Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Game 18: The Final Fantasy Legend (GB) - From the Depths of the Ocean

Well, it's not yellow, but at least it floats
Whence last we left, I had just arrived in a new town in a new world to explore. I left the town I'd just grown accustomed to and headed into the cave network connecting the islands. I expected a long period of exploration, but that was cut short when I found a floating island. Using this island as a ship, I skipped mapping out the remaining caves, which were so far bare. I do wonder if I missed anything, as I never found the two brothers mentioned in my last post.
Instead I found this cryptic old man
I took the island for a spin, and discovered an old man living on an island who pointed me towards a source for Airseeds. They allowed me to breathe underwater (this is becoming a familiar trope). In a second town (the game has stopped giving names to towns it seems), I learned I should stay away from the old man (too late) and a whirlpool can suck me down to an underwater castle.
My floating island only works on surface water, not underwater water
Sei-Ryu lives underwater, and banished Ryu-O to the surface. Ryu-O is the king of dragons, and Sei-Ryu is an upstart blue dragon. In a third town, this time under the water, the townsfolk were raving about these orbs. Sei-Ryu had a red one, and Ryu-O had a blue.
Which two lines?
The game continues to err on the side of easy. While weapons decrease with each use, and stocking up on extras is cumbersome due to the limited inventory, I have yet to run out at any crucial point (only once due to my mistake). Still the most annoying mechanic is the sudden loss of a mutant ability. And, the award for most useless party member is still held by my monster, Help.
I mean... Veri; seriously thinking of getting a mutant or human next time
Aside from the unfortunate accident Help had (he turned into an Albatross with only 20 HP and died), the castle of Sei-Ryu went smoothly. I found a blue key early on that granted me access to some high level items. I only remember the grenade at this point though. It's the first weapon that attacks a group of monsters. In the lair of Sei-Ryu are a number of orbs lined up on the floor. Grab the wrong one and a battle with a high level monster ensues.
Let's see...
Which one...
Is it stealing if I kill you first? For then whom am I stealing from?
The battle with Sei-Ryu raged on for two whole turns. Once again Tara's Power ability did massive damage, but Jare is coming into his own very quickly. After this battle, I had enough gold to purchase a whole arsenal of equipment. Instead, I invested in getting Jare some strength... well, max strength. Many potions later and he's doing as much as Tara after her Power spell. Good thing too because shortly after this Tara decides she's had enough of the easy life and forgets the ability.
Oh, and Veri turned into a garlic
After recovering the red orb, I wasn't sure what to do with it. It wasn't the sphere I was seeking. I figured I needed to find Ryu-O, but the townspeople were unhelpfully repeating their old spiels. All except the old man on his island. This time he had a riddle for me.
What can I get for the above? Do you mean if I bought and then sold them, or instead of purchasing them?
The answer was obvious after adding up the cost of those items from the shop. Luckily I had one already as I already blew all my cash on juicing up my human. I was surprised to receive the blue orb for my trouble (really no trouble at all). Still no sphere, but I felt I was getting close and confirmed when the old man suggested I could now climb the tower. The missing piece was using one of the orbs, which caused the two to fuse into the sphere.
Enemies were starting to have some nasty status ailments that lingered after battle
Hooray! I stocked up on some healing and climbed the tower once more. Again the monster levels increased, but none were a match for my buffed up boy. Even with a longsword (a world one weapon) he cut each enemy down with a single swipe. The scenery on the way up was a bit less interesting. No people praising paradise, nor seeking solace in their punishment.
This one statue in particular seems out of place
Upon reaching the 10th floor I began to notice a coincidence, soon to be a pattern; every 5th floor has a new world. Here again I met a man in a hat; he was also on the 5th floor, although I think I failed to mention him last time. He offers some insight on each world before I enter: here it was to join the ruler's guards as the quickest way to get close to him.
Strange that he'd be so eager to welcome a stranger when there's a resistance about
Looks like Byak-Ko is the next fiend I have to face off. Someone in the tower mentioned each world was controlled by one of four fiends. I guess this really was made with Final Fantasy lore in mind. This next world appears to be set among the clouds; however, there are still trees growing everywhere.
Your apathy is just what we need!
Well, it was pretty easy to join up with his guards. In fact, I stumbled into one building in the first town I found, fought some of the guards, and joined up without a second thought (or consultation from the man behind the screen). I suppose it's not all bad, I mean I'll get close to the guy and take him out right?
Maybe after this small kidnapping job; I mean I can't mess up my first job
I still need to explore the rest of this world to get my bearings, but Jeanne is definitely a person of interest. Becoming part of the forward guard imparts a flying vehicle, which allows me to quickly skip between the clouds. It's hard to see exactly what it is, but for whatever reason it's blocked by the floating trees.
I guess the vehicle has already reached its flight ceiling
The main pain point so far is the restrictive inventory limit. This is made even stricter with a monster in my party since they can't carry any items, and the two mutants are limited to just equipment. Since item space is at such a premium I've taken to skipping an arsenal of healing and curative items; something that nearly led to my first game over (discounting the blunder of my first Bandit fight).
Acupuncture cures stone
In addition to equipment, and cures for status ailments, item shops also offer utility items and spells. They're currently out of my price range for impulse purchases, but I'm hoping to try out the wand, rod, and others at some point. I've found that spells are only useful to characters with mana, which is not my human. Still, the Cure spell has 10 times the uses of a potion or x-potion, so next time I'll need to consolidate my items.
But which items to choose
Both Veri and Tara were turned to stone by a couple of quick medusas. Luckily it wasn't Jare, or I'd have a tougher time getting to this point. Now on to find Jeanne.
Can I at least get a description or will any ol' Jeanne do?
Session Time: 2h23m (Total Time: 4h25m)

10 comments:

  1. I'm at a loss to see how a needle would cure Stone, but hey, what do I know? I only ever made it to the second world, so you're beyond me now. I'm interested to see how the game ends (I refuse to look it up)

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    1. I may have missed the hint myself, but I can definitely see someone getting stuck after getting the red orb (or just getting lost in the endless ocean trying to find the floating island). Getting the riddle from the old man was more or less happenstance.

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  2. Hey Zenic, how about putting somewhere in the Past and Future Quests an indication what year you are currently in? With Chet and Trick it's easy to see the year, even if I don't know the game that is being played, kind of helps to set up the context.

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    1. Hey Ilmari, good to see you around. Sure thing, current year is now at the top, and I'll add a line for the next year when that approaches.

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  3. I finished it at the weekend (with lots of cheating, I got bored of grinding). Turns out I had been very close to beating the game when I was younger. Now I guess I have to try the two sequels! (when you reach them, of course).

    If anyone is wondering about the bosses and the spheres, this is their inspiration:
    1st World: (Gen-Bu, Black) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Tortoise
    2nd World: (Sei-Ryu, Blue) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azure_Dragon
    3rd World: (Byak-Ko, White) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Tiger_%28Chinese_astronomy%29

    Not the first time (or the last) that a Final Fantasy game would take inspiration from mythology.

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    1. Ah, I now understand the relation to the colors. I know you probably left it out due to spoilers, but I'll get there soon enough; I remember there being a fire bird (phoenix maybe). I don't remember the color though (red or yellow): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermilion_Bird

      Glad to have you play along. You'll have to explain what you mean by cheating after I finish up the game (don't want to be tempted). I haven't run into a need to grind yet. What final party did you settle on?

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    2. Yep, Suzaku the fire-bird is the fourth one, which you no doubt will cover in your next posting.

      It's from that point onwards that things got progressively more difficult, although having the right equipment can help a lot.

      I started out with 3 humans and a monster, but I found the meat/upgrade system so unfathomable that I ended up swapping him out for a mutant in world 4. I'll go into that in more detail once you've got to the end in case I mention something I shouldn't!

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    3. I found it strange that HP600 costs 5000 and adds 5 - 20 HP, but HP200 costs 100 and adds 1 HP after 200. So, I could take the time to purchase 50 HP200 for 5000 or blow all that money on 1 HP600. The only thing stopping me is they've stopped serving up HP200, so I'd have to backtrack through the tower.

      Judging my just the new monsters in the tower I can already tell this world is going to be difficult. Hopefully I can get through it tonight without running out of weapons/money.

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  4. Protip: That 99 max for human stats? It isn't actually a max. The game only displays up to 99, but you can go much, much higher.

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    1. Thanks for the tip. I don't exactly have an overflowing amount of money though, and 99 seems good enough for now. I'll definitely keep it in mind.

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