Final Fantasy V Advance Part #5 - In Which Butz stares at an animal until it runs away for hours.

Part 5: In Which Butz stares at an animal until it runs away for hours.

Carwen is notable for being the single least important town in the entire game. Literally nothing happens and nothing of import is here.

It does have some minor upgrades, but I'm going to hold off on them for now.

On the other hand, it's very important for Butz to continue his journey to becoming the ultimate piano virtuoso.

Oh yes, the Frost Rod, this will be very important.

Galuf becomes a White Mage because it's not like he'll be really needed in the next fight.

North Mountain has pretty snazzy music for such a short dungeon.

I will never stop being baffled by these enemies.

Don't step on the purple flowers they'll poison you.

Wait-

Darn it Lenna.

Faris continues to he a Boss.

Boss Fight: Magissa

She opens up with a powerful attack spell. Once you revive your KO'd party member, here's the steps to beating her.

Step 1.

Step 2.

Step 3.

Several pieces of equipment do something if you use them while equipped from the item menu. If it's a Rod or a staff, it casts a spell but destroys the item in the process. In the Frost Rod's case, it casts Blizzaga.

There's normally some gimmick where she calls her husband, but I beat her too fast.

Look, an item for a class I don't have yet!

Lenna I told you not to walk on the purple flowers.

Well, uh, there we go, I guess.

Now we can fly!*
_{*To around 3 locations and only one new one.}

First back to Tycoon Castle.

The Healing Staff isn't that useful for its healing properties this time, since you know, everyone dies in one hit anyway. However, it is useful for the large boost to Magic it gives.

Now to Walse Castle, this will be a useful place.

OK... I want that Gil and Elven Mantle.

Just run just run....

Darn it.

OK, it's time to take advantage of a glitch in the GBA version. The game added a quicksave option to make it easier to play on the go. However, when you quicksave it resets the number of steps to the next Random Encounter. If you quick save every few steps, you can run through an area without hitting a single fight.

2000 gil and a Time Spell I have never used.

And this thing of beauty.

Not only does it come with a sweet Agility and Magic boost, but it adds a flat chance to evade physical attacks! It's awesome and I don't not have this equipped on somebody for a long, long time

Our next destination is the Walse Watertower. This area has the optional boss and Summon, Shiva, contained within. However, we don't have the stuff to beat her yet.

No, we're here for a different purpose.

Ice Soldiers have Mythril Swords to steal. They're not only a good attack upgrade, they sell for 440 gil. That's 22 potions!

With that money, I'll be able to buy all the upgrades

Next, I head up to the Walse Tower. Around the tower I run into this encounter. Garula is unique. It doesn't attack, and it runs away after three turns. What does that mean?

This. You see, the game gives you EXP and Gil based off what monsters you beat. But it gives you AP at the end of an encounter. This means that, if the monster runs away, you don't get EXP and Gil from it... but you still get AP.

It's time to move up and down on the world map with the fast forward button held. (I wouldn't recommend doing this on an actual GBA.)

I think there's a joke in this stealable item somewhere.

Not that useful, you'll want a thief for this instead.

I can not say how important this is.

Suddenly my physical fighter have some bite to them again!

There we go. Running from Random Encounters will no longer be a threat.

Then I stole 99 Mythirl Swords.

I think that's enough money until the next major Gil source.

OK we can move on with the plot now.

The FFV developers must have been so proud of this Mode 7 Meteor sequence. They play it quite a few times.

Might as well get these.

They're a nice little knife upgrade.

This fight is Knights turn to shine.

Boss Fight: Garula

Garula only uses physical attacks.

Faris, having the highest HP, uses Guard and covers for the other three Knights in critical HP.

The biggest problem is Rush. Rush doesn't only do damage, it also inflicts Sap. Sap causes HP to gradually drain, so even though Faris took 0 damage, she still gets the HP drain. Just use a potion on her when HP gets too low.