On day nine of my Final Fantasy Marathon, I started Final Fantasy II Pixel Remaster, and left off with my party taking the Sunfire from Kashuan Keep and witnessing the Dreadnought capture an airship. Today, I return to Altair to discover that Princess Hilda was on the airship that was captured.

Minwu tells me that Princess Hilda felt badly about sending me on dangerous assignments, so she decided to fly to Kashuan Keep to meet me on Cid’s airship. The Dreadnought captured the ship and took it somewhere north.

Before leaving Altair, I purchase some Mythril gear for my party, rest at the inn, and stock up on supplies. I then head north until I find the Dreadnought.

Destroying the dreadnought

I show my pass to the guard at the entrance to get on the ship. A lengthy monster-in-a-box battle against two Sergeants, three Soldiers, and three Magicians yields the Sleep Blade, which I give to Rand.

I find a Dark Bow in a box and give it to Elayne. I also find some Thief’s Gloves, which I give to Perrin.

I find the Princess and Cid locked in a cell. After I open their cell, Hilda apologizes for getting caught while trying to come help us.

Cid tells us he will take the Princess to the airship and wait for us while we destroy the Dreadnought with the Sunfire. However, he warns us that he won’t wait around forever.

I get a Giant’s Helm as a drop from a random encounter and give it to Perrin. I find an Ice Shield in a box and give it to Rand.

I find a second Giant’s Helm in a box and give it to Gordon. Another box contains the Main Gauche, but I don’t have a knife-user in the party, so I just hang on to it.

I give the Trident from another box to Gordon. I begin to encounter Hill Gigas as random encounters. These monsters are extremely resistant to physical attacks, but can be damaged by magic.

After a grueling slog though many random encounters, I finally reach the Dreadnought’s engine and toss in the Sunfire. This causes the engine to explode.

The Dark Knight shows up and questions what we did to the engine. Elayne recognizes his voice, but there is no time to do anything but run for the airship.

We then get a cutscene of the party running through the Dreadnought until they reach the airship. The Dreadnought explodes shortly after we board the airship and take off.

Cid flies us back to Altair.

The King is dead

We arrive in Altair to find that the King’s condition has taken a turn for the worse. As his dying request, he asks Gordon to take command of the army. The King instructs Minwu to unseal the legendary magic “Ultima.”

The King asks me to go to Deist to discover if any of the dragoons survived the Empire’s attack. The King then asks us to take care of Hilda and dies.

Speaking of Hilda, she’s just hanging out in her bedroom giggling. Bit odd that.

Journey to Deist

Gordon tells us to go to Paloom to find a ship sailing for Deist. At Paloom, we find a sailor who offers to take us to Deist.

Elayne fears it is a trap, but Rand says we have no other choice. The sailor tells us her name is Leila.

We board Leila’s ship and once we are out at sea, she mocks us for trusting pirates and says they will spare our lives but take all our loot. When we resist, her pirate crew attacks, but we defeat them easily.

Leila recognizes she is beaten and tells us to “get on with it.” However, we invite her to join us in our cause against the Empire instead.

Leila enthusiastically accepts, and we now have control of the ship. I sail to Deist and enter the castle.

Deist Castle

We encounter a child who tells us to go away and threatens to tell his mom when we don’t. The castle appears abandoned.

There are no enemies, but there are a few treasures. We collect a Wing Sword, which I give to Rand.

We find the child’s mom and she tells us that the Empire killed her husband and all the rest of the dragoons, leaving just her and her son. The Empire also poisoned the wyvern’s water, killing all but one.

She believes the wyvern has something to tell us, but we need one of the dragoon’s pendants to understand it. She says we may find one in the cave to the north.

We travel to the cave and find a pendant on the body of a dead dragoon. I return to the castle and speak to the wyvern.

The wyvern says she is dying from the poison. She asks us to take the last wyvern egg and place it in the Life Spring in the cavern where we found the pendant.

The last of the wyverns

I return to the cavern, which has several branching paths. Some paths lead toward treasure and others toward the Life Spring.

I get some Giant’s Gloves as a drop from a random encounter and give them to Perrin. I battle four Adamantoise in a monster-in-a-box encounter to get the Knight’s Armor, which I also give to Perrin.

I find a Flame Bow for Elayne in a chest. One monster-in-a-box contains five Green Souls.

The Green Souls do nothing other than cast cure VI on our party, so I autobattle them on “defend” until my party is fully healed and then kill them off. I get a Mage’s Staff, which casts a thunder spell when used as an item.

After many battles, I reach the Life Spring, which a Chimera is guarding. Engaging the Chimera triggers a battle with four Chimeras.

Each one requires a full round to take down, plus a couple extra to account for healing the party. After I defeat the Chimeras, I place the egg in the Life Spring and it sinks to the bottom.

I return to the castle to find the last wyvern died. The mom thanks us for saving the egg.

Royal imposter

We return to Altair. Gordon tells us that Hilda has been acting strange.

He asks us to talk to her. I find Hilda in her room, where she asks to speak to Rand alone.

Once the rest of the party leaves, she lures Rand to her bed. Just as Rand begins to suspect Hilda is not Hilda, she transforms.

Leila and the rest of the party rush back into the room. The Lamia Queen who has been pretending to be Hilda attacks.

She has an annoying special ability that can confuse party members, causing them to attack their own team. However, we defeat her.

An embarrassed Rand asks Leila how much she saw. She says, enough to know Rand should be more careful around “fetchin’ young ladies.”

Perrin wonders where the real princess is and one of the rebels rushes in with terrible news. The Emperor is holding a tournament in Palamecia and offering Princess Hilda as the prize.

Rescuing Hilda…again

Gordon wants to come with us to rescue Hilda. Leila offers to take charge of the army while he is gone.

Gordon joins our party. I rest at the inn and restock my supplies and then sail for Palamecia, which is in the desert south of Kashuan Keep.

The desert contains antilions, which are insect creatures that can stun party members. I think they must have toned them down in an update, because I remember dying to them constantly previously, when they’d stun the whole party and kill me off.

This time around, they weren’t particularly tough. I get to the coliseum in Palamecia and the Emperor looses a Behemoth.

In spite of Perrin’s axes doing almost no damage, I defeat it easily. I plan to murder the Emperor when he allows me to get close to collect my prize.

However, he disappears, and the Dark Knight shows up with some guards and throws my party into a cell. Fortunately, Paul shows up to repay his debt by freeing us from the prison.

We break Hilda out of her cell and tell Gordon to get her out of the prison while we distract the guards. We then make our way out and sail back to Altair.

Have fun storming the castle

I return to Altair and find out the Rebel Army is preparing to retake Castle Flynn. Prince Gordon and Princess Hilda have set up camp nearby.

I go to the camp, and Gordon tells me that their plan is for me to sneak into the castle to kill the castellan, while the army holds the Imperial forces at bay. Leila rejoins the party inside the castle. I march right up central to the castellan and kill him.

This gets rid of the random encounters in the castle and now I can pick up the various unremarkable treasures, some of which I must past through secret passages to get to. Hilda is concerned that we haven’t heard anything from Minwu since he left for Mysidia.

She wants me to check on him. She also tells me that to obtain the Ultima Tome Minwu went after, I need two masks.

I can find the White Mask under Castle Fynn, but she doesn’t know where the entrance is. However, she does know the secret password to get in.

Gordon tells us that Paul may know where the entrance to the basement is. We ask Paul and he wants to know what is in the basement.

The white mask

We tell him about the mask. He decides that doesn’t sound very valuable, so he’ll tell us how to get in.

Turns out, the entrance is to the right of the thrones Hilda and Gordon are sitting in. Before returning to the castle, I rest at the inn, restock supplies, and purchase a few spells.

I use the password to get into the castle’s basement. I find some Flame Armor, which I give to Perrin. The castle has a lot of not very interesting treasure.

There is one particularly tricky monster-in-a-box encounter with four Rhyos. These enemies can all use a bad breath attack that can turn your entire party to stone.

My party gets wiped by this attack on the first try, but survives the second time. I receive the Orichalcum, which I give to Lidia.

After many random encounters, I find the White Mask in a treasure chest and warp out of the basement. Hilda tells me to take it to Mysidia.

Mysidia

I walk back to my ship and sail to the southern continent, where I find Mysidia. The town is populated by mages.

I learn that Minwu passed through on his way to the tower. To follow him, I must collect the black mask and then use it to gain access to a crystal rod that I will need to break the seal on the tower.

I rest at the inn and purchase some white magic for Elayne and a few pieces of equipment. I then place the white mask on the statue of a goddess enshrined below the city.

The black mask is located on an island in the middle of the sea. I save outside Mysidia and quit at eight hours and 10 minutes in.