat around seven centuries munching on pizza? Ha ha ha... Perhaps you should have taken the chance...
Exdeath charges for a big attack.
Exdeath made a huge mistake here. Not even just "why didn't you kill them?" Just "why didn't you just leave them blocked in the greater Tule region?
Silence
Ghido! You okay!? Exdeath, that cur... He must be stopped before he obtains the full power of the Void, or- Hmm? By Jove, what's that!? Just the Library of the Ancients... THE Library of the Ancients? My Dear boy, have you any idea what an important place that is!?
Rude Ghido, Seymour knows that knowledge is power, and that knowing how to divide by 5 is a very powerful weapon indeed.
Library of the Ancients (Original)
You're not from Surgate, they wear blue, unless you wierdos decided to switch clothes.
We've found the second half of the Sealed Tome! Perfect!
No one ever noticed the "conference room desk" button by the stairs apparently.
The Four Dawn Warriors (Original)
As you have probably noticed, the two worlds have recombined into one. Furthermore, the Void is trying to break free from where it has been sealed within the Rift! Then we'd better hurry there and stop it!
While most of the lines changed between here and the GBA are for the better, this is an unfortunate casualty. Ghido here would say "Seymour Butz, Seymour Butz, Seymour Butz, so enthusiastic but so stupid."
Along with the Void, many fearsome monsters were also sealed in the Rift a millenium ago. They are all unimaginably evil, and incredibly strong. I feel safe in saying that as you are now, you kids wouldn't stand a chance. Then what do we do? Elementary, my dear Seymour Butz! We use the legendary weapons that helped defeat Enuo a thousand years ago! Legendary weapons? Sometimes I wonder if you say things like this to spite me...
They kept this line though.
Now that we have both halves of the Sealed Tome, if all goes according to legend- and I'm certain it will- the book will show us the way.
Fusion Dance time.
Sealed Book (Original)
It is written, "When Nothing's power again does peak, To warriors of light this book shall speak."
"Following Enuo's defeat, the weapons of legend were sealed within Castle Kuza. To break the seals, the four tablets must be assembled.
"One rests within an island shrine, kissed by wind... One rests beneath the ocean's floor, engulfed by flames... One rests beyond the river's torrents, protected by water...
"If the tablets are moved, our servants will awaken... The ultimate spells of white and black... The magic of time and space, Meteor... The ruler of the seas, Leviathan...
"Present this book before each gate and the way to the seals will be opened..."The Four Dawn Warriors (Original)
Go- unseal the twelve legendary weapons before Exdeath gains the power of the Void! We are all counting on you! The first tablet... Blessed by the soil and the spirits of the past...
Faris, Krile... and even you, Seymour Butz, you must go at once! The future of the world depends on it! Please, stop Exdeath from gaining the powers of the void!Library of the Ancients (Original)
No thank you.
All this fighting is just beating a dead horse...
Killjoy. But you do have a point, I guess. We do need to deal with the more urgent sapient and salient threat before we turn towards the gradual existential one.
So, Exdeath's true form is that of a tree, and he transformed himself into a splinter? Fascinating... Evil, yes, but-ahem.
No, you're thinking of bells of awakening.
Once the worlds became one, the Sealed Tome became whole as well. Professor Cid and Mid went to Crescent Island some time ago, but have yet to return. According to the texts, foul beasts were sealed within the Rift along with the forests and caves they were living in! Hmm... If the two worlds have overlapped, then the sealed castle of Kuza should be located east of Tule. It says here that a town got trapped between the dimensions... A thousand years ago they sold fantastic weapons and magic. Say, now that the Interdimensional Rift has reappeared, I bet that town has come back as well! When the crystals were split into two, the world was divided as well... They certainly had to go to extreme measures to seal the Void! I wonder... Will the world be ingulfed in darkness? If so, how shall we read?
Sadly Ghido doesn't ask if we want him to or not.
*repeats book verbatim* With the power of the twelve legendary weapons, you should be able to destroy Exdeath for good! Hackneyed as it may sound, you must go and save the world! So, on the map, this point is the Library of the Ancients... And when you lay one world over the other like this... I see... Fascinating... It will take time for Exdeath to gain full control over the Void.
Wonder what that's supposed to mean... When we were burning this book, this song came out of it...
Get this before you leave
The Magic stat boosting equivalent to Sinewy Etude and Speed Song.
The Land Unknown (Pixel Remaster) (This is our new overworld theme, its fitting for our new anxious "things are getting worse and we have to work hard to stop it" situation).
Surgate is nearby so may as well check in on them.
The two worlds have become one? Unbelievable! All the scholars went to the building that appeared in the south.
Previously I said Triffids and Hedgehogs were needed in the last world, but they show up here too. There's just not much reason to wander around and find them.
The land route between the library and Karnak remains as well.
The queen isn't doing so great... I hope she gets better soon. Sure seems like it's gotten colder lately...
I hear they discovered something over at the Library of the Ancients.
The topic of the day at the bar is dwarves.
Dwarves definitely exist. Definitely!
When I was young, I heard stories about dwarves... They live deep within the earth and are incredible weaponsmiths! They also have beards, use axes, and they're just so darned cute!Just a minor tangent here. The GBA release had to endure incredibly small text boxes, many times (especially FFVI GBA) meant many text boxes filled completely with dialog and frequently ending with the last box needed for just one
word.
This old man I think is the only one that suffers from this in this game. "cute!" was its own text box before transcribing.
While he asks you to do this there's no benefit or response saying how well you've done. I guess just in case you didn't know you could interact with them before now.
It really feels like the world will never be the same again...
Elm Gigas are the final form of the Gigas line, so another chance to get Aeroga if you haven't.
West of the library is a little forest, the valley walls prevent us from walking past it.
Older versions let you skip this scene by walking along the bottom of the screen to skip the event trigger. Here it runs down the whole height of the screen.
The Guardian Tree... The forest is beginning to come back to life... Grandpa... Why can't Grandpa come back to life? Lenna... Papa... So many lives have been lost... We must stop Exdeath. The people of this world need us... No, not only the people, but all life... Aye... too many sacrifices have been made already... I won't stand by while more lives are lost!
A little while later we step foot on the Desert of Shifting Sands. No version of the game allows you to escape this.
The sand currents have stopped! I guess now that both the earth crystals have shattered, there's not enough power for it to move. The land itself has grown weaker...
So we can walk right up to the pyramid now... or we can continue to stall.
Nothing particularly interesting about these guys.
People say it's haunted! Ooh... scary!
Did you hear? The forest is growing back, starting from the Guardian Tree! I'm so glad! So Ghido is all right? Thank goodnes. I went to the desert the other day out of curiosity, and saw this strange building... I wonder what it is.
Something big is happening to the world, that's for certain! Exdeath has returned... After thirty years of peace, the nightmare begins again...
Nah, just smaller.
The shed that's been unlocked just leads to a hidden path through the woods. What I usually so if I can't find the way through is to start doing counterclockwise circles until I reach a new wall. So run left, then up then right until I hit a new path.
Finally...
Once we step on this tile we get a peek at what we've found.
What have we here? Getting this far means you must be very brave... or else just very lucky. I'll let you decide which it is. If you think you're brave, take what's in the crate on the left.
I guess the update has gone long enough, so let's put this to a vote. BOLD your choice and-
Nah, I believe in one man one vote. But in this case I'm the one man and its my vote.
Okay then...
So if you walk up and right back down again...
Blah blah blah Doth Thou Seeketh The Power?
Yes
I... have... THE POWER
...So, what the hell just happened you may be asking?
Well first I'll explain the non-choice that was presented. The two boxes contain gimmick weapons. The left box contains the Brave Blade. It has 150 attack power, the biggest number in the game. It is however a knight sword. While it has 150 power it drops one point for every escape. Total escapes, not escapes starting now. So if you don't know this is here and you aren't fighting every battle you get, you get a weapon usable by two jobs and it's probably at BEST as good as the third best sword unless you're particularly
and never run.The chicken knife... its power grows as you escape. 1 point per every 2 escapes, including !Scram, !Smoke Bomb and Teleport. It reaches a max attack value of 127. Even with me running frequently it still wasn't enough to maximize it. It also has a nice agility buff.
But wait, there's more! Throughout the game the knife attack formula has been bugged. It has never been fixed in any official release because the actual calculation is broken to hell and back. The chicken knife uses this calculation. The knife formula was meant to factor agility into the attack. So if you run enough, you get a weapon only a few points weaker than the best the Brave Blade can be, but with math behind the scenes that will push it way past it with the right job holding it.
There is one trade off for this power (well two, don't use Goblin Punch with it since it runs off the 0 attack value... this does however give a Brave Blade user a chance to do something if they've run.), it has a chance to trigger !Scram on !Attack (and in this version !Mug sadly, other versions !Aim and !Mineuchi also could force the escape). There are ways to mitigate this, but even if you stick with regular !Attacks you'll still come out ahead on a boss fight damage wise.
So... the other thing, the thing that is Pixel Remaster exclusive. I don't fully understand the scripting involved because if it was glitched the way I understand you should be able to get infinite knives, but it is only limited to 2. But you approach the old man, listen to his spiel, quick save and reload. After reloading the event trigger to reveal the clearing and let the old man talk are reset. However the boxes are still there under the tree sprite layer. Taking a box triggers the old man to leave. Stepping off and walking back onto the tile triggers the talk again and restocks the boxes.
But enough about this, I'm not going to use the chicken knives quite yet because the next dungeon has an easier to exploit gimmick. Seymour and Krile are going to be Bards. Faris has already mastered Bard so instead will be a Summoner with !Sing.
Intention of the Earth (Pixel Remaster)
In hindsight I should have waited to make this team adjustment until after this.
The Fierce Battle (Pixel Remaster)
So the Gargoyle fights have a gimmick that its sort of strange the scholar that mentioned them didn't bring up.
You need to kill them together, or at least within one turn of each other. So either multitarget attacks or careful managing and counting of individual strikes is needed. If you leave one alive with the other the dead one revives at full health.
They provide good ABP at least.
Intention of the Earth (Pixel Remaster)
Blessed by the soil And the spritis of the past, One tablet rests...
We could have reached the pyramid after fighting the sandworm and bouncing around in the currents, but the Gargoyles would have been inert and the door still sealed.
The pyramid is a pretty big dungeon if you want to get everything. If you go straight from beginning to end it is a pretty short one.
The encounter rate is pretty high.
But so is the damage from Requiem.
Most fights here are against undead. If they're lucky they will survive to throw one punch before being inflicted with easy listening of the 70s,80s, 90s and today.
The stairs back and to the left is the path to progress, the path to treasure is along this trapped hallway.
Pressing the outer buttons creates a winding path through the spikes to navigate safely. Pressing the middle button screws it up, but the buttons toggle so no need to reset the room or anything to solve it.
The sand streams that cover the hallway are "traps." Float or Geomancers don't stop them and most of them lead to treasure so they aren't really traps are they?
Most chests are monster-in-a-boxes here.
If all of The Damned get a turn and decide to attack one person they might do enough to kill a squishy mage not at full health, that's not an issue right now, Can't hold it back anymore. Let it go, let it go
...its Bard town.
The Ice Shield is like the Flame Shield we skipped in Moore Forest but without the need to weigh which shield to get...
I'm now wondering if its possible to quicksave that sequence and get 2 aegis shields now... I don't think I have a save near that to verify sadly. Oh well Fiesta season is a few months away.
That little hatch in the wall should have opened up but it didn't. It would just spawn some undead snakes that die to Requiem.
Like these guys here, but this one opened on the tile Seymour just stepped on as expected.
Photographed for posterity sake. This guy got lucky and paralyzed Seymour before I sang to him about the cake being left out in the rain.
You don't understand. It took so long to bake it and I'll never have that recipe again.
This sarcophagus in the wall is our goal.
Someone doesn't like waking up.
We haven't met any mummies yet so there's no frame of reference for how Grand this guy is.
"Grand" apparently means it takes 3 verses of how the Hedgehog Can Never Be Buggered At All to kill him.
If you aren't going for completion sake the cursed ring is not worth the detour to get it. Even the Ice Shield might not be worth the walk.
This is the accessory equivalent to the Bone Mail. Its got insane defense for an accessory but at the expense of starting the battle with a Doom counter. And Doom doesn't care about Bone Mail, it doesn't cast death, it sets dead so there's no unkillable Bone mail strat in play here.
Say hello to one of the few "living" things here.
If I equipped Faris with the Thunder Rod a boosted Ramuh would guarantee killing them, here its a dice roll on if they survive with a magic pixel of health or not.
If you choose to navigate your way without Teleport the button here stops the sand flow and allows you to walk over it.
I accidentally stepped on a spike.
Its not Mega Man instant death or anything, it doesn't even do damage directly. It's just a North Mountain flower in spike form.
Just demonstrating that Requiem doesn't suffer from split damage calculations. Just one "Mmmmmmmbop!" is enough to kill them both.
Immediately upstairs we are trapped again.
Just a pair of locked doors and some snakes.
The solution again is the outer 2 buttons.
The middle button doesn't screw up the puzzle this time, it just opens up the door back.
More monster chests.
If you didn't farm Prototypes for Dark Matter you will get plenty here.
Hey, a new enemy.
Fourth Verse, same as the first and second and third.
Hello, endgame armor.
Not the best necessarily but its good. The main draw is the extra magic boost.
Hey, young snake. There's no need to feel down.
I SAID YOUNG SNAKE! Stop slithering around.
I SAID YOUNG SNAKE! Cause this running makes me feel like a clown.
There's no need to be unhappy
The path upstairs is definitely stable and not a trap.
The obvious spike holes should have told you.
The next room has more unundead around so time to set up a more robust offense.
These little guys usually seem to have a lazy homing to them.
Under normal circumstances they seem to actively get in the way.
The Grand Mummy had an ominous blue filter and actually stepped out of their cubby to fight. This guy just stands there and requires you to walk up and engage combat.
So a Grand Mummy can survive 2 Requiems and dies on the third.
Regular Mummies survive 1 and die on the second.
They guarded a Thornlet. This gimmick helmet has high defense but constant HP leak, what with the blood running down your face constantly.
In the original SNES release that -5 magic penalty was a bonus, as there are jobs with big enough magic penalties that an extra 5 points knocked off would underflow back to Yes Magic.
The theme of today is chasing after enemies that should be throwing themselves in Seymour's way to be destroyed.
I'm not joking.
These jerks refuse to do their job.
I'm actively walking towards them and they get out of my way
It keeps happening
N.O.E.S.C.A.P.E
The Mecha Head is a weaker Prototype.
They can be stopped.
And they aren't heavy.
Thundaga Blade does them in.
The only thing of interest for Mecha Heads is that they have a counter to Dragoon's !Jump. They have a surface to air missile that swats them from the sky. Doesn't do damage, just negates the attack.
That button pressed down there is on a timer, but the timer is very generous to walk up and take this prize.
More undead, more good gear.
Better Magic boost.
The planets have aligned and a snake has willingly chosen to die again. Remember snake, When you're gone you're gone forever. You string alone. you string along.
These guys saw what I did to that snake and again run the hell away. They don't want any Culture in their Club.
So ends the strange robot room of Omeghotep I.
Another squad of mummies. I think if they are left alone or in a deeper step of their cycle they can do real damage but that's not happening on my watch.
RIP to the last of the mummies, their guilty feet have got no rhythm.
Not like I used much MP getting here, but I used up the tents in Exdeath's castle.
This floor is where more interesting fights occur. To the left is treasure. Up and around is progress.
More snake traps.
And the last one.
The left chest has the regular undead trap. You know in some way you're a lot like me you're just a prisoner and you're tryin' to break free
The right chest has art.
I need to buy healing items someday.
Wandering around the dungeon on this floor is Sekmet.
He can be confused to great effect. If he is killed under normal means he will tell us about his brother who is real and strong and his friend.
I think I took this screenshot because I was taunting the game, I was absolutely stunned that the Worst fight in the pyramid did not show up yet.
Several sand traps in this room, but the first 2 are holes you want to fall into. But first..
You get 2 buttons to push in this side room, the left pushes the wall back to access treasure, the right pushes you back into the hole and then into another hole.
Monsters on this half of the room.
Cash on this one.
Steel Fists are in this box.
Their damage range is high.
They can inflict old with their special attack.
Eventually it punches itself to death in the biggest non !Release damage we've seen.
This is the physical equivalent to the robes we've got. Good stat boosts for melee based jobs.
We get a peek at the paths back to the main hallway.
Now to get that other chest.
Gee thanks, you shouldn't have. Its really a pity that they don't sell like fangs.
Finally, my comeuppance!
This is the worst fight in the pyramid. Not because its necessarally hard just slow.
Their gimmick is broken by confusion.
Thankfully they don't have much health.
Now the seal is unlocked, Zephyrus will continue to hassle me for the rest of the dungeon.
When allowed to follow their script they summon an enemy. They will then proceed to buff that enemy. If you kill it then she'll summon another.
The worst thing about this fight is that it has one of the worst rates of escape of any enemy. You don't want to engage in the summoner? Don't have !Scram (or the chicken knife, which is the best reason why to grab it before the pyramid) or Teleport? Then hold the run buttons for a minute or longer.
There's a floor between this and the previous one, but it's basically just to lead to this one for now.
Every few seconds the floor cycles between these 2 patterns. We get another Gold Hairpin for magic spam. You might be wondering if we ever will use enough MP to justify this in the face of stronger hats.
Oh yes, yes we will.
The stairs next to the Gold Hairpin lead to cash and this. This side is a dead end as you might notice the stairs on this side is just a sheer ramp.
Please leave me alone.
The protect ring gives good defense boosts and regen. It's a pity that it shows up here because we're fast approaching the moment where even the almighty Elf Cape is thrown away.
If you stand around too long you'll fall downstairs.
Into treasure.
There's 2 chests over here.
And also more karma for taunting the robots and snakes to fight.
If Titan wasn't kind enough to give this so long ago we can get one here after murdering more of The Damned.
A second ribbon.
And the chest behind is of course another pile of enemies and Dark Matter.
All that remains here is weaving up the stairs to the end now.
The dungeon is so dense with fights that Bard can be mastered easilly. Seymour died once and had the detours into Mystic Knight so he's a little behind.
That last fight also had the Lamia Queen drop the Lamia's Tiara. Regular Ronkan Lamia's could have this as their rare steal but was unable to get it there. You can see in the description that it enhances sword dance. There are better means to do this, especially when its such a weak hat when compared to normal hats, let alone the ribbon.
But we don't need that right anyway. With !Sing mastered and the dungeon done we don't need Krile in that job any more. She needs to delete the next boss.
The screen is shaking, unfortunately Seymour hasn't seen Indiana Jones so didn't know to bring a weight to disarm the trap.
Sealed Book (Original)
Actually its a reward, a free exit from the dungeon.
Uh-oh- here it comes!
He can stay there for all you really care, but he's a big dragon so we need to punch it out eventually.
We've got our airship back, all we need to do is walk back through Moore Forest to get it.
...And wait til the next update.