Final Fantasy Part 6: More Mystic Key Items and the Journey to Melmond

Finishing What We Started

With my extra money from the marsh cave, I buy ICE2 and CONF (confuses enemies) and then turn back to Astos's castle to find the Falchon (falchion? Guarded by 3 IMAGES easily killed with HRM2, power staff (guarded by 2 mummies), and iron gauntlets (also guarded by 2 mummies). Here I learn that I can continually run in front of the same chest and fight the same enemies, so I grind for money!

Then I go with my extra money to buy PURE (antidote), AICE (protect from ice), and AMUT (cures mute/silence). Finally finished with Elf Land, I say goodbye for good and sail to the Chaos Temple to open up some chests I couldn't get to earlier.

Didn't you hear that I woke him up? This is old news!

In the Chaos Temple's locked rooms, I find Rune Sword, Were Sword (only becomes a sword during a full moon?), and soft (cures stone, costs 800G!!). Next, I return to Coneria Castle to find iron staff, saber, silver knife, iron armor, iron shield, and TNT! (and they want me to take this off their hands?)

If you're wondering why I am allowed to waltz in and take Coneria's national treasure, refer to the Finder's Keepers Law of Coneria.

Unsure of where I need to go next, I take my safe new treasure to Matoya to see if she has anything new to say.

Well that was rude! Let me have that CRYSTAL back!

While I was in Pravoka, I remember an old man mentioning that Melmond to the west is in trouble , so I sail as far to the west as I can. The map (thanks to the "spell" the brooms taught me) indicates I can't go very far west, though. I can't go any further west once I hit port, but I do find a cave.

Curious, I enter to find...DWARVES!!!

And a Lali Ho...oh wait, wrong Final Fantasy!

After hearing their happy greetings, I raid the dwarves' cave to find 575G, 450G, cabin, iron helmet, dragon sword (I am getting way too many swords, but Arek doesn't mind. Since Lee doesn't use any weapons, I make Lee hold onto them.), silver knife, wooden helmet, silver armor, 575G, and another house! Holding equipment isn't so bad, but another house?! Lee better be built like the Hulk by the end of this game!

NOT AGAIN!!

One thing about finding treasure in Final Fantasy: if you have only one fighter and no red mage, finding lots of equipment is great because you can sell it off to make extra money. After all, once the fighter is finished with it and nobody else can use it, why take up the extra space?

I really enjoy my time with the dwarves. I learn plenty of useful info such as: Matoya can only see with the CRYSTAL (old news!), bracelets work like armor (already knew that since I played this game before), dwarves can see in the dark, there is a blacksmith named Smith, who needs ADAMANT to make a sword for us (so you KNOW we're coming back here!), the earth is rotting slowly from the west (hmmm...Melmond again?), Nerrick is working on a canal, and...

*Giggle*

Quick, somebody call Wolverine to help us out here!

As I walk to the south of town, I run into Nerrick, who doesn't even introduce himself and takes my TNT without asking (I wonder if I could have come here earlier before Elf Land.) and disappears. Since there is nowhere else to go, I head back to my ship to find that my way is no longer blocked. I am free to go anywhere I like! But since I know that Final Fantasy games are merciless when traveling where I am not supposed to go, I continue west.

Whoa, wait!! Do you know what you're doing with that?!

Hmph, says you. He never even thanked me...

YOU'RE WELCOME!! I was going to drag my ship over the land mass and use the TNT to blow up monsters before Old Respectable Nerrick took it off my hands!

Journey West, Young Man


I enter a town that looks absolutely dreadful. There are gravestones everywhere (none of which belong to old RPG heroes), and there are many patches of dead grass (and yet that same peaceful town music). I learn that the Vampire (before he became Count Dracula?) cursed the town by absorbing the Earth's power and took out the Clinic (no!!), a sage named Sarda does not fear evil caves (I bet he doesn't afraid of anything!), the land will recover if I bring light back to the Earth ORB, and if I pass through the Titan's Tunnel to the south I can meet Sarda. I meet a dwarf named Jim (no foolin') who is investigating the town but does not offer to help me, and another man tells me that to the north, there was a prosperous civilization which is now in ruins. I also learn that the Earth Cave is on a peninsula southwest to the town and that Titans love RUBIES!

Is this what I think it's going to be? This is probably a spoiler once you've played the later entries in the series!

Well no, I haven't heard of you. What does Dr. Unne do?

Having enough of the sadness in this town, I administer retail therapy! Everything is really expensive, so I sell some of my found items that Lee was lugging. In the weapon shop, I don't get anything new since the only character who really uses new weapons now, Arek, has several new ones already! In the white magic shop, I see CUR3, LIFE (finally!), and HRM3 (great for slaughtering undead, though I'm sure I'll use more of my level 5 MP/charges to cure and revive). For the uninitiated, in Final Fantasy, you can only buy 3 spells for each magic level, so I always have to leave one spell behind. In this case, when I can afford it, I will leave behind HEL2 (heal all a little bit more). Staking out what I want there, I check out the black magic shop, where I find that I want FIR3, WARP (lets me backtrack a previous floor), and BANE (chance to kill all enemies on the screen). Since I can't afford anything, it's time to buy some healing potions and explore the new playground around me before continuing...except I can't find the item shop anywhere! So I heal up, save, and leave ready to fight!

Coming next time! Arek and the Gang's Adventures in the West!

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