Last we left the adventuring party, they were camping outside the Cave of Marsh. I anticipated dying to the wizards guarding the crown many times because of their paralytic touch and massive damage. Their attack on the mages can quickly take them out.
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| That's nearly half his max HP... |
I retrieved the crown and prepared for the battle coming next. Astos is the first real boss to face off with the party. Garland is too early to be much of a challenge, and the last two plot related fights (pirates and wizards) are more like mini-bosses. Astos has a spell, Rub, that has a good chance of instantly killing a party member. In fact, it's usually his first action followed by either Fire 2 or 3.
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| Sorry Gioz, you'll need to sit this one out |
Astos decided to focus his efforts on buffing himself instead, while Kili took MVP for the fight, basically killing him single-handedly (I'm not sure Tont's 2 HP of damage really pushed it over the edge). With the crown I was able to get the Crystal Eye, which the witch Matoya requests in exchange for some powerful herbs that revive the elf king who has a mystic key to unlock magic doors. Behind one of the doors are some explosives that a dwarf needs. This is the longest chain of fetch quests I've seen in the games for this blog.
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| Is this room really empty? I didn't bother exploring at the time |
Beyond the TNT, I also uncover a lot of powerful equipment that I can't use. At least it gets me a lot of gold to help afford the costly spells. With the TNT, a dwarf blow up a land bridge that opens up the wider world . Now the main quest really begins and I can finally do something about these orbs. I've just reached the first town beyond, and the Earth Cave is awaiting my approach.
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| I don't know why I remember there being an animation for this opening |
Session Time: 1
h30
m (
Total Time: 5
h30
m)
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| Current party stats; Gioz is lower because he missed out on Astos, and I'm hoping the mages get level 5 spells next level |
Sorry for the lack of updates. Life has been really stressful and work is crazy. Still is, but I've spent too long away from this, so I'm trying to get back into it. Thank you all for stopping by again and checking it out. I'm definitely devoting more time to this project going forward.
Welcome back! Life is always more important than video games, of course, but hopeful this is a de-stressor for you...
ReplyDeleteIt does help, but it also creates some stress at home when I play for long periods, so I'm trying to limit the longer sessions.
DeleteGlad you're back! Sorry to hear about real-life stress, I hope things are better now!
ReplyDeleteNot really, but I'm tired of waiting for them to get better.
DeleteI've been following your blog for quite some time, but not commenting until now.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you're back! Have you considered trying one of the patches for Final Fantasy? I wound up having my Final Fantasy cartridge ROM reburned with a bugfix patch that really made the game a whole lot more fun to play.
Vanilla NES Final Fantasy has a ton of bugs, notably that none of the "special" weapons that are supposed to deal extra damage to specific creatures (The Giant Sword for example) actually does any additional damage. There are spells that do the opposite of what is intended (I believe LOK actually reduces your To-Hit, rather than increasing) and a great deal of the elemental protection spells (AFIR, ALIT, etc) don't do anything at all.
A little QA would have gone far.
I was unaware of bugfix patches for my favorite FF game, though I knew about the bugs. I'll have to go search one out...
DeleteI wish I remembered which patch I found, but it was compatible with the cartridge's ROM and the guy running nesreproductions.com burned it for me. Works great.
DeleteI think I'd rather stick to unmodified versions, or at least officially released versions. The special weapons are really only a drawback for Gioz. I guess the light axe also is limited, but I don't remember many undead once it's found. The spell limitations and handicaps I can work around as well. I really don't like using buffs and debuffs much as I feel like they waste a turn in casting them, especially when the debuff just doesn't work.
DeleteI actually bought the PS1 version recently. I could switch to that version... nah I'll just stick with the original for now. I've beaten it before.
@archivis: Someone named AstralEsper made a great patch called Final Fantasy Restored. I highly recommend it. It fixes pretty much every bug; the only one still unfixed, I think, is the INT bug (i.e., higher INT is supposed to increase the power of Black Magic, but doesn't).
DeleteI have noticed that Gioz's spells will sometimes out-power Kili's.
DeleteWow, I was reading that and I saw Garland and now I can't get that ancient webcomic, 8-bit theatre out of my head.
ReplyDeleteI never heard of 8-bit Theater until now. Thanks for wasting the rest of my free time for today....
DeleteI'll have to check out 8-bit theater and lose some more free time then.
DeleteDon't worry, it goes downhill pretty quickly, I just kept reading it out of habit.
DeleteLies, Canageek, LIES! All those consecutive hours I lost watching the Youtube episodes and then continuing in the comics are proof of its OBJECTIVELY perpetual funniness!
Delete.... Seriously, though, I am sad it won't continue forever especially with 5 more sprite-based Final Fantasy's to draw from.... IMAGINE!
PS: Glad to see you back,Zenic. I kinda dropped off my usual blog-reading spots (bet I have a few hundred hours of CRPG Addict back-logged,too), so I am sorry this greeting is more than a bit late :)
Thanks, and good to see you back as well. Wizardry's been teaching me the true meaning of an unfair game. I'm hoping I've seen the worst of it and can move on soon. Strangely, I'm enjoying it more than Phantasy Star II. That could have to do with grinding while also playing Star Saga Two.
DeleteGood to see you posting - and to see your exploits are continuing. :)
ReplyDeleteGlad to be back. I hope I can get through the 1990s of gaming by the end of the summer at least. We'll see how quickly I can start ramping up my play time.
DeleteI quite enjoyed this section of the game. Because I used the peninsula of power on my playthrough I kind of breezed through it. Really enjoyed the battle with the elf guy.
ReplyDeleteI think the peninsula of power is a less powerful in this games. I remember easily grinding there in Dawn of Souls (the game used MP instead spell points per level). I suppose it's good before getting the mystic key, although at level 11 I was getting hit for nearly half my HP.
DeleteThe ever present mummies at the north castle are a constant source of experience. The giants in the Earth Cave are seem to be a good deal as well, but take some time to kill. I remember the eye in the ice cave being another good source, but he's hard to get to and can easily kill your party without the right equipment. Beyond that, I can't think of any particularly easy places to grind for levels.
I hope you'll write up your thoughts when we get to the final posting on this game. It'll be interesting to read up on the differences between the versions.
I'm catching up on older articles, so I'm fine with you being less frequent :D
ReplyDeleteGlad to have a new reader. I'm eager to move forward though, so I hope I can get back to my goal of at least once a week.
DeleteI'm glad to see you back, and glad to see Kili kicking ass and taking numbers!
ReplyDeleteKili is definitely one of the most powerful characters with his nukes.
DeleteI think the animation you recall for the blowing up of the canal is from one of the myriad of remakes.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you back blogging!
I did play through the GBA Dawn of Souls version, so maybe I'm remembering that. I also remember tent/cabin/house animation, but I'm pretty sure that's Final Fantasy II (SNES).
DeleteYes, the GBA version, as well as the superior PS1 and other remaks have these animations for blowing up the canal, and at other set points, as well as tent/cabin/house animations.
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