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Welcome to the Final Fantasy V Let's Play Screenshot-Edition! In case you want to start the Let's Play, scroll down this post, its easy. Or click this link to start!

Table of Contents:
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1. Aye-aye, Cap'n!
**Part 1
**Part 2
**Part 3
**Part 4
2. A Trick of the Light
**Part 1


Next up: A Trick of the Light - Part 1

Last updated on Friday the 13th, November 2015. Happy bad luck day!

This post has been edited by Pooka on 18th November 2015 21:12

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I am Exdeath. Step aside pesky clowns, or your warranty is Void!

Aye-aye, Cap'n! - Part 1
#################

Yes, I just put the Dragon's Den in FFVI to a rest. Now comes my next project. The Final Fantasy V Let's Play Screenshot Edition!

Final Fantasy V is outright one of the best FF games in the series, and in my opinion, much better than FFVI. But I'd wager you're not in the mood for a lengthy introdoction to the game. I'll play the game and introduce whatever's thrown into the way. I'll be covering the Android version on an Archos Gamepad 2 (which supports both touch and controller input), and said version comes with the GBA translation. Please note that most of the script was copied and pasted from RandyPandy's Game Script FAQ on GameFAQs, and the screenshots you see here were all captured, edited, and uploaded by me. Those kinds of details out... let's just start a new game.

Any new run of FFV always begins with the backdrop on this one castle.



A man, presumably important from his clothing, opens the leftmost door and goes out... to his wind drake! And then he's followed by a girl.



Lenna: Do you really have to go?

King Tycoon: You know I do, dear. I need you to protect the castle. Under no circumstances are you to follow me, do you understand?

Lenna: But, Father...



King Tycoon: I must go to the Wind Shrine to make certain nothing's happened to the crystal.

Lenna: Yes...I've noticed it as well. But, to go alone is-

King Tycoon: Lenna. Don't worry, I'll be fine. Have faith.

After nodding to his worried daughter, he hops on to his wind drake, and as he flies off, looks behind him to look at his waving daughter. Doesn't seem like this'll go smoothly. After this scene, we're taken to a scene of... a pirate ship?



The wind stopped while captain Faris is stuck in the water, oh the inconvenient timing! Hate to be in his boots. But do I really care about a random pirate? Right after the totally unrelated pirate scene, we're presented to a circular cave with an old man. I've no idea why I'm looking at pirates and strange men!



Back to Lenna:



Oh yeah, besides Captain Faris's bad luck, King Tycoon could be very well in trouble!



The crystal then proceeds to.... SHATTER.



I forgot to ask myself what's this crystal's all about. No time to look back though, as we are presented with an even more random traveler with a bird on a campfire. Something like that!



I could join them. They look like the least royal, the least piratey, and the least strange. I could fit inbetween them, I could feel them, I co-
Suddenly, the world is trembling. Turns out a METEORITE is falling and will hit the ground nearby! First the winds stop, now a meteorite makes impact. Things do love to not go well. After the impact somewhere on the world map, the traveler hopped on his bird to inspect this meteorite. Now you're controlling the traveller and the bird!



Now to get into the nitty gritty details. Being the Android version, the controls for touchscreens for this scenario, and most of the game, is it is: slide on the touchscreen to move in the direction you're sliding to, and hit that context menu alike button on the top right to bring up the main menu of the game. On controllers, use the left analog stick or the D-pad to move, and hit the Y button to bring up the main menu.

If you open the main menu, you will notice that the traveller is called "???". Until he gives us a proper name, I'll call him Terra! No really, I'll be serious here. I'll call him Terra. That said, the bird he's riding on (but not visible in the screenshot, but trust me, he's really riding it) is called a Chocobo. Starting from a single forest in Final Fantasy II on the Famicom (read: Not the game with anyone named Cecil!), situated south of Kashuan Castle, these birds have appeared in every FF since then, providing you a safe journey while you are riding them. Anyways, moving Terra's chocobo around, we didn't find anything interesting bar the meteorite which I decided to keep for last, which is situated just east of the original screenshot's spot. So, the meteorite it is. There's nothing else to be done.


NEXT: Aye-aye, Cap'n! - Part 2

This post has been edited by Pooka on 7th November 2015 14:47

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I am Exdeath. Step aside pesky clowns, or your warranty is Void!

All of your images are broken links.

Try photobucket, maybe?

--------------------

Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

You can find me on the Fediverse! I use Mastodon, where I am @[email protected] ( https://sakurajima.moe/@glennmagusharvey )

Quote (Glenn Magus Harvey @ 5th November 2015 19:31)

All of your images are broken links.

Try photobucket, maybe?

I KNEW something was off with these images. I'll reupload them to Dropbox in the meantime, hang on.

Okay, all images are back and uploaded properly!

This post has been edited by Pooka on 5th November 2015 19:41

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I am Exdeath. Step aside pesky clowns, or your warranty is Void!

Erm...I'm reading this on a 16:9 monitor, but people with smaller monitors may be irritated by the size of the images. They fit perfectly on my monitor, I'm just saying, not everybody is reading this on a 16:9 monitor I don't think.

Maybe I'm wrong and it's a non-problem, I just thought I'd say something. Those images are gigantic.

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X is blue.

Quote (Spooniest @ 6th November 2015 14:54)

Erm...I'm reading this on a 16:9 monitor, but people with smaller monitors may be irritated by the size of the images. They fit perfectly on my monitor, I'm just saying, not everybody is reading this on a 16:9 monitor I don't think.

Maybe I'm wrong and it's a non-problem, I just thought I'd say something. Those images are gigantic.

I let my PNG to JPG converter do a "Best fit" resize of the images to make the images both smaller and less loseless to decrease bandwidth usage for loading each. If I put the screenshots as they were captured from Android, you'd end up downloading too much data. Yeah, I'll consider smaller shots, I'll also consider hiding the Android navbar, as I have the paid app to do it inactive somehow. I myself am an advocate of 4:3 monitors, but I'm stuck on a 16:9 monitor, both my computer's and my laptop's :/

But so far, what do you think of the let's play?

This post has been edited by Pooka on 6th November 2015 19:39

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I am Exdeath. Step aside pesky clowns, or your warranty is Void!

Quote (Pooka @ 6th November 2015 09:20)

But so far, what do you think of the let's play?

I didn't and won't say anything bad about it.

Yer off to a good start here, keep a'goin'.

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X is blue.

Aye-aye, Cap'n! - Part 2
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Finally, part 2 of the first title! As per Spooniest's suggestion, the images were resized down to a more reasonable size. However, these are already captured images so I didn't bother hiding the Android navbar as I said I would. Also Glenn noticed the broken images before moving to Photobucket as per his suggestion. (which allowed me to find a bunch of old Minecraft screenshots I kept during the days when Windows 7 was the latest OS, neat) Thank you, guys!

Anyways, Terra's chocobo is called Boko. Yes, you'll control Terra alone to inspect the meteorite. Apparently it isn't burning hot or anything. The wind's stopped, but did the atmosphere vanish? Proceeding to look at the meteorite, Terra finds two goblins and a damsel in distress. She's- nevermind, no time to remember her, for its battle time!





At this stage in the game, I just advise you to attack and I'll tell you about everything else later. Touchscreen users can tap the Attack button and then one of the two Goblin choices to attack the goblin they chose. They can also just tap the goblins to initiate an attack command and tap the goblins again to attack them. Controller users will press A to attack, choose between the two Goblin choices, and press another A to attack. Right now, they're two Goblins who are no different than each other, there's simply no reason to choose one over the other now, but later choosing the enemies you attack will be a boon. Terra should dispatch one of the goblins by the first attack, and then the last one by the second attack.

If Terra succeeds, which is the most likely scenario here unless you took a short nap during the battle, you will end up with this screen.



So now we have saved the damsel in distress. Turns out she was Lenna. That is if you decided to do like me and didn't bother with her identity as long as she was being held captured by goblins.



Lenna: Y-yes... I believe so... I give you my thanks. My name is Lenna. And you are...?

Terra: Me?

Behold as this screen appears.



You could give Terra any name you want as long as it doesn't exceed six characters. I originally thought to name him Gilgamesh, but that name is nine characters long. Anyways, the guy, by some heartless ang- I mean a heartless fan translation, was given the name of Butz. Not a nice name to go by, but if you hit the Reset to default button in the screenshot, his default name will always be Bartz. That's better than Butz, and also more comfortable than Terra.

Fun fact: Unnamed characters in FF5 and FF6 went by the name of "???" and "??????" respectively. Starting from FFVII, that was changed; as your first unnamed character went by the name of "ex-SOLDIER" up until he was named.

Bartz: Me? Call me Bartz. Me and my chocobo just go wherever the trail leads us...

Lenna: Bartz...

Bartz nods! Yes, remember the name. Bartz!

Lenna: This rock suddenly fell from the sky... The impact must have knocked me out.

Bartz: Guess it's a meteorite.

Lenna: A meteorite... I wonder if it has a connection to the wind stopping? Again, I give you my thanks. I wish I could do something more to show my appreciation, but I really must go...

Running off is she!

Bartz: Whoa- hey, hold up a sec...

Stopping her is he! What business does Bartz have with Lenna? Is it payback time for Lenna? I really don't want to be playing as a th-

Lenna: Bartz... Did you hear something?



You beat me to it, Bartz...

The two of them look all over their surroundings as something says "Oohhh... Ughhh... Help...me..." I swear that this day in god knows what this world is called is the weirdest. After some confusion, Bartz points eastwards.

Bartz: Over there!

It is my job then to walk him up to the meteorite so I can actually do what Bartz's supposed to do, INSPECT THE METEORITE! Then I find a strange man, oh my oh my!

Lenna: Are you all right?



I swear I saw this set of clothing a few minutes ago. Well, the sprite that is. Maybe you noticed it long before I did, but the character artworks that appear in their respective textboxes aren't the same as the sprites. You should've already saw Lenna's artwork and sprite ages ago, you'll find zero connections between her sprite and her artwork. They're like different people! FFIV and FFVI has the edge over FFV in this department. But that doesn't mean my stance on how FFV beats both FFIV and FFVI will change! The old man gets up and stands, but he's a bit confused...

Old Man: Sakes alive...what's happened? I don't remember... Ehh...? I can't remember anything!

Bartz: Looks like you hit your head pretty bad... Maybe you got amnesia.

Old Man: Oh! Something came back to me... My name is not the old man Galuf!

*********

Careful with the quotes here my dear! If you see something like this:

Celes: Don't worry! I'll draw its magic with my runic blade!

Know that the italics after the "Celes:" part is exactly what Celes said, and anything that isn't in italics after the "Celes:" is just something I put in the character's mouth, because I'm evil (but don't even bother looking for non-italics in Celes's text). By the way, who's Celes and what's this 'runic blade' I just made up on the spot? Draw its magic? Is Celes one of the characters from FFVIII? I forgot.

*********

Lenna: That's a start! Anything else?

Galuf: ... ...Nope, just the name! Other than that, my memory's a blank slate...

Lenna seems to be married to running away! Because she's running away again. But then this time, she stopped not far away from Bartz and Galuf.

Lenna: I'm very sorry...but you must excuse me, I have no time to waste.

Bartz: Where're you going?

Lenna: I must go to the Wind Shrine...

Galuf just pure jumps out shocked. Why is it?

Galuf: The Wind Shrine! Now that you mention it, I'm pretty sure that's where I was headed! It's decided, I'm going with you!

Okay. Galuf being an established amnesiac at this point, expect strange things to happen. Do you hear me, Galuf? Its the worst time to lose your memory, where weird things happen one after the other!

Lenna: But...

Galuf walks up to where she ran to and stood there with her.

Galuf: I could never let such a sweet girl go all by her lonesome. Plus, I know I've gotta get to that shrine...I feel it in my bones. You've gotta take me with!

My black magic senses are saying that Galuf could also be an established pervert! An old man calling a young not-princess girl a sweet girl. What could possibly go wrong? But Lenna nods anyways. I'm sure that if she slipped out alone to check on her father who could be in danger that she took to her hands a weapon to slay a goblin or two, assuming no meteorites assault her again. Should Galuf ever goes full pervert... well he can't.

Lenna: Bartz, What about you?

Bartz: ...Sorry, I'm gonna bow out on this one. Good luck, though.

Why Bartz? You're going to make this $16 game as short as.... WHY?!!!!!!!! You made both Lenna and Galuf look at each other before they walked off! Oh wait, they came back?

Lenna: Bartz... Thank you again. Farewell...

FAREWELL?! Not yet!

Galuf: Godspeed, and all that whatnot!

They both ran off. Oh Bartz! Oh wait, I still control him? Then there's still a game to play! I'll just walk him back to Boko, I'm sure the bird was so tired waiting for Terra who just got a name change to Bartz. I'm not even sure what Boko's reaction to the name change will be...

Bartz: Come on, Boko, let's go!

Bartz mounts Boko and then gets outta the meteorite spot. The same boring world map it seems. I've got nothing else to do then. $16 down the dra-



So when I got in here, Boko suddenly...



...threw Bartz off him in some cliff and make him hit the cliffwall. Will Boko kill Bartz? Is Boko incompetent? Is Bartz clumsy? Find the answers to all these questions in the next part!


PREVIOUS: Aye-aye, Cap'n! - Part 1
NEXT: Aye-aye, Cap'n! - Part 3

This post has been edited by Pooka on 7th November 2015 14:30

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I am Exdeath. Step aside pesky clowns, or your warranty is Void!

Yeah, the Amano art is probably my least favorite thing about this.

--------------------

Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

You can find me on the Fediverse! I use Mastodon, where I am @[email protected] ( https://sakurajima.moe/@glennmagusharvey )

Aye-aye, Cap'n! - Part 3
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Bartz: Ow!!! Boko! Bad, bad chocobo! What are you doing, stopping like that!?





Speaking of Amano artwork, at least he got the Chocobo artwork to fit with the Chocobo sprite, oh my! At least what could've been done regarding the artwork and sprites dispute was to do what FFVI for Android did: made the sprites resemble the artwork. Instead of Edgar being overly green unlike his actual artwork, he's blue much alike his actual artwork... why am I bothered with something called Edg- oh, an earthquake is firing up its engines! Just when you thought the day is ove- who said its over? Yes, its an earthquake and-

Lenna: Augh!

Galuf: Geh!

Bartz: Boko, come on!

Boko: Kweh!

...two other people are caught in the middle, not just Boko and Bartz. As the land collapses behind and under their feet, they just rush and jump from whatever pits that appear, but apparently, I met some goblins that jumped down the cliffs and want to have a friendly chit chat with me. Needless to say, being goblins, they couldn't talk with their mouths, only with their weapons. I thought it was only even more polite to talk back to a foreigner with their native language if you learnt it. They died however. Not sure if Bartz was rude or something.

Anyways, after finishing my business with the dead goblins, Bartz and Boko continued their rush and to they were stopped by another pack of goblins. Talk about business!



They yet again disappeared due to how polite I was. Oh before the other group, Bartz 'leveled up'. I'll tell you all about how battles work in FFV and this leveling up thing, I promise!



On the way, Boko found and picked up the fallen unconscious duo, Lenna and Galuf. And ran away at last from the quake. Now the scene shifts to another place where Lenna and Galuf are lying unconscious on the ground, and Bartz is just up that cliff looking up at something, presumably enjoying the view. But its a weird day to enjoy the view, Bartz, y'know.

Suddenly, Lenna moans. She's waking up, and Boko goes to inspect it. Good chocobo! Oh right, Boko didn't want to kill Bartz, Boko was not incompetent, and Boko was just scared to death when he knocked Bartz off him, so its not Bartz being clumsy or anything. These are the answers to the questions I dropped last part!



Bartz: G'morning.

He drops down the cliff he's standing on. It would be a better scene if he stayed up there, especially if imagined in the mind. But I've no reason to complain, for this scene will be accompanied by something great.

Lenna: Bartz! It seems I cannot escape being in your debt...

Bartz: Hey, don't worry about it.

Bartz is supposed to look again at what he was looking. Guess we know what exactly he was looking at.

Bartz: The shockwave from the meteorite's impact caused landslides... The road's covered in rubble. I don't think you're gonna be able to make it to Tule that way.

Lenna takes a peek at where Bartz was looking. Apparently off-screen. But Tule? When I started riding Boko back when I called Bartz 'Terra', I had plenty a trip to see what I can visit, never did I run into anything called Tule. Apparently...

Sometimes, you'll run into situations where the world map absolutely show no way out or in a particular area on foot, and yet the characters will talk about ways in which they can enter or exit this particular area which you can't exit on the world map. Don't be extra worried about these paths that you can't take yet are talked about. It just means they are not really relevant to the story because the story wants you 'there' in another place. In other words, go to where the stuff is.

Lenna: But...if I can't get to the Wind Shrine, then...

Galuf: Uhhhh...

Everyone going back to Galuf, they listen up.



Bartz: The old guy's pretty dead set on getting there, too... All right. I'll go with you and personally see to it that you get there safely!

Lenna (and me): Oh! Really?

Bartz: Yeah! You know, it was my dad's dying wish that I go out and travel the world... Plus, this time, it feels like- like the wind is calling me.

Galuf: What a sweet-talker! As if you don't just have the hots for the little missy.

Bartz enters surprise mode! Galuf was listening in all the time, now making a perverted comment!

Bartz: What- You're awake?

Galuf: Don't sound so surprised. This old dog is always ready for anything!

The old man gets back up on his feet, stretches his arms, and laughs. This is Galuf, folks. Nothing to scoff at!

Galuf: Still, if the road is blocked, that makes things a sight more difficult...

Heh!

Bartz: Hrm...

Lenna: ...

Lenna advances forward towards the bottom of the screen where everyone was supposed to be staring. What's there? Oh my, Final Fantasy V's own theme song plays! Its a song worth listening to, it energizes you during the game, it gives you hope, it gives you all the positive feelings you'd want in the game! It makes you want to adventure! Go listen to it here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3ej58BlDwM



Galuf: Right! And we'll find it!

Bartz: All right! Let's ride!

Okay, you can now turn off the music. So short a time window for so great a Final Fantasy track. You're now back in control of Boko, back to where all it started before Boko threw Bartz off.

Soon enough you see a cave, and then...



Okay, lemme see if I remember, maybe Lenna's right about that...

Before the earthquake:


After the earthquake:


Lenna's so right! Anyways, guess its the end of a part. Oh, you might be wondering how I part my things. First, I regularly play the game up until a destination I predetermined, collecting screenshots along the way. When all is said and done, the screenshots from the Android device are moved to my Windows device to be processed, and then I write all about my adventures with the help of the keyboard, windows, Notepad and the game script FAQ. Curating from the bunch of screenshots I captured, I pick up ten of them (the image limit on Caves of Narshe), and those ten formulate one part of my whole adventure. Judging by how things are going now, the next part or the one after it is the end of Aye-aye, Cap'n! Once a chapter, entry, whatever you wanna call it is done, the cycle repeats again, up until the game is either slain or some pesky clown uses the light of judgement on me.


PREVIOUS: Aye-aye, Cap'n! - Part 2
NEXT: Aye-aye, Cap'n! - Part 4

This post has been edited by Pooka on 13th November 2015 12:58

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I am Exdeath. Step aside pesky clowns, or your warranty is Void!

Quote

god knows what this world is called

The anime "Final Fantasy: Legend of The Crystals" refers to it as 'Planet R," but the dodgy nature of mid-90's translations suggests that it may be a reference to the Village of Ur, from Final Fantasy III.

"Planet Ur," then. Sound familiar?

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X is blue.

Aye-aye, Cap'n! - Part 4
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Last time folks, we stopped on a cave. Oh, and we knew that the setting of Final Fantasy V can be called either Planet R or Planet Ur, but this name sounds so scientific for a fantasy setting with crystals, weapons and, nevermind.

Upon entering the cave and actually leaving Boko behind, because according to Bartz, this cave's a little dangerous for Chocobos, we get into this chilly looking spot.



Upon walking a few steps, Bartz automatically looks right and comments on something.

Bartz: What's that spring?

Turns out that if you get into the spring... you'll be fully healed. All your party members' current HP and MP will be brought back to the max, and any status ailments you suffered (we'll get to that later) will be removed the instant you walk into this spring. Its called a recovery spring. Oh, and KO'd allies will be revived. You'll learn KOs later this run.

But before we got to the spring, we'vee gotta backtrack to check upon this battle that I somehow skipped!



A'ight, this time, I'll explain battle mechanics for real! First off, getting into any battle will result in something called the "battle whoosh," where as the name implies, you get transported to the seperate battle screen after a whoosh effect and sound effect. Then, the battle screen is much alike the above screenshot. Your characters are on the right side (in the best case scenario) and the enemies are on the left side (again, the best case scenario).

From Final Fantasy IV and onwards, Final Fantasy games use this nice little system called Active Time Battle. Unlike Final Fantasy III (hint: not the game with anyone named Terra! Also remember the other hint about FFII not being the game with anyone named Cecil - Cecil belongs to Final Fantasy IV) and behind, and other eastern RPGs, the game doesn't magically suspend all battles in time if your characters are supposed to give commands but end up doing nil. In Final Fantasy IV and beyond, including this very Final Fantasy V, if you're supposed to give a command to Galuf, the battle won't stop until Galuf gets the order from you and executes it. No, more enemies will attack the party as TIME progresses.

Now look on the bottom of the screenshot. See these orange-looking bars? They're full ATB bars. The fact that the bars are orange-colored means that Bartz, Lenna and Galuf are awaiting your orders and ready to execute them. After you give them a command such as Attack, the bar will be reset to empty and will start filling with green as time advances, until its entirely full, then it'll turn back to orange and you can give an order to whoever got an orange ATB bar. Enemies also have their own invisible ATB bars, which increase as time progresses until its full, and then they go ahead and execute their commands, though the frequency of them doing so is sometimes quite fickle.

In other words, in order to execute a command, your bar needs to be orange. If it isn't, wait until it fills up to be orange.

But! The ATB system is there to ensure the battles are more real-time like and all, that's great, but if someone is knocking the door, how do you leave the game behind without giving your party a single command and without being hammered by the enemies? On the top left of the screen, there's a Pause button you can tap, or you can press Select on gamepads. This will pause the battle in its entirety. I've talked too much about ATB. Forward!

Pressing the A button on a selected command (shown as being indented to the left, such as the Attack button above), will execute it, just as well as tapping it. You can press X to activate Auto mode, in which case your characters will automatically attack the enemy party, or tap the AUTO button on the bottom left. You can press Y to cycle between characters with full ATB bars, or you can flick right or left on the screen to cycle, and tap a character to immediately switch to them. If you decide to press Y, and you want Bartz, you'll hit Y twice to cycle from Lenna to Galuf and then to Bartz. I recommend tapping the character you want to order even if you have a gamepad inserted.

Holding the left and right shoulder buttons will let your party run the other way (while standing in place), and if you can run away from battle, they will run off-screen when they get the chance. You can otherwise tap the ESCAPE command to do exactly that, minus the holding.

Now to hold off the instructions until the next battle! Steel Bats are nothing to NOT scoff at. They're simply just fodder cannon because you're in the beginning of the game. Advancing further in the cave, Bartz and company found a strange- oh wait, that looked like one of that pirate captain's crew. What was his name? Faris? That's 'knight' in Arabic! It can't be his name.



Neverminding that, the party holds on the ledge of a small cliff in order to hide and see what this pirate guy is up to. He flicked a switch, and a door opened behind him. Upon entry, the door closed again.

Bartz: Aha! So that's how you get in!

Bartz and company also saw a chest. But you know what, since I saw a chest, my gaming instincts are telling me to go to the very beginning, maybe a super ultra hidden weapon is hidden there! So I backtracked to the METEORITE.

Bartz: Giddyup, Boko!

Boko took me to the meteorite, and lo and behold. I found this.



Keep ahold of these Phoenix Down items. Basically, they 'revive' KO'd allies. More on that later, I can't afford to melt my ice cream now that I have it. Back to the caves at hand...

Uh-oh, an enemy attack!



Oh, and another thing I forgot. If you don't want to continue with an attack decision, tap that return button on the top right of the screen or press B. Do note that if you told Bartz to attack a Devil Crab, you cannot undo this decision. Bad decisions are very costy in the ATB system, but fortuntely, you're playing Final Fantasy V, and I'll tell why you were fortunate enough to avoid this downside in this game when we get to it. For now, avoid bad decisions. You could have healed a dying party member in the turn you attacked an enemy with very high defense, for example.

On the bottom of the screen, towards the right, are basic stats of your party members, divided to rows. Each row includes your party member's name, their current HP/max HP (a big sized number / a small sized number) and then your current MP (a big sized number that is alone). The name Bartz is in yellow because I'm currently giving an order to him. The middle box includes the names of the enemies and how many of a single type of enemy are on the screen. In addition, when you choose a party member or enemy for any kind of decisions, a hand with a pointing finger will point at the target visually. Useful for battles where the enemies are all of one kind but one of them is more damaged than the other or has a weakness to an element but the other absorbs it, etc.

You can give the following commands to your party: Attack, Items, Defend, Row. Attack attacks the target, whether an enemy or a target member (yes, you can attack your own teammates), Items uses one of the items in your inventory on a target, and its effects change depending on the item. Defend will end the turn while giving to the party member who got the order a defense stance, letting him or her take half the damage. Row changes whether you are in the front or the back row, those will be explained as well. For now, you are in the front row.

Inflicting damage on any entity will result in a white number showing up above the attacked target. That's the HP they lost from the attack. And any healing done to any entity will result in a green number showing up above the healed target, and that's the HP they get from the heal.

Sometimes, you'll notice a string of text on the top of the screen. Those are battle messages. They are either speak from a talkative boss or enemy, or the name of a special attack. Both party members and enemies can use the special attacks and use their names, but only bosses can talk that much.

Speaking of HP (Health Points), if a party member or an enemy's HP drops to zero, then said target is considered 'knocked out', and cannot be issued commands because they're knocked out. For party members, this can be undone using a Phoenix Down on a fallen party member for now, as that will wake them up or 'revive' them at a relatively low HP. Guess this other lesson is over for now. Devil Crabs are also nothing to look or be wowed at. Another enemy I fought are the Stropers in this cave, but they're of little relevance and power... as is the case with the others.

Going past that door the pirate opened a while ago, but this time Bartz opened it by himself, he got to advance in the cave, where he found a hole looking outside...

Bartz: What's that?

And... if we look at it... its a freaking ship. A freaking sailing ship!

Bartz: That ship just now... How was it sailing with the wind so weak?

Continuing past the cave, it becomes apparent that we were entering a pirate bay of operations. If you missed the pun, the whole place is fitted with the pirate flag, and if you don't know that, imagine a skull with two swords forming a curved cross or an X below it. That's it.



Lenna: I wonder if they would give us a ride?

Lenna, the day the pirates know that you're a princess is the day I'm waving you goodbye! What is this you're thinking of? The males become surprised...

Bartz: Um, I think the only ride they'd be interested in would be a keel-haul for all three of us.

Galuf: Yeah...you can't ask a favor from a pirate! That's why we'll just sneak on and steal their ship!

You're pretty gutsy for an old-timer.

Bartz: Whoa! You're pretty gutsy for an old-timer.

Oh, now even the characters are stealing my quotes now... The party laughs, and after taking a look at the pirates there, which reveal that they're all sleepyheads, we've no choice but to look at this ship. Does it contain this knighty knight?

You can always inspect the interior of the ship, which has some pirate mumbling something about this weird Syldra thing. That's it. There's also a locked brig, but there's no prisoners there to chat with. Up to the deck, its time to move this ship and do what Good Ol' Galuf requested.

Bartz: Yo-ho-ho, and stuff! Time to cast off!

It doesn't take 5 seconds to realize that there was no casting off done or anything. The ship was still in place.

Galuf: ...Well? Cast off means start sailing, kid.

Bartz: I know that! The wheel won't even budge. How do you work this thing?

???: Try working anything and there'll be the devil to pay!

Wait, TERRA?! Did he come back to slice me in half for leaving him beh-



Faris: ...or mayhap you're just lacking in brains! I'd wager it's the latter.

ITS CAPTAIN FARIS! He's the one who threatened the party not to do anything. The question that throws itself is not what will happen to the party, but its this. How did Faris sail his way back here when he was stuck in the water a while ago? He didn't drift off to a ship graveyard or anything. That much is suspicious. Want more suspicious Farisy things? His sprites are just like Lenna's; they don't look alike. At least you could feel that Bartz and Galuf share something between their sprites and artworks. Should I take this suspicion as a foreshadowing of what's to come? Eh nevermind. Its just art.

Lenna is walking forward to the party. If anything, she's pretty daring. She takes risks. She ha-

Lenna: Wait! I am Princess Lenna of Tycoon. Please accept my apologies for attempting to commandeer your ship.

Bartz and Galuf go surprised. Guess why.

Bartz: Wha? Princess...

Galuf: ...of Tycoon!?

Lenna: Sir, this is a formal request from the kingdom of Tycoon. Please, allow us the use of your vessel. I must get to the Wind Shrine - my father is in danger!

Faris looks behind him, and laughs.

Faris: Oho, the princess of Tycoon, here on my ship? I'm sure we could fetch a good price for this one.

Bartz: Hey! Leave her alone, you degenerate, lecherous, piratey...pirate!

Until today, I can't stop bursting out laughing from this quote. But, they were pretty much serious as Bartz and Galuf walk closer to Lenna.

Lenna: I beg of you, please...

Suddenly, a pen-



...dant appears on Lenna's sprite. Oh boy. Still, Faris looks to his own crew, and...

Faris: ...Toss the lot of 'em into the brig!

Pirates: Aye-aye, Cap'n!

After saying the title out loud, they all surrounded the three party members and took them all the way to the locked brig. From now on, anyone who breaks into the ship will be able to talk with Bartz, Lenna and Galuf! Well, in the brig overnights, which is guarded by one such pirate... woke up a certain Galuf, out of a tied-up trio, and leaps a bit.



Galuf: What genius came up with the idea to steal a pirate ship, anyway?

I'll tell you, Galuf. Hang on. Okay, I found who came up with the idea and the relevant quote.

Quote

Galuf: Yeah...you can't ask a favor from a pirate! That's why we'll just sneak on and steal their ship!

Galuf came up with the idea, Galuf.

Bartz: Look in the mirror, Pops.

And another one situation that makes me happy and warm on the inside. The old timer jumps away from the rest, and...

Galuf: ...Ohh, my aching head! I can't remember a thing!

Bartz: ...And your amnesia oh-so-conveniently returns. Still...I can't believe you're really the princess of Tycoon, Lenna!

Lenna: I'm sorry... I didn't intend to keep it a secret.

Bartz: It's not that big a deal. But, if you're the princess, why were you going to the Wind Shrine all alone?

Lenna: My father is there. He hadn't been gone long when the wind slowed down to almost nothing... I just can't shake the feeling that something terrible is happening. I slipped out alone to head to the shrine, but then that meteorite fell, and...you know the rest.

Also, your father ordered you not to follow him. Its natural that its the only way Lenna can do anything about her father without being caught in the order.

But, the scene shifts to the room where I found that Syldra-guard. This time its Faris there, looking down at the table.

Faris: Why does the princess of Tycoon have the same pendant as I do?



And with this scene, I guess this long day was finally over! In this single day, the wind stopped, King Tycoon went to investigate the Wind Shrine and didn't come back, then a meteorite fell at the same time and nearly the same place where Lenna sneaked out her castle, in which case Bartz saved her and Galuf who happened to be at the meteorite's crash site. Leaving Lenna and Galuf to their Wind Shrine-related business, Bartz went back to mind his own business, except he couldn't because EARTHQUAKES! And he saved Lenna and Galuf, again. After the two of them woke up from their coma; they, now alongside a willing Bartz, set off to the cave in a desperate effort to get to Tule, and there they met the pirates who can sail without the wind, including the mysterious Captain Faris, who tossed em' into the brig. And this is just only the first night in Final Fantasy V! I feel super excited!

Stay tuned for the next chapter... A Trick of the Light!


PREVIOUS: Aye-aye, Cap'n! - Part 3
NEXT: A Trick of the Light - Part 1

This post has been edited by Pooka on 18th November 2015 21:11

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I am Exdeath. Step aside pesky clowns, or your warranty is Void!

A Trick of the Light - Part 1
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The following day...



I thought Faris was thinking of 'fetching a good price' on Princess Lenna? Why the Wind Shrine now? You can sail without the thought of the wind, the shrine should be of little relevance to you, Faris. Oh well, I should actually continue the let's play instead of asking questions every two minutes.

But you know, the pirates were surprised as well. But for some reason, the pirates also brought company with them. Needless to say, they were the NPCs that we were unable to interact with behind the brig. Also known as Bartz, Lenna and Galuf!



Faris: Untie 'em.

...Untie 'em... Untie 'em... That's it. Captain Faris is no longer making any sense today. Why? The pendant on Lenna's being the same tickled his head or something? He may have the only ship that can sail without the wind, at least of those currently known to us players, but he sure is... strange!

Faris: I meant, sometime today!

He yelled at the even more surprised pirates. What happened to their captain all of a sudden? They all nod and untie the NPCs. They're now your party members yet again as they stretch their hands for being free!

Lenna: But...why?

Lenna, you don't question Captain Faris after he untied you! He's still a pirate, a pirate captain at heart. Just do-

Faris: I reconsidered your request. You can go back into the brig if you'd rather. Pull anchor! We sail for the Wind Shrine!

Whew. Lenna, stop being so reckless. Anyways, the pirates did nothing. I'm pretty sure that by now, they got Blue Screens of Death, all of them. Their main driver, Captain Faris, made a hiccup with the operating system of the entire ship, making them go BSOD. Oh wait, is this computer class?

Faris: Hey! Something wrong with your ears? I hope I don't have to repeat myself! Well!?

Pirates: Aye...aye-aye, Cap'n!

The pirates immediately rebooted and went back into action, you know, the usual piratey things that pirates do when they sail their piraty ships when their piratey pirate captain orders them to.

Lenna: But the wind stopped... How can the ship move?

Okay, I apologize for jumping on you before, Lenna! You actually hit a bullseye with this question.

Faris: Full of curiosity, aren't you, lass? Syldra! Come up and say hello!

Its this Syldra thing! Last time I Googled, and then Binged Syldra, I never found the Android phone with the same name. So, what is this Syldra thing then?

Oh... my...

Hang on, I gotta do a special screenshot for this Syldra thing then. Okay, done.



Me: *Speechless*

Faris: Beautiful, isn't she? Syldra and I were raised together. We're close as siblings. All right, we're off!

That's how the almighty Captain Faris works his ship. He TAMED A SEA DRAGON. And he was RAISED WITH HER. I already am admiring the Captain so much, even if he's a pirate, in other words, a bad guy... Go Captain Faris, Go Captain Faris!

Anyways, its time for you to be in control of Captain Faris's almighty Syldra-powered ship.



Sailing north to some point will cut off the sailing and fade to black, and fade in to the ship. Why is that? Because a pirate is interrupting Captain Faris's sailing!



Basically, the pirate is asking you whether you want to sail the ship yourself to the Wind Shrine or give the steering wheel to him and let him do all the work for you. I'll leave this controversial matter to you, of course. If you let him sail for you, Captain Faris will take a break, and so will you, and you will arrive at your destination in the very end. If you tell him off, you'll sail the ship yourself to wherever you want, which includes Tule and the Wind Shrine, your only available destinations. Its not like letting him steer the wheel for you will mean you won't be able to access Tule. I'd suggest you let him steer for you so you can see how to get to the Wind Shrine, and then you can go west to Tule whenever you want.



You see, the above screenshot includes the spot where the Wind Shrine is. Oh, I forgot, lemme look at every character's stats. Oh, and it seems that Captain Faris is also... PART OF YOUR PARTY! This is ultra awesome! To think that the second day would be a reverse on the first day's bad luck!

Okay, its about time.



Bartz has a Broadsword equipped to his right hand and Leather Armor on his body. He's basically the go to for pure strength, that is in physical attacks, evident by his Strength stat of 28.



Lenna has a Knife equipped to her right hand and Leather Armor on her body. With a Magic stat of 28, she makes Bartz look poor in magic. However, she looks poor to Bartz in the Strength department. But that's only the raw stats for both! Oh, I'll explain the stats thingy later.



In my previous battles, Galuf wasn't as powerful as Bartz and Lenna were, whereas the former two could dispatch an enemy in one hit, Galuf couldn't, at least without criticals. That's because he has absolutely NO weapons equipped on neither of his hands, but he still manages to have a Leather Armor. Galuf is the man suited for the Stamina stat, 28. And that's coming from an established old man, his stamina is quite well done. Much better than Tellah. Oh wait, I just made up a character again? Oh, the music must have helped in me making up that "Tellah". Was it the Mount Ordeals track? Anyways... BUT, Galuf is the worst in the magic department it seems, as well as agility, both 24.



Captain Faris excels in Agility, 27, higher than his hostages, and he seems to be pretty balanced overall, with Strength and Agility at 27 and Stamina and Magic at 26, striking a middle ground in everything. He comes equipped with a Dagger on his right hand, a Leather Shield on his left hand, and like his hostages, has Leather Armor on him. It is interesting to note that he has a higher Evasion stat than his hostages' zero stat, which is because of the Leather Shield.

Also, if you're pretty a sharp statistics reader, you'd notice that Faris's icon is missing in the first three screenshots with Bartz, Lenna and Galuf, but then it suddenly popped up with Faris's icon in Faris's statistics screen. I took screenshots of the former three back before they met Captain Faris at that cave, when the party was only made up of the former three. Yeah.

So, what's these statistics in a nutshell? Basically, they tell you how good your characters are at something in the form of numbers. These numbers decide the outcome of some events in battle, by being taken into mathematical formulas that make up all of the battles. Needless to say, the higher your stats are, the better, except for the weight stat, the less your weight stat, the better.

And I'm calling it to a stop here for today... pesky midterms, they're gonna pay!


PREVIOUS: Aye-aye, Cap'n! - Part 4

This post has been edited by Pooka on 19th November 2015 16:39

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I am Exdeath. Step aside pesky clowns, or your warranty is Void!

All those stats seem relatively similar anyway.

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Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

You can find me on the Fediverse! I use Mastodon, where I am @[email protected] ( https://sakurajima.moe/@glennmagusharvey )

It seems so at this moment, yes.

With a lot of midterms coming right up, this Let's Play has to halt! Though do stay tuned, I'll be back to the action when I can!

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I am Exdeath. Step aside pesky clowns, or your warranty is Void!