Chapter 11 Alexandria Castle Again and Seeking Ramuh

It’s time to bust Steiner and Marcus out of their bird cage. To do so, swing the cage side to side, following Marcus’ lead. Once you are out, equip Steiner with the Ice Brand, Thunder Gloves, Mythril Armor and the Power Belt. Don’t worry about Marcus. Give Steiner the Man Eater ability. Once you’re ready run to the left. There is supposed to be a trick here to level up Steiner fast. I don’t use it because really, you shouldn’t need it and this is not the best place to level up anyway. Head up the ladder and out the door there. The game takes over for a few moments as Marcus leaves the party and three from Cleyra (Quina didn’t want to jump into the warp field) arrive. Hopefully you have taught Freya and Steiner as many abilities as you want to by this point because this is NOT a time for grinding.

Note, there is an optional boss fight in this area, during which you can steal and win some valuable items. However, neither of these items are critical at this point and this boss fight will be infinitely easier the next time we are in the vicinity. Conversely, you can win 30 AP and so, for the ambitious, I will include HCBailly’s coverage of this section and he will show you exactly how to win this fight now.

We follow Marcus out of the tower just as a 30:00 timer starts. Yes, you only have 30 minutes to find Dagger. Good news, it’s very easy. Just follow the path out of the tower, up into the castle, avoiding as many of the soldiers that you can. If you are thrown into a battle, don’t even bother stealing, just kill the soldiers and end it. Go to the place where Zidane first saw Dagger and run through the double doors and then up into the room at the top of the screen.

In the upper left corner of the Queen’s Chambers is a candle that emits an eerie purple light. Run up to it and have Zidane touch it to reveal a secret passage in the fireplace (wow just like in all those mystery novels). This is a straight forward path. The rotating platform in the beginning of the path will swing around and around, hop on and wait for it to take you to the two chests in the middle. You may have to hop off the other side and hop back on the other end of the platform. Open them for the only two treasures in this place. Hop back on and let it take you to the right side of the room. Run down the stairs, around and around until you reach the bottom floor. You want to go into the room at the top. Upon entering, you will be thrown into a boss fight.

Run up to Dagger to stop the timer and trigger a short sequence. On the way out talk to the moogle, as always. Save, Tent, Mognet in that order. Remove Freya and Steiner’s accessories. Next return to the Queen’s Chamber (you should know where that is by now). Shortly after we enter the Queen’s Chamber (after a sequence) we will have yet another timed boss battle with you-know-who and I don’t mean Voldemort.

At the end of the boss fight, Zidane finally manages to talk sense into Beatrix, showing her the comatose princess on the Queen’s chair. Beatrix marvels that the Queen really did intend to kill her, which Steiner vehemently denies. Beatrix tells Steiner basically that it’s time to wake up. Beatrix uses her magic to revive Dagger and Queen Brahne arrives. Freya and Beatrix join forces, urging the others to run just as Brahne sends a Bandersnatch at them.

After the battle, when we have control of the core four, immediately equip the Stardust Rod onto Garnet as well as a Mage’s Hat, a Magician Robe and a Mythril Armlet (magic heavy) and a pair of Magician’s Shoes. It’s not going to be an easy run down this time (well not as easy as the first time down) as we will be attacked by Bandersnatchs and Black Mage Type C’s.  When we’re almost at the bottom, Steiner will return to Freya and Beatrix. After fighting a couple more bandersnatchs we pan back to the core group. Run back down to where we found Dagger. Go talk to the moogle again and ask about Mognet, Save and Tent up. Run out of the chapel and out through the bottom-left of the screen. We’re back to where Zorn and Thorn originally caught Dagger’s group. It soon seems as though they’ve got us again when Blank and Marcus show up and knock out the jesters. The group runs to the waiting Gargant and hops into the cart.

Once again, on the way to Treno, we are attacked but this time by an evolved form of the previous worm.

After the battle, the trio hops back into the cart and the Gargant starts off at a slow crawl but soon picks up to a reckless speed, racing past Treno and we see this.

PINNACLE ROCKS

We wake up in Pinnacle Rocks. Zidane is out scouting the place and Vivi is looking after Dagger. When Zidane returns, an old man appears and reveals himself to be Ramuh. Ramuh tells Dagger of the destruction wrought by Odin and Dagger mourns. She seems to be ready now to learn to really use her summon powers. Ramuh challenges her. Find all five parts of him to hear a story about a hero named Joseph. The map above will tell you where each part of him is. The story itself is a reference to Final Fantasy II.

Find “Beginning” on the top path. Double back to where the Gargant crashed, to the cliff to get “Hero.” Go talk to Monty, give him his letter, Tent and Save. Go to the bottom floor of this area, grab the chest, and before going to the next screen, turn right and find “Human”. Take the top branch now to the next screen and run to the right, keeping to the edge of the path until you get the ? and hit X to jump down and grab the chest. Once in the water turn to the corner to find “Silence”.  In front of the next chest is the last piece, “Cooperation”. Grab the chest and head up the incline and back around the path to the door. Ramuh appears here and asks you to put the pieces of the story in order, leaving out one piece. The correct order is Beginning, Cooperation, Silence, and either Human or Hero (makes no difference). Dagger is given the Peridot and after a short scene we leave and we get another short scene during which we get another set of chilling FMVs.

As the videos end, I leave you here for the time being. Next time we’ll come back and grab the two chests we weren’t able to get before possibly. We have run out of time for this evening. Thank you for following me here at “The Wonderful World of Final Fantasy.”

Tune in next time for Chapter 13: Lindblum Redux