Game 18: The Final Fantasy Legend (GB) - Finished!

Yes, you will, but not in this game

The final tower ascent went as well as expected. I ran into some bad luck, had three dead members at one point, but in the end I was able to limp away to fight another day.

All four spheres; it's hard to tell, but the design on each represents their color in Kanji

The tower climb this time around was filled with wizards who could deal massive damage and warriors with their instant kill Saw ability. I had Tara relegated to Death duty. With her high mana stat, she was always successful in taking out a group with the Death spell (as long as they weren't immune). Unfortunately her low agility meant she usually went last.

Who's Creator?

As I neared the end, the plot was trying to come together. The entire game so far felt a little disjointed. I wasn't sure why the fiends sought the Spheres (except for Gen-Bu, who already had the black one). The spheres only seemed to allow passage to upper levels of the tower anyway. Why would Ashura, who was already on the uppermost floor, send the fiends to collect them?

Even Ashura was being used

I found a Flare spell in a library that was about to tell me who was in ultimate control, but I couldn't quite make out the name. I didn't let that bother me, as Flare proved highly useful. It hit all enemies for 400 damage. Its power was only rivaled by an N. Bomb (Neutron?) I found tucked into a shelter.

Nope, just sleeping...

Inside the shelter was one of the saddest moments. Children lay lifeless on the floor, huddled together. A diary in another room detailed their tragic end. They holed up here, away from the terrors outside, but they ran out of food and water. The diary author went on to apologize for leaving Ken and Yuki behind, implored Akira to care of his brothers, and begged the Creator to look after the children.

I'm unsure what those names are supposed to mean. I never ran into any characters with them. I can only guess they belong to the children in the other room.

Who left these chopped onions here?

I pressed on. The next floor up, I ran into an old man alone in a shack surrounded by a field of flowers. Once he learned I'd come from the tower, he imparted the sword XCLBR, and disappeared.

Just think of me as a talking treasure chest and this will make more sense

Excalibur and a later sword, Masamune, seem to be staples for Final Fantasy. In this one, they damage an entire group of enemies, but do slightly less damage than a normal sword.

I was close to Ashura, but ran out of revives when Veri died to some targeted attacks. I pressed on to Ashura thinking I could get by with only one member down.

Some how I did not get wiped out

In one fight Jaso and Jare fell, and still I pressed on. Tara could take Ashura out herself. Right?

Ashura! I'm not scared of you!

I'm going to get you Ashu... why am I back at the beginning of the floor?

Well, I tried; however, there's a trap in front of Ashura. When walking straight up, the party will hit a teleportation square that transports them back to the previous floor. I took this as a sign I wasn't ready, and at the suggestion of a viewer on my stream, I used the Door item I picked up early to get back to a town. Door brings the party to any floor.

It's all a dream~eam~mm

I had quite a hoard of gold, so stocking up back in town went well. I increased Jare's HP, bought a Hyper to try it out, and made sure to get more revives. I didn't have to worry though since the Door took me right back to floor 23, right before Ashura. I then fell for the same teleport trap another two or three times.

Flare was helpful for bosses as well

Ashura offered my party a place in the worlds below, ruling over them. Such an offer was immediately refused without consulting me. Ashura fell like most bosses, quickly and without much trouble. I tried using Hyper, but it failed. After the battle I used it on a random encounter. I found it immediately kills all enemies; no wonder it didn't work on a boss.

Glass sword, probably the best sword in the game, isn't actually destroyed

With Ashura defeated, there was only the Creator to tangle with. The next floor was preceded by a pitfall that sent me down to the first floor. I awoke in the starting town, at the base of the tower, to find all my old friends from the various worlds gathered around.

How long have I been out?

The weapon shop was filled with new goodies, many of which I couldn't afford. A Sun Sword sounded glorious and Power Armor intrigued me, but grinding for them seemed unnecessary. I had everyone put on Dragon Helmets, and assaulted the tower a final time. It was now locked with the power of all four spheres.

I could buy... no, armor is probably better

Fully stocked, I set on my final journey. As I remembered, all four fiends appeared once again for a final confrontation. Once again, they were all pushovers. Random encounters still proved potentially fatal though, so I couldn't let me guard down as I scaled the five repeating floors between each boss.

This was the best mutation, but I got greedy and ate Su-Zaku2

The only reason a monster might come in handy is to be a Ki-rin

The last floor was one long corridor to a door that led to a very bleak area. An orb sat where I just emerged, and only the odd tree dotted the landscape. To the north was the man in a top hat waiting to greet me. I saved, checked my inventory one last time, and prepare for the battle I expected.

These are the final screens of my characters as I checked them

Mutants have the highest defense because they're the only ones that get increases to it beyond armor

Strength and Agility of my human were more in the 100s as I took the advice of a commenter to continue to raise them

And, the most pathetic party member in the whole game; replaced 6 times and now completely useless

Thank you

So, here the story is finally revealed. The Creator made Ashura, made everything really, and the tower in order to test his other creations. He called this a game, and we were the first to finish. The purpose was to instill courage and determination that would overcome all challenges.

I wish you would end the game, or I wish you didn't exist, maybe? No, let's just kill him

We refused to accept him as a benevolent being, and charged him with crimes against all creation. Funny how that works if he really did create everything.

You shall be remembered

I could say the ensuing fight was once again easy. In fact, I did have an easy enough time at it. Yet, I believe I just got really lucky. His actions were 1) to do nothing, 2) cast Light, which had no effect, 3) cast Repent, which had no effect, and 4) cast Flare, which if he only did that would fry my party to a crisp.

My last use of Flare finished him off

I had Jaso using the Aezis Shield, which said it bestowed a protective force field over the party, but I'm not sure how useful it was. Tara used the N. Bomb and Flare. Jare used the Glass Sword solely. Veri was floundering since all his attacks were useless.

Well, mostly useless

My son was curious about my progress, so I let him replay the final battle. He lost, and then asked me to try again. This time, I lost because the Creator used Flare twice, took out Jare, and I ran out of ways to damage him. I tried again, this time Jaso used Masamune. I didn't notice any downside to forgoing the Aezis Shield (a misspelling of Aegis I think), so I'm curious about its purpose. With the extra damage of Masamune, and the heal ability of Jaso to ensure Jare survived, I easily won a second time.

We're going to Disneyland!

With the creator defeated, the party pondered on their purpose. What was this all really for? What was next? Wait, there is a door behind the Creator.

Find out next game!

Instead of entering, the party members were content on returning to their own world. I was then greeted to flashbacks of all the fiends, and my journey to the final tower before Jaso turned around and said goodbye.

But... but... there's a door I haven't gone through!

Another game done. I still hope to finish by the end of the year, but with games increasing to 30 - 40 releases per year I can only really hope to match the release rate instead of catching up. Final rating and review to come, and then on to the next game: Swords and Serpents.

Session Time: 2h09m (Total Time: 10h01m)