Light spoiler warning
Here’s the first post, should you want to start at the beginning
We are, at this point, looking for Cid in the hopes of maybe recovering the airship.
In a nearby chocobo forest, Choco-Brett has a black chocobo for sale. He says they are fiercely loyal and remain by the side of their human companions (says the human selling them).
All for the low asking price of ten Gs. I had it so I did it.
I kinda wanted to change the name to Interceptor but he can be Shadow if he wants.
Like most chocobos, the black ones are partial to Gysahl Greens. Choco-Brett gives us a whistle to summon Shadow but Shadow will only carry us if we have food.
A brief crossing over a reef takes us to a coastal town with Costa del Sol music and a familiar ship docked.
Better Cid in Costa del Vita than Hojo in Costa del Sol. Cid appears to be in perfectly good spirits, running a ferry between Costa del Vita in Ivalice and the western port of Marsh Cove. Shiroma and Cid don’t know where anyone is but Shiroma seems to think that we may find answers of some kind in Mystic Mysidia or Darnacles Castle. Darnacles Castle originally existed in the Esper world but ended up on Gaia during the dimensional contraction. The implication seems to be that Darnacles Castle is a place where the boundaries of the Merged World can be discerned and thereby better plan the search.
Darnacles Castle lies beyond Marshtown, which means going west on Cid’s boat.
En route, our first resting-chatty time happens, kinda like the little dialogue breaks that used to happen at inns. This, however, is a bit more of a (PS1 original) FFVII chatty time when you, the viewpoint character, have to manually walk up to people and talk to them. You can do this in any order but the one I ended up with had some interesting beats of consistency.
I walked Vahn up to Vera, first, who get things started talking about the erratic behavior of certain Espers we’ve encountered. Five Espers started acting almost animalistic, like Atomos, Carbuncle, Quetzalcoatl and Syldra. Byblos and Bismarck completely missed the loss of their crystals and attacked the party as if they were the first strangers to show up. Vera doesn’t have much to go on other than that things that happen to the crystals also effect Espers on Gaia.
Eventually, Vera has to mention something. “What Emperor Belmont said…I can’t let it go, Vahn. About your father. It was me and my squad who did it, Vahn. I didn’t know how to break the news to you after we learned about your parentage in the Temple of Visions.”
‘Squad’ might be the word that ties that together. Zeul was the one who enacted the mind control on Vahn’s father Kain. Zeul was also responsible for placing Malacore within the Crystal of Water. This attempt to sabotage the kingdom of Branch from within also included sending Braak who was promptly caught and hauled off to the dungeon.
Even if it was definitely an Ivalician military effort to influence Branch…the Ivalician military appeared to have five officers at its’ head: Zeul, Eva, Deckar, Braak and Vera. While ‘ultimate’ responsibility rests with the military of Ivalice, apparently different sections were doing different things. Vera’s words on the boat threw me off at first because when she said “(a)bout your father” I thought she meant the mind-control, which was obviously Zeul’s doing. If Vera did not mean that, than I can only assume that she means the actual killing of Vahn’s father. To Vera and the soldiers under her command, it was probably just a question of disposing of a mind-controlled asset that outlived his usefulness.
The intensity of Vera’s remorse tempted me to wonder if she did not simply send an order through the chain of command.
In any event, the worst thing Vahn has to say about it is that it’s “awkward.” He never knew his father when he was young and spent most of his life assuming that was the way it would be. Concerning Kain, Vahn knew what everyone else knew: he seemed to have gone crazy one day, attempted to seize the elemental crystals and had to be put in his place by every other nation.
By the time Vahn met the shade of his father, he was an adult military man dealing with the realities of things like internecine sabotage and hidden loyalties. He knew, by then, that people wear all kinds of masks for all kinds of reasons.
Kain Silverson, as far as he knew, was a dark and scary historical figure. Learning that Kain was also his father was a shock but not much of one. As a military officer acquainted with espionage, he is used to dealing with abstract values in his head and surprise shifts in alignment. Even learning about his father experiencing mind-control was a little academic: everyone crosses a distance between thinking and acting. Shocking information, of course, but nothing that doesn’t fit neatly within context.
In Vahn’s words, it is awkward. But all of this information about his father came to him in an abstracted form: either in the testimony of Kain’s ghost or that of Emperor Belmont, speaking in retrospect. Vera is directly in front of him and has proven her loyalty by fighting alongside him time and again. Plus, they have feelings for each other. One side of this is going to carry more emotional weight than the other.
Next, we have a little expositive chat with Darius. Darius catches us up on the global, geopolitical consequences of the contracting of the planet’s total surface space. He has also observed that water still exists; can still be made potable, still gets absorbed, still rains from the sky. The wind is still blowing and everyone’s lungs are functioning. Fire and earth still exist as much as they ever have. If the four base elemental crystals were absorbed by Malacore, this absorption has not stopped the normal functioning of those elements. As the conversation ends, Darius wonders out loud why Zeul took Emperor Belmont’s corpse with him on his way out.
Finally, Coral has questions about Vera: did you two know each other before the cataclysm, etc. Vahn explains everything, including the fact that he and Vera are, tentatively, a couple. She is worried that Vera might resent her as a potential third wheel and Vahn assures her that no one is having paranoid, romantic-cloak-and-dagger thoughts. She ends with “Thanks, Vahn! Now, let’s save the world so that you can get to pushing your faces together, okay?”
I guess that could either be a barb or a joke to diffuse the tension. The overall mood leans toward ice-breaking joke.
Now…upon docking in Marsh Cove, Cid is about as good with verbal directions as he usually is. He only said Darnacles Castle is beyond Marshtown, past “A FEW CAVES” (Cid’s deafness and loudness reminds me of both Gordon Cole from Twin Peaks and Meyer Wolfsheim in The Great Gatsby).
In Marshtown, Mizuda hasa bow with +200 to vigor and +45 to speed named Chronicle that she is willing to give to Coral. (Not that it’s a huge detail but do different NPCs use different gendered pronouns while talking about Mizuda? I could have swore she was a woman with people referring to her with her and she. Now one of the villagers says, while talking about Mizuda, that “he” came from Rodenia a long time ago?)
You’ll be sacrificing the reliably frequent slow-infliction from the Strong Bow but the difference in damage dealt is worth it.
If you go as far northwest as possible in Marshtown, you’ll see a path through some trees to the right of the weapons shop. Pass by the old man and the little girl and follow the narrow path between the trees. You’ll soon find a little dock space-looking platform with a treasure chest. This contains the Yojimbo nethicite: 50% passive resistance to blindness and leveling bonuses of +3 to vigor and +1 to luck.
North of Marshtown, the Esper Fenrir guards the entrance of Torian Grotto. He will only let you pass if you prove your strength to him and- having tried it multiple times, early on -I wasn’t sure where the benchmark was. He never attacks; the whole thing is about how much damage you can inflict in a limited amount of time.
South of Marshtown and east of Marsh Cove is a cave containing Giott’s Elevator. Engineered and staffed by dwarves, it goes to and from the Underworld. Since our only directions are ‘through caves past Marshtown’ and the Underworld is the only place close to this continent where we can move further north at all, it looks like our only viable option.
The monsters in the Underworld are now strong enough to initially make me wonder if this actually was the way forward. If Esto Yensa was the hardest dungeon so far, traveling north in the Underworld is now the hardest combat gauntlet so far.
The Ribbon we stole from Bismarck is seriously useful, down there. With the fixed party, I gave it to Vera. Yes it matters to collect a metric ton of Hi Potions and Mega Potions for Coral but- provided you have both Kirin and Phoenix -then Vera can rescue the party when Coral can’t. It also pays to not have Vera’s offensive summons get canceled because she get status-effected with something mid-turn.
So as much as I enjoyed the mental image of Vera wearing the Fairy Ring, I switched it out for the Ribbon.
The relic slots that don’t have protection from status effects should be used for mitigating or nullifying fire damage. If you don’t have much there (I only had one Fire Ring which of course went to Vera) than hopefully you got some armor with decent fire resistance.
Only after getting the equipment in order was I able to actually try heading north in the Underworld. In the year since the dimensional contraction, the monsters have gotten more vicious and diverse but the overall layout of the inhabited Underworld was only marginally affected. In addition to getting the right equipment in order, you’ll also want to make sure you successfully fight and win a few battles to. The exp difference will help get you more caught up with the monsters.
The long bridge leading north from Giott’s Elevator ends shortly before Castle Tomra of the dwarves, where everydwarfs dialogue is exactly the same as the last time we were here. Last time, didn’t King Doran say that the gates of the Crystal Weald are only opened occasionally? and if there’s no new dialogue addressing the new situation than…than…
Fortunately the gates were unlocked- it’s just easy to miss. The entrance point in the gate is where there’s a teeny tiny little dip in the otherwise straight top.
In the Crystal Weald, the monsters are- fortunately -exactly the same as when we passed through earlier. Either talk to the moogle to go straight to the other end or enjoy the leisurely stroll with its relatively risk-free-yet-substandard exp yield.
Not knowing what else to try, I pushed on to the Fey Spire and found that it no longer existed. I then searched for a route back to the surface in the Torrid Grotto, to the east of the camp site beyond the Crystal Weald.
I muddled through that whole thing with it’s meager haul of gil, low-level restorative items and Shards. Like-
Shards are fine, I guess. Shards are a part of how character building can work in this game. There’s only one or two there, though.
Little by little, inching through, getting wrecked by monsters and going back to the entrance to use a tent and inching a little further…emptying the chests was more of a way for me to track my progress, anyway.
What Torrid Grotto did not have was a route to the surface.
…
At this point I was starting to wonder if I even did a single thing right since disembarking at Marsh Cove. What if there’s some NPC, right outside of the harbor, who just shows you the direct way forward on the surface?
Before starting from square one again…I had a funny idea. On the surface, Shadow responds to the Chocobo Whistle. Let us assume, for now, that this has something to do with the chocobo’s potentially supernatural hearing and that the chocobo is typically outside when they hear it. We are typically outside when we’re blowing it.
This would make no damn sense but it would be 100% consistent with certain early-to-mid-nineties JRPG conventions.
Wow. It worked. Shadow heard the Chocobo Whistle sounding from beneath the surface of Gaia and appeared before us in the Underworld.
So…I’m kind of a nut…but is it possible that the chocobo Shadow is a local incarnation of FFVI Shadow? Unstoppable, everywhere you need him and “fiercely loyal” sounds kinda familiar…
Anyway.
Having a chocobo to ride means no more monster encounters. I just did a big fat slog through monsters that can easily KO the whole party in one or two turns for no reason ^^
Well maybe not no reason. Grinding is grinding.
So…
After I got back on the right side of the Crystal Weald, I went down toward the southeast corner of the Underworld map. Eventually I found Jachol Cave, which I initially took for the path that led us into the Underworld the first time.
But it wasn’t. It was a Lost-Woods-like maze of four-way paths with slight changes with the rocks and pebbles which may or may not have meaning.
After flipping through my screen caps, I figured out where I was going.
X_X
Maybe Jachol Cave was the right place to start after all. It’s an X factor but it’s also looking like the only thing that might not be a dead end.
Before that, though, I made a little stop.
Who knows. Maybe those character-specific-obstacle-transcendence abilities aren’t gone from the game yet.
I returned to Jachol Cave with Brindle at the head of the party and no obstacle-transcendence was forthcoming. I hadn’t hit the dead end yet, though.
It becomes obvious that the differing piles of rocks and pebbles are not unique to individual rooms, there still may be patterns. If the rock piles stay exactly the same while you’re heading in one direction, you’ve hit a wall. Returning to a room you just left always produces a room with different rock piles. Systematically rotating directions always returns you to the maze entrance (logically it should lead back to the first four-way room but we know better than to default to logic here- only patterns).
Alternating east-to-north in a stairway pattern will produce two rooms with the same two alternating rock piles over and over again. An alternating west-to-north pattern will do the same thing. Reversing these rotations toward the south brings you back to the entrance.
The problem is that it might not make any sense to treat this as a physical maze with consistent locations. This is likely not a scenario in which drawing a map will help. A sequence of directions that goes somewhere may be an arbitrary combo, like the button pressing sequences in a fighting game.
Somehow, though, I did it.
I have no idea how but I did. Save points are often situated before boss rooms or entrances or exits. This one is right before a locked, blue chest. And nothing but.
In my desperation, I did more exploring and found that Balmag is the first town in awhile with a magic item shop, to restock for Coral’s Absolute 0 and Firestorm attacks. A cave called the Obsidian Hollow was a complete bust. If you explore every last inch of the Lucid Depths, there is an Artifact for Bosche, if / when we ever get him back into the party. While scrounging for literally any place in the Underworld I haven’t been yet, I found another glitch and this one was fun for a change.
If black chocobos in this game were meant to be capable of running over lava that would be bad-ass…but I don’t think they are. If it was supposed to happen, there probably wouldn’t be two unmarked lava banks as the exclusive entrance points. Prolly just a collision detection oversight.
BTW- since Final Fantasy Blackmoon Prophecy Remake went up on itch.io, there have been a number of updates. If you haven’t downloaded the game yet, then you can do so now and potentially experience none of the glitches I’ve mentioned so far.
Back to the game-
Through process of elimination, my search led me to the Living Cavern. The level of difficulty suggests that this place was designed to be accessed during the first visit to the Underworld. In a hollow to the far northwest, the Golem magicite waits.
Ultimately, though, there was no path to the surface there, either.
One thing I have not done yet? Actually walk all the way through the Crystal Weald for a second time. Since then, I’ve been going from one end to the other by moogle D:
One thing I found, during round two? A Catoblebas magicite! I wasn’t expecting to encounter those creatures as an Esper-shade summoned by their crystallized remains but I can see it.
Sometimes, the Catoblebas’ Demon Eye attack will make one or more enemies drop dead on the spot, which is unexpected since the ‘ability’ menu description says that Demon Eye petrifies.
Unfortunately, that was the only noteworthy thing I found upon returning to the Crystal Weald.
In the demon village of Vos, attitudes have grown more sympathetic to the neighboring humans at Valefor Fortress. Upon our visit, Colonel Talbard is troubled by news of the upheaval on the surface. He wants to begin relief-effort expeditions above ground. Unfortunately, he and his soldiers don’t have a plan to get there outside of Giott’s Elevator. What they are willing to do, though, is follow the party’s camp around, search around us and bring us treasure they find. For ten-thousand gil, they will travel to various surface locations without us, providing help wherever it is needed. Because of all the gil I hoarded from all the monster encounters, I sent them on several of these expeditions with nothing but random handfuls of stuff to show for it. I mean, there was some decent gear in some of the treasure they brought back but none of those expeditions brought us any closer to Castle Darnacles.
At this rate it wasn’t long before I lost all of my patience with the Underworld and went back up. I took Cid’s ferry back to Costa del Vita and rode Shadow everywhere I possibly could. It would be weird if the next step in the progression was in the opposite direction that the story framing and plot told us to go…but over on the western land mass, there’s Giott’s Elevator going to the Underworld and a rather non-specific combat benchmark. A hitherto unbeatable enemy could be something you can grind your way past or it might be a brick wall that won’t go away until the plot says so.
In any event…taking a second run at Fenrir north of Marshtown was one of the few things I hadn’t done.
It went the same way as last time for awhile, then I switched Darius out for Brindle and gave Brindle new equipment (the dual-wielded weapons he ended up with were the Morningstar and the Basanite Axe). Brindle was completely incapable of hitting Fenrir so I gave him a Sniper Sight so he can’t miss any more. Earlier, I was using Vahn’s Jump as frequently as I could since it dealt higher damage on average. The problem is that Jump requires one turn to pass before Vahn lands with the spear and we seem to have four-to-five turns before Fenrir decides we’re not worth the effort. One of my reasons for bringing in Brindle was that Darius casting Shadow Veil for maximum damage required a turn to go by before we can start with Darkside or Dark Wave (learned at level 25).
Brindle’s Heavy attack requires MP and he has virtually none, so I fed him every Miracle Fruit I had left which got his MP into the fifties and gave him all of my remaining Gold Apples, which permanently increase all stats by one- kinda-sorta like a Rare Candy from Pokemon without the visible level increase.
So no one was allowed to pass a turn without dealing as much damage as they can and Brindle had enough MP to use Heavy during every turn without missing. Coral had also learned Supercell by then (acquired at level 34), which sacrifices three Swift Bolts for lightening damage against the whole opposing party. I don’t know if Fenrir has elemental affinities but Supercell hit him harder than any of her other offensive Mixtures. Out of Vera’s summons, Catoblebas dealt higher consistent damage to Fenrir than anything else. Ifrit hit hardest after Catoblebas, then Ramah. Shiva did the least damage against him, so I just rotated through the other three according to her cool-down periods.
It fucking worked.
That and, presumably, all the grinding and Shard gobbling I did in the Underworld. Fenrir was also apparently a ghost Esper, since he promptly bequeathed his magicite to Vera upon our passing his test. Coral and Vahn were both level 35, Vera was level 32 and Brindle was level 25, for whatever context that might be worth. Vahn and Vera had been using various nethicite crystals and consumed a number of Shards throughout the game until then and I of course used Miracle Fruits to get Brindle’s max MP up which also substantially increased his max HP.
Because of both the Umberbloom and Dirtlasher monsters, it pays to have Coral’s Antivenom Mixture (learned at level 32). Eight Antidotes are expended to give any single party member immunity from poison for the rest of the battle. It can also be used to treat poison. It grants the immunity in either event.
Eventually, you’ll get to this room. It may not seem intuitive but you can push the empty treasure chests by standing in front of them and pressing the interact button.
Maybe it was all the leveling the party did in the Underworld but the demon Phunbaba did not last long at all. Vahn alternated healing duty with Vera (Reis’s Wind and Kirin, respectively) while Coral and Brindle kept the damage coming. I used one Hyper Ether. Vera summoning Fenrir helps to: his Howling Moon ability grants haste to the entire party. Planning moves gets easier when every one of yours happens before theirs.
The camp site, outside? The name Auslen is listed next to a northeast arrow on its little MogNet GPS Service text box. Auslen and Mystic Mysidia were two of the cities that Cid told us we would pass on our way to Darnacles Castle.
This was it.
At least one path forward includes proving your strength to Fenrir and defeating Phunbaba.
I don’t think I’ve encountered a normal Final Fantasy difficulty spike since playing through XIII and discovering the different versions of IV. Come to think of it…maybe all of A Realm Reborn in XIV counts as a typical FF difficulty spike?
XV had nothing of the kind. XVI is harder than XV but stays pretty consistent with each rung of difficulty resting just over where you are (unless you move the difficulty above normal or attempt any of the late-game DLC).
What just happened wasn’t exactly like that, though. Fenrir assesses the damage you can do in four-to-five turns. A gate that only opens once you do a certain amount of grinding or are provident enough to have leveled everyone into the early-to-mid thirties to begin with. You can do a bunch of stuff in the Underworld. Maybe get Brindle, update his equipment and give him a Sniper Sight. There’s nothing forcing you to, though.
I’m still wondering if there’s some other path forward through the Underworld. Or if I’m just paranoid from stress-testing every inch of everything to see how it works.
Here’s the sauce
Until next time, TBC
