Ｆｉｎａｌ　Ｆａｎｔａｓｙ　Ｖ

But first, who can resist exploring? There are no random encounters on the ocean in the submarine, much less when underwater, so nothing's stopping us.

Due east of where the undersea cave to the barrier tower was, the ocean floor has a large crack in it. Although an interesting feature, the submarine won't enter, and nothing else happens, so it's of no importance for now.

Of more relevance is a spot in the west marked on the underwater map. Surfacing here gives access to another town. I won't go into more detail until it becomes plot-relevant, but for those with the money, they sell not only new equipment but also all level five (and four) White, Black, and Timespace spells.

Another mark in the northwest indicates yet another underwater cave, this one with some fairly dangerous monsters.

The Druid (ドルイド), one of the monsters in this cave, has Black Shock in its !Control list.

The cave leads to the mountain-ringed lake north of Surgate Castle. There's not much here at first glance, except a chocobo forest with a single chocobo.

Why not? Not that there's anywhere to go around here, but still, that seems weirdly arbitrary.

However, fighting battles in the forest around the lake commonly leads to an encounter with the dread beast Catoblepas, which counters any damage it takes with the petrifying Demon's Eye. That's its only truly threatening attack, though, so using only powerful attacks and curing as needed makes the battle fairly simple. Upon defeat, it drops the Catoblepas item, which adds Catoblepas to the summon list when used.

Though now underwater, the cave seems intact and even still has breathable air, though it's also full of monsters, because of course it is.

One particularly noteworthy monster is Metamorpha (メタモルファ), which has no attacks of its own, but will transform into other monsters, then use one of their attacks before turning back. These include Elf Toad, which will use Frog Song, and Crew Dust, which will use Flash. More importantly for Blue Magic collectors, its Fan Demon transformation uses Aeroga, which neither the actual monster nor anything else so far has used. Aeroga doesn't quite measure up to the -ga level Black Magic spells in terms of power, but it at least costs slightly less to cast, and the element comes in handy sometimes.

Each Metamorpha has a fixed set of three monsters it can turn into, either Shiva, Ifrit, and Ramuh; Shiva, Gayla Cat, and Elf Toad; Ifrit, Wyvern, and Fan Demon; or Ramuh, Crew Dust, and Dragon Zombie. Keep that in mind to more quickly identify useless ones when seeking skills.

Also, Radiator (ラジエーター) has Bloodsuck in its !Control list and may use it as a counterattack when damaged, for what it's worth.

Shortly into the cave, we come to a room with five doorways, all but one closed, and a formation of five chests in the center, only the center one closed.

This rock can be taken...

...which closes the open door. Placing it in a different chest opens one of the other doorways. Two lead nowhere, but one leads to a skull switch that opens the path ahead behind the fourth doorway. A passage on the next floor, only visible when nearby, leads to another skull switch that reveals a staircase down. After another floor that consists mainly of similar passages, we reach what looks like a dead end at a large pool of water. However, Butz spots something down there.

For whatever reason, this gives the option to jump in the water. Doing so takes us to a similar pool, and after climbing out, we continue across a causeway to a sort of an island where we find the turtle. Butz approaches it.

He harrasses the turtle, which ducks into its shell.

Lenna and Faris advance. Butz ignores them all and keeps tormenting the turtle.

The turtle gets up, spins around, and hops a few times with apparent annoyance.

Butz, Lenna, and Faris fall back in astonishment.

Galuf gives them a look.

Gheed looks around at them all.

Gheed steps back, and the party circles up.

Gheed ducks into his shell briefly before handing Butz a branch.

The submarine can surface in a lake next to this village in the west. As noted above, they sell new magic and equipment.

There's also another piano in the pub. Hey, isn't that actual classical music?

It's barely worth mentioning at this point, but outside the town the... Bold Manny(?)—seriously, am I missing a mythological reference or something?—(ボールドマニー)... have Bloodsuck in their !Control list, and need to be given MP before they can even use it.

The path seems to dead end almost immediately, but then the branch reacts.

The branch shines, and an opening appears in the growth.

The Mini Magician (ミニマジシャン) in the forest is the first enemy with Little Melody, and uses it at least once every third turn, unless it runs out of MP. The skill inflicts 'minimum' status on one target. It has the same cost as the White Magic spell Minimum, but lower accuracy, though it can't be reflected.

The... Gajela Gajelly(?) (ガジェラガジェリ)... has Aerora in its !Control list, in case you're missing that.

Not much further in, the path appears to stop again, but examining a hole in a tree trunk prompts something shiny to come out and reveal a tunnel under the tree. There's a similar setup at the end of the next area, too. Then, not far beyond a save point, comes a sudden rumbling that knocks everyone off their feet. Exdeath's theme plays, so this can't be a good thing.

On the world map, a massive forest fire starts in the south and rapidly spreads northward.

With fires burning all around, the party is trapped. However, after a delay...

A moogle pops out of a hole in the ground, waves, then hops back in. The party follows, finding a safe cave underground, complete with a recovery spring. One moogle guards the exit while another roams around.

After a delay, the moogle by the exit moves out of the way. The party emerges to find the fire died out and the forest in ashes, though as a silver lining, that at least improves visibility and makes it easier to navigate. Unfortunately, the monsters remain unaffected.

A chest now in plain sight nearby contains a Flame Shield if opened now, or an Aegis Shield if taken before the fire. The Flame Shield has higher raw stats and absorbs Flame damage, while the Aegis Shield prevents 'petrified' status and also has a unique effect that gives a 1 in 3 chance to block most magic, including many common spells that otherwise always hit. Both shields are uncommon, and both can be stolen in potentially unlimited quantities from late-game enemies.

There's an exit to the south shortly ahead, where the view from the world map gives some idea of the sheer extent of the damage. Besides the burned forest, there's also now a gap in the mountains to the south, making the area reachable by wyvern.

Chests near the exit contain some Soot (largely useless) and a Flametongue (useful for Knights). Another dead end appears to the north.

The screen pans up to show an unusually large tree.

The screen flashes a few times...

...the branch rises toward the tree, and the nearby forest rearranges itself into a pathway leading to a doorway that opens in the trunk of the large tree. The dooway closes behind the party after they enter. In the back of the trunk, four organic pillars have... some sort of energy rippling across them?

The energy things descend the pillars with menacing red flashes.

Four nameless crystalline enemies attack. All four are immune to Holy, Poison, Thunder, and Ice. Each additionally absorbs a different single one of the remaining four elements: the top one Flame, the bottom one Earth, the one in the front Water, and the one in the back Wind.

Each uses only unremarkable physical attacks at first. However, each starts spamming a high-powered spell associated with its element once its health gets low enough (under about 40%): Figa, Earth Shaker, Aqua Breath, or Aeroga. The key to keeping this battle manageable is to deal with one at a time.

Curiously, they aren't Heavy, nor are they immune to instant death. That opens up all sorts of cheap tactics.

Aqua Breath and Aeroga are learnable. Though neither one is new, they're at least easy to get hit with reliably here.

The energy things retreat back to the pillars. But then...

The energy things take on a more concrete, meaningful shape.

Exdeath summons the Crystals to line up in front of him.

Energy flows from each of the Crystals, knocking the party members over and pushing them up against the far wall. The scene fades... then fades in at Bal Castle, where Karulu stands by the wyvern, looking worried.

The resident moogle rushes out and hops with apparent agitation.

Karulu heads to the wyvern as the scene fades out... then fades back in inside the tree, where the situation remains unchanged.

The screen shakes as Exdeath presumably cranks up the output, but then something shiny circles around and knocks him away, ending the barrage.

So of course Exdeath gets up almost immediately.

He conjures what looks like a ring of fire that encircles Karulu.

He starts moving the ring around, slamming her into the walls.

Galuf struggles to his feet.

Exdeath, noticing this, resumes the barrage from the Crystals, but this time, Galuf stubbornly remains standing and even pushes back against the energy.

Galuf hesitates, then turns to see Karulu collapsing.

He presses on, and sure enough, the Crystal attacking him shatters. Undeterred, Galuf forces his way through the ring of fire, tossing Karulu to safety, then seems to absorb it and stands with a glowing aura to face down her attacker.

Galuf charges him and engages in single combat, with a new battle theme. However, his health is draining rapidly, and Exdeath's attacks are more than he can handle on his own. And yet... even with no health left, he keeps fighting.

Exdeath uses Vacuum Wave (しんくうは), hitting for four digits of damage regardless of defense. And yet... Galuf keeps fighting.

Exdeath casts Flare, Holy, and Meteor in rapid succession, inflicting massive amounts of damage... but Galuf shrugs it all off.

Exdeath falls, and the remaining Crystals stop their attack. However, Galuf also collapses, and everyone else remains unable to move. Exdeath uses the opportunity to gather up the Crystals and teleport away. The others slowly recover... except for Galuf.

Sad music fades in.

But to no avail. His body flickers and disappears.

Karulu stumbles forward and collapses.

After a long delay, the music fades, the screen flashes several times, and Karulu gets up.

The entrance reopens and she heads outside.

She runs around, seeing nothing, until what looks like a vine circlet drops from the tree.

And his experience points, level, job levels and experience... only her base stats, and of course her appearance, are any different from what Galuf had. His equipment goes into your inventory, too, so there's not even any need to remove it ahead of time. While that's certainly convenient from a gameplay standpoint, immediately replacing Galuf with someone who can so readily take his place feels like it blunts the impact of his death.

The others emerge from the tree.

The wyvern lands, and everyone gets on to fly off. It's time to confront Exdeath...

Anyway, now that Karulu has joined the party, let's take a moment to showcase how she looks in all the jobs available:

Knight:

Monk:

Thief:

Wyrmknight:

Ninja:

Samurai:

Berserker:

Hunter:

Sword Mage:

White Mage:

Black Mage:

Time Mage:

Summoner:

Blue Mage:

Red Mage:

Beast Tamer:

Chemist:

Geomancer:

Minstrel:

Dancer:

Normal: