On day 31 of my Final Fantasy Marathon, I completed the Eblan Four portion of Edge’s Tale. Today, I’m finishing the rest of it.

Eblan Cave

I walk over to Eblan cave and go inside. I find and equip a Silver Breastplate, a Kogarasu, and some Mythril Gloves. I also find a couple of Manji Shurikens.

Near the cave’s exit, Edge briefly sees Rubicante. He leaves the cave and enters the Tower of Babil.

Tower of Babil

Edge does his spinning trick to get through the wall and into the Tower. I find a Great Bow and then encounter a scripted fight.

Tsukinowa joins Edge on the battlefield and remains in the party. I find a Battle Axe and Izayoi returns during another scripted fight.

She and Edge have a bizarre conversation afterwards where she instructs him not to treat her like a woman anymore, and he tells her that she’s crazy. They learn the band skill Frozen Moon Dance.

Zangetsu is the next to return, followed by Gekkou. They learn the Wild Moon band. I find a Partisan in a chest and give it to Zangetsu.

The party learns the band skill Gale Rush. Gekkou tells Edge that they have a new enemy that he believes arrived on a meteor.

Run Edge, run

We learn the Blazing Moon Ring, Gale Twin Break, and Phantom Lightflies bands. I find another Kogarasu, which goes to Edge.

We learn the Wheel of Elements and Ultimate Art: Advent of Phoenix bands. I find some Adamantite.

We spot the Mysterious Girl and Gekkou recognizes her from the meteor site. He tells Edge that she is one of the enemy leaders.

He advises Edge to avoid a frontal attack at all costs. I find a Chain Whip, but don’t equip it.

Edge hears a voice telling him he can’t win against this adversary. It instructs him to run away as fast as he can.

He then briefly sees his parents and Rubicante. In spite of all the warnings, we walk right up to the Mysterious Girl, because that’s the only way to advance the story.

Mysterious Girl

The Mysterious Girl says she sees some rats have burrowed their way in. Gekkou warns Edge not to provoke her.

Edge asks why she activated the tower. She says there is no use explaining to an inferior species.

Edge tells her that humans have the power to adapt and she responds by saying maybe she should kill them quickly then. Good going Edge!

The Mysterious Girl attacks and summons Ifrit. Edge wants to know what happened to Rydia.

Edge realizes they are trapped and uses his Smoke Ninjitsu to escape the battle. The Mysterious Girl tells him there is nowhere to run, but he pulls the Smoke trick again and the party runs off.

I ran. I ran so far away.

They flee to the Crystal chamber. The Mysterious Girl asks what Edge has in mind.

He triggers the trapdoor the party encountered in FFIV. The door drops us into the Underworld portion of the Tower.

The Mysterious Girl is still after them, so the party keeps running. Edge flashes back to when the gang from FFIV escaped on an enemy ship.

However, when he runs to the dock, there is no ship. His companions question why he brought them there.

Leap of faith

The Mysterious Girl asks if they are done. Edge tells her he wants to know what happened to Cecil and Baron before he dies.

She tells him that Baron is gathering all the world’s Crystals by Cecil’s orders. Edge leaps off the dock and the Eblan Four follow him.

The Mysterious Girl is puzzled why they would choose death. Everyone crash lands on the Falcon, which just happens to be flying under where they jumped.

Rydia goes to check on Edge and he asks if he has died and gone to heaven. Rydia asks why he just fell out of the sky.

Edge responds that history is repeating itself, though he wasn’t sure everything would work out this time. His crew is less than happy that Edge decided to gamble with his own life (and theirs).

Edge spots the Man in Black and wants to know who he is. The Man in Black says they don’t have time for a reunion and Edge’s Tale ends.

Porom’s Tale: Prologue

The start screen for Porom’s Tale tells me that as the Lunar Whale sets off for the new moon, monsters suddenly pour out of the Devil’s Road. The Mysidian Elder orders Porom to go to Mount Ordeals to find the dragoon who once served Baron.

Creepy child Porom

Porom’s Tale opens with her as a creepy child during the scene from the end of FFIV where she smacks Palom for flirting with a girl instead of showing up for training on time. She brings him in to talk to the Elder.

The Elder scolds and punishes Palom and Palom runs off saying he’s done with all of it. Porom, kiss-ass that she is, volunteers to go fetch him.

I gain control of creepy narc-child Porom and must run around town looking for creepy jackass child Palom. After catching him several times, Porom finally convinces Palom to come back by pointing out he’s not going to become a Sage like Tellah by running away.

Palom tells the Elder that his skills developed more than he realizes during his time on Mount Ordeals. The Elder agrees that the twins powers have increased, but not as much as Palom thinks.

He forbids Palom to leave Mysidia until he fully learns the lessons the Elder is trying to teach him. He says the same to Porom, though she denies being eager to explore the world.

Several years later

We pick back up a few years down the road. The twins are still creepy little kids, but the Elder has allowed them to leave Mysidia.

They are on a ship to Kaipo because Palom wants to see the place Tellah came from. Porom tells Palom that you can’t just earn the title of sage, the people of the world must grant it to you.

She says he must throw away his own ambitions and learn to use his magic to benefit the whole world, like Tellah did. The ship arrives at the docks and Palom says they must cross the Damcyan Desert to reach Kaipo.

Kaipo

We cross the desert and arrive at Kaipo. The twins visit the graves of Tellah and Anna. After paying their respects, Palom announces it is time to train in the Underground Waterway.

Fuck this waterway

One of the drawbacks of the storytelling format of this game is that you visit some of the locations many times and this fucking waterway is one of the most overvisited. I find a Crossbow and lightning arrows and equip them on Porom.

Palom says he feels like he’s following Tellah’s path when he comes to the bridge where Tellah first met Cecil. I find a Wizard’s Hat that goes to Palom and some Gaia Gear that goes to Porom.

Palom gets a Thunder Rod. We reach the exit of the first part of the waterway and Palom says he senses the presence of a big monster.

Subterranean Lake

We enter the second cave and jump down a waterfall. Porom gets a Silver Armlet. We discover the Cooler Mammoth and Palom calls the battle his first test on the path to sagehood.

The Mammoth is weak against Fire, so I have Palom spamming Fira, while Porom focuses on healing the party. We take down the Mammoth and Porom scolds Palom for seeking it out.

She tells him he needs to think about how he is using his magic because what he is doing isn’t very sage-like. We jump forward several more years.

Mist-Bound

Grown-up Porom is waiting in a meadow near Baron for Palom. She thinks he has stood her up.

Cid lands his airship in the meadow and says some vaguely creepy old man stuff about how beautiful Rydia and Porom have become. Porom boards the ship.

Turns out Palom is already on board, having spent some time with Cid in Baron. Palom scolds Porom for crossing the Devil’s Road without telling anyone.

The airship lands near Mist. I quit and save the game.