Final Fantasy IV Classic Jobs Part V
Aug. 26th, 2023 01:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
freshfeelingThis session was played just a couple of hours after the previous one. In this one, we mainly focus on the three underworld dungeons that are available after the Tower of Babil.
I remember having waited to do the Feymarch / Land of Summoned Monsters and the Sylph Cave until after having access to the Float spell most of the time when I had played this game in the past, but the Trap Doors of the Sealed Cave are a bit scary to me... so I chose to push the envelope and do the two optional dungeons prior to the Sealed Cave.
One battle into the Feymarch Passage (as this version names it), Palom learned Blizzaga. The damage from the damage tiles in this area wasn't as bad as I remembered it. That said, going here at all doesn't carry a ton of benefit: while you'd normally come here for the Asura and Leviathan summon spells and perhaps the Samurai Bow, we can't use any of those. The best prizes I expected here were the Defender sword and possibly the armor for sale in town. There ended up being a bit of other benefit, like the Triton Dagger we found in place of the Poison Axe. I equipped it on Palom and kept Thief wielding the Assassin Dagger.
I was worried about some of the enemies here, but it really wasn't too bad. Palom was able to change some enemies to pigs, and many were subject to the Assassin Dagger's instant death effect. I enjoyed changing Arachne enemies into pigs, which helped since we don't have Float. My favourite transformation was this one:
These five piggies were in the treasure chest guarding the Defender sword. Turning them into pigs didn't do too much for me, honestly, since their regular attacks are their most dangerous feature... but the flying-V formation of pigs looked hilarious.
We didn't fight Asura or Leviathan here, since we had nothing to gain, so we raided the chests, shopped at the stores, and then left.
Next was the Sylph Cave. This place doesn't have a ton to offer us either, but I was curious about whether the Mute Knife/Mage Masher might be useful for Thief or Palom. We did two trips and opened every chest. There's one path that takes you to where Yang and the Sylphs live, and that doesn't have too many damage floors, and we did that first. There wasn't really much to report about that. We fought most of the ToadLadies/BogWitches we encountered even though those fights took ages just on the off chance that they could drop a Ribbon. No such luck!
When we took the other path, the damage floors are a bit more ubiquitous, and the final area has six trapped treasure chests entirely surrounded by damage tiles.
Amid all of the damage tiles, I said, "It's going to be so dumb... when the second I'm about to leave... she gets level 35 and learns Float. I have no idea if level 35 is Float, but just based on kind of the idea of [...] just how stupid it would be, I know it's going to happen".
This ended up almost being the case. After the second of the six treasure chests, Porom gained level 35 and it did happen to gain her the Float spell! The second chest I opened also yielded the FullMoon weapon for Thief which was a pretty substantial upgrade.
Most of the other treasures were consumables; nothing exciting. So after selling some things and making use of the Dwarven Castle's Fat Chocobo, we went to the Sealed Cave. Most of this cave is running into TrapDoors who kill someone and otherwise are not challenging. Thief was considerably stronger in this dungeon with the FullMoon equipped, particularly against the many bats who live here. Even the TrapDoors we were mostly able to take out before they could either kill a second person or transform, which grants a very generous 7500 experience points per person. We were levelling frequently here and the team felt strong, which was nice.
Partway through, I stopped to inspect my mages' spell lists.
Porom only needs to learn Curaja, Arise (Life2) and Holy. She actually gained Curaja very shortly after, before we left this dungeon.
Palom just needs Death, Weak/Tornado, Flare and Meteo. Some of those are going to be a while!
I thought the Demon Wall battle might be a real toughie! I mean, this party is pretty close to the normal party but replacing both Edge and Kain with Thief, who is weaker and has no useful abilities. I had Palom using Bio, and my plan was to set up a big speed differential using Slow and Haste and then Berserk Cecil and Thief (in that order, of course!). It took a while to implement and I wasn't sure I was going to be fast enough to avoid being crushed to death... but it worked out with a bit of time to spare.
We were just about going to have to start healing the petrification.
We got a drill to exit the underworld, we traded a tail to get some ore and gave that to a blacksmith, and we prayed for a Big Lunar Whale. We saved there before travelling through space.
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I remember having waited to do the Feymarch / Land of Summoned Monsters and the Sylph Cave until after having access to the Float spell most of the time when I had played this game in the past, but the Trap Doors of the Sealed Cave are a bit scary to me... so I chose to push the envelope and do the two optional dungeons prior to the Sealed Cave.
One battle into the Feymarch Passage (as this version names it), Palom learned Blizzaga. The damage from the damage tiles in this area wasn't as bad as I remembered it. That said, going here at all doesn't carry a ton of benefit: while you'd normally come here for the Asura and Leviathan summon spells and perhaps the Samurai Bow, we can't use any of those. The best prizes I expected here were the Defender sword and possibly the armor for sale in town. There ended up being a bit of other benefit, like the Triton Dagger we found in place of the Poison Axe. I equipped it on Palom and kept Thief wielding the Assassin Dagger.
I was worried about some of the enemies here, but it really wasn't too bad. Palom was able to change some enemies to pigs, and many were subject to the Assassin Dagger's instant death effect. I enjoyed changing Arachne enemies into pigs, which helped since we don't have Float. My favourite transformation was this one:
These five piggies were in the treasure chest guarding the Defender sword. Turning them into pigs didn't do too much for me, honestly, since their regular attacks are their most dangerous feature... but the flying-V formation of pigs looked hilarious.
We didn't fight Asura or Leviathan here, since we had nothing to gain, so we raided the chests, shopped at the stores, and then left.
Next was the Sylph Cave. This place doesn't have a ton to offer us either, but I was curious about whether the Mute Knife/Mage Masher might be useful for Thief or Palom. We did two trips and opened every chest. There's one path that takes you to where Yang and the Sylphs live, and that doesn't have too many damage floors, and we did that first. There wasn't really much to report about that. We fought most of the ToadLadies/BogWitches we encountered even though those fights took ages just on the off chance that they could drop a Ribbon. No such luck!
When we took the other path, the damage floors are a bit more ubiquitous, and the final area has six trapped treasure chests entirely surrounded by damage tiles.
Amid all of the damage tiles, I said, "It's going to be so dumb... when the second I'm about to leave... she gets level 35 and learns Float. I have no idea if level 35 is Float, but just based on kind of the idea of [...] just how stupid it would be, I know it's going to happen".
This ended up almost being the case. After the second of the six treasure chests, Porom gained level 35 and it did happen to gain her the Float spell! The second chest I opened also yielded the FullMoon weapon for Thief which was a pretty substantial upgrade.
Most of the other treasures were consumables; nothing exciting. So after selling some things and making use of the Dwarven Castle's Fat Chocobo, we went to the Sealed Cave. Most of this cave is running into TrapDoors who kill someone and otherwise are not challenging. Thief was considerably stronger in this dungeon with the FullMoon equipped, particularly against the many bats who live here. Even the TrapDoors we were mostly able to take out before they could either kill a second person or transform, which grants a very generous 7500 experience points per person. We were levelling frequently here and the team felt strong, which was nice.
Partway through, I stopped to inspect my mages' spell lists.
Porom only needs to learn Curaja, Arise (Life2) and Holy. She actually gained Curaja very shortly after, before we left this dungeon.
Palom just needs Death, Weak/Tornado, Flare and Meteo. Some of those are going to be a while!
I thought the Demon Wall battle might be a real toughie! I mean, this party is pretty close to the normal party but replacing both Edge and Kain with Thief, who is weaker and has no useful abilities. I had Palom using Bio, and my plan was to set up a big speed differential using Slow and Haste and then Berserk Cecil and Thief (in that order, of course!). It took a while to implement and I wasn't sure I was going to be fast enough to avoid being crushed to death... but it worked out with a bit of time to spare.
We were just about going to have to start healing the petrification.
We got a drill to exit the underworld, we traded a tail to get some ore and gave that to a blacksmith, and we prayed for a Big Lunar Whale. We saved there before travelling through space.
<< Start | < Previous | Index | Next >
