Light spoiler warning

Here’s the first post, should you want to start at the beginning

The next morning, Oalston shares his deductions with everyone else. The magically-isolated Crystal of Water seems to be one of the last x-factors.

For a moment, Vera appears to equate the Crystal of Water with the Crystal of life. Regent Gran implicitly agrees with the direction of her assessment if not the conclusion.

The Crystals of Life and Water are separate, though, and with the Crystal of Water walled off that only leaves the Crystal of Life for us to investigate.

Off to the Isle of Tyr, then.

Before we go, Cid has a surprise for us: a functioning airship, called the Eagle, with its Blackjack music (Daryl gave her airship the better bird name)!

Cid takes the controls and flies us to the upper northeast corner of the map.

The Shrine on Tyr reminds me of the last dungeon from Final Fantasy Adventure / Adventure of Mana / Sword of Mana / Seiken Densetsu. You know, the first Gameboy game to have Final Fantasy in its name, even if it became the first Mana game in the long run (released in America almost simultaneously with IV, if I remember correctly?).

There is a recovery pot to the left of the entrance. It takes some walking and you might not make it without an encounter but it’s as generous as the Tyr Shrine is going to get. Maybe use the long walk to farm some Mega Potions from the Drakes.

Rather like the Ancient Forest from VII, there are flowers that move us from one place to another. Each one links up with another of the same color and they seem to suck you into the ground and spit you back up through another flower rather than launching you into the air. If you see another flower of the same color in the same screen, it is almost certainly not where it will lead (corresponding red flower at the second zone could very well carry you to the first visible one, though).

Sunlight Broach can be stolen from the Lemures (girl amid the flowers- variation of the Lamia monster?). Maybe the Lemures have an Earth vulnerability because Vahn’s Shockwave takes them out quickly. Lariosauros can be shaken down for tents. The floaty, skeletal beings that look vaguely round? Baldanders? They drop stimulants like the Belphegors. The Baldanders are also Demi-slingers (with stimulants).

In the next room, there is a yellow flower to the far right of the bridge. Yes there’s a tree next to it but it only looks like it’s in the way. That’ll get you out of the immediate flower network.

One of the pairs of red flowers will lead to a tiny square platform with access to a Magic Shard in a treasure chest. You will also be boxed in between the treasure chest, the red flower and two trees, in the upper left corner. The treasure chest in the lower right corner is off limits from here.

Oh and the flower paths? Some of them alternate with other pairs of the same color. The color of the flower you emerge from is the only constant. However most of them only swap with one other pair so- typically -you will emerge either in one place or the other. Definitely not immune to planning.

When the Lemures put you to sleep and either the Baldander or the Lariosauro ‘Hits’ you (like other monsters ‘Incisor’ you) and wakes you up? The point is to cancel whatever move that party member was supposed to make.

Yes, the sleep status effect might make a party member miss a turn. Putting a party member to sleep and immediately waking them up will make them miss a turn. When Behemoths start appearing, remember that you can steal Power Shards from them.

Eventually, a yellow flower will take you to a doorway between two columns.

Here, we get one of the more interesting screens in the game thus far.

A clock-manipulation room like in the Temple of the Ancients (VII). I muddled my way through a few possibilities until I started choosing hours on the hour.

Once you descend the staircase, get all the treasure there is along the walkway and through the yellow flower path, if you are inclined. Either remember to backtrack to the purple flower closest to the staircase or head there directly.

Beyond the purple flower, pass through another one around the next corner. You might choose to investigate the first red flower you see. You’ll find that it’s bidirectional. In both destinations, there is loot to be ransacked. In the second red flower location (with the antidote and the Rondel), you’ll find yourself on the other side of the pillars visible in the earlier room. Here you will have access to a purple flower that was once off limits. It will take you back to the bottom of the staircase below the clock room.

Or you could ignore the first red flower you see and continue with the dungeon.

You can either proceed to a yellow flower or up a staircase. The yellow leads back to the clock room basement. Up the staircase leads to a winding path through water.

Follow the yellow flowers until you reach this place. Upon entering, you have immediate access to a purple flower and two yellows. For a straight shot to the door, go purple and then the red flower to your immediate south.

(If you instead proceed to the red flower northwest of the purple, you will go to a corner in an earlier room. Re-enter the red flower to go straight back to the end of this current doorway so no harm no foul)

When you emerge at the end of the doorway room, you may see the petals of a flower behind a tree. Don’t bother with it- it’ll just lead back to the beginning of this room.

Go through the door and you’ll emerge in a room with treasure chests (a tent to go with the ones you’ve been stealing from the Lariosauros, a Hi-Potion and a shuriken), a save point and a door. Make sure everyone is rested.

For once, there is no one to stop us except for the Crystal Guardian.

When Ozrich finishes counting to five, he’ll Omnislash someone. You can steal the Zweihander sword from him.

I got through this with lots of group heals and lots of attacks that bypass defense or affinity. My usual combo with Ami’s Goblin Punch, Siegfried’s Dispatch and Darius’ Shadow Veil + Darkside combo. Eventually, Ozrich went down and Darius hit level 20 and learned Armor Break and Spirit Break, which sound like things that could have come in handy just now.

Then…this just happened. Just like that. Bump off the guardian, take the crystal.

That simple?

Just…done? With the exit moogle and everything?

Aboard the Eagle, the party is equally stunned. Oalston thinks that the advantage might- finally -be theirs. The question of what to do comes up. Siegfried brings up the looming question of Ivalice and Vahn elects to pursue that after debriefing with Gran.

While they do so, Quigley interrupts: people from Branch are looking for Vahn.

Biggs and Wedge enter with news. Branch has fallen to unidentified enemies. Biggs says that “(w)e don’t know who or what they are.”

Wedge adds that Hans was seen fighting alongside the invaders. Upon hearing this, Darius yells “It’s the Archareons!”

Biggs and Wedge add that an Ivalician fighting force was supporting the strangers who fought beside Hans. One that appeared to be well-prepared and already in place.

Vera is stunned and clueless. Ivalice wouldn’t do something that precipitous, would they? And sacrifice their mutual investment in the peace treaty after the Crystal War?

Everyone heads for Branch.

Once there, we meet three Archareons at the gates. Vahn and Darius are now mandatory party members. For the other two spaces, get at least one person capable of healing. Lots of Jumping and Shadow Veil + Darkside waits in our future.

After taking care of these guys I, uh…just sort of walked into the reliquary room and took Gungnir. There’s dead bodies everywhere so perhaps it just stands to reason that the reliquary is just there, waiting to be looted?

Is every other nation gonna get gutted from the inside by Archareons so we can go looking for their magical treasures as ultimate weapon quests?

Gungnir can, of course, be equipped to Vahn. The item description reads ‘Holy spear that once pierced the heavens.’ Vigor + 150, Spirit + 50 and Critical Hit + 7.5%.

Gylfi and his retinue wait for us in the throne room.

Once you defeat Gylfi’s Archareon warriors, mind-controlled Hans takes a third run at us. I made sure I had Amy and Siegfried with Vahn and Darius. I kept up the White Wind when I could but mostly just focused on Goblin Punch, Dispatch and Shadow Veil + Darkside. Now that Vahn is equipped with Gungnir, he can do some serious damage with Jump and Shockwave.

After defeating Hans, he begins to awaken from the mind control. Gylfi then chooses to “intervene myself and end this now!”

The status effects inflicted by mind-controlled Hans and Gylfi can slow you down. Consider equipping accessories that protect against poison and silence. Gylfi can inflict instant death so balance those two points with a third, if you can.

…

I kept dying so I eventually decided to try a portal I saw outside, earlier.

Neat musical transition, here, with the quiet percussion and distant, harmonized voices. The monsters are hard as fuck, though. Scaled to a higher level, maybe?

And what the actual fuck is up with Gylfi? It’s possible that you may need to be prepared to survive two consecutive waves of Meteor Shower. It won’t necessarily happen but Gylfi does regularly squeeze in a few moves per turn. Those two may both be Meteor Shower.

It took awhile but I did manage to finish the battle with Vahn, Darius, Siegfried and Ami. Don’t even bother with Cheer. Ami spent most of the battle casting White Wind. Vahn alternated between Shockwave and Jump. The other two stuck to their own defense-and-affinity-subversion routines.

When Gylfi is defeated, a new presence appears: Valiar.

Valiar: “Gylfi, your rapid pursuit of these individuals must end, and with it, your crusade. (…) Your fanatical sect of Archareons must be stopped before you do more harm. Can you not see that these humans wish to do well!?”

Gylfi: “They’re interlopers! Pests! It is you who cannot see the harm they do!”

Valiar laments that Archareons are “binary thinking beings. We can only see two paths. A flaw in our design.” (Revealing choice of words…?)

Valiar accuses Gylfi of taking the wrong path relative to Valiar. They are obliged to “do away” with Gylfi.

Gylfi: “You threaten a fellow Archareon with harm, but will you dare to do so towards a human?”

Valiar: “Of course not.”

Gylfi: “Then how will you harm me if…”

Gylfi begins to fade away and turns to Hans.

He dives into Hans’ body. The dialogue attribution names this new being Gylfi-Hans, who then slips out of the throne room.

Valiar catches us up, later: he is a judicial enforcer among the Archareons.  This makes me wonder if Archareon society is composed of people whose binary natures need to be positioned in a safe, functional way relative to one another.  Those with a “law-and-order” binary expression become enforcers.  Presumably others end up elsewhere.

Consider the priorities implied in Valiar’s wording: “Gylfi leads a dangerous and heretical sect of Archareons that believe your group will bring ruin. They are wrong.”

Ironically, this exhibition of binary thinking renders Vera a bit less binary in her assessment of them.

In spite of how easily Gylfi-Hans escaped them, Valiar is convinced that Gylfi is now less of a threat as a human overall than Malacore.

Valiar says that Malacore is “a threat to all life on Gaia and the Esper World.”

Valiar: “Magic links our realities together, so the end of his madness is of interest to all life.”

We destroyed Gylfi’s body.  Gylfi escaped in Hans.  If Gylfi and Malacore are signals, then the Water Crystal appears to be the broadcast point.  Valiar then sets out for the Rift Shrine (where we last met Ramah) to study the barrier surrounding the Crystal of Water.  This will take time.

Until then-

Darius: “Sounds like it’s time to head south then.”

Onward to Ivalice and the secret of Vahn’s father.

Here’s the sauce

Until next time, TBC

Light spoiler warning

Here’s the first post, should you want to start at the beginning

Talbard and his soldiers were tracking a magical object for Lord Zeul on a remote island when they- like Jasmine -fell into a hole in the ground. Kinda starting to sound like a certain kind of monster behavior from some older FFs.

This happened five years ago and Talbard knows nothing of anything that’s happened on the surface since. He and his soldiers have found no possible exit and have become rather comfortable defending their new Underworld neighbors. With their concerned well wishes, we pass behind and above Valefor Fortress and use the upper rock formation as a bridge across a nearby gulf of lava.

There’s gonna be a lot of on foot, overland travel and monster encounters for awhile.

If you’ve been stealing and hoarding Mega Potions and Hyper Ethers, you will probably be dipping into that stash about now when you’re not relying Elina. I really like that you have access to every party member’s abilities outside of battle whether or not they’re in your active party. It’s not that the active party is separate; they’re just the outward facing line of defense.

At level 18, Siegfried learns Shatterstrike (Earth-element attack). While experimenting with Vahn’s Shockwave (acquired at level 20), I learned that you can stop-effect the Shapeshifters and it won’t stop them from shapeshifting. Life Shards can be stolen from Chimeras. Dragons drop Dragon Fangs. Still haven’t stolen a thing from a Shapeshifter, though.

Before the final leg of the journey, we encounter the Dwarven Castle; the final buffer between the Fey and the wider Underworld society of Dwarves, Ghouls and Demons.

Everydwarf there is super-welcoming and King Doran offers the following explanation of why they use lava as moats.

Could that be because the Fey came from somewhere else? Like the Ivalician humans did?

So…who knows how hardcore Babineau wants to go with weaving the analogues and references into subtext…but something about that reminds me of the VIIR trilogy. Like how the Gi (who look like traditional Final Fantasy Dark Elves) are dimensional outsiders and the Cetra having a certain amount of first-hand knowledge of dimensional travel? The Dark Elves were dimensional outsiders of some kind in FF Stranger of Paradise, to.

I also get this game had already been released once and heavily patched by the time even the first VIIR game or SoP was out, so prolly not (outside of retroactive editing). Then again I could see how certain themes from FFI could lead to broadly similar possibilities, what with Garland’s time loop and the appearances of other temporal outsiders like the Warmech.

Anyway-

King Doran informs us that Malacore and the Fey have been making absolutely pathetic progress: it seems the Fey are famously argumentative and frequently stop otherwise simple organized efforts over their rows. For once, the party might make it to a Crystal before Malacore.

King Doran then directs us to the last treacherous bottleneck before the realm of the Fey: the Crystal Weald. To the eyes of surface dwellers, the Crystal Weald resembles a forest covered in snow and frost.

It is, in fact, an ancient miasma vent. Like in Organa village.

Don’t worry if you don’t remember; neither does Vera and Laka snaps at her over it.

Miasma…appears to be a specific substance, rather than a miasma. Let’s just proper-noun it.

In the short run, Miasma is dangerous to inhale and human settlements steer clear of the vents. Like volcanic gas under the Earth, Miasma appears to originate from the Underworld. On the surface, there does not seem to be many historically-attested emission points, which suggests that humans usually fill in the vents, maybe?

This is the Underworld, though, so it has nowhere to go.

The Crystal Weald, as previously stated, had Miasma for a long time. Over the eons, it crystallized into tree-like formations. Dwarves, Demons and Ghouls who were in the area at that time were reduced to crystal statues. From what King Doran said, it sounded like a gradual process but if individual people were caught in it, then maybe a gradual process with a sudden, erupting consequence?

Whatever happened, our course is clear.

All in all…the Crystal Weald is a travel and combat gauntlet, like we’ve been going through for awhile, yet there are signs of additional relevance. The Crystal Weald has the music from the underwater laboratory from VIII: the place where you find Bahamut. In Blackmoon Prophecy, Bahamut is the patron deity of Ivalice.

There’s still the rest of the game left to prove me wrong on this but I think Babineau uses musical associations from prior games intentionally. Certain tracks from VI seem specifically associated with Ivalice. Both the shrill horn version of Under Martial Law and the soft clarinet version are used in a lot of scenes concerning Ivalician characters (we also heard Under Martial Law during some Baram-related events but those seem to be the exceptions that prove the rule). The appearance of the Phantom Forest music during the descent to the Underworld also felt like a thematic nod to VI.

What we mostly got going on here for monsters are status effects and some off-beat elemental affinities. Jasmine’s Aura Cannon is lethal against the red zombie-ish Draugr monsters. Holy damage, so yeah.

Jasmine turned out to be one of the more powerful and versatile of the new characters. The use of Tifa’s punching sound effects for Jasmine’s fist attacks is charming (kinda like how Elina’s attacks have Aerith’s staff-strike sound effect).

I brute-forced much of my way through here with the party arrangement above. In the ensuing flood of exp yield, Laka hit level 26 and learned Death. At level 20, Siegfried learned Mirror Strike (damage proportionate to remaining HP) and Jasmine learned Dusk Requiem (Earth-element attack). Feathered Caps can be stolen from the Arachne monsters (a purple palette-swap of the Arachnias).

On our way out of the Crystal Weald, Jasmine catches up with Vera. Earlier in Vos, Vera gave Jasmine a quick, conversational version of what happened to her on the surface. Vera didn’t want to beat false confessions out of innocent people, Deckar and Eva turned on her and she fled with Vahn and everyone else.

Jasmine’s opening is a little ominous, considering how she spoke of her brother: “Don’t be stupid and dodge my question! You’ve been branded a traitor, and my brother even tried to kill you. How are you, Vera?”

Jasmine made a black-and-white first impression at first. With the emotions at work, who knows what Ivalician military associations are going to bring out in her.

Vera just answers the question, though. Plainly and directly. She’s glad to have found the refuge that the party provided but she fears for her future in Ivalice. Even if a military officer defies orders and defects for a righteous reason, you usually can’t take that reason to a debate in your homeland.

However, Jasmine tells her not to sweat it. It hurts to lose people and moral and ideological disagreements are rarely amenable to conversation. She also reminds Vera that she hasn’t fared badly outside of her country; she is with people who value and defend her. She even points out the way Vahn looks at her.

The unexpectedly technological Fey Spire looks very much like the Tower of Babil from IV…but I also can’t help thinking about Chrono Trigger? I could’ve swore I saw a dome from Chrono Trigger‘s far future, early in Blackmoon Prophecy. It was on a land mass separated by water from Branch Castle.

For a place that looks so much like either the Tower of Babil or the Prometheus Dome, the Fey Spire has more Fey-like monsters than technological ones (almost like the tower was there to begin with and the Fey found it afterward). Survival Vests can be stolen from Gremlins if you haven’t grabbed one yet. During the grind, Darius started recovering MP from Cheer and hit level 18 which unlocked Climhazzard. This is a somewhat heavy physical attack with no defense transcendence. More importantly- whether it gets softened by enemy defense or not -it will temporary debuff a foe’s Vigor (physical attack) for about two turns.

There are long distances between things in here but not very many stops to make. There are three doors you need to unlock to get to the final rooms which require passwords. In the same zones that contain the first two doors, there are monitors that display these tiny three-number passwords on the far, upper right / northeast. For the third door, head to the far upper left / northwest corner for the password instead. The doors are always on the opposite side of wherever you find the password screens.

The locations of the passwords and the doors are simple enough but the distance and encounter rate will make up for it. Just keep everyone’s HP topped off and keep going. After the save point, we fight a rather stupid mercenary for the third time.

Dio was nothing to be afraid of the first two fights and he’s nothing to be afraid of now. Just keep everyone healthy, keep Vahn Jumping, Ami using Goblin Punch and Darius with the Shadow Veil + Darkside combo.

Unfortunately, Dio slips out at the end, saying that ‘Keith’ only paid him enough for three fights. I’d love for him to be gone but I don’t think he will be.

It seems we did not beat Malacore to the punch but he’s not exactly seizing the moment either.

The Fey Spire appears to have been converted by the Fey into something like the tower of the fanatics in VI: a giant magical training ground for a radical and insular circle of magicians. Rather than the Magic Master, the topmost room is occupied by the Mystic Triad. This made me think of the three crystallized figures around the last save point / camp site in the Crystal Weald: they looked kinda like the Warring Triad from VI.

This is a more uniform trio in comparison. They each share a dark palette swap of the sprite of Scarmiglione (the Archfiend of Earth) from IV.

The Mystic Triad can be a little intimidating at first but just handle this like you did Dio: keep up the group heals and the defense / affinity transcendence.

Malacore, it seems, understands delayed gratification better than a lot of super villains. He promptly absorbs the Earth Crystal and comes at us at full power.

Malacore starts off buffing himself so have Laka cast Dispel first thing. Malacore’s Regen spell may or may not cease with other buffs which is annoying but not exactly a problem. Laka can also steal a Hero’s Shield from him, which is worth the effort.

The dude has a number of multi-target attacks, though, including casting Demi on the whole party and a Tsunami-ish move called Cleansweep. Along with frequently casting White Wind, Darius’ old Shadow Veil + Darkside number can be a major asset.

Somehow…after getting my ass handed to me three times in a row…I apparently did it. He may have absorbed three crystals but he also exploded right in front of us. The party even kicks back in Lindblum for a bit.

Periodically, we’ve gotten glimpses of late night conversations when the party stays at an inn during a plot juncture. We are doing this here because Regrent Gran feels indebted to us for taking out Baram. Having done that, Gran then trusted us enough to send us after the Earth Crystal. There are less intuitive places for a base of operations than Lindblum Castle.

Siegfried is hanging out with the black and white mages on one side of the castle. If Malacore is dead, then Oalston believes that it’s only a question of finding a new avatar.

He reminds Elina and Siegfried that the Water Crystal is the only one that Malacore has not absorbed. However, we saw at the beginning of the game that the Water Crystal still plays a role in his plans. We know, in fact, that Darius was telepathically controlled by Malacore largely to release him from the Water Crystal.

Hey- remember what else happened at the beginning?

Darius starts going all Guantanamo Bay and gets reprimanded over it and removed from Braak, the prisoner. Then Braak gets mind-controlled and breaks out.

Fellow-Dragoon Hans gets word that Braak escaped. Hans grabs Biggs and Wedge and they give chase.

Where was the Water Crystal at that time? Under Branch Castle. Just below the dungeons. Like something down there reached up and grabbed Darius. Darius releases Malacore and the two set out for the other three crystals.

Hans, Biggs and Wedge follow Braak to the hiding place of the Water Crystal.

With both mind-controlled Darius and Malacore otherwise occupied, Hans, Biggs and Wedge are intercepted by our mysterious friend Gylfi. Since then, Gylfi has sicc’d mind-controlled Hans on us a few times, for whatever that might tell us.

Meanwhile- the Archareons- the head of the Esper pantheon -saw the party as the three dimensional occasion for Malacore to tip the dominoes for the Blackmoon Prophecy. Have we proved them right or wrong?

Vera’s late night conversation with Vahn has the Awakening variation of Terra’s theme. She timidly thanks him for intervening when the other Ivalician generals turned on her. The two lovebirds reveal their feelings for each other. This is also reminding me of the beginning, when everything was going just a little too smoothly for comfort.

Here’s the sauce

Here’s the next post

Light spoiler warning. Here’s the first post, should you want to start from the beginning

As thanks for dispatching Baram, Regent Gran gives us access to the Lindblum armory. Here, we find a nice little stash, including the Titan nethicite. Titan grants 50% resistance to Earth magic and conveys leveling bonuses of +4 defense and +5 max HP.

So far, the nethicites of Syldra, Quetzalcoatl, Atomos and Titan have become accessible in the course of the story. Four, so far. (I mean, you could miss Titan if you simply refuse to open treasure chests). The ones that have not been handed over are Valefor, Remora and Lucavi. Three, so far.

After raiding the armory, Director Sabino of the Arcane Library informs Gran that the Fey barrier on Mount Koltz has finally been brought down. Ami mentions that she and fellow blue mage Lysha heard of a few different non-human civilizations in the Underworld, including dwarves. On our way out of Lindblum Castle, Regent Gran finally reclaims Bluebell and her whistle. Luckily, Mount Koltz is not far.

Upon entering the lower caves, there is a Horned Helmet stashed to the far northwest. If you got Laka with you, it might also be a good idea to start farming Mega Potions from the Arthropleura. They’ll make life easier later.

In the brief outdoor section before the Crystal Chamber with the save point, you can steal tents from the Zuu birds that can be encountered there. The odd Ochu might also show up.

Within the Crystal Chamber, Sabino and two of his mages are besieged by Byblos, the guardian of the Earth Crystal. A Lustrous Helmet can be stolen from them. Byblos also has a ton of HP so make sure you have Darius, use Shadow Veil to make them vulnerable to Shadow and then Darkside.

Sabino reveals that Byblos appeared after the Academy mages brought down the Fey barrier. As the guardian of the Earth Crystal, they felt a disturbance as soon as the barrier went down but not (as Ami observes) when the Fey stole the Earth Crystal.

The interior path of Mount Koltz, beyond Byblos and the Chamber of the Earth Crystal, has the same version of the ‘Phantom Forest’ music that we heard in the mines of Kohlingen (from FFVI Pixel Remaster, maybe?).

The black, ghostly, yellow-eyed Callicantzaros are a decent occasion for Laka to farm Hyper Ethers, since we’re gonna be using a lot of magic.

Both the Callicantzaros and the Ochus can be a problem. The Ochu’s Pollenate attack can easily wipe out the party. If they manage to do it twice consecutively, only those at full health will make it.

You will, of course, be wanting some fire-wielders in there like Oalston, Vera or Nobumasa. Vahn’s Flame Spear ability can be useful. Ochus are also fairly easily blinded by Laka.

Laka can steal Fairy Rings from Ochus and Mobility Boots from Arachnias. The Sengoku can be stolen from the Bengalensis (eel-like monsters).

While Oalston is burning all the plant-based and Shadow monsters, it doesn’t hurt to just stick with Fire. The base black magic spells all cost 4 MP or less and- so long as Ami is Cheering -you’ll probably recoup that value every turn. If you’ve been feeding Oalston the right shards and equipping the right nethicite, he should be dealing about seven hundred damage every turn with almost no MP expenditure.

It’s sustainable, anyway. Not that it won’t be worth it to Fira or Firaga the Ochus just to get them out of the way.

Vera’s got Ifrit and his Hellfire attack at her beck and call, as well. Nobumasa’s Katon is mostly useful for wearing down groups, rather than directly killing things.

In the place with the lava, there is a Holy Ring in the far upper west side of the opening chamber. This will require you to trust your instincts and run through barriers that might be permeable. Progress depends on doing the same thing near the far south of this chamber (we’ve all played IV, V and VI, right?).

After the hidden southern passage, head west. You’ll pass through some hidden openings and emerge in a thin corridor filled with boulders and grass. Eventually, you’ll be forced to head north, then turn back south in an arc on your way out.

One last narrow, winding corridor (nevermind the sucker bait to the west by the exit- it’s a solid wall) and we emerge into the Underworld map! Which is cool but mostly I was just happy to be able to save my game again.

The winged Belphegor monsters can lower your max HP for the duration of the battle. Wind and Ice magic are good for taking them out before they get dangerous. If the Belphegors knocking your max HP down becomes a problem, then head northwest from Balmag and you’ll find a Firm Wrist. It’s in a little box canyon next to a crater, equidistant between Balmag and Brindle’s hovel. I seem to have picked up one already so that’s half the acting party potentially covered.

There’s a lot of Bomb monsters down here but you could probably one shot them with Blizzara or Shiva by now. You can also shake them down for Flame Mail and it’s totally worth it for the party’s warriors. Excepting, of course, anyone who might already have the Survival Vest. I equipped Vahn with that as soon as Laka stole it from Vedrfolnir (back in the Dragon King’s Roost) and it’s stood up rather well since.

Depending on your play style and affinity for grinding (lol) you may have noticed that- so long as Ami Cheers first, then casts Storm Breath -that Oalston can effectively go back to our strategy with Fire. Simply adjust- Oalston casts nothing but Blizzard. Base rung, just like Fire. As long as the Cheer lasts and Ami backs him up with Storm Breath, it will be enough and Oalston may or may not spend any MP (not with regard to the Bombs, anyway).

I don’t know what’s going on with the Underworld music but I’m pretty sure I’m into it. The magical, wondrous vibe works better in this lava-filled environment than some may think. I was also surprised to find out just how deadly Bosche can be to the Flayers with a little luck and his Aim command. Think of Aim like Yang’s Focus in IV: a temporary boost for Attack is gained (what with Bosche being an archer) per turn sacrificed.

In Balmag, the Ghoul Town, Emanbi tells us that the Fey live in a fortress to the far north; a place where no ghoul dares to venture.

In the Balmag weapon shop, you can buy Cloud’s Organics sword for eight-thousand gil- great for someone who could use the the +125 to vigor but won’t suffer too badly from the -25 to luck. Should you have a ton of gil to spend, you can cough up a little extra for a Survival Vest if you didn’t steal or find one already.

If you grab the Basanite Axe (six-thousand, five hundred gil) and you happened to have the Balestarius, then Brindle will end up doing alright.

Oh, Brindle? He’s just kind of hanging out in his hovel, to the northwest of the first Underworld camp site. He’s a blacksmith and a former mercenary so you can either hire him to smith at your camp or hire him to join your party. His three dump stats are vigor, defense and luck and he dual-wields clubs, maces, flails, hammers and axes.

This guy can be found in Balmag. I already have two of those four. And I ran into a Cactuar outside of Kaipo and they’re usually the ones with the 1000 Needles attack. It wouldn’t surprise me if Cave-In is out there, either, so I didn’t see much in Grizzok’s collection to interest me.

So. Our main lead seems to be that we’re heading somewhere north of Balmag with our new dwarven barbarian friend. I couldn’t find anything even remotely helpful, though, so- for lack of any other option -I proceeded to the Lucid Depths, mentioned by Aruda. I feel inclined to trust Urrah as well and be en garde against “monsters that eat magic.”

So far, I’m liking the use of FFVIII music. The Esthar theme worked well in the Arcane Library. The music from when Laguna and company are trying to slip past Estharian guards through a cave also goes well with bright, shiny underground places.

This was also an annoying place to learn that you need a set of Germinas Boots for each active party member. I found one already so luckily I only needed nine-thousand gil to cover everyone else.

Ami’s Goblin Punch blue magic works fine against the Chitinids. Laka can also blind Chitinids with green magic. Same for the Deathclaws. Both Deathclaws and Chitinids go down quickly with Ami hitting everyone with Storm Breath and Oalston following up with either Blizzara or Fira.

Which of these monsters “eat magic”, exactly?

Strike west in the fork and you’ll encounter a room with winding, arcing paths. In the far southwest corner is a treasure chest containing the Asura nethicite. Resistant to silence and +2 magic and +2 spirit leveling bonuses. Given how common the silence status effect can be in the Underworld, it’s worth the effort.

Actual progress through the Lucid Depths lies to the east, though (I guess that makes Asura my fourth optional nethicite?). But you’ll end up going through so many curvy tunnels that you’ll come out even further west.

On this side of the Lucid Depths, two new monsters start showing up. There are pale little scorpion monsters called Indocites, capable of inflicting poison, darkness or instant death. Hopefully your active party members still have an accessory slot available for some resistance gear. Fire magic and some physical attacks that bypass defense are useful, too.

Then there’s this gem.

A Shapeshifter might hang out for as many as two or three turns before shape-shifting. So far, they have turned into a Chimera, Magma Breath, Dragon and Ochu. All of those- base Shapeshifter form included -are annoying to steal from. I’m still not sure if things like low HP or status effects actually make stealing any easier or not. It’s tempting to assume that lowering HP helps- like in any other FF -but it could just as easily be a virtual die-roll of Laka’s luck stat versus that of a monster. The longer a battle lasts, the more rolls of the die…you could see how the mistake could be made.

Luckily, upon killing a Dragon, they might drop a Dragon Fang which teaches Night to Ami. Night attempts to blind every opponent, giving it a strategic niche beside Mokusatsu, which hits every opponent with non-elemental damage while potentially either blinding or confusing them.

In the demon town of Vos, a few different discoveries wait for us.

Then…who should we run into but General Braak’s sister Jasmine.

Like a lot of Ivalicians we’ll meet, she went to the Underworld on her own and got stranded. Jasmine was heading to the Gygas Coliseum when she “fell down a stupid hole.”

Jasmine’s character class is listed as Monk which- in FF -usually translates to boxer / martial artist. She has no weapons slot (which is balanced with a third accessory slot) because she uses her fists, like Tifa or Sabin and comes equipped with Sabin’s Aura Cannon.

As we talk to the locals and peruse the shops, a benign dark gray demon named Varozz says that their eastern allies- the dwarves -are their only buffer between themselves and the Fey. I guess that tells us where we’re headed next.

Between here and there, though, we have to climb a rock formation across some lava, which means passing through an out-of-place human settlement called Valefor Fortress.

The structure seems potentially empty at first, with dead and maimed Ivalician human soldiers everywhere. When we do encounter living people, they die before us in a red flash.

When we find the last holdout battalion, Vera sees a familiar face from the Ivalice military. Right before we get rushed by the monster behind the red flash.

This…is Khalkatauroi. They mostly seem to just cast Fira and 1000 Needles. That can be a lot of damage but it is also rather capped. If you have four party members with HP over 1500, it shouldn’t be that bad so long as Ami keeps casting White Wind. Maybe slip in a Cheer when you can but White Wind is better support for this battle.

Oh speaking of that- Siegfried started recovering MP from Cheer! Better late than never.

If you just want the fight over as soon as possible, though, forget Cheer and divide Ami’s attention between White Wind and Goblin Punch. If someone fast like Laka can keep Siegfried’s MP topped off with ethers, then he’s free to lean into Dispatch. Just hit him with as much defense-ignoring attacks as possible.

Czarina Ring can be stolen from Khalkotauroi which will make healing more effective.

Unfortunately: I may have encountered two separate glitches. A few different times, a healing spell or item will randomly be used on an enemy instead of whoever you meant to get it. If you’ve played this game then you know you can’t normally do that. Not with group healing spells like White Wind or someone using a Mega Potion. There are occasions for doing that with single target white magic or even single target items like Phoenix Down- against undead foes. The group stuff, though, is unidirectional. It’s rare for group heals to flip like that but not unheard of.

Anyway-

This last time it happened- just outside of Valefor Fortress -both Ami and Laka suddenly had no equipment. Luckily everything was still in my inventory and I could just throw it all back on, which would have been nice to have gotten done before the next monster encounter happened.

Here’s the sauce

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Light spoiler warning

Here’s the beginning of the play-through, for those who wanna be caught up

The Crescent Rivulet takes time and effort but not as much as the Temple of Visions. Throughout Final Fantasy Blackmoon Prophecy, I’ve noticed that Babineau tends to use treasure chests as environmental guideposts toward things that bear investigating. Such rewards may or may not be progress.

The Crescent Rivulet was the first dungeon I’ve encountered that seemed to have nothing but treasure chests and monsters.

Eventually, I found an Artifact for Bosche, which apparently improves his Procure ability. The closest thing I can compare Procure to is Setzer’s Slot ability, what with randomly generating a move from a roster.

The Viral Tendril ability item lies in a nearby treasure chest. This teaches Ami Virulent Breath which poisons an enemy, with a slight chance of simultaneously inflicting other status effects. Virulent Breath only targets a single enemy, though, as opposed to the usual multi-target Bad Breath. A memoir page can also be easily be found in the area, along with a chest of Bodkin Arrows- a decent acquisition for Bosche.

And let us not forget the Lucavi nethicite, which bestows 50% passive resistance to Shadow. Leveling bonuses are max HP+7 and max MP+3.

In the waterfall pool with the Lucavi nethicite, the Bodkin Arrows and Merlin’s Staff, there is the moogle you usually find at the end of the dungeon, who leads you to the exit.

…

Might this not be where we’re supposed to be after all? However grateful I am for more blue magic and nethicite?

I returned to the Temple of Visions with Bosche at the head of my party, to see if he has some kind of obstacle transcendence ability…like putting two halves of the key together? He does like rare and exotic stuff, right?

If he does have an obstacle transcendence ability, it does not appear to be putting ancient, magical artifacts together. Like Siegfried, Bosche also appears to be unable to recover MP from Ami’s Cheer ability.

You know who might be able to put the key together? Someone at the Arcane Library.

No one did, though. This was also where I found my second conspicuous glitch: I entered the Arcane Library through the eastern bridge and appeared at Surgate Waystation. This happened three times in a row. When I tried entering through the western bridge I made it into the Arcane Library (for all the good it did).

Also: Bluebell apparently cannot set foot on the campsite outside of the Nightmare Cave. I’ve lately begun to wonder if Bluebell is an early taste of travel potential and the scale of the map, like the early experiences with chocobos and vehicles in III, IV and V.

Finding myself back at square one, I made a list of every town and city in Lindblum, since the only advice on offer is to ride around on Bluebell and see what people have to say.

Between one thing and another, I did some grinding. Elina learns Regen at level 20. Vera summoning Kirin or Ami casting White Wind is good for benefitting multiple party members but at least Elina can now do it one at a time.

At level 18, Nobumasa learns Reppu (single target Wind elemental attack) and Shokuto (group heal).

Perhaps the soldier in Altair meant that Jack lives in the Rotunda of Revelry, rather than the Crescent Rivulet. But the guard outside of Jack’s office says we need an appointment…

I was starting to run out of ideas. So I went back to the Temple of Visions. I tried Darius at the front of the party, to see if he had any relevant obstacle transcendence abilities. He was no more useful than Bosche. Then I, uh…tried…something…

Soooo…all I had to do to enter the central path in the Temple in Visions was insert the Crystal Half-Moon Keys into the crescent-shaped slots directly outside of it. Go me.

X_X

(You can steal Hyper Ethers from the Dying Breath monsters, btw)

Moving on with the damn dungeon…we find Vahn in a room, in front of what looks like the shade of his father. Vahn says that his mother Elise never told him anything about his father except that he was a traveler.

From the ghostly image of Kain Silverson, the King of Branch, we learn that he lost his wife Hilda to illness. When she died, Kain found himself falling for one of her former handmaidens, Elise.

When Elise became pregnant with Kain’s child, she relocated to Valla with a cover story. Elise told anyone who asked that her son’s father was a traveling Lenadian merchant.

Vahn asks his father why he suddenly decided to seize the crystals. Kain says that the answer rests at the Citadel, in the heart of Ivalice.

Kain’s image fades and Vahn tells Ami that- upon hearing Malacore’s words about his parentage -he felt something within himself, drawing him to the Temple of Visions. Before this conversation can go any further, though, we are met with a new apparition.

This being, Mnemosyne, says that “(M)emories are required to sustain the power of the Temple of Visions. I need more memories. Your memories!”

A boss fight, naturally, ensues.

Laka’s Dispel green magic comes in handy once Mnemosyne starts Protecting, Shelling and Regening herself. Mnemosyne also absorbs Holy. She is weak to Shadow which is a decent reason to have Darius in the fight (during the attempt in the screenshot at the top of the entry I got party-wiped :P).

You want Darius’ Darkside attack with you on this. Nobumasa’s Shadow attack Yousei Hi was not particularly useful to me here. Mokusatsu will reliably blind her but- if Ami knows Virulent Breath -you could just stick with your beast of a blue mage. It is also fairly easy for Laka to steal her Angel Glove (I had equipped her with a Sneak Ring, which could have been a factor). You want the Angel Glove for your mages, since it buffs magic and spirit by 35 and reduces MP costs for the wearer by 20%.

Vera wants to start the search in Ivalice at the top of the pyramid: Lord Zeul Raithwall. Darius believes that Lord Zeul is the strongest swordsman in the world. Thus far, Zeul’s connection with Malacore remains murky.

Upon returning to Lindblum Castle and debriefing with Regent Gran, Vahn decides that the fate of the Earth Crystal is more time-sensitive than whatever waits in Ivalice.

For Gran’s part, his forces remain perilously divided. Unfortunately, securing the gateway to the Underworld at Mount Koltz still depends on decreasing the demands of the civil war on the Lindblum military.

It seems the rebels now seek to conquer the Magic Library, which preceded the Arcane Library and has fallen into disuse. Baram von Muir is personally accompanying his fighting forces there.

At North Dock, Shiroma and the Eternal Blue wait to convey us to the Magic Library, on an island to the southeast; further south than the plot has taken us, thus far.

Aand holy crap is the magic library hard with a level 20 (Ami), 15 (Oalston), 22 (Laka) and 16 (Vahn). High encounter rate, with status effects and multi-target attacks. Maybe make sure your party is leveled to 17 or over. I then switched to Ami (20), Nobumasa (18), Laka (22) and Vera (18).

The party finds Baram von Muir in the company of two of his rebels- Hanuman and Porkus -whom Baram transforms into…well…

The Reppu Ninjutsu (Wind elemental attack) is effective. Virulent Breath can also be a fun way to find out what status effects a given enemy is vulnerable to. You can steal a Thunder Blade from Porkus and a Blizzard Sword from Hanuman.

Siegfried remarks that Baram using this magic on anyone- rebel or otherwise -is just wrong.

Vahn and company tell Regent Gran about Baram’s acquisition of the Magic that turns people into monsters. Siegfried is particularly worried about the citizens of Surgate, who live under Baram’s authority.

Regent Gran, to Siegfried: “You sound familiar, shrouded man. Have we met?”

Siegfried waves it off.

Regent Gran then joins us temporarily for the journey to Surgate. What he brings to the party is a repertoire of both white and black magic (that would make our Edgar-looking Gran a sage by the standards of IV, right?).

Until now, Surgate has had the shrill, militaristic horn version of Under Martial Law. During this visit, we hear the slower, more natural version of Under Martial Law with the violins, harp-plucking, flutes and clarinets.

Every door, it seems, is locked from the inside, against the Lindblum soldiers who arrived ahead of us. One such soldier opines that the rebels may have “pulled back to their base at the mountainside.”

The Surgate Woodlands, behind the town, marks a more ethereal and drifting musical shift. Interesting contrast after Under Martial Law. Separate from the music, the transition reminds me of going from Bone Village to the Sleeping Forest, in VII.

The Chimeras in the Surgate Woodlands are intriguingly difficult to steal from. I started off with Ami Goblin Punching and Oalston casting Comet for a few turns. Then I switched to Ami hitting them with Virulent Breath, Oalston casting Demi to whittle away at the HP without killing them and Laka trying to steal for every turn. Got their HP into the single digits. Soon Demi wasn’t dealing any damage.

Not a damn thing to show for it, the first time. The second time I swiped a Guard Shard (increases defense permanently by one).

Hyper Wrists can be stolen from the ostrich-like Kiwoks. The Chimeras have pretty good exp yield but the Kiwoks usually come with a few Tarantulas. If you want the grinding to stay good, think of ways to kill them before the Tarantulas begin to flee (Storm Breath and Fira and Gran casting Fire has been working for me).

While the Surgate Woodlands have a lot of treasure chests, a lot of them have tiny increments of gil or middling restorative items. They are also more scattered compared to other dungeon-like areas, so good job on the misdirection Babineau.

Eventually, though, the empty treasure chests will start acting as progression markers and the forest will feel a bit less labyrinthine. An arcing, upward path through the trees beginning in the southeast corner of the map will slowly reveal itself.

While wandering and fighting my way through the Surgate Woodlands, Oalston reached level 16 and learned Blizzara and Thundara.

Once you penetrate the mountainside base, you’ll find that Baram has turned several of his rebels into Sabin-headed homunculi. In the right hand chamber is a Sabin-monster called Bellerophon from whom you can steal a pike. Cadmus waits in the chamber to the left and can be shaken down for a Shadow Staff. Within both are Rebel Base Keys, which can be used to unlock the central chamber without wandering away doing an optional dungeon first (not if you don’t want to, anyway).

Baram’s last two rebels- Benero and Zenero -have lost trust in him after seeing what he’s been doing to everyone else. The party arrives, seemingly, in the nick of time…only for Baram to chortle about how he can generate as much muscle as he wants and transform Benero and Zenero. Baram lunges to the foreground, turns into a Pan-like goat monster (with his executive function apparently intact, unlike his underlings) and the three of them attack.

Keep the Wind attacks coming against Zenero and Benero. Both of them are vulnerable to poison and Baram has a Shadow Ring that can be stolen. No magic appears to work on Baram except non-elemental spells like Goblin Punch, Demi and Comet. Once Benero and Zenero go down, though, you can focus keeping your party healed and spamming physical attacks. It will go by quickly.

With Baram finally dead, everyone remains in shock over the monster-transformation ability he learned in the Magic Library. Regent Gran sends people to older library to see what could be found in Baram’s wake.

The death of Baram also means that the rebellion is over with. All that remains now is Mount Koltz and the sealed gateway to the Underworld.

Here’s the sauce

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Light spoilers for Blackmoon Prophecy and a few heavier spoilers for various mainline Final Fantasy games

Remember how I said Naddaha Pyramid was like the narrow, winding path dungeons with high encounter rates like in IV?

After you charge a lightening rod for him, Dr. Cid will teleport you across the next leg of the journey to the Wind Shrine. Except his laboratory at the other end of the teleportation device is filled with his malfunctioning, aggressive robots. With a long and winding slog over catwalks and through narrow corridors.

It is as close to the goddamn Tower of Babil from IV as I ever want to encounter outside of IV.

Not long after, we gather more party members far more quickly than in most 2D FFs. Out of the mainline games, the only one that felt like this was IV. Yet IV didn’t always make the difference between a permanent PC and an NPC obvious, which added credibility to a few scripted deaths (other deaths and resurrections were batshit random). VI had a relatively large playable cast of characters but gathering party members itself was not frequent.

After Ami and Nobumasa, we soon encounter the Blackmoon Prophecy version of a recurring FF character called Siegfried.

Siegfried is typically a bit player. So is his frequent friend and rival Gilgamesh. The one I remember best was from VI. I think the first time I saw him was on the Phantom Train? Dodging traps and being kind of random amid the transmigrating souls? Shows up later at the coliseum in the World of Ruin?

Things get going once we encounter a bridge locked down by the slightly-familiar General Leonardo. Many Gaia nation states possess magical, historical weapons of both heraldic and military value. Cornelia’s own sacred treasure- the sword Excalibur -was lately stolen by the infamous thief Gilgamesh. We learn, from the Cornelian King at his Nideen palace, that the trail leads through the verdant cave system known as Bragg’s Folly. We get Excalibur back, Leonardo lets us cross.

Bragg’s Folly was the first dungeon that felt like it was applying specific pressure to MP management. Every fight requires some sort of massive damage, multiple target attack which means Vera gets to flex a little with the summoning. Storm Breath blue magic is also an asset. To date, ethers (MP restoratives) are only occasionally available at item shops, which is another reason why Laka’s ability to steal comes in handy.

The use of ‘Amarant’s Theme’ (IX) here felt perfect. So did ‘Battle at the Big Bridge’ (V) during the Gilgamesh fight, what with the hammy dialogue and the horns, electric guitars and keyboards gave it a fun seventies grindhousiness (Something with katanas and Kurosawa-like spurting blood? You can steal an Atlas Armlet from Gilgamesh, btw).

Come to think of it, this version of Siegfried feels more deserving of ‘Amarant’s Theme’ than Amarant himself. Amarant himself was not one of the better-written parts of IX.

Siegfried, Nobumasa and Vahn take equal thirds of something comparable to red magic. One way in which Siegfried is distinguished is his ability to learn and use some of Cyan’s Sword Art skills like Dispatch (VI). Siegfried has also- thus far – not been able to recover MP from Ami’s Cheer command.

In the Nightmare Cave, we face the Dreamweaver, who assumes various shapes to exploit mental and emotional weak points. Vahn’s mother Elise is one illusion, who says cryptic things about his father. Another illusion is a man named Davon whose apparition is visibly distressing to Siegfried.

Rather like IV, our foes remain one step ahead of us while we seek the crystals. Having escaped from the Branch dungeons, General Braak of Ivalice beats us to the Wind Crystal.

Now…Vera was one of the other three generals of Ivalice, whom were sent to Mysidia to intercept Darius. Vera is attempting rational interrogation when the other two spontaneously flip shit and decide to start beating confessions out of everyone.

(Local embodiment of Celes, from VI? Both Vera and Celes are generals but Celes was incarcerated and brutalized for speaking out against Kefka’s poisoning of the water supply at Doma. Vera is rescued like Celes but instead we find Vera attempting to exert her own authority to prevent mob tactics in her ranks. This feels significant)

Vera draws the line, the other two turn on her and Vahn and company fly to her aid.

Back in our relative present…

At the Wind Shrine, Braak attacks Vera for desertion and a boss fight ensues. While this is happening, Malacore appears directly in front of the Wind Crystal. Braak leaves, as though deferring to him.

Then Darius shows up, furious at having been subjected to mind control. Even with our newly-sane party member, though, Malacore is still able to swipe the Wind Crystal. Only the Earth Crystal at Mount Koltz remains.

I also had my first honest-to-goodness glitch encounter of the play-through at the camp site between the bridge outside of Nideen and Cornelia. I checked out the ability list next to that lil one, then turned the music box beside the moogle on and off. Then I couldn’t leave. The screen would fade to black like the normal transition and then I’d be standing in the central path as though I just entered. I slept in a tent- hoping it might move the game past whatever was going on -but it didn’t work. Had to close out and reload a save. It’s the only glitch I’ve found so far, though, so I’m not worried yet.

Nobumasa learns Mokusatsu at level 14 and Katon at level 15 which will make him way more useful. Both of those hit everyone in the opposing party. Katon is fire-aligned while Mokusatsu does non-elemental damage and may inflict blind and / or confuse. So far, blindness has turned out to be the most useful status effect and- with the monsters in the coming dungeons -you want them landing as few hits as possible.

The nation of Lindblum is the historic custodian of the Earth Shrine and its crystal. The journey is, of course, fraught.

Lindblum is beleaguered on two fronts. On one, the Earth Crystal has been taken to the Underworld by the Fey, behind an impermeable magic barrier. On the other, civil war has broken out. When Regent Gran decided to open avenues of trade and cultural exchange, a rash of militant xenophobia finds its voice in a courtier named Baram. They have, of late, began taking villages and checkpoints and have destroyed multiple bridges (Lindblum resembles a cluster of islands off the southern coast of the southeast continent so bridges are a big deal).

This group- known simply as ‘the rebels’ -appear to be a typical monster-of-the-week at first. Between Cornelia and the Lindblum borders, we attempt to slip through a heavily occupied checkpoint on chocobos.

The sprites of the Narshe guerrillas (VI) now ironically embody fratricidal isolationists. Our first confrontation consists of rushing through them as quickly as possible. The chocobo is constantly running at full speed while we dodge obstructions. Objects in the way deal damage and running into a rebel triggers a fight with some mid-level damage sponges. The obstacle course ends with the apparition of Gylfi and another boss fight with mind-controlled Hans.

Our path to Lindblum Castle takes us through the Arcane Academy, which rests on an islet in the center of a rare intact bridge. Elina and Oalston are ecstatic.

The Kirin magicite can be purchased from a scholar for 10,000 gil. Vera now has healing utility- Kirin gives everyone a big heal and casts Regen on them. I’ve been grinding Elina rather hard, putting her at level 18 at that point (with the average being around level 15), and she was still yet to learn Regen.

A scholar elsewhere in the Arcane Library will hand you the Remora nethicite which offers magic, spirit and MP leveling bonuses. Started off rotating Remora between Vera and Ami but Nobumasa also benefits a lot from Remora since his Ninjutsu abilities are scaled to spirit (the only combative magic that’s spirit-scaled so far).

One may also encounter an interesting lil dude called Laudo, who came to the Arcane Library to make a profit selling ethers. This has not worked out the way he planned and- for a thousand gil -will follow us around. If you elect to hire him, he will sell you cheap ethers anywhere you make camp, mitigating the prior ether scarcity. In the long run, Laudo’s wares will include more diverse and potent ethers.

Before sharing the latest breakthroughs in black and white magic with Oalston and Elina, Director Sabino of the Arcane Library wants to test their proficiency.

The two front-row spirits can be beaten according to the elemental affinities and antipathies that their colors suggest. For the one in the back row, you want Elina to spam Dia.

Upon surviving the test, Oalston is permitted to learn Comet and Elina is entrusted with Libra.

Thus far, trial, error and context has served me well with determining things like elemental weaknesses and generalized estimates of HP limits. The acquisition of Libra makes me wonder if this may be less feasible, going forward. Oalston has also acquired a powerful non-elemental attack. With the optional nethicite and magicite in the Arcane Library and the chance to have cheap ethers on hand…this section feels like one big proficiency benchmark. Makes you wonder what’s coming.

Vahn learns Purify at level 15 but I’ve been finding that the majority of non-white magic healing abilities can only be used on the specific character with that ability. Elina remains the most dynamic healer. Vera with Kirin can function fine as a healer so long as you supplement her with Ami’s Cheer ability.

Regent Gran (who is embodied in Edgar’s sprite from VI with a reddish palette swap) fills us in on the situation with the rebels and the Earth Crystal. If the Fey are keeping it in the Underworld…I’m tempted to wonder if something like the Feymarch- my favorite dungeon from IV -is around the corner.

With Lindblum caught between the Fey and the rebels, Regent Gran is in no position to divide his attention. Vahn and Ami mention the possibility of taking territory back from the rebels and Gran is thrilled. There seems to be a certain amount of local sympathy for the rebel isolationists and the Regent is slow to move against them openly. He directs us to Kaipo to meet with his trusted commander Baigan.

Toward these ends, Regent Gran lends us a Chocobo Whistle, allowing us to summon his personal chocobo Bluebell. Being a blue chocobo, Bluebell is capable of crossing rivers and reef-like bridges between landmasses.

As we enter Kaipo, Siegfried balks: he absolutely refuses to publicly set foot there. We of course have to anyway and- should one’s party rest at the inn -a conversation can be overheard.

This is another one of those moments that convinces me that the references have a function, thematic and / or otherwise. We have both a town (Kaipo) and a character (Baigan) from IV. Kaipo even looks the same. Siegfried is a perpetually masked background character swordsman. Another masked warrior from VI, Shadow, will sometimes relive moments from his past while dreaming when the party stops at an inn.

Shadow’s recall-dreams begin with his past as a professional thief. These dreams dovetail with the eventual revelation of Shadow’s estranged family: the father of his dead lover (Strago) and his daughter (Relm). What happens next in Blackmoon Prophecy is also reminiscent of Barret’s return to North Corel in VII.

Now this may have been a glitch.

As the party is about to settle down and rest, voices are audible outside. I wasn’t sure if this was a glitch or not, since the party was rather still. I suppose they could have been shocked into silence at the full-blown lovers’ quarrel outside.

Even though Siegfried did not want to be seen in Kaipo, he evidently couldn’t stay out, either. He seeks out his lover Davon, whose appearance was used by the Dreamweaver. Davon is shocked to see Siegfried after two years of absence. The couple’s fortunes took a turn once Siegfried attracted a degree of political prestige. Siegfried seemed to think that this visibility would not be safe for his relationship. Afterward, Siegfried disappeared on an ascetic quest.

He passionately apologizes for disappearing and admits that he is also suffering in Davon’s absence and continues to desire him. Davon admits that two years of abrupt silence is not easy to forgive. In spite of Siegfried’s pained avoidance of the topic among the party, Davon himself seems to have warmed up. If you visit him at his home (minus Siegfried, who won’t go anywhere near there with the party at this point), he says that he intends to wait for him.

Our local version of Baigan needs us to reclaim the town of Dawnmarch. We can set out with our newly empowered black and white mages or we can clear the village with the blue mage and the summoner. For the other two party spaces, you want some people who can both give and take some physical hits. The rebel boss there has a maul that can be stolen.

Baigan then requires several thousand gil to station soldiers in Dawnmarch, to hold it against the rebels. Luckily, there is a nearby forest inhabited by juvenile dragons with gil hoards of a manageable size.

I started this next task the way I did because Ami left the Arcane Academy fuming about how they don’t have anything for a blue mage. I agreed; especially since I had not learned any blue magic since Goblin Punch. It felt like a missed beat and then Baigan sends us on a monster hunt. It seemed to add up.

I managed to steal from three out of four baby dragons. The one that got away was the white one and I never saw them again. I encountered the red fairly quickly and I encountered the blue twice. Between those two was my only encounter with the white and lastly the black. It seems possible that the dragon encounter rate in the forest starts off high, because it’s a mainline story event, then goes down a little each time.

Since the baby dragons are roughly boss-tier, this is a convenient time to mention just how useful Ami’s Cheer ability has been. I haven’t even thought of the Cheer ability since I played X for the first time as a tween…and I’ve replayed X multiple times since. Was it always this useful? It helps when you have someone like Vera, with a single strong healing ability that also casts Regen on everyone. If you’ve been giving her the vigor shards, keeping her close to the Valefor nethicite and buying her current weapons and armor, you won’t need her to do anything for the Regen duration except her standard physical attack.

The Water Ring can be stolen from the blue juvenile dragon. Flame Sabres can be stolen from the red. Black dragons with yellow underbellies drop Miracle Fruits (large and permanent HP and MP increase).

Oh and I also stole a Flame Sabre from an Allosaurus in the area? And I’m pretty sure all I got from them in the past were Earth Drums (a disposable item that causes Earth damage)? So far this is the first time I managed to steal two different items from one monster. If I’m remembering the Earth Drum correctly, then do the same monsters carry different stuff in different areas? Or has this always been possible and I only just now pulled it off? Even though I’ve been trying to steal from as many things as possible?

Speaking of: in the grassy periphery of the forest, there are ogres whom you can steal Life Shards from.

While Baigan’s soldiers are now financially situated, the rebels have not been idle. According to Regent Gran, they have penetrated the Dragon King’s Roost south of the gil-farming forest. It appears they want to capture and tame some dragons to use as airborne super weapons.

The corpses of the rebels are strewn about the Roost and the survivors panic and attack you if you go near them. As we approach the summit, two pissed off dragons wait for us. The first is Vedrfolnir, who has a Survival Vest you can steal.

Now…whom should we find in the Dragon King’s Roost but Bahamut: the embodied deity of Ivalice?

After Bahamut vaporizes the three rebels, he goes for the party, Megaflares everyone and breaks through the ceiling of the cave.

Some Lindblum soldiers investigate in our wake and bring us back to Regent Gran’s castle. As we’re catching him up, the subject turns once more to the Earth Crystal, which is still in the Underworld with the Fey. A nearby bodyguard is suddenly possessed by Malacore, announcing that the Fey originally secured it for him. Yet the magical barrier has kept Malacore out as surely as it has the human pursuers.

Malacore also passively refers to Vahn as the son of a “tyrant king” while talking about something else. A little question mark balloon shows us that Vahn has no idea what he’s talking about. Before relinquishing the unsuspecting bodyguard, Malacore says “After all, it is your duty as the son of King Branch to allow me this power, is it not?”

Vahn panics and flees from the party as soon as Darius, Vera and Regent Gran attempt to ask him about this. Local chatter in Tzen suggests that Vahn has likely ended up in the Temple of Visions.

Oh- first blue magic since Goblin Punch! The Vibrant Plumage ability item can be stolen from a Zemzelett, outside of Tzen. From this, Ami learns White Wind. Blue magic was one of my original motivations for keeping Laka as close as I have been.

Being a massive VII fan girl, the use of the ‘Listen To The Cries Of The Planet’ music was a pleasant surprise. This dungeon branches off into a left and right path. Both of them end with a treasure chest that contains half of the Crystal Half Moon Key, which is required to unlock the central door.

The shurikens and the Yoshimitsu treasure chests suggest that Nobumasa may have some reason to be here. Sure enough, the Hadesgigas go down fast when you throw shurikens at them (hopefully not before you steal their Spiked Gloves). With Ami having learned White Wind, she can now heal the whole party and cast Regen while Cheering for gradual MP restoration. With Ami’s Storm Breath and Nobumasa having learned Mokusatsu and Katon, you should be alright.

You also might want to fight the monster-in-a-box Almagest, since it drops an Arondight: Darius’ best weapon so far.

With both halves of the key in hand, it is apparent that the party can’t just slide them together. Then I remembered: someone in a village mentioned both the Temple of Visions and the divided key.

I can’t remember what they said though.

No one in the village of Altair is able to help out with this but they do mention a gambling engineer of renown named Jack. A townsperson says that he lives north of Altair, so off I went astride Bluebell.

This place…has an almost dream-like quality. The music is your basic video-gamey-casino loop. Tinny, synthesized, brass instrument sounds. It’s not annoying but it’s not dissimilar to annoyance. Reminiscent of insomnia, somehow. Like a casino-themed Sonic level only drunk and just about to start tilting from horny to crying.

Eventually, though…somewhere north of Altair…I found the suspiciously-named Crescent Rivulet.

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Light spoilers

When we last left our adventurers, they were on the trail of Darius in the Gulgur Volcano. Unbeknownst to them, General Braak escaped Hans, Biggs and Wedge, leaving them to fall into the hands of three enigmatic beings who appear to be capable of mind control. When the Vahn squad catches up with Darius, they find him in conversation with a voice that he is seeing outside of his head for the first time: Malacore, whom Darius released from the Crystal of Water.

A later encounter with the esper Ramah puts much of this in perspective: the crystals are doing their usual elemental control thing (either placed there by the gods or left there as energy siphons for malevolent outsiders, depending on cosmology).

What effects the crystals effects the espers. This entanglement has come up in older FFs but here we have an additional layer: elemental guardians, like Salamander and Bismarck- residing either with their crystal or at its former location. Quetzalcoatl is both an elemental guardian and an esper. Quetzalcoatl leaves nethicite behind and Salamander does not. Ramah then introduces a fourth layer: the Archareons, rulers of the Esper World. Presumably beings older and more powerful than Ramah and the other espers seen thus far.

In the distant past, both human and esper worlds were affected by a phenomenon which- on the third dimension -manifested as the disappearance of all light from the sky. Humanity remembered this as the era of the Blackmoon. It choked the biosphere, obviously, yet had consequences beyond it. The espers appear to have been affected just as much and- having longer lifespans and more of a multidimensional perspective than humans -resolved never to allow it to happen again.

Despite their immortality and non-locality, the Archareons can only perceive this event through the dark glass of prophecy. While prophecy on the esper scale may see farther than on the human one, both humans and espers relate to it in the same way. A prophecy, for these purposes, is an amorphous thing: a statement from the future with a limited range of success or failure conditions.

Malacore, who was subsumed by the Water Crystal before Darius released him, is the one who is actually capable of manipulating the crystals in such a way that the Blackmoon Prophecy may be fulfilled. This prophecy specifies that Malacore’s opposition is the axis on which Malacore’s decision will turn. From the Archareons’ perspective, Vahn and the party are the ones actually swinging the axe and therefore they are the ones who must be stopped.

The Archareons are also having non-human pattern-matching issues: Darius was a dragoon from Branch. Vahn is also a dragoon from Branch. As far as they are concerned, “these kinds of humans” appear to be working in concert. Almost immediately after acquiring the ship with which to travel to the continent of the Wind Shrine, they are capsized by an Archareon. This Archareon was summoned by Gylfi: the one we saw fighting Hans, Biggs and Wedge at the Water Shrine.

Now…Malacore shoves, espers push back. Gylfi appeared to comfortably take some responsibility for what is happening both with Darius and the crystals. Is Gylfi a third-dimensional proxy for the Esper World Archareons? Or a collaborator with Malacore? Both seem possible, just now.

Espers also introduce our first actual taste of character customization: nethicite crystals. Obviously magicite exists in this game but its only use appears to be teaching Vera how to summon different esper spirits. Nethicite can be equipped to anyone, bestowing passive buffs and additional points for various stats upon leveling. These are, of course, good for cultivating stat emphases in the long run and circumstantial protection immediately.

So far, I have encountered three nethicite-yielding boss fights in the main plot: Syldra (MP leveling bonus), Quetzalcoatl (defense and HP leveling bonus) and Atomos (magic leveling bonus).

Considering how I acquired the Valefor nethicite on Mount Palumpu, I think this may be a good time to talk about other game play factors that start loosening up. Laka the thief is recruited shortly before entering the Naddaha Pyramid, which I appreciated. I like FF thieves; both for the stealth build and the perpetual item-farming. Goblins can be encountered in the vicinity and an interesting little item can be stolen from them: Goblin Glove, with a little book icon. This comes in handy post-Naddaha once Ami the blue mage (my favorite FF mage class) is recruited. I’m wondering if those book items are how Ami will be learning most of her blue magic? Stealing the items from the relevant monster makes a lot of sense. I can see how this might annoy some people but coordination between thieves and blue mages kinda hits me where I live.

Anyway: Goblin Punch will make Valefor way less scary (Valefor’s nethicite crystal boosts HP, speed and vigor upon leveling).

We also start seeing some recognizable dungeon-design conventions from the mainline series around here. Naddaha Pyramid is a FFIV-style gauntlet of winding paths and high encounter rates. The treacherous swamp of Connal Curach has stone-to-bridge jumps and thick fog, like the shipwreck graveyard from V.

Also during the Laka-to-Ami-juncture- the obstacle transcendence abilities of the party leader have so far appeared to be removing single-tile obstructions. Elina with the Mysidian glyph barriers, Laka with picking locks and Ami with persuading the Moombas of Mount Palumpu to step out of the way.

The music gets a little more diverse at this point. The Naddaha Pyramid has what at least sounds like the music in Ultimecia’s final dungeon from VIII (on a related note, music in boss fights have been from VIII and V, thus far). Once the party starts making their way through Mount Palumpu toward the Wind Shrine, the music gets distinctly non-retro themed. Like, recognizable low notes on a viola in a distinctly non-midi format. The mines of Kohlingen have a version of the ‘Phantom Forest’ from VI with a lot of woodwind instruments and a bit less harp-plucking than expected. I liked it though.

Since so much of what we are listening to comes from mainline Final Fantasy games, the music choices can sound a little referential at times. I’m still kinda waiting to see if certain associations expand or not, like all the FFVI musical cues happening in relation to the nation of Ivalice. Or the FFV boss music during the fights with Gylfi and his cohort.

It is also impossible not to notice just how many place names and character names are taken from other FFs. Lots of main characters like Balthier and Cecil. The name ‘Vahn’ also comes from a pre-existing game but he’s also the only one with a main character name doing main character stuff.

It is easy for me to imagine certain things. Like each mainline FF takes place in its own tangent universe. These tangents proceed from a convex arc, enabling them to go as far as possible without intersecting. Final Fantasy Blackmoon Prophecy may be a lateral level above or below. If the main character from a mainline FF is, perhaps, causing the mutually exclusive tangent…than Blackmoon Prophecy appears to be a level up or down from there. The souls of the divergence-authors are now circulating in a contained environment, with everyone else. If Vahn got caught in the web of the story, then maybe it is because it could have happened to anyone in this version of Gaia.

Some other things I wanted to mention-

The blue Whip creature on the ground has a tent if Laka can manage to successfully ‘steal’ from it. Laka is level 8, here, with 39 for luck and 56 for speed. Vahn is the only one with a better luck stat and Laka is obviously the fastest party member so far. Laka always moves before anyone else has a chance but she can only steal a tent from a Whip once every few dozen attempts. For now, it looks like the luck stat determines whether the ‘steal’ command works or not, as in most other Final Fantasy games.

Also- the Headless monsters you can encounter between the Rift Shrine and Connal Curach? Kinda look like female Armadullahans? You can steal Spirit Shards from them. ‘Shards’ are basically permanent, single-increment stat boosters, like the stat+ and ‘source’ items from VII. The stat+ and ‘source’ droppers were hidden in the crashed Gelnika, though. The demake of VII for the NES (the Lugia2009 version- not the Chinese bootleg it was based on) had a lot of monsters late in the game that dropped stat+ items, which felt like a way to add some character build freedom near the end. We’ll see how Babineau implements stat+ / shard droppers going forward.

The Headless are also damage sponges who can hit the whole party at once, though, so have fun with that.

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Light spoilers

Final Fantasy Blackmoon Prophecy is an RPG Maker fan game by Daniel Babineau. Babineau began development in 2003 and completed the first playable iteration in 2011. After over decade of patches and updates, a streamlined, final-draft ‘remake’ was released a few days ago. Presently, Babineau is developing a sequel.

The nostalgia and referencing are immediately apparent with some interesting inversions.

The most obvious ones so far riff on FFI and FFIV. A beloved dragoon named Darius has lately been going a lil crazy with wild emotional reactions and inferences about everyone’s loyalty and worthiness. He looses it too hard with a prisoner, threatens to have them summarily executed and bristles when fellow dragoon Vahn tells him that’s not how it works. He storms off, rants to the king about it and gets drummed out of the military. A brief investigation to the Water Shrine ensues and guess who shows back up, eventually?

Darius’ falling out and expulsion is rather efficient. Irrational person says irrational things, threatens a detainee and strikes a fellow dragoon. Everyone agrees on this and they get rid of him because they respect the rule of law. Last time things went this smoothly in a 2D Final Fantasy, Kefka was on the brink of reshaping the face of the planet and terrorizing everyone into worshipping him.

Our main character Vahn shares his first name with the main character from FFXII. XII and XII: Revenant Wings are set in a place called Ivalice along with FF Tactics and Vagrant Story. In Blackmoon Prophecy, Ivalice is a known location in the wider world. We learn in short order that the people of Ivalice worship the dragon Bahamut as a deity and that Ivalice is at odds Branch, where our player characters start out. An Ivalician general named Braak was the prisoner that Darius threatened.

I suspect the majority of music in this game comes from the Pixel Remaster versions of I-VI and a few of them have abrupt splices in their loops (copy right protection?). Excepting, of course, the music that’s obviously from PS1 through present, like ‘Who…Are You?’ from VII during a dramatic moment and the FFIX Chocobo Forest music for the, uh…Chocobo Forests.

The majority of musical cues are from IV, like the basic fight music and the Baron Castle music for Branch Castle. A lot of FFVI cues are associated with the nation of Ivalice but not exclusively (an early non-Ivalice village has ‘Kids Run Through the City’).

The random encounter rate is suspiciously low for a retro-style Final Fantasy game, at first, but ramps up once you get out of your backyard. So far, combat abilities are learned from a pre-existing roster for each character with occasional ability-and-stat-bestowing items.

Vahn’s ‘jump’ command also seems to have a clear purpose, early on. I know that the turn-skip was always supposed to be a risk-vs-reward mechanic but it actually works that way, in these early battles. Vahn leaps into the air, skipping his turn and taking no damage. Either Hans or Oalston have to just take all the hits during that beat so you have to keep them alive until Vahn descends with his massive physical attack.

In IV, there were a lot of temporary, scripted NPC party members early on. The point was to give you an early taste of what different classes can and can’t do before the permanent, “real” bearer of the character class showed up.

(Possibly…? A few of them turn out to still be alive and playable later which always struck me as kind of pointless..especially after having more competent party members to do that stuff longer by the end game period)

Blackmoon Prophecy clearly uses a similar approach to character class ‘tutorials’. The dragoon character class eventually gets a dedicated exploration with Hans, Biggs and Wedge. I dunno yet if this game has a red mage class but so far the dragoons seem to have most of the ‘red magic’ stuff going for them with an occasional ‘jump’ button, like Freya from IX.

Oh hey- when you finally have a full four-member party in Mysidia (judging from its portrayal in IV, is Mysidia supposed to be the FF version of Mystara?) you can choose your own party leader. Different pcs have different obstacle transcendence abilities, like Elina being able to remove Mysidian glyph barriers.

The four-member party also makes it clear that the ‘defend’ command has more than one function. This game is inspired by early Final Fantasy so the absence of an active time bar lines up. Nonetheless, there is such a thing as turn order determined by everyone’s relative speed stat.

This, here, is an ideal case in point. Context from FF in general tells us that restorative magic is lethal to undead. Thus it is here. So Elina casts Cure on the Fossil and takes it out in one shot. Oalston should also be leveled enough at this point to one-shot a normal Bomb with Blizzard. That leaves the purple-tinted Grenade, which seems to have more HP and hits harder when it blows up.

Unlike most classic Final Fantasy, our summoner Vera has a firm melee emphasis (vigor seems to translate into physical attack and it’s her best stat). Buy the Mythril Blade while you’re in Mysidia, equip it to Vera and you’ll notice that she can usually one-shot the Grenades before they can cause trouble.

But– Vahn has been leveling since before any of these three were recruited. That gives him an inconvenient speed stat, here in the Gulgur Volcano. With Elina, Oalston and Vera, you could probably end the battle in the screenshot up there in one turn. If you just plug in a ‘fight’ command with Vahn, though, he will act before any of the other three have a chance to. This could have a few consequences. Depending on who Vahn strikes first, the Grenade might have a chance to explode. Ending the fight as quickly as possible depends on Vahn using the ‘defend’ command.

You’ll probably find the magicite that allows Vera to summon Shiva and a Blizzard Staff for Oalston, eventually, which will make things easier. Until then, you’ll probably spend less time dying and using up healing items if you pay attention to who is good at what and how the speed stat effects turn order.

That was a neat little tutorial segment without needing to be told what’s happening. Good job, Babineau.

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