Current Events > Final Fantasy full(ish) series playthrough topic *spoilers*

(+) Yeah! (+)

Bump so topic doesn't purge.

I got the PR collection now. Think I'll start FF1 with Thief, Monk, Red Mage, White Mage. This will be the first time I didn't have a fighter when not doing a solo run. Going to try playing at .5 exp and x4 gil.

Tsukasa1891 posted...

Bump so topic doesn't purge.

Thank ye

I might end up getting off work early tomorrow, if so I'm going to get a few hours in after I get home. Otherwise it will have to be Sunday like planned since I have D&D all day Saturday.

Another bump.

Just got the platinum for FF1. Warmech was the last one I needed. It took two and a half hours to encounter taking the party from level 50 to 97 and it ran away, still counted for the trophy. Who ever decided it should be able to run away should be fired and black listed from game development.

Well off to FF2 now.

when Warmech runs away, it is easier to get the trophy, then when you must defeat it

I'm sure my level 97 party could handle it.

I played a bit today while waiting for D&D but didn't have anything up to type my exploits, so here's a quick summary from memory.

Went back to Castle Sasune and spoke to the king's chalk outline, he told me Sara's gone missing and has the mythril ring. So I flew over to the Djinn's cavern and played with a skull to open the secret passageway, meeting her inside, and she joined the party. The Djinn said he was unstoppable because he joined with the darkness but I stopped him in two rounds of combat.

Sara sealed him away and then she yeeted the ring into a pool of water before yeeting herself from the party. Returning to Kazus, Cid joined the party (officially becoming the first Cid in the series to do so, even if he's not actually playable), so I can take him back to Canaan, then we put a mythril prow on the airship, then blew the fucker up along with a giant boulder. In Canaan, Cid immediately left the party and I got my next lead, to go find some jerk named Desch who went south.

I go south to a mountain where a giant dragon scoops me up and drops it into an oddly bird-like nest where the baby dragons are already hatched and hungry. Desch is hiding in the nest with his amnesia and joins the party just as the dragon, fucking Bahamut, swoops down to kill me so the babies can eat. We run away and jump out of the nest, somehow landing half a continent away withouht a single broken leg -- if anything, we're healthier for the fall, even reviving Doug the Monk from his state of death while fleeing from Bahamut.

Desch gives me Mini and I shrink the party up so we can enter the Gnome village of Tozus, stuffing one of my many Antidotes into a sickly Gnome who shows me that he's the sole owner of the passage out of there. I turn my entire party into Mages of various colors (two Black, one Red, one White) and crawl through, finding myself in the company of vikings that look and act an awful lot like pirates. They're all grounded because a sea dragon attacks every ship that hits the water, and if I defeat the sea dragon they'll give me their ship, because

After taking the time to embiggen my entire party, I restore their original jobs, and head north to the Nepto Temple. Inside is a statue of the sea dragon (I assume) with one eye missing, and the game tells me that I need to cast Mini to climb inside. I sigh heavily, realize what time it is, and save and quit.

Play time is somewhere around two hours I think, I wasn't paying attention.

that is good progress! way to go!

I'm attempting a Pixel Remaster playthrough as well, TC. I got through 1 and 2 so far, it's actually my first time completing either lol

I'm on 3 now and I've played and completed the DS version before but I'm happy we got an official English 2D release

I re-shrink and re-mage my party and enter the eye socket, inside which I find that a giant rat has stolen the Nepto Dragon's eye and makes the adorable threat to nibble me if I try to take it back. Risking a nibbling, I fight the rat and take the eye. Returning it to its rightful place, the Nepto Dragon speaks to me through the statue to thank me, promise to calm its shit down, and give me the Fang of Water. The pirat--er--vikings also give me their ship.

I make a short sail along the coast and arrive at the town of Tokkul, where old men flee, children hide in fireplaces, and everything's gone to shit because soldiers from Castle Argus attacked and destroyed the place. I'm also told that there's a giant tree moving around the desert -- sure enough, yep, there it is. A bit north of the desert I find a clearing in the woods where an orgy of buxom fairies tells me that the tree is their forest's elder, cursed to become a living palace by Argus, and if it's not returned the forest and fairies will die.

West of the desert I arrive at a chocobo forest (hell yeah) and the Village of the Ancients, and oh yeah, have we mentioned that the world is flat and I just found the edge? One of the Ancient children challenges me to circle the whole continent on a chocobo, so... challenge accepted. brb village. My prize for this incredible act is... a loaf of Gnomish Bread, which I already have tons of in my inventory. Thanks, kid.

The adults in the village provide more of a lore dump, talking about how there were Warriors of Dark years ago that saved the world from a flood of light after the previous Warriors of Light did too good a job, which is very familiar to me as somebody who previously played FF14. They also tell me that the continent is kept floating in the air by the Tower of Owen, which I haven't seen yet. There's some new weapons, armor, and magic in their shop, but it's all too expensive for me right now and I don't feel like grinding too much at the moment, so I just buy some new spells for Melfi the White Mage and make a note to come back later when I have more cash.

Anyway, my run around the continent did show me that there's nothing else for me here now (I can't seem to enter the flying tree at this point), so I hop back in my pirate ship and cross the water again. Immediately upon disembarking I see Castle Argus, and hop in to ask what the fuck's up. Oddly, the entire place is empty, without so much as a single random encounter to stop me from looting their carefully-hidden treasury of so much gold that I'm about to go back and spend at the Ancients. There are two locked tower doors that prompt me to use an item, but since I don't have any keys and bomb fragments don't work, I have no idea how to open them just yet. Desch is no help either, only offering up that the ship we have will allow us to "visit all the ladies of the land", horny bastard.

However, this does remind me that there are people in Canaan who are angry at his bang-and-dash, so I decide to head back there and see what they have to say to him. This amounts to absolutely nothing. Desch, I'm starting to feel like you're absolutely useless.

So, it's back to Castle Argus I go. North of it I find the Tower of Owen, filled with frogs and intense music. I can't actually go any deeper than the entrance without becoming a frog myself, so I guess I'm not supposed to be here yet, either. West of Argus is another chocobo forest, a large lake where I can see a giant fish swimming around beneath the surface, and Gulgan Gulch, filled with bald men with no eyes who like to stand in a circle around crystal balls.

They mostly talk about the crystals, and how they can see the future but don't want to do jack shit about it, but one of them in the lower level tells Desch that his destiny awaits him in the Tower of Owen and gives the party the Toad spell. Now finally armed with a destination and a goal, I save the game and take off for a lunch break.

Play time is 3:15.

There is more to Gulgan Gulch that meets the eye. You should search Gulgan Gulch for a secret passage

I almost missed out on the platinum trophy because I missed the secret passage in Gulgan Gulch

Never being unable to afford new gear is why I love the 4x gill boost. If it's like the DS version, having a thief in the lead of your party can unlock doors.

Tsukasa1891 posted...

having a thief in the lead of your party can unlock doors

Thief in the lead does work in this pixel remaster, but Topic Creator has not acquired the Thief job yet

hexa posted...

Thief in the lead does work in this pixel remaster, but Topic Creator has not acquired the Thief job yet

PR must of changed what jobs you get. In the DS version thief is from the first crystal.

in the pixel remaster, Thief is acquired from the second crystal

Tsukasa1891 posted...

PR must of changed what jobs you get. In the DS version thief is from the first crystal.

Thief is a 2nd tier job in the NES version as well. The DS version changed the tiers for the following jobs:

Thief: 2nd to 1st
Geomancer: 3rd to 2nd
Black Belt: 3rd to 4th

I'm off work for a week because I caught strep again so as soon as the antibiotics make me cough less and I'm able to stay awake longer, I'm going to marathon the shit out of this playthrough

But right now I'm not physically up to it :(

I (very temporarily) turn my party into toads and dive down into the Tower of Owen, then start climbing up about ten floors. Along the way, Desch starts to regain his memory, eventually remembering that he's an Ancient. At the top floor I fight Medusa, who says her plan is to destroy the tower so the continent falls under Xande's orders. After killing her, Desch's full memory returns -- he was tasked to guard the tower, and only awaken if he needs to fix it, which takes the form of burning himself alive inside a furnace.

Harsh.

With Desch dead, the whirlpool blocking the outer sea calms the fuck down, and I'm able to sail to the Island of the Dwarves. Immediately I'm told that some dick named Gutsco stole a Horn of Ice, which is important because

I get froggy again for a second and dive into the underground lake, finding a very ominous amount of Gold Needles that ultimately amount to nothing trying to petrify me, and fight Gutsco at the end of the path to reclaim the Horn. After Teleporting out, I notice that I'm now being followed by some form of worm, or stick, or cigarette or something.

The dwarves ask me to put the Horn of Ice back on its pedestal, and I do so, only to find out that the cigarette following me was actually Gutsco waiting for the magic barrier to drop so he could steal the second Horn as well. Why didn't he just steal both horns the first time if he got through the barrier anyway to steal the first? Well, that's because

So the party follows Gutsco to the northern cave which houses the Fire Crystal, and oh god it's the unavoidable lava floors again. Somebody in the NES days of Squaresoft really liked these things. This time, however, they're no trouble at all since Muuchi is wearing Flame Mail, which provides an immunity to their damage.

Arriving at the Fire Crystal's room, Gutsco fills himself with its power and attacks in the form of a big purple dragon with polka dots on it, and holy shit am I underleveled and unprepared for this fight. His signature attack does nearly 200 damage to my entire party, whose HP totals are a little over 300 each right now, so Melfi's healing isn't able to keep up. I get killed for the second time this playthrough, and it's time to grind a few extra levels before fighting Pissed Barney again.

Playtime is at 4 hours.

glad to see that you are feeling better after your bout with strep

I told you on the previous page to look for a secret passage in Gulgan Gulch

the purple dragon is a pain to everybody; don't feel bad about it. My Monk was taking way too much damage from that Flame attack. I resigned myself to changing my Monk to a Warrior, because I needed armor to defeat that boss

Oh, the bout with strep is ongoing, and in fact a little worse than yesterday. I'm just playing because I can't lay down to sleep without coughing and need to take my mind off the fact that it hurts to breathe. :(

(Yes, I am taking antibiotics)

have you noticed that half of the dungeons in Final Fantasy 3 require you to be Mini or Toad?

doesn't that annoy you a little bit?

"A little bit" I see what you did there

It's really only annoying because you have to use a spell slot to cast it. The Mini part was actually kind of fun because it forced me to change my party comp to all mages, but the Toad gates were kind of pointless wasted of MP since you could just cure it right after walking through.

I grind up to a nice, round level 20 -- character 20, that is. I have no idea what the hell the job level contributes at this point, but it definitely increases far quicker.

This turns out to be exactly where I need to be in order to beat Gutsco, with full-party Cura casts providing just enough healing that Flame isn't a 2HKO on everybody anymore. The other three party members manage to win the fight just before I run out of MP for that spell level.

As my reward, I'm given four more jobs from the Fire Crystal -- Ranger, Knight, Thief, and Scholar. The only one that seems like an obvious upgrade is turning Muuchi from a Warrior into a Knight, but other than that, I'm gonna keep the rest of my party as-is (Monk, Black Mage, White Mage) for now until circumstances require otherwise. I'm not a man who likes to mess with success.

When I return to Dwarftown to give their previous horns back, a dying man follows me in to say that Tokkul is being burned to the ground, and also drops the hint that Hein (as I recall, the guy who made the flying tree castle) can "change his weakness on a whim" and I'd need a Scholar to "see through his tricks", so I guess I know what the circumstances shall imminently require.

The dwarves reward me with a Magic Key (and a hint to go to Gysahl for more) and one of them literally moonwalks me into the treasure vault. Lali-hee-hee. The treasure vault contains everything I need to set up a new Scholar, so now I need to decide who gets to become a nerd for the foreseeable future. It's a tough call, since everybody's bringing something to the table in their current setup, but I decide that J. Bowie can go from Black Mage to Scholar for a while. One issue I notice right away is that despite receiving three different elements of book, they can't be used as items to cast spells like my White Mage staves can -- this could be a problem.

It's a tough call to make, but it actually seems slightly more beneficial to sacrifice Doug's physical DPS from Monk if I'm going to be fighting somebody that can change weaknesses. Black Magic is just too versatile and powerful to give up for that kind of fight.

A quick boat ride to Tokkul and SON OF A BITCH IT'S A TRAP. The party is paralyzed and jumped by a bunch of soldiers from Castle Hein, and imprisoned along with King Argus. I beat up a demon next door and then quickly escape thanks to a soldier giving me a second Mini spell. The dungeon itself is pretty short and I'm soon fighting Hein, who's a giant, flashily dressed skeleton that I also know as Amon thanks to FF14.

The Scholar actually shows itself to be pretty powerful during this fight, since Alchemy doubles the power of curative / offensive items used, so Doug was doing around 1500 damage per item use -- more than J. Bowie did with his tier 3 spells. Still, I'm all too happy to switch immediately back out of Scholar after the fight is over.

The Elder Tree drops everybody off at its fairy orgy, and they give me the Fang of Wind to go with my Fang of Water. The tree then decides to close the woods to outsiders for a millennium while it heals, and kicks me out. If I try to walk back in I just get dizzily thrown out.

My next stop seems to be either Tokkul or Castle Argus, but before that, time to save and try to get some sleep. Play time is at 5:15.

TMOG posted...

I'm gonna keep the rest of my party as-is (Monk, Black Mage, White Mage) for now

you beat Gutsco with a Monk? That is impressive. My Monk kept getting slaughtered by his Flame move

TMOG posted...

Tokkul is being burned to the ground, and also drops the hint that Hein (as I recall, the guy who made the flying tree castle) can "change his weakness on a whim" and I'd need a Scholar to "see through his tricks", so I guess I know what the circumstances shall imminently require.

I actually did this battle without a Scholar. Generally speaking, I don't like gimmicks that force you to change jobs for a single boss. I caved for Gutsco, but on this one, I stubbornly stuck with my preferred jobs. I had a harder time with the battle than you did, but I still defeated Hein on my first attempt

More than once, Hein switched his weakness at a poor time for me, and I accidentally healed him. However, I soldiered through it

TMOG posted...

I grind up to a nice, round level 20 -- character 20, that is. I have no idea what the hell the job level contributes at this point, but it definitely increases far quicker.

Job levels increase damage/healing done as well as how effective some job abilities are.

I completed 3 and started 4. If I'm being honest, I think I prefer the 3D version of 3 >_>

Also I don't know if this is exclusive to the Switch and PS4 versions of the Pixel Remasters but you can fight enemies through the bestiary if you access it through the main menu, which is pretty awesome.

That's a neat feature. To bad it can't be done from in game it's self. Warmech is still stuck at a kill count of 0. At least I got the satisfaction of over killing it with my monk hitting it for 5k.

Heading back to Tokkul first since it's closer, all the citizens there tell me they're in my debt, but don't actually offer anything. I guess heroism is its own reward or something at least give me a goddamn Potion for my troubles you squalid fuck

So, Castle Argus is the next stop, but first I want to check out that Gysahl town that was hyped up by the Dwarves. There's not much there except for a few free Gysahl Greens, hints that I can find the "leader of the chocobos" by leaving them near the tree in the clearings, magic keys for 100 gold a pop (I buy a stock of 30), and level four spells for my mages. Not a bad detour.

Heading to Argus, I put my keys to use and end up grabbing a few extra Scholar books that I'm never going to use and some free Elixirs from the locked doors, and then the king gives me his favorite book series, the Wheel of Time. He tells me to bring the Wheel to Cid, and I do so, and Cid converts my pirate-viking ship into an airship! The catch is that it can only land on water, because Cid, the resident airship genius of Final Fantasy 3, "forgot how to make it land on the ground."

o...k

Now I have an airship, with easily the best airship theme of the NES games. Time to fly around until I find my next goal, but first I have a chocobo-shaped lead to follow, so I head to the nearest chocobo forest and offer up the Gysahl Greens. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a Fat Chocobo. I can use this big boi to store items that I don't need, but I'm honestly not hurting for inventory space (and like to keep a few redundant pieces of equipment in case of emergency class changes). Still cool to know he's there if I need him.

I return to Castle Argus for my next lead and the king tells me now that I can fly, I should get the fuck off the flying continent and see the rest of the world. I do so, a little impressed that this game has a second world map, even if it is mostly empty ocean. What few other landmasses there are in this "vast world" have a couple points of interest; there's a big chunk of ice in the middle of the ocean, a small island with a wrecked ship on it, one that's all mountain that I can't even fly over, and the biggest piece of land has a massive building and a cave. I think I'll start there first.

The building, the Temple of Water, sounds like a good place to score some new jobs, so I start exploring. But the building tells me that only Aria, the Priestess of Water, can touch the Water Crystal's shard. So I guess there's nothing to do here yet except drink some magic healing water -- cave time.

Cave time is a waste of time, because the only door I can reach is sealed shut and not even a magic key can open it. Shipwreck time?

In the shipwreck I find the Blood Sword (where the fuck were you during my FF2 playthrough), an old man, and an unconscious young girl. The old man tells me that they're the only two survivors after the entire world flooded, which certainly explains a lot, and the girl wakes up after I pour a Potion down her throat. She immediately recognizes that we're the Warriors of Light and introduces herself as Aria -- convenient that one of the only two survivors of a worldwide flood is exactly the girl I'm looking for. She further explains that prior to the flood, everyone in the world was turned to stone and sank to the bottom of the ocean, and despite her injuries insists on joining the party so she can try to help fix everything.

I like you, Aria. Scoring some early points for moxie and good priorities.

I fly back to the Temple of Water, Aria grabs the shard, and next stop is a return to the Cave of Tides. But first I need to save, eat breakfast, and take meds.

Playtime is 5:55

TMOG posted...

In the shipwreck I find the Blood Sword (where the fuck were you during my FF2 playthrough)

The window to get it is so small it's almost funny. You have to speak with Paul after learning the Cyclone keyword but before you actually enter the cyclone itself, which, for those who don't know how long that is, is maybe a minute since the cyclone is right outside the area you learn the keyword

Aria breaks the seal on the door and in I go to the Cave of Tides, where I learn to hate all over again thanks to a particularly annoying enemy named Agaliarept, which always appear in groups of 2-3, frequently from behind, and can cast a pretty strong version of Blizzard. The cave itself is a pretty slow (and treasureless) dungeon crawl and soon I'm at the Water Crystal's chamber. Just as I start to think there might not be a boss fight here, a pervert in a robe steps out from behind a pillar and attacks, shooting Aria dead with an arrow.

Okay fucker it's go time, I liked her. >:(

The attacker is Kraken, and in true pervert fashion, he's a being made up of a ball of tentacles from the waist down. He's got some strong ice magic, but thankfully isn't nearly as much of a hassle as Gustco was.

After the fight, Aria gives the Warriors of Light the Water Crystal's blessing before she dies, which gives me a ton of new jobs that all sound more exciting than the last batch: Geomancer, Dragoon, Viking, Black Belt, Dark Knight, Evoker, and Bard. I immediately want to try multiples of these out. But before I can change anybody, another earthquake rocks the world as the waters recede, the continents rise again, and all the stoned people at the bottom of the sea return to flesh.

Well, it's now three days later, so let's try some jobs out. I switch J. Bowie to Evoker (it feels like it might be an upgrade to Black Mage), and of course Doug goes from Monk to Black Belt. I want to have Muuchi give Dark Knight a go, but apparently none of my swords work with the class, so it's back to Vanilla Knight for him.

Talking to some people in the bar, I learn that Goldor -- apparently having gone solo after years as Rita Repulsa's henchman -- has chained up my ship like a bastard. I also learn that he's apparently invulnerable to everything (magic included), lives to the south beyond a bottomless swamp, and I need Levigrass Shoes from some old kook who lives in the sewers to pass through.

As I'm talking to the townspeople outside the inn, a quartet of balding clowns flash mobs their way onto the scene, surround me, and then fuck right back off. Intrigued (and admittedly, slightly turned on) I follow them, and while talking with an old man named Gill about entering the sewers, the four clowns hide in the walls and eavesdrop. They're pretty sure that they're the real Warriors of Light, and decide to beat the party to the sewers.

Gill opens the gate "sealing" the sewers, which was really just preventing me from taking a two-foot drop into a shallow canal. This really doesn't feel like a top-of-the-line security system, but whatever. I find a full set of Thief armor hidden nearby, and between that and the NPCs talking about how much Goldor loves locked doors, okay game, I get the hint. For now, Doug is the one I choose to take the hit once again, and he temporarily becomes a Thief.

In the sewers, I quickly learn that Evoker does not have access to Black Magic, and after the first random encounter in which J. Bowie can do absolutely nothing I decide to instead make him the Thief, and set Doug back to Black Belt so he can start kicking a proper amount of ass again. This is what we call trial-and-error, people.

One floor down I find the bald clowns surrounded by a cult of Sith Inquisitors. After I save them from the goblin "threat", they realize that they're not the Warriors of Light after all and retire to mill around pointlessly in the sewers. I find Delilah shortly after, and she tries to bamboozle the party with fake exploding shoes (what) before the clowns run in, vouch for us, and she then throws the real Levigrass Shoes at us.

This game is a weird one.

With that, I need to grind a bit of gil to buy better daggers for my Thief, so clicking Post New Message on this one. Play time is at 6:38

Funny thing happened while grinding that gold. I found a few hidden rooms in the sewers that I missed before that contained not only the daggers I needed, but also a Thorian Hammer, so let's go Viking let's go. While testing it out, I realize that Draw Attacks is a great thing for a tank class to have, so for now I think Muuchi may have found a permanent vocation until the next crystal. As an added bonus, I get to walk around looking like a dwarf.

South I go, because I've got a bone to pick with Goldor. And holy shit this house is gaudy as fuck. We're talking Trump levels of tastelessness here. Even the random encounters are made of gold. It's during these random encounters that I realize that Viking is kind of trash -- the tanking ability is nice, but the damage output is negligible at best. That "new permanent vocation" lasted all of one paragraph -- back to Knight.

At the top, I fight Goldor. And it's a good thing I picked my Black Mage to turn into a Thief; while he's immune to magic as initially promised, he's not immune to physical attacks, and in fact takes a shitload of damage from them. He goes down easy.

Being a little bitch, after his defeat Goldor smashes the Fire Crystal behind him, but drops the key to the airship's chains during his escape. I take a chocobo back to Amur to poke around for a lead, and a couple old people tell me to head for Saronia, where the king apparently owns the fastest airship ever made. Saronia, here I come, wherever you are!

During my search for Saronia, I find an island town called Duster populated by Geomancers, a guy searching for the dark blade, and bards that play their obvious-sidequest-hinting songs the very second somebody approaches them. This looks to be the place to buy gear for Geomancers and Bards if I ever need (or want) to use those jobs, so I make a note of it.

I fly over an absolutely enormous city that turns out to be Castle Saronia, which I learn because they shoot my airship out of the sky motherFUCKER. There are also two armies fighting each other in the square where I land, apparently being forced to fight each other despite being comrades. The guards refuse to let me into the castle to see the king, but that son of a bitch already has a lot to answer for, so I'm gonna find a way.

Saronia itself is split into four districts, each with a neat piece of information: to summarize, the prince is in exile, the king is fuckin' nuts, the minister might be Garuda (whom "only a dragoon can defeat"), there's a secret tunnel connecting Castle Saronia's dungeons to the bottom of the ocean, and the dragoons keep their prized treasure at the top of a tower named Dragon's Spire.

Inside a tavern, I find a young child claiming to be Prince Alus being hassled by some mohawk punks, so I step in and kick some ass. Alus joins the party in the hopes of talking some sense into his father. He begs the old man outside not to give him away, but Alus, you are walking around wearing a fucking crown.

Before returning to the castle, I stop at the only open weapon shop to sell my eleven useless Golden Swords that I found in Goldor's house and buy four spears for Dragoons, just in case the NPCs aren't being hyperbolic this time when they say only a Dragoon can kill Garuda. I also want to check out the Dragon's Spire first.

But before that, a break. Play time is at 7:36

Just a heads up TC, Viking's HP growth is insane and it will outpace the rest of your party by a lot, so if you want characters to have higher HP then level them up while they're Vikings. At the end of my file, the character I made a Viking as soon as I acquired it has several hundred more HP than the characters that I kept as mages for a couple of levels before I grinded them as Vikings.

I realize that Viking is kind of trash -- the tanking ability is nice, but the damage output is negligible at best.

it really sucks that the ff series hates axes so much.

As my dedicated armor-wearing lad, I swap Muuchi to Dragoon as I head to the Dragon's Spire. Inside I find three full sets of Dragon Mail, four Dragon Helms, and three Thunder Spears, so it does seem like the game is trying to nudge me into doing a full party of Dragoons. Once again, FF3, hint received. Due to my shortage of full sets, however, I decide to keep Melfi as a White Mage -- it never hurts to have a healer anyway.

The king allows Alus and the Warriors of Light to enter the castle, and even hooks us up with a room to sleep in overnight. Like a bunch of idiots we all go immediately to sleep. Just as the WoLs try to reassure Alus that the king has to still love him, the king sneaks in and fucking attacks Alus in his sleep with a knife. Minister Gigamesh follows him in as a hype man for child murder, but the king stabs himself instead.

With his mind control over the king broken, Gigamesh reveals his true form as Garuda, the oddly sexual bird man. And holy fucking SHIT, Dragoon Jumps rock his entire world. Unfortunately, not hard enough to make up for how much his Lightning attack rocks my world, and I get my third Game Over. FF3 definitely doesn't fuck around compared to the first two games, huh?

So, this was a short update, because clearly some grinding in Dragon's Spire is necessary, brb

Assuming Thief wasn't buffed in the DS version, it makes for a good party member. I've seen people say thief was bad in the DS version, but that was thanks to there being a long stretch where there's no new weapons for a thief until after the third crystal.

Garuda defeated me, too. I didn't grind in the Dragon's Spire. I switched my entire party to Dragoons. My Dragoon Jumps had good timing, and I was able to defeat Garuda

It can be done without grinding, but you have to try a few times for the random number generator to give you good timing, with your turn order

Or you can be a soldier, and grind

Level 27 provides me with enough raw attack power to kill Garuda in a single round of Jumps. I feel like I may have overcorrected a bit.

After the fight, the king dies, and Alus takes the throne. Before I leave, I spot a secret passage in the wall that leads to oodles of new gear, including a few sets of... Rusty Mail. Hype?

King Alus gives us his blessing to loot the entire kingdom, some bards sing a few more songs about sidequests, I'm directed to head to the south continent and fight three mages (sadly not the Magus Sisters), and given a brand new airship to replace my exploded one. I also get a peek at a guy in armor waiting in a secret room under the mages' quarters that I can't reach yet, so I guess I'll have to come back later to either talk to him, kill him, or both.

On the south continent, I arrive at Doga's Manor. I'm only three steps in before a trio of fearsome moogles arrives to defend the house, but Doga stops them, realizing that the party is the Warriors of Light. He gives a lore dump: The villain of this story is Xande, who's pissed off that his master Noah gave him the lame gift of mortality while Doga and Unei got magic and the power over dreams.

You know what? I'd be a little peeved too.

Doga also reveals that Goldor destroyed a fake Earth Crystal (I'm not sure if I misread earlier when I said it was the Fire Crystal, or if the game made an oopsy. I could swear it said Fire, though.) (Actually, now that I think about it, Gutsco/Pissed Barney was the Fire Crystal, right? Yeah, I probably misread.) (I still want to say the game was wrong though.) and that the real one is still hidden somewhere.

Doga then joins my party, telling me that I have to go to his bedroom, shrink down with Mini, and enter the Cave of the Circle i need an adult

I change my party to all Mages, and just for the sake of variety, decide that I'm going to see how Geomancer does with its Terrain ability while shrunken down. Seems like as good a time as any to field test it. It works out pretty god damn well, which is good, because I don't have to spread my spellbook out as thin between all four party members. If I had the extra gear for it, I'd probably go ahead and run three Geos and a healer for this part, but I sadly don't.

At the far end of the Cave of the Circle, Doga casts a spell that lets my new airship travel underwater, and then threatens to fucking die. He also directs me to go to the Temple of Time to obtain Noah's Lute, so I can enter the world of dreams and drag Unei back, while he goes to find Eureka's Key. After that he tells me we need to commandeer a battleship named the Invincible and for fuck's sake man can we just take this one step at a time please?

He then teleports us back outside of his house, and for the life of me, I can't figure out why I needed to have that shrunken escapade at all.

Anyway, it's time to go deep sea diving, but not tonight -- I've played enough today. Playtime is at 9 hours.

hexa posted...

Or you can be a soldier, and grind

I'm kind of glad I put the time in to grind because it was actually pretty funny watching him take over 2000 damage per hit three times and then immediately decompose

TMOG posted...

Doga then joins my party, telling me that I have to go to his bedroom, shrink down with Mini, and enter the Cave of the Circle i need an adult.

Doga is a adult.

Forgot to mention in my last post, Evoker is basically a summoner that has a different effect with what they summon. For example instead of Ifrit using it's signature hell fire, it will either use a healing spell on the party or a single target fire spell.

TMOG posted...

Doga also reveals that Goldor destroyed a fake Earth Crystal (I'm not sure if I misread earlier when I said it was the Fire Crystal, or if the game made an oopsy

The game got it correct. You misread it

hexa posted...

The game got it correct. You misread it

Yeah, I realized that in the very next sentence lol

I dive underwater south of Saronia, but instead of the Temple of Time, I accidentally end up in the Saronia Catacombs. It's a short dungeon but overall a worthwhile detour -- the loot's good, the gold is good, and the experience is great.

Then I arrive at the end and find the armored man in the castle's basement, who turns out to be Odin, who turns out to introduce me to every last inch of the inside of my own ass. Game Over #4. I'll... I'll come back at a better time, Mr. Odin, sir.

The actual Temple of Time turns out to be much farther south. The fights in here are considerably tougher than the Catacombs, almost forcing me to leave after a few floors and restock my supply of Hi-Potions, because I go through several between battles just to keep everybody above 50% -- especially once dragons start showing up as random encounters.

Just as I'm about to pull the Teleport Trigger, however, I find Noah's Lute, and it plays me a nice song before jumping into my inventory. I honestly would have been pretty mad at myself if I evacuated literally one door away from finishing the dungeon with no boss fight lol

Since I just got a musical instrument as a key item, I presume that the game is going to want me to use at least one Bard next, so I swap J. Bowie. He's honestly become a bit redundant as a Black Mage lately; his spells are great when they're useful, but during most fights I just have him Defend or play Item Boy since I don't want to waste his MP in a game where Ethers don't seem to exist.

I find Unei sleeping in a cave, talk to her parrot because of course I'm gonna talk to the parrot, and play the lute. She wakes up, puts her parrot on her shoulder, dances around the roof of her cave to some jaunty music, and then stands on a table to introduce herself. Unei then joins the party, gives me the Fang of Fire, and directs me to the ancient ruins in the north.

Heading to the northernmost tip of the continent, I find the village of Replito, where I can finally buy some Summons to make Evoker into a class worth having. I had just spent all of my gold, however; I'm able to buy the first three (Chocobo, Shiva, and Ramuh) but not Ifrit or Titan, so I'll have to either grind or come back here after my next dungeon crawl. A hidden Gulgan gives a small lore dump that the current flood of darkness threatening the world might be the result of some summoner summoning a summon, and I also get a tip about a hidden underwater treasure trove.

Sunken treasure seems like a pretty good side quest to me, so I detour to that triangular island and dive down. Sure enough, I walk out with some VERY worthwhile loot, a few extra levels, and a chance to properly test drive Bard -- and oh wow, I like this class a lot more than I expected to. It's not terribly weak, can attack from the back row and help the healer out, and the Lamia Harp even lets it confuse enemies incredibly consistently. All I need to do now is figure out how to get more songs for it and this class might actually end up as a keeper.

Play time is at ten hours, twenty minutes.

I find it funny that they added eithers to FF1 and made it restore 1 charge for each level, but didn't do the same for FF3.

Tsukasa1891 posted...

I find it funny that they added eithers to FF1 and made it restore 1 charge for each level, but didn't do the same for FF3.

Yeah, I checked the shops hoping to find them, but nothing.

It's not even possible to keep everybody on a melee-focused class and swap to a spellcaster in the field when necessary, because all their spell charges start at 0 when you change job, and there's no way to replenish them other than an inn/mystic water.

Bump the 3rd.

Finally done with FF2 and now on to FF3. FF3 is the one I looked forward to the most as I only played the DS version. Wouldn't of taken so long with FF2 if I didn't decide to make ultima good but maxing all weapon levels and spell levels for Firion.

Thanks for the bump.

I haven't abandoned this playthrough, I've just been having complications from what I no longer think was strep alone. It's been sapping my energy a lot. :(

Dang, I hope you feel better soon, TMOG

I finished IV yesterday, final boss was a royal pain that took me multiple tries but I got 'em in the end

I think I've finished more main Final Fantasies in the past 3 weeks than I have in the last 15 years lol

I get not having the energy to do anything when sick. Just got over something last month that lasted a couple weeks.

Back to FF3. I just got the third set of jobs and I'd like to know who the hell decided half the new jobs shouldn't get any new equipment. I wanted to use a Dark Night, Bard and Geomancer. There's no weapons for Dark Knight while Bard and Geomancer can only use early game armor. They were frail enough as White/Black Mages, but they at least didn't get 2 shot in random battles.

Tsukasa1891 posted...

I get not having the energy to do anything when sick. Just got over something last month that lasted a couple weeks.

Back to FF3. I just got the third set of jobs and I'd like to know who the hell decided half the new jobs shouldn't get any new equipment. I wanted to use a Dark Night, Bard and Geomancer. There's no weapons for Dark Knight while Bard and Geomancer can only use early game armor. They were frail enough as White/Black Mages, but they at least didn't get 2 shot in random battles.

There's a town with Bard and Geomancer equipment you should be able to reach with the airship.

McMarbles posted...

There's a town with Bard and Geomancer equipment you should be able to reach with the airship.

The airship is chained down for now. I'll need to get through a couple dungeons to release it.

Tsukasa1891 posted...

There's no weapons for Dark Knight

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/323466-final-fantasy-iii-pixel-remaster/79600277