Well, here we go. The mission to save the world from the evil sorceress.

The missionEdit

So you should now be back in Deling City. Did you memorize that number I told you to? Let's assume that you did. Now, you have to tell the guard the number IN REVERSE ORDER. So if the number is 28, you have to say 82. They make you say the ones digit first. Isn't that odd? In FFVI when they made you fix the clock in Zozo they had the decency to tell you to do the hour first and the minute second. What were they thinking here?

Anyway, go into the mansion. There's a Save Point outside. Inside you'll meet General Caraway. Rinoa will blurt out that he's her father, which makes everyone, including me, wonder how the hell she went to Timber and joined a resistance movement. He's an overprotective father and won't let Rinoa leave the house, which pisses her off. He'll tell you that the sorceress is called Edea.

He'll explain the mission as you walk through town. Squall, Quistis, Zell, Selphie, and Irvine will divide into two teams. One team will consist of Squall and Irvine, and will be called the "Sniper team." The other three will be part of the "Gateway Team." The Gateway Team is supposed to enter the arch at the center of town and wait there. The Sniper Team is supposed to hang out by the presidential residence and wait for President Deling and the sorceress to give a speech. After the speech ends, there will be a parade honoring the sorceress which will loop around the road that circles town, and then head under the center arch. While the parade exits the presidential residence, the Sniper Team is supposed to enter the residence and work their way to the clock tower where a sniper rifle will be waiting. The Sniper Team is then on standby.

At 8:00 PM, the clock tower will rise up and make itself visible, and the parade will pass under the center arch. At this time, the Gateway Team lowers the arch, trapping the sorceress inside. Irvine then shoots the sorceress from the top of the clock tower.

Caraway will then stop the briefing and head back to his house. You're free to control your party now and do whatever you want. When you're ready to begin, go back to Caraway's Mansion. He'll explain that if Irvine misses, Squall needs to attack the sorceress head on. Squall makes Quistis in charge of the Gateway Team (and considering who's on the team he made the right choice). He'll then leave with Irvine and Caraway. Rinoa will then come out of hiding and show everyone an "Odine Bangle" she owns, and she thinks it can be used against the sorceress. But everyone has to leave.

Meanwhile, Irvine and Squall are having a discussion about how much SeeDs are allowed to question their mission. Caraway gestures to the arch, and Quistis, Zell, and Selphie enter the arch. Caraway then leads Squall and Irvine to the presidential residence, and reveals that Edea wants to take over Galbadia Garden and use it as a base.

At the arch, Quistis wants to leave position and apologize to Rinoa. Despite Zell's hesitation, he and Selphie come along anyway. You control this party now. Head back to the mansion. Inside, Rinoa will escape, bump into Quistis, Zell, and Selphie, and run away. How the hell the three of them didn't notice Rinoa is beyond me, but they re-enter the house and are locked in!!!! The whole mission is a failure! Oh no! How the hell are we supposed to fix this? We'll figure out that later. You control Rinoa now, alone, inside the gates to the presidenial residence. Save your game, and head down into the hatch nearby to enter the sewers. Follow the path and you'll find the May issue of Weapons Monthly Magazine. Exit the sewer and save your game again. Now, climb up the crates and onto the roof. Keep finding places to climb. Eventually, you'll be in a room with a mysterious aura.

It's that woman who kidnapped Seifer in Timber! Apparently she's Sorceress Edea, and Rinoa will try and give her the Odine Bangle. Edea will knock her out. She'll then take off her mask and reveal her face and some weird jewelry coming out the back of her head. I have no idea what the hell this is supposed to do. But Rinoa will follow her outside.

President Deling will be making probably the same speech he was making on TV about peace and will introduce the sorceress. Edea will then come out, followed by Rinoa, who is walking strangely. Edea will make a speech proclaiming that Galbadia is now under her command and that she will be an evil tyrant, yet everyone still cheers for her, even when she announces their eventual death. What the hell is wrong with the people of Galbadia? How did they let this happen? President Deling seems to be the only one worried though, and asks if Edea is okay. She then kills him and tosses his body aside. She then casts a spell, and the lizards that adorn the arch in the center of town come to life and attack Rinoa. Irvine is worried, but Squall says they have to focus on the task at hand.

The scene switches back to Caraway's house, and Quistis, Zell, and Selphie need to find a way out. To make a long story short, all you have to do is grab a wine glass and put it in the statue in the upper left corner of the room. This opens a passageway to the sewers!

Go down the stairs to find a Save Point. Use it. Now, head down into the sewers and climb up on the wheel. Exit to the north, and the scene will switch again.

The gates will open and Edea's float will come out, which is surrounded by masked dancers and fireworks. And standing at Edea's side is none other than Seifer, who we all thought to be dead, it turns out that he was actually possessed!

You now have control of Squall and Irvine in the same area you controlled Rinoa. Give Zell's stuff to Irvine using Junction Exchange. Save your game. If you'd like, you can fight some enemies in the sewers by going down the hatch. You may remember the Red Bat enemies from the Fire Cavern. The mid-level ones have Drain spells that can be Drawn, so stock up on those because they're great for Junctioning to your status physical attack unless you're facing Undead enemies. They also Junction well to stats if I'm not mistaken. You can win and Mug Vampire Fangs from them, which refine into Drain spells.

The Creeps is an enemy completely unrelated to the Creep, which is an enemy from the original game. While the Creep was a thorny plant, the Creeps is a ghost. Creepses have Life spells and either Thunder or Thundara to be Drawn, so if you need any of these feel free to Draw them. You can win and Mug Coral Fragments from them. You'll get more Coral Fragments if you Mug, but these things can drop a rare Dynamo Stone at mid level, so the choice is yours to make.

Occasionally, you may encounter a Grand Mantis in the sewers. This enemy has lots of good stuff. It has Esuna spells which you can Draw, although you should already have lots of these from bosses (it's the first regular enemy to have it), and it has Water, which you already have. But its item arsenal includes stuff like Sharp Spikes and Curse Spikes. The Sharp Spikes I already told you about, and Curse Spikes are some of the best items of their kind in the entire game. One of them is needed to teach Quistis Level ? Death, a Limit Break for her. And 100 of them can refine into a Dark Matter, which has a TON of uses, but I'll get to them later. For now, let's just say there's an item you can make which you need 1,000,000 Curse Spikes to make. I know. It's pretty funny. Also, a Curse Spike refines into 10 Pain spells. This is one of the BEST spells in the game. It's a spell that casts Blind, Silence, and Poison on its target, so it's GREAT for Junctioning to status protection because you get immunity to THREE statuses! I should let you know that you can only win Curse Spikes, but you can both win and Mug Sharp Spikes. Both are great items.

If you decide to fight the enemies down here, DO NOT LET IRVINE MAKE ANY KILLS. This is VERY important for a sidequest we're going to go on later, and makes it a LOT easier, but do try and level him up. I think if you let Irvine summon GFs and kill enemies that way, it's fine, just don't have him use his physicals or spells to do it.

Anyway, when you're ready, follow Rinoa's footsteps up the crates to the podium where Edea spoke. Junction Fira to your elemental protection. Go inside the building, and you'll see those lizards attacking Rinoa! Time to fight!

The Iguions are tough opponents, but aren't lethal. If for some reason you have Break spells, Junction them to status defense to get Petrification immunity. If you don't have Break spells, you can Draw them here! But the VERY FIRST THING you should do in this fight is Draw the Carbuncle GF. DO NOT FORGET THIS. Next, your goal is to kill one of the Iguions to make the fight a little easier. They have an attack called Resonance, which is MT, but can only be used when both Iguions are still alive. Once one of them is dead, start Drawing Break from the other one. Try to Mug G-Returners from them. They drop 4 of them, but you can Mug 6 of them. And this is PER IGUION, so you can get 12 total. Watch out for Magma Breath: a Fire-elemental spell which inflicts a status that works like Condemned but inflicts Petrify instead of ID. If you have Fira and Break junctioned to your defense, this should only provide minor damage and no status changes. If not, don't worry. You can Draw Esuna. You can also Draw Cure to heal yourself. Attack normally, but MAKE SURE IRVINE DOESN'T PERFORM THE FINAL BLOWS for reasons I stressed above. They're weak to Earth, so if Squall or Irvine is character 3 (Squall probably is because Irvine is probably character 1), summon Brothers.

Rinoa will rejoin the party at this point, so exit the room and go to the hatch in the hallway. Inside is the entrance to the clock tower. Squall mentions that he might end up fighting Seifer, which pisses Rinoa off. Irvine says he can't do it and he's freaked out. Sounds like someone I know all too well...

Anyway, you're now back in control of the Quistis/Zell/Selphie party. Give Squall's equipment to Selphie, Irvine's to Zell, and Rinoa's to Quistis (if she already doesn't have it). It's now time to talk about your new GF, Carbuncle. It should go on Character 3, so your GFs should look like this now:

• Character 1: Ifrit, Siren
• Character 2: Shiva, Diablos
• Character 3: Quezacotl, Brothers, Carbuncle

Carbuncle has the status attack and protection abilities AND Ability X3, so this is why it should go on the character without Siren or Diablos. Start by teaching it Vit+20% which leads to Vit+40% which leads to Vit Bonus. You should know what the effect of these is by the way I described this pattern with previous GFs. This time, defense is the stat. After that, it's best to start on the status skills, then Counter, and then Auto-Reflect, and then it's up to you. Oh, and Carbuncle comes with the ability to Junction to physical defense.

Go north through the gate, then cross the bridge and go through the left gate. The Red Bats, Creepses, and Grand Mantises are still here. Push the ladder down here to make a bridge. If you're low on Esuna, there's an Esuna Draw Point across the bridge and down the path to a dead end. If you don't cross the bridge, keep heading left. Climb the wheel and go up. Then, go up until you see another wheel and go right. When you see the next wheel, you can go down to a Zombie Draw Point, but if you want to move forward climb this wheel and jump back down the other one. Head down and jump across the next wheel. Head down and jump across the next wheel. Keep going down until you see a ladder you can push down. Cross the ladder and follow the linear path (you'll have to jump another wheel) to find a Save Point. Save your game here, and give Quistis' equipment to Rinoa, Selphie's to Squall, and Zell's to Irvine.

Now, climb up the ladder and you'll be back in the gateway! And just in time! It's 8 PM! Edea's float will pas under the arch, and you'll press the switch to close the gate.

Meanwhile, on the clock tower, Irvine is getting scared. Squall tries to convince him that the shot is a "signal." I don't know how that works. If I were Squall I would've grabbed the gun and done the job myself. But Irvine shoots anyway. He hits Edea, but because he shot too late Edea had time to parry the bullet using her magic. You'll now have one last chance to check your equipment, so make sure you're ready! Have Squall Junction Fira to his elemental defense if he can.

Now, Squall will jump off the roof of the residence and somehow survive the fall, jack a car and speed through the streets towards the arch. You'll see Edea and a triumphant looking Seifer gaze at Squall. Seifer, who we thought may have been brainwashed by the sorceress, seems to be acting of his own free will here. You see, the sorceress admits to being evil and Seifer thinks he's some sort of hero trying to save the world (although we can tell he's just full of himself).

Seifer, the Sorceress's Knight, and Sorceress EdeaEdit

Well what the hell did you expect? Squall and Seifer to settle this thing diplomatically? They're rivals! Of COURSE there's fighting here. Seifer only has Fira magic to be Drawn so don't waste your time. I'm not sure, but he might have a Hero to be Mugged, which is a rare item that makes the user invulnerable to ALL attacks. I kinda consider it cheating, but it's good to have just for the sake of having it. Anyway, Seifer just attacks with his physical and Fira, so this should be an easy battle, even though it's one-on-one, and Seifer should fall easily.

Edea will then give a speech about how much she hates SeeDs, and will then attack you.

In this fight, Irvine and Rinoa will join you, so you have a full party. Now, Edea claims to be an evil, powerful sorceress, but she's probably the easiest enemy you'll fight on this disc! Remember the White Dragon from FFVI? Well, Edea is almost the same thing. Start out by summoning your new GF, Carbuncle. See, Edea basically attacks with Level 3 spells, and ONLY Level 3 spells, all of which are Reflectable. And Carbuncle GIVES your party Reflect! So summon him, and now Edea will waste her turns casting Dispel to remove Reflect. What do you do when that happens? Summon Carbuncle again! And again and again and again! If you do this, Edea will NEVER harm you, so your other two characters can just attack with what-not. Remember, Irvine shouldn't be the one to kill her because he's not allowed to kill anything, even the sorceress. This strategy not working? Well Edea made your life easy by having Cura, Double, and Life spells that can be Drawn! She even has a new spell, Dispel, which you might want to spend some time stocking up on (and Cura). So Edea is incredibly easy! So much for being able to rule the world...how the hell can she? Oh, and she has an Elixir for the Mugging.

After the fight with Edea, Squall will just be an idiot and stand by so she can chuck an ice lance at him. Rinoa will scream, and we all get to laugh at Squall for being such an idiot and not dodging the attack.