Part 21: Oh my God, it's Sabotage, I'm Tellin Y'all it's a Mirage
Part 21 Oh my God, it's Sabotage, I'm Tellin Y'all it's a MirageThe 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).
So we're going back to see if somehow Ghido will possibly give Seymour some praise for once in his life. This means entering the single tile wide overworld map valley into the single tile map clearing in the undergrowth. Certainly nothing will be triggered.
...Dammit.
Listen... It's a wind drake!
Well at least we know why Lenna ran back into the castle.
It's Lenna!
Lenna! Are you okay? Come on, wake up, say something!
... ... ...
What the-
The Evil Lord Exdeath (Original)
Exdeath!!!
Mwa-ha-ha! All that was once sealed inside the Rift is now mine to command! Lenna... Mwa-hahahaha! Face destruction at your friend's hands! Ex...death! Mwa-ha-ha...
So bad news...
Seymour's not getting any kind words from Ghido any time soon.
On the plus side, Exdeath managed to miss 99.9% of the turtles in the world for us to harvest for their shells.
I'm not counting the "ha"s and transcribing this time. Also I can't help but remember Discworld and how the use of extra exclamation points to an unhinged mind. Yes I am including Seymour and Galuf in this.
Le...Lenna... Stop...
The Fierce Battle (Pixel Remaster)
Melusine's gimmick beyond strategic ribbon placement is a Barrier Change gimmick.
She always starts weak to fire.
Very weak to fire.
She can also be confused which will prevent her from switching weakness.
Not that it matters, it takes several turns for her to flip it even if you go into a fair fight.
Physical Defense is also part of her barrier gimmick (There are technically 5 different Melusine enemies that will switch in and out
Just showing the difference between someone casting Fira without a boost compared to Firaga with a rod boost. It's insane.
And now Seymour mastered Bard.
Seymour Butz... I...
Add Faris to the unhinged list.
Sarisa... Krile... The castle... We were... the darkness... it- We know. Don't try to speak.
Previous versions had Lenna join knocked out, here she's revived. On one hand "my immersion!" on the other "thanks for saving me going and casting raise and a cura or two."
May as well take a look at Surgate, being closest to ground zero.
Please, stop Exdeath from gaining the powers of the Void!
No thank you, Seymour is plenty literate.
Hmm... If the two worlds have overlapped, then the sealed castle of Kuza should be located east of Tule.
If Exdeath figures out how to control the Void, the world is doomed. What in the world is that giant mass of black stuff? Creeps me out! It's all over... It's the end of the world... We're all done for! I can't believe the Library of the Ancients disappeared, just like that... Luckilly, most of the scholars were able to get to the castle, and just in time too!
It took a weapon of mass destruction to finally make these two guards say something other than demesne.
The Land Unknown (Pixel Remaster)
I should have checked Karnak for any dialog changes but instead went straight back to the airship.
FYI the Rift (or as I name dropped before the PSX N-Zone) is specifically in Tycoon, despite the Void pocket also being nearby.
We have to hurry! It won't be much longer before Exdeath gains the full power of the Void!
Ghido was full of it, we can take him right now.
You guys can't even USE twelve weapons. You could at best use eight of them.
The Evil Lord Exdeath (Original)
Power of the Void, heed my call! Reveal your true form!
The true form isn't any different.
Go forth and destroy everything! Show how absolute your power realy is!
There goes Walse and Walse castle.
And Istory.
All the towns are being sucked into the Void! Exdeath! Stop!!!
Kuponwned
Kupo! Krile! Kupokupooo!
Exdeath isn't done yet.
Exdeath has an insane body count compared to most other game antagonists. Mega64 once counted the confirmed kills of the Emperor in FF2 and came up to the almost nice death toll of 68. Exdeath right now by rough count is 98.
Tycoon ~16
Walse ~30
Library ~14
Istory 13
Lix 11
Moogle Village 8
Galuf
Greg
Bal soldier in Walse
Karnak soldier throwing switch
Aughhhh!
Seymour Butz! Help!
Even a tiny place like Lix, Seymour Butz's hometown... How... how could anyone do such a thing?
Seymour just flies the airship slightly faster than normal circling the planet a few times.
The Land Unknown (Pixel Remaster)
We regain control directly above nixed Lix.
The intended path is to head south to Kuza castle and get some weapons but let's hold off for now.
We've got a third ribbon now.
The town east of here disappeared into the darkness... Could we be next? I'm so scared, I can't sleep at night! The world's gonna be sucked into darkness... Gloom! Doom! It's all over!
Let's go to Carwen, it truly is the endtimes when I'm going to call it by name.
A desert just appeared in the west from outta nowhere! Mysterious... and kinda exotic, when you think about it.
Now that the cyrstal's gone, what's gonna happen to us? It's true, I tell you! I saw this huge drake or dragon or something flying to North Mountain on its big leathery wings!
Long ago the tables were turned when this drunk was the one talking about Hiryu on North Mountain and his wife didn't believe him.
Some weirdo used to hang around here doing impressions... He said he was going to the Tower of Walse, but that place sanke.... Dunno what happened to hm.
Did you hear? The Tower of Walse fell into the sea. I bet if you had a submarine you could go check it out.
Long ago I mentioned when doing the treasure collection that a sailor was blocking access to a treasure but didn't count. Here's where it is for those playing another version and want to go out of your way to Corwan to get a cottage or whatever. It's strange that they kept the prompt for the barrel yet left it empty.
Some tower appeared in the desert. It's one of those things that makes you go "hmm." Haven't seen any fish in forever... Guess we're up skid roe without a flipper. The wind and the ocean are done for! Now our ships are worth as much as chocolate teapots, and not half as tasty.
I guess so, mom?
...Alright then.
The pirates don't say anything new but there's a reason to come back to the Pirate's cave.
Still need a some more escapes to whet the knife... I mean knives.
12 more escapes.
Walking towards the skull switch causes Faris to walk the other direction.
Syldra! You... you're alive!Sorrows of Parting
Faris, what are you talking about? Faris... do you see something? Don't you? Syldra's right there...
Krile, you don't know the half of it.
Krile! You can see her?
YES... HA HA HA... YES!
Such a kind soul...
Screw the ultimate legendary weapons of twelveness. Syldra's the only thing you need to kill a tree.
I guess some cowardice infused knives can't hurt either.
Next on the tour continuing roughly counterclockwise is this tower. This was the [Sprite Failed To Load] tower in Galuf's world east of Exdeath's castle.
We can't get in though.
Croissant should rename themselves to donut I guess.
There's an old poem that's been told in this town for ages... "The Tower of strength is the one on the right. Cast spells if you will: Won't help in a fight." I heard about a phantom village appearing in a forest... But I'll take that with an almight pinch of salt!
Ever since the crystal broke, nothing grows here at all... There's an ancient poem in this town that goes like so... "The tower on the left is the magic path. Even bulging muscles make the enemies laugh." You know, I don't even think that technically rhymes...
oh thank goodness you survived [/s]
What's up with that weird tower? It just appeared out of thin air! I heard tell a village appeared in a forest, like a mirage... Wonder if it's true.
Nothing to do here for me, but now that the latest patch came out Sinewy Etude is no longer available the way I got it earlier in the LP, you get it here in all versions now.
The old man still talks about whatever the person you talk to first wants to talk about. But I didn't talk to anyone yet so either this is the default dialog set, or it remembered the state of me talking ot the little kid last time.
But it's no legend! I have a dwarven flute inherited from my great-great-grandfather. Dwarves are out there!
As a self confessed Geomancer apologist even I can't get that enthusiastic about them.
Geomancers are one with nature. They have nothing to fear from danaging floors or pit traps!
Hey! Hey! Tell me about the dwarves again!
Now I'm skipping ahead because we only have the flimsiest of rumors to figure out where this is but let's just go with the simplest justification right now.
1 - Town in a forest
2 - This is the only forest that didn't exist in either world.
There are encounters in the forest and the actual entrance is randomized so you know you've got it when you have the wavy poison like screen transition rather than cubes.
Sealed Book (Original)
It was called Mirage in the PSX version and I prefer that.
We're time travelers, living between dimensions... This is the Phantom Village... that floats within the Rift...
These guys were stuck in the Rift for 1000 years.
Litterally stuck, as in frozen in place for a millennium.
For some reason despite being half a world away from the Rift above Tycoon these guys got stuck in there as well.
Have you been to the Phoenix Tower in the desert? I heard that if dying dragons go up there, they'll be reborn as phoenixes.
Wait, he didn't get killed by legendary weapons but his own hubris? Who do you want me to believe, a guy who lived through it or some sarcastic turtle?
The reason we want to get to Mirage ASAP are the shops. Not really the weapon shop, it just happened to be closest to the NPC I last talked to, but shopping in this town is great.
I have enough cash for the main attraction but I may as well pawn off everything else that I'm not using.
This is the armor shop.
The robes and black garb from the pyramid are here for sale. The crystal stuff is the best equipment money can buy if you just want pure number. But you really want (just 2) circlets and enough Black Garbs and Black Robes for everyone.
But that's not 200,000 gil expensive.
This box opens a secret path.
Take my money I'm not even wasting time telling you to shut up.
This is why I lamented the placement of the Protect Ring because for one brief moment when Lenna came back that it could be worn while everyone else had capes and then here comes the shoes.
Hermes' Sandals grant permanent haste. The initial released version of the Pixel Remaster screwed it up that it was lost when knocked out but that was fixed quick.
And, and that and is probably the best thing to justify that heavy cost: Always:Haste means that things that would negate haste can't stick either. So immunity to slow, stop, paralysis and sleep are at your fing- toe tips.
Godspeed Elven Mantles, you have done your duty.
The 16:9 aspect ratio really breaks a lot of the secrets in the game. The second armor shop wasn't visible in older releases and the black chocobo up there wouldn't be visible either unless it randomly wandered far down.
There's a theme here in Mirage that someone will mention eventually but you can probably sus out between the 2 armor merchants and this screen's layout.
This magic shop just sells the spells you got out of puzzles and the summons from Walse.
There's another door here, tying into that one tiny bathroom stall we saw in the magic shop.
He's got the real magic. Arise and Quick are amazing, though Quick is not as great as it is usually. Dispel would have been great to have several hours ago. Osmose is pretty good but again it would have seen more use earlier. Death and Banish have their uses, but if you're casting Death you'd probably rather just use the Killer Bow or Death Sickle just so that you could do damage in the likely odds that death doesn't stick.
Its Sabotage.
Seems like the flow of time has returned to our town. That can only mean... the Void is trying to return as well! I hear the walls of Phoenix Tower hide secret stairwells and savage monsters. Try checking the walls.
You can get behind the bar by taking a door hidden in the back outside. There's a Thief Knife in one of these barrels that will randomly attempt to !Mug with the regular attack. Might be useful for fiesta but for casual play you have a thief on tap to do that stuff.
The NPCs of Mirage still have issues with existing on this plane of reality apparently.
I heard that in this version of the game you must talk to this guy to trigger this sidequest, I wouldn't know because I've always talked to him assuming I needed to.
First, you gotta... hmm... Ya gotta ride around the world on a yellow chocobo! Howzat!?
This guy suuuuucks in older versions, he almost always will walk down and block this path by the time you can run down here. But for me, both the first time I played and this time for footage he just stands still. But on GBA it's like 80% of the time he's going to waste your time.
How does it feel getting blocked jerk?
I'm fairly certain there's a piano somewhere in town... Not that anyone plays it anymore...
Strange place to put a free heal...
And this guy tells us about the 2 merchants. The item shop has their merchants side by side like most of Galuf's world item shops did, but it also sells Elixirs for 50,000 a pop. By the end of the sidequesting we'll have enough cash to buy several.
So that just leaves the second weapon merchant to find.
He was just hanging out in the back room inaccessable by anything but those stairs. Not really worth the detour, but I guess Fuma Shurikens could be useful?
Ominous.
Once again the minimap and aspect ratio betrays secrets.
Now we just need to show off to the Donut Istmus Bard.
୧( ಠ Д ಠ )୨
Just one more thing remains for Mirage.
Mambo de Chocobo
Again the RNG blessed me with a chocobo that didn't keep running away like everything in the pyramid did.
The black chocobo is needed to get into that desert near Kirwyn.
Next in line is Jachol.
A castle just appeared out of the blue up north! Never heard of anything like it! The southern islands all connected to make one long, thing continent.
Like Regole most NPCs don't change their dialog.
But this guy might help connect the dots for a puzzle solution.
Let's check it out whilst sharpening the knives some more.
Skull Eaters now do survivable damage.
Rods don't actually attack, they cast a spell.
Said spell can be reflected and also don't break confuse. Also Incisor inflicts poison but its harder to parse with green bubbles and green confuse swirl compared to older versions having the target turn purple.
Skull Eaters are also killable by things other than themselves or lucky !Gaia procs.
They also drop elixirs, though there are better sources to farm them.
I'm still in a dream, skull eater~
And now that the strange castle is here, it doesn't lead to a valley any more but Bal's basement.
-aga level spells aren't enough to kill art, so math is still the way to go.
The door can be unlocked to get back to Bal and save and heal.
Bal finally got the news about Galuf.
No... King Galuf couldn't be... Oh no... We will protect the castle until Lady Krile returns!
Only the hottest takes.
Krile... Cheer up, kupo! I can't believe the king is... Lady Krile... You have my greatest sympathies. Please, stay strong!
Lady Krile... The king will always live on within your heart...
Upstairs we find that the wind drake returned to Bal after we beat Exdeath.
May as well, though there's nothing this wind drake can do that the airship can't do already.
Still it makes him happy to stretch his wings.
The whole basement floor is wrecked so you can't just walk straight to the end of the room you need to weave from side to side to get anywhere.
The game gives you one last chance to consider.
It's my fun.
So Odin here is a legitimate threat with only the Pyramid under our belts.
This didn't do any good but its not like Faris was going to do anything else anyway.
This is why Faris isn't doing anything more than generic buffs.
Zantetsuken (huh, though it was spelled with a second z) doesn't care about Golem.
The Thief Knife in action, not because I cared about stealing but just needed a weapon that didn't run the risk of !Scramming.
As you can see setting up the instant kill took almost half the available time. A fair damage race requires a lot of firepower and a lot of health to keep it going.
I can think of maybe one time I'd cast Odin, and even then I probably won't.
Just for fun let's show off the real star of the !Summon show: Syldra. She's got a ton of attack power, she's light on MP usage, and despite the name implying lightning element she's wind element. The air knives we invested in pay dividends now.
Tule has a couple NPCs with new lines.
Princess Lenna! I'm glad to see that you're all right. When the castle was absorbed into the darkness, we had no idea what had happened... We were so worried about you...
With the last piano in Mirage played we can get the final reward for flexing.
This boosts player level directly in the fight instead of any base stat. This does lead to increased attack power indirectly but it also improves how well you can get status effects to stick or shrug off.
Much kinder than "don't quit your day job."
So this Void pocket is the one that leads to the final dungeon. We could handle the endgame as is but this is a completionist endeavor.
Returning to Ghido's Cave we can pick Boko back up. Between all the Void pockets and some other arbitrary reasons paths that were blocked are now open.
So we're circumnavigating the world. Quelb no longer blocks the way between Drakenvale and Bal.
There are several chokepoints as we walk, these apparently toggle event flags behind the scenes indicating that Boko was here.
We're almost to the end now that we've reached Tule, but there's one more thing to grab by crossing the lake.
This here is why a few updates ago I mentioned I keep going the wrong way when going to Regole after Big Bridge, because now the right path is to the south.
Almost there, just need to snake through these rivers
And standing right in the middle of Istory Falls.
The magic lamp will invoke a summon when used as an item. It mostly goes in descending order of power. You only really care about the third one.
The lamp has finite charges it doesn't go from high to low and back again so if you want to get back to full power you can return here.
And now we're done, thank you for your service Boko, unfortunately I can't return you to Koko.
Why did I take this screenshot?
Oh yes, because I stepped right onto a fight and had a strange battle transition.
And found strange amusement from Shadow
The reward is garbage in this version. The Mirage Vest gives one single !Blink image at the start of battle. It has terrible stats otherwise so unless you're looking at killing the enemy before they can act a second time it's not worth the tradeoff...
In this version. In older versions it had much more value as it was glitched so that you could refresh the image by fiddling with your equipment while in battle.
This is the hint for the magic lamp.
We're almost done with seeing how the people are dealing with new neighbors and constant fear of being engulfed by an orb of oblivion.
Lord Kelger... A braver warrior has never lived... It seems a shrine has appeared at the center of Big Bridge. Something is dreadfully wrong in the world. If only Lord Kelger still lived...
It's really strange how Quelb has this NPC having so much backstory.
They can't all be winners.
