LogFAQs > #947286303

With our new mount we head straight to our destin- just kidding, we of course go flying around the world trying to find side-areas. Turns out we're trapped in the north-eastern corner of the map but we do get to go to Castle Tycoon, with a surprisingly not evil chancellor and a cool scene where Lenna reveals her suspicions that Faris is her sister. A woman named Jenica seems to confirm this, telling us of a princess named Sarisa who was lost at sea. I love that this is here, completely optional yet clearly important information that fleshes out some characters. Love when games reward you for going off the grid with lore like this.

At Castle Walse I talk to everyone I see and before long we find Shiva, who immediately wrecks us. I would've waited to challenge her but I know she's on a time limit and one of the inhabitants mentioned her being sealed by the water crystal, which is presumably about to break. Second time around I explore a different way and get wrecked by a Jackanapes, as a helpful castle dweller informed me I would. The game has truly started now the party wipes have begun! Third time around I spam Flee to get the items in the Jackanapes room and get out alive (barely!). I do not let anyone out of the jail per Pun's advice, but I gotta tell you I was really tempted. I wonder what happens if you do...

Another meteorite falls and the King heads to the tower, as do we. It seems monsters pour out of the meteorite when it lands (Is there any game you didn't steal from, FF8?). I like that the dungeons are *slightly* more complex than the empty corridors in FF4 so far, hopefully this continues. At the top we fight poor Garula, a formerly timid creature we met at Walse who seems to be being mind-controlled. The fight isn't that tough but I almost get overwhelmed by being a bit too careless with the heals, have to remember I need to pay attention to the gameplay now!

The beast goes down, the knight recognises Galuf (is this gonna be like IV where pretty much everybody ends up being a royal >_>) and we get 6 new jobs! Er make that 5 new jobs, thanks Mr Crispy for the heads up I would definitely have reset and thought I missed the one that's out of reach. The tower straight up sinks into the ocean but thankfully Syldra shows up. We climb into Syldra's mouth (?) and are carried to a nearby beach, where Syldra seems to die for good (but its wail on the black screen leaves some doubt).

We hop back to the castle and test out our brand new classes on Shiva. It doesn't go very well, so I shift around and try things again. Berserker isn't half as powerful as I expected, so I keep Bartz as Monk where he deals more damage and I can control where he hits. Lenna is a Red Mage on the back row with Black Magic to use Fire, Galuf is a Mystic Knight with White Magic as backup, and Faris is a Time Mage. Just testing things out for now, but I have to say I'm enjoying this game a great deal now we have cool classes and the battles are more than mashing A. Shiva eventually goes down (she seems to have an awful lot of HP!), and we have a new summon (though nobody set on Summoner >_>).

Turns out that tower sinking wasn't as deadly as it looked, as not only did the King somehow survive, but even Garula is back to its normal state in the village. We head back to the meteorite and warp west to the continent of Karnak. There's a lot of random battles (Zus have plenty of HP as always!) but we eventually work our way around to Karnak Town itself. This town is pretty decent, they give intrigue straight away by telling us about the Queen & Cid and just having random bits of fire here and there. The music is good too, I've heard it before somewhere in the game but I'm only noting how cool it is now. We attempt to stock up on new weapons and are promptly thrown in jail (Love how they did that, genuinely caught me off guard!). Their reasoning is that we walked out of the monster-ridden meteorite, and to be honest that's pretty solid, I don't know how we would counter that.

We meet this game's Cid, who gives us some exposition (I know people call these early ones pure Fantasy games but I like that there's always some machinery going on in them too). We're let out of jail to help him, there's fire everywhere now, the Queen is missing, there's a werewolf (!) here and off we go! Strangely nobody seems to recognise Galuf, so my theory about him being this region's royal is out. It'd be nice if it told you which jobs each armour/weapon was suitable for when you're buying them like in Tactics, and I really would like if it told you if you'd already bought each Magic! Another note, the thief running speed is hilariously fast. Feels like I'm glitching the game.

Having a lot of fun now that things are getting going gameplaywise!

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Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!