Last time on Let’s Play Revenant Wings, we finally caught up with dear old Fran. Now it’s time to discover the meaning behind the bombastic chapter title, “Stealing Eternity.”
A volcano floating in the sky. What will they think of next? I sure hope there’s nothing but sea below us, or Chocobo Little is going to be hot wings.
Last time, Clan Vaanity backed up their claims to be “good” sky pirates with an act of selfless heroism, taking oodles of arrows and cactus spines to protect four whole aegyls from evil sky pirates. Even Ba’Gamnan took some for the team, thanks to Tomaj’s enslavement gadget whose ethics are deeply problema— la la la I can’t hear you I have a continent of hapless natives to save!
Llyud says we need to hurry into the Fane of Something Vaguely Egyptian-Sounding to stop more sky pirates from desecrating the auralith (bigass magical crystal) at the heart of sky island #2. However, Tomaj’s notice board has been bleeping at us about sidequests that opened up back on sky island #1.
Should we hurry on to the Path of Plot Advancement? Or indulge in Sidequests Before Saving the World? Well, a little bird told me that Revenant Wings sidequests often evaporate before the next chapter. And the current chapter has the ominous name of “What Goes Up…” Look. I wasn’t born yesterday. I recognize an RPG Point of No Return when I see it.
Therefore, I’m going back to Zephyr Island one more time to perform pest control and treasure mop-up duty. I’m sure the evil sky pirates will play cribbage or something until we return.
First off, there’s a bug hunt mission prosaically called “Bug Hunt.”
Kytes: Get a load of that!
Yes, Kytes, believe it or not, there are lots of bugs. Sometimes I think these characters don’t bother to read title screens at all.
Okay, Nibelheim Backstory Dump over. Now we can explore the world map. Guided by random npcs saying “a man in a black cape went thataway,” we pack our bento boxes and strike out across the Midgar Marshes.
Oh look, a planarian! They have the cutest woogly googly eyes.
Uh oh… it seems…hungry?
Quick recap from the Advance introduction to FFV, to set the mood with zany plunky-plunky-plunky Uematsu music:
So our four heroes have been drafted as the Warriors of Light (WoLlies really need to form a union) and are off to the next Crystal, as soon as we can escape the Kiddie Pool Inner Sea.
Once again, I’m playing the iPad remaster of the the Nintendo DS remake of the original NES Final Fantasy IV — got that? The iOS version is almost identical to the DS, except with crisper graphics and a lack of overwrought Opening FMVs. So here’s the DS opening:
Aaah, shiny. I’m relieved that the laws of physics are different in Final Fantasy, because our metaphorical Tower of Babel has reached the silly stage. At this rate, Final Fantasy XX will have to resort to something like the “How far is Mars?” animation to reach the top of the tower before the closing credits.
Where the heck ARE we? I’m going to shamelessly screencap the maps and add captions so we can find our way around. Here, belatedly, is the Floating Continent. The Fairy Forest isn’t marked because the Elder Tree has put up a You-Can’t-Go-Here-Now barrier, but it was just west of Castle Argus, and before that it was floating around in the desert southwest of Tokkul.
Map of Floating Continent:
And here’s where we are now, on the surface world now that it’s been resurfaced:
Onward!
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