Mystical Ninja 64 Starring Goemon (N64)

Gambares oh Gambares

So I was home for a while and hooked up my family Nintendo 64, dug out the memory pak and played some Mystical Ninja. And boy did I have a great time. It starts with a flying peach ship enters above the town of Ode and turn the castle into a european castle stage. Goemon and Ebisumaru sets out to save the king and princess. Traversing mount Fuji to get a chain pipe they then enters the castle and defeats a giant machine and then can leave the town. Outside of town near the wise man's house they see it destroyed with only a seashell left. The guys that took the castle appears and summons a giant robot so you blow the horn and are taken up by Impact to the best song of the whole game:

BREAKDOWN

And now you fight a giant mech battle with laser beams. And I sucked at these as a kid. Which is no surprise, you can't train the moves and can only find them in the manual which I had to look up right before the battle. But I beat him and travelled to Zazen town where you meet up with the police ninja Yae. Leaving the town you pick up the lifeless robot Sasuke. You intercept a blue dragon that have been brainwashed to kidnap children and destroy the control mechanism. You save the kids at the next castle. Find some batteries for Sasuke and start him up. Find the third castle and learn that they are striking at an island near Japan. Getting there you meet the waitress Omitsu (who Goemon have a crush on) and as she enters the island the whole thing is transported into space. You travel north to meet the witch that summons a projection of the wise one that tell you of a stone ring nearby that can take you to space if you gather the four magical items who you now have three of. In the north sea of Japan you find a submarine with food and learn that the item is in Zazen since the commander dropped it on his holiday. You battle a giant water mech and then head back to Zazen and after some fetch quest finally get it. 

TOO SPACE

After battling through the hordes of the peach mountain shogun you find Omitsu and the wise men, who was alive and built the machines and robots for the peach mountain guys. In exchange for car magazines... that got blown up as his house exploded. Which is rather ridicules and goes together with all the other absurdity in the game, but I know there were some other kind of magazine which they censored out. Anyway, entering the final stage the best music of the game plays and you reach the main bad guys that decide to put on a show... and then disappear and turn on the self-destruct. Leading to the final Impact stage. A two-stages boss battle. I survived on the minimum of health left (which is better than the time we both reached zero life points and I lost, which is rather bullshit). Afterwards we travel back to Japan and is attacked by a horde of women who wanted to see Dancin' and Kitty Lilly (the name of the bad guys), blaming Goemon and his friends. Then credits. 

The whole gang

First time I finished it on 100 % so I got some extra mode where you only fight the mecha-bosses. I finished it once before and I checked the time now, 15 hours. Damn, that isn't that long. I really like this game. The music and setting is amazing, the humour is hit and miss, but there is some laughs at the absurdity of it. The camera can be a bit wonky and the hit boxes are weird at times. But it is functional. I wish they had ported it over to a newer system or even remade it for the 3DS or something like that. I have some strong memories from childhood from this game, mostly replaying the game over and over since I couldn't save without a game pak so the first part of the game is rather ingrained into my memory almost 20 years after playing it. 

Final Fantasy IV (DS)

Couldn't find the white cover that I have

So after III it was right over to IV and thank god it was on the DS so the lighting was superior. Doesn't hurt with some voice acting, improved sound quality and 3d graphics... well, 3d graphics have a tendency to be really weird at times, but it's alright for this game. I can see what they were going for compared to the original. Never played the SNES version (although I guess I have it on the Wii U virtual console), but like every other Final Fantasy game I got this one for PSOne, then GBA... and again for the DS. I never finished it at the PSOne, but once on the GBA and this is the second time on the DS. So of course I used the New Game + feature. It is rather weird though since it only works two times, then you have to restart... why? Well, I guess since part of the game is using abilities and transferering them across the players, more than three playthroughs breaks the game. 

A pity the SFX in the movies take away the purity of the music, especially in the intro scene

The game starts with the Dark Knight Cecil returning home to Baron after raiding Mysidia for their water crystal on the orders of the king of Baron. Apparently spilling the blood of mysidians in an unjust way. This creates self-doubt in Cecil who confronts the king and is stripped of his command of the Red Wings, the airship brigade, and is tasked to deliver a package to the village of Mist. Joining him in his banishment is Kain Highwind, son of Rickard (a callback to Final Fantasy II I believe, but are they saying that the games exist in the same universe?). Travelling to the village they slay the Mist Dragon that guards the village, but as they enter the package is a Bomb Ring that burns the whole village. Cecil and Kain finds a girl named Rydia who mourns her mother that died as "her dragon was slain", implicating that Cecil murdered her. As this was the last straw he rebels and together with Kain and Rosa (Cecil's girlfriend back in Baron Castle) tries to fight the mad king. Unfortunately Rydia is a bit upset and as Kain pushes her to much to leave with them since the village is burned she summons Gaia that causes a landslide with Kain on one side and Cecil and Rydia on the other. Cecil takes the girl to the nearby desert town and is attacked in the night by Baron soldiers who he fights back. In the same village they find Rosa that escaped Baron but is caught with desert fever which you need a sand pearl from the antlions den that the royal family of Damicyian guards. So you set of and meet the sage Tellah that is looking for his daughter that ran away with a bard. As they near Damycian castle it is attacked by the Red Wings killing most inside it, including Tellah's daughter Anna. The bard appears to be the prince of Damycian Edward and Tellah sets out to kill Golbez, the new commander of the Red Wings. Edward joins Cecil, gets the pearl, get Rosa and travel to Fabul where another crystal is kept (the second one being in Damycian and the reason for the attack). On the way they meet Yang, the master monk that is ambushed by monsters that are an advanced troop of Golbez. Saving him they reach the castle of Fabul and fortify it against attacks. After several battles Cecil is cornered in the crystal room as Kain enters. Apparently out of it he attacks Cecil relentlessly and would have killed him if Rosa didn't intervene. This forces Golbez to appear, take the crystal and Rosa and disappear. Those left behind gets a ship to attack Baron by sea. En route they are attacked by Leviathan and everyone falls off. Cecil ends up back in Mysida and ask for forgiveness from the elders. They send him with two twin mages on quest to become a Paladin by climbing the Mountain of Ordeals where he meet Tellah again on his quest for Meteor and the first archfiend that serve Golbez. Defeating him you enter a chamber within the mountain and is ordained by some light to a Paladin and by fighting off the dark knight within you taking the battle against darkness.

Playing this the first time it took me a real long time getting through the fight, shame on me.

Back in Mysidia, sneak back to Baron, save a brainwashed Yang, fight another archfiend posing as the king and rescue Cid, the airship engineer that leads you to his newest ship, Enterprise. On the way you are about to be crushed by some walls (Star wars reference I presume) and the twin mages turns themselves to stone in order to stop the walls. Leaving on the airship another approaches, its Kain with demands for the fourth and final crystal in exchange for Rosa. Cecil and co travel and meet a bed ridden Edward that gives you a weed. Since the crystal have been stolen by the dark elf (who looks like the dark elf Astos from Final Fantasy I) who have hidden himself in a cave where metal paralyze you, so bring alternative weapons and armours. Fighting your way down the weed communicate with Edward who plays a song that makes the elf lose concentration on the spell that makes metal worthless and then you beat him up. Get the crystal, take it to the tower of Zot, fight your way to the top, and Tellah attacks Golbez with Meteor making Golbez release Kain from the spell while escaping, but ending Tellah's life. They save Rosa, fight another fiend and returns to Baron and are told there is a set of four other crystals that can be found under the surface that will help activate the tower of Babil. They find a way inside the core of the earth were they meet dwarves at war with Golbez. Cid stays behind working on the enterprise as it got shoot down. Apparently two crystals still remain, one behind the dwarf kings throne room, which Yang senses some evil from. Entering you fight some dolls, then Golbez appears killing of everyone except Cecil and then... Rydia appears helping you fight him off. He still steals the crystal. They attack the tower of Babil to get back the other crystals. On the way there Yang sacrifices himself by destroying the cannon room as it is about to destroy the dwarven army. The others leave and are dropped from the bridge and rescued by Cid as one of the Red Wings follow them. Cid jumps the ship and blows up the entrence to the core. They travel to Elban, the ninja kingdom that have been overrun by Golbez and search their diaspora and saves prince Edge. They end back up at the core and asked to get the last crystal. Before that I traveled to the world of Eidolons (summons) and then the Fairy cave where a comatosed Yang lies asleep tended to by the sylph. Then get the crystal, Kain falls back into the brainwash and takes the crystal. Returning to the dwarven castle Cid survived and installed a drill to return to the surface world. I saved Yang by meeting his wife and get a frying pan, went back and hit him over the head. He wakes, but have to rest so sylph becomes your new summon. And then you return to Mysida where they pray so much so that a giant space ship appears from the waters and you can travel to the moon.

TOO THE MOON

On the moon (or rather one of the two moons around the planet) you meet Fusoya who tells you that Cecil is half-lunarian, son to his brother Kluya who was the light on the mountain of Ordeals. Golbez is being controlled by a lunarian named Zemus that intends to summon the giant of Babil to destroy the life on the planet and claim it for the lunarians. They return to the planet but are to late as the giant walks forward from the tower. All hope seems lost, then... the giant is attacked by the combined forces of the Red Wings and dwarven tanks. Everyone is here, Yang, Cid and Edward together with the forces from the free kingdoms. The giant stagger and Cecil gets a chance to enter it, destroying the CPU and confronting Golbez again. Fusoya banish the influence of Zemus and it is revealed that Golbez is Cecil brother... named Theodore in a new cutscene for this version explaining how it came that Golbez turned evil (or more likely being suggestive to evil) and Cecil ended up at Baron under the kings guard. Cured Fusoya and Golbez travels to the moon to fight Zemus. Kain is back and joins you again. You gather all weapons you can get, summons and armours. Then travel back t the moon where you enter the longest dungeon of the game, get the best weapons and armours, fight several bosses and finally reaches Zemus. And Golbez and Fusoya kills him with a twin Meteor. Thanks. It's not really the end since dying only pissed him of so you can fight him in two forms as Zeromus. Beat him and the game is over. Edge becomes king of Elban thinking of Rydia, Yang, King of Fabul, Edward king of Damycian, Rydia back in the land of Eidolons and Kain walking some mountain to atone for his weakness. Then to the coronation of Cecil and Rosa as the King and Queen of Baron with every one but Kain attending.

It was fun playing it again. And the DS is the superior version although it's fun to play the GBA version where you can switch back to the other characters than the five ordained by the game developers. Although the compromise of having their abilities are a nice trade of, but why diminish it with the only three new game +? It's definitely easier than the older games with save points within dungeons (if you exclude the GBA insta-save feature). I had to grind more than the other games in the beginning and then I tried grinding for tails for the ultimate equipment, but I got nil. Instead I reached level 90 so something good with that. I liked the story and playing it the first time I got emotionally invested in the characters that died and returning to life. Of course, the first playthrough I didn't know Yang survived until the giant of Babil segment (and I think it actually works better).  The grinding is also much more fun and I would attribute it to the fact that I can see the progress bar after every encounter and can with just a glance guess how many battles I need to fight. And thank good for the bestiary function that shows every enemies data... all the time, in every battle. I don't have to memorise every enemy and I can gauge the attacks needed to off the monster. And they stay after every playthrough. Clearly superior version, but maybe I should put Final Fantasy on hold for a while since I'm getting RPG overdose after four games in a row.

Final Fantasy III (DS)

First time in Europe

Continued with the third game in the series and as the only version released in Europe was the DS version there was no other choice. The game begins with Luneth (the main character) falling into a cave where he is guided by one of the four crystals. He returns to the surface and the village of Ur where the village elder wish him luck on his journey out unto the world since he have nothing that binds him to the town since he was an orphan that was cared for by the elder. Trying to say goodbye to his friend Arc that tries to stand on his own legs, Arc runs away to the neighbouring town that have been rumoured turned into a ghost town. The town have been cursed by a djinni and one of the ghosts are the airship captain Cid that allows you to use his ship to get to the djinni's cave. The ship already have a passanger in Refia, the blacksmith's apprentice. All three travels to the castle to look for a mithril ring that is said to banish the djinni that belongs to Princess Sarah. Arriving you found the knight Ingus that follow you to the cave and finding Sarah you battle the djinni and returning everything back to normal.

First boss of the game

After that you return to the crystal and gets what is the most important gameplay mechanic, the jobs. Each crystal you save will give you a set number of jobs that you can use to get different abilities or let you use different equipment. First is the classic classes from the original Final Fantasy: Warrior, Thief, Black Mage, Red Mage, White Mage and Monk. So I began with a classic setup that they even show in the intro movie, Warrior, Black Mage, White Mage and Red Mage. Also due to knowing what I need. For one, the magic in this game have secondary function outside of battle. Mini and Toad affects how you play due to shrinking your character or turning you into a frog to pass certain areas in the game. It's like Golden Sun in that magic affects the world around you. Unfortunately it's only used like 3-4 times. It also have the problem that mini causes normal attacks being worthless so you have to rely on magic... actually forcing your character to use jobs with magic. And due to not being any restorative items for magic (with exception of Elixir, but you want that at the end of the game so don't use it), magic need to be rationed. Golden Sun improved that idea by locking the characters in monster free areas for puzzles and the ability to regain psynergy points by moving around making it impossible to lose or restart a dungeon. Sad they never used the ideas of mini and toad spells.

Where is Golden Sun 4?

So after rescuing everyone the four set of out into the world trying to find the other crystals and help people they meet. Escorting Cid home to his wife in Caanan you learn of Daesh, a man that left his girlfriend while climbing a mountain and having amnesia. Climbing the mountain gets you caught my Bahamut that takes you to it's nest and you need to escape. Daesh joins you as you travel to the gnomish village and later the village of Vikings where you get a ship. Back to Caanan Cid tells you of king Argus that can help you turn the ship into an airship. He's gone so instead go to the village of Dwarves get to the Fire Crystal, but a whirlpool blocks the way out of the inner sea so you climb the tower of the ancients where Daesh remember who he is and sacrifices himself to stop the tower engine to blow up and casting the continent to the world (since it is revealed that it is a floating continent above the real world). The whirlpool disappears and you can get to the fire crystal and get more jobs. Like the scholar which you need since you arrive to a town under attack from the soldiers of the king Argus that kidnapped you and took you to the ancient fairy tree where you learn the king was betrayed by his advisor. He shift what his weakness is so you got to use the sage that have a free Libra move so you can see what it is. And as stated, magic need to be saved up. Defeating him lets you get the airship running and you can leave the island and at the same time learn from Cid that you all came from the world below right before it was covered in darkness. So first order of business is to undo that so you travel to a ship to get the priestess Aria to join you. You now can reach the water crystal where Kraken attacks and kills Aria as she saves Luneth so you kill him and get a set of new jobs. 

I don't know about the viking job

Now you get some boots to get to a gold manor to get the key to get back your airship back. Which quickly gets blown up at the kingdom of Saronia where there is a civil war enacted by the king to train the army. Well, of course he is brainwashed by his advisor so as you protect the prince you defeat the advisor, but not before the king dies so the prince is now the king. You now get a super quick ship called the Nautilus that allows you to reach Doga's Manor, one of the apprentices to the great sage Noah. Doga got the gift of magic, Unei the gift of the dreams while Xande got the gift of mortality. So he is the bad guy. Doga enchants your ship to travel underwater to get a lute to awaken Unei so you can get another airship, the Invincible which allows you to reach areas beyond mountains. Where you gather the last of four fangs you found during the adventure that is the key to open the four barriers that block the way to the crystal tower where Xande lives. Doga and Unei also sacrifices their mortal bodies to give you the keys you need in order to enter the tower as well as reach Eureka, the place where you can get the best magic and equipment. Which you need. 

Get used to your characters dying

To tell the truth I got all the way to the crystal tower with level 40 something and I got my ass kicked. So I got my old save where I was level 61 and did the dungeons I missed the last time I played when the game was released. I missed Bahamut's Lair, the treasure cave and the Saronia Catacombs, missing the most powerful summons (that I instead bought in Eureka). And with that I used two ninjas, one sage and one devout to get through the crystal tower, finding a mirror that locked me in place until Doga got the people I saved during my journey. Sarah, Cid, Daesh (who survived the engine room), the prince and one of the four old men you saved in a sewer. They help you so you can fight of Xande. Killing him reveals the true enemy, the Cloud of Darkness that intends to drag the world into the void. The Cloud kills you, but you are resurrected by Doga and Unei sacrificing (?) their souls. Entering the Void you fight four bosses releasing the four warriors of Darkness that saved the world a millenia ago when it was about to be destroyed by Light. With their help you now are able to fight of the Cloud and with that restore the world. Returning your friends and then traveling home (Ingus the only one getting the girl in Princess Sarah). The End!

Evil Woman (by ELO or Black Sabbath, both songs are ok)

Is that really the whole game? No, being on the DS it have some forced social aspects. You can use moogles to send letter to 5 NPC's and friends. If you send something like 7-10 letters you can get more letters from the NPC's letting you get access to a secret blacksmith and secret dungeon. No such luck for unsocial me, and now it's even harder since the server is down so you got to use local multiplayer... in Sweden... on a DS... great luck with that. So I'm actually looking into getting another copy of this and Dragon Quest IX to actually get everything... if I only knew where my DS Lite is. So back to the game as is. It's enjoyable but hard, especially with the forced 10 hours grind I had to do to finish the game (which I know by looking at my 35 hours finished file and the 20 hours save I used). It has nice mechanics with the job where you are expected to use different jobs in certain situations, but I ask myself why they even bother enforcing a couple of battles before the job is adjusted. Well, it's probably realistic, but the gameplay is hindered. For example I for some reason used Luneth as a thief in the new save racking up some rather high levels on that job, but you need that job to unlock doors until you get a third through the game and can buy keys. But the old save I've spent 0 levels on thief on any character meaning I walked by that. And the reason is probably I didn't use that class and never got that I could do it. Meaning thief, black mage, white mage and red mage at start and then shift red mage to monk and later scholar and then back to monk since the thief and monk are powerhouses in damage department (especially since the monk get claws well into the end of the game). Also the last jobs Ninja and Black Belt are great throwbacks to the original game. Which gives me inspiration for when I run through the first game on the PSOne and skipping fighter.

Anyway, you should have the ability to change without distraction since it discourage change in your jobs to see what situation they class fits. So you're gonna stick with the first classes that have the most potential since they reach level 70 before the end or even the max of 99 increasing effectiveness in attacks and such. Except when you have to, like the dragoons, dark knight, scholar and different magic users when using mini, but you don't get them much higher than 10 (or if you grind 25 according to my saves). The grind in the end is hard though and I believe maybe the sidequest would elevate it, but that would be for a different time. Otherwise grinding occured two other times for me. The first before the djinn cave since the first time through I got killed of by a griffin getting the wight sword... after 20 minutes of the game... and without saving. So I started over and grinded the character for a couple of levels. And then before the temple of Time, but after getting killed of a couple of times I went of doing some sidequest and dicovered the ones I missed the first time around. I'm glad I skipped the 10 hour grind though, but I wonder what I should do if I ever get the second copy. And why not have a New Game + where you keep the job levels? At least reward me for finish the game.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S1E3 - Le Grand Oiseau D'Or

Mariko, the fisher girl

As the girls are trapped in the Condor Estaban does his signature move and calls forth the sun (I don't recall if they ever did that in season 2) and Zia is able to guide the plane to the kids can get away. On their way they head over the rice field (if they found it on the way to the castle or knew where it was I don't know, but I get they wanted to show Mendoza and the others they haven't abandoned them). Mendoza and his pals are digging around the airship while Ambrosius try to fix the ships engine while trying to get back his things that the lord confiscated as he was captured.

Flying the condor have the ethereal synthesiser sound from the original and now we get the kids harassing the lords forces so that Mendoza can spring all of them and run away in the forest. The kids have to leave them since they can't land and goes north I gather toward Mount Fuji and a shrine where the mirror shield is located. I assume it's one of the three sacred treasures of Japan. The kids fly against time since there is supposedly a ceremony that only happens once every year and it's next morning, but they arrive at nightfall and see the shrine is guarded. So they look for an alternate way in and find a fallen tree that they can bridge the river that surounds the shrine. And of course Estaban falls into the water as he's the last on it while being afraid of heights. And the episode ends on a cliff hanger.

At the same time Mendoza and Co runs through the forrest with the plan to join the portuguese ship, but as they are hunted by the lords forces Pedro gets an arrow in his arm. Ambrosius tells them to continue while he lures the troops away. I get that he believes he has the upper hand since he is trusted by the lord and Mendoza don't trust him so when he gives himself up to the hunters he says he have interesting information to give them, implying he will sell Mendozas plan to them so that he can fix his ship. Or at least I think that was going on.

And the documentary was a bit about the lord himself. Apparently he is a historical figure and it's pretty much something similar to Pizarro from the first season.

So far the series is definitely better than the second season. The music is on point. But it feels a bit formulaic in that each episode so far ends on a cliffhanger that within 5 seconds of the next episode is resolved. And then it feels like a subplot that have been present for the current episodes is that it was revealed that Zia also was a descendant of the people of Mu at the end of the second season so they reveal it to Tao that gets super happy about it, but he drones on and on about it. I don't know if I'm lucky that I can't understand it or if that is the reason why it nags on me.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - Season 3 - Episode 2 - Le Daimyo Shimazu

Always fun to see a familiar face

Second episode starts out with the children being attacked by the guardian of the orichalcum thing, but after he spotted their medalions he stopped and instead showed them where they could place them. This allowed the machine to fill with water, opening it and forming some kind of women of the water atop of it. I don't know what she said, but I gathered it had something to do with a mirror shield being the key... key to what I would assume another city of gold.

Then we see Gaspard training the lords troops in rifle combat and almost killing the lord. He's only saved by a peasant informing about the crashed airship at the rice field. The lord, Gaspard and militia arive and captures Ambrosius who is thrown in the same cell as Mendoza, Sancho and Pedro. Ambrosius is called to the lord that believes him to be a spy, but Ambrosius is able to sway him and that he would help in their war against their neighbours if he could get help in fixing his airship. When questioned by the three spaniards I believe he sold them out as spies in order to get rid of them. I'm not sure by the subtitles, but if that was the case I really hate him now. And I still don't know why he tries to find the cities of gold.

Meanwhile the fisher girl from earlier arrives to her grandfather that as I said was the guardian of the orichalcum machine. Apparently it's believed to be a gift from the god of the sea and will protect them from something. Volcanic eruption looming? Anyway they head back to the village to get the condor, spot the fisher boy as he have been drafted into the militia and then discovered by Gasparard. Estaban lead him onto a goose chase while the other boards the boat and after knocking Gaspard out Estaban joins them. At the condor Estaban tries to swim to it, but is caught in the seaweed and struggles to get out... even though he have always been carrying a knife? Zia and the fisher girl jumps in instead as the girl have been catching pearls in the water and know how to avoid the sea weed. And it's a wonderful sequence with synthesizer music. And we are only in episode 2, last season it wasn't until the middle of the season we got good at the music department.

As Zia and the girl enters the Condor the cockpit have a pocket of air, but as they are about to lift the machine locks it self down. The others look up and the clouds are blocking the sun and at the same time several sharks are swimming around the condor, trapping the kids in it. And that ends the episode. Wow. Does the condor know before that the sun is going to be obscured? It doesn't really make sense.

The documentary was of the Castle of the White Heron, I don't know it's real name since the subtiles called it Jim, but you know the one. The white castle that is iconic for japanese fortresses. 

You know, this one.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - Season 3 - Episode 1 - Kagoshima

Finally!!!

So since there doesn't appear to be an english version out yet, even though the french version been out for 2 years, a desperate man have to do what he have to do. He looks it up on Youtube and rely on the automatic translator that the site provides with extremely small knowledge of the french language. 

So it starts of with a small recap of the last episode of season two and it starts with Ambrosius loading his ship, but he has three companions in hoods that help him, One is a female I gather from the voice. They also seem to load Estabans father from the ship to the Olmec flying machine... I guess since it looks like Ambrosius leaves without him. 

Meanwhile the kids and Mendoza have reached Japan and are nearing I assume Kagoshima (due to the title). The condor takes over and try to land in a forest, but since it can't find a great spot to land give back control to Estaban that fly them towards a cliff before the sun gets down. After making camp an earthquake happens and the condor falls into the water. They are picked up by some kid fisherman and his sister that have to take them to the local lord. Arriving Mendoza spots a portuguese ship and gets an idea. He proclaim himself ambassador of Spain for the townspeople and occupy the local guard enough so that the kids can get away and then gets on the ship and uses some law for protection between Spain and Portugal, but the captain of the ship is none other than Gaspard who somehow survived the ordeal at Eldorado and ended up as a portugese weapons dealer. They don't explain how or what happened to Gomez. 

The kids leave town as an ash cloud hits the village and wander the forest until they find some sort of orichalcum orb at a spirit gate, guarded by some old man in a mask (I would assume its the fisher siblings grandfather they mentioned earlier in the episode) following them closely and then jumping out while Tao pushes some kind of button that activates the machine.

At the same time Ambrosius have reached Japan and Kagoshima, but he flew through the ash cloud that destroyed his engines so he crash landed in a rice field. I know that was what happened since volcanic ash clouds have that effect on machinery which the whole world learned when the Icelandic volcano erupted a couple years back.

And the documentary at the end talks briefly about Japan and the spirit gates.

I gotta say it's hard following what happens when I can't fully understand them, but at the moment I get the gist of everything having some understanding of the cultural and historical setting of Japan and some familiarity with certain elements like the crash explained above, but the intrigue between the japanese lords and what not is gonna be a problem.

Final Fantasy II (GBA)

The sequel

Just like Final Fantasy II I got this also on PSOne, but as stated, no TV and not available to me at the moment so let's play this. 

First enemy of the game, I'm f***ed!

So it begins when the Empire attack the kingdom of Flynn that forces Firion, Maria, Guy and Leon to escape their home. Maria and Leon is siblings and Guy is a "nature child" who was raised by animals while Firion is some kind of best friend I believe. After the intro attack Firion, Maria and Guy wakes up in the rebels hideout. Leon is missing. Firion & Co want to join the rebels, but princess Hilda says no, so you sneak into Flynn anyway. There you meet Scott, one of the princes of Kashuan at his deathbed as he protected everyone fleeing the castle during the attack. Returning to the rebels with Scott's ring you get aloud in and tasked with checking up on some mythril deposit in the north after talking with Josef from Salamand. With that you know have equipped the rebellion so they can fight back, but unfortunately news reach them that the Empire is finishing of the construction of the Dreadnought, a gigantic airship. 

I feel like playing Empire of Steel again

So you have to head to Kashuan to get the Sunfire to drop in the engine to blow it up. Scott's brother Gordon tries the same thing, but joins up with you at the castle. Returning the Dreadnought have captured princess Hilda riding on Cid's airship (Cid is a recurring character in every Final Fantasy game, often having something to do with airships). So a rescue operation is on the way. You rescue the princess and blow the ship up. But it wasn't the princess but a lamia disguising as Hilda. So off to the arena to rescue her. Meanwhile Minwu the white mage that saved you in the beginning have been missing in the search for the spell Ultima. Following in his footsteps you get eaten by the leviathan where you meet Ricard, the last of the Dragoons and together you climb a tower where Minwu uses his life force to break the lock on Ultima. You return, take back Flynn, but the Emperor summons a cyclone that wreck havoc on the rebels. Firion & Co awakens the last wyvern and storm right in fighting the Emperor at the top ending his evil reign. But it's not over since the Emperors Dark Knight have taken over. So you look for Cid who is dying of the wounds from the cyclone and hands you the airship so you can enter the Empires capital from the air. Battling to the top the Dark Knight is... Leon, but before you can do anything the Emperor returns from Hell and only with the sacrifice of Ricard does Firion and the others escape. Leon joins you and you know have to travel to Hell to fight the Emperor. 

And this one didn't come to the West?

You beat the Emperor and the End pretty much. The story is really good in my mind. Characters you meet during the adventure dies left and right. They incorporated a buzzword system so you could learn certain words and then ask them to get more information. So why is this regarded as one of the worst games in the Final Fantasy-series? Because they also implemented a new way to "level up" by removing it and focusing what you use is what you get. Including different spells and weapon types. Again they have refined it in the GBA game since I didn't grind anywhere. Although you have to go out of your way to use magic since MP hardly goes up due to being so limited at the start and then the spells doesn't get effective until something like level 5. And some enemies need to be attacked with magic. Doesn't help that originally it was also a thing that if one stat went up, another went down. Opposing stats that is so magic went up and strength down I believe. Also since it's so long between playthroughs I forget what spells are worth putting time and effort in. For example Haste, Berserk and Osmosis. All protection spells are worth it and I must put time in on Esuna since it never work that well for me. This is basically a reminder to when I get to the PSOne version where I can't save anywhere. I recall save scumming through the end portion of the game last time since I got hammered then, but this time no problem, which apparently is due to me not grinding for 5000 HP and 500 MP giving the magic defence and agility skills opportunity to raise to decent levels making the game much easier. And now I got the extra mode to play through.

I saw this a lot playing that mode

So I screwed up the leveling... again. Minwu and Scott hardly survived the first enemy and Josef didn't add much. Ricard was the only one that stood a chance and appropriate for the end game. So after reaching the town I gave up. So you are supposed to be the dead companions (plus Scott that looks like Gordon who was one of two companions two survive beyond the four main) and travel through another kind of Hell (or it might be heaven) to fight the Emperors "good side". For those that really liked those dead companions (and Ricard and Minwu are the best). This mode doesn't exist on the PSOne version so we will see if I ever finish it.

Overall I personally liked this game. I liked the "leveling up" system and it at least wasn't random like in Legend of Legacy that randomized the stat upgrade (game was made by the same people). The story might be cliched, but as proven time and time again, I can get down with it. And if you are gonna play one version this is probably the best due to the player friendly alterations they did for a modern audience. The music, while not abundant with tracks, is at least enjoyable. I especially like the boss theme. Now, if that is exclusive to the remakes I don't know.