Part 6: BRB entering my cold rod in Forza Motorsports

Part 6 BRB entering my cold rod in Forza Motorsports

Cold open, fighting strange lump beasts.


Tatous aren't anything special, this is mostly just documentation for later fun. So for future reference, consider that if I were to single target this, I'd have done about 160 damage to one.

Harvest (Original)
Some day perhaps the OST won't be cast into the phantom zone and accessible. While I don't personally care for the original Harvest holy shit whoever arranged it in the remaster definitely did.

Harvest (Pixel Remaster)YEEEEEEEEEEEAAAH HOOOOOO



Welcome to... town. Technically we could skip this place completely and proceed with plot. But there's some important things to do here.

So Carwen, ir Kerwin, or some combination of vowels between some digraph letter, an r and w, and an n. Cerwon sends their best and brightest to greet us.


Translation: we're going to North Mountain.




The one in Tycoon is the last of its kind.

I don't think anyone else refers to this war. With one exception I can't even think of any sort of non crystal exploding interpersonal conflict in the early game.


The armor shop, I think I skip this, if I got anything it was just a cotton robe for Lenna.


Definitely skipped the weapon shop since I have 2 daggers and only one person is going to use one right now.


Kurwan has a strange magic shop, it has the level 1 spells of Tule, but has a lopsided stock of level 2 spells as well. I remember one time I played this game I forgot all about this shop... and came up to an enemy that I really wanted to silence (or maybe sleep) and got confused and annoyed that I couldn't.

Edit: I haven't mentioned this yet and I should do this as early as possible for posterity sake. If you use cursor memory like I do, the cursor memory persists if you switch from beneficial spells to detrimental ones. Meaning that if you were to cast cure on the first turn of battle it would default to casting it on your party. However, if you then on your second turn cast silence, it will STILL target the last party member you last targeted. So be vigilant when you switch from the defensive to the offensive stance. White magic and black magic won't be an issue too often, but when we get different flavors of blue magic or time magic things can go very bad very fast.


First important thing for Corwin is the piano.


Even excluding this version just giving you the map right out of the gate, other games didn't have you "use" the map, it was tied to a controller button, I think select for all versions.




...hic.


...freezeframe, canned audience laughtrack, roll credits - I already made that damned joke and I did it without a 50s sitcom in laws joke.

A wind drake AND super-rare dragon grass? If you could get your hands on those, you'd be rolling in gil!
I hear tell there's dragon grass up on North Mountain, but there's poison grass there too, chokin' it out...


Or I can just walk into the kitchen and be rolling in gil.

The stairs by the piano led to an empty room, but looking at Mega64's LP there should have been someone there. Might have not shown up until after talking to someone else I never talked to until recording footage for this. Oh well, he just connects the dots explicitly what we already assume what with this being an RPG where 50% of the town is talking about NORTH MOUNTAIN. We're going to NORTH MOUNTAIN next.


This guy is screwing with me. I seem to remember that later in the game he should move and give access to those barrels behind him, but the gamefaqs map doesn't show anything in those. Either way the Pixel Remaster's "Get all the stuff out of non-chests" achievement doesn't require it.

*2 other merchants on 2 other docks repeat roughly the same thing.*

This town has the finest port in the world! ...Though that doesn't mean much now that boats can't sail anymore.


Now for the most important thing in Korwon. There's a passage here that doesn't show up even with a thief in the party. Just a little dogleg to the left and...




The equip screen doesn't tell you much, just "number go up"

Boy does number go up.




They use a machine to amplify the power of the water crystal.
We must stop it! How can we get to Walse?




Hrn... Haven't got Syldra, either...




Faris... I'm sorry.

I think this is the best moment to point this out, now that we got the situation of the previous update over and done with. Final Fantasy V is a game built on the dynamic between these four goofuses. Things are starting to gel. Galuf has his amnesia, but it hasn't stopped his determination to deal with the crystals. Somewhere in his subconscious he's thinking of every possible solution to getting to Walse, yet he realizes that he really put his foot in his mouth. Lenna and Faris have some sort of bond and despite Faris's bluster there was indications of it even in the wind shrine and definitely with Siren's lure.




No ships, so we can't go by sea... If we can't go by land or sea, then... Hmm...




And that's it for the items in town. Ckaeorwiyn is not worth the effort of making the fancy map I did in Tule.


Well, I guess I should leave Carwen on a good note. This is the first place you can buy status cures. While I don't need most of these right now I buy a few of each. Anyone playing at home you just need Antidotes and maybe some Gold Needles in case things get really stupid (a set of 4 eye drops if you actively invite stupidity).


Remember awhile back where I had those 2 Tatou's have about 160 HP of damage split between the 2 of them? Behold the power of the ice rod. 50% boost to ice elemental damage.

So leaving town we head north east, eventually we reach a forest surrounded by mountains, we continue further north to North Mountain.

To The North Mountain (Original)


Welcome to North Mountain hope you enjoy your stay. If there's 3 or more enemies on the field, !Kick is probably the best turn a monk can use.

If I was so inclined, I could feed the Headstones an ether and they'd have a chance to use a blue magic spell, but ethers are costly and I can get it with minimal effort later.


We came in from that door on the right. There's another chest immediately south of that door. We're exiting to the north of this chest. Right now dungeons are incredibly short (for that matter most dungeons in this game are pretty quick) and there are very few detours for treasure. When dungeons get complicated (and/or are only available for a limited time) I'll provide better maps or directions.


Cockatrice are showing up surprisingly early compared to other entries in the series. Despite the early appearance they can do what they're famous for; a chance to petrify on even numbered turns. They probably shouldn't get a second turn since they're pretty frail.


Though they do hit pretty hard if you're not upgrading your equipment.


Since I don't want to waste a phoenix down I choose to escape from the rest of the fights on this screen. As the NPC said stepping on the flowers inflicts poison on the whole party.


We're almost to the top, the save point gets Galuf back in fighting shape and cures the poison.


I'm 5 ABP away from getting !Focus on Faris and Seymour Butz, so I spend a bit of time grinding for it.


Right after the save point leads to a single tile wide patch of grass, certainly nothing to worry about, just a normal result of rock slides and erosion.


We get on to autopilot once crossing the natural choke point.


King Tycoon's got a big head.


Previous versions silently put this in your inventory. Its nice to be told right here, since right after we leave the mountain there is a very real chance you'd go to a new armor shop and buy an "upgrade" for headgear, only to find by using Optimize you somehow got something better than an Iron helmet.





Close Call (Original)


It's less nice to be told right here that you've been stabbed with a 3 foot long poisoned arrow.

Lenna!


See? I said there was just normal natural erosion going on.


Less natural is a Rydia cosplayer cavorting around a mountain doing a Noble woman's laugh.

I came here after that wind drake, but I seem to have caught something much more valuable.
Wait... you'd hunt a wind drake!?
Of course. Their horns fetch quite a high price on the black market, ohohoho! But I've caught no less than the princess of Tycoon instead!







ACTION KICK


ACTION FALL






Faris!
Oops... faw down go boom? Mwa, ha, ha... Oops, I guess he slipped. Pity.

I prefer the PSX Looney Tunes reference personally.

What!?


Oh yeah, Pirate Captain... shouldn't have even considered the chance Faris couldn't climb up a sheer rock face.




Shouldn't have doubted Faris doesn't carry around 10 feet of rope and some stakes to rig them to.

Lenna! Hang on!



The Fierce Battle (Pixel Remaster)


I was only half joking when I called her a Rydia cosplayer.


All the Pixel Remasters have this system message when poison damage tics, probably more annoying than helpful.


For a long time any enemy you see using drain will be a huge threat. Thankfully she didn't equip a rod and has the Minerva Bustier on, otherwise this would REALLY hurt. If I brought a white mage I could silence her and neutralize a lot of her threat.


Another change to the Pixel Remaster, enemy scripts that are based on HP thresholds trigger immediately. Earlier versions had to wait for the enemy to get a turn for those conditions to resolve. This results in a harder fight since I could have rushed her last 300 HP down before triggering this phase when playing an older version.


Forza comes to the front line, pushing his wife into the back row. The fight gets considerably more dangerous now.


Magissa immediately casts Regen.


If you try to shift your attention to Forza, or if you split your focus between them, she could start casting drain and undo a lot of progress.

In hindsight, I really should have put Forza to sleep, but my team wasn't made to really exploit that unless everyone sat back and watched Lenna blizzard him to death.


Look at that damage! Galuf will die from that being in the front row. Seymour probably won't survive either at his current HP. This was a pretty lousy team to bring out. A group of blue mages and maybe a white mage would have locked this down between silencing and vampiring away any damage.


Thankfully Forza has terrible stamina so regen is just obnoxious, it won't undo any progress made in murdering him.


Ran out of phoenix downs so unfortunately Galuf is going to be a bit behind on getting his next Thief ability.


Both Magissa and Forza have guaranteed drops. Aside from Freelancer no one can equip the whip for awhile and it'll be even longer before someone can drink something, which begs the question how potions are administered.

Lenna's Theme (Pixel Remaster)




Once again Galuf has to sleep off his death. Now again there's this ominous chokepoint, but before I progress I want to get into a very specific encounter.


And here it is. Its not dangerous or lucrative or anything, its just that after dozens of fiestas you'd rarely see any fights on this screen and then suddenly BAMF, rare enemy formation. Even for the rare times you'll see other enemies in a group of 5, I can't think of any that line up, they usually are a circle.




He's hurt pretty bad...
Hiryu... Don't worry, I'll take care of you.


And here we can now officially put "concern for her father" in a distant third place, trailing behind:

Love of animals
Love of poison

Lenna! What're you doing!?

You can walk diagonally now!





Give the dragon grass to Hiryu... Quickly...



Please, get well...
My stars and garters! You're out of your gourd, young lady-that was insanely reckless!


The dragon flies like 15 feet in the air, only to swoop down 6 feet over.


And activates his Mary Shuryu powers.

Hiryu... thank you!
Looks like you're both hale and hearty again! Let's saddle up!
Actually... I, uh, I don't really like heights...


Directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi Wait I already joked about making this joke.

What's so funny!?

Your face, kiddo! Now hop on!

Spreading Grand Wings (Original)


Gotta admit,that face is so funny. As advanced and fancy fully modeled games can get, its amazing how much expression games could fit into a 32x32 pixel sprite.


Hiryu can cross oceans and plains, but can't fly over mountains. This means that we can return to all the places we've been, in addition to progressing the story in Walse, or delaying the inevitable by going back to Tycoon.

Also you may notice that the Hiryu's got a red shadow above. The Pixel Remasters added another quality of life feature with airships and other means of flight so that your shadow is only black if you can land.


Like so, Hiryu can fly over the meteor and reach Tycoon.

Royal Palace (Pixel Remaster)


...I forgot that the Pixel Remaster lets me just barge right up to the gate like I own the place. Well Lenna does but older releases made you talk to the guard, who says "Thank heaven's your safe!" or something there about.


So now he's locked into this line.

In the courtyard the half dozen NPCs can be summarized with one line, namely:

Princess Lenna!


Except this jerk, he's blocking treasure.


I'm going to put off talking to him for as long as possible. There's a path behind this turret.


This cramped room has 2 cottages. It'll be a bit of time before I'll want to use them.


Its one thing that you got to the Wind Shrine, but how did you get back? Did the invisible monsters finally leave you alone?

Princess Lenna!
Forgive me... I didn't mean to worry you.
No need to fret about that now. But please, you must return to the castle for good!

No, I didn't miss a line, we haven't said anything about just coming here to pillage the castle and ditching. He immediately assumes she's leaving again.

Our guard has been severely weakened by recent monster raids, but there's no way we can recover without our princess!

That sounds like a compelling argument to keep her far away from you and your useless squad if you can't fight back the goblins.

I'm sorry... I cannot stay.
Princess, you have a responsibility to this kingdom!

She's a princess, her dad isn't confirmed dead, she hasn't completed the customary time of mourning, and she isn't coroneted, she doesn't have to do SHIT. Stop trying to pawn your job off on your betters.

Yes... but I also have a responsibility to the world. Right now we are all in danger...




I understand. Princess Lenna, we will protect the kingdom in your stead, I swear it!
And I swear to return, and bring Father back. Until that time, please hold things together here.




Certainly.

Reminiscence


Sadly we can't decline, the price of a few elixirs and other treasures are high. We must endure a cutscene.




Hm? Ah, Lenna. It's late... you should be in bed.
So should you... my sister.
!?




Wh-what are you going on about? Me, your- Don't be daft!
But...










What? (Original) (The real "What?", not throwing in an 80s theme song for the credits roll)


A new day dawns, another... what? occurs. I can only assume that they were planning something akin to Tales skits or something with Galuf rolling out of bed and... this. But it more or less dies here. It'd be one thing if Seymour was the only one who got pumped to wake up, but everyone else flexes and performs the morning hype ritual in sync.

*giggle*
What in tarnation are you doing, kid?
I think he's a few men short of a full crew...

Royal Palace (Pixel Remaster)


We're finally free to loot the castle. This is the room directly below where that skit occurred. There's an item in the pot directly south of the old man.


Here's the map for the treasures. Red squares are treasures. Green lines mark connections.

Oh, the king's wind drake is alive! That's wonderful.

Ever since Princess Lenna left, the chancellor's been at his wits' end.
If only Princess Lenna would stay here...


At some point we can sneak in here, but its not the end of the world if I fail to check back if its at an arbitrary time or the event flags refuse to cooperate. There's no treasure here besides checking his diary.




Sarisa?
Princess Lenna's older sister. Sarisa was sailing with her father when a storm hit and she was thrown overboard...

Strange, I thought I remember reading that she was lost falling from Hiryu, but looking back through the other versions all agree Salsa was lost at sea. Yeah Salsa, another PSX gem.

The courtyard has updated as well, general consensus is:


"Hurry back!" and/or "Good luck!"


Already done, thanks worst soldiers on the planet.


With that guard moved out of the way, we can get into the castle storehouse. While the old man said the Chancellor is outside, he's in here at the end of this secret passage.




Again, Pixel Remaster tells you what you've got. Older versions just shove the staff in your inventory.

The other chests are a shuriken (that we can't use right now at all), a kotetsu (which we could use if we switch to freelancer), and a bell (that we won't use even when the class that comes along that uses it shows up).


Thank you!


And so the Chancellor vanishes, maybe he got killed by the invisible monsters of the Wind Shrine lobby and he's a ghost now, hence how he got back.

Next time: The second best accessory in the game.