Episode #34 (final episode)
The Fractured Fantasy of Captain N
Based on Final Fantasy

Boy times sure have changed. During it's run, there were several Dragon Warrior episodes since it was so popular and just one Final Fantasy episode. Weird, huh? Anyway, this is the final episode, there's no more after this. Sad, I know, but all good things must come to an end.

The episode opens with the N-Team (minus Simon, Gameboy, and Duke. Poor slobs. Last episode and they don't even get to show up.). Kevin exclaims how this looks like an awesome game, suggesting that he's never actually played Final Fantasy. Still, he's sure that they can find something more fun to do than having lunch with "some drippy prince." Lana tells Kevin to be nice because the prince is a good friend of hers.

Just then, the team hears cries for help. Kevin's excited, saying that there's nothing like some game action to work up an appetite. They run over to see a funny looking guy in an even funnier hat. He tells them that a bunch of armored bandits just robbed his magic shop. He just knows that the evil Astos is behind the thievery.

When Lana asks who Astos is, the guy replies with "trust me, miss. He's a man you don't want to know," which officially makes this magic shop guy about as useful as any of the FF1 NPC characters. You know the type. The ones that keep telling you "something strange is north of here," "watch out for monsters", and "big green fish with bag and hand down his pants is dancing around the city breaking things."

Kevin looks over in time to see a warp zone open and a witch on a broom fly out of it. She ends up flying right into Kid Icarus. Stupid Kid Icarus, always getting hit by flying witches. They both end up crashing into the ground. Kevin runs over and helps her, asking if he can help her. She then starts reading her grocery list. Yeah, okay. Matoya seems a bit brain addled here. Megaman tells her, "What do we look like, a mega magic shop?" To which her talking broom says "No. You look like a tin can with arms and legs."

I call foul. I can put up with a green midget Megaman and a surfer Alucard, but a broom that doesn't talk backwards? That's a bit too much for me. Stupid broom. I hate you in life.

Lana reminds them that they've got a lunch date with the prince, which Kevin isn't too happy about. He'd rather be fighting crooks. Cue Astos hiding behind a tree. Seeing Kevin, he says that this will work out better than he planned, since Captain N is here. Dude, you might want to wait until you're more than 20 feet away before proclaiming your evil plans next time. Oh, and this version of Astos really horribly sucks.

Cut to the Elf's Palace. I've got to say, the Elf's Palace is a lot more impressive than it is on the game. Heck, it's more impressive than Hyrule Palace. I'd say it was about second only to the Palace of Power. It's a nice palace, in other words. Inside, the prince is telling stories about how great he is and all the great stuff he's done and how great it is. Lana says who she loves hearing his stories. Kevin is less than impressed and excuses himself to get something to drink. He whines about how awesome he'd be if he had a palace and a whole army to back him up. In case you don't get it, Kevin's jealous. And bored.

Suddenly a voice comes out of nowhere. Well, not just a voice, a voice and Astos actually. Astos promises Kevin all that princely stuff and more. He talks about all the neat stuff he could give Kevin and then hypnotizes him. Astos tells Kevin to overthrow the prince and take his kingdom. Kevin's eyes get all yellow and he starts talking like Robocop. Astos gives him a sleeping potion which Kevin puts into the prince's drink.

The prince then asks to hear about some of Kevin's adventures and then suddenly falls asleep face first in his food. Lana runs over to him saying "Are we that boring?" and lifts him up. Kevin laughs. Lana says that it's not funny and asks Kevin if he did something to the prince as she drops the prince face first back into his plate.

Kevin, being as subtle and conniving as one might expect says, "Overthrow the prince, take his kingdom." That's not really subtle and conniving is it? …So I lied about that part. Astos, you may want to remember that for next time.

Kid Icarus flies over to Kevin and starts waving his arm in front of Kevin's face, trying to get him to snap out of it. Megaman exclaims that he must be under some sort of "mega magic spell, but how?" To answer that question, a bolt of lighting hits their table and a warp zone opens. Astos steps out of it and does a bit of villainous gloating. Kevin follows him into the warp and it closes, leaving a shocked N-Team behind. We do get a great line from Megaman here.

"How do we keep getting into these mega messes?"

Cut ahead, a warp zone opens above a swamp and Lana, Kid Icarus, and Megaman all fall into the muck. It gets worse. They've actually landed in quicksand. As a rare treat, the panicked Megaman here is one of the few times the season 3 Megaman actually looks halfway decent.

Kid Icarus is able to fire off a line from his "bow and rope arrow" They are all able to pull themselves out, only to find themselves face to face with Matoya the Witch, who's calling them trespassers. She tells them not to move. Lana tries to explain who they are. Matoya turns her into a statue. That'll teach her not to move when a witch points a broom at her and says don't move, won't it?

Kid Icarus cautiously tries to remind Matoya who they are, and this time it seems she remembers. She makes a potion appear above Lana and pours it on her, turning her back into flesh and blood. They explain what happened with to Captain N and Matoya suggests they get the Light Crystal. She tells them that whoever looks though it can see people for who they really are. Then she tells them that Astos stole it from her years ago. Lana gets so excited she picks Megaman up and waves him around like a little teddy bear or something, which either shows that Megaman is really light, or that she's really strong.

Now we cut to Astos's castle and watch Kevin fighting with some really big armored guys. He's actually doing really good with a sword. I didn't think he had it in him. After a little bit, Kevin presses up on his Power Pad, hovers in the air above them, and pulls out his Zapper and blasts his opponents' weapons.

When Kevin lands, Astos claps. He explains that with Kevin training his men, they'll easily beat the prince's army. Lana tells Kid Icarus and Megaman to distract them while she sneaks in. She also mentions a magic key they found that will really come in handy. A short while later, Kid Icarus and Megaman are standing on top of each other disguised in one of the suits or armor.

While Kevin is training with the knights, the armored Kid Icarus and Megaman walk up to Astos and say that they heard he was looking for warriors. Astos asks them if they have experience overthrowing kingdoms (now that would be something to put on a resumé), Kid Icarus says that he used to work for Mother Brain but got laid off. Apparently that's enough for Astos. He leads him inside to the crystal, and says that they'll start with guard duty. Then he slaps Kid Icarus across the back.

Of course this knocks him off Megaman's shoulder and their identities are revealed. Astos swings his sword at Megaman, who's stuck in his part of the armor. Megaman's wrist flips down and a buzz saw comes out of it, slicing the sword in twain.

Another guard swipes at Kid Icarus, and ends up cutting the armor off him. Kid Icarus thanks him and flies down to grab the crystal. He hands the crystal to Megaman and then picks him up and they fly away. Okay, so apparently Megaman is rather light (Heh heh. Light. See the Pun?). As they try to make their escape, Captain N comes in the room with several guards. Astos orders the cap to stop them.

We get a keep away scene, where one person has the crystal, then another person gets it, etc etc. Anyway, it ends up in the arms of one of Astos's guards. Astos compliments the warriors and says that Captain N has trained him well. The warrior then pulls off "his" helmet to reveal that it's Lana. Lana holds up the crystal. It starts to glow, and Astos is revealed to be some ugly monster. His warriors are also revealed to be troll-like creatures.

Oh yeah, and Kevin is snapped out of his trance.

The N-Team makes a run for it. Kevin blasts down two huge axes to block the door, but Astos then blasts away the axes. The N-Team keep running until they hit a dead end (of course) and the trolls close in on them. The music of the episode starts playing.

I have no clue what it's called, but it contains the line "look out, here comes an awesome fight." We don't get an awesome fight. We get kind of a mediocre fight, but it works. While fighting, one of the trolls accidentally bashes a hole in the wall (he was aiming at Kevin) and the N-Team runs though it. The team keeps running. The draw bridge starts to close on them. Kid Icarus picks up Megaman, and Kevin picks up Lana and they use their flying/pushing up on the Power Pad to get away, although Megaman almost gets snapped up by crocodiles in the moat several times.

Back at the Elf Palace, Matoya is about to give the potion to the Elf Prince. Kevin jokes that they should let him rest a bit longer, but Lana doesn't think it's funny. After getting the potion, the prince wakes up and asks "what's for dessert?" This gets a nice laugh out of everybody. Lana then asks if Kevin is still jealous of the prince. He says he's happy just being Captain N. Lana tells him he's also a "real prince" and kisses him on the cheek. Kevin blushes.

Overall, this was a good episode. It kept things moving and used quite a few elements from the game to make everything work. While I've never been a big fan of the season 3 art, it's not too bad here. Final Fantasy is very lush and green and comes off a lot better looking that most of the previous worlds had been. Now with that said, there are a few problems I have with this episode too. After showing us the magic key, I can't recall having seen it used anywhere. Matoya is never mentioned by name during the show, and Astos looks horrible. His elf design doesn't look the slightest bit threatening, and his monster design looks like he'd be a minor enemy in Hyrule. They never beat him either. They just run away.

And that, my friends, is that. I miss the show already