Part 7: Rodsrodsrods

New jobs means it's time to stare at Garula again.


Random fact, whatever you pick in this section you get one for free. So that's one bonus flame rod!


A group of weaklings that somehow manage to kill things.


Yesssss precious precious rods.


Next, off to the Watertower!


It's time to beat up a god.

Boss Fight: Shiva


Shiva and her three Ice Commanders can hit hard. They'll attack physically while Shiva herself will cast Blizzara.


The obvious answer is to hit them with Firagas.


This takes out the guards in one hit, and Shiva's quickly taken out herself.


Not that difficult.


Oh look, another rod. You knew just what I wanted!


Oh and this summon spell I guess.


Stock up on Rods....




And buy All The Magic.



Look man some of us were beating up ancient avatars of ice.


This doubles the success rate of Steal. This is useful, as you can imagine.


Oh hey a back row weapon! This'll come in hand eventually.


Look at all that fire.

Boss fight: Liquid Flame


Liquid Flame is actually a little luck based.



Smack it with Frost Rods and you do a ton of damage. The problem comes when it changes forms. If it switches to a hand then you're kind of screwed. The hand is immune to ice and does physical attacks.


On the other hand, it will sometimes switch to a Tornado form. In this form it casts Fira on itself to heal up.


I kill it before that happens.


Huh an elemental bow. Another weapon I can't use!


Next everyone goes Mystic Knight.


Surprise, the werewolf was a good guy! Karnak doesn't seem like it was that good a kingdom. In newer FF games this section would be 10 hours and have tons of political plot.


Oh look the third cornerstone of the world is gone. Great.


So yeah somehow this makes the castle explode. Normally the tension comes from trying to get as much loot as possible in the time limit. But every bit of treasure is guarded by a monster. Monsters give EXP.

I don't get the second Elven Mantle and Main Gauche.


I told you learning Learning was important.


This isn't really a boss fight, it's just a forced fight to add in tension.


First step, everyone gets Sleep Spellblade set up.


The Cur Nakks are vulnerable to sleep. Smacking them with Sleep means that they don't attack, and they get it recast on them every time I hit them.


Iron Claw here is another strange move. If you want his gimmick, you have to wait.


There we go!

Iron Claw is also vulnerable to sleep, by the way.


Our first Blue Magic!


I'm fairly sure this is the last bit of forced EXP, which means that the party's levels are set!


4,4,4,5. Pretty great level set up. It's low and yet at the same time with this I can get the important Blue Magic spells I want!


Then Karnak Castle explodes.


Woo! More Jobs.


Yes. The Beastmaster. I'm going to love this job.

Next Time: More flagrant abuse of game mechanics!