Part 8: Locke's Protection Fetish

Chapter 7 - Locke's Protection Fetish







There's not too much to talk about in Locke's scenario, so let's get to it



First, 84% evasion. Gotta love that.







1000HP and inherent Safe. Optional, of course, so no reason to bother.





Anyway, the gimmick's still the same, though there's one major difference.



You can't cheese things by taking the secret bridge here anymore. Clever.







So yeah, other than dialogue changes, this is the same stuff as before. No new enemies, and we already looted the place earlier.



So let's get to Celes already.



Torture scene is still in, of course.







Celes is supposed to be a former imperial general, and in this hack, she actually talks like one. She's a pretty matter-of-fact, to-the-point, no-bullshit kind of person based on her dialogue, which fits her better than her original text.

People complain about a few people being vulgar and a few constant memes, yet I've never seen this sort of thing brought up, where the dialogue better shows just what kind of character that person is. Rather than the other translations telling us Celes is a general by, you know, just telling us, here we actually see her talk like one. The hackers don't get enough credit here.



Anyway, calling your captors cowards isn't the smartest thing to do, but fortunately Locke is here to rescue her because rescuing women is his whole thing.



What the hell are you doing here?
You look like you need protecting. That's my thing.
You...do realize I'm a former Imperial General, right?
Yeah. So?
I'm useless in this condition.





Pretty sure this is in the original, but I love the "Stealing is wrong" prompt there. You know, in the part where you control the thief.



Anyway, the key's taken. Time to progress.



The Rune Edge boosts Celes's magic a bit, though I'm not fond of the physical damage at this point for a reason or two.



Mainly, because of the Privates.





The Privates use Safe a lot, and if you wait long enough they'll also start spamming Demi. Thus, attacking them with Celes isn't that great, even with guaranteed criticals. You'd much rather use Ice to take care of them, as a single-target will kill one Private and bring a group down low enough for Locke to clean them up.

And if you run low on MP? Why, Runic, of course! It's also a handy way to nullify Safe and Demi in the first place.



I also give Celes the Life Bell so that she becomes pretty tanky and self-sustaining. Constant Regen and Runic to recover MP? She's in a pretty decent place right now.





There's also a couple of great Relics down here. The Ribbon stops most bad status effects, besides Stop, Slow, and Seizure. It also boosts Stamina by 5. Still handy, but right now I have better slots to give up.

The wonderful Magic Cube boosts MP by a whopping 50% and also adds 7 Magic on top of that. Celes clearly loves the damn thing.







With that out of the way, let's do Figaro Cave.



200HP, and weak to Ice. Pathetic.



The Primordite's a pushover, but the Gold Bear has a huge 800HP and inherent Safe.









Runic? You mean that crappy command that never really works? Wouldn't it be faster to, you know, kill it?





Tek Rider wasn't as hard as I was used to, honestly. He uses a few spells, but honestly his physicals were scarier to me.





That, plus with her Rune Edge giving her guaranteed criticals, Celes was better off attacking than Runicing for the most part (Tek Rider is immune to Ice, so that's kind of a waste).





Tek Rider will use Bolt and Sleep magic, and also fire drills. Nothing too scary from what I faced.



Overall, not too bad compared to other bosses I've faced so far.



And that's it with Locke's scenario. Now let's go ahead and reunite the gang.











We want to run our blades through every last Imperial swine and run the city red like the Greeks did the Trojans.
What the fuck, Banon.



Sabin! You didn't die! Who are these freaks?
This is one of Doma's elite knights, Cyan. Also, here's some kid I found.





See, Elder? If we don't prepare to murder the hell out of those filthy Imperials, this will be a bigger bloodbath than the last time Hercules got wasted.







How'd you know that?
Oh, my friend the Imperial general here told me.





Hey, don't do that, buddy!
But my kingdom and family are dead because of the Empire!
Yeah, but I said I'd protect her, and my mysterious traumatic past where my old girlfriend got amnesia beats your family and kingdom being murdered!





Also, I was an Imperial soldier, too, so it'd be kinda fucked up if you murdered the only two women here.



Especially that General Leo fellow. Maybe we can talk him into joining us next.



After this is all over, we can go off finding more waterfalls to jump off.
Well, when you put it that way...













And so on we march to protect the Esper.









What the fuck?



Fine. I don't give a crap, just as long as you don't talk about my damn love life.
What.





And so we're at one of the big moments of the WoB: Protecting the esper (and, to a much lesser extent, Banon). I don't have as much equipment as I'd like, so I ended up being short a few relics, but overall I got everyone equipped well enough.



Alright, let's talk my parties.

First party is Cyan and Terra. Cyan's all about Defense, which is why I gave him the Safety Glove and Knight Cape. Terra, meanwhile, got the leftover equipment, which is why her only accessory is the White Cape. These two are my back-up party, as they can only reliably do single-target damage (Poison can't target multiple characters, but wrecks humans). Still a force to be reckoned with, though.

Next is Locke and Edgar. Locke, of course, is about speed and evasion, thus two Main Gauches and Sprint Shoes (and a Jewel Ring because why not). Edgar, not really needing anything special, gets a Ribbon because why not. This is my main team for regular encounters, as BioBlaster wrecks everything since humans are weak to poison. Locke either attacks non-humans, or steals from humans.

My boss team is Gau, Celes, and Sabin. Fairy and Star Rings for Gau because why not. Guy is incredibly fragile, though, able to die in one hit from anything, so I end up moving him to the back row. Sabin has two Spirit Claws, the Power Glove, and the Black Belt, because he's that great physically. Celes gets the Rune Edge, Magic Cube, and Life Bell. Mainly, she's there for support, using Runic and Cure when needed, though she's got some offense herself. This team is what I'll be attacking Kefka with.











So the awesome "Save Them!" plays, and now we've got three parties to wreck all these soldiers with.







Troopers are dangerous. Their physical attacks hurt, plus they've got all sorts of nasty magic like HasteX.





Poison rips them apart, though.





Terra and Cyan can't do multi-target well, but they destroy single targets with Dispatch and Poison.



Though they also couldn't take hits that well. Troopers may do a nasty counter when they die.



Rottweilers are sturdier than Troopers and aren't weak to Poison, but they also can't cast magic and will run away when alone. They also attack twice.



I use a few different rages with Gau for this part, starting with Vaporite because Regen rocks.



Snow Armor's a tougher nut to crack, but that's why Locke's there (even though his offense is crap, the poison damage helps do it in).



And Fidor is just pathetic with his 300HP.



Also, here's Sabin Imping and DeImping one with the same attack.



And Gau using his Hornet rage to shoot needles and spam SlowX. Speaking of which, Runic will hit Gau's rages as well if it's a regular magic spell, so it's a nifty way to restore her MP if needed.



Leafer and its Wind Slash is also a great way to take care of these guys.







This nasty attack does big damage and poisons everyone (besides Gau).





So here's Remedy, which Celes learns at L6. It actually restores HP on top of curing status effects, so it's more useful now than simply using an Antidote.





He drops a Relic Ring, conveniently enough. No stat bonuses, and it makes you undead. Still might be challenging to find a use for it, but hey, at least at this point there's more opportunities for me to find a use.



For Kefka, I have Gau use the Repo Man rage, with the more common attack being Step Mine. It's alright.



Requisite Suplex GIF.





The secondary attack of the Repo Man rage? Vanish. Not too bad.







And then Kefka runs away because that's what he does.



Anyway, Banon could hardly be assed to actually see the thing, so it's up to the party to support Terra in her time of need.





It goes poorly.









I have to go now. My planet needs me.





Bye, Terra!





I like how Locke ends up waking up in the same bed Terra does post-Slave Crown. Kinda neat detail.



Because I've been watching you sleep for hours, and it was starting to get boring.



She turned into some screaming pink blob and flew off into space.
Holy crap, that actually happened? I thought I dreamed that.









This situation is most distressing. The woman with magical powers has transformed into a being of unquestionable power. I know not if she's even capable of rational thought anymore. The idea of fighting a feral creature like that frightens me.





It's settled. I personally can't stand traveling with more than three companions, so let's leave people here.



We've come to the first point in the game where we can choose my party.

SO CHOOSE MY PARTY. Any four characters you want. This includes Shadow. Don't worry, I'll show off the Figaro brother scene and the Locke at Kohligen scene regardless of what party you choose. I'll be sticking with this party until post-Zozo when we get our next party change, so pick wisely since I hear Zozo's a major pain in the ass.