Board 8 > Maria Plays Final Fantasy 6 [Spoilers]

(+) Yeah! (+)

Ive played the game multiple times and I still sometimes do it accidentally.
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terra, edgar, and bannon's adventure down the river continues. I fight a few more random battles before finishing up with that section. afterwards I'm back in the northern figaro section of the map. nothing has really changed up here.

I go to narshe but they don't want to let me back inside. so I go south to check on the castle. it's gone, of course. still sunk. I go further south to the cave, maybe the game wants me to meet up with locke and celes.

no, the cave is blocked.

I go back to narshe again to look around. it takes some time but I finally decide to go and check the rocks on the left side of the village. a bit cryptic since there is no visual indicator of where you're supposed to search. but once you do so, terra mentions something about locke using a secret passage here and they open the passage to proceed.

after this it's just a matter of back tracking through the first dungeon again. I go and take a little detour in the moogle nest and retrieve the rune blade on my way through. if there were any other treasures I missed them. we return to old man's house, I think he has a name now, but I forgot what it was.

the plan now is for old man to convince the villagers of narshe to allow terra to go and speak to the esper. and yeah that was definitely very short.

to be honest I wasn't a huge fan of this portion of the game. I was mostly going through maps I've already been through, with lots of random encounters... but all of the enemies were too weak to pose a threat. having access to the very broken auto crossbow AND pray on top of that made every encounter feel like a nuisance rather than a challenge. it was like I just wanted to get to the next section but the game had to stop me every 5-6 steps.

one more route to go!
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I probably played/beat this game over five times throughout my life (several years ago), and I couldn't remember what happened in Terra/Edgar/Bannon's route lol. That's how little of an impact it left on me.
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yeah nothing really happens. you just walk across some of the maps you've already been through until you get back to the place where the game started.
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Id say the highlight of that route is the Follow the security light thing in the caves. Its riveting.
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got started on sabin's route today. a lot happened, not sure I can really cover it all just from memory. I start off next to this shack with a different old man, this one named aged man, living there. also seems like a solider outside but apparently he's just a merchant. the old man is crazy and will only talk to sabin about some random nonsense. unless this is some kind of secret/puzzle I was unable to solve. he doesn't seem to mind if I sleep in his bed.

outside near the well is the mysterious badass, Shadow, from earlier on the game. he decides to go along with Sabin, under the condition that he might just leave at any point in time. better than going alone, I suppose.

I explore the world map for a bit and eventually end up in the imperial camp.

at this point the game does a bit of switching between various narrative and gameplay sections. you have the introduction of cyan, a new character who uses bushido skills to great effect. the internal affairs and plotting of the imperial camp between kefka and general leo, and of course sabin and shadow attempting to get through doma to return to narshe.

for some reason I pictured sabin and shadow as like JJBA style characters going through the camp and beating up all the random soldiers in style, doing battle poses and everything.

official "good due" leo is called away by the emperor, leaving kefka in charge. this allows kefka to go ahead with his plan to poison everyone in doma. the plan mostly succeeds. cyan is unfortunately one of the only survivors. the king dies, most of the other soldiers die. then there's a really sad scene where cyan goes into one of the rooms and finds some dead children.

this whole part of the game was pretty great.

after this cyan goes berserk and starts attacking the camp on his own. sabin and shadow were unable to catch kefka, but they meet up with cyan and team up with him to battle their way through the camp and escape.

the group travels to a forest next, where I chose to save the game and quit for now. really good stuff overall. despite the fact that this squad has no dedicated healer, and they are all physical bruisers, the game does a good job of making each one feel unique. and there is something satisfying about going through each zone just beating up on the random foes with a mix of ninja skills, samurai skills, and straight up martial arts.

oh one thing I forgot to mention... shadow's dog seems to do this weird thing in combat where it blocks for him instead of using a shield to block. and it will randomly run onto the battlefield and absolutely nuke someone for like 1,000 damage. the first time that happened I was quite shocked.
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Interceptor best dog in gaming
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BK_Sheikah00 posted...

Interceptor best dog in gaming

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Tag

Also

BK_Sheikah00 posted...

Interceptor best dog in gaming

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MariaTaylor posted...

this whole part of the game was pretty great.

preach! cyan is fun
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Sabins route was one of my favorite stretches of the game during my very first playthrough
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Comparing Sabin's route to JJBA is... strangely accurate. I never thought about it that way. But yeah, Sabin's route is wild.

Interceptor is the goodest boy.
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not in much of an RPG mood today, I doubt I'll play any of this until tomorrow
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okay so it turns out the forest that I thought was the forest, wasn't actually "the forest." it was just a patch of a bunch of forest tiles together on the world map that looked like a location you could enter. after going south for a bit further I find the actual Doma castle and, a ways further, the actual "the forest."

I enter

the forest map in this game reminds me of this beauty and the beast game that I think was for super nintendo. I remember being confused as shit trying to play it when I was a very little kid. anyway, I'm less confused here, and I navigate my way through... blasting everything down with aura cannons.

after that, I get onto the PHANTOM TRAIN.

this section was really cool although it might have been a BIT too bloated. I still loved most of the stuff contained on the train, though. at first I avoided the ghosts, but then I realized one of them was an ally who wanted to join my party, which is a neat aspect. some of the others did try to attack me.

one of them actually had a shop! I probably should have gone back and talked to some of the earlier ghosts I avoided, but I wasn't in the mood for random encounters so I decided to do as little backtracking as possible.

the shop allowed me to by like 50 potions which I burned through much faster than you could imagine. good thing I did find this shop honestly because, without it, I would have run out of potions much quicker and probably ended up getting stuck with no healing. I also purchased some shuriken for Shadow to throw. he seems to do a bit more damage with this attack but I found it wasn't worth it for most encounters when I could blast things with aura cannon.

when I find the first treasure chest this hilarious guy shows up. siegfried(?) I think was his name. anyway he starts the encounter by doing a multi attack that hits the party like 10 times.... for about 5 damage per hit. then he gets really tired and has to stop to catch his breath. well, I hit him one time and he got knocked out. he steals the treasure and runs away. funny, although I do wonder if there was a way to get the treasure? maybe by possessing him with the ghost?

damn, I should have tried this!

next treasure room has a monster in a box which is a little more powerful than the standard ghosts.

this was getting to be a long session but I figured the boss was coming up or the end of this section soon, so I kept playing even after I found two different save points along the way. eventually the PHANTOM TRAIN itself comes to life and attacks us.

before anyone asks, yes, I did in fact suplex the train.

a surprisingly easy boss, I think the easiest of the three sections I played so far. these characters are all powerful and by this point I'm very used to all of their combat mechanics. I didn't even need to heal, I just kept attacking until the train went down.

the train decides to let us off at the next stop while it picks up its next set of passengers... the victims from Doma castle. Cyan gets to see his family one last time, and then the group departs onto the next stage of their journey. I really liked this scene and it was a great conclusion to this little story arc.

overall another great section of the game.
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Did you eat a meal while on the train? You can do that as often as youd like to get full HP.

Also, I completely agree with this assessment of yours:

MariaTaylor posted...

after that, I get onto the PHANTOM TRAIN.

this section was really cool although it might have been a BIT too bloated.

Its a fun section, but I always feel like there are too many random cars on the train.
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yep! I did sit down at the table and eat, that was another fun little event. haha. just so much stuff happened sometimes I forget to mention it all from memory afterwards.

and yeah, one or two fewer cars would've gone a long way.
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MariaTaylor posted...

before anyone asks, yes, I did in fact suplex the train.

<Good> That's all that matters.

MariaTaylor posted...

a surprisingly easy boss

Fun fact: because the Phantom Train is an "undead" enemy, it can be killed in one shot with a Phoenix Down. (I always suplex it first though).
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Omfg that is amazing.

Also loving this playthrough. FF6 is my favourite RPG of all time.
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IfGodCouldDie posted...

Omfg that is amazing.

Also loving this playthrough. FF6 is my favourite RPG of all time.

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A few more good ones...






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I drew my own Sabin's Bizarre Adventure fan art


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although I do wonder if there was a way to get the treasure? maybe by possessing him with the ghost?

No clever trick can get you Siegfried's treasure, alas. My understanding is that it's not even a real treasure chest, just a chest-shaped obstacle.
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didn't play much today, and made very, very little progress. close to zero. well, that's not exactly true but it kinda is. after fighting a few random battles in this area Shadow decided to leave my party! well, he wasn't kidding about leaving at any time. he basically left before we even got EXP or money.

after this, Sabin and Cyan went up to the waterfall area alone.

jumping down the waterfall should lead to the way forward. once we were in the waterfall we fight a bunch of fish. this section wasn't too bad. one thing that helped was that the player character's readied actions followed through. so if I killed the last of the fish on the screen when Sabin was about to attack, he'd immediately attack and kill the next fish that appeared.

then the boss fish appeared, rhizopas I think was his name? either way... this one was a freaking monster. I tried attacking it a bit but it was a lot faster and more dangerous than my party. then out of nowhere he cast a spell that killed both Sabin and Cyan!

not sure if this was a timed encounter, where the boss one shotted them because I took too long, but if so... man, the timer was really short. the alternate explanation is that his damage output was so high that by the time he did his AoE attack, both of my characters had low enough HP already to be taken down. if that's the explanation then I just need to go in more defensively next time. if it's a timed encounter, I guess I have to go in more offensively next time.

either way, I fight my way back to the waterfall entrance and then save my game. I'll worry about rhizopas next time, maybe after getting some advice. I plan to move Sabin into the back row and have him just use Blitz commands. does the same work for Cyan's Bushido?
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A quick wiki look suggests Fang + Raging Fist to kill it before it uses the big one.
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MariaTaylor posted...

didn't play much today, and made very, very little progress. close to zero. well, that's not exactly true but it kinda is. after fighting a few random battles in this area Shadow decided to leave my party! well, he wasn't kidding about leaving at any time. he basically left before we even got EXP or money.

after this, Sabin and Cyan went up to the waterfall area alone.

So anyone who has played the game before might find these two items back to back kinda funny. Shadow will leave your party at random, but if you make it to the waterfall quickly enough, he will stay with you until you get to the waterfall. At that point, while Sabin & Cyan are talking about jumping off, Shadow tells them that this is where their time together ends, and they thank him for their help. So it sounds like he left your party like a minute before he otherwise would have left.

MariaTaylor posted...

either way, I fight my way back to the waterfall entrance and then save my game. I'll worry about rhizopas next time, maybe after getting some advice. I plan to move Sabin into the back row and have him just use Blitz commands. does the same work for Cyan's Bushido?

Yep, back row attacks with Bushido dont get weakened. Which Bushido attacks are you using with him?
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the counter effect seemed cool but it hasn't been useful in any fight because there's no way to guarantee he gets targeted
the first skill which is just a basic slash is a good stand alternative to doing basic attacks since it's just higher damage with one more input
#3 supposedly cuts the enemy HP but when I've used it on bosses I don't think it actually cut their HP in half
so I'm not sure if it's as useful as it should be

a direct quote from me, from a discussion I was having earlier with someone else.
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Ok. Yeah, 1 is the best way to go usually, since its an instant attack that does good damage. Just sucks that you cant pick your target if there are multiple enemies. The only time I really use 2 is that very first fight with Cyan, when hes defending the castle on his own and chases away the enemy. Hes guaranteed a counter attack. I think 3 probably has some good uses, but Ive always avoided it.
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Rizopas has a few brutal moves that you can't hope to outheal, so the fight is a straight up damage race. Pummel or AuraBolt and Bushido 1 from Cyan should reliably win it, especially with Earrings (AuraBolt) or Atlas Armlet (other stuff) to boost damage.

If you need an extra edge, equip a Barrier Ring (grants Shell at low HP; I think one was on the Phantom Train?) and jump off the falls with that character already in critical, then heal them up against generic Piranhas before the boss appears.

Edit: SwdTech 3 actually does cut the enemy's HP in half (and then inflicts Seizure, which slowly drains HP), when it works. However, it is negated by immunity to instant death, so it won't work against most bosses.
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moved both characters to the back row, equipped the earring to sabin, put my physical attack and counter items onto cyan and gave it another shot. won this time but it was still close. that is a pretty crazy boss fight. it's like, he drains 90%> of your HP almost guaranteed in two turns. can easily kill you if you're not prepared. but you can also defeat him with like 4 attacks. so it really is just a matter of making sure you're prepared to survive more than two turns, with likely 10% of your HP remaining.

after this a kid named Gau finds us in the river. he runs away. I go to the plains, save, start looking around, fighting monsters. Gau shows up again. he keeps saying he's hungry. I have no idea what to do. I don't want to attack him. I tried giving him a potion. I don't have any food to give him, so I just turned off my game. I'll come back to it later, there didn't seem to be any other way to end this encounter aside from attacking him. I guess I could have run away? but I had saved like 5 minutes ago anyway and I was only planning to check the map a bit, which I succeeded in doing anyway.
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I think you'll figure out Gau on your own, so I won't spoil how to get him. He's a different sort of character and can be difficult to use in battle, especially on a first playthrough.
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MariaTaylor posted...

hey, I got to experience going the wrong way this time. so I guess I just happened to pick correctly on the first river raft sequence. interesting that you could use this method to easily grind while bannon full heals the party infinitely for free. not really motivated to do that.

People used to put rubber bands on their controllers and leave the console on overnight to get to max level for no work at this spot. Although there are reasons why that's not a good idea that will become more apparent later on.
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made it to the next village this time without running into gau, although I had decided I was gonna just run away from him if I encountered him again.

so there's a shop that sells dried meat, and the guy right outside tells you that dried meat is a good cure for being hungry. well damn. I'm glad erika and others had faith that I'd be smart enough to figure this out on my own. haha.

apparently there's a house with an injured soldier inside, but I decide to go and try to hunt for Gau first.

I talked to everyone in the village as well, learned some more interesting stuff. it sounds like, if I'm not wrong, that crazy guy at the house on the north side of this continent gave his son to monsters. so then, gau must be this guy's son, right? then he was raised by monsters. that, along with the crazy genes he inherited, is what made him into what he is now.

I go back to the field, fight a few more monsters, and gau shows up. after a pretty long cutscene he gives us a special SHINY item (I'm guessing the diving helmet?) and joins the group. to be honest... I found gau to be a little bit annoying? I don't like him so far.

also just got introduced to a new mechanic that is a bit overwhelming. gau is basically the blue mage of this game, having the ability go gain monster skills by using his Leap ability while fighting in the veldt specifically, an area where monsters from all over the game have a chance of appearing.

so after gau "leaps" the battle ends and you get no EXP or rewards. then you fight more stuff till gau appears again. when he re-joins the party, he will have learned the new monster skills. seems simple enough. now, here's the overwhelming part...

the number of monster skills is freaking massive. I tried scrolling all the way to the bottom and it took me like a full minute or two of scrolling. there must be like 200 monster skills or something, right? so that brings up two issues...

1. I could spend hours grinding here for monster skills and probably still not get them all

2. there's so many skills and I have no idea what any of them do or which ones are good

anyone have a quick/easy primer on which monster skills are worth using? just something to help me make gau useful without having to put too much effort into him. I did Leap a few times and pick up a few more skills, but I only did this for about 5-10 minutes before I got bored and went back to Mobliz.

here I decided to go visit the injured soldier which was... not what I expected at all. it's just this little scene about him receiving a letter from a girl in his hometown. sabin reads him the letter. and... yeah. that's it. definitely one of those small things that I love about this game. it still really excels in that world building aspect of having these unique, personal moments littered all over the maps.
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If I recall correctly getting his skills is better near the end because I'm pretty sure only monsters you've had a chance to fight appear.
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The rage you should use if you want to break the game is Stray Cat.

Only read if you like to be OP
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MariaTaylor posted...

so there's a shop that sells dried meat, and the guy right outside tells you that dried meat is a good cure for being hungry. well damn. I'm glad erika and others had faith that I'd be smart enough to figure this out on my own. haha.

lol, I forgot there was an NPC who literally spelled it out. I only remembered there being Dried Meat for sale.

MariaTaylor posted...

here I decided to go visit the injured soldier which was... not what I expected at all. it's just this little scene about him receiving a letter from a girl in his hometown. sabin reads him the letter. and... yeah. that's it. definitely one of those small things that I love about this game. it still really excels in that world building aspect of having these unique, personal moments littered all over the maps.

Absolutely, well-said. Every NPC is worth talking to, imo, just for neat stuff like this.
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Some simple rages I like to get for Gau early in the game are:

Guard - comes with an attack called Critical, which is just a strong physical attack.

Scorpion - comes with an attack called Tail, which is just a strong physical attack. I just like having this or Guard for the physical attack.

Ghost - comes with a chance of using Thundara (Bolt2) on enemies, which is quite strong at this point in the game.

Also, when you perform a rage, you also gain the statuses of that enemy. So with Ghost, Gau also has the float status on him and he gains health from poison... but hes undead, so curing him will also hurt him. So you just need to be mindful of certain conditions that come with the rage. You honestly dont need a ton of them, but it can be fun to experiment with.
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This is a good guide to Gaus rages.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/snes/554041-final-fantasy-iii/faqs/35096

There are far more in depth guides out there, but this is the tl;dr version that is mainly focused on getting you the best rages.

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Also, there is actually more that you can do with the wounded soldier.

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My favorite early Rage is Templar. It automatically grants the Safe status, and its random action is Fire 2. (Or I guess that'd be automatic Protect and random Fira, since you're playing FF6a. I think the monster's still called Templar though.)
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redrocket posted...

Also, there is actually more that you can do with the wounded soldier.

anything interesting I'm missing right now? or is it just stuff that happens later?
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You can do it right now.

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alright I spent longer than I should have fighting random monsters in the Veldt, getting new skills for Gau, and testing them out to see what they do. I used the bed in the Relic Shop house to sleep for free. the owner doesn't seem to mind, and it saves money instead of going to the Inn.

I will say one thing that makes this easier. when you're selecting your action for Gau you can hit Rage to see the list of which ones you have already. if the enemies on screen aren't already on the Rage list, then I would do Leap. if they WERE already on the Rage list, I would pick a Rage that I haven't done before.

I noticed that most of them are around the same level of power, doing around 90-110 damage. which is about the same as Sabin and Cyan do with their BASIC attacks. meaning it feels like Gau is a bit weaker than them, because they are always doing way more damage with their special attacks that they can spam.

all that being said, it was still an interesting little experiment. I think I'm sort of starting to like the Gau stuff more than I did when I initially encountered it. it adds a really unique element to the game with a ton of depth. I don't plan to get myself very lost in it, but it was fun to experiment with it a little bit and still not even come near hitting the bottom of this well.

out of curiosity, what is so good about the stray cat? it didn't seem any better than the other Rage moves that I tried out. it would randomly Cat Scratch for higher damage at times, but this seemed random and unreliable. I guess it's good just for the raw damage?

oh, the most interesting thing about the Rage abilities... is that Gau seems to keep Raging infinitely after the first turn of combat? I actually didn't realize that at first because I was ending combat in one turn or less normally. but it's another aspect to consider when sending him into battle. once you select a move for him, he's going to keep spamming that one move for the rest of the battle. Hm!

all that being said, it's time to FINALLY make some progress!

actually as I was trying to progress to the next area I accidentally almost lost Gau. had to go back and get him. hah.

so we head into this cave where the Shiny is supposed to be. I like how there isn't just the diving helmet in here, but there's another scene you can trigger by looking in the wrong spot, where Gau plays a prank and Sabin gets annoyed with him. minor stuff like this make it feel like there is more going on beyond just moving to the next objective in sequence.

the next section of the game was... bizarrely difficult. there were these jellyfish enemies who counter your attacks by casting Gigavolt, which literally oneshots any of your party members. they will sometimes counter cast it even as they die. and since you can't use the menu between encounters while fighting in the current, this led to some annoying situations where I'd have a character start off dead at the beginning of the next battle. I was running low on phoenix downs. and the worst thing is that if you don't kill them quickly, they will stun lock your party with paralysis skills.

I honestly have NO idea how I got through this section in one try without needing to reload my save, but I barely managed to scrape through.

at this point I want to take a break, but the game dumps me in a town, one of the places where you can't save unless you go and find a save point.

first thing I do is go find the Inn in Nikeah, rest up all of my guys, and then go for the town exit. I'll save my game for now and worry about exploring Nikeah later. I did discover that the ferry here will take me right to Southern Figaro, so I'm basically ready to end this scenario and go reunite with the other party members as soon as I'm ready.

but of course I want to explore first!
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MariaTaylor posted...

oh, the most interesting thing about the Rage abilities... is that Gau seems to keep Raging infinitely after the first turn of combat? I actually didn't realize that at first because I was ending combat in one turn or less normally. but it's another aspect to consider when sending him into battle. once you select a move for him, he's going to keep spamming that one move for the rest of the battle. Hm!

Yeah, it puts him into a berserker state, where hes on autopilot. Only way to stop it is by ending the battle or if Gau dies. Also, I believe every one of his rages has two moves, and those moves have a 50/50 chance of being used. If Im wrong on this, someone please correct me.

Also, did you notice that on the Veldt, you do not receive experience for winning fights at all? I know you commented on getting nothing when you leap and when Gau returns, but you also would have only been earning gil by actually winning the fights.
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yeah I did figure that out after playing for a while.

I seriously spent like an hour on this stuff and got barely anything out of it.

lol
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out of curiosity, what is so good about the stray cat? it didn't seem any better than the other Rage moves that I tried out. it would randomly Cat Scratch for higher damage at times, but this seemed random and unreliable. I guess it's good just for the raw damage?

If I recall correctly, Cat Scratch inflicts quadruple the damage of Gau's punch. So, yeah, raw damage.

there were these jellyfish enemies who counter your attacks by casting Gigavolt, which literally oneshots any of your party members.

So, now that you've fought those jellyfish, they'll start showing up on the Veldt...

(But, although you can get back to the Veldt basically the next time you're allowed onto the world map, it's quite a long walk, and Gau's the only one who really benefits.)
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no FF6 today, although I did get some Monster Hunter in....

and now for some reason I have to watch the 2017 power rangers movie, so I guess that's my plan for tonight.
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don't worry, this topic is not dead!

decided to explore the mainland near this port town a little bit first. turns out there's basically nothing here. just one small peninsula that leads nowhere. which is fine. now on to explore the village!

there wasn't too much to see here, I picked up a few things at the shops, but since I ended up doing this route now a lot of the gear and equipment wasn't an upgrade over what I've already got. there is a scene in the pub where this dancer tries to get cyan to dance with her.

and now we're off to south figaro!

the three groups have arrived in narshe, and a decisive battle will soon unfold!

there are a few story scenes that I got through here as things move into the next act

sabin and company wonder if the others are safe while taking the boat to southern figaro

bannon admits to the people of narshe that the battle will be dangerous, and will cost them blood, but he thinks it is worth it because stopping the emperor is important to stopping the mistakes of the past from being repeated

sabin and edgar reunite, and edgar is introduced to the new party members

when the elder hears about how the people of doma were poisoned, it seems like he should want to side against the empire because of this. instead, it makes him more resolved to stay neutral. he thinks if he doesn't get involved, nothing bad will happen to him.

then locke shows up with the turnabout. think again!

the empire is already in position to attack narshe. whether the elder wants to fight or not doesn't matter. it's just a matter of whether they will be prepared for the battle or sit there doing nothing.

of course, once cyan sees that celes is there, he immediately challenges her to a DUEL

there's some discussions about morality, and people's past as willing or unwilling servants of the empire. either way, locke doesn't want to let celes get attacked by cyan after he vowed to protect her. base on their combat performances in the sections I played, however, I feel like cyan would be able to take on celes and locke. at least in this stage of the game. so it's not like locke could have stopped him.

the power of talking and understanding works much better, though.

kefka and his army show up, vowing to not show any mercy to the citizens of narshe. so the group heads up to the pass where the esper has been moved to make their final stand.

there are a lot of little character moments and exchanges between the party members as they travel up the cliffs. I really liked all of these little scenes. perfect example of how to do good writing, short and sweet. the one between terra and celes was good. when terra asks if it's possible for celes to love anyone. it leaves so much unsaid, but says so much, in so few words.

at this point I regain control of terra and I'm finally allowed to save the game again for the first time since before I left Nikeah. imagine if I had gone straight onto the boat! this game definitely loves having long stretches of playtime without the opportunity to save. ha.

it looks like I might be given the ability to choose my squad for the upcoming battle? hard to say for sure, I didn't test it out yet, but I see all of the characters are lined up nice and neat for me... if so, I have a tough decision to make!
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Spoilers for the battle mechanics
if this is the battle I think it is, you make three squads and have to protect Bannon. Once all the armies have been dispatched you fight Kefka.

Edit: I dont know why I quoted you to say this.
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^I wouldnt click the spoiler. Just play the game out.
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