Game:

Breath of Fire (1993)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 34:09

4,148 views

18

Coming into contact with the path of the next Dark Dragon Elite, Mote, you don't actually run into him as early as before with Cort, but his presence is apparent with Mogu fallen into a deep sleep. According to a wiki, Mote is supposedly an exiled mole of the Dirt Digging clan, while this is perfectly plausible given his size and the fact that he was the Dark Dragon Elite that ambushed Gramor, he doesn't remotely resemble a mole at all like the rest of the clan.

With the Cowl and Maestro (from Gust) in hand, Ryu and crew can FINALLY converse with the citizens of Tunlan. What seemed at first to be a potential encounter with another boss enemy turns out to be probably the most hilarious exchange in the entire game, not surprisingly involving Bleu (and Nina) when they get into a tussle with the Princess of Tunlan. I can only imagine Karn and Ryu's expression as they watch the tussle unfold. Cerl, another Dark Dragon Elite makes a surprise appearance and swipes the Time Key; it'll be a while till Ryu and crew chase her down to reclaim it. Though it is never discussed, it is likely she was under the guise of a Tunlan soldier at the time, to grab this opportunity to snag the Time Key. Possible she learned of Ryu and crew heading to retrieve the Bolster to free Mogu from Mote.

Mogu's Dream World I always found to be a very interesting mini-world, the tower and the oddly structured buildings are pretty creatively done and in pure surrealistic fashion no less. Interacting with Mogu's traits is a pretty intriguing tidbit, I'm surprised even anger can retain logic in his own actions. I couldn't have designed it better myself. The only thing wrong with this mini-world... IS THE FREAKING GAS FIELD...NOUGH SAID.

The gas field does house some dangerous enemies like Zooms and WarHogX, both of whom can cast strong magic that can hit entire parties. It also carries the only 3 treasure chests in Mogu's Dream, so be sure to get them before finishing off Mortho. Mogu's Courage is pretty much Mogu himself since he looks nothing like his other traits.

The tower will undoubtedly take time to navigate, given its bizarre revealing and disappearing switches. Interestingly enough, the switches alter the battle background to fit the surroundings which is a nice touch.

BOSS: Mortho [22:23]
This guy has no second wind, let alone a life bar, most likely due to the dream realm. Since this guy has a strong tendency to evade attacks, changing Karn to Shin-Bo is a good idea. Spells do appear to be 100% hits, although Dragon Power strikes can be evaded. The biggest annoyance with this guy is he begins the trend of bosses that cast instant death on chars and it will undoubtedly work in THEIR favor more than it will for you. He poisons your characters sometimes, but at this point, poison really does nothing.

With Mogu awakened, he joins you officially as the last member and despite it was really Mogu's Courage that fought alongside you earlier, he carries everything he had. Mogu doesn't benefit from a strong growth rate that Bleu experiences to catch up with the current members, so he unfortunately remains a fairly average party member. His digging ability is pretty useful to uncover more secrets. Dragon Marks literally mark the return of trap chests, so make sure Karm opens every chest in those areas. Even in ANY of his Fusions, he can disarm traps, so don't feel the need to revert him back to regular form; however, I do not believe he is able to open locks in his Fusions, although there are no more locked doors to be encountered anyways. Speaking of which, it is strange that Mogu isn't part of Karn's Fusions, it certainly doesn't seem implausible. It may be possible this was considered during development and conception.

The first Dragon Mark enables Karn's Doof-Ox Fusion which while not nearly as useful as Shin-Bo, is still WAY better than Debo-Gobi. Unlike Shin-Bo, Doof-Ox retains none of Ox's boxing abilities which I found disappointing. Doof-Ox is able to move those heavy box stacks in Bleak and Gust, the former unveiling Karn's final and most powerful Fusion, Puka-Karn. Puka-Karn's breath is able to open up the mysterious Dragon Plates seen in Auria and Gust. Puka-Karn fuses Bo, Gobi and Ox into one massive powerhouse, which easily maxes out the life bar, heightens strength and agility greatly. His most common attack is a breath attack that is very heavy hitting on its own, but it is outshadowed by a less common rollout attack that inflicts even more damage. The only caveat I've noticed is that Puka-Karn is unable to counterattack... actually I think all his Fusions lack this ability that normal Karn possesses.

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