Final Fantasy V/Ocean and Crescent

Ocean
You're now free to explore the wide ocean and its islands and shoreline; use the world map to find your way around. There are random monsters on the ocean unlike the inland sea in the eastern continent. The toughest of these monsters is Corbett; two of these can easily wipe out your party. The monsters on the islands and shoreline vary from place to place and range from extremely easy to shockingly difficult. So if you decide to go exploring be sure to save often and escape when necessary.

If you travel to the edge of the map then you wrap around to the opposite edge in typical vintage video game fashion. This can be a useful shortcut if you want to get from one side of the map to the other.

There are two optional towns you can visit now; it's highly recommended you do so because of items and spell available there. The order given here is arbitrary.

Easterly Village
Land on the northwest corner of the western continent, cross a bridge if necessary to a small island to reach Easterly Village. Talk to the villagers to pick up gossip; some of them mention a waterfall that won't be reachable until later on. There is also some talk about an old man in the forest to the east.

Rest at the inn near the entrance for 30GP. The Item shop next door has the usual inventory; for some reason there is a secret passage to the right of the counter but it doesn't seem to lead to anything interesting. There are no new weapons here; in fact there's no weapon shop at all. So go to the armor shop behind the inn; this offers three very expensive rings. You can't buy on credit so you'll probably have to save up and come back if you want them. There is a man at the end of the room you can tell you what the rings do for you. The Magic shop is across the bridge to the east and has the same Time spells that were in Karnak.

Go to the patch of flowers on the hill northwest of the armor shop. Make a complete loop through the flowers to startle a frog that was sleeping in the middle. The frog leaves the "Toad" spell behind, this is a B. Mage version of the BlueMage spell ToadSong which you may already have.

Finally, cross the bridge to the east and another one behind the magic shop to find the sheep pasture. (One of the sheep here is actually not a sheep. For a bit of fun, see if you can find it.) Go to the west side of the field and locate the ram that's standing still in the corner. Approach from behind and talk to him; this will startle him so much that he kicks you over the fence to a woody area north of the pasture. Talk to the minstrel here, tell him you're trying to save the crystal (of course) and you learn "Love Song". You don't have a Job that can use it yet but that will change soon. Follow the path east to exit town.

Before leaving the area, there is an optional boss here you may want to try taking on. Go to the forest next to the village and starting moving around; do not cross the bridge though. You should get Ramuh here as a random encounter. In fact you can escape from this battle but the music says it's a boss so we'll treat it like one.

When the battle is over, Ramuh will have a conversation with Ifrit, the meaning of which is somewhat vague. Unlike the Shiva and Ifrit spells, you don't just learn the spell when the battle is over. Instead you get the item Ramuh as a drop and you then have to use it in the character screen (not in battle) to learn the spell.

Jachol Village
Sail to the southeast corner of western continent, then follow a valley east to reach Jachol Village. The villagers speak of Crescent Island, which you'll be visiting soon, and the waterfall near Easterly village, which was already mentioned in Easterly.

Stop and rest at the inn for 30GP. There is a back door to the west that leads to an old woman who mentions Crescent Island. The Item shop has the usual items; go upstairs to find the Pub. There is some gossip here about a cave to the north. You can complete another part of the Pianos subquest here, and talk to the dancer for a bit of fun.

The other shops are to the north. The Weapon shop has new gear, some of which you don't have Jobs to use at the moment. The Armor shop mostly has items that you should have found already as treasure. The Magic shop has the same White spells that were in Karnak.

Jachol Cave
On the way back to the ship you may want to explore the cave to the north. You might think the monsters here are laughably easy at first because they're just the squirrels from the area around the Wind Temple. The catch is that every once in a while a nasty mutant squirrel called SkullEater appears which can kill one of your characters with one attack. So be sure to save before entering the cave and have Flee or Dustb available. SkullEater's HP is only 1, so if you can hurt it at all then you win the battle, but it's defense is very high so even just that is a challenge. SkullEater reacts to any magic used on it by calling a bunch of its friends for help. If you really won't be happy unless you defeat this monster, and get the 5 APB reward, then the most effective way seems to be using the Geomancer ability Earth. This has a 50% chance of casting Will O' Wisp, which doesn't work, and a 50% chance of casting Stalactite, which kills it. The monster will often escape, in which case you get the 5 APB reward anyway.

After you enter, activate the button to the southwest to move the wall out of the way. Once past the wall you need to move it back, but now there are eight buttons that appear and disappear. This alternates between them all flashing on and all off except for one. You need to press the one button, which changes each time, to move the wall and continue.

There is a door to the north which won't budge. Go a bit further to the north and check the empty chest there, then say yes when asked if you want to flip the switch and the door will open. Go through the the next room.

There are several passages here, three of them end on the west side of the room and end in a chest. Note, if you freed the wolf way back in Walz Castle then these chests will be empty. To the north you can scale the wall to get to the outside. It's enclosed by mountains so other than saving your game or using a Tent there isn't much to do here.

Crescent Town
When you're done exploring the ocean, head for the southeast section of the map and land on the crescent shaped island there. This is the island mentioned by some of the residents of Jachol. When you enter the city, the first civilian you see will panic as an earthquake hits. You hear a thundering noise and realize your ship is in danger. When you exit the city (and there's not much else you can do now), you will see your ship sink. It certainly looks like you're stranded on the island. When you return, Crescent is back to normal.

Talk to the people for gossip; most mention the earthquakes and the fact that water keeps coming out of the fountain even though there's no rain here. One boy says something about a chocobo in the forest.

Stop to rest at the inn for 30GP; the item shop is here as well, but has the same items as before. There is a man here talking to two kids. First he tells about the Ronka ruins but if you talk to the boy, who asks about chocobos, the man reveals some interesting details about black chocobos, but he believes they are extinct.

The Weapon shop os to the north and has weapons for Jobs you don't have yet. The Armor is in front of this but doesn't have much that's new. The Magic shop is to the east and has the same Black spells that were in Karnak.

Before leaving, stop at the Minstrel's House located in the south-east corner. Talk to the minstrel to learn Strength Song. You can complete another part of the Pianos subquest here as well.

Black Chocobo Forest
Taking a hint from the man at the inn, explore the forest on the south end of the island. At the center is the Black Chocobo Forest. The first thing you notice when you enter is a black chocobo. (Actually it's more of a purple color.) It's running around, so go after it and check it as it goes by; this just takes a bit of timing since it will eventually pass by you even if you just stand still. When you catch it you try to ride it, but it can't fly and eventually you let it go. Faris checks it and finds two crystal shards stuck in its feathers; they seem have landed here after being blown into the air in Karnak. Pick up the shards and learn two new jobs, Bard and Hunter.

The chocobo takes off an you can now ride it off the island. Flying the chocobo works like flying the dragon. The chocobo can fly over low mountains, not ones with snowy peaks though, so you can at least fly over nearly the entire map. The chocobo can only land in forested areas, so there are number of islands and isolated valleys you can't reach.