Completed it! Woo hoo!
This was tough. Kept having to go back to town to get Golden Needles
and Maidens Kisses especially, as I didn’t stock up enough to start.
But Arubboth, nee Unknown Palace, kept throwing those Toading mobs at
me. The mini-bosses were pretty nasty too, especially the Steel Giant.
(In reading about this game in hindsight, people complain that it was
way too grindy, but I didn’t find the base game that way. Only had to
really grind for 60-80 minutes. Proportionally WAY more grinding in
SoR, but even then it wasn’t too bad. Other than that, just explored
and played through the story. Never ran from a fight.)
So the emperor. Not much backstory, but in terms of raw power, that’s
gotta be one of the most awesome villains around. Conquers the world,
then SPLITS IN TWO TO CONQUER BOTH HEAVEN AND HELL. Wow. As a boss,
the Heaven Emperor wasn’t really all that hard to be honest – similar in
difficulty to the Hell Emperor.
I wonder if the Heaven Emperor really was different from the Hell one.
I’ll bet he is. Still power-hungry, but probably in a more benevolent
way. Unless he was 100% lying about the good and evil split post-death,
which is entirely possible.
I love the shifting perspectives at the end. I loved that we got to see
the main party – Maria and friends – fighting the Hell Emperor! And
then, the living spirits visit the ghosts in heaven to give us
inspiration to fight the Heaven Emperor (or is it Empress?). I love
that was got the ghost perspective
AND KAIN IS RICARD’S SON. I played FFIV before so I remember him. Is
that some parallel universe shit? Must be, because I can’t believe it’s
the same world as FFIV.
Some final stats…
Soul of Rebirth time total: just over seven hours
Health per character –
Minwu: ~1500
Scott: ~2500
Josef: ~1700
Ricard: ~3400
-----
Next up: FFIII. I got the Nintendo DS emulator, DeSmuME, and at first
glance the FFIII rom seems to work with it, but the double screen thing
is weird tbh. So is the 3D thing. Do you guys recommend this over the
NES version?
Showing posts with label Final Fantasy II. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Final Fantasy II. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
FFII – Part 9: Village of the Damned
Machanon is a pretty cool city, and a welcome break from the ordeal in
the caves. It both confuses me more and rules things out. It rules out
that this is hell, because Cid’s right – there are innocent children
running around here! I know kids can be assholes just like anyone else,
but come on. Plus, the music’s all peaceful. I also don’t remember a
town between the Jade Passage and Pandemonium.
The premise of the town really got me wondering. How did they create this town? I suppose even Dante started by getting lost in a wood, so… maybe they chopped down the Wood of Confusion to create a town… Or maybe it’s like “What Dreams May Come,” where their will and imagination creates it!
The townsfolk said people got dragged off by monsters and eaten. If there’s no death after death, then are they doomed to being eternal monster snacks? Sorry for continuing to harp on this point, but the idea of eternal torment – heck, the idea of eternal anything other than sleep/unconsciousness/true peace – horrifies me.
Got some potions, ether, and a few anti-effect things. Nobody in the town knows wtf is happening, even Cid, but there are three places to go: the cave, the “Unknown Palace” that seems like the mirror image of Pandemonium, and… the Ultima room?
WTF
Is that the real Ultima room? Can’t be. Minwu had broken the seal. Some special zombie version? Maybe.
I went here first. No enemies, but some nice boosts, and a boss fight where we actually kill the embodiment of the Ultima spell. Very tough fight! Lots of HP, lots of damage, but even nastier he used spells intelligently. When one of my guys died and I brought him back to life, Ultima cast flare on that guy first, killing him again quickly. Poor Maria must have died like six times before my slow self caught on.
After I won, my chutzpah rating was through the roof, so I decided to try the next place, the Unknown Palace.
Yeah. NOT READY. A group of Bloodbones, Lil’ Murderers (LOL), and Mini Satana (LOL) stomped my ass without a problem. Even the Lil’ Murderers tricked me by use of the goblin model which made me think I could one-shot them. Not so much.
Spent the rest of my session grinding up cash, hp, mp, and some basic spell levels in the cave. Also got the spells from a vendor I stumbled across hidden inside a waterfall in the cave. I thought the afterlife was rough for my guys fighting through way more powerful monsters, but that sounds better than being drenched and damned to eternal retail tbh.
--
Next time: push as far as I can through the Unknown Palace.
The premise of the town really got me wondering. How did they create this town? I suppose even Dante started by getting lost in a wood, so… maybe they chopped down the Wood of Confusion to create a town… Or maybe it’s like “What Dreams May Come,” where their will and imagination creates it!
The townsfolk said people got dragged off by monsters and eaten. If there’s no death after death, then are they doomed to being eternal monster snacks? Sorry for continuing to harp on this point, but the idea of eternal torment – heck, the idea of eternal anything other than sleep/unconsciousness/true peace – horrifies me.
Got some potions, ether, and a few anti-effect things. Nobody in the town knows wtf is happening, even Cid, but there are three places to go: the cave, the “Unknown Palace” that seems like the mirror image of Pandemonium, and… the Ultima room?
WTF
Is that the real Ultima room? Can’t be. Minwu had broken the seal. Some special zombie version? Maybe.
I went here first. No enemies, but some nice boosts, and a boss fight where we actually kill the embodiment of the Ultima spell. Very tough fight! Lots of HP, lots of damage, but even nastier he used spells intelligently. When one of my guys died and I brought him back to life, Ultima cast flare on that guy first, killing him again quickly. Poor Maria must have died like six times before my slow self caught on.
After I won, my chutzpah rating was through the roof, so I decided to try the next place, the Unknown Palace.
Yeah. NOT READY. A group of Bloodbones, Lil’ Murderers (LOL), and Mini Satana (LOL) stomped my ass without a problem. Even the Lil’ Murderers tricked me by use of the goblin model which made me think I could one-shot them. Not so much.
Spent the rest of my session grinding up cash, hp, mp, and some basic spell levels in the cave. Also got the spells from a vendor I stumbled across hidden inside a waterfall in the cave. I thought the afterlife was rough for my guys fighting through way more powerful monsters, but that sounds better than being drenched and damned to eternal retail tbh.
--
Next time: push as far as I can through the Unknown Palace.
FFII – Part 8: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
This is wild. This is beyond wild. I love this premise so much.
Just when I thought FF2 was over and the story wrapped up, we get to see the story of the side characters who died. After they died. In Hell. Or… well, something that’s probably not hell but is some kind of afterlife?
[West Wing spoilers] Vg’f yvxr vs gurl qvq n Jrfg Jvat fcvabss pnyyrq, “Znaqlivyyr,” fgneevat Ebo Ybjr naq Zbven Xryyl. V’q gbgnyyl or vagb vg.
Minwu is the main character, and first meets up with and helps out Scott. I don’t quite get who they’re fighting. They look like imperial knights, but this is Ghostland, so they’re the ghosts of imperial knights? What happens when they die? Do they keep coming back for more, like Zombie Barghest says? Do they go to Double Hell?
The answer: when my characters die again, they go to the load screen. How do I know this? Because this cave is FUCKING HARD, and I went to the load screen approximately seventy-three billion times. I knew jackshit when I started FF2, and one of the mistakes I made was not gearing up my fourth characters. Another mistake was keeping Minwu in the back row for his duration in my party. This means he had about 400 health in SoR to start.
Giants? I’m dead. Rhinos? I’m dead. Vampires? Dead. Anything ambushing me? Dead. Every fight through this cave – at least until Ricard, who had 2k health and hit like a truck – was basically a boss fight, struggling to survive with what little resources and ether I had.
I do like the self-aware humor about how similar the deaths of these side characters all were:
RICARD: At least I bought them as much time as I could.
JOSEF: You too, huh?
LOL
I also imagine some of y’all are laughing at me because it probably only gets harder, but the start of Soul of Rebirth is without question the most difficult part of the FF series so far. No question.
I even commented in the last post about how much I enjoy the side characters, and now I get them all to myself? What a treat.
---
Next time: Machanon.
Just when I thought FF2 was over and the story wrapped up, we get to see the story of the side characters who died. After they died. In Hell. Or… well, something that’s probably not hell but is some kind of afterlife?
[West Wing spoilers] Vg’f yvxr vs gurl qvq n Jrfg Jvat fcvabss pnyyrq, “Znaqlivyyr,” fgneevat Ebo Ybjr naq Zbven Xryyl. V’q gbgnyyl or vagb vg.
Minwu is the main character, and first meets up with and helps out Scott. I don’t quite get who they’re fighting. They look like imperial knights, but this is Ghostland, so they’re the ghosts of imperial knights? What happens when they die? Do they keep coming back for more, like Zombie Barghest says? Do they go to Double Hell?
The answer: when my characters die again, they go to the load screen. How do I know this? Because this cave is FUCKING HARD, and I went to the load screen approximately seventy-three billion times. I knew jackshit when I started FF2, and one of the mistakes I made was not gearing up my fourth characters. Another mistake was keeping Minwu in the back row for his duration in my party. This means he had about 400 health in SoR to start.
Giants? I’m dead. Rhinos? I’m dead. Vampires? Dead. Anything ambushing me? Dead. Every fight through this cave – at least until Ricard, who had 2k health and hit like a truck – was basically a boss fight, struggling to survive with what little resources and ether I had.
I do like the self-aware humor about how similar the deaths of these side characters all were:
RICARD: At least I bought them as much time as I could.
JOSEF: You too, huh?
LOL
I also imagine some of y’all are laughing at me because it probably only gets harder, but the start of Soul of Rebirth is without question the most difficult part of the FF series so far. No question.
I even commented in the last post about how much I enjoy the side characters, and now I get them all to myself? What a treat.
---
Next time: Machanon.
FFII - Part 7: The Devil is Not the King of Hell
I didn't grind much - maybe an hour? But enough to get Flare (Maria),
Holy (Firion), and Ultima (Guy) up to around level 7-8. I really like
that the overworld monsters changed at some point to be higher level, so
it's not just goblins outside Fynn.
Turns out there wasn't a whole lot of reason to travel around to the different cities, because most of them were destroyed. Oh well. It was all worth it though, because in Deist Castle, the mother and child there got a bit sentimental at bringing up Ricard's death, and gave me freaking Excalibur. Guy was pretty happy to take it.
Back through the Jade Passage for another crack at the Pandemonium Castle. I still think it's beautiful, that crystal and white and pink aesthetic, but I'm pretty sure I didn't look closely enough last time. The walls seem to be made of bones, and the pink seems to be some kind of organ/muscle/organic compound. Good from far, far from good.
The monsters were surprisingly not too hard with one exception - DEATH RIDERS. These guys hit like trucks and drain with their hits. When more than one ambushed me, there was nothing I could do but die and reload my last save. When I wasn't ambushed, I found that the best defense was a good offense, and didn't waste time buffing or healing, just attacked full throttle, and did pretty well.
Pandemonium's layout was (intentionally) confusing, with doors on one floor leading sometimes to floors way higher or lower, so I just kind of went with it. It makes me think I missed stuff, but this was just a first run. Fought two mini-bosses as I went, Beelzebub (pretty easy) and Astaroth (HOLY SHIT HARD). Astaroth's massive draining hits made her feel like a Death Rider boss. She was touch and go, and it was a LONG fight, but eventually won. Barely.
Quick note: the Pandemonium music? E P I C
[youtube hx_iswdWY-4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx_iswdWY-4 youtube]
The top floor was beautiful, and the Emperor actually wasn't too tough, just resilient. Never felt in any real danger. His Starfall was gorgeous - I was expecting little cartoon five-pointed stars to rain on me, but he summons THE SUN instead. Did only 200-300 damage, so pretty weak, but cool graphic.
And game!
Nice enough ending, and glad to see Ghost!Josef pop in to say hi, but I'm still really confused about Leon. I thought at the beginning of the game that he was running away with us and killed by the Empire, or captured. Then, when I figured out he was the Dark Knight, I figured it was like FFIV (the one game I played prior to this playthrough) where Xnva jnf oenvajnfurq vagb jbexvat sbe Tbyorm. But this wasn't the case! He seems like he joined the Empire all on his own. Which, okay, I like that better than brainwashing, but from the time he was captured he rose through their ranks AWFULLY quick. And it sounded like he was in charge of the Dreadnought building for a while!
The only way it makes sense to me is f he was secretly the Dark Knight working for the empire long before they ran. Or maybe I totally misjudged the timeline. Or something else?
------------
A few miscellaneous parting thoughts:
-Cool villain! No tragic backstory, but I'm okay with that. He's purely power hungry, and really good at his job if he was able to CONQUER HELL. I like.
-Weak main characters. It's a step up - or sideways at least - from FFI, where there's no character background at all, but I had no real sense of who Maria, Firion, and Guy really were.
-Great side character. Minwu's loyalty and dedication was interesting, Josef's was fun to be around, Gordon was fine in small doses, Hilda was cool. Ricard was meh, but ok. Paul was great, and I wish we got more of him.
-Oh, yeah.. I HATE the empty treasure rooms. They vastly outnumber the rooms with treasure in them, and just slowed things down. Would've liked to see the ratio reversed, even if the treasure the rooms contained wasn't great - an ether or hi-potion or something would've been fine.
---------
So that's FFII! Next up, FFIII. It's coming out soon for PC, so I'm actually thinking about waiting for the PC version to come out and moving onto IV in the meanwhile. This is....
Wait. Credits. What are you doing. THERE'S MORE FFII?? [Thank you SO MUCH, StungunMilly for pointing this out to me!]
NEXT UP: FFII - Rebirth of Souls, with 87% more Minwu!
Turns out there wasn't a whole lot of reason to travel around to the different cities, because most of them were destroyed. Oh well. It was all worth it though, because in Deist Castle, the mother and child there got a bit sentimental at bringing up Ricard's death, and gave me freaking Excalibur. Guy was pretty happy to take it.
Back through the Jade Passage for another crack at the Pandemonium Castle. I still think it's beautiful, that crystal and white and pink aesthetic, but I'm pretty sure I didn't look closely enough last time. The walls seem to be made of bones, and the pink seems to be some kind of organ/muscle/organic compound. Good from far, far from good.
The monsters were surprisingly not too hard with one exception - DEATH RIDERS. These guys hit like trucks and drain with their hits. When more than one ambushed me, there was nothing I could do but die and reload my last save. When I wasn't ambushed, I found that the best defense was a good offense, and didn't waste time buffing or healing, just attacked full throttle, and did pretty well.
Pandemonium's layout was (intentionally) confusing, with doors on one floor leading sometimes to floors way higher or lower, so I just kind of went with it. It makes me think I missed stuff, but this was just a first run. Fought two mini-bosses as I went, Beelzebub (pretty easy) and Astaroth (HOLY SHIT HARD). Astaroth's massive draining hits made her feel like a Death Rider boss. She was touch and go, and it was a LONG fight, but eventually won. Barely.
Quick note: the Pandemonium music? E P I C
[youtube hx_iswdWY-4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx_iswdWY-4 youtube]
The top floor was beautiful, and the Emperor actually wasn't too tough, just resilient. Never felt in any real danger. His Starfall was gorgeous - I was expecting little cartoon five-pointed stars to rain on me, but he summons THE SUN instead. Did only 200-300 damage, so pretty weak, but cool graphic.
And game!
Nice enough ending, and glad to see Ghost!Josef pop in to say hi, but I'm still really confused about Leon. I thought at the beginning of the game that he was running away with us and killed by the Empire, or captured. Then, when I figured out he was the Dark Knight, I figured it was like FFIV (the one game I played prior to this playthrough) where Xnva jnf oenvajnfurq vagb jbexvat sbe Tbyorm. But this wasn't the case! He seems like he joined the Empire all on his own. Which, okay, I like that better than brainwashing, but from the time he was captured he rose through their ranks AWFULLY quick. And it sounded like he was in charge of the Dreadnought building for a while!
The only way it makes sense to me is f he was secretly the Dark Knight working for the empire long before they ran. Or maybe I totally misjudged the timeline. Or something else?
------------
A few miscellaneous parting thoughts:
-Cool villain! No tragic backstory, but I'm okay with that. He's purely power hungry, and really good at his job if he was able to CONQUER HELL. I like.
-Weak main characters. It's a step up - or sideways at least - from FFI, where there's no character background at all, but I had no real sense of who Maria, Firion, and Guy really were.
-Great side character. Minwu's loyalty and dedication was interesting, Josef's was fun to be around, Gordon was fine in small doses, Hilda was cool. Ricard was meh, but ok. Paul was great, and I wish we got more of him.
-Oh, yeah.. I HATE the empty treasure rooms. They vastly outnumber the rooms with treasure in them, and just slowed things down. Would've liked to see the ratio reversed, even if the treasure the rooms contained wasn't great - an ether or hi-potion or something would've been fine.
---------
So that's FFII! Next up, FFIII. It's coming out soon for PC, so I'm actually thinking about waiting for the PC version to come out and moving onto IV in the meanwhile. This is....
Wait. Credits. What are you doing. THERE'S MORE FFII?? [Thank you SO MUCH, StungunMilly for pointing this out to me!]
NEXT UP: FFII - Rebirth of Souls, with 87% more Minwu!
FFII - Part 6: Nature Trail to Hell
Final Fantasy surprised me again. I mean, legit surprised me. In FFI,
GARLAND, who I assumed was just a tutorial, was the big boss. With time
travel and time loops thrown in.
This time, I traveled to the emperor's fortress in the eye of a cyclone (SUPER cool effect and cutscene) and killed the emperor. It seemed a bit too easy. Went back to Fynn, celebrated, and it turned out Dark Knight Leon ascended to the throne. I flew in my nifty new airship to kill him, had fun storming the castle, and then the emperor returned to take back the throne. In demon-ghost form.
I kind of expected that.
What I didn't expect is that he'd bring all the powers of hell with him! Earlier in the game, they said that the emperor was summoning monsters from the underworld, but I just assumed that was a metaphorical thing, not an actual place. Does this mean there's a heaven? Who judges souls to see whether they go to the underworld? Are the monsters we fight human souls?
Was the pudding I complained about yesterday actually somebody's daughter or son once?
Probably not. This sounds like the definition of "overthinking," but I can't help wondering about crap like this - if the underworld has an economy, if the monsters are just like animals, what monster parenting techniques are like.
---
ANYWAY.
The literal hell/underworld twist really knocked me back. Especially since I didn't just scale Castle Pandemonium - I had to go through the Jade Passage to get to the castle's true version located in hell. No Charon to help me cross, but that's okay.
Jade Passage was tough, with some pretty cool looking monsters. My personal favorite on the creepy scale was the Eyemoeba:
(from the FF official site)
EDIT: turns out this was actually from Palamecia Castle, but still cool!
But I made it! To the extraordinarily beautiful Castle Pandaemonium. I was expecting fire and skulls, and was delighted to see pink decoration and crystals instead. Except for the fact that the monsters in there KICKED MY ASS SIX WAYS FROM SUNDAY. The Mythril Golem was rough to take down, and the Death Riders stomped me hard. So exited out to grind spells and HP a bit for the first time this game.
Next time: Preparation. Spell raising, grinding, and a world tour to see if there are any spells and crap I missed from various towns that'll help me going into what I imagine (based on the difficulty) to be one of the final dungeons in the game.
This time, I traveled to the emperor's fortress in the eye of a cyclone (SUPER cool effect and cutscene) and killed the emperor. It seemed a bit too easy. Went back to Fynn, celebrated, and it turned out Dark Knight Leon ascended to the throne. I flew in my nifty new airship to kill him, had fun storming the castle, and then the emperor returned to take back the throne. In demon-ghost form.
I kind of expected that.
What I didn't expect is that he'd bring all the powers of hell with him! Earlier in the game, they said that the emperor was summoning monsters from the underworld, but I just assumed that was a metaphorical thing, not an actual place. Does this mean there's a heaven? Who judges souls to see whether they go to the underworld? Are the monsters we fight human souls?
Was the pudding I complained about yesterday actually somebody's daughter or son once?
Probably not. This sounds like the definition of "overthinking," but I can't help wondering about crap like this - if the underworld has an economy, if the monsters are just like animals, what monster parenting techniques are like.
---
ANYWAY.
The literal hell/underworld twist really knocked me back. Especially since I didn't just scale Castle Pandemonium - I had to go through the Jade Passage to get to the castle's true version located in hell. No Charon to help me cross, but that's okay.
Jade Passage was tough, with some pretty cool looking monsters. My personal favorite on the creepy scale was the Eyemoeba:
(from the FF official site)
EDIT: turns out this was actually from Palamecia Castle, but still cool!
But I made it! To the extraordinarily beautiful Castle Pandaemonium. I was expecting fire and skulls, and was delighted to see pink decoration and crystals instead. Except for the fact that the monsters in there KICKED MY ASS SIX WAYS FROM SUNDAY. The Mythril Golem was rough to take down, and the Death Riders stomped me hard. So exited out to grind spells and HP a bit for the first time this game.
Next time: Preparation. Spell raising, grinding, and a world tour to see if there are any spells and crap I missed from various towns that'll help me going into what I imagine (based on the difficulty) to be one of the final dungeons in the game.
FFII - Part 5: Bill Cosby is Annoying
"Final Fantasy," right there with Dragon Warrior, is one of the real
Founding Parents fantasy video games, and the early games I'm seeing so
far are traditional adventures in many ways. I've traveled to ice
caves, volcanos, jungles, ancient ruins, and castles in the sky. I
fight with swords, magic, and courage.
The enemies that fell beneath my assault are a similarly traditional and fierce lot! Dragons! Evil knights! Wizards! Zombies!
And so which of these villains causes me the most hassle?
Giants? Dragons? Ghosts? Witches? Sea monsters? Demons? No. (Although Imp packs in the Mysidian Tower who kept casting "Confuse" on my party were no picnic.) What then?
Evil, creepy-eyed pudding. Not even kidding.
It's not even more generic "Blob" or "Slime." It's literal dessert that fights me. The names of these enemies are Yellow Jelly, Red Mousse, and Black Flan. They're frigging EVERYWHERE, and I have to constantly blow mana to kill them unless I get really lucky with a melee hit. They're not that hard, but definitely a new level of annoying.
----
So I got the Black Mask, then the Crystal Rod from the Mysidian Cave, and got eaten by Leviathan. I have a deep-seated terror of massive things, especially massive SEA things. Monstro terrified me in "Pinocchio," Star Tropics terrified me when the whale ate me, the Kraken in the old "Clash of the Titans" gave me nightmares too. The cutscene here was great - we don't even see the monster, just the whirlpool, our descent, and the imagination does the rest.
Got the Dragoon companion, who did his Kenny-from-South-Park impression the rest of this session.
So escaped the leviathan, scaled the tower, and got Ultima. Bye, Minwu! You brave little soldier. You were too precious for this world. Tower was pretty epic in scale with enough variety to stay interesting.
Next time: off to Fynn to report in!
The enemies that fell beneath my assault are a similarly traditional and fierce lot! Dragons! Evil knights! Wizards! Zombies!
And so which of these villains causes me the most hassle?
Giants? Dragons? Ghosts? Witches? Sea monsters? Demons? No. (Although Imp packs in the Mysidian Tower who kept casting "Confuse" on my party were no picnic.) What then?
Evil, creepy-eyed pudding. Not even kidding.
It's not even more generic "Blob" or "Slime." It's literal dessert that fights me. The names of these enemies are Yellow Jelly, Red Mousse, and Black Flan. They're frigging EVERYWHERE, and I have to constantly blow mana to kill them unless I get really lucky with a melee hit. They're not that hard, but definitely a new level of annoying.
----
So I got the Black Mask, then the Crystal Rod from the Mysidian Cave, and got eaten by Leviathan. I have a deep-seated terror of massive things, especially massive SEA things. Monstro terrified me in "Pinocchio," Star Tropics terrified me when the whale ate me, the Kraken in the old "Clash of the Titans" gave me nightmares too. The cutscene here was great - we don't even see the monster, just the whirlpool, our descent, and the imagination does the rest.
Got the Dragoon companion, who did his Kenny-from-South-Park impression the rest of this session.
So escaped the leviathan, scaled the tower, and got Ultima. Bye, Minwu! You brave little soldier. You were too precious for this world. Tower was pretty epic in scale with enough variety to stay interesting.
Next time: off to Fynn to report in!
FFII - Part 4: Seduced by a Snake Monster
So... yeah. A snake monster disguised herself as Hilda, seduced Firion, and we killed her. Ok.
The real Hilda was being held by the emperor as a prize (GROSS DUDE) in his arena. Went there, killed a behemoth, and rescued Hilda with that thief Paul's help before heading back to Altair.
The rebels took back Fynn. It's weird to see Gordon and NonSnake!Hilda in an actual castle and not a warehouse in Altair.
Next quest they sent me on is to find the Ultima spell at a tower in Mysidia, or rather to help Minwu do this. To get into the tower, I need a Crystal Rod. To get the Crystal Rod, I need a White Mask and a Black Mask. Got the White Mask from tunnels beneath Castle Fynn, and I'm camped now just outside a cave on a little speck of an island in the sea.
--
Maybe it's level or party composition, but the caves underneath Fynn actually went pretty smooth compared to last session's dungeons. FF2 marches on!
The real Hilda was being held by the emperor as a prize (GROSS DUDE) in his arena. Went there, killed a behemoth, and rescued Hilda with that thief Paul's help before heading back to Altair.
The rebels took back Fynn. It's weird to see Gordon and NonSnake!Hilda in an actual castle and not a warehouse in Altair.
Next quest they sent me on is to find the Ultima spell at a tower in Mysidia, or rather to help Minwu do this. To get into the tower, I need a Crystal Rod. To get the Crystal Rod, I need a White Mask and a Black Mask. Got the White Mask from tunnels beneath Castle Fynn, and I'm camped now just outside a cave on a little speck of an island in the sea.
--
Maybe it's level or party composition, but the caves underneath Fynn actually went pretty smooth compared to last session's dungeons. FF2 marches on!
FFII - Part 3: FUCK DEIST CAVERNS
I imagine I'll be using that title format again. This was TOUGH! Unlike last time where the conditions (darkness and poison) were the sticking points, here it was just mobs hitting for truckloads of damage.
Deist Caverns DIAF List
Hill Gigas (in pairs)
Revenants
Chimeras (the boss)
And when they ambushed me? Ow.
Storywise: Fought off an awesome pirate, Leila, who joined me. We went to Deist island in our boat, where the Empire had poisoned the wyverns.
dammit empire (
Went to Deist Cavern, explored it, flipped tables in rage, and got a Pendant that let me speak the Wyvern language. Went back to Deist Castle, spoke to the last living wyvern who gave me her egg. *bow chicka wow wow* Took the egg to a spring in the bottom of Deist Cavern and dropped it there to hatch, hopefully becoming an awesome mount or ally for me later in the game.
That's where I left off. Next time: um... dunno? Back to Altair to check in with Hilda I guess.
FFII - Part 2: Dreadnought Down
It's early, but I'm comfortable saying this game is WAAAY harder than FFI.
The two major dungeons I did so far, Kashuan Keep and Dreadnought, were both nasty. Kashuan especially made me glad that I gave Guy some offensive magic because of the Super Mecha Death Turtles (a.k.a. "Adamantoise") I ran into. Maria's bare fists did tons of damage, but Guy's and Gordon's weapons did jack shit. Gave Blizzard to Guy and Gordon though, so they helped a lot. Firion heals and buffs. He picked up the Berserk tome too, which is great on boss fights. A berserk Maria = scary business.
So what's harder? I think it's two main things:
1) The formation difference. In FFI, my warrior/knight was basically an impenetrable shield, meaning I rarely took any damage outside of big boss fights like Chaos and Tiamat who cast AoE spells. In FFII, Firion is the only party member I stuck in the back row, and the other three take more even damage, and a lot of it.
2) More harmful effects. In FFI, I rarely had to worry about these. Occasionally, I'd deal with stone or poison, but it was pretty rare. In FFII, for these two dungeons, I feel like I spend half the time blinded and poisoned. This tests my resource management a lot more, as I have to make sure I use Firion's mana efficiently. I also have to use my trips to town more wisely - stock up on eye drops, antidotes, ether, and a mess of potions.
Story-wise, I'm curious where this will go. The Empire's Deathst... ahem, Dreadnought is down, the king is dead, the Dark Knight is some big ol' mystery, and it's off to see the dragoons!
EDIT: ...I'm such a dunkus. The "Dark Knight" is Leon, isn't it?
FFII - Part 1 (addendum)
Can you help me understand a bit more on that skill point thing?
Magic skill seems pretty straight forward. Cast a spell, gain magic xp for that "level" of the spell, gain a new level when you get enough xp points.
Weapon skills confuse me more.
A few things that seem to impact whether I gain a point or not:
-Whether a character gets multiple swings in during a fight:
-Whether the mobs are low level compared to my weapon skill.
-Whether I swing and hit instead of swing and miss.
Are those the things that you mean by "succeed"? Or is it more random than that? It seems like I keep hitting soft caps - like, my weapon skills on all characters hit 4 and then don't move until I get to the next zone.
FFII - Part 1: Beginning
I knew a little bit about FF1 before I played it. I knew there were elemental bosses and Garland, at least! FF2 though? Zero. Nothing. It's pretty exciting.
It seems like my party is four characters - one of whom I guess I'll get later - who are rebelling against an evil empire. Not the most original of stories, but okay. Mostly because the leveling system IS one of the more original I've seen!
You learn by doing. The tutorial makes it seem like stats, magic, and weapon skills all increase by using them. You get more max HP by losing HP in combat. Your Cure spell increases in rank the more you cast it - same as Fire, and other spells. Individual weapon skills increase by using them - using swords raises Sword, mace raises Mace.
This seems like it'll radically alter the game's playstyle.
-In FF1, I was so worried about running out of mana, that I rarely cast spells on my black mage unless necessary. Here, I plan to cast as often as possible on my magic users to boost their magic-related stats and skills.
(**QUESTION: What about stuff like Life and Teleport? What do skill increases on those kind of spells do? Will a low-level Teleport have a chance to fail to warp me out of a dungeon? Will a higher level Life spell raise the dead character with more HP?**)
-In FF1, I used the best weapons I picked up. Here, I plan to specialize in one or two to take advantage of skill leveling. Like, one character I'll strictly use swords on. If I get a slightly better axe, will stick with the sword.
-In FF1, I used two fighters and two casters. Here, I can teach anyone any spell, so I plan on spreading things out a bit more. For instance, I'm giving "Life" to my tankier character because he's more likely to survive than the healer.. Same thing with "Teleport" - if he's the last one standing and I'm deep in a dungeon, he's the one I want with the GTFO button.
---------
So! Here's my planned party make-up that I'm starting with:
FIRION - Buffs and healers, bow. Back row.
MARIA - Bare-knuckled brawler! Thunder spell. Front row.
GUY - Tankier sort. Sword and shield. Fire and Ice spells. Front row.
???? - ????? ???. ??????? ????.
I've played enough MMOs that I'm kind of bored with female as the default caster, so I'll take advantage of the game's flexibility to turn Maria into Fists o' Fury, and she's easily (and surprisingly, for unarmed) my hardest hitter so far. Blue-Lips (Firion) will get most of my healing and buff spells.
For offensive magic, I wanted to spread it out between the two damage dealer. Maria does the most melee damage so just giving her thunder, and giving Guy fire and ice.
Also thinking about spreading my buffs out rather than just giving them to Firion. That way, for really tough fights, I can fully buff my group in the first round rather than slowly buffing them over a few rounds.
What do you guys think of this initial set-up? I figure I'll adapt my fourth part member to the fit of these three and work around them as a core. Does this seem like a reasonable way to go, or am I missing something drastic about the way skills and leveling work? Will the fourth party member always be a healer, thus negating my need to slot Firion into that role?
(I'm DELIGHTED for mechanic tips and spoilers, I just don't want story-specific spoilers.)
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