Pretty nice opening CGI cinematic (love the crazy eyes of the ninja character) leading into the SNES opening, featuring possibly my favorite piece of music from the entire series: "Terra's Theme". So, let's get started. Oh, hey, a Bonus Section. Just the opening CGI movie and some production sketches and storyboard for the intro right now.

Picking New Game, after having a little fun choosing invalid options, I get to watch the SNES opening again. Looking through the menu, she destroyed 50 soldiers in 3 minutes with only Cure and Fire at her disposal? That seems a bit, um, wrong. Oh, hey, I can have a dialog box background of a bunch of Howard the Ducks! Oh, wait, those are Chocobos.

Time to start wandering around the town with the nameless sorceress and soldiers from the intro. Attack me with a dog, will you! What's this Magitek stuff and why can't I view it in my menu? Well, at least that explains her wiping the walls with the soldiers. Not many options other than moving straight ahead since her big mech makes every other path impossible to go down. Plowing my way through the small resistance (Goooooo Bio Blast!), I'm into the mine to unfreeze an Esper.

Oooooooh, sparkly thingy. Must... investigate. Yes, I'll take info about Save Points. Um, what does "befound" mean? Pretty bad that less than 10 minutes in, there's a typo.

Ok, the Howard the Duck background is distracting and makes reading the text needlessly difficult, so back to the default solid blue background.

After saving, we quickly arrive at our first boss. What? Don't attack the shell and it eats lightning? Bah. *purposely attacks shell with lightning* Ahh, MegaVolt, SchmegaVolt. Here, eat this TekMissile. Making quick work of the boss, it's a short trip to the frozen Esper. Man, I gotta fight it? Or not. Bye-bye, Wedge and Biggs. And *loading...........* Tsk, there goes my MagiTek armor.

Woohoo! Amnesia!!! I'm gonna have SO much amnesia when I grow up! TERRA's a fine name, so I'll keep it. Plus, it wouldn't be right listening to Terra's Theme and not be named Terra. Follow you, Old Man? Nah, I'll snoop around first. Hey, a grandfather clock! Things tend to be hidden in grandfather clocks. Ooooh, an "Elixir!" Well, is it or isn't it an elixir? Aww, nothing in the fireplace. Since I can't go out the front door and fight the guards, I guess I have no choice but to follow the Old Man and go out the back door and into the mines, getting spotted on the long bridge I need to cross first.

Helping control the Were-Rat population in the mine, I head to the nearby Save Spot and decide to take a break. One thing I don't like is that you don't gain the added HP & MP when you level up.

Loading back up and moving along. Surviving some Repo Men throwing their wrenches at me (where's Patches O'Hoolihan when you need him?), the guards who spotted me earlier finally caught up and cornered me. Nowhere to go, I backed into a corner where the floor gives out! Falling to the level below, Terra blacks out aaand cue the flashback with the introduction of Kefka and Gestahl.

Meanwhile, back at the Old Man's house, we get our 2nd adventurer, LOCKE, the Thief. Being tasked by the Old Man to help out Terra, I'm told to head to Figaro (hopefully a mischievous rabbit doesn't get in my way) and talk to the king. Locke somehow knows exactly where to go and just beats the guards to Terra's passed out body. Good thing the guards just stand there giving time for the Moogles to arrive on the scene -- Kupo!!!

Playing around with Locke's Steal ability a bit too much (not much of a Thief going 0 for 6 or so), he didn't survive against the boss, Marshall, needing to rely on the other groups of Moogles to defeat him. After somehow regaining his health, he appears at Terra's side and sucks her up into his body, or something, then racing down to a switch, spitting her back up upon arrival. Flipping the switch not only opens up a wall to the outdoors, but revives Terra.

Heck yeah, she has amnesia, because amnesia is awesome! Locke then gives her his word that "you'll be safe if you come with me" (ok, not those exact words). Hopefully, Locke isn't a Spaniard. They then merge together and leave the cave, appearing at the entrance to the town (as long as he keeps her hidden inside of him, the guards shouldn't spot her). After stepping outside of town to save (nice of them to suddenly both be at full health), it's now time to explore the town of Narshe. First off is the Beginner's Guild. The description of Save Point is the same as in the cave, complete with "befound". "Sometimes monsters lurk inside of treasure chests!" But does this one have one? Only one way to find out! Monster-in-a-box! Well, it's better than something else in a box. Dang it. I can't explore anything else as the guard spots me, preventing entry into the town proper. So, off to Figaro.

Fighting our way through scores of killer rabbits, with no Holy Handgrenades of Antioch to help, (and why are they even attacking when they're sitting on a head of lettuce -- they should be eating the lettuce because as everyone knows, rabbits eat lettuce) we arrive at Figaro Castle in the middle of the desert. It appears Locke is known here as the guard at the gate allows us to proceed once he recognizes Locke.

Exploring the Castle, heading downstairs we come across the Engine Room (why would a castle have an engine?), which apparently is extremely dangerous. Also unable to meet the prisoners in the dungeon (stupid impassible chair), we move forward further into the castle to be told by more guards to go see the king. Almost in the throne room, it's time to meet th-- hey, there's rooms to the side to snoop around in. Don't mind us, Mr. Shopkeepers, we'll just help ourselves to the contents of these chests here. Ok, NOW we're in the throne room. Let's see what these chaps have to say. Ok, ok, I'll go see the King, and party member #3, EDGAR.

With Locke and Edgar taking off, Terra is left to wander around the castle, with more areas accessible now. Heading into one of the exterior buildings, talking to the matron gives us a flashback with some of Edgars backstory as well as SABIN's introduction (Go! Go! Power Ran-- oh, wait). The prison guard has moved, allowing Terra to talk to the prison folk, otherwise known as the best folk. Having hit all the places I couldn't before, it's time to located the boys. I'm guessing my talking to the matron and viewing the Edgar flashback made the Chancellor appear in the great hall, who mentions how Sabin left the castle FOREVER. Also, Edgar is now back on his throne.

Talking to Edgar instantly summons Kefka, who is looking for Terra. After Edgar brushes off Kefka, Terra follows Locke, who doesn't know how to lead someone as he just runs off leaving her to find him, and he reveals he's a member of the Returners group briefly mentioned earlier. Fade to black and start the ominous music.

Aaaaaaaaand the castle's on fire. Kefka, old boy, back so soon? Ha! We'll give you the slip and hop on our trusty chocobo steeds and run away. Meanwhile the castle does a Mega Maid and starts transforming and appears to pull a Grindery. No, wait, it just burrows under the sand.

Kefka not being one to be embarrassed, our heroes on chocobos are quickly tracked down by the MagiTek Soldiers that accompanied Kefka, who engage us in battle. Terra, busting out her magic attack, throws Edgar for a loop. The soldiers must have thought of Barbra Streisand and gotten verklempt, because they just sit idly by while Locke and Edgar talk amongst themselves in the middle of the fray. Intermission over, Edgar's AutoCrossbow and Terra's Fire spell make short work of the soldiers and our merry group turns around a races past a perturbed Kefka ("Son of a submariner!"?), who vows revenge.

Edgar plots the next course towards his and Locke's mentor, Banon. Edgar then drops what appears to be a bombshell that no human is born with magical powers, which causes Terra to stop her chocobo in its tracks. Conversation over, it's off to South Figaro.

Accidentally dismounting from our chocobos (oops!), it's off to the cave to S. Figaro on foot. Holy crap is that AutoCrossbow awesome right now -- one shot killing entire groups of enemies. Instead of heading straight for the cave, we wandered around and located the Chocobo Stables to the southwest of the desert. 100GP to ride one?! I think not. Let's talk to the chocobo while we're here. Ok, that sounds awful.

Entering the cave to S. Figaro, we quickly get sucked towards the Recovery Spring (I guess they really didn't want you to miss that). In the spring is a turtle just swimming in place, which is very suspicious. Making our way through the otherwise uneventful cave, save a pretty high encounter rate, we decide to scout out the land before heading into town.

At the base of the mountains to the north of what I'm guessing is S. Figaro is a lone house. Upon entering, something smells intriguing to Edgar. Searching around, we get a bunch of "his favorite" things. My best guess is that it's in reference to Sabin. Other than being able to rest in any of the three beds, there is nothing to do here yet. Upon trying to leave, yes, indeed, he was referring to Sabin. Hmm, suddenly there is someone outside the house, who mentions something about a Douglas (or was it Duncan?) and takes off.

Leaving the house and searching around the area, I can enter Mt. Kolts to the east, but since no one has mentioned it yet, I'll leave that for later. With nothing else in the area, it's time to finally go to town.

Entering S. Figaro, I notice a ninja that seems a bit out of place and follow him until he enters the Pub. Because going in the Pub is what they want me to do, I explore the town instead. The town is like a treasure trove with most of the barrels and crates outside holding items. Just in case you didn't talk to the guy who explains Relics in the Narshe Beginner's Guild, you get to have a moogle tell you the exact same thing when you talk to the guy blocking the counter in the Relic shop. Going into the Pub via the Inn, the guy at the house was indeed talking about a Duncan as a few patrons also mention Duncan. What's up with the little girl? She runs in, sits at a table for a bit, then runs out, then repeats. Seeing the ninja along with a dog at the bar, I go to talk to-- nah, I'll check out what's downstairs first and run into a cider delivery boy.

I guess I'll talk to the ninja now, and we meet SHADOW, who only says something if you talk to his dog (oh, come on, I'm sure he doesn't actually eat strangers). Nothing else to do, we exit the Pub and find the delivery boy conveniently waiting outside. Even though he seemed to be in quite the hurry, he nicely waited for us to leave the Pub before actually starting his delivery. Instead of following him into his final destination, we head over to the mansion. The room always has a nasty draft, you say? Geez, you don't have to live up to the blonde stereotype. *simply walks down the staircase behind the bookcase* Hmm, a Save Point. Seems a rather nondescript place for one of those. Hope you didn't need all that gold you've been keeping in the chests down here. Hmm, two grandfather clocks, but only one is ticking...

Now the staircase to the second basement is at least somewhat not so obviously located. Why would a mansion have jail cells in its basement? No one's here, yet, so I'll help myself to the couple relics in the chests in the cells. This makes two prisons now, and being a JRPG, I know we'll most likely end up imprisoned in one at some point.

Still delaying catching up with the delivery boy, it's time to check out the shops. Entering Tottenham, er, Man City, I mean Arsenal, I upgrade my team's equipment, which is easily done as I'm carrying around almost 20k GP and everything is under 1k. Since the only place left is Duncan's House (since a guy is blocking a path to the far east part of the town), I guess I'll check out the delivery boy -- hey, kid, GET OUT OF MY WAY!

Oh, boy, a fetch quest! Now I get to bring the old man here some cider. He must have a cider addiction. Well, cider IS pretty darn good, so you really can't blame him. Oh, hey, Mr. Delivery Boy once again was extremely considerate waiting outside for me to leave before heading back to the Pub. Ok, so you don't want to talk to him or he makes another delivery of cider. Ha, ha! I beat you there. But wait, how did you get to the old man? You were still a couple blocks away when I entered the house! Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? I'll race you back to the Pub! Slowpoke! I'll be down here waiting fo-- WTF, how did you DO that?!? Well, I'll just take the cider from your table that I know you'll be delivering. Dang it! It couldn't be that easy, could it. I guess I'll have to find my own cider to deliver. I wonder if that little girl has anything to do with this task.

Hmm, nope. The old man's grandson mentions he was a servant for the richest man, so maybe the mansion? Hmm, no one in the mansion changed their dialog. Oh, look, a back door I didn't see before. Another Elixir hidden in a grandfather clock and another hidden passageway. It's like I'm going from the Conservatory to the Kitchen. And I'm back at the old man's place. Ahh, it's a one-way door, which explains why I didn't find that secret passageway while exploring earlier. And so the hunt for cider continues. In the meantime, I checked out Duncan's House, which only has his wife telling me that he's a world famous martial artist who takes his pupils to Mt. Kolts for meditation and training, as well as a Save Point in the basement, plus another staircase I can't access. Well, since I'm at a loss for the cider, I guess I'll check out Mt. Kolts.

Well, that ended up being a waste of a few hundred GP as I quickly find a Guardian to replace the MythrilBlade I bought for Locke. A nicely hidden pathway nets me an AtlasArmlet, at least nicely hidden to anyone who isn't checking just about every wall square for hidden paths. So, that WAS a moving shadow I spotted earlier. Ooh, a Trilium. Now where's a Zaphod? Dang it, a Poison attack. Good thing Terra learned Antdot already. Stinking Tuskers and their Gore attack. Terra learns Drain -- 15MP is a bit steep at her current MP Max.

After fighting a lot of encounters, we finally arrive at one Vargas. Did Sabin send us? I don't know, maybe he did, maybe he didn't. Or maybe you should wait for an answer before attacking us. How about that? So cue the boss music. Vargas's special ability must be to instantly tan. Wait, wait, wait, a monster is named Ipooh? I pooh?!? So, when the Ipoohs are alive, Vargas can attack us, but we can't attack him? Lovely. Well, so long Ipoohs. Let's see if Vargas has anything good to steal. A Tonic?! Really? Just a Tonic?? Midway through the battle, along comes Sabin. So, Vargas became a big Mr. Poopypants due to thinking Sabin was chosen as Duncan's successor. I think I've seen that one before. Sabin: "Choose Blitz, then press LRL; here's how to perform a Blitz; Choose Blitz." I think it wants me to use a Blitz attack. Bye, bye, Vargas.

Sabin now joins the party, and it's off to the Returner's hideout. As it's the only location in this valley, I have no choice but enter the Hideout, checking out Sabin's few Blitz skills during the short trip. Now THAT's how you lead someone. I'll still go and explore everything once I gain control again, though. Yay, free rest! I still haven't needed to pay at an Inn yet. Nothing else to do here, so I'll go talk to Banon. Ooh, a secret passageway behind what I'm guessing is Banon, which simply leads to a cliff over Lete River. Now there really is nothing else to do here other than talk to Banon. After hearing the Pandora's Box story synopsis, Terra is believed to be the Obi-Wan Kenobi to this group of rebels.

After a rest, I'm back in control of just Terra. Upon finding and talking to the other three, they all offer words of support to Terra. Heading into the room previously blocked by one of the Resistance, I find an Air Lancet, True Knight relic, and someone asking for me to help them out. Like I'm going to have any choice. In one square in the northeast corner of this room, I can just barely see a room to the southeast. There has to be a secret path... Woohoo! A White Cape! Which she can't equip. Oh, wait, it's a Relic. *equips* Talking to Banon just outside the entrance, he asks if Terra will be their "last ray of hope." Of course not. Surprisingly the response changes by going back and answering "No" again. And again. Surprisingly, eventually he relents and you get a Genji Glove at the end of the cutscene. Hmm, I wonder what happens if you answer "Yes". *Reload*

Picking up everything I got before reloading, I save this time right before talking to Ganon. Answering "Yes" nets me a Gauntlet and a different scene, or rather an extra scene (there is a very brief segment if you do decline three times that you won't see if you answer "Yes"). Ok, which item is better... Hmm, I wonder... *reloads again* Since it kicks me back into the hideout, I wonder if people have anything different to say after I start declining. Sweet! The guy in the back room gives you the Genji Glove! Let's decline once more and see if I get more presents... Dang. Aww, but if you get the Genji Glove, you don't get the Gauntlet. So... Two-Handed or Dual Wield... I'll go Dual Wield and go with the Genji Glove. With the Empire now bearing down on their Hideout, it's time to go rafting down the Lete River while Locke sneaks into South Figaro.

Woohoo! An escort mission as I have to keep Banon safe at all times... Ok, maybe not Woohoo. At least it's extremely easy with Banon's Health skill healing a couple hundred HP on everyone. Hey, Sabin's future's so bright, he's gotta wear shades. Rafting over a waterfall? No problem. Hmm, seems we've run into a cute little purple octopus. Ok, maybe not so cute. Aw, you can't Suplex Ultros. AuraBolt works really well, though. Just great -- Sabin decides to jump in the water to finish off Ultros and gets separated from the group. Now I get to choose one of three "groups" and do their scenario. Hey, it's Mog again! Can I keep him?

Of course I can't keep him. He's just there to give you something to control while choosing the scenario and to save with. So, that's twice now I've been able to use him, but not have him join my party.

I'll go with Locke first. Seems he's found himself in a pickle and now has to escape S. Figaro and make it to Narshe. I know! Let's talk to that big mech. Ok, I got destroyed by it. But I was able to Steal an Iron Helmet before getting defeated. And I don't have to restart, plus get my full health back. Hmm, maybe I'll try to steal a few more Iron Helmets since there's absolutely no downside except time spent. After stealing two Tonics, I'm guessing the Iron Helmet is only available on the first battle. So time to find my escape route. Duncan's wife mentions the secret passage in the mansion. The cider addicted old man's grandson says something about only people dressed as merchants being allowed to pass.

Heading into the item shop, Locke takes extreme exception to the merchant in the corner calling him a thief and starts a fight with him. Getting into a habit of trying to steal from everything, he steals a Plumed Hat... and the Merchant's clothes (and the Merchant's monster name changes to B.Day Suit). So, even though the Merchant is about twice as big as Locke during the battle, the Merchant's clothes are "a little tight"? Seeing if there are any dialog changes now that I'm in Merchant's clothing, the big mech still attacks. This resets everything and you have to re-steal the clothes. Which also means that you can farm Plumed Hats from the Merchant as that is still its stealable item. Too bad you only get 125GP from selling it. With nowhere else to go, back to talk to the kid.

Checking out what's changed, I head into Arsenal (same equipment for sale) and a kid, who looks an awful lot like the old man's grandson, tells me to try stealing some soldier's clothes. The guy walking around in Arsenal mentions that the Green Suits live to brawl, so I guess I'll be stealing the lone Green Suit's clothes. Aw, man, just a Tonic, and clothes. Let's see what the soldiers say now. One takes off to the Inn. Other than that, not much for the ones outdoors. Heading to the Inn and then the Pub, Shadow has left. One of the soldiers in the Pub mentions a General being held in the cells under the mansion. Since I'm here, I'll head down to the delivery boy. Hmm, he wants to scrap, does he? Ok, I'll steal your clothes, too (and another Plumed Hat). And just for good measure, I'll take the cider on your table, too! Hooray! I can finally complete that cider fetch quest!

Shoot! I didn't bother talking to the soldier at the mansion. I guess I'll have to fight another Green Suit. And there just happens to be one just outside the Pub now. Hmm, I wonder if a Green Suit will brawl with another Green Suit. Nope. That kid's got some brass ones to not let a soldier by. Guess I'll have to find another Merchant. I remember seeing one in the Inn. Time to pound his face! You would think at this point, Locke would just keep the different outfits instead of having to initiate a fight every time to change clothes. Back to the kid, and finally deliver the cider to the old man. Just great, he's forgotten the password. Wow! Answer wrong and the kid apparently completely destroys you, setting you back to the start of the scenario. Ok, maybe not the beginning of the scenario as you don't need to get Merchant's clothes to retry the password.

With him opening the one-way door to the secret passage, I find myself back in the mansion which has been turned into the Imperial Troops' HQ. The hyperactive kids are still running around the upstairs room, and the girl gives the jump rope rhyme "Wind the clock!/Wind the clock!" Gee, took a lot of effort to come up with THAT rhyme. Heading down the super hidden staircase, I start checking the rooms. The first one holds the general that the soldier in the pub mentioned getting roughed up be a couple guards, and Locke has seen her before. With the standard short character bio intro, we meet CELES. Hiding up in the rafters, Locke waits for one guard to leave and then walks by the sleeping guard and frees Celes. "I'll protect you"??? You just got destroyed by a little kid! Taking the clock key from the sleeping guard, even though stealing is wrong, we leave the room, fully outfit her, and save.

Before heading to the clock room, we head down to the jail cells below to see if anything has changed. Nothing has, so on to wind a clock, which opens up yet another secret passage. Picking up a few pretty good pieces of equipment, we eventually get to another section of the 2nd basement and find... a RIBBON!!! Woohoo!!!!!!! After fighting through a ton of Vector Pups and Commanders (what is this, the Initech of the military world?), we finally make our way out of town. Off to Narshe. Before heading back through the cave, we stop off at the house to the north for a free rest.

Several times through the cave, a loud noise is heard. Just before getting back to the Recovery Spring, Celes finally comments on it. Right before leaving the cave, we get a boss fight! Ah, so that's what the Runic skill does. Stealing a Bio Blaster from the Tunnel Armor, and absorbing all its spells with Celes' Runic Blade, we make short work of it, even getting an Elixir from it. And so ends Locke's scenario. Let's go with the other one-character scenario and do Sabin's next.

Picking up Sabin's scenario after he washed up on the shore at the mouth of the Lete River, there is a lone house nearby to the east. Heading to the house, we see Shadow and his dog by the well outside, and he actually responds this time. And he actually offers to show Sabin the way to Doma, which we'll need to go through in order to make our way back to Narshe. Heading into the actual house, we find a crazy old man who thinks we're various repairmen. He just cycles through the different things he needs fixing. Touch the stove and you're thrown out of the house onto the Veldt. But actually, you're just sent outside of the house. All those Plumed Hats Locke stole are coming in handy as they're all better than what everyone has equipped so far. I'm not sure how exactly Sabin would have access to the stuff acquired in Locke's scenario...

Not a very good job of showing me the way to Doma there, Shadow. A LITTLE direction would be helpful. Since I have to find my way to Doma myself, we ended up wandering into an Imperial Camp. Eavesdropping on the soldiers, a certain General Leo gets mentioned. Oh, hey there, Kefka. I guess I was going the right direction as we get to see the assault on Doma Castle, and the introduction of CYAN. It's quite humorous watching the soldiers "assaulting" the castle by just repeatedly running at the castle wall and falling down. I guess I'll equip one of those Plumed Hats that he mysteriously has access to. Time to fight the Leader. A single QuadraSlam SwordTech and he goes down causing the troops to retreat. Back at the Camp, might as well attack the troops that were left behind. Wow, Fire Dance is pretty devastating, taking out a Magitek Armor in one shot. Too bad I'm having a hard time pulling it off since diagonals aren't responding well.

Going back and exploring everywhere else, it turns out that the Camp is the only place, other than the House with free resting, in this area. So, back to the Camp. Not much of a guard dog there as it simply barks at us if you talk to it. Ahhh, it attacks if you kick the chest. Moving forward, we spy on a couple conversations involving General Leo. Seems he's been summoned to Emporer Gestahl for something. With General Leo gone, Kefka gives the command to poison the river. Oh, Kefka, you little scamp. Well, we'll just have to beat some sense into him... One Suplex later and Kefka runs off. Nice to see someone wait when you yell "Wait!" for a change. Checking out the rest of the camp, a chest hides a pretty formidable Telstar -- well, AT&T IS considered pretty evil by some.

Unable to stop Kefka, he poisons the river himself causing everyone at Doma Castle to start dropping dead (along with one railing kill). Now in control of Cyan, I head to the throne room to see the King lying on the ground poisoned. Breathing his last, the king tells Cyan to return to his family. Searching for survivors, I come across Cyan's wife and son, both dead. Enraged, Cyan runs outside and engages a couple Imperial Soldiers. Noting the chest in the room I was unable to open before the game took control of Cyan, I know I'll be able to return and clean out the castle. While fighting the soldiers, Sabin wanders on screen and joins the fracas. With more and more troops showing up, a tactical retreat is in order. Conveniently, some MagiTek Armor suits are nearby we can use.

Jumping in the Armor, we proceed to simply run over the troops arriving. Aww, can't go to Doma Castle, leaving the Camp as the only path. After one hit killing all resistance in the Camp, we dismount (um, WHY?) and head off towards Narshe. Hopefully I got everything in the Camp as I can't re-enter because it has instantly disappeared. Searching around, we come to Doma Castle, which we're prevented access to by some Troopers with no option to engage them. Well, the only place left is to cross the bridge and head to the south, into the Phantom Forest -- ooOOOooohh. Actually, before going there, I'll head back to the house and rest up. I guess I didn't need to do that as there is a Recovery Spring on the 2nd screen. Following the signs, we arrive at a train station and train.

Cyan mentions the railway was supposedly destroyed. OoooooOOOOooooOOOOOooooh. Sabin then enters the train of his own volition, and the train departs. Somehow Cyan suddenly figures out that we're on the Phantom Train. Since we aren't the dearly departed, we shouldn't be aboard. Time to get to the engine room and stop the train. In addition to the random encounters, the on-screen ghosts are encounters, too, if you talk to them. Well, except for some merchants, and some that join the party -- woohoo!! The Possess skill that the ghosts who join have is interesting, basically sacrificing themselves to instantly kill an enemy. Making it through a few cars, we're surrounded by ghosts with N.o...e.s.c.a.p.e...! Why am I not worried? Climbing to the roof and leaping from tree to tree on the might Colum.. er, leaping across a few cars, we didn't give the ghosts the shake as they pretty much kept pace with us. Coming up with a swell idea, we uncouple the cars and watch the ghosts get left behind.

Ok, how to I proceed? There's a wall blocking entrance into the car, and I can't go around the outside or climb to the roof of the car. The only thing here is the switch that uncoupled the cars. I guess I'll try flipping the switch again. Ooookay, so the same switch opens the wall into the car. Moving along and into the Dining Car, our path out the front of the car is blocked by a couple ghost waiters telling us to place our order at the table. Sure thing. A free meal! On a train?!? Ok, my immersion was just COMPLETELY destroyed. Chowing down, all HP & MP are restored! Since the waiters are still there, I guess we'll have to go around the outside of the car, making sure to snag the Earrings from the chest behind the waiters. Attempting to open the chest in the next car summons the world's greatest swordsman, Ziegfried (where's Roy?)! Who is defeated with a single blow. Before we're able to open the chest, Ziegried does so and runs off with its contents. You know, these cars are deceptively large as the inside seems to be 3-4 times as big as the outside. Finally making it to the engine, the ghost leaves the party. *sniff*

Finally in the Engine, the Impresario a couple cars back said something about the controls being able to stop the train. But how? I see three switches. Hmm... Oh, hey, there's some directions. Following the directions, we get a boss fight! Against... the Train? Take a Suplex! Ohhhhhhhh, yeah! A couple Suplexes and a Quadra Slam and the Phantom Train goes down. Pulling into the station, we finally are able to get off the train, only to see Cyan's family board, and the train departs again. Now exiting the Phantom Forest, the only place to go is around the mountain range and into a cave, which quickly gets us to Baren Falls. With the Empire hot on our tails, we'll next need to get through the Veldt and get to the town of Mobliz. Shadow then leaves the party, along with his extremely deadly dog. With no other options, we jump off the edge of the cliff, fighting a gaggle of piranha and a rizopas in one continuous battle on our way down.

Landing and washing up on shore, we meet GAU, who comes to investigate and quickly runs off when we get up and talk to him. Geez, more Commanders? After defeating them, Gau shows up in battle as an enemy and is hungry. Hmmmm... I don't have any food right now to give him, so, um... Attack? Ok, so he runs away after getting hit. Nothing else to do but head to Mobliz to the east.

Entering Mobliz, the first thing I notice is a guy running like crazy. Talking to him, he just mentions carrier pigeons connecting the town to the outside world. Someone mentions that the area outside is the Veldt. Heading to the Arsenal, I'm able to upgrade a few things. Waaaaaait a minute. Why is Gau included in my party? I haven't gotten him to join yet. Buying up some Dried Meat from the Item Shop, I should be able to get Gau to join when I leave town. Serpent Trench? No, never heard of it. You say the strong current will take me to Nikeah? But your scuba has been stolen? Looks like I know my next task. Another grandfather clock, another Elixir. And it looks like another quest -- getting the injured soldier in touch with his love, Lola, in Maranda. Of course I'll send a letter to Maranda for you. 500GP for postage!?! You gonna put a new wing on that house? So, you can spend 100GP to rest at the Inn, or rest for free at the Relic shop. Hmmmmmm.

With nothing left to do here, let's go get Gau. After a couple battles, Gau shows up and joins after attacking him with Dried Meat. You're going to give us a gift for giving you food, but it's at Crescent Mountain? How convenient that that's also where Serpent Trench is. Back in Mobliz, the soldier already got another letter. Lola can't find their favorite record. For another 500GP, I can send her a record. Pretty lucrative service you have there. So, what is the air speed velocity of a record laden carrier pigeon? Since I can't advance the soldier quest, it's off to Crescent Mountain to receive Gau's gift.

Of course he forgot where it is. Wouldn't have much of a reason to search the cave leading up to the mountain otherwise. After a short search, his gift, which looks like a little yellow submarine when viewed head on, pops out of the ground. Turns out it's the helmet to the SCUBA (what does SCUBA stand for, Mallory?). And here, I was hoping we found a new abode. I'm not quite sure how a single helmet fits three people at once, though. Dang it, it automatically makes us jump into the raging river. But I hadn't fully explored the cave yet. Grrr. *reload* That twit made me lose a pouch with 500GP in it down into the abyss. Thanks a lot, Gau. No, that Tonic you found doesn't make up for it. Good thing I still have over 50k GP (that's a LOT of pouches if each only contains 500GP). Interesting. You can actually walk around the spot with the treasure, meaning you pretty much have to stumble upon it. Granted it IS directly south of the wooden bridge that gets you to the final area. NOW let's see where that river leads us. Come on, Joe Dirt, jump in!

Getting dragged down the river by the strong current, we get treated to some pretty good music that even plays through the battles. GigaVolt as a retaliation? Oh, that's just wrong. At least I found an X-Potion after the battle. After depositing us in a very small cave with another X-Potion (no, I'm not going to take the hint and use one), we're back into the trench. Aqua Rake? Oh, come on! I guess I'll have to use a couple Phoenix Downs. Um, why is Sabin able to walk around while knocked out? Back in another encounter-less cave, I can see a chest but can't get to it. No secret paths, so there must be a way around. Heading into the next room, we run into a small pond with stairs leading into it and what looks like a door at the opposite side that we can't enter. I can also see the VERY edge of a room to the east. A little further is a floor tile that drains the water from the pond. Unable to find a path to that room or the chest in the previous screen, it's into the former pond. Heading down the drain at the bottom of the pond gets me to the chest in the first room with a Green Beret. Not sure how a Green Beret offers more protection than an Iron Helmet. Someone must live in here because in addition to the naturally occurring stairs that RPG caves tend to have, there's a wooden door. Or maybe not. Unable to find any secret paths to that barely visible room, leaving the cave ends up getting us washed up on the dock in Nikeah.

Not being able to walk "through" NPCs makes this town extremely annoying to navigate. You mean all these barrels and crates and not a single one of them has any items inside? At least the grandfather clock in the Inn has the standard Elixir in it. What? There's a rock slide blocking the path to the north and ships can't sail to the south? Well, that just blows. Completely expected, but blows. Let's see what we CAN explore in this area. Pretty much nothing as we're on a small island with a single bridge to a peninsula south of the rock slide. Well, that doesn't make sense -- Rhinotaurs are healed by Fire spells (Ghost Rage with Gau) but damaged by Fire Dance. So, back to Nikeah to take the boat to S. Figaro I passed on earlier. And so ends Sabin's scenario.

Ok, I can't take the bad sound effects on the PS3 any more, so I'm restarting on PS2. I'm only about 14 hrs in, so I should be able to get almost all the way back in one sitting since I won't be pausing to type these up, and I won't be wandering around towns nearly as much.

Going by a walkthrough just to quickly get back to where I was and picking up all the items along the way, I found that I was actually able to continue the injured soldier's repeated letter sending quest by simply talking to the Relic Shop owner and resting in his bed, rinsing and repeating, and spending 500GP at each step. So, after the record, we send a Tonic to his sick mother, a generic letter to Lola, and finally a book to Lola. Finding out that we've been sending all these things for him, he rewards us with a Tintinabar. Is that like a Reggie Jackson candy bar, except named after Rin-Tin-Tin? Ah, an extremely useful Relic that recovers HP, and quite a lot of HP, while you walk. Woohoo! Well worth the 2500GP.

Moving on to the third and final scenario, we rejoin Banon, Edgar, and Terra as they continue their trip down Lete River. After finally landing on shore, it's just a short trip along the coast to Narshe. It's not the Florentine Thieves' Forest, but we did make it back to the beginning. Unable to get by the guards and into town, we're forced to find the secret passageway to the west of the town entrance. Making our way through the mines, a will 'o the wisp type light runs the path we need to take. Of course, we're going to deviate from that to see what happens and quickly get surrounded by some lights. Not a big deal as the enemies we end up fighting, usless we time hitting X perfectly when the brownish light is directly ahead, are extremely easy. After about a dozen tries (ok, so I wasn't paying real good attention to its path), we make it back to the room where we first met the Moogles, and on the opposite side, their home. Woohoo! But where's Mog? Other than a Rune Blade and a single suspicious looking Moogle that doesn't move and doesn't just say "Kupo!" there's nothing else in here.

Fighting through many low level monsters in the mine, we arrive back at the Old Man's house and are greeted by some Arvis guy. Whoever he is, he must have convinced the town's guards that we are who we say we are as they are beside the town's elder while discussing the Esper that was found. Shortly into this, Sabin, Cyan, and Gau arrive. After Cyan fills them in on Kefka's deed, in come Locke and Celes. So, looks like the gang's all here. Which means Banon should be leaving our party soon. Our *cough* happy little reunion is cut short as Kefka is on Narshe's doorstep hunting for the Esper. Our gang then troops off to the hills where they've moved the Esper to, with some inane banter along the way.

Arriving at some destination, I'm really not sure what's going on here. I'm in control of Terra only, the other 6 members formed a wall, I can swap Terra out for any of the other characters, and Banon just says "Prepared?" Well, there's a Save Point right here, so let's just say Yes and see what happens. So, I have to save the Esper from Kefka. Yes, Mog, I'd like some info. Ok, so it's the same idea as the minigame I had with the Moogles earlier. But I don't need 3 groups as there are only 2 pinch points. Leaving Gau to make up his own group, I just head to the two pinch points and defeat each enemy as it comes. Terra, Sabin, and Locke advance forward and Locke steals a very nice Mythril Vest from the Rider that's the last protector for Kefka. Dispatching him, we next quickly defeat Kefka thanks to a few counterattacks speeding things up a bit, and Kefka runs away, dropping a Peace Ring in the process.

With Kefka in retreat again, we all appear at the precipice from the game's opening scene and find the still frozen Esper. After a mysterious force almost knocks everyone but Terra off the cliff, she approaches Tritoch, the Esper, and engages it in battle (or at least we move to a battle screen). I really can't figure out what exactly it's supposed to look like. I think I see a wing, maybe a tail, a beak possibly. I really don't know. After pulsating several times, and getting hit by some electrical charge, she does a magical girl transformation and becomes a being of pure energy, or something, and quickly flies around the world with her '80s big hair flowing in the wind. We then cut to the interior of the Old Man's house where everyone, except Terra, obviously, has gathered.

Celes says Terra looks like an Esper. Now it's off to track down Terra, whom witnesses saw zooming off to the west. Man, we have to split up again? Leaving best buds Cyan and Gau behind to guard Narshe, we head off to Figaro Castle. But, wait! I can finally explore Narshe. Heading into the shop, it's time to put a dent in my nearly 70k of funds. I see Terra and Shadow are still in the party at the bottom of the screen. Nice of you to offer me all your treasure and, yes, I do wonder what's in that locked chest. Ooh, a clue to getting Mog -- Moogles walkin' with a yeti. Another pointless Inn -- I can spend 200GP at the Inn or sleep for free at the Weapon Shop. Another elixir in the Elder's grandfather clock, but none in the one in the Armor Shop. Not seeing any yetis around, it's time to leave town and head for Figaro.

Back in Figaro and heading to the jail, one prisoner demands to see Edgar. Ok. *switches to Edgar as leader* No change in dialog. Well, that's dumb. Back at the castle in quite some time, Sabin runs off to explore. Unable to get to the outside parts of the castle as both exits are blocked by guards who say I should take a rest (I think it's hinting at something), we head to the throne room. And nothing to do there. With nothing else to do, I guess we'll take a rest, even though we don't actually need one. During our rest, we get a flashback with Sabin to when his and Edgar's father died and Sabin decided to leave for good. Rest over and Sabin back in the party, we can now visit the exterior areas. Nothing important changed, so it's time for the castle to make like a tree and leave, heading under the mountains to Kohlingen before the Empire arrives.

Arriving on the other side of the mountains to the north and having absolutely no clue where to go upon exiting the castle, we head south. Bypassing the town we eventually reach and heading to the big dot on our map further south, we come to an Opera House, which is closed. Boo! Back north to the town we passed, which turns out to be Jidoor and not Kohlingen. I guess we'll hike back to the Castle. Heading to the east of the mountain range instead, we eventually make it to Zozo. Again, nope. *sigh* Like the music, though. Oh, hey, the Thief Knife steals an item and attacks. Guess I won't be using Locke's Steal Skill for a while. Back at the castle, I take a free rest, then head north to Kohlingen, which I didn't notice on the map.

Instead of checking out Kohlingen, there's a point of interest to the north I'll visit first. Oh, no! Sabin got blinded. No problemo, I'll just put these Goggles on and, boom!, blindness cured. Being just a lone house with an old man that's trying to build a colosseum, I snag the Hero Ring from a pot and leave, heading back to Kohlingen. I guess resting cures all status ailments (which a quick skimming of the manual confirms), as Edgar got zombified at the doorstep of Figaro, and resting cured that.

Starting to talk to Kohlingen's townsfolk, it turns out Locke has a connection to the town in a girl named Rachel. Terra also seems to have stopped by and left for Jidoor. Entering Rachel's old house, we get a little scene which explains why Locke is so intent on protecting Terra. Enough of these sad flashbacks, the important thing is that there's an Elixir in the clock. Oh, hey, there's a back door to the house on the far east of town with a Green Beret in a chest. I guess this game has a "crazy person's abode theme." Entering the Inn, the music changes to Shadow's Theme. Seeing him sitting at the table with his trusty pup, he's not up to talking again. His dog sure is, though. (Using a walkthrough since I still hadn't gotten back to where I was when I restarted, I found out that if you only have three characters in your party, you can hire Shadow for 3k GP and view his backstory by resting in the Inn four times, getting a piece of his story during each rest (something I'd never viewed in my previous playthroughs)). The last place to visit here being the rest of the crazy old coot's house, we head in the front door and downstairs. It turns out the old man had put Rachel into suspended animation upon Locke's request and she's still down here. Can we revive her? Well, maybe the crazy old coot who lives in the house to the north will tell us something. Nope. With nothing else in this area, we head back to Jidoor, with a quick stop at Figaro Castle to rest.

Heading to the Jidoor Armor Shop, that looks an awful lot like a chest on top of those crates. Hmm, there's a back door, too... Equipment is finally consistently costing over 1k GP now that I have almost 100k. Searching the perimeter of the shop, there is no other entrance. Conversing with the locals, it seems all the poor people of the town left and built a town up north, which I'm guessing is Zozo. Terra was also spotted here, heading north. Heading into the Auction House, one of the lingerers from the previous auction mentions an item that can only be found in the Imperial capital, Vector, can bring back wayward spirits. Like Rachel? With the mansion at the north of town the last place to visit, it turns out that Celes looks just like the famous opera singer, Maria. Other than looking at all the still life paintings, along with a portrait of a lovely lady and of Ultros, in the large room in the mansion, there's nothing to do here, so let's see if the Opera House is open yet.

The Opera House is still closed, so off to Zozo, where everyone's a big fibber according to the people of Jidoor. One step into the seemingly deserted town where it's always raining, we get into a battle. Ugh. Heading further into town, I guess there are people here, but so far they're all passed out on the ground. These Slam Dancers hit hard with their magic. Heading into the Inn, there's a clock that needs to be reset. Since everyone lies here, so far I've gotten the second hand is at 30, there is no minute hand, the endless stream of guys in the Relic Shop say it's 2:00, 12:00, 10:00, 8:00, and 4:00, and there's a clock with the hour hand at 2. So... The Inn's clocks hour must be 6:00. Other than that, looks like some brute forcing is in order. Thankfully, it doesn't take too many tries, and I pick up a Chain Saw. Since those Slam Dancers took a toll on my party, we head back to Jidool to rest -- one battle along the way pays for over 3 nights' rest.

Climbing up the Relic Shop building, I pick up a Thief Glove. Moving the Atlas Armlet I picked up a while ago from Locke to Edgar makes that AutoCrossbow even more ridiculously powerful. Adding the one I stole from one of the HadesGigas monsters to Sabin, and most things go down with one hit again. I guess there are a few more clues to the clock I already reset, but nothing on the minute hand yet. Finally reaching almost the top, we get into a boss fight with an old guy. With Pummel, Suplex, and the Chain Saw each doing over 1000 damage, Dadaluma goes down without even getting an attack off as he just used some healing items during his only turn. I guess you should have heeded your own words and not fought, huh? Now at the top floor, Terra is laying in a bed, still in Esper form. Talking to her summons the Esper, Ramuh, in old man form, and we get more info about the War of the Magi. He then tells us that Espers are being held in the Empire's research facility and how to fully transfer their powers, presenting 3 Espers who have died and transformed into Magicite. He then proceeds to die himself, and we have 4 Magicites to use. Woohoo!! That gives us the Espers Ramuh, Kirin, Siren, and Stray. Now we just need to find the Research Facility, but the only thing left in this area is the closed Opera House. The auction in Jidoor might also be on again, so I'll check there first.

Turning to leave, Gau and Cyan are waiting by the room's entrance, and we get more exposition as we all leave Zozo. Man, it would have been nice if we could have just leisurely strolled through town without anything bothering us earlier. We're again prompted to split into groups. Well, that's a bunch of bull crap. I moved Locke out of the group, and I can't move him back in. So, you can only have Celes and Locke in your group if you don't move them out. Now I have to get back to Narshe to swap Locke in so I can start leveling up the Esper I equipped to him. Grrrr! So back to Figaro Castle to get Locke back in my party and his Esper. With Locke back in my party, it's back to Jidoor.

Back in Jidoor, one person now mentions that you can only reach the Empire by airship. Which means we'll be meeting Cid soon, I surmise. We always seem to just miss the auction. They really should post the auction's hours. Heading into the mansion, the impresario is rapidly pacing back and forth. Talking to him, he mistakes Celes for Maria and leaves the mansion, dropping a letter on his way out the door. Being the snoops that we are, we read the letter, and get introduced to SETZER, who wants Maria as his wife and is coming to get her. Huh, looks like we'll be getting an airship from him instead of Cid. Since the Impresario is the director of the opera, maybe the Opera House has finally opened. It might not be open yet, but the Impresario remembers us and escorts us inside.

Locke hatches the brilliant plan to have Celes stand in for Maria and have Setzer nab her instead. Meanwhile, Ultros overhears us and somehow thinks he'll disguise himself as Setzer and not let those meddling kids get away with it. He flings a letter at us, hoping we'll read it, but we automatically walk into what I'm guessing is the dressing room, leaving the letter behind. The opera starts and we take our seats amongst the complete lack of audience. In the middle of the performance, Locke gets up and heads for the dressing room. Good thing there is no one else here for him to disturb. The letter Ultros flung at us has disappeared. Arriving in the dressing room, Celes is preparing to go on stage and control switches to her. Woohoo! Memorization! After reading through Scene 1's script, Celes heads on stage. Good thing I typed out the entire script to use as reference.

Back to Locke, and what looks like Ultros' letter has mysteriously shown up in the dressing room. Oh, no! Ultros hates opera and has gone to the catwalk and is going to drop a 4 ton weight on whoever is below, which he knows will take exactly 5 minutes to push off the catwalk. And, great, he's got some beady-eyed mice running around the rafters to impede our progress. Arriving at Ultros with plenty of time to spare, he knocks us all off the rafters and disrupts the opera, and another boss fight commences. Quickly dispatching Ultros again, Setzer arrives on the scene and drags Celes away and the curtain falls.

The scene shifts to Setzer's airship where he locks Celes in a room. In short order, Locke, Edgar, and Sabin guess right and repel up into the same room. Setzer finally realizes that Celes isn't Maria, and our merry band try to convince him to help. Setzer becomes smitten with Celes and says he'll help if she marries him. Appealing to his gambling nature, the decision will be made by a coin flip. Hmm, wonder who'll win. Seeing that she used a two-headed coin, he's impressed with her underhandedness and joyfully goes along and we head off toward the Empire. Hey, they must be opening up a new Hollywood Video! Oh, that's just searchlights around some Empire stronghold. We finally land a good distance away, right next to the town of Albrook.

Before exploring town, we'll explore this island we've landed on. Far to the east is an Imperial Base. To the far north is Tzen. In about the center, a little north of Albrook, is Vector, where I'm guessing we'll be getting something to revive Rachel. Finally, in the far southwest is Maranda. Since we parked right next to Albrook, we'll head back there, with a quick stop in the airship for free HP/MP recharge, and do the locations in what I'm guessing is story order.

Even though Albrook is occupied, all the shops are still open. We hear word of 2 Atma Weapons having existed. Sounds powerful to me. Other than picking up a few more Wall Rings as insurance against future magic casters, from talking to the townspeople, the Imperial Base is the obvious last place to visit, with Vector probably being the second to last. Unable to enter the Port, it's off to either Tzen or Maranda since the only mention they had was that they have good items for sale. I guess I'll go counterclockwise around the island and go to Maranda first and see if we meet Lola.

Not much in Maranda. Just some dog fighting going on and some better equipment. Lola, at least I assume it's her, simply mentions that she'll read the book he sent every night. Off to Tzen. The shops here offer basically the same gear as Maranda, which is good because Maranda put a pretty good dent in our funds. I guess that chest on top of crates is a common Armor Shop layout as this one also has that. One denizen warns us of a Guardian weapon, which we should just run away from even though it doesn't move. The only other thing of note here is mention of a gate deep inside a cave to the east. Pretty uneventful towns on this island so far. Off to Vector.

Hmm, the Inn here is free. Nothing fishy about that. Sure, I'll "have a snooze". Aaaand, the innkeeper steals 1000GP from us during the night. Let me test something. It's still free? Ok. Well, that's nice, he only steals the gold the first time, so here's a nice free rest stop from now on. Or not, as I try again, and he steals 1000GP again. Well, since there's free "rest" on the airship, I guess I'll just have to reload my game... Even better is an old lady just west of the Inn that restores our HP & MP for free after declining to pledge allegiance to the Empire and fighting off 2 extremely week Guards. We get a mention of Cid, and there is a Returner sympathizer who will distract the guards allowing us access to the Research Facility. Trying to instead head further into town and into the Imperial Castle gives the opportunity to fight an endless stream of guards and their dogs if you want to grind a bit. Avoiding all the guards, we're spotted and get to fight the aforementioned Guardian, which is just a big turret. Sooooo, nothing affects it, not physical, magical, nor Esper attacks. Nada. So, into the Research Facility it is.

With the old man feigning nausea, we are automatically moved along the beams above and enter the research facility. Making our way through the maze of tubes and conveyor belts, picking up some nice equipment along the way, and eventually getting on the Magitek Armor assembly line, we eventually run into Kefka again who mentions something about restoring some Statues. Watching him then discard a couple fully drained Espers, that must mean we'll soon be getting some more Magicite, and thus, Espers to use. Heading down the conveyor belt Kefka kicked them down, we get to fight Ifrit and Shiva, back to back. Using Celes' Runic skill to absorb all their magic attacks, eventually they sense Ramuh's power and yield. Talking to Ifrit, then Shiva, they then transform into Magicite. Woohoo! That makes 6 Espers we now have. Heading into the room I could have entered before the fight, I run around restoring all our HP with the Tintinabar and save. It's a good thing the battle was really easy since I didn't check out this room beforehand.

Heading through the door Shiva was blocking, we run into our first Level n Doom caster. I really hate these enemies because they force you to grind up levels to avoid the Level multiple. So, after about 20 battles against groups of Flan, Celes is now Level 21 and everyone is immune to the Trappers' Lvl 5 Doom spell (I hope nothing casts Lvl 3 Doom). During the process, Sabin learned the Mantra Blitz, which currently heals about 250 HP to everyone else, and is extremely easy to pull off. Slapping the Tintinabar on Sabin, and we're pretty much invincible until the inevitable boss fight. Moving along, we run into some Rhinox monsters (there gonna be some Cheetors and Terrorsaurs, too?), and arrive at a doorway blocked by a Frankenstein looking figure. Talking to it initiates a boss fight with Number 024. Oh, hey, my brother owned an 024. With the only hiccup being it casting Overflow (which confuses the target) on Edgar after I chose to use the Chain Saw (kinda defeats the purpose of ATB there!) and Edgar attacking himself, requiring a Phoenix Down to revive, 024 was quickly defeated.

Heading through the door, we get a music change and enter the magic extraction chamber with a handful of Espers floating in big tubes (because that's how ALL things like this are done). With the only other thing in this room being a lever at the far end, I guess we'll go pull it. As we start to pull the lever, one of the Espers senses we're trying to help, and every Esper transforms in Magicite. This summons Cid, and he somehow almost instantly divines that they need to transform into Magicite to transfer all their power. Not giving Cid time to mess everything up, all six Esper Magicites zoom to our band and we double our Esper inventory! Kefka quickly enters the scene and orders Celes to bring him the shards. Not doing so, Kefka orders a couple soldiers in Magitek Armor to wipe us out, and they charge forward knocking out Locke, Edgar, and Sabin without a fight. Oh, come on! We've taken out dozens of these already! Using some sort of Warp spell that she didn't have before, Celes teleports Kefka and the soldiers out.

Our trio recovers, as well as Cid. Apparently whatever was in the tubes that ruptured when the Magicite shards zoomed to us is pretty dangerous and we all troop onto the elevator that Cid used to enter the chamber. Cid suddenly realizes the errors of his way and how he was being used by the Empire. Quickly checking our inventory, it was extremely kind of Celes to remove everything, including her Esper, before teleporting off. Our little forced rest also fully recovered everyone. Briefly talking to Cid, we get a little background info on Cid's connection to Celes. Hearing Kefka cackling away nearby, Cid pushes us into a nearby mine cart and we get to go all Indiana Jones fighting monsters on our way along an EXTREMELY pixelated set of tracks. After a while, we get to a boss battle against Number 128, which poses absolutely zero threat thanks to Mantra (oooh, Atomic Ray for a little over 100 HP of damage per character? Mantra heals about 400 per character!), and we exit the shaft, jumping out of the cart just before it knocks a Magitek Armor off the ledge.

Heading back towards the town, Setzer meets us. Before being able to get out of town, Kefka had regained his bearings and spots us fleeing. Running into some sort of control room, he activates a couple large arm like thingies at the top of the castle, which turn out to be Cranes, which must be a boss because, you know, the boss battle theme is playing. The Cranes pose little threat (and I get to play some slots with Setzer's skill!), and we fly off. Locke has Terra on his mind, so it looks like we're going back to Zozo while filling Setzer in on all the details along the way. Thankfully, we don't have to fight our way through Zozo again, and are automatically back in the room at the top of the Relic Shop with Terra.

Locke whips out his... Magicite shards and Terra responds with "Father...?" and her memories all come back. Now in control of the Esper Maduin in the Esper World of Terra's memories, we get to see what I'm guessing is when the humans found the Esper world. Maduin of course falls for the girl, Madonna, who got through the gate and they produce a child, Terra. We then see when the Empire arrives at the Esper world. Man, this would have been so much better as simply a cutscene. The Elder erects the barrier, sucking all the humans, Terra, and Maduin out of the Esper world. Madonna hands Terra over to Emperor Gestahl, who landed right next to her and Maduin, to raise, not knowing any better. Suddenly knowing better, she tries to get Terra back only to be beat down by the Emperor. The gate closes and the flashback ends.

Just as Ramuh said, Terra reverts to human form by coming to terms with who she is. With that all sorted out, it's back to Narshe in the comfort of our very own airship. Maybe we'll get Mog to join. Now that I'm finally back in control of the party, let's see what Espers we picked up: Unicorn, Maduin, Shoat, Phantom, Carbunkl, and Bismark.

Back at the home base that is Narshe, let's see if anything has changed. The ghost that explains Espers is now hanging out in the Beginners' House. Everything else there is the same. As we head into town, we are quickly met by a guard and escorted to the Elder's house where the Town Elder, Banon, and the Old Man are waiting (I guess Arvis is the Old Man). We fill them in on what happened in Vector (we never did get whatever is needed to revive Rachel) and devise a plan to attack the Empire, which will require the Espers' help. I neglected to check out the Imperial Base before dashing off to Narshe, and it turns out that's our next destination. Talking to the townsfolk, one mentions a Yeti living in the mine, and Lone Wolf has been spotted. I guess he escaped the Figaro prison. New items available in the shops in preparation for the coming war, you say? We'll just have to check that out. That put a nice dent in our funds. Now to check out the locked chest where Lone Wolf is bound to be. Catching the dirty thief in the act (we should be the only dirty thieves around here), he flees through some exit we can't access. Now where did he go? You'd think SOMEone would help us out and tell us which way he went, but, noooo. Well, wandering around town, we eventually spot him going into the Mines.

Just before entering the mine, what d'ya know, there's a Yeti peeking out. Lone Wolf is also seen on a cliff that we can't reach. Well, shoot, you don't get MP from the battles in here. Passing by the area we fought Kefka at, we bump into Lone Wolf again. Okay, this is a bit drawn out. Hey! It's Mog! Again. Maybe we'll finally get him to join. Hmm, we're back at the Esper Tritoch. Did the path change? Or did we just never see that far south? Seems Lone Wolf found himself a hostage in Mog. Hmm, I can either get a Gold Hairpin or have Mog join our party. I think I'll go with Mog. The very spry Lone Wolf jumps off the ledge, Mog takes off to the airship, and we're left with just Tritoch. Might as well talk to it. No response. Well, nothing else to do in Narshe, so off to the Base.

Before heading to the Base, let's head over to the Veldt instead and get more Rages for Gau. Ooh, Mog learned a new dance. Let's see, I believe the dances he learns are based on the terrain. So, I got the plains dance. Let's see... I'm close to where you get in the Serpent Trench for a water terrain. Check. Back in Nikeah, the northern path is suddenly clear. Well, that's a relief since we just so happen to have to make it back to the Veldt and our airship. Along the way, we go through the Haunted Forest and pick up the forest dance. Let's see, let's see. There's Zozo for a town dance. Check. I think the only terrain we've fought in that's left is a cave.

Since we're at Zozo, let's see if we can actually make the auction in Jidoor. Woohoo! Let's go shopping! And the first item up for bid is... the Magicite Golem!!! 15k GP? Sure. Dangit! 20k? I'm awash in GP, so heck yeah! Sweet!! Wait. The auction's already over? Let's try again. Well, that was quite the quick turnaround. When the auctioneer said, "come back again real soon," he wasn't kidding. I miss the auction over and over, and then when I make it here while it's on, another one instantly starts just by leaving and re-entering... Let's see what's on the block this time. Sure, I'll bid on some Cherub Down, whatever that is. And there goes another 10k GP. So, it's a Relic that casts Float. I might have a use for that at some point. I still have over 60k GP, so I'm still in good shape. This is getting tedious, but let's try the auction again. Oooooh, I can buy a Chocobo! Yeah, 500k is a bit too rich for me. I wonder if you can actually buy it. Since there hasn't been a repeat item, let's keep trying. Dang, another Cherub Down. I'll pass. Hmm, a Cure Ring. Sounds useful. 20k is a bit steep, but I still have plenty of GP. Casts Regen? That'll be useful. Another Cherub Down, and then another Chocobo. Wow, the kid gets another Chocobo. That's gonna be one expensive Flock of Chocobos. Aaaaaand another Chocobo. I'll pass this time. Woohoo!! Another Magicite! And only 10k for ZoneSeek. After an endless stream of Chocobos and Cherub Downs, it's time to move on. Quickly stopping by the Opera House, there's a performance underway, so we can't enter. I guess I'll get back to the story and head to the Imperial Base.

Entering the base, turns out we HAVE to have Terra in the party as we're automatically kicked out if we don't. It would be so nice if the airship had a "Land" option instead of needing to take off and then land. The whole changing party members in the airship is a touch on the tedious side. Now with Terra in the party, it's time to head to the Esper world via the Imperial Base. It seems the base became deserted between the time I peeked in earlier and now. Makes me wish I would have done some exploring earlier. Well, the icon on the overworld is pretty accurate as there is just a lone building here, with a bunch of treasure chests behind a locked door we can't pick (um, why can't Locke pick the lock?). Heading out the other side of the Base, we enter the Cave to the Sealed Gate. Dang, those Lichs hit hard with Fire 2 and, yeesh, Fire 3. Good thing I picked up all those Wall Rings earlier. I was wondering why Mog wasn't learning the cave dance. He starts out with it. Picking up a Coin Toss from a chest, I can now make it rain money. I'll leave that for after we leave here as the Wall and Cure Rings are too useful to remove in here.

Making it through a changing bridge room, we get to a room with a bunch of switches. I'll try the two that aren't on bridges first. The right one drops a Ninja who, after defeating, mentions "stuff buried in the plaza beneath the grand stairway" and disappears. Hmm, what grand stairway is he referring to? You can keep pulling the switch and fighting him. The left switch opens a hole in the wall and there's a Save Point inside. Picking up a Genji Glove from the chest made accessible by the left bridge switch, the final switch lowers the stairway to exit this chamber. Testing out the Coin Toss, for some reason I thought it would get us more GP when winning a battle. Instead, it is like the Samurai skill GP Toss in FF5 where you attack all enemies with GP. Well, that's coming right back off. I guess that staircase isn't to the exit, but just more switches. Well, Mog and Setzer in the party adds a whole lot of random, hope they can pull it off, to the battles, so I Warp out and swap in Cyan and Gau to my party for them. Both Cyan and Gau could use some leveling, anyway. Back in the cave, we finally make it through the chamber with all the switches and arrive at the gate to the Esper world.

Of course Kefka just happened to be right behind us (never mind our exiting and re-traversing it, he just knows when you will truly be meaning to get to the Gate and only follows during that trip). While Terra heads to the Gate, the other three stall Kefka in battle. A quick, single round later, with a lot of blabbering about how we were doing exactly what Emperor Gestahl wanted us to do (of course), the battle comes to an abrupt end and we see Terra cycling through some colors and turning back into Esper form, again changing colors several times. She calls out for the Espers' aid and the Gate opens. Several Espers fly out, everyone's knocked back, and the Gate closes again, this time complete with several boulders falling down and creating a tidy extra barrier in front of the Gate. Terra, back in human form, suggests we head back to the airship, and surprisingly, we aren't instantly teleported there, but have to travel back through the cave. Wait. I don't remember that door being there. It turns out to be a magical doorway as heading through it sends us back to the first room, but reentering it from the first room sends us to the 2nd room rather than the final room. Still no one at the Base, and we still can't get in that treasure room (quite the Thief you are, Locke). So back to the airship.

Edgar meets us at the West exit and says the Espers are headed for Vector and we get a cutscene with several Espers zooming across the airship's platform. The airship loses control and crash lands a bit to the southeast of Maranda. Nothing has changed in Maranda. Let's see about Tzen. Nothing here, either. Wait a sec, looks like someone is in the northeast wooded area. Sure, I'll give you 3k GP for... the Magicite Sraphim! Woohoo!! Heading over to Albrook, the only thing that's changed is that there's a guy who mentions the guy in Tzen we bought Sraphim from. The Magitek Armored soldier still won't let us into the port. So off to Vector.

Entering Vector, it seems the whole town is on fire. The town has been overrun by Returners and Narshe Guards who have no idea what happened. Unable to enter the Research Facility, the only thing to do is head into the Castle. Either the Guardian won't be there, or it had better be defeatable. Well, no Guardian. Instead, some guy meets us and tells us to meet with Gestahl. Heading in, the war has apparently ended and Kefka has been imprisoned. It's time to party! But first, we have to talk to a bunch of guards. Oh, boy, another timed section. I just LOVE these! And the one on the crapper attacks! Woohoo! A timed sequence with battles!!! After talking to everyone, I think, it's time for the banquet. Cid says to count him in as a Returner. Does that mean he'll be joining our party? After a bunch of questions, General Leo makes a reappearance and heads off to Albrook where he'll be waiting to meet up with us. With the banquet over, we find out that troops have been withdrawn from several places because we talked to enough troops. They were also pleased with our behavior at the banquet, so we get a few extra bonuses. Before leaving for Albrook, we loot the castle, flushing every toilet along the way, of course. You think they would have tried putting out the fires. I guess since the fire doesn't actually consume anything, it's not a pressing issue.

Looks like it's just Terra and Locke for the trip to Albrook, with a side trip to the Imperial Base to get the treasure behind the door that is supposed to now be unlocked. Now in Albrook, the pub is dead now that all the Imperial troops have left, and we can finally get to the docks where I'm guessing Leo will be. And there he is on board a ship. Leo mentions a general (Celes?) and someone he hired (Shadow?) will be traveling with us. Yep, Celes and Shadow. Ok, I had to look up "garrote". Spending the night in the Inn before taking off, we get treated to the opera music again as Locke takes a midnight stroll outside and sees Celes. Heading back to the dock, we depart for Crescent Island, a two-day trip. Of course there is going to be a nighttime segment on board. Ok, I get it, the engine room is dangerous. Kinda hard NOT to stay clear of it when you're always blocking the way. Let's see what's on Leo's mind. After some more "Will I find love" chatter, and of course a sea-sick comic relief, we finally arrive at Crescent Island, splitting into two groups, with Celes going with Leo. Exploring the small island, we arrive at the only place of interest, the town of Thamasa, which does not have the standard town theme.

Wandering around town, we see a boy that can cast Fire and a girl who wants her mother to cast Cure on her. They all run away when they see us. The Town Elder/Mayor obviously feigns ignorance about magic. Some kid won't let us into one house, at least for now. Snooping around every house, we get introduced to STRAGO, who we grill about Espers. Strago refuses to acknowledge he knows about Espers and his granddaughter, RELM appears, spilling the beans about the townsfolk being able to use magic. Strago asks Relm to leave, and Interceptor (about time we got a name for Shadow's dog) follows her back upstairs. Well, with nothing to do on the island, and only some changes in dialog from the townsfolk (it seems Strago was a formidable warrior in his youth), I guess we'll pony up the 1500 GP and rest at the Inn. Well, for some reason we're no longer strangers and it'll only cost 1 GP. And we get another nighttime sequence as Relm is trapped in a burning house. Looks like we get to play firefighters and rescue her. Well, Locke and Terra get to as Shadow is dead to the world and only wakes up when he senses Interceptor is gone. Oh, hey, the shops are still open in the middle of the night and couldn't be bothered with a minor trifle like a house on fire. Surprisingly, we can actually leave town during this segment.

Heading to the burning house, Strago's standing out front just waving his arms in the air like he just don't care. After the fire gets worse, Stragos goes against the town edict and unsuccessfully tries to put out the fire using magic. Everyone agrees that this is more important and joins in using magic to try to put it out to no avail. Stragos joins us and we go in to save Relm. Avoid the flames? Pshaw. *touches every flame we come across (not like they're easy to avoid anyway)* Oops. I guess having a Flame Sabre equipped isn't a good idea. I'm thinking a Blizzard would be a good weapon here. Picking up a Fire Rod and Ice Rod on our way, we face off against the boss FlameEater which instantly summons four Balloons to guard it. No problem since Strago's Aqua Rake eliminates them all in one shot. With its Fire 2 retaliation on any attack being the only hitch, he quickly goes down against all our Ice attacks. It seems Interceptor had no issues in the house as he had beaten us to Relm. With the house collapsing even further and our team knocked unconscious, it's Shadow to the rescue as he dispatches the Balloons closing in on Interceptor and our merry bunch with some martial art. Shadow uses a Smoke Bomb to teleport us out of the house and the scene shifts to the upstairs of Strago's house. Strago tells the story of the Mage Warriors and how this town's citizens are their decendants. Asked to join our team, Strago agrees, but won't let Relm join, that old fuddy duddy. He suggests looking for the Espers in the western mountains, as it's told that the Espers were created there. Shadow takes off again, thankfully leaving behind at least the Esper he had equipped.

Walking around the mountains, we come to a cave that I don't recall being there earlier. Shortly after entering we find a chest with a Heal Rod! Woohoo!! Oh, hey there, Relm, you sneaky little girl! And we're fighting Slurm (where's Slurms McKensie?). Ooooh, statues. Must... touch... Examining the statues gives some backstory to the source of magic and the Espers. And, enter Ultros again. So he has some sort of connection to Ziegfried, the world's greatest swordsman (or whatever it was). As we're demolishing Ultros, Relm jumps into the battle. After some banter about her wanting to practice her drawing abilities on him, she joins the fray. Regardless of how much damage we do, only when she paints a portrait of Ultros and it attacks do we win the battle. Relm then joins the party. We eventually get surrounded by a bunch of Espers, and one of them, Yura, senses Terra's Esper power.

We're instantly teleported to Thamasa where Leo and Celes are waiting. After a brief discussion between Leo and Yura, they decide to go back to Vector. And, oh, gee, Kefka's out of prison and is going to rain on everyone's parade. So much for the three Espers as Kefka wipes them out easily. Now in control of Leo, as everyone has been knocked unconscious, it's time to settle things with Kefka. After quickly dispatching the clown, Kefka summons Gestahl into the battlefield. Kefka reveals his true self and takes out Leo in one blow. That little sequence of events causes the Espers still in their world to come to their fallen comrades aid. Hmm, wonder what'll happen now? After Kefka wipes out all the Espers, we're awake and at Leo's grave. A wounded Interceptor limps in without Shadow. Naw, Shadow can't be dead. Setzer and the rest somehow knew where we were and fly in to meet us. With the 9 of us on the airship, we watch as a big chunk of land becomes a floating island, which is our next destination.

What?!? Only 3 allowed? After fighting through a bunch of aircraft, we get to fight Ultros again (and I'm failing to see why we could only have 3 in our party). After a round or so, Chupon joins Ultros. And just lovely, when you deal the deathblow to Chupon, it sneezes, knocking everyone off the airship. And we get another boss battle against some airship thingy, Air Force, with a Laser Gun and MissileBay. After taking out the Laser Gun, now I have a Speck to deal with that absorbs magic. Good thing I don't believe I'll need to use magic. Hmm, now there's a countdown going. Well, the Speck goes down with one hit. Then Bolt 2 does really good damage against Air Force, and I won't find out what the countdown was for since it's dead. Landing on the continent, that looks like Shadow lying on the ground. So that's why we could only take 3.

Progressing through the floating continent, holy crap do these monsters give a lot of MP. Examining the blue orbs that are the chests here, we get to fight a Gigantos. Um, yeah. Three attacks in a row with at least one Throat Jab that does about 700-800 damage. Lovely. Well, Strago learned Lvl 5 Doom. Let's see if it just happens to work on him. Awesome. I'll take that Hardened for Shadow. Back to the Save Point. Ok, this place should be named the Floating Continent of Extremely Annoying Creatures. Brainpans that have a special attach that inflicts Stop which Ribbons don't protect against, Dragons that sneeze away your entire party, Ninjas that cast Inviz after you've entered an Attack command and proceed to do all party magic attacks, Bahemoths with their Take Down retaliation, WireyDrgn that cast Cyclonis that can wipe out about 90% of the HP of every party member, Apokrypos that cast Lvl 3 Muddle, Lvl 4 Flare, and Lvl 5 Doom. Can we say extreme difficulty spike? Eventually we reach a place where we can re-board the airship. Sure, I'll jump aboard. What? Shadow leaves again? Well, might as well heal up while we're here. Finding the Floating Continent again, there's Shadow waiting for us again by the Save Point. Whew!

Oh, man, we gotta hit all the switch-like things again? That really sucks. Quickly getting back to where we jumped back onto the airship, we instead head down one of the sinkholes and into a little Save Point chamber. Using our Tintinabars to regain our HP by running back and forth, we save. Heading back to the airship jump point, we don't jump on this time and quickly arrive at a little fellow that kinda looks like a blue and bronze rabbit blocking our path. Talking to it cues up a battle with some new music. So this is the other Atma Weapon that was mentioned earlier. Let's see what I can steal from it... Just an Elixir? I expected a quite a bit more useful item. Well, it definitely has a good range of attacks. I actually had to use a Soft for the first time. Needing to use a few Cure 2 spells on the entire party while just pounding away on him with standard attacks, Atma goes down pretty easily, giving up another Elixir. Aaaaaaaaaand Shadow leaves AGAIN, this time taking his equipped Esper with him. Grrrrrr.

And what was Atma guarding? Well, Gestahl and Kefka, of course. Don't know why he's helping them out. Suddenly, Celes reappears on the scene to stop Gestahl and Kefka from moving the goddess statues out of alignment. I'm sorry, every time I see Gestahl, I think he's a rabbit. Somehow sucking the glowing sparkles around the statues towards him, he shoots the sparklies at us, quickly knocking Celes out of the way and incapacitating Terra, Locke, and Strago. Kefka gives Celes a sword to put an end to our little trio so they can rule the world. Will she do it? Will she, will she, will she? Of course not. Instead, she turns and skewers Kefka, eliciting an "Ouch!!" Well, Kefka doesn't take kindly to that flesh wound, professes his hate for Celes, and tries to acquire the goddesses' power by simply telling the statues to give him their power. Not getting the power, Kefka threatens the statues. Gestahl steps in and tells Kefka to stop being a dunderhead since destroying the statues will destroy the world. Not only that, but he does it in battle form! Not listening to reason, Gestahl decides to put an end to Kefka, but for some reason all his magic isn't working. Seems there's a force field of sorts where they're standing. That doesn't stop the goddesses from sending down lightning bolts to wipe out Gestahl, though. I'm not really sure why they did that. Not quite dead, Kefka finishes the deal and pushes Gestahl off the floating continent to his presumed doom. Celes again tries to stop Kefka, only to be slapped away. Kefka pushes around the statues for a bit. Gotta... make... the three statues... not... form... a triangle! Well, looks like Shadow's one-man pity party is over and he jumps in to save the day! Able to finally shake off the sparklies, our trio recovers.

Shadow, having trapped Kefka between a couple statues, is able to stall enough for us to get away. It was nice of the camera to follow one of the sparklies to show us where we need to go. And we have 6 minutes to get there. Oh, boy, another timed sequence. Well, somehow Shadow removed all his gear and Esper and gave it back to us during his little me time. Aaaaand we can't run from all the Naughty enemies that pop up along the way. Finally arriving at the sparkle, we have about 1:35 to defeat Nerapa. Gotta love how I enter Attack commands for all four of us, and after that but before attacking, Nerapa is able to cast Condemned FOUR TIMES, once on each character. Lovely ATB there. Defeating Nerapa without much trouble, we make it to the edge of the world just in the nick of time, Shadow reappears (is he able to fly or something?) and we jump down to the waiting airship below. With the goddess statues out of alignment, we then get treated to a few scenes of the world being ripped apart. For some reason, this causes the airship's bridge to break in two. We then get to watch a continent break in two from the vantage point of outer space.

The scene then changes to Celes in a bed inside a house in some unknown island, which we quickly find out is Cid's as Celes awakens from a year long sleep. Good to see Cid never changed her clothes during that year. And now we get to reassemble our team. But first, it's time to catch some fish and get Cid back to good health as he's fallen ill in the last few days -- well, it's a good thing she just happened to come out of her coma now. Leaving the dilapidated house to the south, we're on the beach with a bird you can talk to and a single fish swimming around in the shallow water which you can catch, or seemingly just grab, by waiting for it to swim up next to you as you can't walk very far into the water. Let's see what the description is for it. And the description for the Fish is "Fish". Well, that's no fun.

Wait, so I bring you a fish, and you just up and die on me? Cid's not supposed to die. I guess she'll just have to jump to her death from this nearby cliff that she automatically runs to, like the other people who originally landed on the island must have done. Or maybe not. Celes has washed up on shore back near Cid's house and apparently was saved by a... seagull? That's one talented seagull. Oh, wait, it's wearing a bandana. Whoever owns that must have nursed her back to health, right? Well, it turns out the bandana is Locke's. So if Locke saved her, why didn't he stick around? I'm really not believing a seagull saved her. Heading back into the house, a letter has mysteriously appeared at the foot of the bed with Cid slowly decomposing on it. The letter tells of a secret stairway near the stove. But before going there, let's see what's on this island. Well, there are actually monsters to fight. And the Peepers that roam the island are the easiest monsters in the history of video games as they automatically take 2 points of damage after the first round and die. And you get 1 MP after the battle. Well, nothing to do here, so heading down the stairs, a raft is waiting. Time to start reassembling our party.

Dragging the raft outside, she sets off to places unknown (I guess giving grandpa Cid a proper burial isn't that important to her), eventually ending up on shore near a town, which turns out to be Albrook. Heading in, I think I prefer the new town music. Hmm, Celes is the spittin' image of a man who came through recently? Well, you have to admit, she does look a bit mannish. Anyway, that's probably one of our merry band. There's definitely been an upgrade to the town's equipment stock, but nothing worth stocking up on. Talking to people, there's mention of monsters being released and a big, bad, "Light of Judgment" Kefka uses on those who oppose him. Ok, I need a translation: "You remind me of man who was here searching someone who was here searching for his friends..." Umm.... I think I know what she means. Botched text aside, that man was headed to Tzen, so that'll be my next stop. The pub is still dead. You'd think there would be some people here drowning their sorrows caused by the now bleak and dying world. Heading to the port, the ship is there and no one is on board. Maybe I can finally check out that super dangerous engine room. Nope, there are zero doors on board. Well, with nothing to do here, I guess it's off to Tzen and find that man that Celes apparently looks like.

Heading north, a tower juts "up" out of the ground (or is it laying on the ground since I can't walk behind it), which I'm guessing is Kefka's Tower. Instead of heading straight to Tzen, I'll explore the island. Maranda is gone and there is a bridge to leave the island. Well, I don't really feel like crossing that bridge just yet, so I'll go to Tzen and maybe reunite with the first party member. Ooh, there's a Cult of Kefka that's set up shop in the previously submerged Serpent Trench. As soon as I head up the stairs and into town an, I don't know, explosion (?) is heard and everyone scatters. Again, the shopkeepers can't be bothered and calmly go about their business. Ok, just how effective is a Super Ball? For 10k GP, it better be damn good. I'll pass on the Super Ball. The innkeeper kindly heals Celes for free and implores her to save "that child." Not sure what child she's referring to, but ok. Hmm, the weapon shop has a few Knuckle weapons which are for Sabin, so I'm guessing I'll be running into him here. I guess the child is trapped in the house that's about to collapse, so equipping a Ribbon (thanks to the warning from one of the citizens), I guess I'll do me some rescuin'. And there's Sabin holding up the house, preventing it from collapsing.

Entering the house, I guess timed sequences are this game's gimmick as I get ANOTHER one. Grrr. 6 minutes to save the kid. After running from a ridiculous amount of random encounters, I fully loot the house (picking up a very nice 2nd Heal Rod which I'm hoping someone other that Strago can use), find the kid in the basement and exit with about 1.5 minutes to spare. Seeing I have the kid, Sabin jumps down and a rather expansive structure, which would in no way be prevented from collapsing by a single support where he is, collapses. Sabin joins and it's off to find everyone else and destroy Kefka. One down, ten to go. Hmm, during that year, Sabin leveled up a bit and learned the AirBlade Blitz. Well, that's a fine how-do-you-do. I save the kid and now you charge tree-fiddy to rest in the Inn? I guess that was the Light of Judgment that caused the explosion, and we're told Kefka also used it on Mobliz. I guess that's our next destination with a possible stop in the Serpent Trench to deal with the Cult of Kefka.

Ok, AirBlade is quite nice. I just hope I can pull it off consistently, since it takes a 3/4 rotation around the D-Pad. Hmmmm, the big mountainous area north of Tzen has a little patch of plains right in the middle of it, with what looks like a cavern opening. Ok, Sneeze is really starting to piss me off. I've lost so much experience and MP thanks to that BS retaliation. Good gravy! Celes was down a few hundred HP, so I decided to do a Mantra with Sabin and it healed about 1400 HP! After a rather lengthy trek to the easternmost point on this chunk of land, and not seeing the tower the Cult of Kefka built, we arrive in Mobliz, which has seen much better days. Is that Interceptor? Now there's two Interceptors! Oh, I guess they're actually guard dogs. Hmm, the layout of the town seems quite different and much smaller. Oh, well, other than the Relic shop where we can still rest for free in the bed, the only thing here is the house that the kid came running out of and back into when the dogs barked. Heading into the house and downstairs, we see a whole group of little kids, who turn out to be orphaned thanks to the Light of Judgment killing all their parents, as well as our second found party member, Terra. Asking her to join us in our fight, she simply walks away. Heading into the room Terra came out of, it turns out she has lost the will to fight. Well, obviously something will be happening to get her to regain that will. Since there's no talking her out of it, the only thing to do is leave.

Upon leaving, Phunbaba (one of the monsters released) is approaching. Well, this provokes Terra's protective nature and she runs out to fight the, well, whatever it's supposed to look like and promptly gets destroyed. I guess we'll just have to step in and give this beastie the what for. Celes and Sabin run to Terra's aid and do battle with Phunbaba. After a few Suplexes, the big wuss runs away. Back in the house, Terra is recovering in the bed and still won't leave. Well, at least that battle wasn't an entire waste as one of the kids gives us the Magicite Fenrir that it dropped when it ran away. Woohoo! Since Terra isn't going anywhere anytime soon, after a quick stop at the Relic shop to rest, it's off to see what else is on this landmass.

Going back the way we came, which is our only option, and continuing north, we pass the Cult's tower, which is inaccessible being in the middle of a ring of mountains, and finally arrive at Nikeah near the northern tip of the island. Heading into town, there's a band of thieves at the coffee shop, Castle Figaro hit an obstacle underground, and the ship to South Figaro is about to leave. After blinging Celes out in all Diamond armor, with nothing else to do on this piece of land, the ship is my next stop. But first, let's check out that band of thieves. Maybe we'll run into Locke. The only thing we find out is that the thieves' boss wants to sneak into Castle Figaro. Leaving the Pub, all the thieves also leave and head for the dock. I guess we'll follow them. Oookay. There doesn't seem to be anything to do here. The thieves all just say, "What're ya doin'? Get away!" and the other guy just says the boat belongs to the Crimson Robbers. So, it's back into town.

Let's see if anything changed at the Pub... Ok, little missy, how about telling us where this handsome boss, Gerad, is??? Wandering around town, there's suddenly this new fellow standing by some barrels and crates. I guess that's Gerad? Talking to him, he looks suspiciously like Edgar and when Celes asks him if he is, Gerad just wanders off. Finding him rockin' out and headbanging in front of a crate of fruit, we talk to him again. Again he basically brushes us off and heads toward the dock. Maybe he's got.. dun, dun, DUNNN... amnesia. Or maybe he's just playing dumb. Following him to the dock and hiding behind some crates, we eavesdrop on his conversation with the thieves. We automatically jump onto the ship and stowaway on its trip to South Figaro.

Now back in S. Figaro, the Crimson Robbers have pretty much overrun the town. One of the thieves mentions a fellow coming through town looking for some secret treasure. Locke? Heading over to Duncan's house, his wife says he's meditating north of Narshe. I'll need to keep this in mind. The little girl in the mansion has changed her tune, now saying something about jumping on the turtle. I'm guessing this is that turtle in the Cave to Figaro. Heading into the Inn, Gerad is finally found. Gerad is quickly pulled away from us by one of the thieves as Celes tries to get him to admit he's Edgar. Leaving the inn, it seems all the thieves left town. I guess we'll have to track them down. The only other things on this landmass are a big empty desert and the Cave to Figaro, so I'm pretty sure the Cave is where we need to go.

Entering the cave, there's a fellow blocking the stairs which is the only path. Oh, hey, it's Ziegfried again, and this time he's going to be decent chap and clear out all the monsters for us. And probably all the treasure chests, too. Taking one step forward onto the spot he was standing, we get into a battle. Great job of clearing out all the monsters, Ziegfried! Making our way through way too many monsters, we catch up with Gerad and the Crimson Robbers at what used to be the cave's other exit. One of the Robbers entices that turtle who must love that one spot in the little pond with some food. Swimming a bit over, it ends up making a nice platform to jump across the pond with. Since there is no longer an exit south of the pond, we'll just have to follow the Robbers, and Ziegfried, across the pond. Aw, it's not a Recovery Spring anymore. Unsurprisingly, all the treasure chests have been looted, and we catch Zeigfried emptying out the last one before we enter Figaro Castle.

Now in the prison in the basement of Figaro Castle, we see Gerad who quickly exits after he has a word with a comrade who almost didn't make it. "I... It was awful..."? Ok, what was awful? Geez. Is that the only thing anyone says? Well, at least we can finally go down into that super dangerous engine room. Since we can't go into the castle proper, we better have been able to get into the engine room. Picking up some nice items along the way, we get to the Engine Room with some little things floating around the twin engines that move the castle, which are somehow preventing the bandits from walking along the clear path to the room beyond, which houses their treasure. Or maybe there's a big baddie beyond that room that's on the other side of the engines. Deciding to finally drop the act, Edgar asks for our help in defeating whatever is in there. Nope, it's not in the room, but rather the floating things that I guess were supposed to be the tentacles of whatever this mass is that we're fighting on. Well, that was just an annoying battle as we just had to deal with individual characters being taken out of battle for a turn here and there. It would have been nice to have been able to equip Edgar with Relics and an Esper before the battle.

Edgar explains the reasoning behind the ruse and rejoins the party. The thieves, being quite the band of merry idiots, couldn't tell Gerad was the guy who imprisoned them, and don't see us all hiding in plain sight, and promptly take off. Edgar isn't worried about the treasure they took, so we grab the Soul Sabre from the standing suit of armor and head out ourselves. Edgar did get himself equipped with some pretty nice gear while we were all split up. And leveled up to boot. Exploring the castle, very, very little has changed. Since the castle surfaces in the desert on the island with S. Figaro, our only option is to take the castle back underground and head to Kohlingen.

Exploring around the continent with Kohlingen, it looks like that Colosseum got built. And who's the receptionist? Why, it's our old buddy, Ultros! An Imperieal Trooper tells us to "Talk to the Emperor twice" when we find the Emperor's secret treasure. Sounds useful. Ziegfried is also here, saying someone's impersonating him. I'm not up to the Colosseum battles right now, so I'll head to Kohlingen instead. Passing what I'm guessing is Kohlingen, we head west to the only other point of interest and discover nothing but a raised piece of land. It doesn't even give us a location name when we enter. With nothing to do here, we head back east to what must be Kohlingen.

In Kohlingen, there's mention of a fierce fighter at the Colosseum looking for a Striker. Striker, Striker, Striker... Strike her! We also are told of a man saying "thou" to everyone, giving us our first lead on Cyan. The old man that put Rachel to sleep says Locke must be where some fabled treasure is. Heading to the Inn & Pub, who do we see, but Setzer. If he joins, we're a third of the way to getting everyone back. Oh, phooey. It seems he's lost the will to fight as well. Plus, he's lost his flying casino. After Celes browbeats him, he has a change of heart and says we should go visit Daryl's Tomb. I'm guessing that was the place just to the west we visited before coming here. It seems there's an airship hidden there. And just in case we weren't able to find the place, the camera pans over to the Tomb. Well, talking to the guard from Narshe that's just outside the pub, he now mentions the frozen Esper, Tritoch, is still in Narshe.

After a short, surprisingly uneventful trip back to the Tomb, Setzer opens a secret passageway in the side of the raised piece of land and we head into Darill's Tomb. So, is it Daryl or Darill? Finding some really nice items, including an Exp. Egg that doubles Exp gained in a not so secret secret chamber, we see another turtle, this time mightily swimming against a wall. Oookay. There seems to be some switches in here. Maybe those will eventually raise or lower the water level. Just lovely, Sabin got zombified and you can't change any equipment while affected. Good thing I have a bunch of Revivifies. Having found enough Amulets via battle for everyone, I won't have to worry about that again. And, what do you know? Flipping all the switches raises the water level. Now I'm guessing that turtle has a use. You know, it's really annoying that when you have a weapon that can auto-kill something, like the Assassin or Doom Darts, it seems to pull off its special ability almost every time against a monster that resurrects itself if that happens.

What do you mean, you can't think of anything appropriate to carve on the tombstone? I got the impression there was something between you, Setzer, and Daryl/Darill. Well, there are actually two turtles here. Hmm, a gravestone puzzle: UARE, ISSQ, THEW, ORLD ... Whew! That's a real toughie. Couldn't even have the letters jumbled, eh? Wouldn't want to make it too hard on the kiddies. Heading back to the blank tombstone, I'm thinking carving "The world is square" on the tombstone doesn't really fit the occasion. Now, "Cheese and Pepperoni" would be another story. And all it does is tell you where the Exp. Egg is, which should have been blatently obvious to anyone who does even the slightest bit of exploring and is paying any attention to the screen. Ok, that Presenter monster-in-a-box was annoying with its GigaVolt retaliation. But I got a Dragon Claw out of it.

At her actual resting place, it's spelled Daryl again. And for some reason we get a boss fight against a Dullagan. Quite a bit different looking than Dragon Quest's Dullahans. If not for its retaliation, Dullahan would have been a breeze. Getting by it, Setzer hits a switch on the crypt and opens a secret door. Heading through the door, we get a string of flashbacks of Setzer and Daryl as we descend the rather long stairway, culminating in how Daryl met her demise. We're then on the bridge of her airship, the Falcon, which he "couldn't bare to look at". With a way to attack Kefka's Tower, hope is afoot as we get upbeat overworld music and even spy a bird! Celes takes the bird as a sign and wants to follow it. The bird leads us to the town of Maranda.

I've just passed the 30 hr mark.

Instead of going into Maranda, let's fly around and see what's changed in this world. Why am I getting into a battle while flying? Oh, it's Doom Gaze, another one of the released monsters. Someone in one of the towns said they saw it flying around. And it has Lvl 5 Doom, which Celes is vulnerable to. And then it runs away. Well, I'm gonna hunt you down, but not before grinding her up one level. After finally defeating it several tries later, we don't get any Exp, MP, or GP, but we do get the Bahamut Magicite. Nice. An annoying change from the other games where you have to fight Bahamut to get his services. All you can learn from him is Flare. That's not really worth the trouble. He'd better be well worth summoning in battle. With that finally over, let's do some exploring.

Since we know Duncan's still alive thanks to his wife, let's find him. She said he is north of Narshe. Ok, where's Narshe. I guess I'll have to look up a map online since they couldn't have been bothered to include one with the game. Heading to the five trees in the form of a cross, there is a house hidden here. Approaching the door, Duncan opens the door and steps outside onto the front porch. Sabin, thinking Duncan had perished thanks to the world's transformation, is brought to tears at the sight of his old master. I guess he didn't believe Duncan's wife. We get treated to a Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon type training sequence and Sabin learns the BumRush Blitz, which is a complete circle on the D-Pad, meaning it'll be that much harder for the system to recognize if you pull it off. Since we're close by, let's head over to Narshe. Maybe we'll meet that Yeti.

One step into Narshe and we get into a random encounter. Oh, boy, another Zozo. The Beginner's House hasn't changed. Entering the town, we're greeted by a pickpocket that looks a lot like Lone Wolf who mentions a single Moogle left (Mog?) and a lock that only a treasure hunter could pick (Locke?). The town has been deserted as either the doors are locked or no one is in the buildings we can enter. Finally managing to pull off a BumRush, that is a very nice single enemy attack. With nothing to do in the town other than the free healing in the Beginner's House, it's time to check out the Mines again. Entering the Mines via the secret door Locke showed us, we make it back to the Moogles' home and there's Mog just looking at the wall. Ecstatic that we're alive he does a little dance around us, joins up, and tells us to find Yeti so he can join, too! Hmm, what was so interesting about that wall he was staring at? A Moogle Charm? No random encounters when worn? Awesome! Now off to find the Yeti. Well, I couldn't find him, but instead ran into an Ice Dragon (I'm guessing one of the eight dragons mentioned earlier) that I think we're too under-leveled to take on. So, let's see what new places there are in this world.

Checking out a little island in the northeast, we run into a ZoneEater. Lovely, you get frozen if you attack it. And then it sucks everyone in. Ooooookay, so we're now inside a cave. It's a good thing Sabin learned BumRush, which does enough damage to take out the enemies in here in one shot, since they all retaliate with Lifeshaver which drains the attacker of however many HP is needed to fully heal itself. Navigating through a falling roof room and a chest hopping room, picking up some very nice equipment along the way, we arrive at the home of GOGO, the mime. So THAT's who that red guy is that walks back and forth on the Load Screen. I'd never gotten him before. So we don't have to get into battle and do nothing for a while to get you to join us this time? Just tell you what we're doing? Nice. Hmm, he appears to actually join our 4-person party instead of going to the airship. Does this mean we'll have 5 people in battle? That would be real nice. Of course not. I guess he teleported out of the cave somehow. Ok, not everything retaliates with Lifeshaver, but the ones that don't hit hard. Good thing I've got Mantra.

I guess it's time to get back to the storyline and head back to Maranda. Heading into the Inn, there's a guy on a serious sugar rush running around. Trapping him in a corner, we're able to actually speak to him and he mentions that his former thief accomplice would mumble "To the right of the treasure chest" in his sleep. Interesting. One of the townsfolk talks of an amazing Knight with a heart full of chaos that came through. Could that be Cyan? Another super hyper thief mentions an uber-awesome secret he uncovered. Picking up more hints, we're told the guy in Zozo that says "This place is dangerous" is the only person there that doesn't fib. An old woman (?) shows the locations of Narshe, the Veldt, and Doma Castle. I guess if I would have come here first, I wouldn't have needed to consult an online map. Cyan did come through town as another citizen says someone who called everyone "thou" came through. So, who's the knight the other person mentioned? I've already got Edgar, so I don't think it would be him. Unless you can actually get here without getting Edgar back. Putting a dent in my nearly 350k GP, I outfit everyone in some new gear.

Heading into Lola's house, either she became a serious hoarder of silk flowers or she has an admirer somewhere. Speaking to her, she says all the flowers are from her boyfriend in the supposedly destroyed town of Mobliz, and then produces a stack of love letters which of course we'll read. And her boyfriend seems to be Cyan, since someone has apparently seen Cyan's handwriting and this looks like a match. Lola wants us to send a reply via carrier pigeon. Is it still gonna cost 500GP? Talking to the pigeon on the ground outside her house, it takes off to what appears to be Zozo -- the mention of the truthful guy in Zozo is another clue to where it went. Looks like it's back to Zozo and maybe a reunion with Cyan.

Confirming we're at the right place, just inside town, the pigeon is standing on the ground. Talking to it simply makes it fly away, presumably back to Maranda. Time to find the one truthful guy. Aw, man, there's still encounters here. At least they're the same monsters, so it should be easy going. They do give MP, so it's not a complete waste of time. Wait a second. A Harvester by itself is worth 3 MP, but two of them along with a Slam Dancer is only worth 2 MP? Well, I can't find a guy that says "This place is dangerous," but there is one selling Rust-Rid for 1000GP to open a path to Mt. Zozo. Maybe he used to say that. Either way, it's only 1k GP. Heading to the Pub and climbing the stairs, we use the Rust-Rid on the door that's rusted shut and lo and behold, we're in a new area. Kind of an odd upstairs back entrance. I guess you could get imaginative and say that it was used to run moonshine or something.

Making our way through this rather small cave, there's a treasure chest we can't reach. Hmm, maybe this switch will open a path to it. Nope. Instead it releases a dragon that flies around the room. I know! Let's try talking to it!!! But first we need to catch up it. It does make the same pattern around the chamber, so this shouldn't be too hard. Aw, we just wanted to talk. Looks like we have a boss battle on our hands with the Storm Dragon. BumRush does really good damage, and Mantra is extremely useful. Having Sabin equipped with a Thunder Shield makes him immune to all the Dragon's magical attacks. Relatively quickly, the first of eight dragons goes down. And it even says there are 7 dragons left. How nice of it.

Heading out the one path we didn't take, we come across a letter on a desk in a room filled with silk flowers. Reading the letter, it turns out to be a confession letter and that Lola's boyfriend passed away a while ago. Of course, it is Cyan who has been writing the letters and sending the flowers. Heading out the other side of the room, we see Cyan on the edge of the cliff sending off something via pigeon. Cyan immediately agrees to join, but is embarrassed by the letters and flowers, so he runs into the room and collects everything. I'm not really sure where he's stuffing all those flowers, but then again, we can carry around 99 of everything with no issues. After explaining why he started sending Lola the letters, he tells us he bumped into Gau in Maranda, who said he had to become stronger in order to face Kefka, probably returning to the Veldt. Yay! Another lead! Before heading to the Veldt, since we now have Cyan, let's go back to Doma Castle.

Let's make a quick stop at Cid's house to see if he's still decomposing on the bed. Someone has actually disposed of his body. Maybe it was the seagull. Anyway... Since Celes and Sabin have learned every spell available, let's switch them out with Cyan (since he'll probably need to be in the party if any special event happens at Doma Castle) and Gogo to start learning some spells. What?!? Gogo can't equip Espers? You can't even view his Skills. Hmm, well, if he's useless in battle, Mog is going to replace him to level up a bit. Other than finally getting to open that chest in the room where Cyan's wife and child died, nothing to do. But there is free rest, so I'll take advantage of that. Aaaaaaaand Cyan doesn't wake up. The rest of the party unsuccessfully tries to wake him. Three little kids bound into the room... Really? Larry, Moe, and Curley, the 3 Dream Stooges? Really? They promptly jump inside Cyan to take his soul. Somehow the rest of the party jumps into Cyan as well. And we're now in Cyan's dream?

It's just Gogo in the party, so I guess I have to find the rest of my party. Well, there's one of the Stooges next to some monster-looking thing that I can't reach. Exploring a bit, I can see another Stooge next to Setzer, who is lying face down on the floor. The only thing here is a few doors to go into. Picking the right one, I end up near the first Stooge who teleports off since his brothers aren't with him. Hmm... Oh, that monster-like thing was actually Edgar laying on the ground. Well, that's one down, one or two to go. Ok, having Edgar with his Tools and Gogo Miming him is pretty darn good in battle as a 2-man party. Back at the starting point, the center door leads us to a door surrounded by three tiles which repel us when we step on the one in front of the door, so I'm guessing this is where we'll do battle when the whole team is back together. Well, that's an interesting monster -- a woman wearing only the top of a two-piece, riding some green animal. Again back at the start, the left door takes us to Setzer, and the Stooge also teleports away.

With all three back in the party, that square doesn't repel us anymore and we can enter the door. Or maybe not, as the Stooges jump out and we get a boss fight. Well, that petrify attack they have is real nice. Time to retry, this time with Ribbons and a Jewel Ring equipped. After having way more trouble than I should have thanks to Edgar seeming to want to pull off the Chain Saw's special attack and failing, and of course Gogo mimicking that, we go through the door and appear to be back on the Ghost Train.

There aren't any ghosts on the train this time, but there are still random encounters. And, oh, joy, they have the Sneeze attack. Crossing through the first car, we see Cyan being chased by a ghost. We can't interact with him, though. Making it through a couple cars with treasure chest and switch puzzles, we arrive at the engine. This is quite a bit shorter than last time. Or maybe we started midway and just couldn't go towards the caboose. No notes as to what to do with the switches. Hmm... Maybe something's changed up front. Well... Instead of exiting the engine room, we're now in a cave riding in Magitek Armor. We once again see Cyan, this time being chased by troopers. And we get to a point where it just circles around endlessly. Well, that means we have to go back on one of the screen transitions. Cycling back through the endless circle, we're now in a new location. We spot Cyan again, this time not being chased, but rather just taking off across a bridge. Following him, the bridge can't support the weight of our armors, so we fall into, going by the music, Doma Castle, sans Magitek armors.

Things are just getting curiouser and curiouser. Cyan's deceased wife and son appear, asking us to save Cyan. Telling us that we're in Cyan's soul, his wife then explains that Cyan is torturing himself for not being able to save the castle and the world, and one Wrexsoul (heh, Wrecks Soul, real imaginative) is taking advantage of this. Cyan's wife and son then disappear leaving behind a convenient Save Point. Wandering around the castle, between the crapload of encounters, we see a few snippets of Cyan's past. That Man Eater Setzer's equipped with is making fast work of all these human enemies in here. Entering the Throne Room, we see Wrexsoul, outfitted in a dashing red and white candy cane striped ensemble complete with hood, next to a laid out Cyan.

Starting out the battle by telling us he'll only appear when we're about to expire (when we're in a critical state?), he promptly vanishes. Well, his two little minions resurrect themselves when you defeat them, so it's time to get all Final Fantasy II and start attacking Setzer. Well, that was a bunch of BS. I get everyone down to critical for about 20 rounds, and he never reappears. So X-Zone it is to finally get it over with. Now freed of Wrexsoul, Cyan is tangible again and his wife and son give him reassurances and transform into a sword. Just before the scene fades out and as Cyan goes to get the sword, a Magicite shard can be seen on the throne. With his soul now freed of his past, he gains all Sword Techs. Sweet. Based on how long I had to wait to pull off the 4th Tech, if the progress bar doesn't speed up, I really don't see sitting there for as long as it will take to get to get to 8. Heading to the throne, the Magicite Alexandr is waiting for us. Yes! Other than having pretty high learning rates, the only new spell is Pearl (is she gonna hunt us all across the universe in her rocket ship?). It's now time to go get Gau in the Veldt.

Hmm, no sign of Gau. The only thing here is the Crescent Mountain cave. Maybe he's in there. Entering the now named Cave in the Veldt, we're greeted by a familiar voice. It's Interceptor!!! Following Interceptor, we see a group of guys around a campfire. Talking to them, it turns out tha-- Hold on, let us fight this monster right next to you. Ok, it turns out that Gau won't appear with four in the party. Ok. Also, there is a for-- Just a minute, let us defeat this monster first. Now what were you saying? There's a forest north of the Veldt with a undefeatable dragon? Thanks, let's get back outs-- Don't mind us, we'll just defeat this other monster right next to y'all. Ok, let's head out and get Gau. After depositing Gogo in the airship, in the first battle we get into, Gau appears! Now with Gau back, it's time to head back to the Cave and get Shadow. I gotta remember not to have Mog do a Dance when Gau is out after a Leap since Mog is on autopilot at that point and seems to like attacking Gau when he returns to rejoin, plus Gau won't learn the rages. Not only that, everything he was equipped with is removed, I guess since he is no longer considered part of the party.

Talk about slowdown during Mog's forest dance. Already slow as molasses, Cyan's Sword Tech progress bar speed gets just about cut in half while the leaf attack is rolling across the screen. Wow! That's one powerful wombat that can attack during that Dance. Taking out a nasty Allo Vera monster-in-a-box that just casts Doom over and over, and rather quickly, Sabin gets some very nice Tiger Fangs. Wow! The Ryos monster nets 7 MP, the highest for a non-boss I've seen so far. Heading further in, we pick up a Striker from a chest. Wasn't this what that one warrior in the Colosseum was looking for? Finally catching up with Interceptor, we see him by the side of Shadow who is face down on the ground. Since there's a Save Point before we can get to Shadow, I'm expecting a boss fight. Of course, while we're examining Shadow's wounds, a brown wolf-looking thing sneaks up behind us and attacks.

It turns out to be a SrBehemoth. Behemoths usually hit hard, and this is an upgraded one. A couple BumRushes and a Quadra Slam later and the Senior Behemoth, or Sir Behemoth, or Senor Behemoth... goes down, only to be replaced by another SrBehemoth. With Mog healing everyone with Sun Bath, Gau pulling off Cat Scratches, Cyan's Quadra Slam and a couple more BumRushes from Sabin, the second SrBehemoth also goes down quickly. Oooh, what's a Behemoth Suit? Unable to tend to Shadow's wounds here, Cyan, or probably whoever you've chosen to be the party leader, suggests we take him to Thamasa. The scene fades out and we're shown the airship flying to Thamasa.

The scene shifts to Shadow in bed with Interceptor and the party next to him. We then get a very brief flashback (in black-and-white!) of Shadow's past. With Shadow out of commission for a while, let's explore the town. A fish monster is floating in the sky (Doom Gaze?). Ebot's Rock, north of town, is now above water. We're told of the island with Gogo that I already visited. Good to see the Inn is still only 1 GP per night. Picking up another Cure Ring so everyone can have one equipped, I just noticed when you buy something, instead of saying something like "Thank you" it says "Bye!" Well, that's gratitude for ya. With nothing else to do here, let's check out this Ebot's Rock. With nothing on the tiny island other than a small cluster of mountains and random encounters, we end our little sightseeing expedition. Since we now have the Striker, let's go to the Colosseum.

Back at the Colosseum, we put the Striker up as our wager, and get to fight... Shadow? Good to see he recovered and somehow made his way over here. I guess. Sending Celes in to fight Shadow with her 4x attack, Shadow goes down without even getting to do anything. We get the Striker back, and Shadow joins! Not really interested in watching a bunch of auto-battles to see what we get for different items wagered, we leave. Where haven't we been yet? Heading to the house on the eastern island, the crazy old man is looking for a repair person. Ok. Nothing here. Heading west and south hitting everywhere, the first place we haven't been to yet is Jidoor.

First thing to do in Jidoor is see if there's any new gear to spend some of our 560k GP on. Not much for my current party members. One person mentions seeing a lot of carrier pigeons flying towards Maranda. I've already taken care of that. There's a painting of the Emperor in Owzer's house. Aha! I'm guessing that's what "Talk to the Emperor twice" is referring to. A man in the Inn mentions Doom Gaze can't restore HP after battle. Already done that, too. A girl mentions a little girl entering the art collector, Owzer's house. Hmm. Relm? Checking out the auction, there's one going on, so let's see what's up for bid this time. 50k for a Hero Ring?!? Yeah, I think I'll pass. Oooh, an Imp Robot. I'm guessing I won't be able to actually buy it. Aaaaaand of course my 30k bid gets bumped to 1M GP by the same guy that kept buying the Chocobos before. And I don't even get a chance to bid again. What if I had 2M GP??? Not feeling like wasting any more time, the art collector's house appears to be the object of this town.

Waltzing into Owzer's house like we own the place, the lights are either off or dimmed. Attempting to climb the stairs to the art gallery, a disembodied voice tells us to "stay away" and we're pushed back down the stairs. A book mysteriously appears on the table in the main hall, so I guess we'll be reading what turns out to be Owzer's diary. Mentioning that he bought a new stairway lamp, we go and search the lamp at the base of the stairs and it's like daytime in here. Comparing the Kohlingen's artist's talent to a bucket makes me think that bucket painting viewable on-screen is important. Other than odd noises coming from downstairs, nothing else is seemingly of note in the dairy. Now that it's bright in here, we can go upstairs. Checking out the really lifelike flower painting, we get attacked by some flowers. Other than that, nothing special about that painting. The Ultros painting has been replaced by one of Emperor Gestahl. Let's talk to it twice. And we get the Emperor's Letter which states the treasure is hidden where the mountains form a star. Could this be where Locke is? The painting of the lovely lady now puts us into battle against two Dahlings. Don't they look mahvelous? Defeating them reveals a door. Well, the bucket painting doesn't do anything, as well as any of the other paintings. So the door it is.

Apparently Owzer is saving money on electricity as it's rather dark in here as well. The first battle does net us one of those Super Balls that sell for 10k GP. Maybe we'll get some Silly Putty while we're in here, too. This guy certainly has odd taste in art as there's a painting of a door and one of a chair down here. Walking in front of the chair painting gets us sucked into it and we fight a battle, after which there's now a person sitting on the chair. Ooookay. Picking up a Relic Ring, what exactly does "Makes body cold" mean it does? Making it to a room with seemingly no exit, I guess the only thing to do is admire the artwork. And of course one is an encounter which reveals another door. Interesting. Heading through a door that sends us back a bit, the painting of the girl in the previous room that was facing right can be seen from here, and it's now showing her back... And in the area with the Save Point, it shows her front...

We eventually reach a room with a rather large fellow who looks to be lounging on a sofa and Relm behind him painting what looks like a woman in a demon's wing embrace. Owzer says a monster has taken residence in the painting which should just be the woman. A boss battle against Chadarnook quickly ensues. Talk about taking love of a 2D beauty to the extreme. Making sure not to attack the fair maiden during the battle, Chadarnook goes down pretty quickly. The painting still looks the same, though. It turns out the portrait is that of the Esper Starlet, who only Relm has the ability to capture. Owzer thinks it's Starlet's Magicite shard that drew the monster to the painting, so he's glad to let us have the shard. Yay! Relm says she'll be back to finish the painting (does that mean she's joined us?) and we're teleported outside the mansion. Going back in the mansion, the diary is no longer on the table, but we can still read it. Oops. Checking the airship to see if she's inside, there she is, aimlessly wandering around. She needs to learn some spells, so let's put her in the party.

We haven't been to the Cult of Kefka's Tower yet, so since we now have an airship, let's go there. As soon as we step foot inside the tower's surroundings, we see Strago in the middle of a line of fanatics pacing back and forth. Seeing Relm alive snaps him out of whatever trance he was in and joins us. Now that we can move around here, we can't talk to the fanatics. In fact, if we stand in their path, they just walk through us. There's a few non-members loitering around, so let's see what they have to say. Something is wondrous atop the tower, but only magic works inside. Eh, I'll pass on tackling the tower until our spell books are better fleshed out. One of them will tell us about a secret treasure if we give him 100k GP. Um, no thanks. Or rather, let me save outside, come back, pay you the dough to find out what you have to say, and then reload. Doing so, it seems there's an Ancient Castle beneath the Desert of Figaro, and an old man living in Narshe's Weapon Shop is looking for us.

After "paying" the 100K, it's off to Figaro Castle to go below the desert. Heading down towards the engine room, we submerge and head towards Figaro. Shortly after the castle starts on its way, we hit something and stop to check it out. Since we snuck in via the prison, let's see what that secret entrance leads to now. Hey, we're in a cave. Making the game great again, we find a Trump inside a treasure chest. Getting by a Master Pug monster-in-a-box that looks an awful like a Tonberry, we get a nice Gradeus for our trouble. Finally getting to the other end of the cave, we surface outside of what must be the Ancient Castle. The scene acquires somewhat of a sepia tone, so we must be about to see a scene from the distant past. After watching a brief scene where the castle is being attacked by Espers, Cyan turns and explains that a battle took place here 1000 years ago, which would put it during the War of the Magi. Back to the battle scene and we get to see the Esper Odin easily wipe out a bunch of enemies. A ghost appears and does battle with Odin. Odin's attack is useless against the ghost and the ghost turns Odin into stone. So I'm guessing we'll be picking up the Odin Esper here.

We head back to the Save Point just before the castle -- just in case we get wiped out, I don't want to have to sit through that cutscene again. Taking out another monster-in-a-box, this time a Katana's Soul, we get an Offering, which turns the Fight command into X-Fight, whatever that is. Well, let's slap it on Mog and see what happens. Ooookay, so he gets four attacks. Very nice. Heading into the castle, we quickly reach Odin, still in statue form. Walking up to him, or rather under him since his sprite overlaps ours, talking to him finishes the job started by the ghost and Odin turns into a Magicite shard. Woohoo!! Ooooooh. Meteor. Remembering what the scholar in the castle's library told us from an ancient text "...when the queen stands and takes 5 steps...", we search the two tiles 5 squares directly in front of the two thrones, which audibly activates something. Well, since no passage was opened anywhere that we can see, let's check the rooms we can access from here. Nothing new in the west room. In the southeast room, a staircase has appeared.

Heading down the stairs, we get our second dragon: the Blue Dragon. Other than some all party attacks that do some decent damage, Gau's Catscratch, Celes' X-Fight, and a couple Quadra Slams later and the Dragon goes down. 2 down, 6 to go. Heading to the rear of the room, we find the Queen, who fell in love with Odin according to her diary we picked up along the way, also petrified. Talking to her statue, it sheds a tear and causes Odin to "level up" and become Raiden. Well, that's just stupid. Raiden no longer has Meteor as a learnable spell, but has it replaced with Quick. Not really a level up, now, is it? Well, since that wasn't too tough a fight, I'm restarting so I can get Meteor on some people. Grrrrr!

Since we have Strago in our party, let's see if he has an event back at his hometown of Thamasa. Ok, that threw me for a bit. I got into a battle and Mog was in the party. I could have sworn I had Strago in it, then realized he's wearing a Moogle Suit. Relm is wearing a Behemoth Suit, but doesn't look like a Behemoth in battle. In Thamasa, we re-outfit Strago as, other than the Lightning Shield, there's a better everything for Strago sold here. Makes sense. As we try to pass the shops and go further into town, Relm and Strago are happy to be back home and Relm runs off to their old house. Oh, no! Gungho's hurt (who's Gungho?)! The scene fades to the bedroom in their house and Gungho is laying in one of the beds. Turns out Gungho and Strago used to hunt a beast named Hidon, and it was this beast that has laid up Gungho when he was out hunting it by himself. I guess he was a little too gung ho!! A-ha! A-ha-ha! Ha... ha..... *sigh* It's now time for Strago to avenge his injured comrade, and hunt down Hidon himself. Relm won't let Strago go by himself, but he says Hidon won't show itself unless he goes alone, because Hidon will be hidin' so well. Strago then takes off to the previously uneventful Ebot's Rock. Maybe a Dodgers game is going on now. Of course, Relm will be going, too (and the rest of the party, if possible), regardless of what Strago told her.

With a hop, skip, and a jump, we're back on Ebot's Rock. Ok, that cave opening was definitely not there earlier. Entering the cave, it's pitch black except for a halo of light around our party. Why is there no Light spell?!? All there is to do is step on the floor switch which teleports us somewhere, and we get a talking treasure chest that's hungry for Coral. I guess we'll have to hunt for some Coral since it's blocking the desired path. And hunting for chests with Coral we have to deal with an annoying floor switch system which randomly teleports us to another area, or maybe even the same area. Sabin finally learned the one Blitz he was missing. And after finding some amount of Coral (I wasn't counting and nothing indicates how much you've found), we simply keep stepping on switches until it sends us back to the little chamber with the talking chest. Feeding the chest, it bounds out of the way and we can proceed further into the cave.

Very quickly, we run into Hidon. Talking to it initiates a boss battle against it and 4 little Hidonites. With the only issue being one Hidonite absorbing a couple attacks and Hidon casting Bio on us, the beastie goes down and Strago does a little celebration dance. Rushing off to let Gungho know Hidon has been avenged, Gungho is recovered and doesn't believe Strago. The scene shifts to the evening and Strago regaling Hidon on how the battle against Hidon went, neglecting to mention that he had a bit of help. It also turns out that Gungho was faking his wounds. Curing everyone's Poison state by briefly equipping Star Pendants, it's time to take our leave of Strago and Relm's hometown and head to a new destination. But, wait! Gungho says Hidon reappeared in Ebot's Rock. Hmm. Let's go see.

Redoing the whole feeding Coral to the treasure chest, Hidon is back. Let's fight it again! Ouch! That GrandTrain did some decent damage to everyone. Oh, hey, Strago learned GrandTrain!! Since there really isn't anything left to do around here, let's check out that little spot we saw earlier in the middle of the mountains. Flying over there, they kinda look like a star. Plus, no other mountain group looks anything like a star. This must be where the Emperor's treasure is.

Upon trying to land, we're prompted to split up into two groups. Heading into the cave below the airship, we get another switch puzzle. These segments really make you wonder how exactly the inventory system would work since both groups, who are split up, have access to all the items. Taking advantage of this magical inventory system, the 8 members are all able to be equipped with the 4 Cure Rings. Tediously making our way through the cave switching back and forth between squads, several chests have already been looted. Could we finally be catching up with Locke? After all, this has to be where the Emperor's secret treasure is and Locke was told to be hunting for something like that. Before finding out if Locke is wandering around, we run into another dragon, this time the Red Dragon. Just happening to have Sabin and Gogo in the group that runs into the dragon, the double Bum Rush (if I can pull it off) should make this a quick fight. Other than S. Cross, the dragon didn't have much to worry about. I was able to pull off Bum Rush, so with the added bonus of Celes' Rune skill, the battle was over in a few rounds.

Near the Red Dragon are three switches and only one does anything readily noticeable, and that only while we're on the switch. So, this must mean that both groups need to be on the other two simultaneously. Having pulled a switch that both lowered the water needed to reach the Red Dragon as well as cooling the lava flow, from a now accessible chest, we get another Ribbon! Sweeeeeet. Now having both groups together and activating the dual switch, we finally run into Locke opening a treasure chest. I'm not really sure how Locke could have gotten past the dual switch by himself. And what was in the chest? The Phoenix Magicite. Yay!! Oh, but it's cracked, and possibly powerless. Locke, too, has lost his purpose due to his inability to save Rachel. But he does agree to join, if only to reach Kohlingen. The scene then shifts to Kohlingen and Locke trying to revive Rachel with the Phoenix shard. The old man is now referred to as Patriarch. The shard then rises above Rachel and we get a nifty Phoenix image spanning the entire screen, after which the shard shatters. But it worked! Rachel opens her eyes and we get a tender reunion, but only long enough for her to tell him her true feelings while afflicted with amnesia. As she truly passes on, the power of Phoenix is given to Locke, as well as her freeing him from his inner burden. Celes is waiting for Locke upstairs and just before leaving town, Locke retrieves the treasures from the Phoenix Cave. This leaves only Terra and the Yeti.

Before heading back to Mobliz to see if Terra will finally join, looking at the Phoenix esper, those are some nice spells. Heading into Mobliz, it looks like Duane and Katarin were getting busy as Katarin is now pregnant. Heading to the other house and following the Interceptor clone down some hidden stairs, we see Katarin and Terra in the basement. Duane tries to reconcile with Katarin after doing some unknown mean thing to her, but is interrupted by Phunbaba. I guess it likes hanging around this town. We head out to take care of the big tub o' goo again, hopefully for good this time. After blowing Locke and Gau out of battle, the fight comes to an abrupt end and Terra runs out of the house. Transforming into Esper form, she joins Setzer and Shadow and the battle recommences. Doing nothing but physical attacks, Phunbaba goes down ridiculously easily. After the kids surround us, probably to thank us for defeating Phunbaba, Terra flies in, still in Esper form, scaring the kids, who think she's another monster. One little girl plucks up the courage to approach as she can sense that it's actually Terra. Terra now has the will to fight again (for the children's future!) and promises to return when the world's safe. Terra is finally back in the party, but Locke and Gau are still MIA. Whew! They're on the airship.

Checking out the building near Maranda, it turns out the Opera House is still in business. So let's check it out. Hmm, seems something has the Impresario in a tizzy. What? There's a dragon on-stage? Let's see what we can do about that. Well, I can finish off the rats in the rafters I avoided from when I fought Ultros. Ok, Stage Master, I'm not supposed to press the wrong switch. So, which is the RIGHT switch? I guess we'll just have to press every switch and see what happens. One makes a barking sound. The next one turns off the lights in the theater. The next one opens a trap door right in front of the switch that we fall down... Yeah, I can really see it being designed that way. Now sliding onto stage in front of the dragon, we get to fight the Dirt Dragon. Great, it casts Earthquake. And then when I cast Float on everyone, it pulls out an attack that does enough to finish off one character. Some Life spells later and Shadows 4x attack, it goes down without too much of a struggle. All we get is a thank you from the receptionist and a line from the Impresario that seems more appropriate before taking on the dragon than after. With nothing else to do here, let's head back to Narshe and try again to get the Yeti.

Heading into Narshe, it turns out Locke can actually pick the locks on the doors. Well, it's about time. It's a good thing, too, since there's supposed to be someone in the weapon shop that wants to meet us, but the door's locked. Hmm, no one home. But there is what looks like another door. Heading through it, there's an old man sitting in here, as well as free rest in his bed. Talking to the old man, he produces a Magicite shard. Hmm, I get the option of taking it as is as the Ragnarok Esper or having it forged into the sword Ragnarok... Looks like a pick one option, see what it does, reload, pick the other option, and then decide situation. Well, the Ragnarok Esper gives the spell Ultima, which I like. Reloading, the sword has some nice stats. I think I'll go with the Esper. Another guy in town gives us a Cursed Shield muttering about how powerful it would be if only the curse could be broken. Hmm... With nothing else to do in the town, it's time to head back into the mines to kill a dragon, pick up an esper, and get Yeti to join.

Back at the Ice Dragon, it pretty much turned into an auto-battle as the dragon froze everyone except Gau with its first attack. Luckily, Gau was pulling off Catscratches just about every round. Only Setzer wasn't able to survive the fight. Proceeding to the cliff with Tritoch, we enter another battle against it. Do we actually get to fight it this time? Well, physical attacks do just about nothing. Since it's encased in ice, let's try Fire spells. Yep, those work nicely. Finally melting Tritoch out, it transforms into a Magicite shard. Woohoo! Ooh, Fire 3, Ice 3, and Bolt 3. Defeating Tritoch causes the cliff where it had been perched to give way for some reason. Investigating it, we of course jump into the newly formed opening and land in a new area of the mines, complete with torches already installed. Fun, trap tiles. Hunting around the floor we fell into, we find a Gauntlet which we could have had way back when we first encountered Banon. Pulling some switches that activate trapdoors in front of them, we spy a skeleton standing on a thatched mat. Examining it gets us the Magicite Terrato. Nice! It also summons a Yeti from the chamber behind the skeleton.

I guess it didn't like us taking its bauble and decides to take it back by force. Easily defeating the Yeti, it sits cowering in the corner. I wonder if I need to have Mog in my party for it to join... Warping out of town, we head to the airship, swapping out party members to get Mog and Terra, since she's a little lower level. Making our way back to the Yeti, I guess Mog IS the boss of him, as the Yeti joins because Mog tells him to. Now with UMARO in our party, that should be everyone possible. Umaro takes off to the airship, and since there's nothing else to do here, we'll follow his lead and head there ourselves. You know, I never did see if anything changed at the beach Celes washed up on. Heading back to Cid's house, would you look at that! There's a Magicite shard washed up on shore. Picking up the Palidor Esper, as well as doing some easy fishing to fill out some Rare items with the different fish types. Since we now have some decently full spell books, it's time to tackle the Cult of Kefka's Tower.

Back at the Cult's Tower, I'm guessing this place is going to be littered with magic casters, so everyone gets a Wall Ring to wear. This place is a very nice source of MP, even if only using magic is a bit annoying. Ah, so that's what the "to the right of the treasure chest" refers to. I wonder what the Air Anchor does. Ok, Rasp is just annoying. Good thing I happen to have Mog in my party since Setzer is now useless with 0 MP and can't even cast Osmose to get any back (I've never broken the curse on the Cursed Shield, so I had him equipped with a Ribbon to nullify everything but the death countdown and a Cure Ring, which will be getting replaced by another Wall Ring when we come back). Plus, Warp doesn't work here. So, on goes the Moogle Charm and off to Thamasa for 1GP rest.

Back to the Cult's Tower and hopefully better luck. A ridiculous number of floors up, we run into the White Dragon, just chillin' inside a random room. After it had Pearl reflected back at it, it decided it was going to be smart and Dispell our Reflect spells. And that's all it did for the entire battle -- try to Dispell our Wall Rings. So we just reflected back a bunch of Fire 2 & 3 spells and wiped the walls with it. Lovely, there's a monster that casts Earthquake, which Reflect doesn't protect against. Looks like everyone will be Floating now. And one that can cast Merton (Merton?) and Meteor. Whoopee!! What's next? Ultima?

Finally scaling the tower to the roof, since the spells they have just keep getting stronger, I might need to have Setzer cast Life 3 on everyone if I get into a battle, since I don't think I would be able to survive Ultima if anything can cast it. Taking the Gem Box from the penthouse suite, we get surrounded by the cult members as we try to leave, commanding us to return Kefka's Treasure. Not even giving us a chance to do so, a ghost flies in and we get into a boss battle against a MagiMaster. With that kind of name, I'm guessing it can cast EVERYTHING. So, Life 3 on everyone it is. Talk about an annoying battle, lots of spells being reflected off my party and hardly any hitting because he changes Elemental Resistance after every attack, with an Ultima deathblow retaliation to boot. The Megalixir we received for our trouble could come in very handy during the final battle. That over, I need to head back to the Ancient Castle and defeat the dragon there again since I reloaded before that battle. Since there's still monsters roaming the tower, and no Save Point, it's Moogle Charm for smooth sailing out of here.

Noticing Mog is still missing two dances, after looking up what he's missing, we head over to the Figaro Desert to learn that one, and the only place I can think of with mountain terrain is Zozo Mountain. Now with all eight dances learned, it's back to Figaro Castle. Putting Umaro in the party, he can't use Espers, either. Well, there's another nearly useless to me character. Or maybe not. That Blizzard Orb I picked up for him gives him a very nice all enemy attack. Well, unless we run into monsters that are immune or absorb ice spells, maybe. Well, that blizzard spell is pretty useless against the monsters in the cave to the Ancient Castle, and equipping the Rage Ring does give him a decent single enemy attack. But these monsters are just giving too much MP to waste not having someone learning spells, so, so long Umaro. We take out the Blue Dragon again, which seemed much tougher this time. Since I'd rather have Meteor than Quick, we'll leave Odin as is and leave the castle. Maybe if everyone learns Meteor, I'll come back and level Odin up. Only 2 dragons left. Now that I've been everywhere, the only place left is Kefka's Tower. The final two dragons must be in here.

Flying over to Kefka's Tower which is rising SO far above the land, just like the mountains..., we'll be splitting into three groups. Since I don't feel like constantly changing up Relics, I reload and head over to Thamasa, buying Cure and Wall Rings for all 14 members. I've got about 900K GP and nothing else to spend it on. Landing ON the Tower, Celes has reservations about completing the task at hand since it will involve destroying the goddess statues and therefore possibly eliminating all magic and espers, which then begs the question of what will happen to Terra. Leaving Mog and Umaro behind, the other 12 jump off the airship, landing a bit apart on the tower, which seems to be carved into a mountain, going by the terrain features. I guess it's off to make our way through another long switch, lever, and party switching area.

Oops. I guess I should equip everyone. Making our way into some prison cells, the plumbing is on the fritz as none of the toilets flush. Boooooooo!! Just lovely -- we get enemies that have a deathblow retaliation that knocks out whoever deals it, plus Lvl 5 Doom. Also in one of the cells is Atma. I thought we already killed you. Friggin' Earthquake! And then Meteor! Grrrr. Well, I'm not gonna keep trying to get everyone back, so I'll just beat it with Celes healing and Shadow 4x attacking. It was worth defeating, though, as it was parked on top of a Save Point. And we can Osmose the crap out of the monsters in here, completely replenishing everyone's MP. Woohoo! Another Ribbon! That makes four of them, just enough for everyone in a single group. After tripping the switch that opens the path for Terra's group, heading back and taking the other path, we run into the first of the remaining two dragons, facing off against the Gold Dragon. Ooooookay, the Wall Ring doesn't protect against Giga Volt. I guess I'll have to have Celes constantly doing Runic. I guess I could have made the battle a little shorter by leaving the Offering on Shadow instead of equipping everyone with Wall Rings. Oh, well, not that it was difficult. Finally reaching a dead end with Celes' group, we're at a room with three switches that I'm guessing all three groups will have to be standing on and 4t weights directly above two of the switches. Oh, oh!

Switching to Setzer's group, we accidentally get back on the ship. Dangit!! But how did everyone get back so easily? A ways into the tower, a figure jumps off a girder and ambushes the group. A boss battle against Inferno with two arms named Striker and Rough ensues. Whee! The arms regenerate a few rounds after defeating them. Other than Inferno casting Meteor a couple times, and a strong counterattack, it wasn't too tough a battle. With that out of the way, we get to a chest and a red glowy thingy. Examining it, we hear a loud noise, but nothing else. Ok. Shortly after this, we see the eighth and final dragon, the Skull Dragon. Not putting up too much of a fight, the last dragon falls, the previously unmentioned Dragon Seal is broken, and we get the Crusader Magicite. Woohoo!! Looking at it, I guess I'll be heading back to level up Odin as Crusader has Meteor at a x10 learn rate as well as Merton. With that task taken care of, it's back to Kefka's Tower.

Since Gogo isn't as useful as I thought he would be, I'm leaving him behind with Umaro this time. Gee, aren't Doom Dragons fun. Their Fallen One attack takes everyone's HP to 1. Aha! The chest with the red glowing thing actually clears a path to the west. I just didn't notice it. Setzer's group arrives at their switch and with Celes' group on theirs, the door on the upper walkway opens. I guess that's where Terra's group will be heading. I hope Terra's group can do something about those weights right above the other groups. Making their way past the rubble Setzer's group cleared and through the center door, we have another triple switch. Stepping on the center switch does nothing. Let's try the left switch. And when we head left, the path back gets blocked. The switch also does nothing. Ok, maybe the weight? Noticing there's no railing in front of the weight, we move Celes off the switch and push the weight off the ledge. Opening a space in the railing to allow Celes to do the same thing to allow Setzer access, we all step on our switches. This lowers a stairway to the door above as well as some other thing behind that went by to quickly for me to see. Ah, it must have raised the walkway to be able to reach the door to activate the upper switch from the previous room. That switch then made doors appear on both sides so everyone can finally meet up.

Or not. Heading around, Terra's group arrives at the first of the three goddess statues. Approaching the statue to examine it, we're attacked by Doom. Well, I've got Ultima, might as well use it. That was probably a bit of overkill, but it did do a tidy 9999 damage. Doom quickly goes down without much of a fight and reveals a Save Point underneath it. Heading through the pipe behind, we get yet another switch.

Switching to Celes, we get a fight against Goddess. Ultima worked so well the last time, let's try it again! Gau can't quite get 9999 with it, but a guaranteed 9000+ is better than a possible Catscratch. Shadow does almost as much with the 4x attack as Ultima. A few rounds later, and Goddess is also toast, revealing another Save Point. Heading through the now unblocked door, we arrive at another switch.

And on to the final group. Heading through the door, a rather large suit of armor is blocking our way. Approaching it, it turns out to be the Guardian we ran into a while back at the Imperial Castle. But now we can actually damage it (we better have been able to). Since I was having a hard time pulling off Sabin's Bum Rush, the battle took longer than it should have. It also reveals a Save Point. After a short hike, we make it to the final statue, Poltergeist. Since I only have one member with Ultima, let's put that Gem Box to use, along with a Gold Hairpin. That worked like a Charm. It would have been nice to pull off more Bum Rushes, though. Oh, wait. But now all the statues are destroyed! No more magic? Well, not exactly. Turns out Kefka somehow drained the statues' power. Huh. Coulda fooled me, going by the battles I just witnessed. No Save Point revealed, but there is one through the door beyond.

Falling through the hole in the floor directly behind the Save Point, we finally arrive at the final switch, which causes tractor beams to come down and suck all three groups up to... I recognize that cackle. What's the haps, Kefka? After a long exchange of words, with everyone saying what brings each of them joy, the 12 members are placed in the order in which they'll join the fight and the battle starts. Aw, man. I thought I'd get a prep screen, so no one has any Relics or Espers equipped. Not even a chance to review the party. Because, you know, everyone has memorized every single aspect of every character. Just a list of the characters. Well, looks like a reload and I'll have to sit through that again....

Since we have all these tents laying around, let's get everyone healed up. Ok. Let's get everything prepped before the cutscene. I'm going to try to get through this with my first four:
Terra has the highest amount of MP, and she has Ultima, so Gold Hairpin and Gem Box
Shadow with Genji Glove and Offering for, I believe, 8 attacks
Strago with Gold Hairpin for Ultima
Sabin with Hero Ring to help out his Blitz
My backup plan will be to go get Gogo to Mime the double Ultima attack.

Since this isn't Kefka, looks like we'll be getting a boss rush. That's a bunch of BS. Being stoned at the end of a boss counts as being knocked out. Reload. Nice. The arms of the first boss can be affected by the insta-kill weapon ability. This whole knocked out or stoned at the end of a boss thing is a load of crap. Dragon Quest handles this aspect so much better. Damn BS super strong or auto-death retaliations are the ONLY thing that give this game any difficulty. Since I'm at Kefka, I guess I'll live with Shadow being knocked out. Locke jumps in. Except for the Fallen One Kefka starts out with (yay, Megalixir!), with Strago, Locke, and Terra all casting Ultima (and Terra twice per round), Kefka goes down in three rounds and disintegrates into nothingness. Oh, no! My game locked up as the battle screen fades out. No, wait. A button push gets us out of battle.

Everything is breaking up -- of course. Gogo and Umaro run in to join the party. Terra transforms into Esper form and collapses. Hmm, is magic truly going to disappear and Terra going to go the way of the dodo? The Magicite shards rise into the air and, um, explode? Ah, I guess that was how they decided to represent disappearing. Terra leads them out and the end sequence begins. After the rather lengthy end sequence and credits, there's a very nice FMV.

Playtime: 54:23. Everyone was around Level 50. Almost broke 1M GP, finishing with 940,750. Almost hit 100k steps, with 97,976.

I give it a 9/10.