#falb

Everything starts off in Tokkul; While the village is optional to visit, it is accessible as soon as you get the Enterprise and it hints at what it to come. Thus, the party and Desch go there.

In the final game, one of the houses contains a woman hiding in the back (with her child if I remember correctly?); At one point, however, she also had a brother. Said brother is a man on a mission: avenge his wife and child who were killed by Hein. The woman points out the man has never used a weapon in his life, but the man decides to seek out the “title of the lost heroes” (lost title of the brave? I dunno) to inherit their power. The man vows to find it no matter what and leaves despite the woman and Desch’s concerns.

Also, there’s an odd scene where Arc mentions that Luneth was avoided by everyone back in Ur, with Luneth telling him not to say anything else. Refia muses that Luneth is insensitive to his surroundings and Ingus noting that something is wrong with the village either way. This seemingly doesn’t connect to the actual story arc, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Skipping ahead, Luneth finds himself in Hein’s Castle. The big deviation is apparent both here and in one of Luneth’s lines for Tokkul; Luneth is alone. Luneth speculates that the others abandoned him. Eventually, he pulls himself together and looks for a way out.

He winds up finding King Argus, talking to what is implied to be the guy from earlier. The man reveals that he has procured a “sigil of courage” (suggested to be a crystal piece) allowing him to use the Evoker job; A job whose abilities can ignore Hein’s Barrier Shift. Luneth goes over to complement him, but the man (now identified as Falb) simply replies that it’s about his own struggle and how, to avenge his family, he can only do his best with what he has. 

Seeing an opportunity, Falb stages a jailbreak and proceeds to hold off the guards while allowing Luneth to escape. Luneth muses on Falb’s words before wondering where everyone else is.

While Arc and Refia’s rescue comments were either scrubbed or not written before the scenario was scrapped, Ingus’ (the last to be rescued) remain: Ingus finds this behavior off for Luneth, noting that the old Luneth would’ve been too arrogant and turned his nose at the idea of help. Luneth is surprisingly humble, admitting that he let his guard down and got caught before echoing Falb’s words from before. Speaking of, Ingus asks about Luneth’s helper and Luneth states that Falb is fighting alone and that they need to help him.

Eventually, Luneth returns to find Falb beaten up. He tries to encourage Falb, mentioning his family, but Falb instead hands over the crystal piece to Luneth, giving the party the Evoker ability. Falb asks Luneth to defeat Hein and Luneth promises before telling Falb not to die.

After Hein’s defeated, the party takes in the more lively atmosphere of Castle Argus. This prompts Luneth to make a serious observation about how they have to protect people’s lives. Refia teases Luneth for actually being serious for once, but Ingus speaks up for him, telling Luneth that he’s grown a little, a compliment Luneth sheepishly agrees with. Refia finds the two men’s understanding boring.

As a coda to this sequence, Falb was meant to be found in Castle Argus after all was said and done. He apologizes to and thanks Luneth for giving him the revenge he swore to take, only for Luneth to instead thank Falb, pointing out his bravery and how he taught Luneth something. Falb then reveals that he was brought on as a castle keeper by King Argus and how his new fight is to rebuild Tokkul. Both he and the party wish each other good luck.

On one hand, I can understand why this was cut, but it’s also a very intriguing piece in general. Even impactwise, it probably would’ve been significant: Falb is one of two new characters in the FF3 remake (the other being the Legendary Smith). Would he have been a playable character in some of the spinoffs like Brave Exvius? Likewise, this sequence gives Luneth a tie to the Evoker job: Would that have been his go-to secondary job in the same way that Dark Knight seems to have (as seen in FFRK and FFBE)?