Final Fantasy V Walkthrough
Written by Djibriel
Contributor
2.8: Castle of Bal
Enemies: Objet d'Art, Abductor (2)
Treasures: 
Angel Robe, Hero Cocktail, 
Great Sword, 
Teleport
Castle of Bal's your chance to regroup, come up with a plan versus Exdeath and take a rest you've truly deserved. It's a tense situation though; monsters under Exdeath's banner are surrounding the castle and the army is ever shrinking in size. But let's focus; there's some nice options for you to exploit. When you're done with the cutscene (props for the translation), there's a chest containing a Hero Cocktail and a secret passage leading to a chest containing the
Teleport spell the NPC soldier is talking about.The left-most building in the courtyard takes you to the shops. The only new item present here is the
Gauntlets, which are simple defensive Relics for Heavy Armor characters.Take the stairs up. On the wall here, there are stairs leading downwards, but they're blocked from your vision by the tower. Just walk to the right and take the stairs all the way down. The NPC here has some good advice and there's a chest containing an
Angel Robe. The Angel Robe can only be worn by the Chemist (and Freelancers, obviously) and protects the wearer against the Poison element and status. The Angel Robe also gives 25% Magic Block, which is actually unrivaled in the entire game as far as a single piece of equipment is concerned (the 
Aegis Shield works differently, mind).See the button behind the counter? You can push it from behind to open up a door in the wall. So that's how those merchants always get to those places! If you stand in between them, they'll forcefully throw you out of their business. Also, they'll give you a
Lamia's Harp, a weapon that deals 3/16 maximum HP to non-Heavy targets and sets Confuse. You have no business with the thing since it deals poor damage and you can multi-target 
Confuse with Alluring Air, but the thought is nice.You can enter the moat surrounding Castle of Bal in the bottom-left corner. Enter, go to the left, ignore the button and go all around the castle. On the far side of the moat in the bottom-left corner, a
Great Sword has fallen in the water. Grab it. You can return by pushing the button.In Basement 1 of the main building, there's a Save Point. Going further into the depths of Castle of Bal will get you in a featureless room with but one point of interest; the random appearance of enemies.
Objet d'Art enemies are "stone warriors with souls full of malice" as the game describes them at a later point. They attack physically and cast the
Break spell, but only have the MP to cast it once. When hit by a Gold Needle, they'll disappear by using Vanish. They've got 3300 HP and are weak to Lightning-elemental attacks. You can learn 
Death Claw from them, but only when you Control one and use an Ether on it to increase its MP. Another big selling point of these opponents is the 
Twin Lance. It's a rare steal but quite the awesome weapon. It's 20 Attack Power better than the 
Orichalcum Dirk and hits twice every time, actually more or less doubling it's normal damage output. It can only be used by Thieves, Ninjas and Freelancers though.The x2 formation of these statues gives off 4 ABP, the x5 formation gives off 8 ABP. In addition, they can be easily defeated by
Level 5 Death, which kills them all. Objet d'Art enemies are often used to train; not for Experience as they hardly give any, but simply to obtain such top-tier and usually late-game abilities such as !Doublecast, !Rapid Fire or Dual-Wield. I won't count on you doing this as it by no means is necessary and it seems wasteful of one's precious time, but if you want to do it, it does make future battles a lot easier.On the top floor of the main building, Krile is in distress. The Wind Drake which helped Galuf rescue Bartz and the lot has overstrained itself in said mission. Never mind the current political situation (you know, the war thing) or the practical impossibility of sneaking past Exdeath's armies, everybody agrees on the fact that playing veterinarian to an admittedly useful drake takes priority.
As soon as you're done toying around with the flying statues of death, you can go talk to the soldiers guarding the gates. King Galuf will order them to open the gates, which they'll do for you. It'll net you a battle with a single Abductor (2), the apparent entirety of Exdeath's stationed demon horde. The fight versus this guy is hardly worthy of description; he can use
Vampire and Hurricane, so watch out. Vulnerable to Stop, not Heavy.
Caves of Narshe: Final Fantasy V
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.