Ｆｉｎａｌ　Ｆａｎｔａｓｙ　Ｖ

Cid is standing on deck by the railing.

He leaves.

Get a Beast Tamer to job level 2 to learn the !Control command. With this, you can now control a Motor Trap inside the steamship to learn Missile from it.

The queen rests on the second floor of the inn, surrounded by soldiers.

And Cid is moping upstairs in the pub.

It seems a shame to leave him like that, but he's completely unresponsive. Fortunately, one of the patrons downstairs mentions some information that might come in handy.

Be sure to learn Aqua Breath in the desert on the way here from a Dhorme Chimera (ドルムキマイラ), which has a 33% chance to use it each turn. This is a fairly powerful (50% stronger than Aerora against a single target) unreflectable non-elemental multitarget offensive spell, making it reasonably good to begin with, but its optimal use comes against Desert creatures, which take eight times the usual damage when hit with it.

In the woods around the library itself, control or confuse a Mithril Dragon (ミスリルドラゴン) to learn Fusion far more conveniently than backtracking all the way to the Ship Graveyard. The skill knocks out its caster in exchange for recovering its target to full HP and MP (unless Undead).

Scholars crowd the floor, running around as though in a panic.

Upstairs are a recovery pot, more scholars, and an old book on a table.

And considering how these things always go, guess where Mid is...

Attempting to examine the book directly is singularly unenlightening.

On the roof are two more scholars, a furnace, and some books.

What about those books?

I suppose that's a clue to the Healing Staff in Tycoon.

The third book is possessed and attacks! After that, on to that basement. It's dark and creepy, and many of the bookcases move. Boo. Battles here occur as series of book pages (possible opponents are Page 32, Page 64, Page 128, and Page 256).

Page 128 has an Ether to steal, and the others have some interesting rare steals if you can manage to nab them—Green Beret on Page 32, Silver-Rimmed Glasses on Page 64, and Shinobi Garb on Page 256.

Be careful of your levels here. Page 64 can cast Level 5 Death, which will wipe you out if every character has a level that is a multiple of 5.

On the other hand, this is your first chance to learn it, and a good time if your characters are not all the same level (someone must actually be hit to learn Blue Magic, so you can't get it if everyone's immune). There are several ways around this, but as far as I know, none of them are available yet.

Anyway, Page 64 (64ページ) has a 33% chance to cast Level 5 Death each turn. This skill kills all enemies with a level evenly divisible by 5, regardless of immunities, and even works on bosses with applicable levels. It's useless against other levels, and also heals affected Undead instead of killing them.

Page 32 (32ページ) has a 33% chance to use Aerora each turn, and you can also use !Control to force it.

Page 256 (256ページ) always uses Moon Flute every other turn. This is likely your first realistic chance to learn it, since Garchimacera is such a pain.

!Control Page 256 to make it use Guard Offer. This halves the effective defense and magic defense of one target for the rest of the battle. Not only that, but repeated uses stack, and bosses have no special immunity.

Farther into the basement is a stubborn bookshelf that insists on getting in the way.

But never fear! Past an apparent dead end in the previous room is a passage leading to a suspicious book.

With a red flash, the book bursts into flame.

Unsurprisingly, Ifrit specializes in Flame attacks. Summoning Shiva works well, and casting  Blizzara works better. Sword Magic  Blizzara is another good choice. Physical attacks seem to work better than magical overall. Surprisingly, he's vulnerable to 'paralysis', so summoning Remora or using a Whip can give him fewer chances to attack. He also has a Phoenix Tail to steal.

Remember that obnoxious bookshelf? Now when it gets in the way, there's a red flash accompanied by flaming noises.

This time, the shelf wisely gets out of the way. Before long, there's a save point, which naturally means a boss battle is coming up. Sure enough, the party finds someone in a dead-end room soon after.

Books hop out and attack the party, though it's actually just a single boss monster. Byblos doesn't like Flame, unsurprisingly.

Byblos has a 33% chance to cast Magic Hammer every other turn. This skill halves the target's current MP, which may come in handy now and then.

You can steal Dark Matter if you're lucky, or a Lucky Mallet more often than not. Byblos's weakness means summoning Ifrit, casting  Fira, and enchanting  Fira work for good damage. Watch out for its Wind Scythe attack in particular. Byblos may counter physical attacks with  Protect and magic with  Toad, and when lower on health may counter any damage with  Drain. If you don't mind cheap tactics, give everyone !Blue Magic and cast Death Claw until it hits to reduce the poor boss to single-digit health, with 'paralysis' status on top of that.

Either way, it drops a Protect Drink. The person here apparently hasn't noticed anything, and looks startled when spoken to.

That's Butz, then Lenna (by elimination), then Galuf (definitely), then Faris (based on the impoliteness).

Mid seems unaffected by their lack of enthusiasm.

He opens a passage in the wall. Back upstairs, a scholar is shocked off a ladder when the bookcase in front of him opens and Mid walks out.

The scholars crowd around him. The party walks out of the bookcase too.

Mid looks surprised.

He places a book on the nearby table.

Mid rushes out of the room.

The party follows. The scholars in the entry room continue rushing around frantically.

Cid hasn't moved since we last saw him. Mid hasn't arrived yet.

Everyone, even Cid, looks toward the stairs. Mid enters.

Without another word, Mid walks over to Cid and starts hitting him repeatedly.

Mid stops hitting him and just looks upset.

Cid and Mid nod to each other.

It's in that village we glimpsed back during the events at the Wind Temple, remember? No? Well anyway, it's south of a desert and surrounded by mountains.

Cid nods.

Mid puts the book on the table.

They nod to each other, then exchange nods with the party. Mid takes the book and leaves with Cid, who stops by the stairs for another exchange of nods.

Mid walks over and moves something on deck out from underfoot.

Cid walks onto the deck.

The party walks into the cabin as Cid and Mid continue working. Galuf drops back.

The screen blurs a few times.

The screen blurs again and fades out. Flashback to the pub with Cid and his bout of depression. We've seen this already.

Everyone, even Cid, looks toward the stairs. Mid enters.

Scene change to a different, unfamiliar flashback. Galuf stands alone on a castle roof, staring into the distance.

Okay, so you may be wondering where I got that bizarre name from. Isn't it Cara, or Krile, or Kururu, or Krull, or Cthulhu or something? Not exactly.

Kururu, the direct romanization of クルル, is unwieldy at best. In Japanese, it's normally a sound word (for spinning). It can be a type of door hinge or doorstop (枢 in kanji), though the word seems to be rather uncommon. The name dictionary I'm using also lists it as a possible female given name (written くるる, 枢, 輪廻, or 来瑠). However, it seems to be highly uncommon as a name. Then again, maybe that's why they chose it.

Krile, the name used in the official translation of the PSX (and GBA?) version, is both unwieldy and a poor representation of the Japanese name, which contains nothing even remotely resembling the long 'i' that spelling implies. It is, however, the spelling used on Japanese promotional material, including their website for the game, so that lends it some degree of legitimacy despite being, quite frankly, awful.

I also came across a claim that she's named after the Kurile (usually Kuril) Islands between Japan and Russia, and while that's believable on the surface and also explains where "Krile" comes from, it runs into some problems. The katakana rendering of "Kurile" is クリル (KURIRU), not クルル, and the island chain is normally referred to as 千島列島 (Chishima Rettou, literally "thousand-island chain") in Japanese anyway. "Kuril", or maybe "Curil", wouldn't be too bad, though.

Cara is the name used in RPGe's unofficial fan translation, and while it does take some liberties, it arguably fits the original pronunciation better than "Krile" and definitely sounds more like a real name. A feminine name, even.

So, where's "Karulu" come from, then? Ar tonelico. The first village in the game is Karulu in the English version and クルル in the Japanese. It came to me as I was playing it that the English name looked a lot like a credible job of getting something plausible out of クルル, and after checking into it, it turns out I was right. This spelling strikes me as adequately pronouncable while staying true to the original, and the 'a' and 'l' "soften" it just enough to be conceivable as a girl's name, if only barely. Light emphasis should be put on the second syllable, with the 'a' degenerating into a schwa sound pronounced roughly like the Japanese 'u'.

After looking at "Karulu", I was considering "Carol" too, but I think that's stretching the vowels a little too far, and "Carol" is normally キャロル (KYARORU) in katakana anyway. It would still be my first choice if I were trying to create a marketable translation for general public consumption, though. I'm frankly amazed Square used "Krile" in an English release, especially after some of the more head-scratching name changes they've made over the years...

Galuf turns around. A girl with blonde hair in a ponytail enters. She may look familiar from events back in the Ship Graveyard...

Back to the first flashback. Mid is hitting Cid repeatedly.

Back to the second flashback. Karulu is hitting Galuf repeatedly.

End flashbacks. We're back in the ship cabin.

More screen blurring.

Galuf nods, walks a few steps away, and hesitates before turning back around.

The others are understandably shocked.

Another flashback. Four men stand in a cave. One is Galuf, one is a werewolf (though not the one seen in Karnak), and a third previously appeared in a flashback that happened way back in Toole.

External view, spinning and panning out. It's a forested area, enclosed by mountains, that can be seen between the Wind Temple and Toole. In the flashback, there are four large rocklike objects, one in each corner of the forest. In the present, one disappears with each Crystal that shatters.

More screen blurring.

More screen blurring. Galuf collapses.

Fade out. Time lapse. The party returns to deck to find Cid and Mid snoring. Mid is unresponsive, but Cid wakes easily enough.

He stretches and wakes Mid.

Mid stretches, then hops up and down excitedly.

Cid and Mid walk onto the dock, which pulls away from the ship.

Butz nods and takes the helm.

Now that it's working again, the steamship functions much like Faris's pirate ship did when Syldra was towing it around. The only gameplay-relevant difference, other than the different section of ocean accessible, is that random encounters will occur while at sea in the steamship. Be prepared.

Three more of the locations marked on the World Map are now reachable, one in the northwest, one in the southwest, and one in the southeast. A fourth location, a town just northwest of the Wind Temple, may appear accessible when looking at the map, but actually going there reveals that encircling mountains block it off.

Speaking of encircling mountains, there's also a small island in the central ocean that, though not marked on the map, contains what looks like another temple or shrine. However, mountains surround it so tightly that not even a flying vehicle would be able to land close enough to allow access. Curious.

If you're feeling lucky at sea, the Corvette monster has a Trident as a rare steal. But be careful about using it, as it's a Thunder weapon. This works great on most sea monsters, but the Thunder Anemone absorbs that damage type. Of course, only the Normal class can use spears at this point, anyway...

Let's start with the northwestern town. This is the place to be for fans of sheep, but we're more interested in supplies and especially information. The magic shop sells Time Magic, none of it new. The armor shop has some fascinating merchandise, though...

Quite useful, so naturally all three are quite expensive, selling for 50,000 gil each. They also all have high defense and magic defense, especially the Angel's Ring.

A girl mentions something of possible interest.

Circling around a ring of flowers causes the ground in the middle to open up, revealing a surprised frog. It hops off into the forest, but...

Well, that fills the annoying hole in the Black Magic list. Anyway, there's also a cranky sheep that gets crankier when taunted, and kicks the party over the fence, where a random minstrel stands.

Answer in the affirmative, and...

An old man on the way out says:

And finally, an old woman in town mentions:

To the east in the forest, there's a high chance of fighting this odd character. His name is Ramuh, and he tends to use Thunder attacks. Casting  Mute will void many of his attacks, though it will also keep the party from using magic, and some of his Thunder skills will still work. He'll waste turns casting spells that do nothing, though. Death Claw also works on him for a quick and dirty win. Upon defeat, he speaks.

Note that the dialog is identical whether or not anyone actually summoned Ifrit during the battle. It's not a bad way to inflict damage, though.

Ramuh drops the item Ramuh, which makes thundering noises and adds Ramuh to the summon list when used.

Ramuh also has a 33% chance to use Flash every third turn, in case you still haven't learned it.

More importantly, seek out Black Flame (ブラックフレイム) in the grasslands near the village. These have a 33% chance to use Black Shock each turn, and !Control can also force the issue. This skill halves the target's effective level for the rest of the battle (fractions rounded down), which lowers the multipliers for most offensive and healing actions, making them less effective. Not only that, but repeated uses stack, and bosses have no special immunity.

Black Shock also affects whether Goblin Punch gets a damage bonus for equal levels, and whether level-based spells will hit or miss. As such, it's now potentially possible to learn Level 5 Death safely even if the entire party is the same level. If the party is level 21, for instance, Black Shock can make a single member level 10 and thus vulnerable, while the rest of the party remains immune. It also works the other way, so although this is riskier, if the whole party is level 15, for example, anyone hit with Black Shock becomes level 7 and therefore immune. It's worth backtracking for, if your levels make it work.

Okay, on to the southwestern town. No sheep here, and the magic shop again holds little of interest, stocking only White Magic the party should already have. The weapon and armor shops have new equipment, though it's best to skip the Silver Bows (they can be stolen easily enough soon). The pub is the main point of interest here. There's another piano to play (almost competent this time), adventurers talking about the nearby cave, and even a dancer who breaks the fourth wall! After inviting the current party leader and a random spectator to dance with her...

Your character also throws in an extra wave (or is it a hair toss?) on the end of the music.

Be careful if you're going to the cave. It mostly contains Nut Eaters (the weak squirrels from the beginning of the game), but there are occasional Skull Eaters. These things are brutal and nearly impossible to kill despite their single HP, because they have a ridiculously high defense power (and magic defense, and evasion, and magic evade). Don't try casting spells either... that just makes them mad. If you're lucky, any you encounter will simply run away, but if not... well, it's not like they're invincible... not quite, anyway. !Terrain might kill one depending on what you get, but the most reliable way is to bring a few people with !Control and make it kill itself with its special attack. Ha. Take that. I also highly recommend putting everyone in the back row (to reduce damage) and having the Thief's Alertness (to avoid ambushes) and the Ninja's Preemptive Attack (to increase your chances of acting first). Or you could just flee, but where's the fun in that?

The Nut Eater formations give 3 ABP, and Skull Eaters give 5 ABP whether they run or die. Not a bad place to level up jobs, if you don't mind the risk involved.

Make it past the monsters and traps to get a Shuriken, a Tent, and a Shock Whip. There's also a climbable wall that leads to a clearing in the mountains outside, except that there's no apparent point to going there... at least for now. Incidentally, leaving the cave past the tricks and traps is far easier than entering.

Bomb (ボム) enemies near the town have a 33% chance to use Self-Destruct each turn, and !Control can also force the issue. As mentioned previously, this skill knocks out the caster in exchange for inflicting the caster's HP in unblockable and undefendable damage to one target. Bombs have 440 HP, and will cause that much damage when exploding unless they've been softened up first, so plan accordingly when fighting them.

And finally, the southeastern town, on a crescent-shaped island.

If you're looking to learn a Blue Magic spell early and don't mind a bit of risk, try first taking the ship to one of the small islands southwest of Crescent that doesn't have any forest. On these islands, the mechanical Prototype (プロトタイプ) is the only enemy that appears.

Prototype has a 33% chance to use Flamethrower every other round. This skill inflicts Flame magic damage with a power equal to Fira. However, it can't be reflected and costs just half the MP. The drawback is that it can only hit a single target at a time.

Prototype also has a 33% chance to use Missle every other round, but you should already have that. Missle appears in its !Control list, too.

The final Blue Magic skill that Prototype has, Self-Destruct, appears only in its !Control list. Since Prototype has an excessive 100 defense and magic defense (though it at least lacks any evasion or elemental resistance), forcing it to blow itself up is also the quickest and easiest way to beat one.

Chemists also benefit from hunting Prototype, since it will always drop a Dark Matter when defeated.

If you're interested in Silver Bows, steal them from the Crescent monsters outside Crescent town. Easy and free, a winning combination. The same monsters may also drop Death Sickles for your Berserkers.

The Black Flame enemies appear again here, so that gives another chance to learn Black Shock.

No sooner does the party walk into town but an old man panics.

He runs off, leaving the party looking confused until the ground starts shaking violently.

All buildings are locked at the moment, and all the people outside are too panicked for conversation. We'd better go check on the ship.

And we see the ship sink into a vortex at the opening in the crescent of the island. The old man by the entrance is less than sympathetic.

At least the town's calmed down now. The magic shop is another bust, with familiar Black Magic, but the weapon shop, on the other hand, has some new items. Harps and elemental bows. Huh. A minstrel's house in the southeast has another piano (the fifth one, and sounding pretty good now except that sour note at the end), and the minstrel himself is helpful too.

However, their piano skill is not yet adequate to trigger any new songs. Other townspeople offer general combat advice...

...notes on the island...

...and even clues to leaving it.

A flying chocobo... sounds useful. The party heads to the forest to investigate.

There is a chocobo here, and it does seem to be an odd color. Not exactly black, more of a dark purple, but clearly not the usual yellow.

The chocobo runs around wildly. The Thief's Dash ability and trying to guess where it's going to go next both help with catching it.

The bird lifts off, but soon falls back down, crashing into a large tree. Lenna and Galuf check on Butz while Faris goes for the chocobo. Butz gets up.

Faris circles behind the chocobo and gives it a couple of hard slaps. Two Crystal shards pop out.

Butz takes the shards.

Everyone hops on the chocobo. It does a little dance, then lifts off, staying in the air this time. As described, the black chocobo can land in any forest, and only in forest. It can also fly over moutains, but not the highest mountains. This poses no real obstacle to getting anywhere, as such mountains can always be detoured around, though they can still be annoying. In any case, the black chocobo can reach anything the steamship can (with a few exceptions, mostly small empty islands with no forest, like the ones that have Prototype encounters), and even a few things it can't...

...like that village northwest of the Wind Temple. The magic shop sells  Esuna (and nothing else), convenient for anyone who missed it in Karnak Castle. Nearly everyone here knows Butz, and the innkeeper even lets the party stay free of charge.

Transition to nighttime. Butz is out of bed. Faris wakes up and notices. Transition to outside. Butz stands by a tall gravestone. Faris approaches.

Butz steps up to the grave and does something.

Faris seems lost in thought. Butz tries to... provide comfort, I guess? But Faris will have none of that.

And everyone wakes up normally in the morning. One of the older women in the village remarks on Butz's old house.

The minstrel is friendly enough.

Butz finds a music box. It does seem to bring back memories, since a flashback starts. Young Butz lies in bed, with a woman next to him, and a man who has appeared in two previous flashbacks sits at the table. Butz rolls over, and the woman quietly walks away and over to the table.

Incidentally, Butz's bed is the only one in the house. Did his parents sleep on the floor, or did they all share one bed?

He looks down for a bit before responding.

What sort of fits is unclear, but it must be some type of recurring ailment.

She walks off the screen. Dorgan backs away, then walks over to Butz's bedside.

Dorgan turns around.

No response. He steps forward, looking alarmed.

The screen pans to show Stella collapsed on the floor. Fade to black as Dorgan rushes to her side.

Return to the present. The minstrel liked the music box, at least.

That hardly seems appropriate, but at least confusing all enemies is useful.

Out in the village is a scholarly type who used to know Butz as a child.

Pixelize into another flashback, this one outdoors in the village.

Young Butz runs behind a tall building and climbs onto the roof, ducking behind the chimney.

Young Butz waits. And waits. And waits. Night falls. Young Butz walks around a little, then slips and slides to the edge of the roof, dangling off the edge.

Pixelize back to the present.

The item shop has another pleasant surprise.

All items here are half price. Unfortunately, that doesn't apply to the weapon and armor shops upstairs, but the weapons shop does sell some useful items for the Ninja that haven't been available in any other stores.

Remember how Cid said to come here if anything happened? No? ...well, anyway. Cid and Mid come out to greet the party upon their arrival.

The party looks astonished.

Though 流砂 (ryuusa) typically translates to "quicksand", that doesn't quite fit the usage here, and the term is more general anyway. The more literal meaning of "flowing sand" fits better in this case, as becomes obvious upon visiting the desert.

Unfortunately, that only works for him as a plot device... Trying to use 'levitate' status will not help you navigate the desert.

Lenna nods, and the party sets out.