Part 11: Robots

Chapter 10 - Robots



So last time, the gang performed probably the worst opera in video game history. With their plan to get Celes kidnapped by a crazed gambler successfully pulled off, it's time to convince the guy to fly us to the heart of the empire.





That was utterly fantastic back there! I don't think we could ever top that opera performance!





Get off my airship. Now.





I've got money!



Wow, can't believe that worked.







Yeah, we all hate the Empire too. That's why we're going to mess them up.





Works for me.
Alri-wait, what!?







Managed to find a small graphical glitch while trying to GIF this, so here this is.



Would you flip the coin already?
Sorry, I just wanted to look cool.







Oh, you didn't know about that? Oh, right, the whole "Been gone for ten years" thing. Oops!



Gotta love Setzer being the type of gambler who fucking loves it when he gets swindled. He's in it more for the game of chance than merely making money.



And if I beat those odds...what a rush that'd be!







Now we're on the Southern Continent, with a few new towns and new enemies.





Closest is, of course, Albrook.





Gotta love these two guys contradicting each other. They're probably the only two scholars in this town, and they end up being at odds against each other because both these things exist for some reason.



And of course, the bar here is a bit more lewd, which makes sense.



Anyway, Albrook doesn't sell anything that other shops haven't had yet, so let's go to the airship.



The item shop now has weapons for Setzer when he officially joins the party. Also, it makes thematic sense.



Right, let's head to Tzen.



Rain Man, as a human, has Remedies he can have stolen. Dragonflies are kinda nasty if you hit them with physicals, as they'll counter with Gale Cut.



Wyverns and Spikes are pretty dull otherwise.

Anyway, I buy a Dragoon Seal from Albrook so that I could turn Edgar into a dragoon. Between his Jumps and Sabin's Suplexes, I've got the Fantastic Flying Figaro Brothers, so hell yes.



Tzen's pretty much the same convo-wise, though they've got some new equipment available.



Full Moon and Morning Star are upgrades of those respective weapons in Narshe. Celes takes the Morning Star since Rune Edge kinda makes her do nothing but Runic most of the time, while Locke goes with just one Full Moon and a shield to serve a more defensive build. Ocean Claws are water-themed and can cast Slow, so I buy two despite having a stronger hell claw because these babies will be nice in the Magitek Factory.



The Tiger Mask gives a hefty evasion boost, boosts Vigor by 5 and Speed by 3, and halves Fire damage. Only Sabin and Gau can use this, and I end up getting Sabin one.



The Spirit Ring and Amulet are pretty much upgrades of the Jewel Ring and Fairy Rings respectively. Spirit Ring blocks Dark, Poison, and now Zombie while giving 15 defense and boosting Vigor and Stamina by 5, while the Amulet blocks Berserk, Muddle, and now Stone while boosting magic defense by 15 and Magic and Stamina by 5. I skip them for now since it took me long enough to grind for the other equipment.



Chickenlips are pretty simple if you kill them quickly with Fire Dance or whatever, though they can cast a nasty Quake spell as well.



Maranda's not as well-equipped as Tzen, but it's still got some good stuff.



The Mythril Helm and Mail are new, pretty much being no-thrills defensive gear.



The Trident is water-elemental and boosts max HP by 1/8. Since Edgar's actually attacking now, I get him a new spear.



Now that we're done shopping, it's time to tackle Vector.







So yeah, Vector's a shithole, though you can get some cool backstory tidbits if you talk to people here.



The armor shops suck, but the weapon shops are interesting in that they sell elemental blades. They all have 120 power, boost a certain stat by 3, and do the obvious elemental damage while having a chance to cast a L2 spell of that element (or, in the Storm Blade's case, Break). As for stat boosts, Flame = Vigor, Ice = Magic, Elec = Speed, Storm = Stamina.

That said, all four of these are in the next dungeon, so no need to buy them now.



I forgot that talking to soldiers will get you into fights, so here's the Defender and Commandos. Defenders give you the more-useful Tonics from stealing now, which are handy.



Though they also counter attacks with Harvester, which heals the group a few HP. The Commandos also like to cast Shell.





This easily-overlooked guy gives you Kefka's backstory, which apparently a lot of people have overlooked. He was a normal guy until he got the experiment, which fucked with his head.



I think that part's new to the hack, though. Hopefully I won't be on the business end of that anytime soon.





Anyway, let's do the next dungeon and get a bunch of cool stuff!





This place is quite the maze, with tons of treasure hidden in the most obscure corners. Hopefully I remembered to collect them all!

Also, this is one of those dungeons where the music keeps playing during battles, which is nice because I love this music.



Foxhounds are the highest tier of dogs. Apparently, all dogs have inherent Haste. Also, they all can attack twice, which can be nasty.



So naturally, I have Edgar impale one.



Damage kinda sucks right now, but that'll be fixed later once I do a bit of equipment swapping.



Likewise, Locke isn't that impressive right now, but that's because these things are meant to be dual-wielded while I'm only using one. They don't give evasion bonuses, so I gave Locke a shield so he can keep a crazy-high evasion, even though Kirin has been giving him a significant HP boost.

Locke switches to Ramuh for Vigor boosts after learning Life, and Celes to Siren for Magic and Speed.



Pick up our first weapon! Since it boosts Vigor, I give it to Locke.



Here's the flail weapon's auto-death trigger, which is always handy.





Proto Men have innate Shell and Fire/Ice immunity, though obviously weak to Thunder and Water. As far as I can see, none of the later versions of this enemy are Rock or Mega.



Here's my current equipment load-out as of this point. I move Locke to a more offensive position at this point.



I then get an Elec Sword and give Locke that since it's much handier here.



Onion Kids have innate Safe and hold Remedies for theft. A nice callback, too.



They also don't like dancing.



I give Celes this since it boosts magic a bit.



10 Evasion and Magic Block, a nifty 7-point Speed and 5-point Stamina boost, and it sets Safe and Shell at critical HP. Tailor-made for Locke, but between his Thief Glove and Sprint Shoes, I hold off on it for now.





These give the same defenses as the Mythril stuff in Maranda, but with slightly higher Magic Defense and water resistance. I think I give both to Edgar.



Then I do a bit of relic swapping, moving the Life Bell to Sabin, the Stat Stick to Celes, and the Power Glove to Edgar. This has a significantly notable effect to his dragooning output.







Then we randomly see Kefka do some foreshadowing and Esper-tossing.





Then our plans of dumpster-diving go poorly.





Actually, not that poorly, since I make short enough work of Ifrit that he goes down before he can even switch to Shiva.



He can do hard physical attacks and casts Fire 2, but Celes negates the latter rather effectively.





I see you, too, possess a fondness of suplexing.
What's with everything being so obsessed with suplexing?
It's the universal language, brother.





Wait, Ramuh's your brother?
Let's just say we both got the looks of the family.





Anyway, new espers!

Name: Ifrit
Characters: Locke, Relm
Stat Boosts: Speed +2
Spells: Fire (20), Fire 2 (5), Doom (4)

Name: Shiva
Characters: Celes, Strago
Stat Boosts: MP +30/Stamina +1
Spells: Ice (20), Ice 2 (5), Float (4)

Yet more options for Locke and Celes, plus options for Strago and Relm when we eventually get them. Locke loves Ifrit's speed, of course, while Celes would rather have more MP.



Innate shell like the rest of the rhino clan. Guess what they absorb.



Griffins can cast Razor Leaf if they feel like jerks.



And here's the Storm Blade to round things out.



Innate Float/Regen, immune to ice, weak obviously to Bolt and Water.





Yeah, Sabin's overleveled enough to learn Mantra, which heals based on his current HP and his Stamina. The forumla is (Caster's HP/# of allies) + (Stamina*2). Or something like that, may have gotten a few parentheses wrong here because of how these games do calculations.





Anyway, Number 024 can be tricky as hell since he still has his Wallchange gimmick.

What makes him really dangerous, though, is hit inherent Regen. You can't inflict Seizure on the guy as a result, which combined with him regaining HP a lot makes this a tricky fight.



It also threatens to make my characters useless since they all have elemental attacks. Celes has ice weapons and Ice 2/Bolt 2 while, Locke has his Elec Sword and can cast Bolt 2 and Fire 1 at this point (since Celes learned Ice 2 through leveling). Sabin and Edgar both have water-elemental physicals, but they can also deal non-elemental damage with their abilities.



Like, you know, Suplex!





So Locke and Celes are useless until he changes his weakness to, say, Bolt. At that point, he's fucked.



A tricky fight, but once you find his weakness you should hopefully wear him down quickly.





Anyway, SIX NEW ESPERS WOO

I'll list them after we get this bit of plot out of the way.







Oh, hey Celes! What are you doing with the Returners anyway?



Wait, you're a spy, Celes?
No way!





Thanks for your work in being a spy! Great job!





This suuuuuuuucks!



Let's fly!



Ugh... That's the second time a girl I was trying to protect just flew off. Well, third if you count falling as flying off.



The Espers died and gave their power to us, then Kefka showed up and Celes teleported him away.
Also, stuff's exploding.















Alright, ESPER TIME.

Name: Unicorn
Characters: Terra, Edgar
Stat Boosts: HP +30/Stamina +1
Spells: Dispel (10), Cure 2 (4), Remedy (2)

Name: Maduin
Characters: Terra, Mog
Stat Boosts: Stamina +2
Spells: Imp (10), Drain (4), Break (2)

Name: Shoat
Characters: Setzer, Mog
Stat Boosts: Magic +2
Spells: Poison (10), Bio (4), Stone (2)

Name: Phantom
Characters: Celes, Shadow
Stat Boosts: Vigor +1/Stamina +1
Spells: Float (10), Haste (4), Safe (2)

Name: Carbunkl
Characters: Terra, Strago
Stat Boosts: Magic +1/Stamina +1
Spells: Scan (10), Rflect (4), Shell (2)

Name: Bismark
Characters: Terra, Cyan
Stat Boosts: Vigor +2
Spells: Life (10), Regen (4), Storm (2)



A couple new spells I know little about, some changed around stuff (Maduin no longer teaches the L2 spells), and so on. HIlariously, of all these new espers, right now only Edgar can use one of them, switching to Unicorn for more HP and letting Sabin switch to Golem.



And then I'll probably retire and open a hot dog shack or something.
That could work. You've already got the costume for it.



Here, get on this minecart and go blindly through these monster-infested tunnels!
But-



Have fun!





More awesome music!





Some magic, nothing too spectacular.





Number 128 starts the battle off by inflicting Stop on Sabin, which stops me from attempting to Suplex him. A shame, because I probably could've separated his arms from his body!



Locke does his job as healer well.



Good thing Edgar's in the air!





Because he's fucking powerful.





This Chaser can freeze people and summons Cyborgs upon defeat.



She flew away.
What the hell?









What the hell are those?



I swear to god, Edgar, if you say "That's what she said..."





Cranes. Left absorbs Bolt, Right absorbs Fire. They'll cast spells on each other to heal and power up.



Of course, we can suplex them.





Setzer's slots are unrigged, which means I need actual skill to land them. On the bright side, Lagomorph's healing is boosted to actually be useful, making Setzer into an effective healer.



I'll go more into him later though, as the cranes are already dead.













Next time, we'll do more plot and do a few side-things.