I make my way to the great white north to find the Goddess Bell. The Ice Sled is a lot like the Canoe in that it is always with you. You use it automatically as you need to.
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| This Ice Sled reminds me of the Canoe. Sure is crazy that they each take up as much inventory space as a Potion! |
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| Watch out, Firion! Those Icicles look angry! |
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| Now these are Yeti, but the game disagrees and calls them Snowmen. |
The Ice Cave
After exploring the icy fields, I
find the cave where I should be able to find the Goddess Bell (to get to
Kashuon, to get the Egil Torch, to get the Sun Flame, to destroy the Warship,
to fill the hole in the bottom of the sea!).
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| This cave is a palette swap of the Semite Cave. Look at that entrance! |
While fighting my first battles in
the Ice Cave, I wonder how often I should have Maria cast Fire. After all, she
is the only character with a stronger version of it, but it costs her more MP.
She is also my only healer (besides the potions I have stockpiled) and knows
Life. I decide if necessary, Firion can also cast Fire. I hope as I make
my way through that my characters will become stronger because the fights are
already harder than before, and I’m only a few steps in.
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| It's nice to meet fans of The Grateful Dead in such a cold, lonely place. |
The first floor is very
straightforward, but then I have to make a choice.
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| This again? |
 |
| That's worse! Screw you, FF2! |
 |
| Of course. You should see the sad look on my face right now. |
On
my way out of the empty room,the room punishes me for entering it with two Dual Head
monsters. They do massive damage, but Maria softens the blow with Safe.
 |
This should be so cold! Will my
characters die from hypothermia? On the other hand, they don’t take any damage
from it. Arek and crew could learn a thing or two from Firion.
|
On the third level down, there is
even more water around, so I go swimming for treasure. In another battle, Maria
learns Fire 3 (so powerful, but once again, it’s more expensive to cast!).
Firion dabbles with Fire and takes out some Icicles for
me, and Guy gets my favorite string of end-battle messages: “Int Down…Pwr Up.”
I want that man stupid and strong!
At
this point, I get very tired of the battle music, so FF2 becomes a
listen-to-the-radio-while-you-play game. I like the tunes in the game, but
after a while, they become tedious to listen to after long periods of time.
When
I least expect it, a Grenade (the Balloon's angry cousin) blows up and kills Maria in one shot, and since
I’m caught at a fork in the road, I decide to cast Exit and heal up.
 |
| Seriously? |
In
the next fight, the Icicles take out Guy (I guess they fell on him.), and I’m left with Firion and Josef.
It’s not looking too pretty, and suddenly everything is ambushing me! Since
running away isn’t helping out, I focus on kicking enemy butt. I’m going to
show them that if my party is going to die, I will go down kicking and screaming! In a weird turn of
events, on my way out, after one battle, Firion gains intelligence then loses it
and gains power instead. I use up a huge amount of Potions (I hope they’re not
too expensive to replace.) in the process. I knew I should have bought Life; when I
get back to town, first thing I’m doing is buying Life for Firion!
Thankfully
I make it back, and after buying Life and bringing my party back with healing
magic and then recovering MP at the inn (I find it’s the cheapest way to
recover everyone since the rate at the inn depends on how much HP and MP you
need to recover.), I buy Guy a Battle Axe, Bronze Gauntlets for Firion, and
three Potions before heading back to the cave. When I get there, I save my game
and close up shop for the night.
It’s
not over yet, Final Fantasy II. Screw you big time!
Ice Cave: The Revenge
On
my second trip, I go in the opposite direction in the watery area and find a
load of treasure. When I open the chest that contains the Mithril Spear,
monsters suddenly appear!
 |
| D'oh! |
I
get into a fight with four Grenades, two of which self-destruct and take out
Maria (A grenade only seems to self-destruct if you hit it without killing it.). Out of curiosity, Firion casts Life to see if it’s effective during battle,
and it works!
 |
I
experience the darkness side effect for the first time. Nice shades, Firion!
|
After
several fights and debating whether I wanted to leave and save (I decide against it), I head down the stairs to find even more water!
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| Enough is enough, people! |
I
finally find the Ice spell (thank goodness I didn’t buy it yet!) and teach it
to Maria. I give in and use the Ether I stole from Minh to restore Maria’s MP
and then heal the party (I have a feeling I will be battling a boss soon, and
since I already know I can’t warp out of this area, I know I will have to fight my
way out as well).
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| They love to get me with these! If this keeps up, I may never open a door in my life ever again! |
Then
I head down yet another set of stairs (Just how deep is this cave?). I hope I
make it to the end soon. I only had one Ether, and all of a sudden the game
doesn’t want to give Maria more MP for casting so much! Meanwhile, I let Firion try out
the Mithril Spear, but since he’s not as proficient with it as his
weaker sword, I switch back to the sword.
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| Josef punches the Icicle with all his might! |
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| Sigh... |
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| ...Groan! |
I
open another chest to find the Ancient Sword, but then monsters attack me! If it
isn’t hot spots, it’s monsters-in-boxes with this series. Finally, I reach a
door that has adorable beavers swimming about in the water. I try to talk to
each of them, but they say the same thing.
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| No, we don't meet Gau until later in the series! |
Then
I try speaking to the beaver who isn't running around like a crazy nut, and Guy tells
me shocking information.
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| Truly, his strong and stupid training has paid off! |
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| I wonder if the sign says, "It's cool. Take the treasure and have a great day!" |
Feeling
gutsy, I take the chest, which just has a Silver Armor in it (Score!). After changing my
equipment and formations, I decide now I have to talk to the turtle, and a boss
battle begins!
 |
| Ugh. What a disappointment. |
Training Montage
Another
day, same old fight! I head back to Altea to teach Cure and Ice to Guy, and I pick
up Life for him in Salmando. The biggest challenge in the Ice Cave is the
Adamantoise, and I think with some more MP, I can take him. I hope that with
the amount of grinding I do on my way there and back again, my characters will
be strong enough to take him down. I will also be ready because this time I
will conserve my MP and make sure Maria equips the ether before getting into
that battle. For some security, I even beat the crap out of myself a bit. Look
at the results!
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| Before beating myself up. |
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| After beating myself up. What a difference! |
Watch Out, Ice Cave: Here I Come!
As
I make my way down the Ice Cave yet again, I reach the third level down, and
all of a sudden, I encounter several Dual Heads. I defeat them, and a few steps
over, I fight even more of them! Thankfully it’s not once per step, but I’m
concerned that they are popping up all over the place instead of just in that
chest. When I get the Ancient Sword, I equip it, but I notice that my accuracy
drops from 75% to 35%, so even though it’s stronger, I decide I will sell it
when I make it back to town.
Below
you can find my second attempt against the Adamantoise. Boss time! Check it out below.
What
a twist! The Adamantoise bites it, thanks to letting Josef use one of my Ice books as an item (which casts the spell at level 8!) and Guy using Ice
(just the level 1 spell; who would have thought that ice would be the weakness
of the Ice Cave boss?). Then I run into Borgan, who turns out to be a screaming
joke, but what follows stops all laughter.
At
this point, I have to remind you of Final Fantasy IX, over in Pinnacle Rock.
The story that the Eidolon Ramuh asks you to piece together about a brave
man named Joseph who helps rebels claim a Goddess Bell and sacrifices his life in the process; doesn’t it sound familiar now?
Just
something fun to think about to ease the pain of losing a strong ally.
Ice Cave Treasure Haul: 100G, 150G, Ice Wind, Battle Axe (just bought one too!), Antidote, Mithril Staff, Potion, Ice book, Potion, Mithril Spear, Mithril Shield, Ancient Sword, Silver Armor, Goddess Bell
Journey to Kashuon
When
I return to Salmando, the townspeople are shocked to learn that Josef is dead.
I enter Josef’s house to find that the woman who told me earlier she loves him
is now taking care of his daughter. Nobody seems to have told the daughter, but
from what she says, I take it she is a smart girl and has already figured it
out.
 |
| If only I could give you this Canoe to feel better! Unfortunately I will probably need it again. I can't even give you the Ice Sled, and that was your father's! |
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| Seriously? The whole town knows but you. Even his young daughter knows! Take your lazy butt and cross that bridge and find out yourself because I'm done with being the bearer or bad news! |
While
figuring out how to get to Kashuon to retrieve the Egil Torch, I head towards
Bofsk, beating the stuffing out of my characters and grinding my magic by wasting
lots of MP. The masochistic system grows on me a little bit as I start to gain
more stats, and Maria finally crosses the 200 HP mark. Check out how I play the
system at the inn.
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| Are you kidding? That's robbery! |
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| Much better; I'm great at haggling! |
While
at Bofsk, I buy the Peep spell, which should be like Scan. I teach it to Guy,
captain of the "etc." class of magic and then journey south of town, hoping to
find Kashuon.
 |
| Take a look at Guy's stats. He is truly strong and stupid. That's my boy! |
As
I head farther and farther south, I continue to fight easy enemies. But then a
few steps away from a desert, I encounter a nightmare of a fight!
 |
| Eek! Antlions! |
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| Sometimes wandering leads to death...Unfortunate! |
I
decide that I would rather have a safe trip to my next destination, so I return
to Poft and contract an airship to get there. Before I do, I head back to Altea
to buy a Cure, Fire, Ice, and Bolt book and equip one of the books on
each character. My idea is that since I learned that the books use the level 8
version of the spell, it would make a great emergency item should I have
trouble with a group of enemies or a boss in a dungeon. It sinks half of my
money, but then I sell the Ancient Sword and make the money back. I turn that
money around and buy Mithril equipment for my party (not all of it, but a good amount for what I can afford)
and then sell some Potions and Antidotes so I have travel fare to get to my
next destination.
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| I could really use some extra storage space... |
Cid
drops me off far to the southeast (At least I know how to get back now!) to a
castle that looks suspiciously familiar.
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| Looks like Astos's castle from FF1... |
 |
I
may be poor, but look at my character growth! And they say beating yourself up
is bad for you!
|
Coming next time! The Assault on the Warship Episode 3: The Abandoned Castle!
Thanks for reading, and leave your comments below!
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