Forgiveness? or an eternity of suffering? (Day 33)

Hello again from the land of Final Fantasy 2. After a harrowing eight hours of game-play and THREE more deaths, I completed Final Fantasy 2: The Soul of Rebirth. It felt impossible the first two hours, as I died and died with my pitiful gear. Starting with only two party members was the worst. If you don't know, you restart the game as Minwu in an alternate universe. You collect Josef, Scott, and Ricard. What seems like the afterlife becomes a hell for many, not just any hell, but Arubuf: a hell ruled by the Emperor reincarnated.

To my surprise, after a good four floors of nail-biting battles you surface to a town. Towns in hell? Well yeah, and Cid's waiting for you at the bar. How appropriate? The town has everything a role-playing game character needs: an INN, a magic shop, an item shop, an armory, and a weapon's forge. Hell isn't that bad of a place eh?

Moving on. There are two other warps in town, and the townsfolk say monsters have been leaking out of them. One of them, to the far east of town leads to a familiar tower. Yes, it's a similar one to the one that holds the Ultima tome in the present world. No world as great as the present! But anyway, the only difference here is that Minwu won't die when he tries to get the tome, no, he cannot die twice. Here he has to face the Ultima Weapon. Yes, he is added on again, an optional boss that hits you hard with magical attacks. I read an FAQ that said that he is immune to physical attacks. That's B.S., I powered up my magic for nothing. In the end I just put Berserk and Haste on my hitters (Scott and Ricard) and beat him to death. My reward, the Ultima spell, which is useless. Even at level 16 it only hits 800? Why bother, just level up your swords and spears.

To the north of the town is the major dungeon. There you will find four more sub-bosses and the Emperor. Nothing too hard after you get the hang of it. As your party levels up to 2000HP, the enemies get a lot easier. Some notable weapons appear, probably the strongest weapons in the game: the Stardust rod (does level 16 fire, which is similar to Meteor), Bracers (gauntlets that enhances attack), Wyvern Lance, and the Wild Rose blade. All pretty sick weapons, and pretty much exclusive to Final Fantasy 2. Not a bad deal. Take those and stick it to the Emperor of the underworld? You betcha.

So you reach the last boss and she gives you a nice long speech about death and afterlife, and the reason why you're there. Yes, this new emperor looks like a woman. She lets you have two choices: to ask for forgiveness in the things you have done or spend an eternity suffering there. Naturally, you picked the third choice, to fight! Not a bad fight, but pretty damn easy. It didn't last more than 20 turns and she basically bruises like a peach.

After the long battle with story-sequence, you get to travel back to the real world as spirits. We find out a pretty big secret about Ricard. He is the father to the kid that wants to be a dragoon. The kid happens to be called Kain. Like father like son. I wonder when will he show up again? Oh nevermind, I just wish we had Final Fantasy 2 when the Japanese folks did, Final Fantasy 4 will make a lot more sense. Now, to Final Fantasy 3, and the wonderful world of "job classes".

• Game Time: FF2: 25 hrs 40 mins + 15 mins (Deaths and ending)
• Game Time: FF2 - Soul of Rebirth: 8:05 +20 mins (Deaths and ending)
• Beastiary: 98%
  
• Deaths: 5 (2 from FF2, 3 from FF2:SoR)
  
• Days: 33