Final Fantasy: Lost in Japanese

After scampering back for a night’s rest in the inn in Final Fantasy Five’s village of Moore, we once again head into the Moore forest. This time we take a straight line for the hidden tunnel and quickly find ourselves in a second section of the woods. The fighting is much the same as the first area, but we’ve gotten a bit smarter since yesterday. Basically, I realized that it makes no sense to let those pesky spell casters suck away our mana 32 points at a time, when we can obliterate entire packs of them with a single 25-point spell. D’oh! This is basic math, I realize, but apparently my head wasn’t on straight yesterday. In any case, we let Fairis start our battles by casting a powerful Aero spell that does much of the work for our party, and we find ourselves making good progress through the woods.

When we least expect it, however, a massive earthquake strikes the forest, and flames start dropping everywhere. Hum, I wonder who could be causing this? We don’t have long to wait, as we shortly find that our path takes us inside the massive Elder Tree, where we see four sparkling crystals in front of us. These crystals are not our friends, however, as they immediately set out to wipe us out.

The fight takes quite a bit of time. If we cast a group magic spell on the crystals, it generally hurts three of them and heals one of them for the identical amount. Progress, sure, but slow going. The crystals hit for some significant damage, and cast spells that can hit each of our party members for over 400 points. Ouch. But in the end, despite some mistakes with healing the crystals, we prevail.

Any joy is short-lived, however, as who should pop inside the tree but Exdeath himself. Apparently he has been waiting for us to appear and battle the crystals for him, as he thanks us and draws the crystals to himself. With their power at his side, he blasts our party to the ground.

Our demise would seem imminent, but a physic connection between some Moogles in Moore Forest and Krile’s Moogle brings Krile and Hiryuu to our rescue just in the nick of time. Or not. Exdeath traps Krile, and looks ready to kill her as well! Krile’s distress, however, brings Galuf to his feet. He summons incredible power, fights his way through the energy of the crystals, and engages Exdeath in one-on-one combat. This would seem to be a one-sided fight, but no matter what Exdeath hits Galuf with, Galuf remains standing. In the end, it is Exdeath who falls!

Or not! Exdeath vanishes—apparently still alive—to his castle. The victorious Galuf, however, crumbles to the ground after the fight and dies. I have to admit, I didn’t see that one coming. In death, however, Galuf transfers all his powers and skills to Krile, who immediately joins our party to replace her fallen grandfather.

And with that dramatic turn of events, we find ourselves pointed at Exdeath’s castle for what may well be a final encounter. We’ll head there shortly, but before we do I want to take a quick trip to that castle of the dragons that gave us so much difficulty when we first landed on the planet. We may also take a quick spin around the planet on Hiryuu to see if there is any place we haven’t visited yet that could help us in the upcoming battle with Exdeath.

Status: Pre-Exdeath.