Some games practically require you to take notes to progress. Older RPGs are a great example of this. They can be vague when guiding the player and the NPCs generally aren’t any better. I’ve found it helpful to write down the directions I receive when playing them. That way, should I take a break from the game, I won’t be completely lost upon returning – forced to consult a FAQ or simply restart.
When I played through Final Fantasy V I went a step further. With my handy tablet nearb, I noted the directions and helpful suggestions, as well as the general narrative. This resulted in a lengthy set of notes that I thought I’d publish here. Enjoy.
Final Fantasy V
The game is nearly unplayable a few hours in when playing on the PS3. The save screen never loads at points. There are issues on the PS2, but they’re not as bad. The save screen sometimes looks glitched and pixelated. However, it will still function. I’m sure there are no issues when playing on the PS…
Tule Village is just southwest of the Wind Shrine and directly west of Torna Canal.
Go east through Torna Canal to reach Walz.
Kerwin Town is southeast of the Torna Canal exit/Ship Graveyard. The town’s theme song makes Grandia II’s seem dull. It’s a pretty large town with all the expected amenities of a medieval town, including a pub!
The North Mountain entrance is north of Kerwin Town and northeast of the Torna Canal exit/Ship Graveyard.
The Kingdom of Walz is south of Kerwin Town, via the sea (or the air as it turns out).
The Town of Walz is fairly small, although it has all the major shops and an inn. The townsfolk brag about their purified water (thanks to the crystal). The town (buildings and aqueduct) are constructed using expensive looking brick.
Walz Castle is next to the Town of Walz, or is it the other way around?
After freeing Lone Wolf, I wandered into his cell to examine the pot inside. The cell door shut and nothing I did opened it. A minute or two passed and the cell door opened automatically. I thought I might have to reset!
Upon entering Walz Castle, a set of stairs is visible to the right. Going down leads to two places I need to return. The first is through the doors in the right of the room – the basement. The enemies are tough here. The second is through the opposite, southern, doorway leading outside. Walking along the aqueduct leads to the northernmost waterfall. Entering through the middle leads to the Walz Water Tower. Shiva is found inside and she has 1,500 HP. I need to return when I can defeat similar strength bosses.
The Library of Ancients to the west of Walz?
Walz Tower is northeast of the Town of Walz and Walz Castle.
A meteor fell to east of Walz Tower. Confronted Garula inside but we were too late to save the crystal. The wounded king of Walz directed us to Karnak as they also amplify a crystal. He didn’t mention which direction it is though.
Tycoon Castle and the Tycoon Meteor are southeast of Walz.
Returning to Tycoon Castle prompts a scene where Reina awakens in the night and calls Faris sister hesitantly. Faris responds trying to laugh it off but it’s apparent she believes/knows they are sisters. Per Jenica, a maid in the eastern section of the castle, she raised both Reina and Salsa – Reina’s older sister who was lost at sea. Hmm…
The Town of Karnak is on the continent to the west of Walz. I can reach it by entering the meteor that fell near the Walz Tower. There is a teleporter inside. Once on the western continent, the Town of Karnak and Karnak Castle are northeast.
The Fire Crystal made Karnak. Thanks in part to the crystal amplifier designed by Professor Cid. The town is more like a medieval fortress. Tall walls form the town and small fires are everywhere.
The Library of Ancients is south of Karnak. Professor Cid was supposedly born there.
Jacohl is a town south of Karnak and the Library of Ancients?
After exploring Karnak, I tried to buy some gear when suddenly we were arrested. Apparently monsters have been emerging from the meteor and that’s exactly what the officials think of us. In jail we met up with Cid. The chancellor of Karnak soon came to free Cid as the Fire Crystal had begun shattering. Cid enlisted our help since we possessed crystal shards.
Return to the 3rd and 4th basement floors of the castle when I can put out fires or when they all dissipate. The main floor too. I’ll just reexamine the entire castle.
There’s an airship just south of Karnak and it’s believed the engine is causing the Fire Crystal to break. Cid sent us in to halt the engine. Monsters were plenty inside and the innards of the airship were maze like thanks to the many conveyor belts. In fact, it was just like Team Rocket’s hideout in the Celadon City Casino or Giovanni’s Gym in Vermilion City. The Queen of Karnak was the cause of the commotion, or rather, the Liquid Flame that possessed her was.
Upon defeating the possessed queen, she lets on about being possessed and our need to save the crystals. As the group made their way to the Fire Crystal, Werewolf appeared. Werewolf knows Galuf. Or did, as Werewolf sacrificed himself to try and save the Fire Crystal. An evil force is destroying the crystals to break a curse placed on it.
It succeeded in destroying the Fire Crystal. This caused a ten-minute escape scene where the group had to flee the castle. Wait, weren’t they in the airship south of the castle? Whatever. Cut to an omnipresent countdown, a red flashing screen, and a blaring siren. The castle was freely open however. Treasure chests abound (few remained unopened) as were monsters inside them. Occasionally there were was money and always items, but there was no way to get to them all. I failed the first go-around but learned I need to run to the towers of the castle to get some gear.
Visiting Cid on the fire ship afterwards, he states he wished he had never been born.
In the desert to the west of Karnak lives a dread monster known as the Quadrharpy. It’s pretty dreadful too.
I think Silent Bee is a humorous enemy name.
The Library of Ancients is a very active place. Sages are running around in a furor speaking of Cid, Mid (Cid’s grandson), and monsters in the library. Monsters have possessed some books and the sages are trying to burn some on the roof. One sage stated that Ifrit used to burn them.
Jacohl is south of the Library of Ancients.
A monster named Biblos appeared and was sealed away at the Wind Shrine 30 years ago.
A hidden passageway in the Library of Ancients led to Ifrit. He was encapsulated in a tome and was fairly easy to best.
Training Galuf as a monk and then as a ninja was the way to go! I say this because he doled out the damage as a monk until eventually learning counter. Now as a ninja, he has incredible attack power, attacks twice, and counters most of the time when he’s physically attacked.
Galuf revealed he’s from another planet after speaking with Cid and Mid. He traveled here by meteor and did so to seal away an evil being known as X-Death.
Back at the Library of Ancients, Cid and Mid are trying to locate the Earth Crystal. All signs point to a crescent-shaped island in the southeastern portion of the map.
Jacohl Village is located at the southern tip of the continent in the southwestern portion of the map.
Wait patiently on the road with skull switches and you’ll see the truth.
Not much to Jacohl Cave north of Jacohl Village?
Not much to Crescent Village either. It stinks that the fire ship sank, but the black chocobos we discovered on Crescent Island are much more versatile.
The Ronka Ruins are on the western continent.
Rikks Village lies at the northern tip of the continent in the northeastern portion of the map. Bartz hails from here. His parents’ names are Drogan and Stella.
Returning to fight Shiva when the party was level 19 across the board and Faris had access to Fire2 made the fight a cinch.
Easterly Village is located in the northeastern corner of the map. There’s a shop selling relics (fire, coral, and angel rings) for 50,000 apiece.
Something is supposedly hidden inside Easterly Falls, located west of Easterly Village.
The Sand Tides are located linearly southwest of the Library of Ancients. They’re impassable at this point? There is something in the center of them as well as a village south of their exit.
Returning to the Library of Ancients prompts a scene between the group and Cid and Mid. We let on what happened to the fire ship while they tell of the sightings of the King of Tycoon. He floated into the Sand Tides.
The pyramid at the center of the Sand Tides is locked from the inside.
Gorn Town is located south of the Sand Tides. It’s an ancient town now in ruins. The group saw the King of Tycoon but he tricked them onto a false platform. They landed inside an ancient, yet sophisticated looking room. Sure enough, their crystal shards allowed them warp to a similar platform under Crescent Island.
Under Crescent Island, the group finds an airship that Cid is able to resuscitate. Returning to Gorn Town, the ruins lift off the Earth and take to the skies. Reconvening with Cid and Mid, they recommend installing adamantite onto the airship to fly higher. Galuf recalls there is some inside the meteorite he came from. After installing it, the group flies to the floating town that houses the Earth Crystal.
Confronting the vessel first requires that the cannons are destroyed. Upon defeating the missile launchers and flamethrowers on the sides, a large weapon extends from the center of the vessel.
Final Fantasy V has many more humorous moments than the previous games. The character sprites will exhibit emotions in a much more exaggerated way.
The flying vessel houses the Ruins of Ronka. Inside are tough enemies and a distant save area. Probably would’ve been good to return to the Earth’s surface to heal and save beforehand. That would’ve saved many elixirs.
The Earth Crystal shattered and X-Death was released from the seal holding him captive. Krile (Galuf’s granddaughter) flew in from a meteor and saved the day. X-Death returned to Galuf’s home planet and he and Krile did so too.
The group didn’t take long to decide to follow suit, but how? Cid and Mid had the idea that the warp functionality of the meteorites could be reactivated with adamantite. This entailed returning to the four scattered around Earth.
That venture was successful and the group was transported to Galuf’s home planet. However, X-Death shortly captured them. Galuf was advancing on the evildoer’s castle and broke the group free. After a bout of lengthy battles, they were thrown across the planet by the activation of a shield protecting X-Death’s castle. They landed near the Lugor Bordertown. It’s a remote town located in the northeast of the planet.
The castle south of Lugor is the sealed castle of Kuza. This castle houses the 12 legendary weapons use in a great war 1,000 years ago.
Kornago’s Gourd can catch monsters slick as anythin’.
Southeast of Lugor we ran into a Moogle in a forest. We followed it into a cave where we had to fight a tough dinosaur-type enemy that would bind and counter our physical attacks. It was tough-going and Jeff and I almost bit the dust at least twice, but we conquered in a thrilling turn off events.
After that altercation, the Moogle showed us the way to Moogle Village. Here they telepathically communicated with a Moogle back at Val Castle. Krile flew in a dragon to rescue us and the group returned to the discovery that Galuf is a king.
The Valley of Dragons is north of Kelb. Kelb is the home of Werewolf. Kelb Village is north of Val Castle.
Only a dragon can beach X-Death’s barrier. It’s therefore important that we retrieve Dragon Grass to heal Galuf’s dragon.
South of the throne room in Val Castle is the basement which contains a locked door and enemies with at least 3,000 HP. Return here.
Kelga is the leader of Kelb Village, the village of werewolves. He, along with Galuf, Zeza, and Drogan (Bartz’s farther (what a coincidence!)) sealed away X-Death on Earth 30 years ago. Drogan wasn’t a native to Earth but stayed behind to keep an eye on X-Death’s seal.
There’s a man inside the well in Kelb. Here’s requesting a frog. What does he want?
The dragon grass at the Valley of Dragons was possessed by a monster. After defeating it, the group brought some to Galuf’s dragon.
Surgate Castle lies directly north of Val Castle, Kelb, and the Valley of Dragons. This is the castle of Zeza, one of the Dawn Warriors. When the group arrives, he is leading an attack on the barrier towers protecting X-Death’s castle.
On the third floor of Surgate Castle, there is a book the scholars refer to as The Sealed Book. It is missing half of its pages and when examined, Bartz mentions that he’s seen a book like it before. Library of Ancients?
Sage Gill resides on the small island northeast of Val Castle. Or he did until X-Death sank the island. Hope there wasn’t anything I missed by going to Surgate Castle first.
Zeza is commanding a fleet of ships to the east of X-Death’s castle. His ship can be landed on. After a bit of reuniting, Gilgamesh brings a horde of goons. Easy enough.
With Gilgamesh and the goons defeated, Zeza takes the group to a secret passageway on his ship – one that leads to a submarine. The fleet was a decoy! Zeza plans to enter one of X-Death’s barrier towers from below.
Zeza and the group complete their objective and bring down X-Death’s barrier. Zeza presumably perishes however as he doesn’t make it out. The group decides to use his submarine in an effort to reach Sage Gill, whose island was sunk by X-Death.
Using the submarine allowed the group to access Moore Village on the easternmost continent. At this point, it’s only accessible via a lake. Finally! The magic shop here sells level 5 magic. The weapons and armor shops have good items too.
There’s a house in the southeast corner of the village whose front door is inaccessible. However, there is a back door that is locked from the inside.
Moore Forest lies to the east of Moore Village and there is something beautiful there supposedly. A new summon? Per a resident of the village, the first can’t be entered from the east. He is correct, although there are enabled that dole out good rewards and I need to purchase three more Air Lancet knives.
The underwater cave north of the Moore Village lake leads to a chocobo forest. No black chocobo though. A single female yellow one is present, but the group can’t ride her. What to do here? In the forests outside is a summon named Shoat. When attached, physically or magically, it’ll car petrify. It wasn’t difficult however meaning the group received a new summon! Finally.
Gill Shrine is the third destination that can be visited with the submarine. Gill himself is actually a turtle, or at least, takes the form of a turtle. He wove the creation take off X-Death to the group. The evildoer was born in Moore 500 years ago. Created by spirits and sealed away until he broke out 30 years ago.
With the Elder’s Branch that the group received from Gill, they should be able to traverse Moore Forest. They ultimately reach the Elder Tree, but not before X-Death burns a good chunk of the forest down. A moogle saves the group, showing them a passage underground. When they reemerge, the forest has burned and turned ashy.
The Elder Tree reclaims the Elder Branch and the group venture inside the massive tree. A squad of four enemies confronts the group and they decimate them, with Galuf and Faris having fainted. X-Death appears and informs them that the four sealed creatures were actually the crystals that originally kept him sealed in the forest. He launches a blistering attack on them using the crystals and were it not for Krile sensing danger and a helpful moogle, the group might’ve been toast.
X-Death showed no mercy towards Krile though and Galuf found the strength to save her, withstand X-Death’s impressive barrage of 20,000+ damage, but nearly defeat the evildoer as well. Galuf succumbed to his injuries and perished however. Fortunate for me, he passed on hits abilities and statistics to Krile, who is now a party member alongside Bartz, Reina, and Salsa… er, Faris. Onto X-Death’s castle!
Here, the group confronted many enemies that were good for grinding. They fought Gilgamesh who was banished to the N-Zone by X-Death for trying to use the sword Excalibur without his permission. Harsh. He had two forms and the second was very easy.
X-Death was a toughie. Faris was utilizing her time magic as much as Reina was using her white magic. After succeeding in defeating him, the group found themselves back on Earth. Upon returning to Tycoon Castle, the chancellor beckoned for Reina and Faris to stay. Bartz and Krile left the castle without the royalty.
As Bartz and Krile headed west, they tumbled down a monster’s nest were they confronted an antolyon. Faris showed up with a rope to extract them.
In a cave further west, the group found sage Gill. He weaved a tale of the two worlds beginning one 1,000 years ago. They were split apart to seal The Void. The evil presence Enuo held the power of The Void then. It was defeated using the 12 legendary weapons. Because The Void couldn’t be destroyed, they split the crystals in half which created a second world. They sealed The Void in the N-Zone between the two worlds.
X-Death halfway comically appeared during Gill’s story. He took the form of a thorn and stuck to Krile after the Antolyon encounter. X-Death wishes to harness the power of The Void. Meanwhile, the N-Zone began forming above Tycoon Castle. Gill (a turtle mind you) proceeded to have a brief, Super Saiyanesque battle with X-Death.
The party is buffeted by explosions and land outside of the Library of Ancients. Gill knows of a book there that will explain how to defeat X-Death for good – the Sealed Book. The book detailed the 12 legendary weapons sealed in Kuza Castle. The seals can be broken according to four lithographs.
With the spirit of the past, one is protected by the earth. In an island temple, one is protected by the wind. In a place deeper than the ocean floor, one is protected by flame. Behind the place where the water falls, one is protected by the water.
The ones who sealed the lithographs also sealed their servants. The servants will revive when the lithographs are removed. Black and white powerful magic, time magic, Meteo, Leviathan, and Bahamut.
The first stanza refers to the pyramids in the desert.
Kuza Castle should be just east of Tule Village.
A town that sold fantastic weapons and armor had been sealed in the N-Zone. It should’ve reappeared too.
Cid and Mid should be on Crescent Island.
Surgate Castle lies just north of the Library of Ancients.
The Town of Karnak lies northeast of Surgate Castle.
Dwarves live at the bottom of the sea and make superb weapons and armor?
The Elder Tree from Moore Forest resides just outside of the desert. The forest is growing again, although the Sand Tides in the desert have halted.
The pyramid was stacked with various types of Egyptian styled snake humans and robotic guards. Not to mention plenty of mummies in sarcophaguses. The group battled two gargoyles before entering through the newly opened entrance.
The pyramid was composed of eight floors of fiends and hidden passageways. Thankfully, Krile was already a thief so the group was able to spot hidden walls easily. Upon reaching the lithograph on the penultimate eighth floor, the room rose up to the peak of the pyramid. From there the group witnessed the bird-like peninsula sinking and Bahamut rising from the sea. He is waiting at North Mountain, undoubtedly for fight. A ship also sailed to the continent the group is on. Cid and Mid?
I was so relieved to see the dragon deposit Reina on the ground as the group passed through Moore Forest. However, it was actually Mellusion, a monster sealed in the N-Zone for over 1,000 years. X-Death then summoned the N-Zone over the Library of Ancients. Gill and all the scholars…
The dragon swooped in and looked like it sacrificed itself to get the monster to leave Reina’s body. A short battle with Mellusion followed. She changed her element type only once because her magic was strong enough to topple her with little help from Bartz and Krile. Reina turned out to be okay but mumbled about the N-Zone consuming Tycoon Castle.
Some of the scholars made it to Surgate Castle before the Library of Ancients was consumed by the void. Upon entering the airship that was off the coast of Surgate Castle, a scene played out that saw all (?) of the towns being sucked up by the void.
Jacohl Village resides in the southwestern corner of the map. Jacohl Cave and Val Castle lie northeast of Jacohl Village.
The Island Shrine lies to the east of Val Castle. This is one of the destinations the group needs to visit according to the Sealed Book.
Kelb Village lies to the north of Val Castle. North of it is the Valley of Dragons. To its northeast is Moore Village. A little to the west is Surgate Castle and the pyramids. Further north is Karnak. Northeast of it is a large set of waterfalls, but I’m not sure how to access them. There is a cave exit nearby, but I don’t see an entrance.
East, and perhaps a little southeast, of Karnak is Tule Village. Northeast of Tule is the Sealed Castle.
Inside the Sealed Castle are the 12 legendary weapons. Having a lithograph allows the group to remove three weapons; 4 lithographs x 3 weapons = 12 legendary weapons. I was able to pick whichever three I wanted; I wasn’t confined to a specific order or having to wait until the group recovered all four lithographs. After removing the first three, a scene showed X-Death releasing three super fiends to hunt down the group.
Lugor Bordertown lies north of the Sealed Castle. To the east of it is the Wind Shrine.
Kerwin Town is east of the Sealed Castle. A tower similar to Fork Tower is west of Kerwin and a mountain lies to the north.
Oh shoot! The voids that engulfed the towns can be entered! I was not expecting that. The enemies inside were tough but yield much gold, experience, and ability points. I imagine each void is different.
In the southeastern corner is Crescent Village and the newly arisen Fork Tower.
Following the southern branch of land that now connects the continents, the forest in the southernmost part contains Mirage Village. The village’s residents are time travelers living in a dimensional N-Zone.
A dragon died at Phoenix Tower in the desert and was reincarnated into a phoenix. Look for monsters and hidden stairs in the walls of Phoenix Tower.
In the secret room of the Mirage Village tavern, the resident will give the group something special for traveling around the world on a yellow chocobo. A little further down, there’s a spooky door that can be opened but not entered. Anything special? A little further yet leads to a guild salesperson who has some fantastic weapons including a double lance. Time to equip Krile with two of them instead of one!
I AM PIANO MASTER!
The Island Shrine was predictable because it followed a clichéd template. The enemies were tough when the group would get back attacked. However, that was also a blessing because it meant Krile had mastered the thief class. Everyone but Bartz mastered another job class here. Druids really sucked when they’d appear in groups, would back attack, and cast old on the party. Not fun. Stoker guarded the lithograph and it was a fairly tough boss. He had four shadows and only one was susceptible to damage at a time. It wasn’t easily evident which shadow could be damaged.
Afterwards the magic barrier preventing entrance to Fork Tower was lifted. Powerful black and white magic can be found there.
The group headed back to the Sealed Castle and removed three more legendary weapons. They took the Holy Lance first as Krile was currently a Lancer and lacked a lance. Next, they picked the Safe Staff so Reina or Faris could utilize it in their black or red mage classes. Lastly, they picked Masamune as Bartz will probably switch job classes to a samurai when he masters the knight job class shortly.
The name Fork Tower is a little misleading. It should probably be called Fork Towers as there are two towers. For the group to receive the powerful white and black magic, they had to remove an artifact from each tower at the same time. This called for them to split into two groups.
I sent Bartz and Reina to the left tower and Krile and Faris to the right tower. Getting to the peaks wasn’t difficult. Fighting the protectors of the artifacts was. Krile and Faris battled a minotaurus first. Krile was still a lancer and had her legendary weapon equipped. This healed the minotaurus so she was useless. Faris had to be the one then. For whatever reason, she wasn’t able to cast red our time magic. The only way I could deal damage was with Faris’ piddly rod which only did an average of 550 damage. The minotaurus had 20,000 hit points; she had to strike the enemy 40 times! Oh, and no healing spells either, remember? I had to keep three duo alive with potions (ran out), tonics (only heal 50 got points), phoenix downs (used two on Far is), and elixirs (for when things looked dire). Thankfully Krile had a good shield equipped and as a result she evaded about 40% of the enemy’s attacks and she spent her time healing Faris. They received the “holy” white magic spell.
Fearing Bartz and Reina would have to fight a minotarus as well, I unequipped Excalibur from Bartz. Then I figured I’d type this paragraph. However, I had left the menu when I began typing and because I didn’t remove the artifact in front of the duo, the towers exploded and I was sent back to the main menu. FUCK! At least I’ll know not to equip Krile with a legendary weapon.
In Crescent Village they sing a song that goes the left tower is the tower of power, no amount of strength can save you. The right tower is the tower of power, no amount of magic can save you. That’s why Faris couldn’t cast her magic.
I think I’ll change Faris’ job class before reattempting Fork Tower as well as unequipping Krile’s legendary weapon. Maybe I should send Bartz and Krile to the right tower and Reina and Faris to the left tower?
Oh my gosh, I did all of that and it was so much easier! All of that except changing Faris’ job class. Receiving 20 ABP sounded too good to pass up. She and Reina fought a mage named Omniscient.
The black magic spell was “flare.”
Sometimes you’ve got to fail before being able to succeed I guess.
I wasn’t sure where the next two lithographs were, but I had another errand I wanted to run. Having discovered a black chocobo in Mirage Village, I was now able to land in forests again. In the northeast corner of the map, I knew there were at least two areas I could only access with a black chocobo.
North Mountain was one of my destinations. Bahamut stated he would be waiting here and I thought I’d continue on and see if the group was strong enough to defeat him. They were too. They received Bahamut as a summon.
Southwest of North Mountain was Phoenix Tower. This tower contained 30 floors. I’d say about half of the staircases were hidden. Half of those were protected by very tough enemies. A thief wasn’t able to see the hidden staircases, but finding them was formulaic. Every fifth floor was an event called magic pot. It wanted elixirs and the group had to satisfy it until it was full. It didn’t attack and doing so granted 100 ABP. there were five of these creatures and I “fought” all but one as I was practically out of elixirs and didn’t want to find out the magic pot was super tough and lose all the progress I’d made.
At the top of Phoenix Tower was the dragon. It fell off, committing suicide due to its wounds presumably. A flashback of Reina ensued. Before her mother passed away, she learned a dragon’s tongue would cure her. She promptly ran to her family’s dragon but Jenica had a conversation with her. Jenica spoke of how the dragon had a family at one time even though it was the last dragon in the world. Reina changed her mind after three conversations. Back to the current, the group received the Phoenix summon.
When the Fork Tower disappeared a while ago, the access point to the underground area where Cid and Mid are became available. They converted the group’s airship into a submarine. Looks like Krile and Mid might have a romantic relationship developing.
With the submarine, the group was able to access the Great Sea Trench in the eastern portion of the map. Time to explore though.
In the northeastern portion of the map was the Sunken Walz Tower. This is apparently a great place to learn blue magic spells. My interest was on the first floor though. The mimic Gogo resided there. This was a fun battle. To succeed, I had to do as he did. He was a mimic so he copied the group’s actions. I just sat idly for a few minutes until he congratulated me for figuring out how to beat him. He yielded the mimic job class.
In the northwestern portion of the map, there was an underwater cave that granted access to Easterly Falls. I’d be able to recover all of the lithographs and legendary weapons!
The Great Sea Trench seems to have a lot of enemies that possess members of the group or cast death on them. Reina mastered the black mage job class early into the trench. I switched her to a Geomancer as there’s a lot of magma to walk across.
Partway into the trench is a dwarven settlement. These dwarves say tally-ho as opposed to the dwarves in Final Fantasy IV who said lali-ho. The rumors were true, their weapons and armor are top-notch.
One of the dwarves tells the group to shop the “Magic Lamp” in the white waters to revitalize the lamp.
The fifth dwarf is digging a tunnel. He states that something is odd about the forest directly above him. I believe he’s referring to the first containing Mirage Village.
Guarding the lithograph in the Great Sea Trench was a trio of monsters. Nergade, Phobos, and Triton all had to be defeated at the same time or else they attacked with a spell that would petrify one of the group. It took me half a dozen petrifications before I conquered them. Besides the lithograph, the group also received Meteo, the monster sealed in the river of molten lava. Um, actually it’s magma since it isn’t on the planet’s surface. This is the ultimate time magic spell.
Easterly Falls was a cave that as one might expect, had waterfalls inside. There were two enemies that would appear together: a lady and a frog. Remembering the man in Kelb Village, I switched Faris’ job class to a trainer and caught the frog. Not sure if that’ll work but I figured it’s worth a shot.
Faris mastered the red mage job class in Easterly Falls. It wasn’t as awesome as Jeff and I were expecting. Instead of being able to use all white and black magic, the final level allowed Faris to cast two red magic spells consecutively. That’s cool, don’t get me wrong, but it certainly wasn’t worth grinding 999 experience.
Since Reina had mastered the white and black mage job classes as well as the summoner job class, I was training her as a time mage. That was until I saw the mime job class allowed three abilities instead of one! This meant she could access all white and black spells as well as the group’s entire available summons. Now I’m leveling up Faris’ white mage job class so she can become a mime and be able to cast all white, black, and time magic.
I just about had to turn to a guide to locate the lithograph. Luckily, I kept a keen eye on my surroundings and noticed a hole that’d appear after a spike withdrew underground.
There was a monster waiting for the group but it was swiftly defeated by Leviathan. If the group was able to best Leviathan, he’d submit to their will. It was a tough battle and he got them down multiple times, but I succeeded and obtained a new summon. Another important note: Bartz mastered the samurai job class here and I switched him to a lancer. The ultimate samurai ability was Fast Draw. This routed the event in one lightning quick swoop.
Upon breaching the surface again, I headed toward Kelb Village to see if the weirdo in the well would accept the frog Faris caught. Alas, he didn’t.
I need to recover the final legendary weapons.
The last three legendary weapons have been removed – Yoichi’s Bow, the Fire Bute, and the Apollo Harp are mine.
Back in Moore Village, there was a house in the southwestern corner that I wasn’t able to access previously. Now, it took me on a meandering path through the neighboring forest and to a man who would allow me a treasure. Either one for a brave warrior or one for a coward. I opened the treasure chest on the left and received the Brave Blade. Afterwards, the man turned into a skeleton and disappeared into the woods.
Into the N-Zone! The first few areas of the N-Zone were interesting. They were reminiscent of the desert, Mirage Village, Moore Forest, Easterly Falls, and that’s only within the first half-hour. Before transitioning between the desert and the forest, seven baddies spoke of X-Death’s glorious plans for an evil world.
The only one the group has fought so far is the WoodSprite and she was very easy. An optional boss that is encountered soon afterwards isn’t so easy. In fact, Omega is one of the toughest in the game and is optional. A mechanical creature, Omega immediately killed three of the four group members and finished the fourth off before i had a chance to do anything when I tried him.
A 1,000 year old book spoke that even those with the legendary weapons couldn’t defeat Omega or Dragon Lord. I’ll have to avoid that monster too.
In another book was a big baddie – Apprehender. He was easy.
The song that plays in this area has a nontraditional beat to it. A quick handclap followed by a cymbal hit; very reminiscent of Despair – Kenji Ito’s song from SaGa Frontier. I wonder if he did this song as well?
Up next was a series of invisible pathways held up in the clouds. This led to a castle with two big baddies and many other enemies in prison cells.
First up was Azulmagia. He was a mage that cast a few attacks that instantly killed a party member. He wasn’t too tough. In the same section was Catastroph, a large black blob whose Earthquake attack was devastating. After a few tries though, it was apparent Float was the way to go.
After beating Catastroph, the group freed a maiden who gave them a kiss. Well she was the ruler of this castle they found out when teaching the throne room. Halycanos turned the entire group into frogs with one spell which could’ve grown annoying. It didn’t take too much for the group to defeat her though.
At the top of the castle was Twin Tania. It was guarding the entrance to The Void. It cast spells multiple times so casting Shell on the party was a must. This was a tough battle – I died a few times – but I got past and into The Void.
Beforehand, I went back to save. As I returned to the top of the castle, I entered into a battle with Ramuh. He and Ifrit began conversing and Ramuh joined me as a summon.
The first section of The Void consisted of a short battle with Gilgamesh. He back-attacked the group and fought for a few turns before going into a monologue about the ghosts around and escaping The Void. He seemed like he wanted to cooperate but fled.
The second section was longer but didn’t have a guardian.
The third section was longer as well and included a treasure chest that contained Shinryu. An optional boss that did 7,000 damage to each party member with one Tidal Wave. Nope!
The fourth section had another tough boss. Necrophobe had four barriers protecting him. These barriers had Reflect cast on them. They cast strong magic on themselves which devastated the group. It took a few tries and casting Shell on everyone. When Necrophobe was near death, Gilgamesh swooped in and finished him off. Gilgamesh gave everyone life advice before sacrificing himself. A save spot appeared. Thank you!
The final section. Confronting X-Death. He acquired the power of The Void and morphed into a tree, probably akin to his original form. He sucked the world’s inhabitants into The Void, as well as the group. The Void proper looked like bleak space.
The Dawn Warriors appeared before the group. They held back the power of The Void and allowed the Warriors of Light to fight X-Death.
The group beat him and he was engulfed by the Void! I made sure to cast Shell on everyone since recent successes have required it. Haste 2 was a major player as well. And if I’m being honest Cure 3 and Arise were probably the most used spells.
Of course, X-Death reappeared as Neo X-Death because this is a video game. Damn. Lost three first go around. Neo X-Death had four parts to his amalgamated self. The second attempt everyone had Haste, Shell, and Protes cast on themselves. Krile was the only one who fainted and she only did so once. It was still super tough. What got me through offensively was $toss and Bahamut, two attacks that hit all enemies. In this case, all parts of Neo X-Death.
The group released their crystal shards in order to recreate the crystals and bring life back to the world. They met the Dawn Warriors and the King of Tycoon before Krile’s dragon removed them from the Void.
The ending was told via a letter from Krile to Mid and Cid, recapping what everyone is up to one year later. Highlights of each character’s actions played ending with a title card of their name. The epilogue continued for about a dozen minutes and concluded with the group meeting up at Moore Forest.
The credits played over Mode 7 scenes of the world and the group on chocobos and dragons traversing it.
After the credits each character’s stats and learned abilities were highlighted ala beating the Elite Four in Pokemon.
After all that was an extended CG video showing the party members and highlights.
I think I played this a long time ago but sent it back because it wasn’t 3-d. Unfortunately, I can’t read it because of possible spoilers.
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Sent it back because it wasn’t 3D!? There’s plenty of spoilers, but the story is even more lackluster than the 2D graphics.
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I was a kid, if it didn’t have 3D graphics I wasn’t interested. Thankfully I’ve matured since then.
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I’d definitely put it at the bottom of the totem pole in comparison to the other PlayStation games in the series.
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Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.
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