Part 10: HWUH

Part 10 HWUH

Before we shove off, let's see what Karnak has to say about salvaging their one contribution to humanity besides rods.




Anyway, now that we shove off we have a whole ocean of enemies to encounter.

All like, 4 of them.


Now that I set up a ninja, let's talk through them. They can throw most weapons and the exclusive throwing shurikens and scrolls.


Scrolls are balanced to be okay damage with a ninja's mediocre magic stat. !Magic4 gives a little bit more than a mediocre magic stat. An actual mage with !Throw and a rod to boost it will make terrifying numbers.

Cid and Mid have only been away for like, 10 minutes and could very well be mauled by a chimera. Or maybe they figured out where I'm supposed to go, so let's go to the Library of the Ancients to find out which.

Library of the Ancients (Original)




Professor Cid has returned!
I'm assisting Professor Cid!
Mid asked me to find information on a crescent-shaped island.




Can't find a thing, not a darned thing!
Hey! I heard myself the first time!
Heheheh...
This book says something about a crescent-shaped island... Sounds a little sketchy, though.


Thunder Anemone Pits absorb lightning so you can't just sail the seas Thundaraing everything between here and Crescent Island, or any of the detours I take.


Whirlpool sets HP to single digits.


I mentioned detours, while Crescent Island (visible to the far east and slightly south of our location) is our destination and we were already nudged that way, there's other places to go and its just as well to do that now rather than later. Right now we've gone due south of Karnak.


These guys are dangerous, not so much when they're paired up but if they're left alone they will cast Bio. We don't have access to that yet, its basically a spell that's strength lies between the -ra and -aga spells, I've heard others refer to it as a 2.5 spell and that's pretty accurate. Bio is a poison elemental spell that inflicts leak instead of the poison status.

Tenderness in the Air (Pixel Remaster)


To the south west of where the ship made landfall is Jachol.


Welcome to Jachol. The people of this village are descended from the ancient Ronkans. Heh, sounds like a big deal, don't it!
The shops here sell weapons and armor that were excavated from the caves to the north.
My grandpap was an adventurer. He told me there was something underneath Crescent Island.
My pa's an adventurer! He's off adventuring right now!
Kids today and their foolhardy sense of adventure! Pfah!


I have a geo so traps aren't an issue... but there aren't traps. There's some random puzzles. And there's something much more dangerous than traps in there.


This pub's always full of adventurers hoping to strike it rich and find treasure in the caves up north of here.
Wait patiently on the path with the skull switches, and the truth will be revealed...
If you go as deep as you can into the cave there's a wall you can climb to go outside.

These 2 are good pieces of advice. The first because its a one off gimmick, and the second because its been hours since you climbed ivy. Too bad climbing the wall does nothing of value right now.




I think he's hinting that a chest may have a switch in it to proceed, but he's making it sound like you might find a damn mimic in the cave. Then again a mimic would be kinder than what we'll find.

Piano 4


More piano for the piano god.

I'm a Dancer


I'm glad this game has no shame in being goofy as hell.


Tenderness in the Air (Pixel Remaster)

Ever been to Istory Falls? Everyone says they're huge and the view is breathtaking... Man, I wanna go!
They say you can hear weird sounds coming from the ground on Crescent Island... Freaky!
Five hundred years ago, our ancestors had a great civilization...
The ancient ruins... Ain't no one allowed to go in there. But them young folks nowadays don't pay no heed to nothing!

These young folks have been doing this since before you've been born and are the only thing keeping your village from collapse.


There are no new spells to buy here or anywhere else right now. Its strange that they gave Karnak all the magic spells and then Jachol, Istory and Crescent Island just sell one school of magic each.

Well, there is one more magic shop but it's just for getting Esuna if you failed to get it in the Karnak 500.

Waaay to the east of here is Crescent Island. Ever heard of it? It really is shaped like a crescent! How ingeniously appropriate!


The weapon shop for all the hype isn't that amazing. I should probably have gotten a coral sword but got a couple mage mashers. The Ogre Killer is not worth it at all. We'll soon get the only axe we'll use until the endgame.


The armor is better but it isn't unique to Jachol. I get another set of Green Berets and Ninja Suits for Galuf and 2 Sage's Surplices for Seymour and Lenna.


On the way back to the ship I meet the other 2 enemies in the area. Bombs behave like others in the series, they hit hard and can self destruct. Doublizards are strange. They have a head on their tail but that's it. I think they turn around if you let them live long enough, but that doesn't change anything. No change in weaknesses or scripting. It might wipe out buffs and debuffs but the fight shouldn't last long enough for that to be relevant.


Anyway let's see if there's anything left in the cave that's been constantly been raided for at least 4 generations.

Slumber of Ancient Earth (Original)


Despite what that one guy said in Jachol's pub, there's not really any traps here, just a bunch of switches.


And Jackanapes' pet squirrel.


Thankfully I got a preemptive strike on him.


Ignus Fatuus didn't do any damage to him, but it did what I wanted by inflicting confuse. Skull Eaters have high defenses and evasion. Their defenses are so high that there's very few options for us to deal a single HP of damage to them. Even though that's all the damage you need to deal.

Here I was queuing up a shuriken, one of those few ways to deal damage.




Confuse has a chance for them to deal crazy damage to themselves. If I was still using Beastmaster their !Control would allow for Incisor to be triggered on demand rather than a coinflip.


Another fight with a Skull Eater, they are quick and deadly.


We're railroaded down this hall of skulls.


After a few seconds all but one of the switches get eaten by skull eaters, you run over to that switch to unlock progress. If you're too slow a new batch of skulls reappear and you either mash each one or wait again.


There are other encounters beyond almost certain death, these guys can be found around Tule and weren't dangerous back then.


The door that's back behind Seymour is locked, this switch unlocks it.


This concludes the puzzles of the cave.


There are "2" treasures in this room, up in the upper left corner. There is a third chest right above these that you can see the edge of on the map. The third chest doesn't count towards cheevos because you can lock yourself out of it if you let Lonewolf out of Walse Prison.


Geomancers second !Gaia chance has a big enough push behind it to break through their 90 defense.


This is a pretty good upgrade for when we go back to beastmaster.

There's one more thing to mention in this cave... those faint of heart avert your eyes for when you cast magic on a skull eater.



NopenopeNOPENOPENOPE


If you were to beeline from Karnak to Crescent island, the Sea Ibis would be the third and final enemy you find on the open seas.


Between Karnak and Crescent Island is this temple surrounded by mountains.


However if you go wandering off in search of trouble by going outside of the inner seas, you can find trouble in the form of Corbetts. Like PaddleThru was before, these enemies have a lot more HP than they have any reason to


They're worth quite a bit of cash though. They also don't give any EXP if you want to level up jobs without over leveling.


On our quest to not progress the plot we now come to Istory in the northwest corner of the map. I've made a lot of progress here, it'd be a shame if something like the game crashing would happen to it.


Before getting to town we get in a fight with a golem and some St. Elmo's Fires.


This isn't explained yet but would be in Crescent Island, but stone enemies can be instantly killed by unpetrifying them...


...any time now...

Welp, thank God for autosaves... even if it was at Jachol.

Harvest (Pixel Remaster)


Istory is completely optional but there are things to get here. Make sure you get them.

I don't mind life at a slower pace. That's why I'm a shepherd.
I was doing laps around the flowerbed and found something real good!
I can't believe there are still frogs sleeping when its warm out! Strange, I tells ya!




Guess we don't have to worry about getting the urge.


There's an armor shop here, but you almost certainly can't afford any of these rings unless you kill a lot of dogs or fight a few dozen Corbetts.


Let me tell you a thing or two about rings... Flame rings absorb fire and protect against ice, but are weak against water attacks. Coral rings absorb water and protect against fire, but are weak against lightning attacks.


A couple clarifications, first ribbon is not an accessory, it's a hat. Second coral is sort of strange, as a ring it is weak to lightning, as a sword it is lightning.


The girl said she found something good running around the flowerbed...


All you need is one lap.


???


???????


???????????? Moving on.


Some monster dressed like an old feller's wanderin' the eastern woods. Stay sharp, or he'll zap you with a bolt o'lightnin'!




Seymour Butz is a loose cannon that doesn't play by the rules.


Only way to get over to this guy.




If so, let this song aid you on your noble quest! Romeo's Ballad is a song of love, soothing enough to move the hearts of any who hear it, even monsters. I lead a quiet life, writing my songs, awaiting the day when my heart will heal... *sob* She was taken too soon...
There's treasure hidden behind the waterfall! ... At least, that's what my dear old great-great-grandmother told me.

Game_design.txt, though we can't reach it according to Seymour's mom's twin.


Just as we were told we've got into a fight with an old man. Ramuh is a series staple until FFVIII happens and the resident thunder summon is chosen by throwing darts at random mythological names.


Ramuh's most dangerous attack is the single target Thundara.


He can also cast Lightning (breath wing/blaze in lightning form), or Flash.




What are you doing here?
Lord Ramuh! I see you have become even more powerful. If you would lend that strength to us...
Ifrit! No need to say more. You andI have never been enemies!





Ramuh shows up as consumable in the inventory since he's an overworld fight which doesn't have the scripting required to have the text box and fanfare. Use it and he gets added to the spell list.


While wandering around I managed to get a fight on this tiny bridge.


Apparently the bridge uses the ocean encounter table, but occurs on the plains terrain.


Here's the other big fight in the woods, Ramuh was a walk in the park compared to how these guys can be.


They have one line on their combat script: 67% chance to fight, 33% chance to take out a quarter of your HP. They always show up in squads of 5 so there is a small but real chance that you just die.


Peace was never an option.


Mini Dragons are a valid option for speed running certain fiesta teams. There is a better option if you wanted to power game though since there are other encounters in the forest less lucrative.


That's enough stalling, besides the inaccessible Istory Falls the only other namedrop is Crescent Island.


Strangely enough I think this is the first time where an event trigger spans more than a single tile through a chokepoint because shortly after walking into town:



Close Call (Original)






The earth have started to move!




Since we're heroes I guess let's check on the elderly before we check on our own property.


Well that was quick.


Is that good?


I'm sure its supposed to do that. Well we're stuck here now so let's get to know the neighbors.

Tenderness in the Air (Pixel Remaster)

We get a lot of earthquakes on this island. Each one causes a whirlpool to form in the bay... Don't tell me... your ship was sucked into one? Haw haw haw! Well aren't you unlucky!

If it wasn't for engaging in more Mid content than actually required you would have usurped King Walse as my #1 suspect for true villain.

This island is blessed! Crops grow on their own and even though it rarely rains, nothing ever seems to need water.
Sometimes you can hear strange noises coming from underground... Gives me the creeps!
Another good harvest this year! It's all thanks ot the fertile soil we have on this island!
Gee, look at this water! It rarely rains here, but this spring just keeps bubbling up!

The inn has a very strange trick of dialog, someone maybe was using this as a test to see if they programmed event flags toggling in dialog was working right.






What's really weird, though, is that the artifacts found there are remarkably similar to the ones found on this island!


Do you think I can ride this chocobo!?




Once you mounted one, they'd only let you off in a wooded area. Anyway, they're extinct now...

So yeah, guy talks about the topic that whoever you talked to last that he's sitting with brought up.


The weapon shop is stocked with things we can't use.


The armor shop is a watered down Jachol one.


Hint that gold needles should instantly kill stone enemies if they don't crash the game as a death counter.


I tried to catch a black chocobo in the forest, but it outran me... Wouldn't chocobo racing be totally extreme?... No, I guess not.

Wait, that other guy said they were extinct...


In the southeast corner of town is a bard. In previous releases this guy needs inspiration from you playing the piano to comeup with a song. Here he already has one in mind.


If you sing it in battle, little by little, your energy will increase!


Energy in this case is just a partywide regen.


..wait, what? Well, I need to play the piano anyway so...

Piano 5



Tenderness in the Air (Pixel Remaster)

4/21 UPDATE - Squenix has patched this, it is no longer available at this point in time.


Yeah the Pixel Remaster changes things around.


This isn't available for a long time otherwise.

If you sing this in battle, you'll find your strength will gradually grow to rival even the gods.

There are 4 songs that cause stats to grow over time.... why am I mentioning this I can't even sing yet.


Here we see 3 of 4 enemies on Crescent island. The black flames that were up at Istory are also here. Note to self while writing this: refight them so I can get their blue magic. Note to self, delete this since I've done that since writing the update.


Harvesters drop this, which is why the Ogre Axe in Jachol is irrelevant. Death Sickles are strong and has a chance to cast Death on the target. So that's nice. Especially when you remember some bosses don't have immunity.

What? (Original)


Besides the town there's only one circular forest to the south. If you've played FFIV you'll recognize that as a sign for a chocobo forest. That guy said that he tried to catch a chocobo here and the other guy said that black chocobos can fly but only land in forests. He also said they're dead so hopefully he's only half right.




Doesn't look like any chocobo I've ever seen.
Whatever it is, I'll catch it!


Normally this guy runs around randomly throughout the screen. Here he... walked left until he hit the tree. Whatever, I'll take it!


It's a black chocobo!
Oh! This means they aren't extinct after all!
Guess not! I heard black chocobos can fly, so... giddyup!

Mambo de Chocobo(just the first 4 seconds)


That could have gone better.

What? (Original)



Well, it didn't giddy. Did you break it or something?
Not funny, old man. Sounds like it's got something stuck down its gullet...




Faris has invented the Scherwiz maneuver for helping choking animals.

The explosion at Karna Castlemust've sent them flying over here...
...And 'cause he swallowed them, he couldn't fly!



Ranger
Bard

Ew, they're still sticky.

It's okay Seymour, I'm not switching you to any of them for now.

But maybe now he'll be able to fly!

Mambo de Chocobo


Well he stopped making that horrible kweh sound so I think he's made a complete recovery.

Sadly the Pixel Remasters fucked one thing up with the OST. The original Black Chocobo theme includes this extremely emphatic HWUH. Now its just more of an Ehhh.


Despite just recovering from glass shards being forcibly ejected from its throat, the black chocobo can fly much higher than the wind drake after it was cured of its wounds by magic grass. As such we can get to a few more places. There's nothing special in the forest where Exdeath is sealed, it just has the same encounters as the Tule area, but this does show that with the Fire Crystal shattered we're down to one stone.


Nearby, just in sight of the Wind Shrine is this village.

My Home, Sweet Home (Pixel Remaster)




Seymour Butz,the Lixer.


In case you didn't get it from the Karnak 500, Esuna is for sale here.





Crickets


Seymour can't sleep.


Faris being the captain of a bunch of cutthroats is a light sleeper and noticed he was gone.


Oh, Faris...



Meet my mom.
Eh?
I was born right here in this village. Mom passed away when I was still young... After that, I traveled with Dad for a long time. Butthree years ago, he got real sick... Never recovered... That should do it...




He always said he wanted to be buried next to Mom.

Seymour, have you been carrying his ashes or something this whole time?

Dad was so strong...
A father, huh... Wonder what that's like...
Faris?
Let's head back. Lenna'll worry if she wakes up and finds us gone.

In hindsight I should have made a backup save to see if there was a difference later.

My Home, Sweet Home (Pixel Remaster)

Wait a minute... Seymour Butz!? I can't believe it, you're all grown up!
Hey, it's Seymour Butz! Haven't seen you in forever and a day. Finally back in your hometown, eh? You take it easy, hear?
Some bard moved into your old place.
Seymour Butz! You've finally returned! I... I've been waiting for you... Say... When you're finished with your travels, would you come see me again? There's something I want to tell you...

I guess its less disturbing now that his mom has a unique palette.

Hey, Seymour Butz! It's me! Look, we've got to hang out later. It'll be like old times.



[b]Crickets


We flash back to the dramatic night where Seymour Butz's hometown was burned to the ground and was rebuilt in a poorly thought out conspiracy.


Or it was just flashing back to evening.


Seymour dashes behind the house


And was able to climb 30 feet up.




He found a very good hiding spot.


Too good.



My Home, Sweet Home (Pixel Remaster)

Heheh, ever since then you've been afraid of heights, huh? When I was a kid, everyone teased me for being dumb, but now I'm gonna be a scholar, 'coz I'm S-M-R-T-smart!

Congratulations, you've surpassed Mid and random jerk old man as most evil NPC for giving Seymour a life defining trauma.




And the game is kind enough to make the big ticket item right on the top of the list. Ethers are costly for just restoring 40MP a pop but being half price is worth it.


Upstairs we can restock our ninja throwing stuff. Kunai are cheap and I saw the agility boost so I couldn't say no.


Crescent Island had the mage half of Jachols inventory, Lix has the regular light armor half to go with the ninja theme.




The music box on the shelf looks out of place.

Music Box (Original)


Strangely enough we don't get the sepia of previous flashbacks.


Is he asleep?




...No. I'm not going anywhere.
The spasms aren't as frequent anymore... I can get by on my own now. Still, it would be nice if you stayed... Not to take care of me, but so we could be together... as a family...
I'd like that. But you're still sick, remember? You should get to bed.
I will, dear. Just let me finish this up first.




So you were awake.
Daddy, are you going to get more bad guys?
That's what I do.
I wanna come!
You need to stay here and take care of your mother. Don't tell her you saw me leave, all right? It'll be our little secret.
Okay, Daddy.

I'm going to switch over to the GBA version briefly because there are benefits to hardware limitations where you don't get to play in 4K 120fps and have a the sprites be as big as your head.






I prefer the slow pan revealing to the player things have Gone Poorly after Dorgann sees it off screen first.






Alluring Air is a song that attempts to confuse all enemies. Sometimes I get confused when trying to remember if Romero's Ballad or Alluring Air is the stop song or the confuse song.

Next time we figure out where to go next.