Part 14: Lifespring Grotto (1/2)
Let's Play Final Fantasy Bonus Update 3: Only Half of Lifespring Grotto? You're Ripping Us Off!
Welcome back! Today, we find ourselves outside of the Dwarves' canal (made by our explosives as you'll remember from the main LP):
Inside this whirlwind is this place:
Lifespring Grotto is 20 stories, with a boss fight on 5, 10, and two boss fights on 20. We will be bailing on floor 10. Why is that, you ask? We simply are not capable of going toe-to-toe with Shinryu and Omega yet. We will be back, though. The second half of Lifespring Grotto will come after we deal with Whisperwind and its FFVI bosses. (Including a much-loved train and a very popular opera-loving octopus)
So, you know the deal. Lifespring opens after you beat Kraken and the Sunken Temple. At this point, the party's pretty powerful, all the more so for getting the ridiculous items from the other bonus dungeons. I'll spare myself some time later and talk about my two best pieces of loot from this one now:
Stuff can finally ditch that Buckler from the beginning of the game.
I didn't grab a picture of it, but the Genji Gloves that our friend Gilgamesh dropped boosts Let's evade through the roof, making it almost on par with Play, who is, after all, a Ninja. Having an insanely agile Knight with 255 accuracy and over 110 evade at this point of the game will make the rest of the main game simple...Tiamat and Chaos are already no match for my party. Yet, as we shall see, that doesn't mean much: the rest of the bonus material are going to pose a much greater threat than Chaos.
There are a lot of rooms in this dungeon that look like the Sunken Temple. You don't want to stare at this:
Over and over, do you? No? We won't screenshot most of those. Also, I'll be doing the floors out of the order I got them. They're random, so it doesn't matter.
Let's get the boring stuff out of the way first, shall we?
Yawn.
You loved the Marsh Cave, didn't you? Have some more!
What do you mean, everyone hated the Ice Cavern? That's the best part of the game!
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Sadly, Lich, Maralith, Kraken, and Tiamat don't randomly ambush you in this room. It's actually not that bad, considering it's a ripoff of the Temple of Fiends.
Yeah, it's a solid room. Square, make more of your blatant ripoff rooms ripoffs of rooms people liked to begin with.
Anyway, on to the better stuff.
This is different. You know what I like about it? The atmosphere, the Venice-esque feeling of sailing around in my
What other interesting rooms are there?
Another NPC blocking your way puzzle. This one is tolerable because the NPCs are witty
We have mad scientists:
Philosophers:
And what might be the smartest NPC I've encountered in the game (although he's a bit behind the times):
What's next?
Oh, cool. NPC dancers try to block your path, no random encounters. I can deal with that.
Is she hitting on us?
Ha ha! Get it? 'Cause it's a Final Fantasy V themed dungeon? Ha ha ha...oh, Square, you and your continuity references, you slay...me...I'm missing FFV's job system. Have you ever noticed that Final Fantasy V is like Final Fantasy I done right?
What's after all of this?
More...dancers, eh? OK, I'm cool with that. I'm through...what's next?
...Square...I love you to pieces, but...I hate you.
Moving on!
Go click on this link and keep it open while you read the next bit:
http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=HYP09_6WbLk
One of the better 16-bit remakes of an 8-bit tune in Dawn of Souls, eh? (The Rebel Theme from FFII is the other really well done one: http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=VnhX5KTpOuA)
Try listening to the Corneria Castle theme for half an hour on end while incredibly frustrated due to a bullshit invisible sky castle.
Turn off auto-dash and stop pressing fast forward on your emulator, my friend. Take your time. You'll still fall and have to start over a million times.
Follow those paths if you wish. Some lead to rewards:
Others, well:
I think "Dick Move.jpg" is one of my more appropriate image titles.
Is that Corneria Castle theme starting to get on your nerves? GOOD.
Luckily for you, you can stop it now, we're out.
All right. Anyone up for some boss battles?
First, let's see an old friend. One of the most popular Final Fantasy characters ever.
http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=EtdQl6WuFeI
(It's bad enough that you couldn't import the other boss themes, Dawn of Souls, but not to bring in Clash on the Big Bridge when Gilgamesh comes on the scene? Inexcusable.)
So, rather uniquely, we get a plot room. We need to talk to a series of mermaids about this bizarre man and his quest for the ultimate sword.
So, let's talk to some mermaids!
Apparently, robots wash ashore here.
Oh, no, how are we going to beat this boss fight?
So, Gilgamesh has two possible spawning points in this room, and you need to talk to the mermaids to figure out which one he picked this time. We're fighting him by the teleporter.
????: "At long last! The ultimate sword...is...MINE! Now I can finally go home! Hey! Where did YOU come from? Oh, you mean you were looking for Excalibur, too? How rude of me. I mean, the four of you came all this way...Of course I'll let you have the sword. ... I'd say you've been hitting the oxyale a bit hard if you believed THAT!"
I love your wit, Gilgamesh.
Gilgamesh strikes out with the legendary sword Excalipur:
Let's can't take many hits with that thing. Look at that damage!
Gilgamesh goes down easy. He uses Protect on himself, but it doesn't help his case much. Just stab him to death.
This next boss battle might be tougher.
????: "Interlopers..."
Falls well short of the usual loquacious standards of Final Fantasy villains, doesn't he?
http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=dzvje...feature=related
Atomos is tougher, but still no threat to my party.
Comet hurts, though.
He has an instant death attack called Wormhole with a pretty cool animation.
You know what else is a cool animation? Bosses dying in 16-bit Final Fantasies:
We receive a Judgment Staff, but we don't have a Black Mage to put it to use.
Thanks again to our wonderful OP for letting me do this, and thank you all for listening.
Next time: How the hell am I going to LP a 40-floor dungeon?