Final Fantasy VI Walkthrough
Written by Djibriel
Contributor
1.26: The Blackjack to Albrook
Treasures: Elixir, Ether, Hi-Potion
My God, Setzer is awesome. He's a world-traveling albino pirate who kidnaps this game's equivalent of Kylie Minogue to marry her on his own casino-zeppelin. His airship-crash-induced facial scars only make him more of a special case and nicely compliment the rather gothic black trench coat he got way before the Wachowskis had even dreamed about bending spoons that aren't there and bullet-time and whatnot.Sadly, he gets punked by a band of unlikely heroes no one has even yet heard of. First, he is persuaded to listen to your tale of woe rather than kick you off his property. Then, he is converted from a rather pro-Empire guy to a full-fledged Narshesque or Swiss I-don't-knower. Finally, Setzer joins your cause! It was inevitable after all: You were given the option to give him a name, right? Celes will fool him with a double-headed coin. If Edgar is present, he'll give the coin to her. If Sabin is also present, he'll shout at his brother for a bit for obvious reasons (and if they're not obvious, you didn't take them to sleep at Figaro Castle, am I right?). The coin in question is a coin from Figaro, displaying Edgar's face on one side and Sabin's face on the other. You'll see it in action in the credits... but enough about this. You hitched a ride to the Empire. Go Returners.
Here's an interesting note if you are playing the SNES original or Playstation port. Normally, of course, we'd hide such version-specific data if you're not playing that game, but this one's a bit more interesting than most. You'll notice that Setzer joins the party despite pointing out that "the Empire's made me a rich man," making him sound awfully generous for acting against his monetary interests. This, however, is a mistranslation and is corrected in the GBA version of the game to say "the Empire's been bad for business", providing Setzer with a considerably less-noble motivation for helping out. The Japanese phrase in question, amounting to 'business has gone up' actually means that business has 'dried up' or 'evaporated', not increased. Criticize Woolsey if you wish, but Setzer surely appreciates the good press.
As soon as you get out of the Blackjack, you can re-enter the ship to see its full interior. From this point on, you can take advantage of Setzer's crew and their sweet services. There's a healing guy and an item guy. Good-for-nothing albino pirate gamblers only sharing with the rest of us for profit...
When you hop off the airship, you're near a town you've never seen. This is Square's gentle way of saying, "Oi! Go visit that town!" Well, do it. Don't forget to re-equip Celes. We don't want her running around naked. Well, I've seen enough GameFAQs posts that say that some of you would, but... oh, just re-equip already. Editor's note: See, this is why you should be posting at the CoN forums. They're considerably less creepy than that.
Albrook is one of the three major towns the Empire invaded and currently occupies. The Imperial troopers here won't directly recognize you, and won't attack you outright. If you try to enter the port, the Magitek Armored soldier will prevent your entry by means of hitting you. No HP will be lost, don't worry. Most soldiers will show themselves as patriotic pigs, and most inhabitants of Albrook will sigh and moan about their lot. The only useful information you receive here is that coming from a portrait painter and two scholars. The painter tells of a portrait he must do of the Emperor himself (you'll come across this painting in your travels later - foreshadowing!). The first scholar will talk about the fact that the monsters on the continent have only weak magical power (which is a flat-out lie as some of them have the power to outright create several new interesting ways for you to urinate if you don't watch out). The other one is talking about two ultimate weapons; one a sword, one a monster.
I'm sure we'll never meet either of them.
Weapon Shop: The Weapon shop has
Bastard Swords (which you can ignore if you want, as neither Celes nor Edgar will ever use it), 
Kiku-ichimonji for Cyan that you previously bought in Jidoor (right?), and 
Venom Claws for Sabin, of which I recommend you buy two. You can leave Shadow's 
Sakura for now, as he's not around and you'll be able to buy more of them later.Armor Shop: The Olde Armore Shoppe sells nothing of value other than
Priest's Miters. They're the magical equivalent of the Green Berets; where Green Berets raise HP by 12.5 percent and give you a 10% bonus on your Evasion rating, the Priest's Miter raises MP by that very amount and gives a 10% bonus on your Magic Evasion rating. It's a popular choice for obtaining a god-like assembly of equipment later in the game, but right now, you're probably better off with the Green Berets as an HP boost is more useful than an MP boost and you'll be taking much more physical hits than magical ones. And yes, the chests in the Armor Shop are now, and will under any circumstance be, empty.Relic Shop: The Relic Shop has
Amulets and Reflect Rings. The Amulet will be kind of a necessity in later dungeons, but you can wait for now. Make sure to grab four Reflect Rings here, though. These Reflect Rings will make a few boss battles in the future much easier. The main attractions at the moment though are Earring; Earrings are almost universally useful. You should have four Earring and a Hero's Ring; you might want to buy another one or even two. Earring are great damage boosters.Item Shop: Items of +2/+2 using. First place you can buy a Remedy.
The Cafe is plain awesome. I wish there was a place in real-life that played Johnny C. Bad continuously; I wouldn't go there because I'd go stark raving mad, but it be nice to have around, just because. Items are hidden throughout the town. There's the mandatory Elixir in the clock in the hallway connecting the Armor Shop and the Cafe. There's a Hi-Potion in a barrel next to the Inn. A hidden Ether in the pot of the Weapon Shop closes the deal. On the whole, Albrook is a rather disappointing hole of a town, not at all worth the hassle of the whole having-Celes-abducted-by-a-flying-albino thing. So I suggest we explore the rest of the continent.
Caves of Narshe: Final Fantasy VI
Version 6
©1997–2025 Josh Alvies (Rangers51)
All fanfiction and fanart (including original artwork in forum avatars) is property of the original authors. Some graphics property of Square Enix.
Version 6
©1997–2025 Josh Alvies (Rangers51)
All fanfiction and fanart (including original artwork in forum avatars) is property of the original authors. Some graphics property of Square Enix.