Last time, we were introduced to a multitude of characters.
Cecil and Kain were both sent on a mission from the king after the king relieved Cecil from his command of the Red Wings due to his wavering loyalty to the king.
Killing the Eidolon they were sent to defeat, they unknowingly released destruction upon the village of Mist as they entered, via a ring the king had given them.
To Cecil and Kain, they were merely supposed to drop the ring off at the village, they had no idea the ring was trapped to go off when they set foot in the village.
Cecil and Kain vowed to go their own way, separate from the king and take him down.
In the village, they also came across a young summoner, whose mother was killed when the Eidolon was defeated by Cecil and Kain, who had no idea such a thing would occur.
Trying to save the girl from the burning village, she resisted, and in her rage summoned another, very powerful Eidolon, which caused a giant earthquake.
Afterwords, with Kain missing, Cecil and girl became allies after Cecil protected the girl, who introduced herself as Rydia.
Finding Rosa ill in the desert village of Kaipo, the group set out to Damcyan to find a Sand Pearl which would cure Rosa’s Desert Fever.
Along the way, they met Tellah, who was also journeying to Damcyan to find his daughter, who had fled with a lover.
Fighting a ferocious creature in the cave, they neared the castle in Damcyan only to find it being bombed by the very king Cecil had turned his back on!
Rushing forward, we find the castle in ruins. Guards strewn about the wrecked castle, some begging for help.
As we get to the top, we find Anna, Tellah’s daughter near death. We all rush to her side when the bard arrives, and Tellah attacks him!
The bard tries to explain, but Tellah is too grief stricken to hear any of his words.
Before things can escalate further, Anna herself tells everyone to stop.
Anna goes on to tell us that the bard, named Edward, is actually the prince of Damcyan, and that the bard was just a disguise.
She tells them she really loves Edward, and Edward loves her.
She gives one final I love you to Edward and passes away.
Edward tells them of a man named Golbez, who is now the commander of the Red Wings and is the one who took the Damcyan crystal after the attack.
Tellah, now on a quest for revenge, runs off in search of Golbez.
Edward, so distraught over his lovers death, says he isn’t going anywhere.
But Rydia comes from the right field and tells him to stop acting like that and act like a man. She says stop crying, because she doesn’t cry anymore after what happened to her.
At first Edward isn’t having it, but Cecil pulls him aside and literally slaps some sense into him.
Cecil asks him about the sand pearl for Rosa and asks for his help.
Edward tells him he knows where it is, and that we can use a hover craft to get there, as well as get back to Kaipo quickly.
He says we will have to enter the lair of a beast called the antlion and get the sand pearl.
He gives one final goodbye to Anna before joining everyone.
So! Edward the bard is now a party member!
Being a bard, he has access to the bard songs, allowing him to do various things. It appears he can inflict status ailments on enemies. He also joins at a really low level, only level 9.
But, he does get some useful abilities, it seems. Like Salve, which uses items on the whole party. Seems wonderful in a pinch, like using a Phoenix Down on multiple party members.
He also comes with Hide… Which lets him literally run away for a short time. He can’t be targeted, which is great for him since he is so weak right now.
Also, Tellah ran off and left and took his equipment with it. Dang it, I should have taken off his gear before he left! Oh well.
Now on the hover craft, let’s find that cave of the antlion and get that sand pearl for Rosa.
The hover craft can apparently also go over shallow waters, so that will be handy.
Whoops, looks like we aren’t supposed to come here yet.
Walking around the desert, I wanted to level up Edward, but honestly, he just seems pretty useless right now.
But! He did learn Life’s Anthem which heals us, so now he may be useful!
Anyway, let’s head to the antlion cave to find that sand pearl.
Well, Edward is still pretty useless. Life’s Anthem doesn’t heal anywhere near enough to be useful.
Sorry Edward, but healing 20 HP when the enemy is hitting you for almost 60 isn’t going to cut it.
We pick up some items, like Spider Silk, some Potions, but also a duplicate Shadowblade and Ice Rod.
We get to a circular room where the antlion lives. As we approach, it’s pincers come out of the ground, startling everyone, but Edward says they are docile, they won’t harm humans.
As soon as he attempts to get the sand pearl, it attacks!
This guy went down pretty fast. He was weak to Blizzard, but he could change his eye color, if they were red, he would counter magic, if they were white, he would counter physical attacks.
It was also where I discovered how Edward’s songs work. When activated, he will continually sing a song, which stays active as long as he continues to sing. However, if he is hit, or after a period of time passes, the song ends.
I didn’t even have to heal because I got lucky and the antlion never attacked Edward, allowing his Life’s Anthem to keep us healthy. It procs quite often if he can actually keep singing.
It just sucks that if he is hit, it knocks him out of his song. Makes sense I suppose, you can hardly sing if you are getting thrashed by enemies!
Anyway, after the battle we pick up the sand pearl. Edward mentions how it is so unlike the antlion to attack humans.
Cecil says monsters are stirring, that something is wrong.
We then head out and make our way to heal Rosa with the sand pearl.
With the sand pearl in hand, Rosa comes to, who speaks about how they told her Cecil had died during the earthquake.
She says that Golbez has now taken over Cecil’s job as commander of the Red Wings and is trying to get all of the crystals by manipulating the king.
She says the next crystal, in Fabul will be next, but it is blocked by ice. She asks Rydia to cast Fire on the ice, but Rydia says she can’t.
Rosa joins us, despite Cecil wanting her to stay here and rest while they go to Fabul to stop Golbez.
The group decides to rest for the night and let Rosa recover before they go to Fabul.
During the night, Edward takes a stroll in the moonlight lamenting over his lost love Anna.
Just then, something attacks him!
During the fight, Anna comes and tells him he must be brave.
Edward manages to beat the monster. Thankfully, I don’t know if this is supposed to happen or not, but after my first attack, the sahagin was Stopped, causing him to not do anything for a brief moment.
Anna appears again and says that her spirit must now move on, but he must share his love with the world.
He says he will, but he isn’t sure how just yet. She then fades away.
In the morning, our party is rested and ready to go!
Rosa also joined us, so let’s check out her stats and abilities, shall we? She is the white mage, and as such comes equipped with various support and healing spells.
She can also cast Slow, which will be incredibly useful against powerful foes throughout the game.
For abilities, she comes with Aim, which ensures her attacks won’t miss, and Pray, which restores HP and MP to the party.
Rosa is a bit different than most healers in that she can also equip bows and arrows.
I find a sparkle on the ground which gives us the Item Lore Augment!
I also buy Rosa a Bow and Iron arrows, since right now I think it would be more helpful to have another decent physical attacker than the +1 Spirit the Staff gives.
Heading to where Mount Hobs is, (where I got a game over), we come across the ice that is blocking the path.
Rosa asks Rydia to cast Fire on the ice, but Rydia just can’t do it. She is afraid of fire from when her village was burned down.
Everyone cheers her on, and Rosa tells her that they can’t make her do it, but if she doesn’t a lot of people will get hurt.
After a moment, Rydia summons her courage and casts Fire, melting the ice!
Going up the now ice-less path, we find some Holy Arrows for Rosa.
Rosa is pretty helpful with Pray. It sometimes fails, but if it doesn’t she heals everyone a tiny bit, but the main thing, she heals MP as well. This is really useful for keeping everyone’s MP up, especially Rydia and Rosa.
We climb the mountain and find a man fighting off some monsters!
He easily bests the goblins, but then, a different type of bomb appears, and the group rushes in to help.
Mom Bomb wasn’t that tough… Until she switched forms and exploded!
I got Rosa back on her feet so she could get the EXP from the battle, but that was crazy!
After the fight, the monk, known as Yang, says that he was training on this mountain when he and his fellow monks were attacked. He was the only survivor.
They say that Golbez was probably behind it.
Yang says that without any monks to defend the castle, Fabul is weak to attack.
The group explains their situations, and Yang decides to accept their help in stopping Golbez.
Being a monk, Yang has amazing HP, great unarmed attack, and can even do a flying Kick on all enemies to deal damage. He also gets an attack that boosts his already high attack, and he can Brace to make all damage be decreased by 75%.
Yeah, Yang is pretty awesome.
Let’s head to Fabul and stop Golbez from taking the wind crystal!
Rydia reaches level 20 exploring the rest of the mountain and learns a new spell, Pig!
That is kind of hilarious. You need a Diet Ration to cure it. I think Esuna might remove it as well.
Leaving Mount Hobs, we start to head to Fabul.
After a quick trip, we arrive at Fabul castle and explore the grounds a bit.
We find Livingway, who says he fled after the attack on Damcyan. He says after the attack, he has now found his calling, recording the events of history.
He now becomes Recordingway.
I believe this lets us view past cutscenes. He also says he dropped off the bestiary to someone else.
We find a weapon and armor shop in the castle, but I decide to hold off for now.
We pick up some items along the way hidden away in the castle.
We enter the main hall and find the king.
Yang explains that the enemy is coming for the crystal, that we must be ready to defend the castle.
The king has some apprehension, due to Cecil being a dark knight of the Baron, but Yang explains he is an ally.
We get a choice if we want to help him or not. We agree to help, of course.
Rosa and Rydia stay behind to help heal the soldiers while Cecil, Yang and Edward lead on the front lines.
We get into some fights, but more and more enemies just keep pouring through, causing us to have to retreat further into the castle.
This happens a few more times, even a supposed ally monk was an enemy in disguise and sabotaged us!
At the end, we must retreat to the crystal room where we will make our last stand.
There, Kain appears!
Cecil is overjoyed to have Kain’s help… But Kain attacks us!?
Cecil begs Kain to stop, asking him why he is doing this, but Kain doesn’t answer.
In the end, Kain defeats Cecil, and right before dealing the final blow, Rosa and Rydia appear and make Kain hesitate for just a moment.
Then, a voice rings out asking Kain why he is stopping his advance.
Golbez then makes his appearance.
Blasting everyone away with his powerful magic, he orders Kain to take the crystal.
Kain does so under his command, but Rosa tries to stop him. Kain once again hesitates, but this time, Golbez kidnaps Rosa!
Golbez, Rosa and Kain all leave, with our heroes battered and bruised on the floor.
Rydia then steps up and heals everyone.
Everyone is upset, but Rydia tells everyone to stop worrying and just rescue Rosa and the crystal.
They all agree, and Yang says he will help us.
Now with Rosa kidnapped, Kain apparently under the command of Golbez and the crystal of Fabul in Golbez’s grasp, the group decides to come up with a plan to rescue Rosa and the crystal.
On the way through the castle, we speak to someone who says the king was wounded and is being treated in his quarters.
As well, we see some oddly placed treasure chests outside of the map. We investigate and find a secret passageway!
We find some curatives as well as a Demon Shield for Cecil.
We go and speak to Yang’s wife, who appears to be fine.
We then go and rest at the inn present in the castle.
Everyone debates on the plan of attack.
Cecil says that while Baron has air superiority, their naval forces are weak.
They then decide to travel by boat. Yang says he will request one of the king.
Speaking to the king, the king agrees to lend us a boat for the attack. He also entrusts us with a new dark sword, the Deathbringer.
The Deathbringer is pretty awesome, boosting Cecil’s attack by another 10 points and may also cause instant death!
We head out and get ready to board the boat, ready for our rescue mission, but we will save that for next time!
ghostlyproton 