In this installment of Let's Play Final Fantasy VI, Terra, Banon and the others travel down the Lethe River to escape the evil Empire, before they are accosted by classic Final Fantasy villain...

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Part Nine - Japanese Tentacle Humor




So Banon joins the party! Though I don't receive any introductory text from him so he's only temporary. I put him at the top of the party because he's the leader and stuff.

So we exit the hideout through this tunnel and enter this rather lovely location!




Lovely flowing water, luscious foliage... ah, how relaxing! I'm starting to forget we're being chased by a wicked Empire.




And here's the raft which Banon said would take us to safety, conveniently not floating away on the river. Fancy that.




Oh, right, okay. Off-shot, I check that Banon was in the back-row. This raft section is quite fun: I'm carried by the river and I get to choose which path I take. I choose straight ahead, because to hell with turning.




The battles are quite cool as well, with us on the raft and the water moving along. Banon had this nifty 'pray' technique that heals the team with no MP cost, which is handy. He's pretty weak anyway so I had the rest of my party pummel the enemies. Terra is now actually useful with the Genji Glove; I like saving her magic!

The enemies here are decently tough: the flying blue creature has this fireball technique that lops off a neat 140~ to all my characters, which is uncomfortable given how weak Banon is.

We pass by several save points along the way, probably because the game knows how crap Banon is. I mean, I could screenshot me saving my game, but that's pretty dull, so I'll just skip this part, but waterfalls!




Weeeeeeeee!!!

After having fun rafting, we bump into...





Here Comes a Boss Battle!




Yup, it's everyone's favorite octopus, Ultros. I encountered Ultros when I played his DLC battle in FFXIII-2, and he was also referenced in the mark hunt Orthros, in which the dark colored flan only appeared with an all-female party in tow.

I wonder he is in his debut appearance?




Actually, that's a good point. How did we travel through this river? How did we turn direction without a paddle?





What if we ask nicely Mr. Octopus?



Creeepy.

With this, the battle starts off proper. Ultros is weak to fire (as I recall from FFXIII-2!) so I make Terra just use fire:



Sabin keeps using his powerful Rising Phoenix Blitz, Edgar uses his crossbow and Banon just prays, constantly. Ultros does have an ink attack, but my characters were handily equipped with silver spectacles.

It isn't long before Ultros starts using his long, erect tentacles:




Is Ultros secretly a satire of Japanese Tentacle porn?

After a few more Rising Phoenix moves...








Defeated!

Suddenly:



Did Terra step in Ultros's 'secretions'?




"You might contract something from it!"




Famous last words.




Pretty sure Sabin smashed it three or four times with a Blitz. Regardless, the battle's over Sabin!

He dives into the water regardless...






How did Banon become top dog with his incessant optimism?


And Sabin gets flung across the river. Edgar is surprisingly comfortable with this.





Sabin goes through one fork in the river, and Banon, Edgar and Terra go through another. The team splits once again!




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And now it's your turn, eager viewer! Which scenario should I choose first! We have Terra/Edgar/Banon, Locke and finally Sabin.

I've never played the game before so feel free to suggest which one I should do first for whatever reason. Post your vote and this time next week I'll tally up to see which scenario shall be the first!