Part 22: Reina vs. Poison: The Rematch

I haven't actually healed yet, but everybody's coming along nicely. Despite this, we won't be learning any new abilities this update because I actually decided not to bother grinding. Crazy, I know.





First thing I do is go back and get MagHammer because I'm a completionist.



Nothing to do in Kelb, so let's go back to Val and progress the plot.







Hoo-boy... Guess I hafta use my secret weapon...







Yep.







And...That's that. Note we couldn't do that before getting the Dragon Grass, of course.





Great guards, Galuf.



Meanwhile, looks like Krile got a bit sick while we were gone.

Hang on, dear!
They're calling...
Don't try to talk.
...calling... Gill's calling
Gill?



Who's Gill?
A 700 year old sage who prophesied your planet's crystals would break!
And he's calling her?
He probably knows something that will help us defeat X-Death.

He's also known as Guido (RPGe) and Ghido (GBA). They're all weird names.

Speaking of the GBA version, Bartz has a much more awesome line there.


I love how much the GBA version dumbs down Bartz.



dragon...
It's alright, we brough back Dragon Grass!
Really?! He's atop this tower!



Let's move, then! By the way, where is this Gill?
He lives on a small island northeast of the Valley of Dragons just beyond the continent.

Now we have a new destination. We just need to get our transportation up and running first.





Dragons became extinct because of this stuff...No wonder he doesn't want to eat it...



Welp, we have a dying dragon and something poisonous to humans. You know what time it is, right?





That's right, it's time for Reina to risk killing herself to save a dragon again!



Reina, that grass is poison to humans!







That's a good boy...



Reina!





"I mean, if you're stupid enough to eat poison grass, surely you'll drink anything!"





Are you all right?
Yes...thank you, Krile.
You never should have tried eating that grass...



"YARRR, Ye made ME look the wiser of th' bunch! I oughta KEELHAUL ye fer that!"



What about you, Krile? Are you all right?
y...yeah...







"Especially with the damn pirate speak, we fucking get it already."

Hee, hee...



You stay and get some rest, young lady.
Yes, grandpa.
Thank you, Krile!
That's okay. Thank you for helping the dragon! Really!







"Next time you slur your R's I'm throwing you off the fucking dragon I swear to god."







So now we've got some transportation.



Remember, dragons can't fly over mountains, so the only way to leave the area is in the northeastern corner of this continent.



While surrounding the entire continent with mountains doesn't make sense, my guess is that it railroads you into progressing the plot, since it leads you to Gill's island right to the north. Other than revisiting the northeastern continent, there's only one other place we can visit besides Gill's cave. Let's progress the plot first, shall we?





Let's go in!
Hold!







The island...?!
Better get back to the dragon!





...Welp.



X-Death just relishes being a dick.





But hey, we're alive, so yeah. Still, don't really have a way to advance the plot for now.







There's a new area to visit to the west of Gill's cave, so might as well go there and get some loot.





Welcome to Surgate Castle, one of the few areas whose name is actually consistent across all versions.





King Zeza is leading the Surgate fleet to X-Death's castle.
Good!
Zeza, be he one o' the Dawn Warriors?

Xezat in the GBA version, though not really that major a change. It's still a bunch of seldom-used letters jumbled together.







Thank you!

So yeah, this guy's fucking awesome in my book.

Anyway, let's explore.





They make a big deal about there being half a book. Who cares.







Here's a little thing where you put books on shelves.





Wonder why they have a book about the ancient race of another world.





Yeah, it's not like I deserve a reward for doing your fucking job for you.



castle is an odd magic that lets you levitate.

This castle also has a free spell. We'll look in a sec.



strength..."

Lancer, the only job I've still yet to show off, get an ability that absorbs HP and MP. Theoretically, this means you can use it to make a mage more self-sufficient. In practice, you'd rather have your mages diversify with another magic class or an ability they'll actually use, since Ethers aren't that hard to come by. It'd probably be more useful if Lancer wasn't one of the last jobs you got.



mountains... An' this huge eye started glarin' at me. It's amazin' I made it back alive!

This guy in a pretty out-of-the-way room is the only hint you get in finding one of the summons, and even then it's easy to ignore, especially since the continent itself is rather unremarkable. At any rate, "surrounded by mountains" means we can't access it, so I guess we'll have to wait until we get an airship.



At any rate, here's Float, a L2 Time Magic spell. Dunno why they waited until halfway through the game to give it to us, but whatever.





There's also another Bard song here, and this one works a bit differently from the others. The Bard will constantly be singing this song, so Galuf won't take any more actions until hit. However, it means everyone's speed will be going up more and more as Galuf sings, so it can be pretty damn handy to have.





Anyway, though it's not told to us explicitly, from talking to the NPCs here we find out our next destination is Zeza's fleet, where he's fighting X-Death. We'll go there soon.



There's a ton of shops in the basement of the castle, but the only new stuff here are these weapons. Nothing too stellar, honestly.







There's also this cave to the east of Val, which connects the western part of the continent to the one connected to the Big Bridge. We could've gone earlier, but meh.



For the most part, it's unremarkable other than how unnecessary it is for us to visit it. It's a cave we never have any reason to visit that nobody ever mentions. Hell, it's easy not to even realize this cave exists.



However, there is a nice little secret to this place.



Every step you take gives you money.



It goes up exponentially (40, 80, and so on up to 40960 or so), so you can get a ton of cash quickly.



Of course, there is a catch.





You have a decent chance of running into Gilgame, a monster you can't run from.







He's pretty fucking difficult.



There are ways to cheese him, but I didn't remember any at the time. We'll deal with him later.



For now, let's advance the plot.











Friends of yours?



The other two are nobility from another planet.

The other versions clarify it as the "other world," which is important considering Zeza has been there since this insinuates there are more than two worlds. Nope, there are only two worlds in this game. They don't even have real names.



Not 'King' Zeza?
No, I don't like that sort of thing...
Me neither!



Say, can you get us into X-Death's castle?
Hah! You're halfway in already! But first, come in and rest a moment!

Now we can wander the ship, though there's obviously not much to do.





disappear.



Anyway, not much to do than rest.



-----





SURPRISE FUCKING CLASH ON THE BIG BRIDGE













We're surrounded, huh?!



Leave them to me!
Don't blow it this time!
That would be you!

You gotta love the light-hearted banter between Galuf and Zeza. They have a really great history and aren't afraid to give each other shit.





Also, Zeza's a pretty awesome badass in his own right.





The monsters here are jokes.





After beating the guy standing here...





All the water and screen movement make this too complex to really animate. Sorry.





Zeza gets overpowered a bit, but nothing he can't handle. In the meantime...



...it's time to say "Hi" to an old friend.



WHO's spoiling such a nice day?!

Here's one where the RPGe version wins out. While the GBA version has a half-assed "'high' on life" joke, the other translation has...


It's got charm.





Anyway, it's time for a rematch with Gilgamesh. I spend some time buffing a bit...



...and steal the first Genji item! Starting with this encounter, we can steal various Genji items from certain bosses. The Genji Glove's a nice little accessory with a good defensive boost. Of course, defensive accessories tend to suck compared to some of the more awesome things like Elf Cloaks, but hey, free shit.

Also, that's why Faris is randomly a Thief. Could've just given her Steal as a Samurai, but I like Time Magic.



Now that I stole it, it's time to go to town on Gilgamesh.



To make things more ridiculous, I put Galuf on SpeedSong duty.







Enkido: He's quite a nuisance.
Gilgamesh: Finish them off!

Enkidoh, named as an allusion to the Epic of Gilgamesh, shows up to give Gilgamesh a hand.





He pretty much undoes any progress we made on Gilgamesh. That's two whole attacks from Reina undone!



Oh well, just gonna have to beat him up all over again!



Enkidoh will throw Aero spells and crap, but overall this fight's much easier than our last bout with Gilgy.







And that's a fight.









You tricky sonuva... I'll get you! I-glub, blub, mlub...





No good... can't...hold on...

Take a wild guess which translation the following's from:












Now to follow Zeza.







-----









The fleet's only a decoy... We'll get into the tower by submarine through the ocean floor.
I get it!
The tunnel to the tower is ready! Come on!





The basement is a free inn.









...Uh, no thanks. Based on the other two scripts, it seems this text box is scripted to repeat the last thing Zeza says on the sub. So "Let's go!" and "Come on!" becomes "Rest here?" instead.



Now that I've successfully made an explosion duller, we'll stop here and get to the dungeon proper next time.