Ｆｉｎａｌ　Ｆａｎｔａｓｙ　Ｖ

The king is resting in his room, surrounded by attendants.

Butz and Lenna look at each other and nod. But how to get to Karnak? Well... the soldiers at the gate have a lead.

The soldier is resting in the barracks as reported. His uniform isn't the same as that of the local soldiers, and it's also different from the soldier who knew Galuf and tried to stop the Garula.

The basement remains a very dangerous place, but the tower may well be doable by now, and with the Summoner class it's now worth visiting. On the fourth floor is a glowing something that should look familiar to anyone who's done any summoning... It speaks.

Boss battle! Expect plenty of Ice, including group attacks. Healing is basically a must, Flame attacks help, and the new Sword Mage class is worth trying out.

If you're having trouble winning, just come back after reaching Karnak. The stronger magic and equipment available there will help.

After winning the battle, Shiva is now available to summon. Rejoice, O Summoners! The doorway in the south wall provides a shortcut out.

There's now an opening in the side of the meteorite that wasn't here earlier. Inside is a strange glowing tile. Butz steps on it and disappears.

She steps on the tile and also disappears. Faris follows shortly. Galuf hesitates.

He follows the others. The warp leads to another meteorite, this one on the continent to the west. The wyvern couldn't get here thanks to the mountains surrounding the starting continent. In case we have any unfinished business in the Tycoon and Worus region, the warp goes both ways.

In the forests along the way, Wild Nak (ワイルドナック) has a 33% chance to use ???? every other turn. This inflicts damage equal to maximum HP minus current HP, making it potentially powerful but also risky to use effectively.

After a fairly long walk, the party comes across a town. Soldiers deny entry to the nearby castle and steamship, and there's a large wall blocking further travel, so the town it is. A moat of lava flows by the entrance, and flames burn here and there in the town, so we can say with a fair deal of certainty that the Fire Crystal is nearby. Let's try talking to some townspeople.

Also remember to play the piano in the pub. Still pretty lousy.

As advertised, the town's weapons and armors are quite inexpensive. However, as soon as the party tries buying any...

A random idio... I mean, townsperson, walks in and stares at them.

Guards come in and march the party off.

Allow me to take a few moments to point out how ridiculous the preceding scene is. To start with, what's a random townsperson doing all the way out at the meteorite? It's a pretty long walk from town, with monsters the whole way. Not exactly what I'd call a pleasant stroll. Then, for whatever reason, he spots them in the weapon/armor shop just in time to prevent a purchase (maybe 10 seconds after they walk in), but is somehow unable to locate them during a full night's stay at the local inn. The guards then appear out of nowhere and arrest a group of well-armed but otherwise relatively unremarkable people without a second thought, solely on the word of this random guy, and without giving them any chance to plead their case. That last part may not be quite so unbelievable considering the paranoia that seems to have gripped the locals, but you'd think Lenna would have the sense to identify herself. They'd have to be complete fools to detain a princess without a very good reason, unless they're trying to start a war, or the two countries are already at war. Well, anyway, back to the story.

They awaken in a dark jail cell. Someone's in the next cell over, doing something in the corner. There's no way out of the cell. After a while, the man in the neighboring cell walks over to the dividing wall and blows it open, but isn't pleased with the result.

He turns back toward his cell. The party looks at each other for a few moments, then breaks out laughing. Well, at least they're not succumbing to depression...

The party shakes their heads in denial.

Cid, huh? Let me guess, you're a genius with a knack for technology and a fondness for airships, right?

Cid drops his gaze.

Butz nods.

He holds out the shards. Cid leaps in astonishment.

An important-looking man walks into the jail and opens the cell. He doesn't seem to notice that Cid is in the wrong cell, or that the party is with him.

More literally, it's a fire-powered ship.

Cid walks back into the cell and leads the others out.

He's now addressing the party. They nod.

Cid and the chancellor leave, and the party is free to go.

The jail turns out to be under the castle, which has all sorts of tempting treasure chests that are unreachable thanks to those annoying flames that seem to be everywhere. As usual, let's talk to some of the people wandering around.

A bedridden commander in one room mumbles something disturbing...

And as if there weren't enough problems already...

As the party is about to leave the castle, the soldiers at the gate cry out.

A creature that does indeed appear to be a werewolf approaches the gate, though it doesn't seem particularly aggressive.

The soldiers flank the werewolf, and there's a red flash and exploding noise. The werewolf looks startled and runs off.

It's time for some shopping. The previously locked magic store sells White, Black, and Timespace spells up to level 3, and it's now possible to shop for weapons and armor without being disturbed, though of course there's a catch.

Oh well. It's still a good idea to stock up if you can afford it.

It looks like an ordinary ship from the outside, except for the paddlewheels on the sides and the lack of sails. Cid walks up to meet the party.

The party nods, and Cid leads them to a doorway.

Once past the plain wooden exterior, the steamship is clearly no ordinary vessel. Metal, piping, and machinery are everywhere, and whoever designed it clearly didn't have convenience in mind. The party should take every pipe into the conveyor belt room and grab all the treasures, particularly the Thief's Bracer, Green Beret, and Full Moon. There is a save point eventually, followed by a relatively simple maze of moving platforms.

Reportedly, a World Map can also be found in the Steamship if you didn't pick up the one in the Ship Graveyard.

Defeat a Defeater (デフィーター) when it's the only monster alive to spawn two Motor Traps (モトルトラップ). These have two different Blue Magic spells to learn, potentially. (Defeater itself can also use Aero when confused or controlled, in case you still haven't learned that.)

Motor Trap will counterattack any Thunder damage that it survives with Self-Destruct. This kills the caster, but also inflicts damage equal to the caster's remaining HP to one target, and always hits. Since they only have 240 health before taking damage, it's not especially threatening here.

Motor Trap also has Missile, but you'd have to control one to get it to use that, and !Control isn't available yet. Remeber this for later, though.

Crew Dust (クルーダスト) has a 67% chance to use Flash each turn when it's the only monster alive. Although this is best avoided once you have the skill, it's a simpler and more convenient way to learn it than feeding Ethers to Blocks on the North Mountain.

Shortly after, the party reaches a room humming with machinery. The queen is there, standing by the engine.

A creepy dark something engulfs the queen. The screen tints red.

The engine bursts into flames that converge on the party. Boss battle! The Liquid Flame changes randomly between three forms when damaged: a humanoid, a hand, and a tornado. It starts out in humanoid form. Each form has a different set of attacks.

The humanoid prefers Flame (group attack, base damage = 1/4 of target's max HP) and also uses it as a counterattack, the tornado form prefers to cast  Fira on itself to heal and counterattack with Magnet (forces a character into the front row), and the hand form mostly attacks with Fingertip (physical attack, adds 'paralysis') and counters with  Fira. The boss will also drop different items depending on which form you beat it in: Katon no Jutsu for the humanoid, a Flame Rod for the hand, and a Flame Bow for the tornado. I'd suggest trying to kill it in the tornado form to get a head start on bows. And all you kleptomaniacs out there will be disappointed to find out that none of the three forms have any items to steal. So sad.

Want tactics? The Time Mage's  Gravity spell works on the humanoid and tornado forms, so if you can start the battle with that, it's out half its HP already. Beyond that,  Blizzara and Shiva work well, especially with an Ice Rod equipped, and so does a Sword Mage with a  Blizzara enchantment. Just note that the hand is immune to all elemental damage, so make sure you have neutral attacks available for that form. And if you can spare the money, try breaking an Ice Rod or two on either of the other two forms (equip the rod and use it as an item). Ouch.

The engine explodes and the queen collapses after the battle.

The pipe leads to the Crystal room under the castle, where the Crystal remains intact.

A wall breaks open and the werewolf enters.

He walks toward the party, then looks startled.

Galuf looks confused.

As he's standing there in a puzzled state, a soldier walks in and flips the lever on the far wall.

A creepy dark something engulfs the soldier.

The soldier vanishes. Butz rushes over to the lever, with the rest of the party following, but...

Pipes extend from the walls to the Crystal platform, cutting between the party and the werewolf. He moves to block a third pipe from connecting, but it doesn't look like he can hold it for long.

The shaking gets worse, and the room starts bursting into flames.

They try approaching, but more flames block their way, and then the floor collapses beneath them, leaving the werewolf alone in the room.

The Crystal shatters, and the heat released fries the werewolf. Poor guy.

The party lands in a room below. Butz recovers first and helps Lenna up, then rouses Faris as Lenna helps Galuf. The flames that had been in the room vanish.

They hurry upstairs to check. Only shards remain of the Crystal, and just to be annoying, they're out of reach.

...seriously? Why doesn't it just collapse? Why was it even built like that in the first place?

The party rushes down the stairs, past a pot (it's a recovery pot, so backtrack long enough to heal!) and up the next stairway.

Well, there's good news and bad news. We have only ten minutes to escape the castle (bad!). The party automatically runs during this entire time, even without the Thief skill (good!). There are monsters in the castle now, and the timer keeps going during battles and even in the menu screen (evil!). With the flames gone, all those tempting chests are now accessible (good!). There will never be another chance to loot them (annoying!), and most also have monsters inside (bad!). We can steal a Mage Masher from a Sorcerer and an Elixir from a Gigas; the Thief's !Mug can save some time (good!).

Gigas (ギガース) can also use Aero (67% chance as a counterattack when damaged) and the stronger Aerora (33% chance each round). Aerora has equal power and cost to the -ra level Black Magic attack spells, which are sold in Karnak town.

Chest contents: 3x 2000 gil, 5x Elixir, Shuriken, Raijin no Jutsu, Main Gauche, Elf Manteau, Ribbon,  Esuna (level 4 White Magic)

We also need to save some extra time at the end, since there's a boss of sorts the way out (bad!). At first, it seems to be the usual random encounter of a Sergeant and three Karnaks. However, the Sergeant turns out to be unusually durable...

Note that beating the Sergeant before finishing off the Karnaks will avoid this whole thing. It's generally not a good idea, though.

Feminine phrasing. Of the four party members, only Lenna talks like that.

This one is less distinctive and could be either Galuf or Faris. I'm leaning toward Faris, who tends to be more direct and forceful.

It jumps off the top of the screen and comes back down in its true form, an odd biped with six pointy tentacles.

Iron Claw frequently uses Death Claw (alternating between a 33% chance and a 67% chance on successive turns). It's a brutal skill that reduces the target to single-digit HP and causes 'paralysis', and it works on a surprising number of opponents, including some bosses...

Aside from the Blue Magic, you can also get a Hero Potion by stealing after Iron Claw changes form.

The castle explodes after the party leaves. The Crystal shards scatter, with three of them landing by the party, and who knows where the other two went. Don't worry, they'll turn up later...

To be more accurate, beast monsters, not simply beasts.

風水 refers to Chinese geomancy or feng shui, so arguably "Feng Shui-ist" is more accurate, but let's face it, that looks a bit silly.

And back to the world map. The castle is reduced to rubble, though at least the explosion took a large chunk out of the wall to clear the way west.