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?

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