Welcome back to the Shaded Resolve blog. Very sorry for the long time between posts...I've been playing a million things it seems. One of which is Final Fantasy Tactics; of which I will be covering next. As for now, onward with FFV.
After defeating Gilgamesh and taking the submarine, we find ourselves inside the Shield Generator. Besides the boss, only two things of note here. First: The Traveler enemy has the Time Slip blue magic; you won't need a Trainer to learn it. Second: Two of the treasure chests have dragon battles which can be a bit tough depending on which dragon you get (Red, blue, yellow). The Red Dragon has a blue magic but we won't be able to get it from him just yet.
Now we face Atomos at the summit. He'll bombard your party with Comet until he knocks one of them out, and then proceed to try to suck the downed party member closer to him every turn after. If you revive, he'll just start using Comet again, so it's best to just let your weakest member stay down until he is almost defeated. You can try using Shell to protect from Comet...but with its randomness with damage it won't help a whole lot, but it's all you've got if you want to keep all your members alive. My suggestion is to keep track of your damage (Atomos has about 20,000 HP) and when you will defeat him with the next attack, revive your downed character. Keep in mind if the character gets to close to Atomos, he will be removed from the battle for good.
With Atomos defeated and the Shield Generator destroyed, the party gains full control of the submarine. Your destination is the sunken Gill's Shrine, but let's take care of some optional things since we have control of the submarine now. Submerge and head toward the white dot to the far north of the map; you will enter into a cave. Some new enemies in this cave, but nothing of real interest; just pass through.
Outside on the world map, wander around the forests until you encounter Shoat, the summon monster. Really easy stuff here, just make sure you have Esna and Softs around if he petrifies one of your party members. After he is defeated, you acquire the item needed to learn Shoat as a summon. This will prove useful much later, but for now he can only be acquired while in Galuf's world so do not miss him! Before returning to the submarine, in the lower corner of this island is a chocobo forest where you can find a female chocobo. Not very helpful but does foreshadow some story for later. Now, look for the white dot almost in the center of the map: this is Gill's Shrine.
Now in Gill's Shrine, three things of importance. In the first couple of rooms you will frequently encounter the Metamorpha enemy. The Metamorpha will change into one of a set number of enemies and only one once per battle (So if he doesn't change into the monster you want, find another Metamorpha). As pictured, the Crew Dust is one such enemy. This enemy is unique only in the fact that it can only be seen here. It cannot be encountered anywhere else in the game. The second enemy to look for is its change into the Fan Wizard. It will use the blue magic Aero3 on you to learn.
However, the most important thing about the Metamorpha enemy is it drops the extremely rare Lumino-Staff. Besides a boss you can steal this from way later in the game, this is the only place to acquire the rare staff. Unfortunately for this staff, you'll be getting the best staff in the game soon, but for completionists do not forget to pick this up. You can still encounter the Metamorpha in the final dungeon of this game, but encountering it here is MUCH more common. The rest of Gill's Shrine is fairly easy with its simple stone-in-box puzzle. With the Elder's Branch in hand from Gill, let's take the submarine to Moore Village; it's to the FAR west of the world map surrounded by mountains. You'll need to submerge near the mountain range and then go up under the mountains and then surface in the lake near the village. Some extremely good things to stock up in Moore Village; especially magic. There is a Hunting Knife in a barrel in the western part of the town. Far outclassed by other knives at this point, but its ability to parry attacks will be useful soon; also don't forget the piano here. When you're ready, trek east towards the Moore Forest.
