LogFAQs > #949653176

I hadn't realised there were such varying translations across the different versions. Sure am glad I took the board's advice and went with GBA!

Grand Kirby posted...

If you inspect the spot where Mog was staring at you'll get a Relic that eliminates random encounters.

Oh god thank you for this! I was sure I inspected that spot earlier but it must've been the darker one to the right.

WazzupGenius00 posted...

The theory behind the name Valigarmanda is that it is a combination of three other mythological gods/creatures' names combined together, since it teaches three separate elements. Usually Salamander is one of them but there are multiple possibilities. No official explanation has emerged and its few other appearances in other games haven't shed any more light on the question.

This makes a lot of sense, I thought it might be like Quezacotl where it was a mythical being I just wasn't aware of. The sprite looks like a regular dragon, wonder what the Thunder/Ice names could be.

We start right at Narshe. First things first I zoom over to get the no encounters relic (no intention of abusing this except for this one specific location until I find the Yeti). Unfortunately my party can't equip it, and reading the text it sounds like it's Mog only. A quick Teleport out and we're good to go.

With a knock and a wink Locke can open any door in town, but all the homes are empty save one. This is where we're given a choice, so I read Fiop's spoiler text here and go for the Esper over the weapon (I would've picked the Esper anyway probs, Crispy mentioned something about this back at the start, but I very much appreciate the advice and not having to worry if I did the right thing!). Ragnarok holds Ultima, and nothing else. Gotta grind up some Cactuars later I guess.

Unfortunately I look all over the mines and can't find the Yeti anywhere, so taking a chance I read Grand Kirby's first set of spoilers- I recently picked up a Berserker Ring that I couldn't equip on anyone and its description straight up mentions a Yeti so I figured that's our next character. Sure enough it is (thanks GK!), and I descend into Yeti's Cave which seems to have its own theme (which is good, as they all are in this game). I remember seeing that piece of ice fall after beating the Esper, but I really didn't see any sign we could drop down from there. And I was sure Mog mentioned him being 'in' the mines, but whatever.

Yeti's Cave is pretty small but hard to move around in, there's holes in the floor everywhere. We steal a piece of Magicite from a Bone Carving, and the Yeti (quite rightfully!) attacks. The fight is very easy, and I feel bad about hurting this guy. After winning, Mog berates Umaro, claims to be its boss, and tells it to join us. That's not very nice, he was just defending his own property in his own home and now he has to follow us? Ah well, we have a Yeti on side now, woo. And Midgardsormr, who has percentage based spells that will probably fail on every boss. I wonder how this scene goes down without Mog.

Also in the cave is a treasure chest with three Tonberries in, which prove significantly more difficult than the actual boss. After learning their pattern I have Celes attack each with Firaga, as she has strong magic and has no trouble tanking the countered Holys. Physical attacks just don't hit here, and it takes a while to get through these guys (and a lot of heals and some items), but they eventually go down. Damn Tonberries. That seems to be all we can do here, so we head to our next location, which turns out to be the cabin with the Aged Man in. He's still around, huh.

Sabin openly questions whether this guy is Gau's father, so I swap in Gau. Then it turns out I need both Gau and Sabin here. I wonder why they kept this locked to World of Ruin, because I definitely brought Gau here ages ago after hearing the rumours about this dude. Oh well. What follows is a really fun bunch of scenes of the crew shaping up Gau for his dad- the party interaction here is legitimately great, I didn't expect anything like this after how this part of the game has gone so far. Lots of comic relief, I'm glad I have pretty much the whole crew around for all the little jokes here. My fav is Shadow sleeping in the corner while the others try to teach Gau how to be sensible, lol.

After the comedy we get a surprisingly sad scene with Gau and his father (with great music, as per), as he tells the story of his 'dream'. It's both cruel and tragic, his dad isn't all gone mentally but there's no tearful reunion here between father and son. I brought Cyan along based on his past relationship with Gau but it's Sabin who stands out here, he's really good in this scene- very protective of Gau. Gau shows a great deal of maturity and is merely happy his dad is alive, and we leave it at that. Really enjoyed this sequence a lot, didn't expect Gau to have such a good moment.

Before leaving things today I head back to the Cactuar area and grind up some AP. Eventually we do manage to fight the big boy Gigantuar, and he is... way too much for me to handle right now. Hoo, we are badly equipped for this. He avoids all non-guaranteed hits (including magic!), retaliates to any successful hit with an OHKO, and regularly casts 1000 Needles 2-4 times. After flailing around a bit I get into a rhythm- have Cyan hit him with Bushido 1, have Locke Arise Cyan and the other two Curaga each other/everyone as necessary (which is pretty much always). Everybody is in the 2K max HP range except Sabin who is just over 3K, so we're never out of danger. I go through many Elixirs and Ether items here, too many really. Eventually Gigantuar goes to cast 1K Needles only to find his MP has been depleted. Take that! One more hit from Cyan finishes him off, but not before he impotently tries to cast 1K Needles about a dozen times in a row. We laugh over his body and acquire the Cactuar Magicite, which has... Hastega. Oh heck yeah, we're untouchable now!

While we're here I check in to see Lola in Maranda, and she reveals she kinda knew that the letters weren't from her boyfriend, but that her and Cyan needed each other to work through their own grief. Cyan stops us from revealing his identity, but I'm glad she got closure. Really nice close to this quest, not at all how I expected this to go after all the back and forth we were doing earlier.

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Currently playing: FFVI
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