The Battle System: Insufficiencies and Irritations

I began FF2 with a lot of optimisim for the proposed battle system. Rather than the rigid class structure of FF1 we're given a "mold your own characters" system that allows any character to  use any weapon, piece of armor, or spell that you want them to, and rewards your battle strategies with stat gain that reflect your play style. How far from the truth these claims turned out to be.

To begin with, while you can most certainly equip any character with any combination of weapons, armor, etc., certain characters seem predisposed to gaining certain stats with greater ease. I set out early to turn Maria into a beefy warrior (just to play with the gender conventions a little) and found that, in spite of my efforts, Gus' strength, endurance, and hit points continued to rise faster and more easily than Maria's, making it quickly impossible for her to keep up with him in damage. Yes, this could probably be fixed with eteremely focused training, but the time that would take simply isn't worth it to me. If Maria naturally likes being a white magic user so be it.

Secondly, the "stat gains" that you theoretically get for performining different actions in combat are extremely arbitrary, and often have hidden requirements. For istance, according to the manual your characters gain HP by taking damage in battle. What the manual doesn't tell you is that in order to recieve an HP increase the character in question must take damage greater than or equal to half of his max HP. Obviously this happens less frequently as the game progresses. More HP and better defence naturally equal a lower probability of taking enough damage to gain HP. How do you solve this? Since your characters often deal far more damage than any enemy, you usually end up having to hit yourself in the face in order to do enough damage to cause an increase. The same concept applies to MP increase, which also require you to expend half of your max to get a boost. The end result is that you'll spend a good deal of time grinding stats in battle, pureposfully encountering lower level enemies and then ignoring them while you attack yourself and waste your MP casting spells that don't serve any purpose. Its tedious and boring.

What about spells and weapons, you say. Yes, spells and weapons gain experience through use and need to be used in order to become more powerful. Guess what. You'll get to grind for these too. A glitch in the game mechanics allows you to select an action (attack, for example) and confirm a target, and then cancel the action and still recieve points towards that weapon (or spell). So you'll find yourself going into battle, queueing up attacks, canceling, repeating, repeating, repeating, until your head explodes. You can also only do this with three out of your four characters (confirming a target with your fourth character intiates the attack round, with no chance to canel) leading to a constant strength imbalance between your three primary characters and whoever is currently filling your fourth spot. (If there's a way to reorder the characters I haven't found it yet.)

No, ladies and gentleman, the battle system here is a well conceived but terribly executed plan that breaks down at fundamental levels and leaves you with no option but to waste time grinding if you ever want to get anywhere. Trying to level your stats, weapons, and spells the natural way would take centuries. Use the cheats, grind until you can't stand it anymore, and then focus on beating the game. Bah humbug.

The Ship

After destroying the Dreadnought, Princess Hilda will ask that you travel by ship to the island where the Dragoons live. For those who aren't familiar, Dragoons, also known as Dragon Knights are soliders who've mastered the ability to communicate with and to fight from the back of a drake or dragon. In this case the Dragoons live on an island with the Wind Drakes, and Princess Hilda feels they will be a valueable ally in the fight with the Emporer.

Hed to Paloom and you'll encounter a butsy wench who's willing to sell you passage to the island. Unsurprisingly she turns out to be a pirate and tries to plunder all of your belongings. Beat the snot out of her and she'll change her tune, agreeing to join your party and turn over control of the ship to yours truly. Congratulations!

If you want to circumvent some of the tedious nature of the game you can take the ship and sail straight for Mystidia, which is roughly south west of Atlair. Farther west than south. If you choose to do so note that the monster's you'll encounter on the land while trying to reach the town will crush you, and you're only real hope is to run from every battle and pray you reach the town in time. That said, Mystidia sells weapons, armor, and spells that far surpass anything you're going to find for many more hours of gameplay. Its all very expenseive, though, so stock up on gil before going.

Taking down the Dreadnought

Blowing up your advesary's airship is a decidely satisfying experience, and one that you should savor. You'll need the Pass key item in order to gain access, if you missed it its back in the sewer where the dark knight thwarted your first attempt to board the vessel. Once you've obtained it the guard on duty will let you passed without a fight.

 Its safe to assume that, just as in Fynn, talking to any of the soldiers onboard will cause a battle that you can't possibly win, but as long as you don't bother them they won't bother you. Silence is golden. Sadly the same tactic doesn't apply to the regular enemies on board, you'll have to slog through them they way that you always have. There is a high prevelance of undead, so fire spells and/or weapons will ease your passage. A good deal of treasure is scattered about the ship, including one chest that requires you to find a secret passage in order to obtain it. Good luck. :)

There is no Boss in the traditional sense, but when entering the reactor room you'll discover three chests, one of which contains a monster in addition to its booty. Said monster is a Hill Gigas, and may prove more difficult than a traditional boss if you're not prepared. He deals out massive amounts of damage, so be prepared to cast sheild and blink as quickly as possible. He also takes very little in the way of physical damage,  but is not weak to a particular element of magic either. I found that casting Berserk on your strongest physical attacker seemed to yeild the most damage. The Beserk scroll drops from the Ogre mages that you been killing recently.

The last point of value on the Dreadnought arises from a chance encounter. As you throw the Sunfire into the reacter you'll see, across the flames from you, the Dark Knight who formerly foiled your destructive impluses. Maria wonders if the Dark Knight is actually Leon, her missing brother, but Firion argues that they don't have time to worry about it right now. Hurray plot developement.

Boss Battle: Shrieker

As seems to have become standard in the first two Final Fantasies, reaching the Shrieker is more difficult than defeating him. Before leaving for Kas'ion I recommend picking up another Cure scroll. You'll see why. You'll also need 400 gil to pay Cid for an airship ride down to the castle.

Seconds after you enter Kas'ion you'll meet Gordon skulking the shadows of a stairwell. He came to retrieve the Sunfire but couldn't handle the castle's baddies. (Weenie). He's more than happy to join you, though, and you should feel free to use that extra Cure scroll to add another healer to your party. :)

Soldier on until you reach the Shrieker.

Your first few turns agains the Shrieker may cause you some anxiety. He absorbs all spells cast at him (and I mean all; he will gain life if you try to cast sleep, for instance, not just from damage spells) and he casts medium level versions of fire, ice, and bolt that will do a decent amount of damage to your entire group. Fortunately his shriek is more dangerous than his bite. Cast cure on your party members as often as necessary to survive the first five to six turns and the Shrieker will run out of mana. Reduced to meager physical attacks it becomes a game of endurance, and you have four to one odds. Wail away at him, trying as best as able to ignore the meager amounts of damage you're doing per hit, and eventually he will die. It might take five or six minutes, just fyi.

Forgive my Absence

I must apologize and ask that you forgive the absence of posts in the last few weeks. Its not that I haven't been playing (I'm up around 25 hours on FF2 at this point) but both the fact that I've been having trouble finding time to post, and the fact that I've been having trouble finding things to post about (other than boss battles, which I feel are becoming boring). The early games are clearly a series of small steps towards the majesty of the second half of the series, and they defy the sort of deep analysis that I'm so eager to apply to later games. Still, I will try to push through that and leave behind as much useful information as I can.

As I continue to get busier in school I appreciate your patience with the potential lack of posts. Thanks.

Boss Battle - Adamantoise

Technically the first boss that you'll face in FF2 is the Sergeant that confronts you in the Semite Falls Mines, but much like your encounter with Garland at the beginning of FF1 the Sergeant is really just an idiot proof test. If you can find the attack button you can defeat him, especially with Mindu in your party offering you the full range of white magic. Adamantoise, the snapper turtle with a Wolverine-esque shell awaits you at the end of your quest for the Goddess Bell, however, and the unwary adventurer could easily lose a finger or two to his snapping maw.

You may have noticed that when Mindu first joined your party he brought with him a valueable ether. The savy player will have taken said either away from Mindu before he has a chance to leave your group, and if you've arrived at the battle agains the Adamantoise without any remaining MP that ether may be your life saver, as the hungry turtle takes virtually 0 physical damage. He also hits like a two ton truck, and needs to go down fast if you want all of your warriors to survive the fight. Fortunately he's extremely vulnerable to ice, so open up with a few spells and he should go belly up, and everyone knows turtes can't roll over.

FF2 - A Beginning

I've spent about 8 hours with FF2 so far and I can scarecely believe the incredible difference between this game and its predecessor. Gone is the rigid class system that dominated FF1 (though it will continue to crop up in later games throughout the series,) and in its place is are crisp, distinct characters with unique personalities and a detailed history.

The opening sqeuence that follows starting a "new game" clearly explains the primary story concept, that the empire of Palamecia has conquered and razed the kindgom of Fynn, and establishes the characters personal relationships as childhood friends who grew up living on the outskirts of the city. After their parents are killed in the fires that destoryed the city the kids are quick to enlist in the Wildroses, a rebel faction made up of remnants from Fynn and sympathizers from the nearby kingdom of Kas'ion.

This clear conception of what's at stake in the game is something that was sorely missing from the first installment, and the character's interpersonal relationships (they actually talk to each other this time) adds a welcome depth. Toss in the introduction of Chocobos, the first appearance of the air pilot Cid, and the origns of a combat system that requires players to actually use their skills in order to become stronger and we've got the foundations for a great game.

FF2 much more closely resembles my expectations based on my experience with the series, and I'm more than a little excited to see what else it the game has to offer.

FF2 Game History

When Squaresoft first released Final Fantasy 1 in 1987 they had no plans for a sequal, but the game's huge success virtually demanded otherwise, and Final Fantasy 2 was released in Japan less than a year after its predecessor. Sadly North American fans were not to get their hands on the title until many years later. Though Square began a localization in 1990 the project was scrapped in favor of the release of the SNES, for which they had recently completed a local version of Final Fantasy 4. Said game was renamed to cover the gap and the story of Cecil the dark knight became North America's version of Final Fantasy 2. Firion and his friends from the original Final Fantasy 2 didn't reach US shores until 2003, as part of the Playstation compilation know as Final Fantasy Origins, which is the version I'm currently playing.

Final Fantasy 1 - An Ending

According to the game clock it took me just over 32 hours to beat Final Fantasy 1. After you factor in the many, many times that I reset the game, it was probably closer to 36 hours. By today’s standards 36 hours is an eye blink for a well made RPG, but I imagine that it was a record breaking achievement in 1987, and one that I’m proud to have experienced.

Having played most of the other games in the series, I have to admit that I expected a richer storyline and was initially confused by the lack of the usual story arch that forms a background for your actions in later games. In the course of playing the game I often felt adrift, aware of the larger scope of my actions only through the meager connection created by the opening cut scene. That said the game is challenging, more than, in some cases, and short enough that the lack of story is acceptable in the pursuit of game completion. It also provides the very first look at the story of the elemental crystals, a subject that will grow and evolve throughout the entire series.

Two of my three roommates have begun their own journey through Final Fantasy 1, bringing with them little or no previous experience with the series. Whether or not they will complete the game I can’t say for sure, but I consider their interest to be both flattering and a moderate success in achieving some of my own goals with this project.

I leave FF1 behind with a renewed sense of respect for my subject matter and of the value of the project before me. I am a Master's student studying English Literature and Creative Writing, and I feel that I must approach this endeavor with the same sincerity and depth of intention present in my approach to my studies. The Final Fantasy series does have immense value as a story telling medium and people should be encouraged to experience it. I’m happy to spend the rest of the year proving those points.

Mythology - Tiamat

Tiamat is part of the Enuma Elish, the Babylonian creation myth. Amidst the primordial chaos of the universe existed the God Apsu, depicted as an endless body of fresh water, and his wife Tiamat, a body of salt water. From the mixture of these two waters came a line of gods representing the core elements of earth and sky.

The young gods were wild and disruptive and Apsu plotted to kill them. Ea, son of the sky God Anu, overheard Apsu’s plot and slew him instead. Enraged, Tiamat leads a war against the younger Gods only to be slain herself by Ea’s son, Marduk. Marduk fashions the world and all of its peoples from Tiamat’s blood and bones.

Tiamat in FF1

While Bahamut has always appeared as an ally to the warriors, Tiamat, sometimes in direct opposition, has always appeared as an enemy. In FF1 she makes her appearance as the fourth and final elemental fiend, the wind demon who’s captured the Flying Fortress from the Sky People. She is easily the strongest of the elemental fiends and her ferocity will only grow throughout the series.

Mythology - Bahamut

Bahamut is certainly one of, if not the most frequently reoccurring “characters” in the Final Fantasy series. I put characters in quotation marks because his appearance takes different forms throughout the series and the word does not always apply, but in the large majority of the games he is depicted as the king of dragons or as a heavenly body that takes the form of a dragon.

It might surprise you, then, to learn that the original Bahamut was depicted as an immense fish with a head that resembled that of an elephant. The mythological origins of Bahamut are about as old as mythology gets, which makes it difficult to translate and to sort through the many references that could or do mention him, but it's generally accepted that he first appeared in ancient Arabic stories about the nature of the universe. The stories suggest that Bahamut was a massive fish swimming through an endless sea. Atop Bahamut’s back was a massive bull, and atop the bull’s head was a mountain on which rested the Earth and a varying number of heavens and hells.

Today’s impression of Bahamut as a dragon has been attributed to Wizards of the Coast, who gave the name to one of the dragon deities from their popular Dungeons and Dragons game series.

Bahamut in FF1

I was thoroughly pleased to see that Bahamut, who I’ve adored in so many other games, is in fact present in the very first Final Fantasy that Square ever produced. True, you can’t harness his power the way that you will in later games, but his role is far from negligible.

Bahamut is the king of the dragons that inhabit the island caves to the north and in him resides the power to recognize your true potential as a warrior. Bring him a token of your courage from the Citadel of Trials and he’ll reward you by upgrading your character classes.

Mythology - Excalibur

The history and mythology surrounding the legendary Excalibur has been explored and re-explored hundreds of times by both laymen and scholars, and I claim neither the expertise nor the desire to open that door yet again in search of even a semi-definitive explanation. Suffice to say that Excalibur was the sword of Arthur, potentially historical, definitely legendary King of Britain. Scholars believe the sword originated in Welsh legend and that the current spelling evolved after British historian Geoffery of Monmouth included the sword in his book, The History of the Kings of Britain.

The Excalibur in FF1

The Excalibur is the second strongest sword available in FF1. To obtain it you’ll need to have acquired the adamantite ore, located on the second floor of the Flying Fortress. Take the ore to the home of the dwarves and Smyth the dwarven smith will use it to forge the sword. The Excalibur is usable only by the Knight class.

Mythology - Masamune

If memory serves, the Masamune is one of the few reoccurring elements in the Final Fantasy series that does not take different forms in different games. The Masamune is always a sword, though in FF8 it's wielded by Gilgamesh, rather than by a party member. It's also one of the only items with a clear, verifiable history--Masamune truly did exist, though not quite in the way the games portray him.

Goro Nyudo Masamune was a Japanese sword smith who lived and worked c. 1264 – 1343 CE. He is largely considered Japan’s greatest sword artisan and his surviving works are among some of the country’s most prized national treasures.

In a number of stories and legends, Masamune’s work has been connected with that of another Japanese blacksmith, Muramasa, whose name has also appeared on swords in the Final Fantasy series. In reality Muramasa, who dated his swords, was working around 1500 CE, and as such could not have known Masamune, but the legends about the two still exist.

One of the more popular legends involves a contest between the two sword smiths. Each man forged a sword and then dipped its blade into a stream. Leaves floating downstream swerved unerringly into the path of Muramasa’s blade and were cut in half. In contrast, leaves that were on track to be cut by Masamune’s blade swerved aside and were spared. A passing monk approached the two and described that in Muramasa’s blade he sensed a deep blood thirst, as the sword would not spare even a leaf. Masamune’s blade, said the monk, possessed the calm consideration of a true warrior and would not harm an innocent. This legend helps to set up the idea that Masamune’s swords were superior to Muramasa’s, an idea that is preserved in the Final Fantasy series.

The Masamune in FF1

The Masamune is the strongest weapon available in FF1 and the only item that can be used by any class. It is located on the Air floor of the Temple of Chaos, on which the warriors must face their second battle with Tiamat. It's described in game as the “mightiest sword of all” and its graphic resembles are large katana.

What's the Hold Up?

Yes, yes, I finished FF1 on Wednesday and still haven't started FF2. Why? I've been trying to get through all of the posting that I wanted to do in regards to FF1 before moving on to the next game. I admit that doing so has taken me much longer than I initially expected, partially because I've been interrupted by school work and a strange desire to sleep in of late, but I'm happy to announce that the final posts have now been written and will be available as soon as Brett edits them. I'll start FF2 as soon as I recover from the terrible Sounder's game.

A Partnership

You may have noticed that several of the most recent entries weren't made by me. That's because, after looking over several of my posts and cringing at the abysmal grammar, my good friend and room mate, Brett, has insisted on becoming my editor. I'm now writing all of my posts in notepad (for formatting reasons) and then sending them to Brett to edit and post. It's a good relationship, and one that offers me more time for actually playing the games. Brett is a published Journalism student and I have absolute faith in his abilities.

He is also responsible for the new look of the website. His blogging skills far surpass mine, and I'm not unhappy to let him take over management of the site. At this point I'm only responsible for playing and writing, and that suits me just fine.

Boss Battle: Chaos

Having restored the power of the elemental crystals you can now travel 2,000 years into the past, to the Temple of Chaos as it used to be, where the real arbiter of Earth’s distress resides. To reach him you’ll have to defeat each of the elemental fiends a second time, and to make things interesting, each fiend has been given increased stats and had their weaknesses removed. Still, the strategy for defeating them remains much the same. Cast Haste, Saber, Shield, Invis and Nul, and then tear into them with physical attacks and strong magic. Heal, rinse, repeat. In the Southwest corner of Tiamat’s floor you’ll find the Masamune, the strongest sword in the game. It’s usable by anyone, for a change. Make sure to snag it.

When you reach the heart of the temple you’ll discover that the monster who’s been causing you so much trouble is actually Garland, the Cornelian Knight that you killed in the opening minutes of the game. After his death the elemental forces sent him into the past where his hatred festered and Chaos consumed his spirit. From 2,000 years ago he sent forth the elemental fiends to enact his revenge, thus touching off a time loop that’s destined to repeat forever unless you can stop it. It’s really a fairly interesting concept. If only Square had developed it more during the game.

After revealing the mystery behind the game’s events Garland will transform into an embodiment of Chaos, and battle will ensue. Its go time! Chaos comes fully stocked with all of the major elemental spells that you’ve been seeing from regular enemies in the Temple: Blaze, Ice Storm, Lightning Storm, Poison Gas, etc. If you have a White Mage, please feel free to cast NulAll. If you’re like me, white mage-less, I would actually advise against casting Nul spells. You’re going to get hit with at least one large spell before you get all three Nul’s cast. Your time is more wisely spent casting Shield and Invis, or simply casting preemptive heals. Chaos doesn’t have quite the magic resistance that some of the elemental fiends did, so go crazy with your Black Mage and use up all the Flares and level III attack spells that you can.

Combine with Haste/Saber physical attacks and, with any luck, you’ve just beaten FF1. Congratulations!

Boss Battle: Tiamat

Reaching the Flying Fortress where Tiamat lives is the closest this game ever really comes to offering you a puzzle. Several steps are required, and you’ll need to obtain the Rosetta Stone, Warp Cube, and Bell Key items in order to succeed. I won’t describe the process here, if you’re stuck please feel free to use my link to Gamefaqs.com. If you make an effort to talk to all of the various villagers in the towns you visit and are able to put two and two together, you won’t get stuck.

There’s a good deal of treasure chests scattered throughout the fortress, some more valuable than others and not all of which you need to collect, but I wouldn’t leave without at least securing the Adamantite that’s lurking on the second floor. After exiting the fortress you can take said Adamantite to Smyth, the dwarven smith and he’ll reward you by forging Excalibur, the second strongest weapon in the game. Note: Only Knight’s can use the Excalibur, so if you don’t have a Knight in your party you don’t really need the Adamantite except as a completion item. This game is very discriminatory with its equipment.

Tiamat’s on, well, you know which floor. He generally opens the fight with Lightning Storm (or something to that effect), which looks impressive and can do a decent amount of damage, but can easily be mitigated by casting Nulbolt. He’s also capable of casting Fire II and Ice II, and you’re welcome to cast the appropriate defenses to these if you wish. Honestly, if you don’t feel like wasting a lot of time and effort on this fight, he’s susceptible to Break; cast it until he dies. If you don’t want to use Break then I recommend Haste and Saber for your physical attackers combined with your strongest attack spells. Heal when necessary and you won’t have problems.

Boss Battle: Kraken

Warning: The process of reaching the Sunken Temple will cost you a minimum of 50,000 gil. Just FYI.

You’ll enter the Sunken Temple on the third floor, and from there can either go up or down. I highly recommend you go up first, as the fifth floor is home to the Mermaids and thus devoid of enemies. There’s also a good deal of treasure, including a full set of diamond armor that’ll make you smile if you’ve got a warrior along. I didn’t, so the whole set was useless to me and I did not smile.

Backtrack to the third floor and continue down. You’ll find the Kraken on the fifth floor, which seems to be the standard floor for boss battles in FF1. I recommend healing as close to full health as possible before battle begins.

The Kraken is ugly and he hits like a truck. I highly recommend casting Shield II and Invisibility II at the onset of battle, if possible. That aside, cast Haste and Saber (or use the Giant’s Gauntlets to get the Saber effect) on your primary physical attackers and go to work. It's sort of a race to see which of you can deal out damage faster, but with Shield II and a decent amount of HP you should come out on top.

The Airship and the Dragon King

After defeating Marilith in Mt. Gulg you’ll notice that the snoozing man in the Northwest corner of Crescent Lake is now awake and, what’s more, has some useful information for you. He’ll confess with little coercion that he’s been looking for the Levistone for some years, and is convinced that it resides in the Ice Cavern to the North. He won’t tell you what to do with it once you have it. In fact, I couldn’t find anyone who knew what to do with the stupid thing, and I confess that I opted to look it up. Gamefaqs FTW.

Go get the Levistone. Take it to the desert south of Crescent Lake and use it. Voila, Airship!

Your first stop in your new sky vehicle can and should be the series of small islands situated between the two Northern continents. The caverns on these islands are home to a race of friendly dragons with much treasure to share. More importantly, their king, Bahaumut, will divulge clues to upgrading your character classes.

Take Bahaumut’s advice and seek out a token of courage from the Citadel of Trials and he will reward you with shiny new character sprites and upgraded abilities that will make you feel invincible, at least for a little while.

Boss Battle: Marilith

Marilith resides on the bottom floor of Mt. Gulg, a volcano located on the South Eastern continent, and reachable only by canoe. Much of the floor inside the volcano is covered with lava, as you might expect from such a place, and walking through the lava will deal a small percentage of damage to each of your party members with each step. You can't be attacked while walking through lava, however, so you have something of a choice between taking random amounts of damage from encounters or taking fixed amounts of damage from the environment. Either way, I would argue that reaching Marilith is actually more difficult than defeating her.

My Monk bit the dust about 60 seconds before I reached the boss. As I chose to undertake my quest using a Red Mage rather than a White Mage, I was unable to cast a Life spell to revive him. (The Red Mage cannot learn Life until he upgrades into a Red Wizard.) I'm sure you can understand why I was loath to exit the dungeon, row my way back to town, revive the Monk, row back to the volcano, and climb all the way back to the bottom floor. So I decided I would simply kill the boss with only three players. Marilith is capable of casting Fire II as well as some specialized ability that causes Blind (I can't think of its name now,) but the only thing you really need to watch out for is her physical attacks. She hits five or six times per swing and can deal upwards of 200 damage.

Fortunately for you she has a single, easily exploitable weakness.

Marilith is susceptible to paralyze. It took me four or five tries to figure this out, and another four or five tries to get her successfully paralyzed before she had killed one of my three surviving warriors. Once I got her chained down with everyone still alive, however, I was able to dish out enough damage to kill her before the paralysis wore off. Obviously Ice I and II are the strongest black spells, and hopefully you found the Ice Brand tucked away in one of the treasure chests earlier in the dungeon. I recommend casting Nulfire while in the processing of trying to get her paralyzed, just to mitigate her Fire II spell. Don't be upset if it takes several tries to get your Bind spell to work; it will eventually, and after that she's cake.

Congratulations on restoring your second elemental crystal.

Post Explosion

I have to apologize in advance for the multitude of posts that are about to appear over the next hour or so.

It eventually dawned on me that, due to the relatively short length of FF1 and the sparse story detail present it was somewhat silly of me to try and find something useful to post after every single play session. I would be better served, I decided, simply trying to beat the game and move on. So that's what I've been doing for the last day and a half, and making good progress at it I might add.I'm still going to post boss fights, important story developments, hidden goodies that one might otherwise miss, etc, but in general I'm focused on beating the game and moving onto number two in the hopes that there will be more worth actually talking about. That said, since my last post I've covered two bosses and a class upgrade, so I'm about to slam the site with several more posts. Sorry.

Boss Battle: Lich

Villagers in Melmond will try to tell you that a vampire has taken up residence in the Terra Cavern to the South and is subverting the power of the elemental Earth Crystal found there, thus causing the land to sicken and decay. Well, as is often the case, the villagers are only partially correct. There is a vampire lurking in the Terra Cavern, but one good hit with Fire 2 will send him permanently to the grave, and you won't see hide nor hare of the Earth Crystal until you do some more digging, pun intended. The real fiend responsible for the decaying soil is the Lich, and one spell is not nearly enough to send him on his merry way.

It only took me one try to defeat the Lich, so I can't swear that he follows a set pattern the way that Astos did. I can tell you that he possesses all of the rank two black magics: Fire 2, Ice, 2, Bolt 2, Sleep 2, Haste 2, and Slow 2, and will make ample use of them. I attempted to cast slow once and silence twice and all three attempts failed, leading me to believe that he's immune to at least those if not all status effects. He also takes depressingly little damage from physical attacks, so be prepared to burn through your spells. Fire does the most damage, and Ice the least.

At least from my one experience, the secret to defeating this guy is to cast NulIce, NulFire, and NulBolt as quickly as possible. Without these protections the Lich's spells will deal out around 100 damage to your entire party, and keeping up with healing won't really be possible. With protection the damage is cut to 30 - 50, and a potion or Cure 2 here or there will keep you alive. Not once during the fight did the Lich hit me with a physical attack, I assume you don't need to worry about such a thing.

Burn through your spells and hope for critical hits from anyone doing physical damage and you should be able to outlast the gruesome corpse with the protection spells and a decent supply of healing spells or potions. Put the Lich in his place and then restore power to the Earth Crystal and you will officially have proved yourself a warrior of the light.

Breaking the level 10 barrier

Still having trouble defeating the constant stream of enemies that stand between you and any attempt you might make to leave town? In addition to the general strategies that I've already provided (saving often, running from battles you can't win, and making sure not to skimp on the latest spells and equipment) there is one more thing you can do to improve your survivability.

Get to level 10.

Why level 10? Simple. Once you hit level 10 your warriors will suddenly stop missing their targets as often as they had been, and will begin hitting twice per swing instead of just once. (In the case of the monk you'll actually begin to see 3 or 4 hits per attack.) You'll also find that your mages have finally accrued enough spell uses that you're no longer terrified of wasting a spell. The difference in damage here is tough to imagine, and you have my word that post level 10 you'll suddenly find yourself feeling simply annoyed by monsters that used to inspire terror.

If you haven't hit level 10 yet and can't seem to progress I suggest you go kill ogres in the forest near Elfheim until that magic double-digit level rolls around and then see how you fare.

FF1 - Getting into the Story

I'll be the first to admit that story telling wasn't Square's strong point in the beginning. FF1 is about as bare bones as its physically possible to get and still claim that there's a story being told. If I weren't familiar with the rest of the series and able to see how these early story elements eventually evolve into some of the most enchanting stories I've ever experienced, I might be sadly disappointed. When combined with a frustrating difficulty level the general lack of story makes it challenging to continue playing, and I have to admit that I would not recommend FF1 as a starting place for players who have never visited the Final Fantasy world. All of that said, the basic elements that make up the FF1 story are the building blocks on which an empire has been constructed. Read on for cursory analysis.

The fundamental principle on which the FF1 story is built is one of the oldest mythological conceptions in existence - the idea that the world is made up of and preserved by the existence of the four elements: earth, air, fire, and water. This basic understanding of world functions has shown itself in ancient Greek, Hindu, Buddhist, Tibetan, Japanese, and Chinese mythology, as well as in the myths and legends of countless indigenous peoples across the world. Where the idea originally came from I'm not sure anyone can say, but its proliferation has been outstanding and in some ways the basic concepts of an elemental existence are still alive today in varied forms.

FF1 opens at a time when the elements have gone dark, and a cloud is slowly obscuring the world. According to an ancient prophecy four warriors of light will announce themselves at the time of greatest darkness, and will dedicate themselves to restoring balance to the world. The four warriors you chose at the beginning of the game are, surprise, the four warriors of light.

Sadly the game tells you almost nothing about the developing story as you go along. The opening consists of about two paragraphs which say almost exactly what I just said above, and after 15 hours of gameplay those opening paragraphs are the only actual story telling that I've been presented with. Any other glimpses into what's happening in the world come from NPC's throughout the various towns, who will tell you such things as "A vampire is obstructing the flow of the Earth Crystal and the land is dieing." After you go out and restore the Earth Crystal you can return to the town to be told, "The vampire is dead, the land is restored!" That's it. No party in your name, no deeper explanation of who was behind the plot to obstruct the flow of the earth crystal, nothing. Perhaps these things will come later, but my previous experience with later games has primed me to expect more depth. C'est la vie.

If, as I progress, the story begins to depend in meaningful ways I will revisit this section of the blog. If not, this is really all I need to say about the FF1 storyline, and I am anxious to progress passed this first game.

Boss Battle: Astos

Astos. King of the Dark Elves. Responsible for the theft of the witch Matoya's crystal eye and the eternal slumber spell that has kept the King of the Forest Elves in stasis for the last five years. Finally, a boss! Technically Garland, the corrupted Cornelian Knight is the first boss of FF1, but the fight with Garland lasts about 2.5 seconds and I'm confident that you don't my help in defeating him. Astos might be a different story.

The fight with Astos commences when you attempt to return the stolen Crown from the Marsh Cave to the oversized King of the Western Kingdom. The polar bear proportions of the chubby king might have tipped you off that he isn't altogether wholesome, but in event that it didn't, he reveal his true intentions when you attempt to hand over the crown.

Astos is virtually immune to physical hits, so if you haven't bought along either a black of red mage you're going to have some difficulties. Critical attacks will still deal substantial damage, but the average physical attack is going to be sadly ineffective. Fortunately black magic users make up 1/3 of the total available character classes, so chances are high that you've got one in toe.

Unload with your most powerful spells from turn one, no particular element is more effective than any other. My attempts to sleep, silence, slow, or blind Astos all failed, and while I don't know for sure that he is immune to these status ailments the use of them was surplus to victory. Hit him with spells and he should die in relatively short order.

Offensively Astos follows a fairly simple pattern. (I only fought him twice, but his actions were identical for both fights.) He begins the battle by casting an instant death spell on a member of your party. If it hits, simply reload and start the battle over again, as you don't really want anyone to miss out on experience for this fight. If it misses, which it did in both battles for me, he'll follow up by casting Slow II on one of your characters, and then Haste II on himself. At this point if you have a red or white mage with the NulFire spell you'll want to cast it, as Astos will follow the Haste II spell with Fire II, and this can do some damage if you're not prepared (though it wasn't enough to kill any of my party members even without the use of the NulFire.) After the Fire spell he'll begin using physical attacks, but by this point in the battle, if you've been using black magic each turn, he's nearly dead. Get in your last hits and congratulate yourself on your first real boss fight.

Your reward for dethroning the Dark Elf King is the Matoya's crystal eye. Take the eye to the witch in her cave to the north and she'll reward you with a Jolt Potion. The Jolt Potion can be used to awaken the sleeping Elf King, who will then reward you with something of actual value, the mystic key. Hurray! You can now open all of the Sealed doors that you've been encountering - assuming you remember where they all are.

FF1 - Hours 3 - 7

When I mentioned earlier that this first game in the Final Fantasy franchise was hard I wasn't exaggerating. Difficult, frustrating, agonizing, and capable of eliciting the most colorful of epithets. There's always something to be said for the thrill of surviving a brush with death, but the sheer regularity with which one of your warriors will die coupled with the exorbitant cost of reviving them leads to a potent desire to throw your controller across the room. Still, the true gamer soldiers on. I've spent the last several hours mapping the territory, so to speak, a learning how best to stay alive on journeys farther and farther away from the safety of town. These are my suggestions to you.

• Make use of the Memo Save function to save your game in between resting. You can memo save any time, regardless of where you are. Save early, save often.
• DO NOT skimp on spells and equipment. Everything you want to buy will cost you hundreds of Gil more than you can possibly afford. Don't leave town without the latest accoutrement. You'll enjoy the levels you accidentally get while slaughtering monsters for Gil almost as much as you'll enjoy the shiny new sword you bought.
• Don't be afraid to run away. Seriously, when you encounter a party of seven enemies two of which cause poison with their attacks, FLEE. There's no shame in living to fight another day, or, in this case, sometime in the next five steps you take. After your first two or so hours of game play, you should have reached the second town and gained access to the ship. Stay in the waters near where you first boarded and you'll find yourself likely to encounter Privateers with some regularity. Said Privateers are worth 150 Gil apiece. I highly recommend plundering their booty for a half hour or so before pushing on, prices at the next town take a steep up turn. (If you're on land, Ogres yield a good payout as well, but they hit considerably harder than Privateers).
  
• Carry potions. Lots of potions. No, more than that. No, still more. There you go. Oh, and carry half as many antidotes (resting at an inn does not cure poison), and a few sleeping bags for the purpose of hard saving before a dungeon.

By the sixth hour my party was level 8 and I'd officially bought everything that I could possibly force myself to stand still long enough to buy. I decided at last to tackle the Marsh Cave in search of a magical Crown rumored to have the power to restore the decrepit Western Kingdom. I escaped with the crown in hand and only 1 of 4 characters still alive. It was good times. My journey continues.

Final Fantasy 1 - A Beginning

Final Fantasy 1 opens by asking players to choose a name and character class for the four warriors who will make up the primary protagonists. While other games in the series offer players a chance to change character names and classes later on, this first game is, if memory serves, the only game which does not provide preexisting names and classes.

Read more »

Final Fantasy 1 - The History

The game that launched the series was originally released in Japan in 1987 before being licensed by Nintendo of America for release in the US in 1990, for the original Nintendo Entertainment System. It was created by Japanese game designer Hironobu Sakaguchi whose success with the series has made him a household name in the industry. According to Wikipedia the game was released at a time when Squaresoft (now Square Enix) was facing bankruptcy. I wonder if they realized at the time what the future would bring.

Some Goals

What do I want to do here? Aside from the fact that following this blog may be interesting to some of you, what do I have to offer that is worth your valueable time as a reader? I'm not entirely sure, to be honest, but I have some hopes.

To begin with, I'd love to provide, as I go along, a series of gameplay strategies revolving around particularly difficult sections of the games or unusually tough or tricky boss fights. Those of you following along because you've already played some or all of the games will have little need of these, but I hope that there will be those following along who have not yet enjoyed the Final Fantasy Series, and you may find these to be helpful in beginning your own quest. I would consider my efforts here a success if I inspired even a handful of people to try a game they had not previously played.

Secondly, I want to bring together elements of history and mythology in order to shed light on the cultural diversity of the series. Throughout the history of the series one of the greatest constants has been Square's amazing use of cultural mythology in their stories. Those of you who have played will recognize such series constants as Shiva, Odin, Gilgamesh, Excalibur, and the deadly Masamune - you may not know that these come from Hindu, Norse, Mesopotamia, Authurian, and Japanese mythology. Over the years Square has drawn from cultures all over the world and all throughout history in the fashioning of their stories, and I feel these should be explored and understood.

Along side of the cultural/mythological discussion I'd like to discuss story telling as its portrayed throughout the series. Make no mistake, the games are stories, some of which could and should be considered great literature. I'm a masters student in a Creative Writing program, and story telling is very near and dear to my heart. The majority of the world isn't ready to accept video games as a form of literature, but they should be, and I'm willing to fight for it.
Finally, I'd love to just share the experience with you all.

I know, my posts are LONG. I'm trying to reach a point where they won't be. Hang in there.

Rules of Engagement

I'd like to take a moment to make it clear just exactly what I do, and do not, intend to do here, and by what rules I plan to abide during my quest.

Starting with Final Fantasy 1 I plan to play and complete each game in the series, in order, to the fullest extent possible including side quests and additional content. I do not intend to play FF X-2 as I don't truly consider it a part of the series and its storyline is extremely achievement based, meaning that you can only fully experience the various branching paths by playing the game over repeatedly. I also don't intend to play FF 11 because, as an MMO, it has no clear ending. Oh, and I won't be playing any of the spin offs - no FF Legends, Tactics, Crystal Chronicles, etc. As much as I love these additions to the FF world, I need to be at least partially realistic in this endeavor.

The allotted timeline is 365 days, beginning on 9/14/09. That said, I am a student and currently enrolled in an MA program. If at any point adhering to this timeline endangers my studies I will have to amend it.

Strategy Guides: As a general rule I don't use strategy guides until I'm about 90% of the way through I game. I used to use them from start to finish and eventually realized that doing so eliminated all of the surprise and much of the challenge. I prefer to play the game, and then go back right at the end and look for anything that I've missed along the way. That said, I'm also committed to achieving 100% completion of each game. This causes something of an internal conflict. My solution is to reserve the right to consult a walk through if I feel I'm in danger of missing something that I won't later be able to go back for. For the games that I've played before this will likely result in my usual 0 walk through consultations prior to the end of the game. For the games that I've never played I may sneak a few peeks along the way. Either way I'm likely doomed to failure on the 100% completion goal, but all I can really do is try.

Playtime: A couple of my friends have expressed interest in joining me on my quest. With that in mind I disclose that I may not always be the person in possession of the controller during given points. I fully to expect to be playing 80% of the time at minimum, but 11 games back to back is a lot of game play, and it might be nice to hand the controller off for an hour every now and then. I do, however, vow to be present and engaged for 100% of the time.

This is not an inauspicious quest, as those of you who have played some or all of these games will know. Many of the later Final Fantasy titles require upwards of 100 hours of game play apiece to complete in their entirety, and I have graduate course work and a regular life to consider. Its more than possible that I won't succeed in this quest, but I appreciate your support while I try. Thank you.

Disclaimer

Some of what you read here will be fact, but much if not most will be opinion, conjecture, speculation, supposition, inference, or loosely drawn conclusion. I am not and never have been an employee, representative, or affiliate of Square Enix, nor do they in any way endorse this project. Likely they're completely unaware of its existence. Neither am I any kind of accredited game historian or any like expert with the least credibility. While I may provide history or information regarding the Final Fantasy Series or strategies for game play I have no intention of citing my sources and should not be considered an authority. Please take what is written here only for what its worth, which is a lot, but not that much. Thank you.

The Origins of this Blog

I believe I played my first Final Fantasy game when I was around 9 or 10 - it was Final Fantasy 7, for PC no less. I've been following the series faithfully since then. I'm now 24.

A few weeks ago when Final Fantasy Dissidia was released for the PSP and I picked up and began playing my copy it dawned on me just how much of the series I was missing, in spite of 14 years of play.

I've never actually played Final Fantasy 1 or 2, and have never beaten 5, 6, or 9, though I've played each at one time or another. Additionally, my memories of the story lines for such epic installments as Final Fantasy 4, 7, 8, and 10 have dulled over time, and I recall only the major plot points of each work. Staring down at my PSP I was astonished to consider, for the first time, the true scope of the series. Twelve games, not including many, many spin-offs, each with its own unique, elaborate storyline.

I found myself wishing that Square Enix would release a series of books or movies detailing each story, so that I could experience one after the other in a short enough span of time to have a complete mental image of the epic. Then I realized that such an image could in fact be attained by playing all 12 games, if I did it quickly enough.

The recent release of the movie Julie and Julia, wherein a young woman decides to cook her way through the famous Julia Child cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cuisine, and to blog about her experiences along the way inspired me to begin my own quest - to play my way through the entire Final Fantasy Series (excluding FF X-2, and FFXI) in a single year, and to record the experience here for any who are interested. Thus it begins.