With the Falcon at your disposal, you can go essentially anywhere in any order you want. Only a few of the available sidequests have any prerequisites beyond finding them, and you can even go straight to the final dungeon if you want (though that's probably a bad idea). Therefore, in almost every situation from here on, every character will be potentially available, and only rarely will any be required. As such, I'm changing my header format. From here on, the characters who absolutely must be recruited to come to this location or trigger this event (usually only Celes, Edgar, and Setzer) will display in color, while every other character will display in black and white unless it's entirely impossible to have that character at that time (for example, when you're on your way to recruit that character).

Also, since you're free to go virtually anywhere and do virutally anything, there's no particular reason to follow the same order I'm using here. Most of it's completely optional anyway, including recruiting any character other than Celes, Edgar, and Setzer. Yes, you can clear the game with just those three, but it's definitely less risky with a fuller party, preferably with at least twelve total members.

Any characters that have been recruited but are not in the active party will wait below deck in the airship, along with the usual NPC to remove equipment, though the Falcon lacks the healer and merchant previously found on the Blackjack. Anyway, as usual, any standby party members present have lines.

We'll be recruiting them all in due time, don't worry.

^ said while peering at the mechanics and looking overwhelmed

All the world's "women"? But everyone knows Edgar's favorite word is "lady"!

うひょひょ (uhyohyo) seems to be a caricature of a laugh. In short, she's mocking him.

Look out for one other thing, though. Remember someone mentioning an ancient monster freed when the world was torn apart that now flies through the sky? That's not just idle talk.

Death Gaze now has a chance to attack the airship while flying around, and as the name suggests, it's not a friendly creature.

Techincally, Death Gaze's position is a randomly chosen cell on a 64 x 64 grid overlaying the world map. Entering this cell (at any altitude) initiates combat. Death Gaze remains in place until encountered, then moves to a new randomly chosen cell after each encounter if not beaten. Unless you're peeking into the game data, though, it might as well be a random encounter with a very low rate as far as you're concerned.

Death Gaze begins all battles with Level 5 Death, so be careful of character levels when flying around, or use Memento Rings and Safety Bits as needed. After that, attacks used include more instant death plus Ice and Wind attacks, followed by a high chance of the monster running away every third turn. That's right, Death Gaze flees combat. The party can also flee first, but not until after the initial Level 5 Death, so don't get careless.

After the opening salvo, which doesn't count as a turn, Death Gaze will attack normally, cast Death, or cast Blizzaga on its first turn, then use Death (33%) or Aeroga (67%) its second turn, then will either run away (67%) or do nothing (33%) its third turn. This pattern repeats if battle hasn't ended by this point. The creature also has a 1/3 chance to counterattack when harmed.

Death Gaze has 55,555 HP, permanent 'levitation', 'protect', and 'shell' status, no meaningful status vulnerabilities, and the second highest agility of any enemy in the game (tied with Brachio Raidus). Its weaknesses are Flame and Holy, while it absorbs Ice and Poison. For best results, use attacks that ignore defense to bypass its protective status effects and fairly high defenses. Breaking Holy Rods works absurdly well thanks to piercing defense, and since Thamasa sells them now, only your finances limit the supply. Any character at level 25 will inflict over 5,000 damage per rod even with no equipment or level-up bonuses, so with some Earrings and boosts to magic power, ten should easily be more than enough except in a low-level game.

Flame Rods also work, though not as well, while Flame Shields hurt more than Holy Rods but are considerably harder to come by. Even at level 6 (which seems to be the lowest possible), Celes breaking a Holy Rod will hit for nearly 4,400 damage if properly equipped (double Earrings and all possible equipment bonuses to magic power). Stragus can match that, Tina can outdo it, and Relm can exceed 5,000.

Ragers may enjoy using Io in this battle, as it combines Wind immunity with Flare Star, which will always inflict 9,999 damage here regardless of the user's stats or level. Unfortunately, it lacks instant death immunity, but toss in a Reflect Ring and avoid levels divisible by five, and that won't matter.

If not beaten in one battle, Death Gaze remains just as damaged in the next battle. When it flees, it only delays the inevitable.

Beating Death Gaze leads to a brief but useful event, with a glowing stone that lands on the airship deck.

If you like cheesing battles and want to use the Vanish/Doom exploit, note that slaying Death Gaze with anything that cancels dying counterattacks will skip setting the flag that triggers the event, so avoid Dejon and similar spells or you won't get the Bahamut magicite. However, this may also prevent the game from flagging it as dead, which if true would allow you to encounter it again for another try.

Unused lines of battle text suggest that more elaborate plans existed for the Death Gaze battle at some point.

Death Gaze does actually have a Poison Claw attack in the final game, but will never use it. The only way to see this attack is through Sketch. Since it only inflicts 'poison', and Death Gaze is immune, the skill is completely useless. The other lines suggest it had a frigid breath and deadly gaze, hence the name.

The island where Celes woke up lies southwest of the southern continent, or south from Maranada, or east from Thamasa.

Nobody bothers to offer him a ride out of this place, and he doesn't show the slightest interest in the Falcon, either. It's likely that being able to save Cid was a late addition, and that most of the game was developed with his death and Celes's suicide attempt assumed to be unavoidable.

In any case, something has washed up on the shoreline just outside the shack.

Spells that meddle with time and space, combined with an unusual but useful summon effect? Yes, please.

You can also catch more fish, but there's no longer any reason to.

As his wife said, Duncan somehow survived. Find him training in an isolated house north of Narshe where "Mt. Kolts" plays, though it's not plainly visible on the map. Look for a small formation of single trees arranged in a cross. The house looks very much like, and may even be, the one Mash used to live in.

Duncan hops onto the roof.

Mash makes the same boast when you recruit him. Apparently martial arts skill isn't all he learned from the master.

"Edgar & Sabin" starts playing.

They start training, which looks an awful lot like beating each other up on the roof... and about fifty feet above it, at the end, before falling to the ground.

Mash now has Mugen Toubu, his ultimate skill, not otherwise learned until level 70. It ignores defense and always hits, and bases damage on magic power instead of strength. Everyone does their Serious Business pose. The music fades, and the scene ends. Duncan remains inside.

In a minor glitch, opening and closing the menu makes him restart his movement pattern, which can cause him to go through the wall and all the way off the screen if repeated enough times. Getting in his way can result in some strange animation, too.

Along the strip of land between Jidoor and Maranda, the theater remains intact, but they have a bit of a problem.

He's running around in the balcony where the party sat to watch the production earlier.

After saving and making sure everyone is using Earth Garb, Angel Wings, or the Hero's Shield, or has an appropriate Rage on tap, head to the control room and flip switches until one opens a trap door onto the stage, where the Earth Dragon awaits. Expect Earth attacks and a chance of nasty physicals.

Most of its attacks will heal anyone wearing Earth Garb, making that the preferred option. The attacks are ground-based, but don't try using Levitate, since the dragon will periodically dispel that with 50 Gs. Angel Wings will work, since 'levitate' from those is unremovable and 50 Gs will fail (but unlike an earthquake-loving boss from FFV, it's not foolish enough to waste every turn trying). You'll still have to watch out for physical attacks, especially the random Sharp Fangs counter that inflicts five times its normal attack damage. For an easy win, try combining 'poison', 'sleep', and optionally 'slow', since all three will work. Summoning Golem or Fenrir may also prove useful. In addition to the predictable Wind, the Earth Dragon also has a weakness to Water.

Win for a Wizard Rod, which boasts a +7 magic bonus and +30 to MEvd. No items to steal. Also, a notice will appear after the battle. Recall that a scholar mentioned reading about an excessively strong power called Jihad being sealed in eight dragons a thousand years ago. This is one of those eight, so assuming it's the first of them to be beaten, the following message appears; otherwise it depends on how many others are dead.

Anyway, why can't you just walk out onto the stage from the anteroom?

The party returns to the lobby, and finds a much calmer Impresario.

And that's it for here.

All eight dragons also have unused combat text, hinting at some interesting ideas that didn't make it into the final game. For this dragon, we have:

In the figurative sense. The phrase 理性を失う (risei wo ushinau) means to lose the ability to behave rationally.

Since we already know where to find Tina, let's come back here. Except... where did she go? Catalina has gone missing too.

And by the way...

Three guesses what that means. Dean mopes in one of the other remaining buildings.

He's not paying enough attention to notice one of the dogs disappear behind a bookcase. Following it turns up a hidden staircase down to another cave room where we find Tina and Catalina.

Dean finally comes in.

But then heavy footfalls approach, the music fades out, and a kid runs in.

"The Unforgiven" plays, but everyone except the party just stands there.

You should know the drill by now. The Humbaba battle goes essentially the same as it did last time—lots of Thunder attacks plus the occasional powerful physical strike or 1000 Needles, and a weakness to Poison—but should be easier with more and stronger characters. However, after taking 10,640 damage, Humbaba will use Humbaba Breath twice, blowing two random characters so far out of the battle that they wind up back on the Falcon.

It's not over yet, though. Tina comes to the rescue...

...and shifts into Genjuu form. Far from being ineffective this time, she remains transformed for the entire battle instead of being limited by a timer. Bio will do amazing things. Humbaba also suddenly has a 'sleep' vulnerablity in this battle, so have someone send him into dreamland. Stick with magic attacks after that, and putting the brute to sleep permanently should be a cakewalk.

On a side note, this is the only time you can see Genjuu-Tina's KOed combat sprite normally. In all other battles, she automatically reverts when incapacitated.

Everyone rushes out to celebrate this great victory, but they're understandably spooked when Tina comes to a landing, still transformed.

Tina looks upset. One girl steps forward, though.

"Awakening" fades in, and takes over as the music for Mobliz for the rest of the game.

They all crowd around her.

Tina rises into the air and gives off sparkles.

Congratulations, Tina has rejoined the party. As an added bonus, her transformation meter now empties half as quickly as before, meaning she can remain transformed for twice as long. And check the hidden room before leaving for an Ether Turbo.

Still in roughly the same place (a large landmass in the northeast with no land route in or out), with the same music, the Beast Plain continues to work exactly as it always has. This includes Gau randomly appearing to rejoin whenever he's away as long as the active party has room for him, so recruiting him again is as simple as coming here and winning a few battles with no more than three party members. Easy, though if you recruited Mash before getting the Falcon, you'll need to pick up at least one other character first to have someone on standby to change party members, or visit a location that forces a party reorganization.

Crescent Moon Mountain is gone, but there's a new cave on the south end of the area. We'll be going there later.

As usual, the Beast Plain remains a great (if sometimes tedious) place to farm items and learn magic without gaining levels, if you're into that sort of thing.

With Gau back in the party, take some time to build up his Rage list. One option to help with this is to roam around all the new areas in the overworld that almost seem redundant now thanks to having an airship. Notable monsters (from the standpoint of combat and rewards, not necessarily where Rages are concerned) include the following:

Reach Frog: These appear on the southwestern continent, mostly in the forests. They can jump, which can cause all sorts of associated glitches that are, fortunately, unlikely to appear unless deliberately provoked. They also use Ripple, which exchanges all sorts of status effects that it shouldn't, including stealing Interceptor. Be wary of bringing Shadow anywhere near them.

Slug Crawler: Found in the desert south of Maranda. These hit hard and will spam Sandstorm as a counterattack. Have Wind immunity, or just cast Death to kill them outright. 5 LP and 10,000 gil make them worth the trouble.

Cactaur: Also found in the desert south of Maranda. These have extreme defensive stats, to the point that anything that can miss will, and anything that hits but doesn't ignore defense will inflict only 1 damage. Fortunately, they only have 3 hit points, and will fall easily to unblockable defense-ignoring attacks like Edgar's Drill, Mash's Bakuretsu Ken, and Setzer's Dice. No experience, but they do give an incredible 10 LP, plus 10,000 gil.

Don't leave a Cactaur alive too long. At first, you'll just see the following message alternating with Thousand Needles:

If nothing else, that gives Stragus an easy way to learn it. However, after the third time, you'll get the message below instead, and then come ten consecutive uses of Thousand Needles, for a total of ten thousand damage (spread across random targets).

Cactaur notably has the highest value of any monster in the game for each of MP, defense, evasion (not that it does anything), magic defense, and magic evasion. It also has the second highest magic power, at 50, of any opponent, though it never does anything that takes advantage of that.

Anyway, no monsters other than the Slug Crawler and Cactaur appear in this desert, so every battle won pays out 10,000 gil and at least 5 LP. This makes it the preferred destination for both money and magic.

Tyrannosaurus: Found in the forest on the northeastern continent. These are highly dangerous, especially when paired, in which case they will always surround the party. Powerful physical attacks, a brutal special, occasional castings of Meteor... probably not worth the trouble yet, but they do give lots of experience (third most of any monster in the game), have Armor Kappa as a rare steal, and infrequently drop Sa Gojō's Spear. Also, 3 LP for one, or 5 for two.

Brachio Raidus: In the same forest as the Tyrannosaurus, and even more rare and dangerous, this has the second highest level of any enemy that appears in the game. In addition to powerful physicals and Meteor, this guy can inflict status effects like nobody's business with Disaster, and might even use Ultima after a few rounds, which may come surprisingly quickly since this monster ties with Death Gaze for second fastest enemy in the game. Expect the spell to inflict over 6,000 damage, even against multiple targets. So why risk this beast's wrath? For one thing, the Rage gets all its status immunities and can use Distaster, which isn't bad. It also has the Ribbon as a rare steal, and the godly Three Stars as a rare drop. Beyond that, it gives more experience than any other monster in the game by a significant margin, though not quite as much as a double Tyrannosaurus battle, and 10 LP besides.

No monsters other than the Tyrannosaurus and Brachio Raidus appear in this forest, making it the best source of experience points.

Basilisk: Found in grasslands on the northern and southwestern continents. Uses petrifying attacks, and has the Carapace Shield as a rare steal and rare drop.

Sprinter: Found in various places, but most plentiful in the grasslands of the northeastern continent. These have Armor Kappa as a rare drop.

Grand Insect: Found in various places, mainly grasslands on the northern continent and forests on the southwestern continent. Powerful physical attacks (second highest attack power of any enemy), with Sa Gojō's Spear as a rare steal.

Prelantaru: Found in grasslands on the northeastern continent. Has the Dish as a rare steal.

Many of the monsters I've listed have unusual equipment that appears to be junk as first glance, providing a mere 1 attack or 1 defense. However, these become quite powerful if worn when in 'kappa' status, providing a total of 253 attack, 208 defense and MDef, and 30 evade and MEvd, in addition to teaching Kappa and absorbing Water. Try combining the set with the Wyrmknight's Boots and Wyvern's Horn on a character whose special abilities you won't miss much. Additionally, the MDef, MEvd, absorption, and spell learning all work normally even when not in 'kappa' status, though that only makes up for the lack of physical defense in a few special situations. These items also lead to some interesting things when wagered at the coliseum, specifically the Cat-Ear Hood, and through it, the Medal.

Remember the delusional old guy who thought Mash was a repairman? He remembers Mash, at least.

As before, じじい (jijii) appears in a halfwidth font that I can't reproduce here.

So bring Mash here and try again.

The party steps outside for a discussion.

Bringing Gau instead, but without Mash also in the active party, just gives the same lines as with neither of them there, except for this after the the geezer says to get lost:

Okay, then, let's try it with both Mash and Gau. After the line about fixing the chair, they leave and discuss.

Scene change to a pub or something similar. Gau and Mash sit at a table, while any other recruited characters except Mog, Umaro, and Gogo stand around and watch (or, in Shadow's case, indifferently lie in a nearby bed). "Johnny C Bad" plays.

A cross between はい (yes) and ガウ (gau). The NA version would have done better to end up at "yaooo" after starting with something further from "yes".

The scene changes to a shop, which the party has pretty much taken over. The merchant runs around, either frantically catering to them or just distraught.

It looks like everything that happens does so in the order listed, but not all interactions will necessarily take place, even if the characters involved are all in the scene. I'm reasonably certain that Celes, Setzer, and Mash all have their say regardless. Tina and Cayenne always seem to get their sections if recruited, but it seems as though the fight between Edgar and Lock only occurs if both are in the active party... maybe?

Tina looks mad. And was that a feral growl?

Celes looks mad, but at least she doesn't growl.

A bit of badly mishandled wordplay. The peanut gallery comments on his horrible センス (SENSU, fashion sense), a more modern word that someone as archaic as Cayenne would never recognize, so he interprets it as 扇子 (sensu, folding fan), and questions how the hat is in any way a fan.

Mash gets Gau into a red athletic outfit.

Funeral? What??

Gau suddenly looks like mini-Lock.

Excessively upset, Lock lunges at Edgar, and we hear the sounds of a fight as the screen dims.

After all is done, the music fades out, and Mash returns to the hut with Gau, who now wears a preppy navy blue suit and has his hair tamed.

"Gau" starts playing.

Either way, the scene continues.

The screen dims.

Gau steps in front of him...

...then walks outside.

There's no real purpose to this from a gameplay standpoint, but it's interesting regardless. If you try coming back, the man only talks about repairs, though he'll also repeat his clue about the mountains if that part of the dialog occurred.

Once a thriving industrial city and the party's effective base of operations for a large part of the game, Narshe now lies largely abandoned for reasons never fully explained, though the people in the Beginner's House don't seem to care.

Monsters now overrun the city, causing random encounters in all outdoor areas, in addition to new enemies in the mines. Adding to the dismal atmosphere, "Dark World" now plays in the town, the mines, and the cliffsides.

One of the more interesting ones is the Wizard, due to its items. Steal for a Thunder Rod (common) or Ice Rod (rare), and beat one for a chance at a Flame Rod (rare drop). The only other source of any of these in the WoR is the Ice Rod as the rare steal from a Specter if you run into one on the Beast Plain.

Anyway. A wolflike character makes an appearance as the party enters town.

Predictably, that Moogle is Mog. Fight through the mines to the cave where they all lived before to find him alone and looking rather downcast. He turns around and expresses astonishment, and "Mog" starts playing.

Insert intro and naming screen.

Mog hops around and makes some energetic gestures.

Mog joins the party. Like most characters, he'll come along with the active group if it has the room, or head to the airship with the other reserve members otherwise. Before leaving, search the spot where he was standing to find Moruru's Charm, an accessory for Mog that prevents all random encounters.

Beyond the obvious convenience, Moruru's Charm also allows you to loot treasures from dungeons whether you're ready to handle the monsters or not. Just watch out for bosses, traps, and treasure chests that contain monsters, since it won't help you avoid those.

Also, if you avoided taking the chests in the mines earlier, they now contain an Elixir instead of a Sleeping Bag, a Protective Bracelet instead of a Phoenix Tail, and a Ribbon instead of a Rune Blade. Well worth waiting for, in my opinion.