Part 27: Update -XXIII- Darling it's better, down where it's wetter

Update 23 Highlights - Darling it's better, down where it's wetter


With the vomit of X's EU now behind us, it's time to look ahead to another dungeon. We're on our way to the Sunken Temple in order to find the Key of Tides so that we can do something with the four keys, either involving saving the world or destroying it. Bit of a shot in the dark.







I hope you like it, 'cause we can't breathe anywhere else.

Don't you worry, I've been to the Sunken Temple a bunch of times.

Tidus, how are you talking? Reynn and Lann we can hand wave by saying Shantotto's curse shit also altered their frequency of hearing, but you are clearly not under the same curse because we saw you breathing and talking on land. According to X, you're supposedly holding your breath.



Hey, I didn't know you could breathe underwater too.

Don't go the-confusing me with your average mortal. I'm special!

Okay, but then why didn't you just go to the temple for us?

What? Are you the-crazy?! Every the-inch between us and that key is crawling with a mirage of Barrages-- I mean a barrage of Mirages! If you sent me in there alone, I'd get annihi-the-lated!

I'd call Tama a wimp but I did kind of push her out of the lineup at level 10, so her fear is understandable.

Sor-ry. So, did you mean it when you said that we could go back to Nine Wood Hills?

Well, that place isn't just immune to the-time. It can dispel the-magic and other mystical manipulations. So, that means you can go back to Nine Wood Hills without the-choking to death.

Does that mean Reynn and Lann will drown if I cast Dispel on them?

Thank goodness. Although, I guess that means we won't be able to travel anywhere else, huh?

Meh. Let's just finish our dunk to the Sunken Temple and... wait. If we find the key, will we change back?

Oh! Don't worry. Dr. Shantotto gave me the antidote to the curse.

Whew, what a relief! I thought we'd end up stuck like this... Wait, did you say "curse"?!

Dude!

Shyeah? I mean, curses are the doc's specialty.

Uh... first we've heard of that. Well, as long as she's planning on fixing us up...

Sorta. Ya see, the doc said--



Fuck you, Shantotto.

She... said all that?

Twin losers? Whaaaat?! Where does she get off calling me a loser? Lann is the loser here!

You're mad about the name-calling?!

Question for you: what the-exactly is a quacho ruby?

Oh, good point. What is a quacho?

Reynn, we have one of them stuffed in the prism case. It's a penguin thing.



Now I see... But, those sound like they must be just about impossible to get.

True enough. They say she only sheds one tear every decade. The rubies go for at least a hundred million gil.

JACKPOT!

A hundred mil?!

I swear, that is the last time I ever consult a pantologist.

Solid life lesson to learn, Reynn. Now let's go get us some rubies!

Hey, Tidus. How come you can breathe underwater?

Well, if you've tossed enough blitzballs around... Uh?

What?

Hmmm... Eh, I'll tell you about it some other time.

Don't dodge the question, Tidus.

Anyway, now that everyone has shut up, I start swimming down towards the ocean floor. Despite how open this looks, you're actually stuck in a narrow corridor in terms of movement.



FFX had a similar scene when Tidus and Rikku dived into some ruins.

There are a few points of light on the way down that you can examine to get items. The first one shown in the screenshot above is an ether. Second is 2 water spellstones. These are followed by 3 ethers, 4 hi-potions, and 5 shell stones.



Just past the shell stones lies our target.

Hey! There it is!





Okay, I'll be waiting back at the surface. Good luck finding that quacho ruby!

Yup! Got it covered!

Hey. Just don't forget why we originally came here.

Money?

You know, if we found enough of them, we could all be filthy stinking the-rich!

Ohhh! I like your style, Tama.

So do I.

Hear that? We're gonna find a quachozillion rubies!

I'll say it again. Don't forget why we're here.

World of Final Fantasy Music: Sunken Shrine


Hell yeah. This is a quest I can get behind.

User LiefKatano caught something that I neglected to mention, which is that the Sunken Shrine is a location in Final Fantasy I. It's the place where the Water Crystal is housed. The party even gets to it by using a submersible barrel, similar to how the twins got thrown into the ocean in barrels.



First battle and we have a sort of new Mirage.



Nightsqual is just a re-skin of Sharqual. You need to put them to sleep to get a capture chance.

Also, I shook up the stacks once again before we came in here.



I'm running short on nicknamed Mirages from the thread, so I pull Magus back out and transfig him into a Ramuh. Foozlez gets transfigged into a Chocochick to sit on top of Reynn's stack.

I bring out the Minimantoise for Lann's stack and rename it T.M.N.T in order to avoid any heated debates about which of the four turtles is the best.

Frostbite also gets renamed to Optimus because he's now a Vampire Prime. Later in this dungeon I swap Foozles and T.M.N.T around to boost Lann's selection of support moves since his stack picks up quite a good number of them (including Esuna, Cura, and Raise).

Hey, we can walk! Does that mean we're not underwater anymore? Then that means the curse has been-- GLURK! Okay, wishful thinking. Right.



Hmm... I think that this temple must have some kind of special the power. Don't ask me the-how it works, but I sense some kind of force that keeps people and Mirages from the-drifting too far away.

Hey, you're right. Something's keeping us weighed down.

But on the bright side, it's just like being on solid the-ground. That's especially the-helpful for you two, right?

It also makes the whole "underwater" aspect of this dungeon entirely meaningless.

Also, this is just the-wild guess but...

Whoa! No way!



Guys, Tama can fly. Nothing about what she's doing right now is impressive.



Anyway, there's two ways to go that both lead to the same place. Both paths have a treasure chest, but I find taking the hallway is the better route.



As Tama demonstrated, we can run up this green covered parts of the wall.

I'm a ninja! Wacha!

I'm pretty sure ninjas are supposed to be quiet. Remember why we're here.

You'd think that, but Naruto exists and is popular.

To the-find that ruby! ~Baby, I the-wanna be a quacho zillionaire~

No, it was something about a key...

Nope, pretty sure it was about money.

Speaking of, let's get back to the search. The treasure chest contains a pick-me-up. After that, just run ahead over the archways to reach the other side, then swing left and back towards the screen to snag the chest on the outside wall, which contains a wobblestopper.



On the way, I pick up another Mirage re-skin. Sea Serpent needs to be hit with water attacks to create a capture chance.



To the left of the next set of stairs, we spy a treasure chest way in the back. It has 3 lightning marbles.

After that, head back to the stairs and up into the hall with the pillars. There's nothing in here, so just move on to the next area.



They all the-look the same to me.

I know.

Racists.



Heading along the bridge will lead to a big open square. The stairs leading up are where story progress is, but there's a different path we can explore to the left.



The-dude!

Yes, Lann, the temple is male.

Reynn! You mean you... you can tell?!

And all this time, I thought we were walking on lifeless the-stone!

Why do I even bother?

You know you keep asking that, and yet you still do it.

Run up the left side of the wall to find a chest with 2 phoenix downs on a platform. After that, continue running up the left side of the wall to reach the roof. There's a chest up there with 4 lightning marbles.

There's also a charmchime in a chest on the opposite platform from where we got the 2 phoenix downs. It's a Gimme Golem item, meaning if you didn't come down here first and instead went up the stairs to try and proceed with the story, then you wasted your time.



We run into a Mega Nightsqual on the way back to the square. I opt to just transfig the Nightsqual we caught earlier. Mega Nightsqual needs to have Bravery cast on it to create a capture chance. Bravery isn't a particularly common ability (Triumphant Shout and Bravery are the only ones I know of that do it).



While we're at it, let's have a look at Vampire Prime now that we have one.





T.M.N.T also gets enough SP to get to Adamantoise. Adamantoises first appeared in FFII, where you had to fight one as a boss and later as a regular enemy. They appear in every game after that, except for VI for some reason (I don't recall any Adamantoise-like enemies in that game).

An Adamantoise shows up as a special hunt enemy in FFXV. I won't spoil the encounter, even though XV spoilers are fair game, because the quest is honestly one of the coolest ones in the game to see for the first time. Not so much the actual fight with it though. Originally, it was supposed to take roughly 30 in-game days to kill it (that's 14 hours or so in real-time), but the final game was patched to reduce it down to a roughly 30 minute fight (or less than 10 with the right setup) when everyone rightfully said "14 hours? Are you fucking insane?"



Heading back to the progress stairs, you can see the Gimme Golem poking out.



How long has it been the-holding its breath?

Please don't ask "Lann questions."

Give him the charmchime and head on to the next area.



This part is kind of a pain in the ass. There are two treasure chests on rooftops on the left side, as well as one on the right. You just need to run up those green sections of wall.

Start with the wall on the left, because the one on the right closest to our starting point doesn't have a chest.

The left rooftop treasure chests have 2 pick-me-ups and 2 lightning marbles. The chest on the right rooftop has another charmchime.



While running around this giant area to get treasure, we run into a regular Quacho. You need to restore their HP for a capture chance. Be aware that they like to use Escape. Vampire Prime has a skill that prevents that, or the Claw Mirages.



Towards the temple there is a green circle on the map, but the shell won't open so I'll guess we'll have to leave that for now.



On the right side of the temple entrance, there is a level 45 Murkrift. I wonder what kind of delightful underwater--



Oh shit, Cthulhu monsters!



The orange ones are Mindflayers and the white-ish ones are Squidrakens. You need to reflect magic back at them to create capture chances.

Remember when I said that the star curtains from that chest near the train station would be helpful later in the chapter? Now is the time to pop them. Both Squidrakens and Mindflayers will pelt you with an array of magic. They love Bio (Poison), Mind Blast (Confusion), Sleep, Dark (Blind), and Banishra.

If you get star curtains out or cast reflect, then you'll largely be untouchable and they will increase their capture chances each time they eat their own spells. If you don't get reflect up then you better pray that you have good ailment resistances, otherwise you will get messed up by this group.





Now that the horrors of the deep are firmly locked away in the prism case, it's time we hit up the temple. Head up the stairs to be met by another Gimme Golem.

There's a save point next to the entrance, although the upcoming fight isn't particularly dangerous. Still, better to be safe than sorry (and have to hike back through this place a second time).

Update 23 Highlights - The Quacho Queen


Huh?







Egads! Foul tonberries! First they go and steal our precious key... Now they have the utter gall to summon a King? What fiends! They must be desperate to take this realm away from me! Nnnggghhh!



Ah dammit she's cute... and also sounds kind of polite. Starting to feel conflicted about harvesting her tears for cash.

Quacho Queen is voiced by Ashly Burch in English, Suzuko Mimori in Japanese.

Huh?!

Oh? Not just a human, but a lady Jiant? How very unusual! Come now. Lady Jiant simply must tell me the latest land news.



Aaah!

Huh? Is she the queen we're--



What? (I think this is what Lann says. The subtitle only shows up for a split-second and it doesn't even finish before it cuts to Reynn's)

Huh?

Stay away! I despise men!

Huh?!



Good job, Lann.



Me? What'd I do?!

If you the-want to punish the-Lann, you can have him!

Wait, you're giving me away?!

This battle is basically just a cutscene. Quacho Queen and her little quacho helpers are incredibly weak.



Oh come on, Lann. That's just mean.

Champion Summon: Celes
Final Fantasy VI Music: Battle to the Death


Runic is an ability that Celes can use in VI. It absorbs the next spell cast to recover MP based on Celes' elemental resistances (if she's weak, it doubles MP restored, resistant only restores half as much, absorbs causes her to lose MP, and nullify restores no MP. Gogo is also able to get the Runic status.















I'm not really sure why it becomes an ice attack in this game.



This takes out Quacho Queen in one shot. Lann is just picking on her in this "fight". The quachos don't fare any better. They get taken out by Magus' Thunderbolt, which dealt 1300 damage to both of them.



So... yeah. That's all for that. I only include this shot because Optimus looks badass in his victory pose and T.M.N.T does a little shell spin.



*Sniff* *Sniff* ... Waaah!





Meanie! Eat moogle worms!

*And then Quacho Queen runs out of the room crying*

Yeesh. I feel like I just, I dunno, wrecked a three-year-old's birthday party.

Nice going, Lann! You asshole! Please ignore the fact that I was stoked about getting rich off of her until about 2 minutes ago when I found out she was cute and innocent.

Well, cheer up. At least now we can go home whenever we want to.

But we need to track the-down that key. Otherwise why did we come the-here?

Yeah. The key is the only reason we came down here.

That's true. But we know where it is. Remember, the queen said that the tonberries stole the key.

Aha! So it is down here in the temple. Somewhere!

Seems that way.

Let's track down those tonberries. And hope they still have it!

There's nothing left in the throne room, so I guess we better head outside and look for another path.



Also, we can get a generic Quacho Queen now if we want to. Catching the story Quacho Queen will come later.

Update 23 Highlights - Quacho Dance

Is that the queen?

When we go outside and down the stairs, a scene triggers. Quacho Queen and her attendants do a little dance and a pose, which pops that shell open.



Do you think she's going after those tonberries she mentioned?

We'd better the-tail her.

Probably best that we do after we Lann beat the shit out of her for no reason.



No you haven't. Come on.

So after hopping into the hole under the shell, we just have to keep running down this really long tunnel.

Hey, Sis.

Hey what?

I... I don't think I'm moving forward anymore.

Of course you're not moving forward, you're moving... straight down.

I knew it! Help me, Sis!

You're not falling, dummy.



After getting to the bottom, things get a little murky.

Maybe we've the-fallen into a manse-hole.

Yes. That must be it.

I mean, considering how we entered this place, technically we kinda did.



While stumbling through the darkness, we finally meet a regular tonberry (that we can imprism I mean). You just have to deal damage to them to create a capture chance.

Tonberries are a common enemy in the series, first showing up in FFV. They are fairly threatening encounters, usually having high HP (for when you first start running into them) and a special attack called Chef's Knife or Cleaver that will either instantly take out a party member or deal heavy damage that ignores defense.

They also have a skill called Karma, which deals more damage based on how many enemies the party member has defeated.



There's also a sandworm variant called Sea Worm. You need to reduce their HP to create a capture chance, but they appear in a stack so you'll need to break that up first.

A short distance in, there's a save point we can hit up. This is one I definitely recommend taking advantage of. The next boss has a skill which could blindside you.

Update 23 Highlights - Chapter Boss




I really don't think that's a good idea, guys.


[Miney]: Kee-kee-kee! Kee-cha!


[Mo]: Qua-chaaa!





[Mo]: Qua-chooo...




Hail to the King, baby.

A huge tonberry?!

Get the-ready. Here it comes!



Aaah! I'd hate to be on the wrong end of that thing!

Yeah! Or any the-end of it!

You're just scaring me more!

This fight is a bit bigger of an issue. 4 tonberries and a tonberry King can be fairly dangerous. Tonberry's Knife attack can do critical damage (our current stacks can take about 1500 damage from it). It has a higher chance to miss than normal attacks, but RNG could always screw you over.

You'll probably want to deal with them first while leaving King Tonberry untouched (for reasons). At the very least don't deal out too much damage.

The Tonberries are weak to Electricity, so Magus easily dispatches them. Tonberry King mostly sticks to regular physical attacks which hit for about 700 damage. He's also not insanely fast, so you should be able to outrun him. In terms of magic, he has Watera, so be careful if you have a stack weak to water.



When his HP gets low, dump on him with anything you can to finish the fight as fast as possible. He has an attack called Everyone's Grudge which is similar to the Petty Grudge that Dingldoink used against Shiva way back when.



It will end you.



A Champion summon is a good way to circumvent that.



He only has 13k HP, but you need to be careful with him.





I... I never commanded... the man-thing to rescue me. So... if it... wants thanks... well then... it's got another thing coming!


[Quacho]: Kee-cha!


I'm... not quite sure why it's called Quacho now when we just saw that it was named Miney/Mo earlier. Unless Miney or Mo died in that fight and this is just a normal-ass Quacho that replaced them.



T-take the blasted key! Toad face!

Lann is not quite forgiven yet, it seems.

Oh-kay... Well, I guess we got what we came for. All's well that ends well?

I the-made it so the Exit Gate will take you the-right to where Tidus is waiting.

That's handy. The hell can't you do that any other time?

Right. We need to get ahold of that antidote.

Let's get out of here. There is a door on the other side of the area we fought King Tonberry in, but it's locked. Guess we'll come back for that later. There is a chest near the door with 2 holy torches though, that's worth grabbing before we go.



Now what?



Cool... let's just go ahead and add that to the list of dangerous creatures that have escaped and are now prowling the world.

*Back above the waves*

Update 23 Highlights - Chapter End Scenes
I can't believe you found a quacho ruby! Wow, guys!

And the antidote?

Hand it over. Shantotto is not to be trusted.

Right here!



I guess Doctor Shantotto wasn't kidding. The sea is another kind of hell. I don't think I've ever been so tired...

Please, it wasn't hard.

Oh! If you ever feel like going for another dip down there, you're gonna need these.

*We get poxyale and antipoxy, in case we ever want to go back to Sunken Temple*

Poxyale is a references to FFI as well. The party obtains Oxyale which allows them to breathe underwater so they can explore Sunken Shrine (just like the twins in this game). However in FFI you acquire the Oxyale by shelling out 50,000 gil for a Bottled Faerie at the Caravan, then working your way through a forest in Gaia where you eventually find a pond. The Faerie gives you the Oxyale there. Thankfully we didn't need to do as much screwing around to get it in this game (or give up 50k in gil).


[???]: There you are! I've been looking all over!


Huh? Is that...?

Lady Yuna!

Huh? Friend of yours? Hey there. I'm Tidus.



Wow, a summoner! Never met one of those.

Break it up you two. Don't make me tell Tidus that he got exploded by a Blitzball and Yuna summoned him back. I am not afraid to make his existence collapse.

Good the-day, Lady the-Yuna!

Oh! Goo-- Wait, what am I doing? Don't "good the-day" me! It's no time to mince "the's."

Awww.

Explain yourselves. What did you two do to Rydia and Eiko?

Huh?

Hang on a second. Did something happen to Rydia and Eiko?

Don't pretend that you don't know! They're gone. Both of them went missing right after they ran into you!

What?

Really?

*One explanation that Yuna is an idiot later*

Then... you swear to me that you don't know? You really have no idea where my friends have been taken?

Yuna, Rydia was the one that insisted on tagging along with us, just ask Tifa. It's not like we lured her away from Nibelheim and into a trap. We didn't even want her tagging along.

Second, how the fuck do you even know that Eiko went missing after running into us? There was nobody else at Big Bridge except for Bartz, who wasn't around to see Eiko. Plus, if someone did report seeing us with Eiko, then they also would have seen us get shot into the sky by Alexander.

There's also the tiny matter of you getting attacked by Plumed Knight after meeting with us. The weird knight lady that, I don't know, might be responsible for their disappearances?

No clue.

No.

The-nope.

That's... a shame.

I... might be going out on a limb, but I can't help but wonder if maybe...

What is it?

Maybe someone is targeting summoners. Specifically.

Targeting summoners? Come to think of it, not long after I met you--

Yeah, you got attacked by someone specifically going after summoners. You were even prepared for her, what with that shadow clone you made to stop her from grabbing you.



Eeek!



Yeah, just like that.

Lady Yuna!

You leave her to me!

Hey, wait up!

.....!

*And then Tidus chases after Plumed Knight by making 40 foot leaps across the hillside like he's a damn flea*

Great. We've lost sight of them.

Rrght! What's that knight's problem?

Was that the one who took the other summoners?

We're just gonna have to hope Tidus can keep Lady the-Yuna safe.

Huh?



Oh, right. We've got all the Key things now.

The keys.





Sick, stairway to heaven.



*Meanwhile, in antagonist land*

Shall be joined again.

And then we get a notice that Shantotto's Champion Medal is available. Oh boy.

Also Tidus'. That brings a close to Chapter 18. In the next update, World of Final Fantasy's tone starts to weirdly shift a bit to being more serious.