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Lando, Leia and Banon's Great Adventure

5 (26.3%)

Luke's Modern Odyssey

5 (26.3%)

Locke's Marginally Okay Journey

4 (21.1%)

Mystery Vote of Mystery

5 (26.3%)

Total Members Voted: 11

[USEC_OFFICER]

Spoiler: Introduction (click to show/hide)

You know, I always wanted to do a LP of one of those famous SNES era RPGs. I've read tons of them on the LP archive, and

they seem pretty damn fun to do. Admittedly the workload will be pretty big, but it's mostly transcribing so I won't be

writing a novellete for every update like some of my other LPs.


Obviously the most important choice for this LP was choosing a game to play. At first I wanted to do Chrono Trigger, which

is my favourite RPG of all time, bar none. But it took me fifty hours to beat the game in my first run, and I wasn't

looking forward to going through the entire thing again. Plus doing a LP would rub off a little of the nostalgia too.


My second choice was Earthbound, which I also loved, but never completed. Thus I had another incentive to carry this LP

through to the end. But the plot in Earthbound is a little thin at times, and I don't think that I'm a good enough Let's

Player to do it justice. So, what other big SNES RPG could I play?


That's right! Final Fantasy VI! Err... I mean III! Um... you see when Final Fantasy III VI was released in America,

only two previous Final Fantasy titles were localized (Final Fantasy I and IV, I believe). Thus the American localization

was renamed Final Fantasy III, thus causing much confusion. Or something like that. The only Final Fantasy game I've

played was this one back in spring.


I quite enjoyed Final Fantasy III VI. The gameplay got a little grindy at times, but the story was pretty awesome.

I also missed quite a lot of stuff in my first play through, so this time I get to follow guides find all the

things I bypassed, including all of the optional characters.


More importantly, I never finished the final dungeon, because of a gimmick that would have required hours of grinding to

get past. I'm not going to spoil anything about the gimmick, but I'm assuming that 95% of you know what I'm talking about

and how I got stuck. So hop-


Oh. The prologue has started. I'll just shut up.











(WEDGE): Hard to believe an Esper's been found intact there, 1000 years after the

War of the Magi...

(VICKS): Think it's still alive?

(WEDGE): Probably... ... judging from the urgency of our orders.


(VICKS): I heard she fried 50 of our Magitek Armoured soldiers in under 3 minutes.

(I'm calling bullshit. She wouldn't be able to kill all of those soldiers while going through the entire battle sequence.)

(WEDGE): Not to worry. The Slave Crown on her head robs her of all conscious

thought. She'll follow orders.





What follows next is a very long credit sequence where Vicks, Wedge and the Mysterious Girl walk to the town in their Magitek armour (those grey mecha-suits). I'll post

the credits in its own spoiler, because the guys who made this game deserve the recognition.

Spoiler: In-Game Credits (click to show/hide)

And thus the game begins...

UPDATES:

Update 0: Introduction

Update 1: Magiteking

Update 2: A New Dope

Update 3: The Empire Strikes First

Update 4: Look at that S. Figaro

Update 5: Everybody was Kung-Fu Fighting

[USEC_OFFICER]

Update 1: Magiteking

Spoiler: Wherein I ramble about menus for far too long (click to show/hide)

And now control is finally given to the player. Yay!


Trying to leave causes Wedge to yell about the Esper in the town. Sheez, we get it already. Anyways, while we're here why not check out the menu?


Despite Wedge talking about putting the girl on front, she's actually on the back of the party.

On the right side of the screen are the various submenus, including the save option, which we can only use in certain locations. Item opens up your inventory, Skills shows you a character's abilities and any magic they learn. Equip allows you to equip arms and armour onto characters, while Relic allows the same things but with Relics. Status brings up the current stats of a character, while config opens up the options.

If you bring the pointer to the left side of the screen, you can fiddle around with the party order. I'm going to do that now.


There. I moved ?? to the front and the useless mooks fellow party members to the back. I've also moved everyone in the back row, where they'll take less damage, but also do less damage with their attacks.


Despite carrying around three grand in gold, our inventory is completely devoid of anything.


Being a sorceress, ?? knows a bit of magic, namely cure and fire. If you don't know what those two spells do, shame on you. Fire is a magic attack, and all magic attacks ignore damage reduction from being in the back row. Thus all squishy mages should hang out in the back for extra protection. Fire also happens to be the most useful spell this update. Cure heals a bit of HP and will suffice for a while.


The mysterious girl is currently equipped with the crappiest equipment in the game. Oddly enough we can't access Wedge and Vicks's equipment screen, despite them instrumental and no-doubt long-lasting characters in the story.


We currently have no relics, and won't get any in the next update or two.


Honestly the status screen is pretty redundant. The equipment/relic screen shows a character's basic stats, and the main menu shows a character's level, HP and MP. The only thing new that the status screen shows us is a character's EXP, and what commands a character can use in battle (ie fight, magic and item). However fight and item are common to all characters (more or less), and the skill screen also shows whatever cool abilities a person can do.



However, the status screen is great for seeing the stats of any one-off characters that join your party, since you can't access their equipment or skills. Of course, being NPCs, the only reason that you'd want to do so is if... say... you were doing a LP.


Chances are you'll only use the config screen once or twice. Setting Battle Mode to wait pauses the game while you go through menus in a battle. Setting it to active will not cause the game wait. Everything else should be self-explanatory, and probably shouldn't be touched. The battle speed could be bumped up a point though.


If you scroll down to the bottom of the screen you can fiddle around with the order that magic spells appear in your spellbook, and the window style/colours. I'll be sticking with the default window, since the rest of them are all butt-ugly.


Alright, enough about the menus. Let's go find that Esper.

Spoiler: Wherein my evil plan is revealed and Magitek is used (click to show/hide)

For this map all of the battles are predetermined. Since I want as much EXP as possible, I'm going to blunder into all of them.


The first battle is right in front of this inn here.


A guard appears and sicks his attack dog Lobo on our party before running away like a coward.


Remember how I said that Fire is the most important spell this update?


Well EXP is shared among all alive party members.


And Fire is currently the only attack that hits party members.




After a couple more of Fires, Wedge and Vicks are down for the count. If you don't care about hurting the mysterious girl, you can take both of them down with 2-3 Fires by hitting the L or R buttons. Doing so turns Fire into a multi-target spell, meaning that you can either hit all enemies or all party members for the same MP cost as one Fire (4 MP, if you're wondering). Focusing your fire on one target does do more damage, but sometimes you have to spread the love around.


Anyways with our two EXP-stealers down for the count, we can finally show that Lobo what Magitek armour does. Remember how the status screen showed that ??, Wedge and Vicks had the Fight command? Well it was lying. When you're in Magitek armour the Fight command changes into Magitek, which allows you to do a bunch of different attacks/abilities. The four basic Magiteks are:


Fire Beam


Lightning Beam


Ice Beam


and Heal Force. Final Fantasy VI III has a basic elemental type system, so Fire Beam does Fire damage, Lightning does Lightning damage, etc.

That's all very good and all, but this sorceress also has additional Magiteks.


Bio Blast is probably the most useful Magitek,


Because it hits every enemy for nasty-poison type damage. :3


In contrast Confuser is completely useless.


Using it causes ?? to turn into a one-woman rave party, while the enemies get their freak on.


At the end the enemies will become confused (duh) and start attacking themselves like they were Pokemon or something. But... enemies are barely doing any damage right now, and unlike Pokemon hitting yourself removes the confused status effect.


X-fer is only slightly more useful than Confuser right now.


Using it causes the Aurora Borealis to come down...


And whisk the targeted enemy away (assuming that it actually hits).


TekMissile is the last of the Magiteks.


Basically, it's exactly what it says on the tin.


It's also the most powerful Magitek but... all of our attacks can one-shot enemies. Thus Bio Blast is the most most useful Magitek, since it'll clear the screen in one blast.

Spoiler: Wherein we get some more plot (click to show/hide)

If you haven't realized it by now, everyone in Magitek armour is overpowered, so ?? can solo this entire section for EXP. Overall she gains three levels, which will come in handy later when the inevitable happens.


Of course, no matter how powerful you are, you're still no match for the invisible wall.


If you go through the arch to the west of the inn, you run into these two idiots. Needless to say, combat was brief.


The next scripted battle takes place on the intersection between these two grates. If you hate EXP, you could always go around.


Obviously we love EXP.


The enemies come in two waves.


One wave is made up of Lobos,


And the other comprises of guards. Both waves go down easily.



Due to invisible walls, you have no choice but to head north.


Where you promptly get ambushed from both sides of the alley.


Being surrounded means that the enemies get us in a pincer attack, which would be BAD if we weren't in the Magitek suits. In pincer attacks enemies are split up into two different groups,


Meaning that it takes two Bio Blasts to kill everybody. Enemies will also do more damage when attacking characters in the back (facing is determined by which group of enemies is getting their asses kicked by said character).


Later on we can execute our own pincer attacks, but for now we have no choice but to head north into the next area.


*Yawn*


Wait, what's this? Narshe has werewolves?


Oh. They're Mammoths Vomammoths. Whatever shall I do?


Yeah, you saw that coming. I'd talk more about the enemies and their deadly attacks if I wasn't too busy one-shotting them.


?? gained a level up from this battle, and also learned Antdot! Err... I mean Antidote. Due to programming constraints spells can't be more than six letters long. For 3 MP Antdot cures the poison status effect, which is useful for cheap smart people who don't want to waste an item to do so (spoiler: the item is called antidote and costs all of 50 GP).


At the end of the pathway is a mineshaft, where Wedge and Vicks get to do some serious plot exposition.


Or not...


The mineshaft is the first place where we encounter the JRPG staple, random battles.


The only enemies I encountered are these Were-Rats, but more enemies exist (as we'll find out).


To the west is an invisible wall, while to the east is a save point. Let's go there next.




Yeah, why not.

At Save Points you can use a "Sleeping Bag" or "Tent", and also save a game. If you should perish, you'll automatically be able to play from your last save. Though any GP, treasures, etc. you found will have to be found again, your Level and EXP. data will be retained. You can save a game anywhere on the world map.

Thanks save point!


The northern-most section of the mine-shaft is blocked by a hastily constructed wooden fence.


Don't worry about it though, Vicks has got this.



And instead of blasting it with his beams, he runs into it. You know, for a wounded guy Vicks is pretty damn reckless.


: ...

: ...


The guards aren't too happy about Vicks breaking down their wall, and sic their Whelk on the party.


Yes, Whelk is an actual whelk (sea snail).


However this is Final Fantasy and Whelk is technically a boss, so Wedge and Vicks decide pop up from the dead to toss off some critical information.

(VICKS): Hold it! Think back to our briefing...

(WEDGE): What about it?

(VICKS): Do you recall hearing about a monster that eats lightning...

(WEDGE): And shits thunder? ... ... and stores the energy in its shell!

(Huh. I just realized that this game uses a single character for the Ellipsis [You know ...] instead of three periods.)

(VICKS): Right. So whatever you do, don't attack the shell!

(WEDGE): Alright already!


Having dispensed their little speech, Wedge and Vicks return to peaceful oblivion.

Spoiler: Wherein I lay the smack-down on a Buccinidae (click to show/hide)

Whelk is a pretty lame boss as far as these things go.


It likes to cast Slime, which gives a character the slow status effect. Final Fantasy III VI uses an action-bar system instead of a pure turn-based one. Thus slow halves the rate at which the action bar increases, which is pretty damn annoying. Obviously we'll want to inflict slow on bosses and really tough enemies whenever possible.


The sorceress should be using TekMissile to attack, since four or five of these things will bring the over-sized snail down.


Every-so-often Whelk will mutter Gruuu...... and retreat into its shell.


Thus any attacks you have queued up will hit the shell instead.


The Whelk shell will then counter with Mega Volt, which is incredibly dangerous, taking off large chunks of your health.


After a while the Whelk will yell Gruuu...... again and leave it's shell for more punishment. If ?? gets slowed her action bar will fill up in the same amount of time that it takes the Whelk to pop in and out of its, so don't be an idiot like me and think that you have time to do something while it's in its shell.


After wailing on the Whelk head for long enough, it'll turn red and die horribly.


By fading out of existence, of course.


After becoming a champion snail smasher, you have a easy walk to the frozen Esper.


Assuming that you don't run into a random battle.

Spoiler: Wherein we get some plot and end the update with a question (click to show/hide)

*Ahem*




The Esper begins to glow with a blue light.


Oh shi- I'm not ready to fight an Esper.


The Esper has dimmed the lights at this point.






Wedge freaks the hell out...


Before Disappearing with a capital D.

(VICKS): Wedge......where are you? W......what's happening?!


Vicks soon joins his companion. Rest in peace, Wedge and Vicks. It's a shame that I couldn't loot your bodies.


The mysterious girl is completely unfazed by this.



She remains unfazed when the frozen Esper begins to blast with with freaking lightning bolts!



And she sure as hell doesn't care when she bloody explodes!

...

...

...


By bloody I meant the swearword, not the adjective.


??'s benefactor is content with creepily staring at her, so let's see if we have control back, shall we?


Ah. Excellent.

: Where am I...?

: Gah!

(RPG LP convention states that any italicized sentences are added by the OP. Just so you know)

: Whoa! And I only just removed the crown!

: ...head...hurts...

: Aeeiiii!





: Easy! This is a Slave Crown. The others had complete control over you while you were wearing it.

(Fun Fact: We'll never see or hear of Slave Crowns again. What a waste of a good plot device.)

: I can't remember a thing...

: Don't worry. It'll all come back to you...in time, that is.

... ... ...


Ooh, ooh! This screen appears whenever you get to name an playable character so...


Yes! Here we go! We finally get to name this mysterious girl! Her default name is Terra in the American localization to give her an air of mystery. Amusingly enough, she's named Tina in the Japanese version for the exact same reason.

Technically we're limited to six characters max, but we could always but in an abbreviation and spell the name out in full for the LP. The only characters we can use for the name are shown, so we can't name her @#$%^& if we wanted too.

Anyways, Bay12 get naming!

Well, how is it? My emulator is using the lower SNES resolution, so the size of the screenshots will increase in the next update.

[Neonivek]

I wouldn't call BS on her being able to kill 50 soldiers in 3 minutes.

your forgetting that characters are a lot more different in Cutscenes then in battle.

For all you know she forced them all to fight her in a Cutscene. which pretty much makes her absolutely unabashingly evil.

[USEC_OFFICER]

I wouldn't call BS on her being able to kill 50 soldiers in 3 minutes.

your forgetting that characters are a lot more different in Cutscenes then in battle.

For all you know she forced them all to fight her in a Cutscene. which pretty much makes her absolutely unabashingly evil.

Damn it, I forgot about story and gameplay segregation, didn't I.

[Neonivek]

After playing Way of the Samurai 4 I am starting to believe that Story and Gameplay arn't segregated. It is just that they don't have a choice over which they will settle things by.

So right now you KNOW she is a villain because she forces people into Cutscene battles. Heros challenge people into gameplay battles, villains are the only ones who can challenge people into cutscene battles.

[BunnyBob77]

Oh hey, a Final Fantasy VI LP.  I loved that game, and I never beat the final dungeon either.  Probably had something to do with the fact that my party was horribly underleveled and I had gotten through previous parts of the game with really cheap tactics.

[Remalle]

Hmm.  Never got far in FFVI myself, but I'd love to watch somebody else do it for me
Since my translation named the two guys in the intro Wedge and Biggs, I named my party members after Star Wars characters.  Terra was Leia, of course.

[Myroc]

Nothing wrong with default names. Terra should suffice.

[Aboth Ber]

Hmm.  Never got far in FFVI myself, but I'd love to watch somebody else do it for me
Since my translation named the two guys in the intro Wedge and Biggs, I named my party members after Star Wars characters.  Terra was Leia, of course.

Wow... Terra was Leia? What next? Locke was Han Solo? Old English Speaker Cyan was Yoda?

[Itnetlolor]

FFVI is a classic. I wasn't able to beat it on the original console, but via emulator (of course, playing classicly (savestates only to backup data/used on save points/easy navigation for replaying key events/favorite (mostly 1-time) battles/regions)) I was able to accomplish it better. Also kinda helped that with ZSNES, I had a fast-forward button to use to make short many random battles. Grinding takes far less time with FF on a FF game.

I like that easy EXP trick you used for the beginning sequence. Saves time in the beginning of the game to level her up a bit. Especially during the next sequences.

[ed boy]

Hmm.  Never got far in FFVI myself, but I'd love to watch somebody else do it for me
Since my translation named the two guys in the intro Wedge and Biggs, I named my party members after Star Wars characters.  Terra was Leia, of course.

Wow... Terra was Leia? What next? Locke was Han Solo? Old English Speaker Cyan was Yoda?

I fully support naming each of the characters after star wars characters.

[USEC_OFFICER]

I like that easy EXP trick you used for the beginning sequence. Saves time in the beginning of the game to level her up a bit. Especially during the next sequences.

Well I've seen it before in other LPs, so I thought that I would give it a try here. I'm glad to see that it worked here. Future NPCs will be more lucky than Wedge and Vicks though, mostly because they're essential.

Hmm.  Never got far in FFVI myself, but I'd love to watch somebody else do it for me
Since my translation named the two guys in the intro Wedge and Biggs, I named my party members after Star Wars characters.  Terra was Leia, of course.

Wow... Terra was Leia? What next? Locke was Han Solo? Old English Speaker Cyan was Yoda?

I fully support naming each of the characters after star wars characters.

If I could remember more about Star Wars I'd definitively do that.

...

I'll flip a coin do decide between the original Final Fantasy III/VI names and Star Wars names.

[ed boy]

Hmm.  Never got far in FFVI myself, but I'd love to watch somebody else do it for me
Since my translation named the two guys in the intro Wedge and Biggs, I named my party members after Star Wars characters.  Terra was Leia, of course.

Wow... Terra was Leia? What next? Locke was Han Solo? Old English Speaker Cyan was Yoda?

I fully support naming each of the characters after star wars characters.

If I could remember more about Star Wars I'd definitively do that.

...

I'll flip a coin do decide between the original Final Fantasy III/VI names and Star Wars names.

There's plenty of star wars names to use, some of them will just have to be slightly more obscure than the others. The list of avaiable names expands greatly of one includes the prequel trilogy. I'm sure that as the new characters are introduced we'll be able to easily procure names as needed.

[USEC_OFFICER]

Hmm.  Never got far in FFVI myself, but I'd love to watch somebody else do it for me
Since my translation named the two guys in the intro Wedge and Biggs, I named my party members after Star Wars characters.  Terra was Leia, of course.

Wow... Terra was Leia? What next? Locke was Han Solo? Old English Speaker Cyan was Yoda?

I fully support naming each of the characters after star wars characters.

If I could remember more about Star Wars I'd definitively do that.

...

I'll flip a coin do decide between the original Final Fantasy III/VI names and Star Wars names.

There's plenty of star wars names to use, some of them will just have to be slightly more obscure than the others. The list of avaiable names expands greatly of one includes the prequel trilogy. I'm sure that as the new characters are introduced we'll be able to easily procure names as needed.

But what's the point of naming everybody after Star Wars characters if I don't throw in a couple references every update?

[USEC_OFFICER]

Spoiler: Wherein we start off with some plot and use tons of punctuation (click to show/hide)

Alright then. Star Wars won the coin flip, so Terra is now officially Princess Leia!

: My name... ...is...LEIA...

: Impressive! I've never heard of anyone recovering this fast...!

(I think that I've figured out why people these days rarely use punctuation. Japanese RPGs have been stealing it! Just look at all of those goddamn ellipses, they can't have gotten them legally!)


: Woof! Woof!


: Open up! Give us back the girl and the Empire's Magitek Armour!!



: Empire...?
Magitek Armour...?
Imperial Stardestroyer...?

: Look, I have to get you out of here! I don't have time to explain get in the car!




Just don't forget to grab that Elixir in the clock before you scram. It heals... all HP and MP? I've never used them before, because they're a bit on the rare side and I love to hoard items.



Trying to open the door just causes the soldier to spew the same lines as before.








*Facepalm* Leia, you bloody idiot.

Spoiler: Wherein we go through some mines (click to show/hide)

Right, well now we have a short dungeon sequence since none of the guards in town has a ranged weapon.


Somehow we've gained a couple of sleeping bags from somewhere. Probably nicked them received them from that old man.


Since she is at level 6 I'm sticking Leia into the front row. Why?


Because she can one-shot anything with her dagger from there.


I doubt that the enemies will have time to do anything interesting, so let's talk about Leia herself, shall we?


Leia can quite easily become a kick-ass mage. She gains a large pool of MP, gets the stats to back it up, learns tons of awesome spells and has very good equipment options. Surprisingly enough, she's also not that bad of a fighter (mostly due to her weapon selection), but magic is overall more useful than stabbing people in the face, and other characters are more stab-happy. Still, she's an excellent party member to have.


The only problem with Leia is that... she's not awesome right now. My bladder has a bigger MP pool than her, and she barely has any spells that she can cast, most of which will drain her MP fairly quickly. She's also a bit on the squishy side, especially with her current armour. Thank Armok for all of those extra levels she picked up at the beginning though.




Anyways this dungeon is incredibly linear and short, so if you need a step-by-step guide you should probably quit playing now.



The only interesting loot in the place are in these two chests, which contain a sleeping bag and a phoenix fenix down. A Fenix is apparently a poor-man's substitute for a phoenix, or a way for the item to get below the character limit. Either way, a fenix down will revive one character who's dead. I also think that it kills/damages the undead, but I'm not 100% sure. Fenix downs are sold in shops for something like 1200GP, which is out of our price r-






Bugger. Leia seems to have wandered into a trap while I was rambling.


Eh, four guards against a flame-flinging magic user? Leia still has full HP, so I think that she can tank-


...


Or she can fall through the floor. That works too.





: Auugh..


And then Leia gets hit with a case of amnesia and collapses. Damn it.




Apparently amnesia exhaustion triggers flash-backs or something.
























: We stand on the brink of a major breakthrough! In the days to come, we'll witness a total revival of magic! It is our destiny and our alone to take this mystic force and claim what is rightfully ours!


: Hurrah!!! Long live Emperor Gestahl Palpatine!!!




Oh, we're back here? Well let's get Leia walking and we can continue-


No no no no don't fade to black


Damn it! I guess that we need a hero to save the day or something.

Spoiler: Wherein we introduce a new character (click to show/hide)

Unfortunately we get this guy.






Bwhahahaha don't kid yourself buddy.


This idiot is Locke. If you can't tell yet, I hate him completely. I hate him as a character, as a person, and as a party member. He makes a good bench warmer though.


But I guess that this LP is going to be Star Wars themed...


Screw that. Locke isn't cool enough to be Hans Solo. Or any other character from Star Wars. That's right. Bit players in Star Wars are cooler than Locke.


There we go. A much more fitting name for Locke.

...

Fine, I'll change it back.


Happy now?

: I PREFER the term treasure hunting!

: Ha! Semantic nonsense!

: There's a HUGE difference!

(Locke, your special ability is steal, your favourite weapons are daggers, and you wear dark clothes at night. Face it: You're a thief. And not the cool and exciting kind either.)


(Oh, don't you give ME sass you nitwit!)

: Anyway, were you the one who sent for me?

: Yeah. There's a girl I'd like you to meet.

: Sweet.

...

Wait...



: Imperial troops are pursuing her even as we speak. This town is no match for the Empire. Our independence can only be assured if we join forces with the Rebel Alliance Returners, an underground resistance movement. That girl wasn't responsible for her actions. We must get her to understand our dilemma!

: All right... I think we'd better help her...

(Locke goes from froth-spewing rage about Imperial witches to resigned helpfulness in to time flat. Either Locke has no back-bone, or he is desperate for female contact.)

: Agreed. Make your way first to Figaro, and talk to the king.




Locke, instead of sensibly taking the stairs, just jumps down the hole and shatters his legs A man can dream...


Wait, what's this?








Holy crap! Guards and werewolves!



Much as I'd like to see the shit pummelled out of Locke, Leia kinda needs to survive or something...


Kupo? Could it be?!




Yes it is! Moogles out of freaking nowhere!


Well specifically they want to help Leia. You're just kinda in the way at this point, Locke.


See? They agree with me.





Wat. They can talk?

: You'll fight with three different groups use the Y key to switch between them. Your job is to defeat the commander of the guards before his men reach Leia. Save her, or else...

(What men? All he has is werewolves, and as we all know, Narshe's werewolves are really just woolly mammoths.)

Spoiler: Wherein we lay the smack down on some mooks (click to show/hide)

Right. Let's go over our resources, shall we? We've got three teams, one with Locke and three moogles, and the others have four moogles each.








I have nothing to say about the Moogles' stats, mostly because I have no idea what most of them do.


Oddly enough, the only moogle who's equipment and skills we can see is Mog. As you can see, he's equipped with a mithril pike and shield, both of which are excellent at this point of the game.


And as you can see, Mog is also an accomplished dancer...


Even if he doesn't know any dances.


These are Locke's stats. I have no idea what most of them mean. What I do know is that they add up to a very mediocre character. He's geared towards combat, but lots of other characters can kick-ass better than Locke.  His magic power sucks and his steal ability isn't damage, meaning that he lacks any way to lay on the hurt. Sure, he gets some good equipment, but it's not enough to make him terribly useful...


And he has to have that equipment first. The only reason that I would use Locke in combat would be for his steal ability, or because everyone in the thread hates my guts and wants him in the party (I'm watching you).


Anyways protecting Leia is simple. Just shove Mog's party in this chokepoint and call it a day. Technically Locke needs the EXP, but he can't steal anything interesting at this point, and his mere existence would just bring down the rest of the party. Plus we won't see Mog for a long time (spoiler!), so I want to show him off a bit first.


Mog's special skill is dance, and its effect apparently change based on his location. I wouldn't know, because I never found him again in my first run-through. :I


After one battle Mog will learn his first dance, Dusk Requium, which sounds more a song than a dance, but eh. When any dance is used you'll lose control of Mog, but during his turn he'll use one of four special attacks. The four special attacks of Dusk Requium are:




Cave-in, which takes off 75% of an enemy's health, and apparently gives them seizures or something. I don't know. Cave-in is useless at this point, since Mog can kill any enemy with one hit.




Snare is the next of Dusk Requium's attack. It insta-kills enemies, and seems to always hit. However Mog might just be so awesome that the chance to miss is pathetically tiny. Either way is awesome.




Elf Fire is obviously a fire-type attack.


It's also stupidly powerful at this point of the game.

The final special attack is called Poison Frog, but it's quite rare and I didn't see if happen. Oh well.


Only three six units of mammoths/lobos exist, not five as the game would like you to believe. With all of these beasts dead, we can finally go after the commander, which unfortunately means that we have to use Locke.


Obviously you should strip Mog of his equipment at this point. Locke needs the shield, and that pike will come in handy later.


Trying to leave will cause Locke to run into his old enemy, invisible walls, but you really have no reason not to beat the shit out of that guard.


Pictured: The little dance that the moogles do before a battle, which Locke chills out.


The entire reason that we brought Locke to this fight was for his steal command.




The Marshal has a nice little weapon, a mithril dagger that will come in handy soon. You can also equip weapons during combat, or at least you could if you didn't forget until you were writing the update.


Apparently the Marshall gets pissed if you kill his Lobos and starts smacking the party around for terrible damage.


Fortunately moogles are pretty damn kickass.


Locke less so...


Maybe killing off Wedge and Vicks wasn't such a great idea, since I can't really talk about the monsters and bosses.

Spoiler: Wherein we wrap things up for now (click to show/hide)

Oh come on Locke, Leia isn't that fat.







...

...

Why didn't anybody take Leia here while the battle was raging? Can moogles not use switches? The entrance is right there! You could have been out of there in thirty seconds!





: You...saved me?

: Save your thanks for the Moogles!

: Okay then.



: Uhh... I can't remember anything...past or present...

: You have amnesia?!

: Don't you know what happens to people with amnesia?!

: A man said my memory would come back...

: You think that helps at all?!

: Ugh... I'm probably deep into it now. Look:



: You look like I should be protecting you.



: Well it doesn't matter. I won't leave you until your memory returns!! By the way, this secret entrance might be useful some day. Don't forget about it!


...


...


...

At this point Leia and Locke stare at each other for a while. The developers probably wanted to show them falling into love or something, but I'm pretty sure that Leia has no clue what's going on and is waiting for Locke to do something.


And that's it for this update! Join us next time as we meet a character much better than Locke (not a feat that's very difficult).

Anybody know a good bulk image resizer? I (kinda) lied about the emulation resolution, and resizing each image by hand is going to be a pain in the ass. Alternatively I could just leave the images as they are if nobody really cares.