Final Fantasy III Part 3: The Cave of Seal

A New Party Member?
The Cave of Seal proves to be more difficult than I remembered. I am not sure whether it is because...

• I am not strong enough,
• I am in a hurry,
• or I have horrible luck!

In order to make it to the deeper parts of the Cave of Seal, you need to find a button on a pile of bones in the room where you can't go any further. Imagine if I hadn't spoken to the king's ghost in the castle and learned that tidbit of information. Of course, there were only three piles of bones, so if I had gone there, would I have stumbled upon that anyway by pressing buttons (The FF series teaches you to press buttons almost anywhere, the best offender being the abundance of Elixirs inside of clocks in FF6!). Like any competent RPG adventurer, I know that people have valuable information (sometimes).

After making my way into the next area, I meet Princess Sara, who holds a Mithril Ring that can be used to re-seal Jinn. Apparently, the earthquake that knocked the Crystal underground also released Jinn from his curse, causing the townspeople to become ghosts. Sara quickly dismisses her own combat ability and asks to join the party so we can help her seal him away. Having been drained of my energy, I make my way back to town a couple times to shop, heal, and save.

Princess Sara has a technicolor dream cape!

See?

A Bargain That Can't Be Beat!

While back in Ur, I learn something that really blows my mind. In FF3, you can buy single items or in clips of 4 and 10. Imagine my shock when I realized that as I bought larger clips of items, the price decreased. The citizens of the world of FF3 must believe in passing on bulk savings to their customers. FF4 has a similar shop setup if I remember right, so I will definitely check to see if this same rule applies (my memory fails me at the moment).

They're still working on their company logo.

A Difficult Case

One of the many games I played while taking a break from FF3 was FF10, touted as both the last great FF and the first bad FF, depending on your perspective. I am located somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, but if there is one thing that we can all agree on, it's that it is not as painful when it comes to difficulty level. For example, each character has a distinct advantage over certain types of enemies, you can swap out party members in mid-battle, you can increase stats more quickly through the Sphere Grid system, and the battles are for the most part "fair". While there are a huge number of super bosses to fight (especially in the International/HD Remaster versions that are out) that leave you only to grind and make ultimate weapons, the game is designed with the mindset that the player in fact wants to experience the story. FF1 through 3, however, seem to play by a different set of rules. I have this gut feeling that the team was excited about their story but wanted the players to have to earn the right to experience it (what a way we've come in RPG storytelling if this is the case).

That being said, FF3 has proven to be very challenging in the very second area of the game, the Cave of Seal. There are multiple factors in the difficulty, including:

• A lack of accessible revival items. If you die, you need to hoof it back to town (looking forward to the Life spell!).
• Sleeping does not revive dead characters!
• You are painfully open to critical hits when attempting to run away (one of the many times I reset while working in this area).
• Your characters are prone to miss, a lot (Who knew the undead could move so fast?)!
• Sure you can dual-wield, but that makes you squishy. Let's make a choice, people!
• High encounter rate.
• The limited MP charges as in FF1. However, by the time I reached Jinn, Trevor's Red Wizard MP had up to 8 charges for level 1 spells and 2 for level 2 spells, so this will not be so bad in the future.

By my third attempt, I finally reached Jinn, who proved to be an absolute buttercup compared to the random encounters. I think that there is beauty in the fact that the journey there is harder than the end (Contra or Gradius, anybody?), but I wonder if this will always be the case.

So long Jinn. We hardly knew ye... 

Wondering what my prize was for my hard work?

Did he keep it behind his throne?

And so ends my session for now. I am hooked on this game despite the difficulty, so I will be back soon enough. After all, I need to give Cid back his airship...

Next time: Final Fantasy III Part 4: Wasteful Resources and a Mid-Life Crisis?

Please leave feedback below. Thank you for reading!

Final Fantasy III Part 2: Getting Reacquainted

So after not engaging in the World Tour in over a year and switching hardware, I did not have all of the same tools as before. With my files in mixed formats and hours of recorded footage, I decided it was easier just to start over again. I will not re-write about the very beginning since you can read all about it in Part 1. It is pretty much the same exact thing I did in the first post (I even named my crew once again after members of the Belmont family.).

What Did I Do in Final Fantasy III Today?

I decided to go with an aggressive party format. Simon and Julius are Fighters, Rikter is a Monk, and Trevor is a Red Wizard. My favorite part of any FF game with a flexible job system is that you can readjust your party for the challenges that arise. This of course is different from the original FF in which your party is set. There was only one opportunity for the party to change classes, and that was an upgrade more so than an a straight-up class change. Having played through the DS remake in the past, I know that I will need to change classes to accommodate more magic-heavy areas later on. For now, like in most RPGs, the beginning is about whacking enemies and gaining some levels. 

Did you know magic is an item in FF3? You didn't? Let me tell you all about magic then! Anyone can equip magic, even if they cannot use it. That way, if you plan to switch a Fighter to a Red Wizard, they will be ready. Of course, the direction you change classes is critical. For example, if you switch from a Fighter to a Red Wizard, you will be able to cast magic but won't have any MP. If you switch from a Red Wizard to a Fighter, you will lose all of your MP because Fighters can't cast spells. Don't think you can switch again and get that MP back. It's gone, baby gone until you go back and restore your MP. Finally, you are not married to your magic. If you don't want a character to have that spell any longer, you can convert it back to an item and give it to somebody else for awhile. I think you can even sell back spells you aren't interested in keeping (since each character can only learn up to 3 spells per magic level). The ability to equip and unequip magic is leaps and bounds better than FF1, where once you buy it, you have it, for better or worse.

Storywise, I returned to the boys' hometown of Ur, where the elder told us that he knew that they would be chosen by the Crystal and that we have to go bring back light to the crystals (although we don't know why they are losing their light). I took some time to walk about the town and remembered that it does not cost money to sleep here. At the Inn, you can just sleep in any bed without cost, and in the Elder's home, you can heal all HP and MP or resurrect dead allies free of charge. I can't remember if that service exists in other towns. There is even a piano in the bar like in FF5. I forget if you can "level up" playing the piano like you can in FF5.

What strikes me most about Ur is that you can get in random encounters in parts of the town. In fact, the first time I fought the Werewolves, I was completely clobbered. I quickly reloaded, bought new equipment for my party, and returned with much better results. My main prize was the Cure spell, another of which I found in the next area.

What's Happening in the Plot?

When I reached the town of Kaustus (spelling?), I found out it was a real ghost town (ugh!), with flat ghosts walking around. One of these ghosts is Cid, who lets us use his airship to try to take down Jinn, an evil demon who has turned this town and the castle of Sasonne into ghosts like him. The airship feels pretty useless because it can't travel over mountains, but it helps me cross the river into the Cave of Seals and through the forest to the castle without any random encounters to deal with. I picked the castle clean and even scored the Wight Slayer, which makes my Red Wizard great against the undead. I have to admit I got my butt kicked and had to reload because I wanted my whole party to get experience from the Griffon guarding that chest. After going into the Cave of Seals, I find some treasure, fight some battles, and head back out to heal, get recovery items, and save. It has been a very long day, and there will be plenty of new posts coming soon.

Let me know how the new format style is working with you. It is a work in progress!

Next Time: Final Fantasy III Part 3: The Cave of Seals and Beyond

Thanks for reading!

I'm Back!

After a long time of not playing the classic FF series and blogging about it, I decided to get back to it today. However, I am working on a different format.

I will still be blogging about my adventures. However, I will be focusing more on reflections/anecdotes/observations about the game more than being the "tour guide" Let's Player that I have been in the past. After all, if you want to see everything that happens, you can see all of it through the many YouTube LP's that exist.

So What Went Wrong?

There are several reasons why I stopped. Of course, most of them are excuses:

• I actually managed to reach areas further into the game. However, I used different ways to record them (my emulator at the time did not want to cooperate with video recording, so I experimented with Twitch and also streaming. The idea was to stream/record my video game footage and then write/snap pictures about it. However, the more I tried this, the less willing I became to write about it. What started out as something fun was becoming incredibly tedious to me. It didn't gel with what I had been working up towards.
• Work did become busier. Of course, that's truly an excuse because I still had plenty of free time when not spending it with other people. I filled that time playing a multitude of other games.
• I felt like I was being just like every other LP'er out there. My intended purpose of the blog was to write about my experiences playing the game, which then turned into making sarcastic (although I did have fun with it!) comments whenever possible. I don't want to be yet another drop in that bucket. I will go elsewhere for that.
• Many of my friends stopped participating in LP's and streaming. This was perhaps the biggest reason why I halted my journey. That's probably the lamest reason why I stopped. After all, my girlfriend reminded me that I do enjoy projects like this.

So now I am back, and although the format is a bit different (For example, I will not be keeping track of every item I pick up--we can read a guide for that.), I am back doing what I love: talking about the games I enjoy.

SO LET'S GET BACK TO IT! :-D