Game:

Breath of Fire (1993)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 18:24

2,663 views

12

This is a unique chapter from previous ones, in that a more poignant sub-plot unfolds and is deeply touched upon by the heroes, most notably Bo. It is certainly a change in atmosphere and game progression than the past couple of Dark Dragon encounters. Cerl, the third Dark Dragon Elite makes her reappearance since claiming the Time Key back in Tunlan. A great deal of character empathy is shown over the course of this sub-plot with her childhood friend, Alan; all of which ends tragically as was the beginning. I'm glad the developers went this new direction at this point in the game. This is my most favorite part of the entire game's narrative.

The only thing I'm NOT pleased with is the fact that if you truly want to FULLY explore Tock Tower, you have to make at least 3 traversals:

1st: To learn about Cerl and Alan
2nd: To help Alan confront Cerl
3rd: To get the MystSD located behind the Time Key Machine at the top

This tower gets OLD the first time, and it doesn't help that more traversals are required. Everyone in town, besides Alan is temporally frozen, so don't bother trying to access the item shop. What is interesting is that when Cerl manipulates the flow of time to speed up the townsfolk's age and growth, their sprites really reflect that and older NPC townsfolk (including the livestock) simply vanish. I'll admit that this gets to be pretty dark at this point.

While I remembered the Dragon Plate, I forgot about the Dragon Mark that was directly north of it. It houses Bo's strongest Two-Handed Bow, HeroBW, but I'd prefer to stick with One-Handed Bows, which there is only two in the whole game. I'll return for the mark later on.

Cerl separates the heroes twice, the first is the most dangerous as Ryu is left all alone to return back to Carmen where the others have landed. Ryu is unlikely to be able to mow down most of the enemy encounters in the region himself without resorting to Dragon Powers which are limited in usage, so hopefully you have Mrbl3's handy. Dark Fleas are your biggest concern due to their tendency to use instant death spells. If Ryu does fall, he should emerge in Carmen's Dragon Lord Shrine. The second time the heroes are separated, Ryu is fortunately paired with Nina who can easily Warp back to Carmen.

BOSS: Cerl [5:31]
Being an event-based battle (further proof that the developers were trying something new at this point), you cannot actually defeat her because upon reducing her down to 20% or lower HP, the battle ends instantly. She doesn't hit hard nor has multi-targeting abilities, so fight with ease. She does occasionally cast a time stop spell on a single party member.

Before you visit Cerl with the Fruit in hand, it'd probably be a good idea to revisit Tock Tower for the last time to retrieve the MystSD hidden behind the Time Key Machine at the top. This will be the LAST TIME you have to *personally* climb this tiresome tower.

Cerl's Fortress has always been a question mark to me as its purpose for being there in the first place. It could be a front line defense for Scande; however, there are clearly no Dark Dragon soldiers around (or manning the cannons) to enforce such a claim. In addition, Cerl manipulates control over the structure and vanishes when she has fallen. It's still pretty confusing for me to figure out and I'd want to think that the place has a deeper meaning BEYOND simply being another location in the game map given that the story up to this point has really taken a much stronger center stage than before.

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