Final Fantasy Part 8: Adventures in the West Episode 2--The True Cause of the Blight

I forgot to mention in the previous entry that in the upper floors of the Earth Cave, I found 1975G, 795G, PURE (antidote), 880G, HEAL, 575G, wooden shield, 5000G, Coral Sword, 3400G, and 1020G.

Titan's Tunnel

After healing and buying even more potions (I keep the item store in business. Why am I the only customer?), I head to the west and re-enter Titan’s Tunnel. I hand over my precious RUBY to pass. Then he mysteriously disappears. Is he in cahoots with Old Nerrick? He didn’t ask for what I had either. The plot thickens!

Are you sure you don't want to buy it from me instead?

I explore the tunnel to and find a great axe, 620G, 450G, and a silver helmet. I should also mention that I either bought or found a silver armor, but I forgot which.

Once I step out of the other side of Titan’s Tunnel, I find the sage Sarda (If he’s not afraid of evil, why is he out here by himself, on the other side of the continent, guarded by a titan?). He hands me the ROD which should allow me to unseal the bottom of the Earth Cave. Then on my way back to the Earth Cave, I have to walk through Titan's Tunnel. It's a good thing the titan isn't still there. If he wanted another RUBY, I would have had to either swim around the peninsula to get to the Earth Cave or ask Sarda if he wants four new roommates (Maybe this is what happened to Sarda and he can't move back home!).

SHADOWS, you've been...THUNDERSTRUCK!!!

What is Really Causing the Earth's Decay?

Since I forgot to discuss this earlier in the game, here is how MP works in Final Fantasy: There are 8 levels of magic. For each level of magic, you have a number of “charges” you can consume. Each time you cast a spell in a particular magic level, the number of charges drops. Once it hits 0, the only way (I know of right now) to restore those charges is to sleep at the inn (I wonder if the house restores MP, but I am saving those for a rainy day).

With that in mind, and the knowledge I am heading down into an area of the Earth Cave that is filled with evil energy, I am trying to watch my MP as much as possible. This means that every character is whacking enemies with their weapons, even poor Vic, so that I have as much MP as possible to take out the real Earth-sucking culprit.

When I reach the stone tablet, I investigate it again, this time with the ROD in hand. The plate shatters, and I see the stairway that I already saw thanks to the way the sprites were layered when I hit the pause menu or fought a random battle!

Stone tablet in the way.

Quick! While you're pausing! Who needs the ROD anyway?

On the next floor of the cave, I head north to find a treasure room. Even though there is a boss coming up, I want to get the treasures first, and as expected, I fight several difficult battles to get the chests! Even though I use several of my healing potions, I find 3400G, wooden staff, 1520G, 5450G, and 1455!

Things become more difficult as I go down yet another set of stairs. I hope it doesn’t go much farther. I have to use my soft once a band of COCATRICES ambush me and turn Vic to stone with one hit. Once again, I am running low on healing potions. Not wanting to use up any more potions, I head toward the center of the labyrinth (if there is something else to find, we’ll see after the boss battle.) to find an odd sight. Check it out below

The battle against LICH, the fiend of Earth, was not long, but it was scary. When he hit me with ICE2, I had the horrible feeling that he was going to take me out! Thankfully, I hit him very hard in the beginning with a couple critical hits and FIR3 to wipe him out before he can do serious damage.

After bringing light back to the first ORB, I find a quick exit out of the cave, where I use one of my houses. The house restores HP (though not all for Arek) and MP, and it allows me to save outside! After reading in another FAQ that there were no more treasures at the bottom of the Earth Cave, I go fight in the Hall of Giants* on the top floor of the Earth Cave to collect some easy money!

Look at the top left! One ORB lit, three to go!

Coming next time! To the East Side!

Thanks for reading, and leave your comments below!

*I also learned from the FAQ by Brian Sulpher that the only place where the giants appear are right as you move left from the entrance in what’s called the “Hall of Giants”. Thank you for having a great guide! Check out his walkthrough at http://www.gamefaqs.com/nes/522595-final-fantasy/faqs/25809.