Ｆｉｎａｌ　Ｆａｎｔａｓｙ　Ｖ

Faris and the other pirates head into the pub. Faris reappears when shopping for equipment.

Since not all equipment can be used by every job, make sure to get at least basic equipment for each one, and don't forget to buy magic if you want your mages to have spells!

As is often the case, boxes, pots, and other things around the town contain free items and money. Take everything that isn't nailed down.

Anyway, the destination is the large house on the north end of the village. The old man inside is shocked to see Lenna.

Lenna looks at the others, sees no objection, and nods in acceptance.

Zokk leads them to a side room.

Scene change to night. Butz, Lenna, and Galuf are asleep. Butz wakes up and walks outside.

Scene change to Butz's childhood home. He's in bed, and his parents are talking.

Scene change back to the present. Butz walks back inside. Zokk stands by Lenna's bedside.

Zokk walks out of the room and sees Butz.

Scene change to morning. Butz, Lenna, and Galuf get up.

Upstairs in the pub. Someone with long purple hair is asleep in one of the rooms.

The others nod. Butz approaches the bed, and the person rolls partway over, looking distinctly feminine. After recovering from the initial shock, Butz gets a little heart over his head, then walks out of the room.

Galuf pushes past Butz and into the room. His reaction to the person in the bed is much the same. Galuf walks back out, and he and Butz nod to each other, then blink their eyes as though trying to clear their heads.

They blink a few more times. Lenna walks over.

Meanwhile, Faris gets out of bed.

Faris stretches and walks out into the hall, then notices Butz and Galuf.

Faris walks to Butz and Lenna to Galuf, and... well, I'm not really sure what they do, but the hearts clear up, Butz and Galuf shake their heads rapidly, then scratch their heads. Faris walks back into the room.

Faris locks the door and sits at a table, apparently deep in thought.

Make sure to play the piano while you're here, even though it sounds terrible at this point.

As they reach the edge of town, Faris walks out of the pub.

The pirates file out of the pub.

Lenna is on deck, looking downcast. Butz walks up to her.

Galuf walks onto deck.

The canal might be named after a town or county in Hungary, or it could just be a coincidence.

Butz unlocks the canal gate.

As reported, the canal is full of monsters. Farther into the canal, a whirlpool appears ahead of the ship.

It's another boss. This one's weak to lightning, so feel free to... well, you know how to cast Thunder, right? Other attacks also work well. Just watch out for paralysis and the attack that drops a character's HP to single digits.

After the battle, the boat drifts out of the whirlpool, but Syldra's still stuck!

Butz and Galuf restrain Faris, who looks about ready to dive in.

Syldra is sucked down into the whirlpool...

Scene change to night on deck. Butz and Galuf stand by the railing.

The screen pans up to show Lenna and Faris standing together.

The ship continues to drift...

...and eventually lands in a mess of shipwrecks.

Head down after leaving the ship and wait for stepping stones to appear to reach a chest with a Flail.

Before long, the party comes to a flooded ship.

A little while later, they reach a dry cabin.

Lenna heads for a nearby room.

Butz gathers some material and starts a fire.

Butz and Galuf try to drag Faris closer to the fire.

Faris goes ballistic and flings them away. Lenna comes out.

He should see Fushigi Yuugi (and other anime). Hotohori prides himself on being as beautiful as any woman, and you'd never guess Nuriko is actually male.

Faris hops into a nearby bed.

Scene change to later. Everyone is in bed. Faris gets up energetically.

Galuf falls out of bed.

One of the ships ahead has a world map. Very useful for navigating outside.

A final set of stepping stones leads to a small beach. The screen gets dark...

A green-haired woman appears in a sparkle of light. She looks like Butz's mother from his earlier flashback.

Butz looks kind of out of it, and drifts over toward her.

King Tycoon appears in another sparkle.

As Lenna drifts toward him, Faris moves as if to stop her, then loses it herself.

A girl with blonde hair in a ponytail appears in a third sparkle.

Galuf shakes his head rapidly as if trying to clear it.

Butz, Lenna, and Faris collapse, and blue flames rise from their bodies and drift toward the phantoms. A tall woman appears behind them.

Galuf picks up and slaps Butz, Lenna, and Faris. The illusions vanish, and the three recover.

Another boss. At first, she uses magic, and physical attacks work well against her, but magic poorly if at all. After several rounds, Siren will turn undead, use physical attacks instead of magic, and gain resistance to physical attacks, but become vulnerable to magic (especially fire) and take damage from curatives (Cure and healing items like Potions). If the battle drags on, she'll keep changing between the two forms periodically.

Anyone attempting a low-level game should note that she's level 2, so characters at that level can use Goblin Punch for (relatively) high damage.

Beat her when normal for a Bronze Armor, or when undead for a Bronze Shield.

The others laugh before moving out.

The name is debatable, but Googling gives Curwen more often than Carwen. Googling that in English finds several historical figures of some note.

The town is on the coastline south from the ship graveyard. There are the usual shops and numerous villagers and such, but the important one is the woman by the port.

Faris looks upset.

Another woman appears in front of the pub.

As it turns out, he has useful information.

But first, play the piano. Well, at least that wasn't quite so awful as last time...

The mountain is fairly uneventful for a while. Just don't step on the poison flowers.

Eventually, Lenna spots a helmet along a cliffside.

Lenna is shot with an arrow.

Just to make things worse, part of the path collapses, between Lenna and the others. A woman approaches Lenna.

Faris gets a running start and hops over the gap, only to have more of the path collapse beheath her.

Faris climbs back up the cliff and tosses a rope over to Butz. They secure the ends, and Butz and Galuf cross to confront Magisa.

A boss battle begins. Lenna starts the fight poisoned.

Magisa likes using magic attacks. It's possible to silence her to avoid those, but she can still cast Aero when silenced (Blue Magic is unaffected for whatever reason), and after her health drops to about 300 (out of 650), she summons help in the form of a hulking brute.

{Fortza} is a purely physical fighter, and strong enough to complicate matters, but he's vulnerable to sleep. It's also possible to keep her from summoning him by taking off her last 300 or so HP all at once (the Monk's !Gather ability helps with this). Win for 6 ABP, a Whip, and (if {Fortza} appeared) a Strength Drink.

The wyvern lies at the summit, ringed by poison flowers.

Lenna walks across the poison flowers toward a plant by the cliff edge.

Lenna collects the plant, crosses back, and reaches toward Faris.

Faris takes the plant and feeds it to the wyvern, as Lenna collapses.

The wyvern stretches and cries out. Galuf walks up to Lenna.

The wyvern flies over to Lenna and prods at her, or something. She gets up, looking energetic.

Butz walks a bit away, looking embarrassed.

The others look at each other, and laugh.

Lenna and Faris get on the wyvern, and Galuf pushes Butz on too. It spreads its wings and flies off.

The wyvern can cross land and sea, but doesn't fly high enough to pass over mountains. Several new areas are reachable now, but let's start with Lenna's home, on the far side of the meteorite...

This trip is entirely optional, and the contents of the visit vary after certain events later on...

A soldier stands watch at the castle gate. He spots Lenna.

The soldier opens the gates.

The chancellor is shocked to see Lenna, and so are the guards inside.

The chancellor and soldiers present show their agreement.

Fade out, and scene change to Lenna lying awake in bed. She gets up and walks outside, and finds Faris standing on a balcony.

Faris laughs anyway, then leaves rather hastily.

Fade out and scene change to a guest room. Butz is asleep in one of the beds, and there's no sign of the others.

Butz half-jumps, half-falls out of bed. He starts stretching, or something, then gets a big question mark over his head. The lights come on, showing Lenna, Galuf, and Faris all standing around, apparently watching him.

Based on how they talk (not to mention the order), the first line is Lenna's, the second Galuf's, and the third Faris's.

Butz looks around as if annoyed, then scratches his head in embarrassment.

The chancellor is found in a storage room off of the castle courtyard.

Though the game doesn't say so, he gives Lenna a Staff of Healing. Chests in the room contain a Glass Bell, a Shuriken, and an Asura, and there are also various items in pots all over the castle, as usual.

The nearby town has new equipment and spells, though the spells are types that aren't usable just yet (Timespace and Summon)...

There's water flowing all over the outside of the castle. Lenna goes to the throne room to see the king.

As if in response to Butz's words, the screen turns red and rumbles...

A meteor falls from the sky and lands near the tower to the north. A soldier rushes into the throne room.

The king looks out the window.

The soldier rushes out, and the king turns to Lenna.

The king heads out of the room, and is met by several soldiers.

They leave.

There are some interesting spots in the castle, particularly the tower behind the waterfall in the back, and the dark basement below the main castle, but it's probably best to avoid them for now, the basement especially—the monster ガルキマセラ lurks there and will likely kill you with ease. Even later on, they're nearly impossible to kill... well, by most methods, anyway. The tower, on the other hand, isn't nearly so bad, and may be worth visiting long enough to steal a few Mithril Swords from the Ice Soldiers, though, even if they also appear on the higher floors of the Worus Tower.

As might be expected of the tower housing the Water Crystal, there's quite a lot of water here. There are also two soldiers collapsed by the entrance.

Incidentally, Garulas can be found in battles near the tower, and they really don't ever attack.

The king is collapsed several floors up.

The Wyvern monsters that appear around here have Mithril Knives to steal.

In the crystal room, a soldier in an unfamiliar uniform stands between a Garula and the crystal.

He tries to fend it off, but is knocked out of the way, and doesn't get up. The Garula turns toward the party.

The Garula is physically powerful and counterattacks, but that's about it. No variety here. Using physically powerful classes and Protect to halve the damage you take helps. Maximizing damage per hit also helps, since it minimizes the counterattacks.

One useful tactic is combining the Knight's !Guard with the Monk's Counter. If you'd rather be cheap, equip someone with the Whip (you'll need to change to Normal) for a good chance of paralyzing it. Another cheap tactic is to learn Frog Song from Elf Toads in the Worus Castle water tower and use that to turn it into a frog (this cripples its attack power), plus Silence as needed to keep it from casting Toad to heal itself. Low-level players should note that the Garula is level 3, and use Goblin Punch with any characters at a matching level.

The crystal looks odd after the battle.

And it shatters as the Wind Crystal did.

The soldier gets up long enough to drag himself to the entrance, then collapses again, blocking the way out. Jerk.

The crystal shards shine as if to remind you they're there. Unlike in the Wind Temple, though, the shards stay where they are this time instead of conveniently converging on the party, and one is out of reach entirely.

And as for the unidentified soldier...

As before, picking up the shards grants new jobs.

Each starts with the above line before identifying the job. These are, clockwise from top right:

After the party takes the five reachable shards, the tower starts shaking.

A door opens in the back of the chamber, and with no other way out, the party exits that way. Soon after, the tower sinks into the ocean, and so does the end of the peninsula that is sits on. The meteorite is far enough away to remain on land, but the party gets dunked.

Just then, a familiar sea monster approaches.

Syldra takes Galuf and Butz, the closest two, into his mouth. They appear to be unconcious.

Lenna, apparently unconcious, begins to drift away, but Faris grabs her and swims into Syldra's mouth.

Somewhere nearby, Syldra arrives at a beach and spits the party out on land. Butz, Lenna, and Galuf collapse.

Lenna gets up and walks to Faris's side.

Syldra lets out another cry. Butz and Galuf get up, but still seem disoriented.

Syldra drifts out to sea... Faris starts to run out into the ocean, but Lenna holds her back.

After one last sad cry from Syldra, the party finds themselves on the shore near the meteorite. The wyvern is nearby, having had the sense to move if it was on the piece of land that sunk.