I'm going to get straight into the walkthrough this time. See?
Crescent[]
Items[]
As you enter the village, an earthquake triggers. Bartz realises that the ship's in trouble, so leave town to watch as the ship sinks beneath the waves :(
- Author's Note #7: I'm fairly sure we didn't leave the ship there. Who's responsible for this D:<
If you talk to the wizard again and he laughs at you. What an absolute dick. Anyway, head into the southeast house and talk to the bard to learn Mighty March. Also, play the piano for Bartz's rendition of Schubert's Marche Militaire No. 1. Piano Count: 5/8.
The shops are pretty bad right now, selling equipment you can't, well, equip. Since we're stuck, you may as well leave town when you're finished. To the south is a suspiciously round forest. Yup, it's a Chocobo Forest.
Chase the Black Chocobo and catch the little bugger. You'll take off...and immediately drop back down. Turns out that it ate some of the Fire Crystal shards. You receive the Bard and Ranger Jobs. You also get to ride the Black Chocobo, which can cover more ground than a dragon, being able to fly over mountains.
Be ashamed, Hiryu. Be ashamed. With the Black Chocobo, we can access one more new location. Fly to the northeast continent and land in the forest southwest of the North Mountain, which is surrounded by mountains and has a town inside. To get there easily, fly south from Crescent Island.
Lix[]
Items[]
This is Bartz's hometown, so the folks will recognise him. Talk to the scholar walking around to find out why Bartz is afraid of heights. Bartz's house is on the west side of town. Check the purple box thing on the back table (it's a music box) to watch a touching scene. The bard who moved in (which sounds like a French existentialist film) teaches the party the Alluring Air song.
The shops offer a discount because they're grateful to Bartz's father. The weapon shop also sells scrolls, which are great for an upcoming area. Note that in the area surrounding Lix, you can find the Stray Cat enemy that's been hard to find up until now.
When you're done, leave Lix and fly back to the Library of the Ancients. Inside, Cid and Mid will appear for a meet-and-greet, before dropping some news on your collective -- King Tycoon was seen crossing the Shifting Sands, floating over the surface. More spooky goings-on!
Leave the library and head west to find said Shifting Sands.
Desert of Shifting Sands[]
Enemies[]
- #59 Sandboil
- #60 Desert Killer
- #61 Sand Bear
Head straight forwards. Cid and Mid will reveal the 'plan' -- defeat a Sandworm and use its body as a bridge. Guys, Skies of Arcadia called; they want their contrivance back. Anyway, say you're ready. It's boss time.
| Boss Battle: Sandworm | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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Level: 18 Steal: Nothing Weakness: Water | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Strategy: ...but annoying. Because of all the checks the game uses to move the Sandworm around, the ATB gauge takes forever to fill up. Basically, the gimmick here is that the boss will pop up out of one of the three holes. If you attack one of the holes by accident, it'll use Gravity to halve your HP. Aqua Breath will deal massive damage here, because the Sandworm lives in, you guessed it -- a desert. Its only attack is Quicksand, which deals around 60 damage to the party and inflicts Sap. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
And there's your bridge. Step off the bottom-right tile of the 'bridge' to be pushed south. Proceed south through another river of sand. To the south are two sand streams-- the right one will push you back, while the left one is the one you want to move forward.
At the end of the stream, go one tile south to continue. At the end, go south and one tile west. The straight path leads you round in circles, but the stream to the left bypasses it. Leave the desert between the cacti.
To the south is the 'town' of Gohn.
Gohn[]
Head north to the stairs and watch the scene. King Tycoon? Why are you sneaking around? Follow him to the southeastern ruin. Now go back to the stairs and head up. You'll corner King Tycoon, but he drops you into a trap. Dick move, your highness.
The party reunites in the ruins below, and some revelations are...well, revealed. Continue through the west door and onto the teleporter. There's a cutscene where Cid and Mid land on Crescent Island's Chocobo Forest.
Catapult[]
Items[]
Back with Bartz, you'll come to a switch. Poke it and watch as the -ids fall through a hole in the floor. Heh. The Chocobo is confused. Note that if you go south, there's a resting area (I refuse to say 'restroom' in case any Americans start sniggering).
Here, you can go through a convoluted process to get some treasure. Examine the switch at the bottom of the rest area. From there, check the right flowerbed in the bedroom. Next, the right notepad in the room on the right. Bartz will square up to a notepad, and Lenna calms him down. Check the left urn in the left room and a frog will jump out, run into a bookcase and knock down a book. Read it, then examine the switch to open the door. The chests contain two Shuriken and the Mini spell.
Anwyay, go through the newly-opened door and save your game. Follow the path to find...the ship? I guess it sank here. Anyway, there's something more important -- there's another ship attached to it...with propellers. It's an airship! Talk to the -ids, then follow them downstairs. We're flying! Talk to Cid again and Bartz will notice something dragging the ship down. It's a boss!
| Boss Battle: Cray Claw | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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Level: 43 Steal: Coral Sword Weakness: Lightning | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Strategy: With the Coral Sword from Jachol equipped, a Two-Handed Knight can deal around 1,000 damage. Follow up with 1-2 shots of Thundara to nail it. Try and steal another Coral Sword, though. Its only dangerous attack is Tail Screw, which reduces a single character's HP to critical levels. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
And that's that. Terrible post-battle banter aside, we can go wherever we want! But since we've exhausted the current available sidequests, we'll be continuing with the story.