Final Fantasy II Part 7: The Assault on the Warship Episode 3: The Abandoned Castle

The Abandoned  Castle at Kashuon

I enter Kashuon today. It’s so great to be able to listen to new music! Two steps in, and I’m already fighting monsters. The music may be new, but the monsters certainly aren’t!

Go away, you Grateful Dead fan! They'll follow you everywhere!

I walk to the center of the room to find the Sun Flame, but I can’t do anything about it. I leave it to burn and open the door behind it with the Goddess Bell (Miss you already Josef!). I enter the next room and Gordon is standing in my way. He joins my party without asking for permission.

This guy sounds very wimpy. After all, didn't he say he was in coward in the beginning? Why don't you wait here for me?

I involuntarily allow him to fight with me, and I replace his spear with the Mithril Spear I was holding onto (since I haven't trained anybody else with a spear) and continue on my quest to find the Egil Torch. 

Ugh! So weak!

Wait a second! First your hair was blonde, then blue in the menu, and now it’s white? Make up your mind!

Thankfully with the Mithril Spear, Gordon packs a punch (assuming he doesn’t die too quickly). I continue to the next room and find a Cure spell. I teach Gordon Cure, and then I turn around and teach Maria Ice and Bolt from the books I have equipped. If I need to throw away some spells, I always have the option, but I figure that Maria should know the three elemental spells since she is my main magician.

I fell for it again! Are there ever treasures in these doors?

Grrr…I declare a vendetta on doors! At least they turn out to be really easy!

I head to the next floor, where I am greeted by the other annoying factor in RPG's.

Mazes!

While I navigate the mazes, I encounter several enemies, and I decide I can’t bear to see Gordon have less than 100 HP. Since the monsters are not difficult here, I proceed to beat the stuffing out of him.

Recycled boss!

On the next floor up, I find a Gold Shield, but then I’m ambushed by two Were Rats (Really? I just fought two types of Ogres and a Land Turtle in the fight I just won!). Not that I’m complaining or anything!

Yikes! Can I go back to the wererats now, please? As a side note, the Ogres in this game look like Blanka from the Street Fighter series!

During my battle against the two Ogres, the Wizard Ogre (the one who looks like green Blanka!) blinds my party and continually casts Ice 5. The darkness makes it difficult to knock out the Ogre, but after beating it down, I change strategy and make my party members cast spells to take out the caster. If I had thought about it earlier, I would have finished the fight much earlier with less damage. For all my hard work, I get the Hellfire item, but I don’t get any stat boosts. I look at Onion Kid’s Leveling FAQ and learn that when the party runs away or is inflicted with status effects, they gain no bonuses. I better start improving that Heal spell so that I can take away status effects successfully in battle.

Sigh...

Wait, one of these doors actually takes you to a room with treasure in it? I guess I will be OCD about it from now on! 

Inside the surprising treasure room, I find some Mithril equipment, which greatly boosts Firion and Guy’s attack power! Since none of my characters use a cane, I keep it in my inventory and continue onward. In the very next fight, Firion is able to take out an ogre with one attack using the Mithril Sword!

Is this necessary? What's up with these awful blueprints?

I see a treasure chest in the middle of the room, and I decide I will go there last because it looks like a boss chest. I turn the corner and find another oddly-placed door. Inside, there are even more chests! Suspicious of monsters-in-boxes, I heal up again and open the chests. When I make it to the middle of the room, I fight some monsters inside of the box. The Egil Torch just happens to be sitting in an isolated room one floor down, where I have a pretty easy boss battle. Check it out below.

I notice after two rounds that Red Soul absorbs magic, so I switch tactics and have Maria cast Shell a few times to buff my magic defense while the other characters attack. Red Soul uses level 8 magic spells, but it is not very powerful. In fact, Red Soul eventually runs out of MP and has to fight me physically, which is a complete joke.

Then, as soon as I take two steps up, I get a surprise.

Oh, come on! I'm right by the chest and just beat a boss!

Upon picking up the torch, I cast Exit and leave as quickly as I can. I save my game, and right before I leave, I remember that I have to get the Sun Flame using the Torch, so I walk right back into the castle (Thank God I remembered. It would have sucked if I went all the way home and then be unable to continue without going back yet again, but at least the Sun Flame is in the first room of the castle!). On my way out, I admire Gordon's progress.

Much better! When you roll with Team Firion, you're going to get roughed up! Is it hazing if it's a fictional character?

Kashuon Treasure Haul: Cure book, 300G, Gold Shield, Mithril Axe, Mithril Sword, Were Cane, Echo Screen, Antidote, Eyedrop, Gold Armor, Egil Torch, Sun Flame


As I leave the castle, I watch the Warship pass by, chasing an airship that looks a lot like Cid’s.

Hey Cid, I thought that Warship was a piece of junk? Well, better head west ASAP! 

On my way away from the forest, I enter a grassy area, where I see another FF series staple.

!!

EHRMEGERRDD CHRCRBRRHHS!! 

With my temporary new mode of transportation, I head northwest and search for the airship and the Warship. When I can’t find either of them, I stop in Poft, where the girl in the front of town tells me to return to Altea. I heal up and return to see what all the fuss is about (I’m getting sick of this Warship. Let me destroy it already!).

In the rebel base, one of the men wearing hats tells me that Hilda is being held in the Warship, and another man tells me that the Warship often refuels north of Phin. Minh tells me that Hilda wanted to greet me in Kashuon, so she boarded Cid’s airship. While flying to meet me, the Warship chased it down and kidnapped our all-of-a-sudden damsel-in-distress.

Before leaving Altea, I buy an Ether to replace the one I used, replaced all my Bronze Helmets with Mithril Helmets, sold a bunch of Antidotes and bought many Potions and X-Potions. I take my Canoe to the north and decide to spend some time leveling up before continuing the story.

Wow, look at the difference!

Coming next time! The Warship!

Thanks for reading, and leave your comments below!