Draklor Lab
Note: There are no orange transport crystals here so you should save in a secondary save. That way, if you need to buy more armor or potions you can always go back to your last save in Archades to buy more.
The laboratory is empty and Basch stops just short of saying “its quiet, a little too quiet.” Probably because he can’t remember how the quote goes. Balthier was expecting guards, but isn’t it more strange that are no scientists in a laboratory?
The game play in the Draklor Laboratory is much like my first day in high school. I spent the day running around breathlessly trying to find room 108 and at the same time trying to avoid people.
Path FLOOR 66 > FLOOR 67 > FLOOR 68
FLOOR 66
Move north to the lift. It is located in the top-center of the floor. There are some dead soldiers and those that are alive don’t say much. Go to the elevator and select 67F.
FLOOR 67
From the elevator, head east then north to the end of the hall.
Cut Scene: Open the door and Fran notes how someone else was tearing apart an office looking for something. Balthier explores the bad doctor’s office and he starts doing that growl-y talk to his non-present father thing that detectives do when they are investigating crime scenes. Guards start yelling things in Scottish-talk and Fran thinks they are looking for the people who made this room a mess. She says lie low. Where? You are hiding in the one place they will look first. Balthier says NO lets go kill my dad.
The clan gets the Lab Access Card and a map.
Proceed south to the first room on the right - room 6704 East – there is a save crystal in there. Remember, do not overwrite your last save – just in case things get too tricky.
Enter room 6703 and hit the switch. Go back to the elevator and up to floor 68F.
FLOOR 68F: Switch the following bulkheads to get to the southern lift.
- head north and east to [6803 east] – Switch Red to blue.
- head north and west to [6804 West] – Switch Blue to red.
- head south to [6811 West] – Switch Red to blue.
Prepare your party in room 6811. Run around to charge up party members to get quickenings fully charged. Make sure everyone’s HP is full because you will be ambushed at the elevator. Aim a quickening at the judges. Pick off the hoplites first, then attack the judges. Another option, if you are having trouble with them is to flee from the judges at first sight and run back to the doorway of one of the rooms. Start the fight there and if your HP is running low, escape to that room, heal, then go back for more fighting.
- Go north to the elevator. Go to floor 70 because floor 69 is just dirty.
FLOOR 70:
 Cut Scene: The elevator opens and they all walk out. A man comes running at Basch swings his sword at him. Basch then blocks him with his arm. They slowly push back on each other. We see the attackers face and it looks like Gamespot’s Greg Kasavin with Fran’s hair taped to his cheeks. Greg here could teach Basch a thing or two about growing a beard. He stops his attack because the clan is not one of Dr. Cid’s guards. Basch puts all the pieces together to realize that this guy was the one who was tearing up the office and killing all those guards. Dr Cid’s voice is coming from the next room.
Use the save (again, use another slot) cast haste and protect on your party then run up the stairs to fight Dr. Cid.
Dr. Cid is by far my favorite character in this game. He is voiced by a guy named John Rafter Lee. Past acting credits are almost non existent, most notable is “Additional Voices” in Princess Mononoke. Too bad, because I love the crazy actor role. The good thing is that you get to see this great cut scene a lot because Dr. Cid is very difficult.
Cut Scene: Greg Kasavin yells at Dr. Cid for working with Deifacted Nethicite even though he knows how dangerous it is (it blew up that huge airship). Cid doesn’t even answer the question, he just says “Try and stop me.” Balthier arrives and says “you are too old for this.” And then my favorite line in the whole game comes: “Pirate scum of the skies. What brings you here?” The inflection is crazy, perfect, and then the animators gave him the perfect sneer at the end.
Balthier says he wants the Dusk Shard. If you notice, Cid and Balthier are never in the same shot – it is like that episode of Full House when Uncle Jesse’s cousin Starbros visited and both characters were played by John Stamos and they used quick editing so the two characters could talk to each other.
Then, Dr. Cid talks to his imaginary friend. He tells Cid that the princess is there and Cid says “she is not entirely without merit” all dirty. The guy with huge chops says “he means to use you” - yuck. Cid is glowing orange and he laughs. Fran knows it that it is manufactured nethicite. Balthier is disappointed in his father.
----- BOSS: Dr. Cid (x38a) -----
So Cid must have gotten his doctorate in laying-down-the-smack because this is one hard battle. If you try all of these techniques and you still can not beat him go back to you last save and level up against all the guards. Stand by one of the elevators as they come out in an endless supply.
LEVELS: 33 across the team
GAMBITS:
Casters:
[ally: any > protect, haste]
Tanks:
[Ally: Any > Phoenix Downs]
[Ally: HP < 40% > Hi-Potion]
[foe: leader’s target > attack]
Part I: Rooks:
- Go in with 3 Tanks and have their gambits do all the healing with Hi-Potions and Phoenix downs.
- Unleash your Quickenings, target one of the rooks – not Dr. Cid!
- Focus all of your tanks’ attacks on one rook until it is destroyed. Then, I moved on to the next one. Attack them alphabetically so it is easier to track which ones you defeated.
- Don’t Target Dr. Cid until they are all gone.
Dr Cid:
- Swap in one of your healers
- Cancel Dr. Cid’s Haste spell with Dispel (he is immune to Slow)
- Cast silence on him.
- Make sure your two tanks have protect, and haste
- Bash away at him
- If you are having trouble beating him use, the one or two Ethers to refill your healer. This is one time when it is worth it.
----- End: Dr. Cid -----
When Cid is down to very low health, Sideburns Kasavin does his best Susano (from Okami) impression and casts the final blow after we did all the work. What was he doing during this whole fight? Dr. deflects the attack with a Smash Brothers style block bubble and stands up to confront the clan. Cid’s imaginary friend appears (which would make him no longer imaginary). It is Venat and it is that ghost that we have seen with Mjrn and Judge Bergan. I searched Venat on Wikipedia for any historical/mythological significance and found nothing. There wasn’t even an entry in Tobin’s Spirit Guide.
The bad Dr. turns it all around and blames Ashe for being a power hungry fool and wanting the nethicite for her own gain. Great. Now we are the assholes. Cid holds out the Dawn Shard and then drops some obvious hints that he is heading to Giruvegan.
One of those ice-cream-cone ships picks him up and takes him off. Before he leaves though he mentions “The reigns of history back in the hands of man.” See the Freewill vs Fate theme. Balthier says “I hate it when he does that.” What? Try to kill you and then run off while accusing you of being power hungry fools? Ignoring the obvious Oedipal issues between Balthier and Dr. Cid, I have a feeling their strife has a more to do with Balthier going to law school and becoming a judge instead of pursuing a medical degree like his old man.
Sideburns rises and goes over to introduce himself. He is Reddas and he is joining the clan.
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