Pandemonium (Day 30)

So the final four does turn out to be the main character, Maria, Guy, and Leon. The same four guys that you started with? Well yes! We find out that the Emperor has resurrected himself with the powers of hell, and to defeat him, you had to travel through the Jade tunnel and into Hell itself, the Pandemonium Palace. This is not without some bosses.




The King Behemoth was a push-over. I used the basic Haste + Berserk spells on my fighters and kept healing with Leon. I was hesitant to use magic on it because I feared that it will do WEAK on me, a spell that was automatic in Final Fantasy 4 when you attacked a behemoth. I think they do METEOR on you in Final Fantasy 10 if you use magic on them; what mystical beasts they truly are. It was nothing that the Excalibur couldn't cut through.



Next up there was the multi-headed dragon Tiamont. Didn't we see him in FF1? Well, yes he was. Not a bad idea to bring him back. He looks like he went on a work-out regime and yoked up a bit. Not to worry, magic works well on him as well as the old-fashioned wacks from from hard steel. I really should look up where the name Tiamont came from, it seems to go well with dragons.



Next up, Beelzebub, the lord of the flies. Odd how many references there are to Satan in these games. This one is a bit more complicated as magic does more damage than physical attacks. I started using my Fire spells along with Ultima, Flare, and Holy. My party wasn't meant to be mages, so it took a bunch of ethers to complete this battle.




Lastly there is Astaroth, a prince in Hell. Well, not according to FF2, he's a lady in this one. Quite a change of appearances between her and the Astaroth in the Soul Calibur series. He does have the wings, and besides that there wasn't much to it. By the time I met him/her I had the Masamune and it was enough to fix her good; even without enfeeblement boosts. Nice outfit, hotshot.




But who has the greatest outfit? Of course the Emperor himself. Sure he looks like a amazon shaman from San Francisco, but hey, he's the emperor. He can do anything he wants. I played around with using two swords: Excalibur and Masamune with the hero, but it really didn't do much of a difference. I stuck with the Masamune and a shield for him. It really didn't matter because the person that did the most damage was Guy, with his Rune Axe. Somehow with Haste, Aura, and Berserk, he was able to do 3000 damage per hit. Quite substantial since the Emperor only has 15,000 HP. Leon was on stand-by again. It was a much more easier boss than Final Fantasy I. Yet I'm not done yet, FF2: Soul of Rebirth begins now. Another 20 hours of pain and leveling? Maybe just leveling.

• Game Time: 25 hrs and 45 mins
  
• Days: 30 of 80

Evil Empire (Day 24)

It's so hard to play a game that I haven't played before without stumbling down beginner's traps. First of all you don't know who's going to leave, so you're never too sure about who to devote your leveling up on. It's especially heart-breaking when the person that you've been leveling up leaves and you lose a chunk of your equipment. In Final Fantasy IV, I knew exactly when to strip Kain's armor off when he deserts you; it really came in handy later on. Anyways, I finally got Leon, and it seems like he is the last party member.

I fought some notable bosses. First up, the Roundworm that was infesting inside of Leviathan. Yes, he's in this game, and he does wreck your ship (as a prequel to what will happen in FFIV?). But instead of just separating your party, he swallows you whole and you have to battle the monsters from within him. The cool thing is that you gain RICARD. Can we say Kain's template? He's a dragoon that's been trained from the Kingdom of Deist. I guess it was shocking to see him for the first time in Final Fantasy II, but now it makes FFIV not so ground-breaking. I thought that they just added Chocobos and Dragoons out of no-where. Nope, they both started in FFII.




Next there is this White Dragon. Dragons look really cool in Final Fantasy, and for some reason, you can't help but wonder how Enix thought about this. If Final Fantasy had dragons, imps, and golems to fight, what special monsters were reserved for Dragon Quest? Anyways, the boss was a cinch, and I really think I'm a bit over-leveled for the game again.

I reached Mysidia, the land of the Mages, and bought the HOLY spell. I found FLARE in Mysidia Tower. Naturally I found the ULTIMA spell there too. I guess it's the first time to see that spell. It was not in Final Fantasy IV, but returned in later episodes. This is so trippy, I'm finally piecing the parts together. The spells sound strong, but the game's spell system involves powering them up, which is a total drag. You get ULTIMA, and it starts at level 1 ULTIMA, that does like 60 damage. You can hit like 1000 already. Anyways, tough stuff.


After defeating the Emperor at Paloom, we find out that LEON was leading the empire to destroy you again. You confront him at his palace, and just when the fight begins, he says something totally wicked. Actually, it was kind of funny, I had to take a picture of it. "Weak words, from the weak". There's something so blatant about it that it cracked me up. The fight did not happen because we find out that the Emperor resurrects himself from HELL and claims Ricard's life. Yes, he dies. For a silly video game from the 80's, a lot of people die. Of course Leon realizes his wrong ways and to combat a greater evil, he joins me. Hurrah! I'll leave you guys with some numbers.

• Game Time: 19 hrs 7 mins
  
• Total Time: 40 hrs 45 mins
• Deaths: 2 (from FFII)
  
• Days: 24 of 80
  

Death #2 (Day 16)

What's happening here? I can't believe it but I messed up again, died again in Final Fantasy II. This just might be one of the hardest rpg's I played. While traveling to Mysidia from Altair, I met a party of four imps and two wolves. Imps? aren't they the weakest enemies in Final Fantsy 4? I believe they are. Well not here, the first spell they cast is "Charm XVI". And it does hit! My whole party started to smack each other. I tried to revive them one by one, but every time they get first attack in the round, they do the Charm spell. Man, I felt like newbie. There you have it, official death #2. I'll have to work on it some more after this week. It's already Day 16 and I'm still on Final Fantasy 2, it seems like I have to get a move on or day 80 will come soon.

I defeated a Behemoth in the coliseum. I always thought these guys were scary, and I guess they started having them in part 2. Awesome! It'd be fun to compare the art work for Behemonths through the Final Fantasy games. The size of them doesn't really strike you until you play Final Fantasy X, where they sized him a lot bigger than the characters. Fun stuff. Final Fantasy X... it's gonna be a long way to go.

Final Fantasy 2, not II (Day 11)

Onward to Final Fantasy 2, and no not the USA release of Final Fantasy II, but the actual Final Fantasy 2. We start with four characters again on the search for crystals... no! We don't! Actually, the crystals are not a part of the story at all. At least I haven't heard about yet, and I'm now 9 hours in. So what's the primary tool moving the plot of this story? How about an evil empire trying to dominate the world and squashing every bit of resistance left with their fleets of airships. Wait, back up again, how come I don't know the story? Well, actually it's because Final Fantasy 2 is one of the FOUR Final Fantasy games that I have never completed. I have played it, but never beat it. I played it in Japanese, and damn I gave up quick.

Another thing that I noticed with FF2 is that it does not have the leveling up system anymore. As your character fights more battles, you gain status ups instead of level ups. So your character gets stronger except you don't know what number level you are. It also is intuitive to your battle methods as those who use more magic will gain more intelligence and MP and those who fight more will gain more HP and strength. This is all fun and games and is more like "real life", but heck I'd love to have number levels back. It's just like Romancing Sa*Ga, except after battles in that game they get their HP refilled. This game doesn't give you health after a battle, it doesn't give you anything except gold and status ups. This game is remarkably, hard.

I died in the first 5 minutes of the game because I wandered off of the first town too far. This is the first official death of the whole Final Fantasy Challenge. I can't believe they placed high level enemies in a place where you can walk to w/in the first 5 minutes of the game. I met two Magicians and two Knights. The Magicians did "Fire V" on me and my whole party fell. That's it, the intro game screen started. What a let-down (I can think of other phrases, but I will not reiterate the moment at this point). I then remembered why I stopped playing the game on my Wonderswan in the first place, I had no idea what to do. I needed help.

I went to a FAQ on Gamefaqs and I actually got the game started. As I said, I am not neglecting FAQs or guidebooks in my challenge, as I see aids can only get you that far, the rest is you putting effort into the game. Plus it's not like these games are "new".

So I kept playing, and I started to understand the structure of the game: magic is important as MP is scarce. The first three characters, Firion, Maria, and Leila seem permanent, but he fourth leg has been switched often. Magic is for everyone now, but attack magic seem more important than enfeeblement ones. There wasn't any notable bosses so I decided to skip the adventure log. More to come soon.

• Game Time: 9 hrs 7 mins
  
• Total Time: 30 hrs 45 mins
  
• Days: 11 of 80

Final Fantasy I Completed (Day 9 part-2)

So as you can guess, the posting isn't going to catch up with the gaming. I need to back-track and talk about the end of Final Fantasy one.

The fight up to Tiamont took up 12 hours, but the optional bosses took up another 8 hours. Our friend Garland was the culprit the last boss. Channeling the powers of time and evil he becomes Chaos. By the time I got there, I was a whopping level 77. The last time I played and beat it, I was level 43. This game definitely was made easier. Also back then my strongest weapon was the Masamune and the Excalibur, now I had the Ultima Weapon and armor that never existed back then. It was just a breeze. Well here are some stats, and I'm on my way to Final Fantasy II (not the one with Cecil, but the one with Firion).

9. Optional Bosses
10. Chaos Shrine - defeated Chaos (level 77)

• Game Time: 21 hrs 28 mins
• Total Time: 21 hrs 38 mins (10 mins added)
  
• Days: 9 of 80
• Bestiary - 93%
• Weapons Completion - 99% (missing Assassin's Dagger)
  
• Optional Bosses - 100%
• Optional Quests - 100%
  

Boss Roundup (Day 9)

With the defeating of Shinryu I acquired the Ragnarök sword and Hero Shield. I decided do the Wind Shrine's bosses before coming back for the Omega Weapon. I would have to walk all the way down anyways.

The Windshrine or Windwhisper cove wasn't hard, but it was tedious. 40 floors will definitely drive anyone crazy. They let you save in between, so it wasn't a big deal. Lots of monsters that you've never seen before, but all push-overs. I fought Typhoon from FF6, and then I realized something. Something that was in my face all along with these dungeons: the Earth Shrine had future bosses from FF2 and 3, the Fire Shrine had bosses from FF4, the Water Shrine had bosses from FF5, and finally the Wind Shrine had bosses from FF6. So I had to fight Ultros the conniving octopus and then the Phantom Train and Death Gaze. All Pretty simple bosses. By the time I fought Death Gaze I was level 67 and that's way too high for anything here. I had a tempered up Knight, a designated healer, and my Black Mage using the Judgment Staff (does Flare). Everything else is history.

After the Wind Shrine I went back to the Hellfire Chasm (Fire Shrine) for the leftover bosses. Of course they're renamed, but I'll still remember them as Milan and Vivalis.

I am having a problem with pictures as they never appear well with blogger. I think Rockyou.com has an interesting slideshow so I decided to use that one for now. Hopefully it's not too distracting. I have completed FF1 and I will put up the rest of the documentation tomorrow. As of now I'm working on FF2, and it's hell.

DEFEAT! ...and reclaimation (Day 5)

And so it had to happen. I knew it was going to happen. Knock on death's door too many times, and heck, he will answer. Fifteen hours into the game, and I died. My whole party was wiped out.

So now that the Crystals are all returned to their glorious shining nature I decided to take on the optional bosses at the end game. Yes, Final Fantasy One has A LOT of optional bosses. The end game on the game is half the game itself! I kid you not. With the four new dungeons that open up after you defeat the four fiends, a whole new game opens up.

So I started off with the Earthgift Dungeon beating bosses left and right. My simple method of casting TEMPER and HASTE on my Knight and Ninja made chumps of the bosses from left to right. I barely had to heal. So one by one they fell to my sword: Cerebus, Echidna, the two headed Dragon, and Ahriman in the Earthgift Cave. I rushed to the Hellfire Chasm and took out Cagnazzo and Rubiante (I guess I'll see those guys again in Final Fantasy IV). I then got cocky and went down to the Water Shrine. I took out Gilgamesh without difficulty, but he did kill my Black Mage. That's when the idea of death hit me. No bother, I trudged on after collecting his treasure, the Genji glove. I fought Atomos without a problem and continued down the 20 floor dungeon of the Water Shrine. Who do I find at the 15th floor? Dark Bahamut. He warned me of a big threat in the very bottom floor. Perhaps a threat involving a dragon...?

I kept going. I wanted to finish the cave today. And finally after a barrage of weak monsters in the way I reach the boss flame. I click the talk button and who do I fight, SHINRYU! The water dragon resembling Leviathon from Final Fantasies of the future. I remembered him kicking my ass in Final Fantasy V and X (in the Monster Keeper's challenge). Now I had to fight him again. God he is hard. He does FLARE and FLOOD and hits about 500 to my guys. My guys are level 61 for crying out loud! and with less than two minutes passing my mages die. I should have used my Mega-elixer I knew I should have. But I was saving it for the last boss in case he was harder. Then it happened. I witnessed a defeat. But aha... it was not a GAMEOVER because it was in the Water Shrine. I just restart outside the shrine. I pressed reset to get back to where I was and beat him in our second fight. This time I used the Mega-elixer, and I came up on top.

• Game Time: 15 hrs 15 mins
• Total Time: 15 hrs 25 mins (I tacked on 10 minutes for the reset)
  
• Days: 5 of 80

...And the Stars Are Aligned (Day 4)

And so I received them all today, there were some hick-ups in the process but they all got here safe and sound. Final Fantasy VI came as a cartridge only sale, and Final Fantasy V and XII are brand new. I threw on Final Fantasy X-2 and Tactics just for show. I'm pretty sure I will not get to those. I'm still wondering what I will do with Final Fantasy XI. The games have truly begin! More updates tomorrow. Yes, this did cost me a fortune, but hey, at least I'm not doing a "Megaman/ Rockman Challenge". That'd really break the wallet.

The Crystals Shine On... (Day 3)

Finally some time to write about the game, instead of playing it. So I have made progress again. Today I defeated Kraken and Tiamont, landing me at the "End Game" of Final Fantasy I, because as you all know, all that remains is Chaos. I won't save readers with "spoiler alerts" or things of that sort because, come on, this game is like 20 years old.

So I have to add some more notable upgrades in the GBA version. There are now cut-scenes. Hurray! Plus they are not long enough to bother the game. Do you guys remember a time when you played a videogame and you had to use some imagination to picture the scenes? Remember when there wasn't CGI and FMV's? Ahh the good old days.

This really seems like a breeze, and for some reason I can't help but see that some level 8 spells are missing. I only got Flare and Full-Life, but I remember spells like "Harm 4", "Zap", and "Rub". Seeing old monsters on the screen are cool. Some notable creatures are the Ochu, which becomes Marlboro in the later series, and the Evil Eye, which returns as the Floating Eye.

An interesting array of swords came up for my Warrior / Knight, so I decided to give you my equipment evolution:
Mithril Sword -> Flame Brand -> Ice Brand -> Defender -> Sun Sword -> Excalibur.

The Katana also became Sasuke's Blade. Who the hell is Sasuke? My last thought for today is, why is everything so easy?! I'm scared, my team isn't battle-tested, and with all these paper-cutout bosses, this game will probably finish in the next two days. Or maybe I'm JUST THAT GOOD.

6. Gaia and Onrac - defeated Kraken (Lv. 46)
7. Lufenia - defeated Tiamont (Lv. 55)
8. Received Excalibur and Sasuke's Blade, defeated all four fiends.

• Game Time: 11 hrs 50 mins
• Total Time: 11 hrs 50 mins
• Days: 3 of 80

Now if I can only find a way to port screen shots out from the NDS or take better pictures.

Final Fantasy I & II arrives (Day 1 and 2)

Finally the challenge begins. Yesterday Final Fantasy I & II arrived in a neat little yellow package from USPS, and like a little boy, I was thrilled. After some chores and errands I got the day to play it on my new Gameboy DS, and damn did I feel nostalgic. I was so into it that I didn't get a chance to blog yesterday. The sounds and colors blew me away. Although I had the Wonderswan Color editions of Final Fantasy I & II, the new NDS ones are much better. The back-lit screen makes it a lot easier to see.

At first glance I noticed that the names of items and spells changed. I still remember when they named magic "Fire 1" and "Ice 2". But now they're following the new translations from beyond Final Fantasy 8 (Firaga, Curas, etc). The backgrounds received a nice upgrade, and the animation on the battlescreen is complimentary to FF4.

Anyways, let's talk about my quest so far. I started my party off with the default pickings: Warrior, Thief, White Mage, and Black Mage. This is the most common party and easiest to play. Since I'm going for speed, I want some insurance for my winnings. Plus I heard about the new dungeons at the "End Game" where it's supposed to super challenging, and I wanted to be able to do those without difficulty.

The first few quests were easy. I realize that leveling up is a lot more easier now than the original game. I guess they nerf'ed the game down a bit, and definitely gold is easier to come by. By the time I reached Melmund I had enough to buy the Knight's armor (which is supposed to be 45,000 in the original game). I also remembered the importance of getting a Silver Sword (now Mithril) early in the game from Crescent Lake, so I walked there early (before beating the Earth Cave). For the most part, my Thief has been the hardest hitter because he can do 8 hits regularly with his Wyrm sword. A quick summary:

1. Cornelia - defeated Garland (Lv. 4)
2. Provoka - defeated Bikke and the pirates (Lv. 6)
3. Elfheim - defeated Astos (Lv. 13)
4. Melmund - defeated Lich (Lv. 26, yes there was a great leap here).
5. Crescent Lake - defeated Maralith (Kary?) (Lv. 34).

• Game Time: 7 hrs 14 mins
• Total Time: 7hrs 14 mins
• Days: 2 of 80 days.

My fears now are the soul dungeons, as I tried to do the Earthgift dungeon at level 26 and got my"ass handed to me". I'll definitely have to wait till most of the required quests are done to do them.