They're more coherent than their FFIV counterpart. Did FFV have one? I can't remember. You can fight a stupendously easy Lobo in Environmental Science and get a tonic from Advanced Tactics. There's advice you can't use now but you'd do well to keep it in mind if you aren't going to listen to me.
You aren't getting in to Narshe at this point, so let's head to Figaro instead.
Wanton spring has arrived already outside, and we meet our first enemy, a Leafer. They're boring and you can steal tonics from them.
Dark Wind is the bird, which appears to be wearing a collar. A multitarget fire spell kills everything here.
Things are a bit more dangerous in the desert. Areneids (Aranea means spider. They're mean. You're silly. And cute. Want to eat some flies?) are the scorpion things, of course. If you look at the next screen shot, you'll wonder why I bothered to take this one. The last time I took a screenshot of an enemy and then took a screenshot of that same enemy with a new enemy can be halfway justified in that one shows off the grasslands and one shows off the forest background.
Because here is a Sand Ray, the trilobite, and his Areneid friends. You have to cross the desert to get to Figaro Castle.
Once you're there, go find the King, who is more Don Giovanni than Figaro.
Name him Edgar. It's his name and Lothario won't fit.
Advantages: Tools are amazingly useful. Even Flash.
Disadvantages: Chainsaw's instant death effect strikes when you least want it to. If a monster's immune, it simply does no damage.
Arbitrary Coolness Rating: 10
He's an ally of the Empire? I wonder if Locke thought this through, since they're trying to escape the Empire, not get captured again and used to obliterate another couple of towns.
But you do get to name our favorite lecher, which says something, I guess.
Fun Fact: Edgar is the name of a Puccini opera.
Terra's wondering why an ally of Gestahl would help her as well.
And as expected, Edgar hits on her. Hmm, that must be why.
He's rich, he's powerful, he's intelligent enough to build his castle in the desert as opposed to a swamp, where it will burn, fall over, and sink in to the swamp, he's got a huge... drill.
Unless he means abilities in bed.
Or maybe you shouldn't pick up ladies at places called The She-She Lounge. Well, he did until he noticed something very wrong there. That lesbian bar didn't have a fire exit!
She's more open about her sexuality than Rydia is. I know that I should assume that readers of this one aren't reading the Final Fantasy guides in order, not that I've been doing this in order, but I couldn't miss that one.
Or maybe she's just asexual. Being bred and raised as a biological weapon probably leads to a lack of libido.
Unfortunately, the religion of Final Fantasy VI's world, unlike X and XII, is basically ignored. She's not a disciple of Aphrodite, though. In fact, she's probably celibate.
Forget I asked. You can buy a noiseblaster (confuses enemies, best when getting monsters to inflict status ailments on themselves and to spend time attacking each other when they could be attacking you) and a bio blaster (poisons enemies) here, and you should have an autocrossbow (a crossbow machine gun combo that hits all targets) by now. Why you can buy another autocrossbow is beyond me. It doesn't increase your killing power, when you actually have two characters who can use tools, they just share that one, why would you need it?
Edgar reminisces, and I don't mention this anywhere for a while, but his name is Sabin.
Somebody's here.
By the way, I should address this. In every guide, there's a part in which the game's dialogue speaks for itself and I don't feel the need to add anything. This is that part. Sorry, folks.
It is Kefka, none too happy about being here.
I could imagine Mark Hammill voicing Kefka.
Is that Kefka or Generic Soldier #1 talking?
Get down and lick it off. He doesn't actually say that, but he should and my friend thought he did.
Once his boots are clean, he storms in to Edgar's castle.
Why do you care if she's of no importance?
It's an old fashioned witch burning, isn't it?
Stop making excuses. If it's not important, why are you here?
Edgar has some great lines.
Well, you didn't give a description or anything.
He's planning something.
He needes a brain specialist. Go find Terra.
Oh, great move, Terra. Now you're going to get lectured to death.
It's the same thing!
Why Locke thought it was a good idea to come here and why you get to name Edgar are explained here. Everything's wrapped up in a nice little package.
I'm sorry if I sounded sarcastic.
Well, Kefka got bored and tried to set everything alight.
Heh, heh, fire's cool. Heh heh. Heh heh.
Shut up, Beavis.
Hehheh, fire, heh heh.
The first chocobo, unless you paid 100 gil for a chocobo you didn't need. The castle compresses itself and sinks in to the sands below, which explains why Edgar would build a castle here as well.
I'm running out of things to say, so I'm glad we have some enemies to fight. These guys are M-TekArmors, which yield either potions or tonics when you steal from the, and are nowhere near as awesome as they were when you got to use them. They have Tek Lasers and Metal Kicks. They're weak to lightning, but that doesn't matter at all, as you have nothing lightning based. Except for their own Tek Lasers, which you might be able to make them use if you muddle them with NoiseBlaster. If it works, they look the other way.
You get a scene if Terra casts Fire here. I have no idea what ridiculous powerleveling before arriving at Figaro combined with spells like Break or Fire 2 do.
Edgar and Locke hide behind the menu and the enemies just wait patiently for this scene to finish.
After that, Kefka delivers an immortal line that was probably a Woolseyism.
And you get to ride a chocobo. They still won't let you in to Narshe and Figaro Castle is in hiding being repaired, so we have to go look for Sabin. I'm running out of things to say, so I'll see you in the next chapter.