When we last saw Benjamin, he had found out the location of a Crystal from someone with some relevance to the actual plot. He told him to go the the Lava Dome.
So let's go!
But first, we've got a Battlefield to take care of. This Battlefield is Red Bone/Red Bone/Zombie, Ghost/Ghost and Ghost/Ghost/Red Bone. We've never seen Ghosts before, so let's take a look at them.
Ghosts are, like most of the supernatural themed enemies, weak against Cure. The weird thing is, they can do what Zombies can do; They can multiply themselves. This does not make any logical sense whatsoever.
And I'm not entirely sure why they thought a bedsheet ghost was a good idea either. Maybe it's the whole Western world thing, and they figured that bedsheets were what we people associated most with ghosts? Apparently they'd never seen a film called Ghostbusters...
Oh, now we're getting somewhere! 1200 EXP is actually fairly high. Sort of.
So let me get this straight. Not content with climbing a mountain in the midst of a period of earthquakes, Benjamin feels the need to outdo himself by climbing a mountain made almost entirely of FIRE in the midst of a period of earthquakes.
I must say, I'm starting to think that Benjamin maybe isn't the type of person I want the fate of the world to be resting on... Maybe Reuben should be the hero instead. I mean, his problem (i.e. his father) has been taken care of already and he's stuck around anyway. Plus, unlike Benjamin, he actually seems sane. He's perfect!
Screw you Benjamin, this is Reuben's game now!
...
Aw fine then, but Reuben won't be happy.
So we enter the (rather sparsely populated, it seems) Volcano, and head to the left to attack this Ghost.
Beyond the Ghost, there are some stairs to a platform. To the left of the platform is a treasure box, guarded by a Centaur reskin and a... lump of brown.. stuff. Seriously, I'm not entirely sure what that's meant to look like. Anyways, the treasure box is ignorable. At the top right, you can see a jumpable gap. So we're going to have to jump it.
Ah, some real treasure. Unfortunately, we need to be on a lower level to get to it. There's also some stairs leading up, but we need to go through these enemies to get to it.
Let's rewind.
ZOORPZEEORBPHLPHLPHLRRRRRREEP
So we enter the (rather sparsely populated, it seems) Volcano, head upwards, and then up a flight of stairs. There's a... lump of brown.. stuff... blocking this cave. Let's see what it is, shall we?
Oh, so it's meant to be a three headed dog thing! I can sort of see the resemblance to the sprite. Sort of, but even then, only after seeing the monster. I don't think anyone would be able to look at that sprite and think "Oh yeah, that looks like a three headed dog".
Wait hang on, none of this makes any sense, either. Werewolves are meant to look somewhat like men and wolves (hence the name "werewolf"), but these don't look anything like that. These are just three headed dogs. If anything, they're Cerberuses (Cerberi, to be more precise, maybe). And werewolf is one word! Why can't they spell stuff right!? Oh, and Were Wolfs are also weak against Blizzard, for absolutely no adequately explored (or immediately identifiable) reason.
This is just stupid.
Oh, and there's also a Centaur reskin, called Nitemare, which may look like they're trying to give him a cool name but really they're just trying to fit the word in the box. YOU AREN'T FOOLING ANYONE YOU KNOW?
During the reskinning process, it seems to have gained a weakness to Blizzard. Much worse for it, though, is the fact that it's also gained a weakness to Thunder. Oh hell yeah.
Anyway, through the door, and we end up in another one of those tunnels that you can't see inside and basically have to guess your way around.
Ah, White. White is very, very powerful. You can tell, because it's Wizard magic as opposed to that ineffective Black magic garbage. It's supposed to be FFMQ's equivalent of the much known Holy spell. I did not find this out until recently, and spent a very long time wondering why it wasn't registering as water damage (i.e. as an ice spell) on all the fire monsters. I probably wouldn't have thought it was an ice attack if they hadn't placed it smack in the middle of the FIRE zone, but there you go.
Stupid game.
ZOORPZEEORBPHLPHLPHLRRRRRREEP
So we enter the (rather sparsely populated, it seems) Volcano, and head upwards, up a flight of stairs. There's a Bone Skeleton blocking this set of stairs. We'll head on up through it.
Huh, it's suddenly very smokey. No enemies though. We'll head to the right, through this door, and grab that treasure box on the other side of the tunnel. It's got Explosives in it.
Let's rewind.
ZOORPZEEORBPHLPHLPHLRRRRRREEP
Ah, some treasure. Unfortunately, we'll already have got it. There's also some stairs leading up, and we'll need to go through these enemies to get to it.
Forward and to the right, there's a set of stairs leading upwards. Down the stairs to the left, and up to the right, there's a tunnel leading around. We'll head up the stairs.
To the left and upwards, there's another flight.
And here, we discover that the smoke is an excuse for the Volcano to pull an Ice Pyramid on us. All the enemies are invisible, and what Benjamin's facing is an enemy. I imagine I just got lucky this time and managed to dodge a few of them. Unlike in the Ice Pyramid, instead of putting the enemies where you had to go, the Volcano puts the enemies where it predicts you will go. As such, if you wander about in a haphazard fashion, you'll probably miss most of them. I like how they're mixing the formula up a bit, but the fact remains that they've essentially recycled a gimmick between dungeons, and it smacks of laziness.
So we'll head through these enemies to the chest on top of the platform.
Retrieving the Mask is accompanied by a pleasant wind sound effect. Why, I'm not sure. I think it's meant to represent the smoke being blown away, but as you're about to have already seen, it isn't.
ZOORPZEEORBPHLPHLPHLRRRRRREEP
To the left and upwards, there's another flight. There's now an enemy visible down on another level, but we couldn't get to it even if we wanted to. We'll kill it earlier.
Let's rewind.
ZOORPZEEORBPHLPHLPHLRRRRRREEP
Forward and to the right, there's a set of stairs leading upwards. Down the stairs to the left, and up to the right, there's a tunnel leading around. We'll head down and through the tunnel.
The treasure box contains Heal Potions, and we'll head up the stairs.
To the left and forward, there's a tunnel leading to that Were Wolf I mentioned later.
Up we go!
Ah, the smoke's cleared, rendering that Mask completely useless. Wonderful. So, stairs, ghosts, stairs, ghosts, stairs (Not pictured: werewolf).
And we've (we'll have?) made it through that chronological nightmare and up to the top of the Volcano, where a Nitemare, Ghost and woman await. Believe you me, that woman is evil. Take my word for it.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. I thought that Medusa was a Gorgon. Why the hell are these two things not similar in any way? And wasn't Medusa meant to have snakes for hair?
Anyways, this battle can be very annoying. Here's why:
- A Were Wolf can paralyze.
- Medusa can confuse.
- Medusa can poison.
- Medusa can petrify.
Of course, as per usual, the two minor enemies go down pretty quickly.
Now that there's just one thing left to target, we can let loose the destructive power of White. Over 1000 damage normally requires a weakness and a critical hit, and here we are with a magic spell that does well over 1000 damage so long as there's only one enemy there to take it. If there's two, it's still strong enough to kill both of them in one, and if there's three, Reuben goes first, so he takes care of one of them before White has a chance to be cast anyway.
I know I've said this about a lot of things (and I will probably do so a few more times in the future) but White is a gamebreaker.
After a few (but, given the strength of White, surprisingly high number of) hits, the snakes appear.
They could not possibly have been serious when they put this thing in. I mean its ridiculous. Funny, but ridiculous. I think it's this that sent FFMQ into "Do not take this game seriously" territory. Either that, or the bedsheet ghosts... or possibly the bald Edgehogs. I'm not sure which.
Anyways, a few more hits later, and she goes down.
And we head down the stairs, arrive back on the World map, and head up into the Lava Dome!