Despite the number of Flame weapons available, most creatures in the underground and tower instead have a weakess against Ice. Equip your characters accordingly. The Dancing Dagger's item effect serves as a useful no-cost attack for Rydia, if you remembered to get one. Otherwise, the Whip she comes with, though weak and inaccurate, at least has a long-range attack, and gives a small chance to cause Paralysis.

The Dancing Dagger's item effect is more disappointing in the DS version, particularly with command augments available. However, it gives handy bonuses to evasion and agility when equipped. And, speaking of modified weapons, the Dwarven Axe available from the castle has been substantially improved, with reduced stat penalties and increased attack power and accuracy that make it superior in raw power to the upcoming weapons found in the tower.

The tower exchanges fire with a tank force as the party approaches it. Their entry appears to go unnoticed.

I believe that this is the first place you can encounter Mysteregg enemies. Although these appear as large eggs that then "hatch" into normal monsters after taking damage, functionally they are the monsters that they hatch into all along, and have all the same stats, weaknesses and resistances, item drops, and so on. Additionally, they do nothing until attacked, which has obvious applications if you have any no-cost healing or support actions available.

In the DS remake, eggs are instead a special enemy type of their own, and hatch after a set amount of time passes rather than when damaged. Until hatching, they have 10,000 HP, absorb all elements, drop no items, and leave only a single experience point and gil if killed. Use the free rounds to heal and buff.

Find a Green Beret for Yang on the second floor. Two rooms also on that floor each have treasure chests with monsters inside, and award the Ice Spear for Cain and Icebrand for Cecil, letting them strike the weaknesses of most monsters here and therefore making battles drastically easier.

To take out the Eyes (Alert) in the chests without giving them the chance to call for backup, Yang should hit them with the Thunder Claw. They're Machines, so it gets a racial bonus, for quadruple attack power. In the JP version, having him charge up his attack on top of that adds a little extra insurance of a one-hit kill.

A Cat Claw for Yang awaits on the third floor, then a Killer Bow for Rosa in a side area of the fourth floor. The main fourth floor section has a save point, followed by more rooms with monsters in chests. These have the Ice Shield and Ice Armor, best paired with the Flame ones and split between Cecil and Cain.

Beware of random Chimera encounters. Although they have relatively little health, they absorb all three primary elements and will spam Blaze (which is Ice-based, so Flame armor helps) when alone. Switch to non-elemental weapons for them. Yang with the Cat and Hell Claws is probably the best counter.

The fifth floor has a conspicuous central room with a locked door. The higher floors all have separate sections that are currently inaccessible. There's another save point on the seventh, and then, in the center of the eighth...

はかせ (hakase) is a doctor in the doctorate sense, or a well-learned person or expert in general, not a medical doctor.

Rubicante teleports away. Lugae starts hopping around gleefully.

The not-so-good doctor gives off a strong "mad scientist" sort of vibe.

But he's already noticed them.

The EasyType replaces the English-derived ブレイン (BUREIN, brain) with ずのう (zunou, brain).

The doctor attacks, directing a bulky robotic minion.

The robot isn't too bright, though, and hits the doctor when he first attacks.

Every few turns, the doctor, who otherwise takes no action, oils Barnabus. Functionally, this is a status cure, and has no real effect.

Neither has any weaknesses or resistances. Barnabus counts as a Machine, however, so Yang with a Thunder Claw and Rosa with Thunder Arrows will get massive bonuses to their attack power against him.

There are two ways this battle can end up. If Barnabus outlasts the Doctor, he ends the battle with Self-Destruct now that he's not being oiled any more.

However, if the Doctor outlasts Barnabus, he gets mad. This is the more likely outcome, since he's hiding behind Barnabus until then.

It's also the preferable option in any version with a bestiary, because...

This replaces them with the Combined Mecha (Balnab-Z), which attacks for two turns, and if not beaten before the third...

...ends the battle with Self-Destruct anyway. Take off as much health as possible first to minimize the damage.

Don't forget that casting Slow will make those turns take longer! Alternately, although it's tricky to manage without being able to check on their health, taking down both the Doctor and Barnabus at the same time, or nearly so, in the first phase will prevent either of them from reacting to losing the other.

The DS remake switches the default target to Lugae, but otherwise doesn't change this particular battle much as far as I can tell. I'm not sure about the combined form since I accidentally finished off the doctor too quickly for that part to happen.

A new battle begins, this time with proper boss music. Shortly thereafter...

Lugae hops off the screen, then comes back down in a more monsterous form and attacks with Poison Gas immediately. For the rest of the battle, he cycles between Beam, Laser, Flamethrower, and Treatment. That last one, curiously, targets the party, curing most status effects, including Poison and Sleep. This comes in handy especially since Lugae counters with Sleep Gas whenever he takes damage.

With counters being a concern, try to stick with attacks that do a lot of damage all at once. Like Barnabus, this cyborgish form counts as a Machine, so Yang with the Thunder Claw is the perfect choice, especially when using a charged attack if that's an option.

In the EasyType, Lugae's attack pattern instead goes Beam, Flamethrower, Laser, Treatment, and then a double use of Beam before repeating. This change, oddly enough, makes the battle more difficult, since he not only gets two attacks every fifth round but is attacking on more of his turns to begin with.

The DS remake changes the battle far more drastically, centering it around a Reverse Gas skill that inverts damage and healing for everyone. Lugae will use this at the onset of battle, and can continue to use it without warning as combat continues, toggling the effect at will, which makes anything with a casting time risky to use. Reverse also lingers on fallen characters and makes it impossible to revive them for the duration of the effect. While the Reverse status is active, Lugae tends to hit the party with a fairly powerful healing spell, and when it's not in effect, he likes to use a similarly potent multitarget flamethrower attack instead (which is at least subject to elemental resistance), so he's inflicting damage either way. Fortunately, he has relatively little health. Also, having Rydia summon Whyt will reportedly clear the Reverse status from her, which can put her out of phase with Lugae's attack pattern so that he'll constantly be healing her.

Lugae will always drop Lugae's Key, which the game won't let you leave without taking. Unfortunately, the text for this was missed in translation.

The post-battle item collection screen lets you dispose of held items to make room for new ones, which is presumably why the key is awarded as a combat drop. What happens, though, if your inventory is full when the game tries to give a key item through a scripted event? That's something I need to look into...

Lugae remains undaunted even in defeat.

And then he explodes.

I never quite understood this part. Weren't the tanks taking fire already? What's different now that demands immediate action? For what it's worth, the game still lets you leave the tower and head back to the Dwarf Castle for now if you want to recover and manage your inventory before continuing.

There's no following Rubicante...

So backtracking it is. Unsurprisingly, we're heading to that locked room on floor five.

Make sure Yang doesn't have anything irreplaceable on before entering...

Three monsters stand at what appear to be control panels.

They're just a few Goblin Captains (Dark Imps), so it should be an easy fight. Unfortunately, they don't know when to quit.

They run over and sabotage the controls. The room shakes ominously...

Yang steps forward.

The specific word Cecil uses normally refers to a weapon firing when not intended. Here I think it's more that it's going off in an uncontrolled, backfiring sort of way.

He swats them out of the room.

Massive explosions rock the room, and sad music follows.

There's no going back in, either.

With the Crystals out of reach and Yang beyond help, the party has little choice but to head back. However, on the way out of the tower...

Oh, dear. That sinister theme music sounds all too familiar, and the dimmed screen isn't reassuring, either.

The walkway burns away underfoot, leaving them falling...

...until a familiar airship swoops down to catch them.

No time for that now, though, since we hear another airship approaching.

It's a Red Wings airship, of course, in hot pursuit.

The airship continues pursuit...

The airship continues pursuit, this time approaching the hole to the surface...

Cid heads off to the side of the deck.

As usual, the age joke involving family terms for non-family (common in Japanese) doesn't translate well. Basically, she uses an affectionate form of address for an elderly man, and he quips back that she should at least use the one for a middle-aged man. A localization ought to use something like "Hey, I'm younger'n that!"

The DS retranslation sort of writes around it, keeping the general idea fairly well, though without Rydia implying that Cid's an old man to provoke his reaction. As I recall, the exchange goes like this...   Rydia: But you'll die!   Cid: And so young, too!

Though Rosa tries to stop him, Cid leaps off the side of the ship.

Cid sets off the bomb, sacrificing himself to seal the hole. Although the Enterprise makes it out safely, it doesn't feel like much of a victory.

Difficult as it may be, there's really only one conclusion Cecil can come to.

Cid's apprentices are loafing around in their usual spot in the eastern courtyard.

After working on the ship for a little while, they report to Cecil.

The EasyType makes an interesting change here, replacing ホバーせんにかさなり　けっていボタンで　がったい　ぶんりが　できます (overlap the hovercraft, and you can use the decision button to combine with or detach it) with ホバーせんに　かげを　かさね　Aボタンで　ひきあげたり　おろしたりできます (overlap your shadow with the hovercraft, and you can use the A button to pull it up or lower it). Aside from using more straightforward verbs, it also clarifies that it isn't the airship itself but rather its shadow that needs to line up with the hovercraft. Additionally, like the English version, it can and does refer to the A button by name instead of using a more generic label, because only the original Japanese version includes the option to remap buttons.

Reluctantly, Cecil begins to explain what happened to Cid...

They rush off before he can explain what happened. Perhaps it's better this way. Regardless, it seems Eblana is the best shot at getting those Crystals back...

But first, Yang's wife deserves to know what happened.

Seems she's in denial. Unless...