LogFAQs > #949837551

Grand Kirby posted...

Random fact, while it was called the Gem Box in the SNES translation, when it reappeared in other games the Soul of Thamasa was mistranslated as "Samantha Soul" for years and years. It's something I find really funny. Like, I had always wondered who the hell was Samantha...

I distinctly remember Samantha's Soul being a really rare item in FF8 and wondering where on earth that name came from! Cool tidbit, this series ran on mistranslations for such a long time lol.

First, I take a boat ride from South Figaro and, yes, immediately come upon Leviathan! Glad my instincts were right. I had heard an NPC saying they saw a shadow under the water ages ago, but I remember thinking it must be a reflection of Deathgaze from the sky or something. Silly me. Leviathan isn't super easy considering how late we're getting him, he counters every physical hit with Entangle and at one point spams double Tsunami (FFIV flashbacks!). We manage to take him down though. So this guy wasn't in the original? That's so weird to me, Leviathan and Bahamut seemed like a yin/yang duo in these games- sea/sky, both mythical monsters, both having important roles in IV and being counterparts to each other in V. I guess this is where Leviathan sank down the ranks to becoming a regular summon while Bahamut remains the Ultimate Summon to this day. Sad times.

Over in Jidoor we hear about a sword but get outbid on Excalipoor. Thanks GMUN for confirming I wasn't wasting my time, we grind a bit of cash and come back to buy the useless thing. And while I'm here I leave and re-enter the auction house to see if I missed anything else- we pick up a Hero's Ring (already have some of them), Zephyr Cape (same), and... Golem! Another Esper for 20K. I think after I got Zona Seeker when I was last here I just figured that was the big reward and left this place alone. Golem slots in pretty early into the Esper list, but he does have Slowga which we haven't had yet. Seems to be all I can get here but please let me know if there's more!

Not knowing what to do next with Excalipoor I wander around looking for this hint from mnkboy:
mnkboy907 posted...

There's a location on the world map you haven't been to yet. It's rather secretive as it doesn't have a dot on the map and isn't immediately obvious it's a location you can enter.

(Thanks for being vague with it, I like having to search). I don't do very well here (it's so much harder to discern locations from the air than it is from top-down), but then I spot some oddly arranged trees near Narshe and take a chance. Hooray! We arrive at a house, where none other than Master Duncan resides! (Completely forgot about him and thought this would be Banon at first lol) It's a good job I have Sabin here because this is an event for him, he is sad then happy and we do a dance to learn his final Blitz technique. Fun times! Nice to hear this old music again too. Wonder how this goes down without Sabin.

I then remember the Coliseum as an option for Excalipoor. I save in case I toss away a 500K Gil item for nothing, but Sabin wrecks the Onion Dasher and we get a Merit Award, and- wait a minute! It's him! This shouldn't be a surprise, but for some reason I had it in my head that 'Mesh only came back in VIII onwards, so it catches me off guard to see him here. Bartz's old pal drops into our dimension to get another failed mimic of Excalibur, and we have a boss fight. Thankfully with the full party.

Gilgamesh is tough. OK the biggest reason he's tough is because I see he has an item to steal but Locke just continually fails to take it, and I don't want to kill him beforehand as V taught me to always steal from Gilgamesh! So Sabin holds back on his x8 attacks (Genji Glove + Master's Scroll is nice indeed, as Black Turtle suggested) and Celes holds off on her Ultima x2 until Locke can get a successful Mug off. Unfortunately Gilgamesh does not sit around waiting, he pelts us with a variety of attacks, and at some point buffs himself then rains down even stronger ones. It becomes clear I'm not getting anywhere so reset and try again. Locke still has a great deal of trouble but I just keep casting Reraise on him and healing everyone else until finally, finally he steals a Genji Shield. Well that's nice and all but I do already have one... meh, I'll take it. Now we can really go to town on the dude, I try out Sabin's fancy new Phantom Rush and sure enough he goes down (but not before using plenty of attacks I haven't seen in this game yet!). Look I love the OST of this game and I know the cart is probably packed to the absolute brim, but it would have been nice to hear a bit of Clash here >_> Yes, I'm being greedy.

He drops another Genji Helm and joins us via Magicite. So he... died? Is Magicite not a death sentence anymore? Or does Gilgamesh just live outside the boundaries of life and death. Probably that. Anyway we have access to Valor, which looks like it could be very handy for Sabin.

After this things don't go so well, I look around all the towns but don't find anything else of note. Time to check out the spoiler tags- phew thankfully the remaining dragons are in Kefka's Tower (thanks Fiop and Earthshaker, and don't worry about that Earthshaker I know the risk of spoiler tags in this topic!). The only marked thing I still can't figure out is mnkboy's other hint:
mnkboy907 posted...

And an esper in a location you've already been (you didn't miss it, it wasn't available at the time you were last there). More specific: Somewhere you were at early on in the World of Ruin.

Unless you meant Leviathan or Quetzalli, I really am at a loss on this one! I have 5 empty slots in the Esper page- one is Odin, a couple are at the end so maybe postgame, but the other two I do not know. I think I'm nearing time to enter Kefka's Tower now, though still not sure what team I'll bring (Celes/Locke/Sabin are gonna be there, but not sure who to bring for the 4th- Terra for the plot maybe).

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Currently playing: FFVI
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