Moderate spoiler warning
Here’s the first post, should you want to start at the beginning
In Marshtown, Mizuda said that Rodenia Isle lies south but is “difficult to reach.” Locals are shy but may be willing to help the party once they see that we possess the Astral Key.
While it took a little exploring to the south in the airship, I wouldn’t exactly say that it was difficult to reach. Just fly around directly south and find a place with no forestry or mountains where the Eagle can land.
As anticipated, the guards refuse to let us pass until we show them the Astral Key. Once in Rodenia, the chatter of the townspeople carries some interesting insinuations and assumptions. Once upon a time, outsiders with Astral Keys were more of a known, socially-established thing. In some distant era, Astral Keys were something of a passport in and out of Rodenian society. In the present, Elder Germonique says that this Astral Key that we carry does not bestow license in and of itself so much as it simply conveys the blessing of Mizuda: the only one on the outside whom Rodenians still trust.
Elder Germonique directs us to the Osteinchyl ruins west of Rodenia. None can enter, save those with an Astral Key upon the back of one of the local, green-fledged chocobos. Green chocobos must be lured with Mimett Greens which Germonique is happy to provide us with.
I did not do as much experimenting with the green chocobo as I did with the blue. In the short time I spent with them, though, they did not appear to have any of the typical color / terrain differences. Overall, the green chocobos have the same range as Bluebell and Elder Germonique gives us what amounts to a bottomless bag of Mimett Greens.
I get it; it means that this is supposed to be a straight-shot to Osteinchyl with nothing going wrong, like “running out” of stuff. If we delay this just a little bit, though, and head to the far north of Osteinchyl until the land runs out, there is an interesting weapon waiting to be found. Harmonius is a dull axe, “once wielded by a pacifist magician”, with -75 to vigor, -5 to speed and +150 to magic.
On with the story, then.
The music in Osteinchyl sounds so damn familiar but I can’t place it. The digitized choral voices run through the melody of the main theme of FFIX. It sounds vaguely like the music from Oeilvert but it can’t be. The Oeilvert music had soft woodwinds and- I think -percussion and rattles. Up until I discerned the FFIX melody, I briefly wondered if it was the Hymn of the Fayth from X.
Like the Fey Spire, the puzzles are simple and most of the challenge comes from the stronger monsters and long distances between switches and their corresponding doors. The encounter rate isn’t the worst but still frequent enough to make the distances between switch rooms and locked doors daunting.
There’s some decent support gear to be stolen: Nitemares (fiery horsies) carry Survival Vests and Mischief Makers (looks like the Fey monsters from VI, also kinda like Christopher monsters from VII) carry Lucid Caps. If it’s worth the time and effort, Guard Shards can be stolen from Vectagoyles (Chimera lookalikes).
The floaty mirror Speculum monsters reflect all magic, not just black and white (other magic-bouncing enemies in the past often had blind spots for green and blue magic). When hit with multi-target spells, the Speculum will only reflect damage back on the caster. Watch out if you have someone equipped with one of those weapons that occasionally cast a spell in response to the ‘Fight’ command. At least you can steal Turbo Ethers from them.
To the north of the second room is an inscription: “The Knight of the West stands guard when the moon rises.”
Off to the west, there is a room with five knight statues: two in front, two behind and one in the center. The center knight is surrounded by tiles with symbols and can be rotated. Simply follow the directions on the inscription. There are two more puzzles like this that operate identically. If the apparent direction to turn a center knight isn’t working, press the interact button in front of the tiles and whoever is at the head of the party will recognize the proper name. As I said, most of the difficulty here comes from the distances you have to cross and the encounter rate.
Carbuncle, of all (apparent / potential) Espers, is our Leystone guardian. I didn’t want to lift a finger against them either but they will kill you if you stand there.
Carbuncle reflects all magic except (as far as I can tell) Bad Breath which explicitly bypasses magic defenses. In circumstances like this, Bad Breath functions like the magical version of Goblin Punch. Not only does it deal damage but it might also (ironically for Carbuncle) cause status effects. They shot Oalston with Ruby Ray once and then I kept them petrified and blind for the entire battle. Bad Breath could potentially cause any status effect and Carbuncle kept getting petrified, blinded and slow so I’m guessing those are the three that they’re vulnerable to. A Safe Ring can be stolen from them.
Mizuda goes to work as soon as we bring her both Leystones and the barrier around the Water Crystal is no more. From our first visit to the Ivalice Citadel, to Esto Yensa to Osteinchyl, it’s been a decent stretch of questing and dungeon-crawling since we checked in with the crystal side of the plot. Yet something feels…soonish? Definitely too soon for a Final Fantasy plot to wrap up.
Considering all that happened after this point, I wonder if I should have checked in with Valiar and Ramah first. Instead I went straight to the Water Shrine.
For fuck’s sake…I should have known he’d be back-
Wait, is Dio one of the Fey? It feels vaguely possible. I’m surprised that didn’t occur to me until just now.
This time, Dio dismounts from his Barghest and we fight them both at once. Only two attacks are worth worrying about: Serrated Edge from Dio and Chewing Frenzy from the Barghest (Chewing Frenzy reduces one character to one HP, like Gylfi’s Fallen One attack). If you don’t have a Labrys axe yet, you might take this chance to steal one from Dio.
Once Dio storms out in a huff, we are free to proceed.
Maybe it was only a little over a month ago that I walked through here as Vahn at the start of the game but a lot has happened since irl. Encountering the rooms I’ve seen before and treasure chests I’ve already plundered feels funny. Especially with all these new, stronger monsters that seem to have proliferated under the barrier.
They’re tough and you might have to step out for a tent break but it’s nothing we can’t handle. All the monsters can take some hits and can maim your party if you don’t have someone ready to do a bit of on-again-off-again healing. Laka can farm tents from the psychedelic mammoths called Lamarmorais. Mega Potions can be farmed from the huge centipedes called Andragandas even if their utility is slipping a little, what with the party’s average max HP these days. Gigas Gloves can be farmed from the Novialoidea dragons if you either have people who need them or the gil they’re worth.
That camp site on the land mass southwest of the Water Shrine is rather conveniently placed, now that we have the Eagle. It’s a great resting and saving checkpoint. With Branch having been razed by the Archareons, we’ll have to fly further afield if we want to restock our supplies.
We have the Eagle. There’s cities with shops to be found. Before we did, though, I decided to visit a nearby settlement.
In the nearby Berona Laboratory, Terry says that someone called Carwen Berona invented the NRG weapons that were adopted by Branch. The NRG turrets also “deterred a lot of Alliance soldiers during the Crystal War one year ago!”
So…the Alliance was formed to resist and defeat King Kain Silverson of Branch. Terry said that the turrets “deterred a lot of Alliance soldiers during the Crystal War”.
The laboratory of Berona is close to Branch, if separated by water. Branch was also the nation to whom Berona directly proffered their wears.
Kain Silverson was a warlike, expansionist menace who galvanized the world against himself. Were the NRG turrets being used against Alliance soldiers because Kain was king of Branch and Branch was the laboratory’s neighboring client? Or because Alliance soldiers attacked the Berona Laboratory? Both?
The reason I didn’t think of both immediately was because the people who live and work in the Berona Laboratory (including some dragoons from Branch) don’t seem to really identify with Branch.
Interesting parallel with Ivalice trying and failing to assimilate Rodenia. Rodenia is on the Ivalician continent but it is geographically isolated and populated with powerful mages.
Back at the Water Shrine, I now recall the superficial resemblances between this place and some of the Crystal Shrines from V. I may be confabulating my memories…but I find myself thinking most often of the Chaos Shrine (or Temple of Fiends or Temple of Chaos, depending on console version) from FFI. The proximity to Blackmoon Prophecy‘s starting point completes the resemblance.
Like last time, we run into the Water Crystal Guardian Bismarck. He is a hell of a damage sponge but also very dependent on water magic damage. Consider that with equipment. With Syldra and a few Water Rings, you’ll mostly just have to worry about physical attacks, which can be mitigated by rotating in some of your higher HP and higher defense party members. A Ribbon can be stolen from Bismarck.
When he goes down, he leaves behind the Bismarck nethicite: fifty-percent passive water resistance with leveling bonuses of +3 defense and +5 max MP. It also looks like you might lose three points of luck with each level (what it says is that “-3 Luck” happens upon leveling so…?).
Like we saw with Quetzalcoatl, Salamander and Byblos, the Crystal Guardian went after the party and not the forces that were already behind their lines.
In the Crystal chamber, we meet Gylfi-Hans, who says that he was only able to get inside the Water Shrine in the first place because the Vahn squad brought the Leystones to Mizuda and she brought the barrier down.
While that may have been Gylfi-Hans’ motive and means, I wonder if Dio played a role? Particularly if he’s Fey? The Fey stole the Earth Crystal while leaving Byblos to attack us as if we did it. Bismarck just did the same thing.
Since Gylfi is rooted in Hans and Malacore is still inside of the Water Crystal, Gylfi-Hans wants to smash it and separate himself.
Instead, the usual magical anchor confusion happens and Malacore is released. Oh and the Water Crystal was both an anchor and a suppressant so he’s now even more powerful.
Oalston attempts to extract the essences of the consumed crystals with the Crystal of Life and Malacore effortlessly floors everyone.
Then Valiar steps in. Malacore apparently has no idea who Valiar is or even what Archareons are. Earlier he and Gylfi seemed to operate along similar lines and I made assumptions. But Malacore is not one of them. As he has effectively absorbed the four base crystals and now has his hands on the fifth, he’s not particularly interested in all that either.
Faced with this escalation, Valiar and his enforcers combine their powers to sink the Water Shrine below the surface of Gaia.
Here’s the sauce
Until next time, TBC
AilixChaerea 