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 left hand chamber is a Sabin-monster called Bellerophon from whom you can steal a pike. Cadmus waits in the chamber to the right 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 anyone 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 transforms 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, and 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

Until next time, TBC

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.

Here’s the sauce

Here’s the next post

Light spoilers

When we last left our adventures, 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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