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.

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 - 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.

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