Part 8: Enough Chicken to Feed a Village

Alright, the actual location we're headed for is this little path, tucked away in the northwest corner of the summer map. There's a path right to it, but it still manages to not be obvious.



Any question as to what a pebbler is can now be put at rest. I think they're Sonic the Hedgehog lookalikes, but they're not a huge threat. They like to pop up from underground, throw some dirt clods and do a spinning move but there's only 3 of them and they go down pretty quick.



As soon as the last one passes, the moogles (who have presumably been spying on us) come rushing back home.




The sound of joyful moogle laughter (Laughter, Kid. Not tears) magically brings back Boss's memory. This better be the last time, dammit.



After Boss gets his memory back, every moogle in the village says the same thing. It's not clearly explained, but this is the trick to finding the Sprite Village.



They also now have a couple of weapon orbs for some unexplained reason. We've got a glove and an axe orb..



Which appropriately enough results in a set of Moogle claws (Causes unconsciousness )and a stout axe (Increases stamina).



Neko's here with some fine equipment at anti-discount prices. A tendency in this game is for equipment upgrades to be pretty substantial in terms of armor. This is about a 7 point defense increase.



That's about all there is to the Moogle Village, so it's time to check out their neighbors. Following the cycle there's nothing we haven't seen before until winter, where steamed crabs have moved in to replace the moogles.




By the grand magical rite of walking in a circle we've opened a new route in the northeast corner. What, you thought I was kidding about it being right next door to the Moogle Village? This entire thing could have been solved with an axe if we.. had one..



Unfortunately, we arrived just a bit too late. Either that or it was trashed when he left and after seeing what the rest of the world calls a village he was understandably disappointed to return home.



The boss fight music starts up about here, but it doesn't actually start until you go north into the next screen. Don't be like me and wander around trying to figure out what I need to do in order to make the boss fight actually start.

Boss Fight: Spring Beak

Spring Beak Battle Video



The boss fight itself looks like an angry road-runner. He likes to hop all over the screen and spends a great deal of time up in the air and far away from you. This makes chasing him down and delivering physical attacks fairly difficult.




To make matters worse, he's got a few very annoying attacks. Silence, oddly enough, actually causes the confusion status effect which reverses your directional input. Balloon pins you down so he can step on you, but I was more amused by the balloon's image.



Slightly more threatening his a high level thunderbolt, which can do more than a hundred damage to all your characters. Turnabout is fair play, however, and he's quite weak against earth spells.



I love his expression upon exploding. Our prize: a boomerang orb.



Heading north from the boss battle, you can see a certain architectural resemblance to the water palace. Well... you can call it that, or you can call it using the same tileset. Sometimes they're one and the same.



Inside we get to meet Boss's senile grandfather. At least he's nice enough to not contradict our name for Boss.




He's also blind because of an Empire attack and there's some suggestion that the rest of Boss's tribe has been either kidnapped or massacred. Generally it doesn't take terribly long for eyesight to come back after a flash-blinding, so things are looking dark for the old man.



Boss is in deep denial, naturally. I think anger comes next? Intro to Psych was a long time ago.



Grandpa starts laughing and Boss lets out an exasperated sigh. Cue the laugh track! Now I'm hearing Grandpa talking like Archie Bunker.




"Those damn dirty humans. Glad you didn't bring any with you, eh Tyke?"



For once, nobody else has anything to say about Boss co-opting their services. Either that or it's an awkward silence after that whole "Your entire family has been massacred/kidnapped by humans and they're killing the planet" thing.




The awkward continues when Grandpa hands an elemental spirit off to us. It's kind of like dealing with an extremely racist grandparent who doesn't even know that there's anything wrong with what they're saying.



The power set we've just acquired includes one of the more dubiously useful spells, since most enemies are fairly easy to figure out. It's also a fairly good bet that whatever element you've just acquired is going to unlock any future orbs without wasting an MP to find out.



Adventuring Rule #14b: Whenever you hear about a dragon, you must immediately go and find it.



Grandpa is also our source of free healing in the area, which we hadn't had prior to beating the Spring Beak. It's a bit of a pain in the neck, so you don't want to use your magic too much prior to this point. A lot of you have mentioned that this is a great area to grind up some magic, but I only went as far as getting Sylph up on par with the rest of them.



Speaking of which, another circle means another spell level for everything we've got. It's probably easier to grind up magic as you go than to wait for later but it will certainly slow you down.




Looking at your magic skills from the menu will give a description of each spell available. Thunderbolt is our most expensive spell to date but has correspondingly great damage. Balloon is actually fairly handy as well, since it keeps evasive enemies pinned down.



Watts has moved into the Moogle Village and provides us with another weapon upgrade before we leave. The Lode Boomerang slows enemies down, but isn't really anything to write home about.



Wide area balloon spells, by the by, are a great way to pin down running chests. They're even color-coded for your convenience.




After a bit of magic grinding (Secret of Mana, thy name is indeed magic grinding) it's time to move forward and progress through the forest to Matango.



Immediately after the passage opens we get assaulted by murderous caterpillars. Well, more accurately they trundle slowly toward us. They're not particularly threatening and are a rich source of experience and gold.



These maps are wide and sprawling, but the key is to follow the guideposts.



Off to the side we have a closed off Cannon Travel Office. I love the explanation for why it's closed.



The road terminates at an ominous looking cave, which from its ominous appearance is surely an arduous dungeon between us and Matango...




Or, alternatively, a single screen passage with a spell-casting Kimono Bird and some Pebblers.



... okay. A talking mushroom just welcomed us to a town that appears to be composed mostly of mushrooms. A 'shroom joke is probably called for, but I'm not even sure where to go with it.

Grandpa Wasn't Flashed, My Friends