Final Fantasy Part 5: The Sleeping Prince and the Confusing Fetch Quest Part 2

Astos Battle, Take Two!


It goes just as horribly the second time! It seems that each time I try to fight him, Astos takes out Arek with RUB (instant kill) before I get a chance to take him out! Determined to finish the fight with most of my characters live, I get a horrible idea seeing as I can't seem to prevent the RUB spell from happening during the first round.

Lee, it's nothing personal, but Vic can cast powerful magic, Arek is a tank, and Jule can heal us. I'll make it up to you if my theory is true!

My theory is that Astos will always cast RUB on the character in the first slot during the first round. With my reasoning in the captions above, I change my formation and challenge him to a THIRD attempt to defeat Astos without losing a character! Below is the video replay of this unusual fight:




You'll find that my clever member swap backfires and angers Astos as he takes out Vic, my most powerful ally in this battle, with RUB. I even cast ALIT (defends against lightning attacks) in vain as Astos only uses physical attacks in this particular fight (no fair; he used LIT2 last time!)! In the end, though, after three tries, I finally prevail with three characters alive. For those keeping track, no official game overs yet; just resets when it would be too inconvenient to bring the party back to life (tomato, tomahto?)

Chores to Help Others

With CRYSTAL in hand, I know it's time to return to the blind witch Matoya's cave. Before I go, though, it's time to bring poor Vic back to life (He missed out on some good experience points!), sell my surplus goods from the marsh cave, and buy some spells which I couldn't afford before. With 9,353G, STILL not enough to buy all the spells I want in Elf Land, I purchase FIR2 and HOLD (paralyzes one enemy) for Vic, and I purchase HRM2 (kills undead deader!) and AFIR (helps defend against fire spells) for Jule. I had a hard time choosing those spells over HEAL (heals all allies), but I read that HEAL only heals about 12-24 HP for each member of the party*. I decided that it would not be as useful in the long run. Disappointed that I couldn't afford any level 4 magic, I sleep at the inn (so Vic doesn't die on me) and head to my destination.

I love backtracking. Not so tough now are you shark?!

After beating the stuffing out of old random encounters, I make my way to visit Matoya, and I realize my job isn't quite over yet.

But I JUST came from over there. Back to the ship! By the way, who is HERB and how will he help the Prince?

My annoyance for getting right back onto the ship melts away as I rip apart some more defenseless sharks (would you ever say that in real life?) and head back to Elf Land (how long does this all take anyway in real time?). When I get to the castle, I try to administer the herb to the Prince. When he refuses to wake up, I try some myself, and it tastes very bitter. I talk to the elf next to him, and he does it for me. The Prince wakes up to give me a great prize!

Finally, that key I was wondering about! Time to backtrack and hit up those old dungeons a second time! Thank goodness I wrote down where I couldn't get into.

Backtracking for Goods!


With the Mystic Key in hand, I turn the corner and rob the castle treasury of a silver hammer, 730G over two chests, and a pair of copper gauntlets. Thanks for my tip, Prince! Afraid of the amazing knights from Oblivion coming to chase me down, I quickly run out of the castle and return to the marsh cave since it's the closest to me (and I can hit up Astos's castle on my way back).

Expecting an easy run down to the bottom, I encounter four scorpions which immediately poison my entire party. Since I have no worries about getting poisoned now, I charge into battle when Lee gets creamed by three of them. Since I am close to the bottom, I heal, detoxify, and continue to the bottom. It's at this point when I wonder why there is no defense option for my squishy mages to cower behind the tank I call Arek! As if the game heard my thoughts, I run into two gargoyles which kill Jule, leaving Arek alone with Vic (I wonder who has to hold the dead party members. Do they go in the house that's inside the bag?). It's getting worse and worse, but at least with each passing battle, my survivors are collecting more experience.

For awhile, Vic wins the MVP Award of Cowardliness by helping me run from every battle, and then it gets worse: he dies and leaves Arek by himself, hobbling out of the cave with 21 HP and no healing items left! Below is the video of the exciting escape. I know I have a house in my bag, but I figured it was so valuable (I saw it for 3000G in the shop) that if I died, I could just re-load and try again instead of using it up.I won't spoil the ending, so watch and enjoy!

Coming next time! Getting more goodies from the Mystic Key!
Thanks for reading, and leave your comments below!

P.S. After all that excitement, Astos's castle will have to wait for another night along with the rest of my backtracking!

*http://www.gamefaqs.com/nes/522595-final-fantasy/faqs/7215  Check out Dan Simpson's magic guide on GameFAQs for an easy-to-use magic reference document