LogFAQs > #949353799

Thanks to Malcolm I witness a scene with Setzer and Cid, and learn a bit of Setzer's backstory with a woman named Darill. Humanises him a bit, glad I got to see this. And thanks to redrocket we get a chocobo ride back to Albrook. Leo tells us we are to be joined on our journey by Shadow and Celes (!), who is still being very quiet. Locke tries to apologise to her but she doesn't respond, he thinks she hasn't forgiven him but I'm thinking she feels guilty about something. The opera music plays over this scene, a nice touch.

Terra has a nice chat with Leo, notably he focuses on the fact that her emotions have returned, not her memories. He at least acknowledges that he is still complicit in the Empire's atrocities, and out of nowhere Terra talks about wanting to fall in love. Not sure who she's thinking of here, Locke I guess? I also have to agree with Seabass that Awakening really feels like her proper theme. How old is Terra supposed to be btw, her 'I want to know now!' feels a bit childish. Shadow tries to comfort her with a very nice line: "There are people in this world who have chosen to kill their emotions. Remember that." I quite like Shadow, he's such a tropey assassin type (his name is Shadow for goodness' sake) but the game's not pretending he's anything else. Locke throws up.

Turns out Crescent Isle is the place we visited earlier with the hamlet of Thamasa. The locals aren't as hostile to us now (a bit weak that this changes just because of plot progression), and they are certainly much more clumsy about hiding their magical secret. It's a neat reason for their earlier hostilities though, and we meet not one but two future party members here- Strago and Relm. The cast is filling up! In the middle of the night Strago wakes us up (why?? I get that he's panicking but he's still trying to hide his powers, he literally wakes us up to go follow and watch him cast spells >_>). Shadow wasn't paid for this lol. Anyway Relm is stuck inside a burning house, and we have some battles and then a boss fight. I make sure to use my magic in front of Strago but he doesn't take any notice, sadly.

Strago is a Blue Mage and he comes readily equipped with Aqua Breath, which I remember being very useful in V. Our boss fight is with Flame Eater, this goes pretty smoothly once I get Shell cast on the trio, a lone Aqua Breath wipes out the Balloons he spawns and we eventually wear him down. Interceptor beat us to the punch in rescuing Relm, but we're all trapped anyway until Shadow rescues us with... a Smoke Bomb? Somehow? Hey, I'll roll with it! Shadow leaves us and we head west to the mountains to find the Espers- it's pretty lame that an opening in the mountains is just suddenly there now.

We work our way through the mountains, gaining abilities (sigh, Shadow barely got a chance to learn spells, if he ever joins us properly he's gonna be far behind!), and the party remaining blissfully unaware of Relm having jumped ahead of us somehow. We get some lore on the Warring Triad that I remember Kefka talking about (these guys don't seem to remember), it's some pretty cool god lore. Fearing each other's powers they turned humans into Espers to fight each other, and eventually growing tired of the fighting they gave the Espers their free will back and turned themselves to stone. Then Ultros shows up.

Oh, Ultros. There was a topic recently about whether people like him or not, and I honestly don't know. His jokes are hit or miss, he shows up to ruin serious moments, but it generally... works? IDK. He throws a mention to Siegfried who I had forgotten about, then it's time to fight. It's a standard boss fight (I lol'd at him not even getting generic boss music) until Relm shows up, and then the comedy stylings get a little ridiculous. Locke smashes the fourth wall and Relm requests to draw Uncle Ulty's picture, which he denies until the others shame him into accepting. I'm not really feeling this joke, but then we go back into fighting and it suddenly makes sense. Relm has a Sketch command and I'm more than a little amused that gentle Uncle Ulty suddenly starts springing much stronger spells on us. OK game, you managed to make that scene work.

Relm joins us and we head further up. I trip down the first hole I see which turns out to be the plot related one to move head, so much for those chests I saw! We meet some young Espers lead by Yura, and sensing Terra's nature we all come to an understanding. Weirdly Locke and Terra seem to believe the Empire's peace treaty now (I don't remember if they specifically were skeptical before but everyone else seemed to be!), and we all warp back to Thamasa. Farewell, treasure chests.

Back at Thamasa General Leo happily welcomes the Espers, everyone has a good old laugh at Locke and Celes's sexual tension, and then they all live happily ever after. The End.


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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Currently playing: FFVI
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