Cecil and Kain (Day 84)

So it's day 83 and I haven't completed the Final Fantasy Challenge, hell I haven't even completed half of them. Work has definitely taken its toll on me, but I'm not giving up. From here on till Final Fantasy 7, it's just getting my mind straight. My new goal is to complete them all in 360 days, hopefully that's a better estimate. Game Time isn't that bad though, I'm under 100 hours and I've completed three of them.

Forwards to Final Fantasy IV, or II to most North American game players. This is my favorite story of them all, but maybe it's because of the time of the release. I was about 10 when I first heard of it and when you're 10, any "story" for a video game seems awesome. I played the game about five times, and in some ways I've mastered it. I know how the bosses work, where the cut-scenes are (before the age of FMV's), and where the places for leveling up are. The first time took me 60 hours, then 40 hours, then 20 hours, and I think my latest time was 13 hours to get to the end on my WonderSwan Color edition.

The remake is good; as they included all the latest terminology from the present Final Fantasy worlds. No more "fire 2" or "cure 2", as they've updated the spells to "fira" and "cura". "Call Magic" is correctly retranslated to "Summon Magic". The names of the four fiends are changed for some reason, and even the character icons are a bit different. One of the odd things are that they re-wrote the Mysidian Legend, to perhaps a more linguistically correct translation. But I still miss the old "One to be born... from a dragon... hoisting the light.. etc." So many times me and my friends have made fun of that.

Story-wise, the game is basically the same. I noticed that the king of Baron gives Cecil a "Bomb Ring" to bring to the village of the mist with Kain. This changes a bit of the plot. In the original, you're given a "package", making the intentions of the king uncertain. But given a "Bomb Ring" should only mean one thing, the destruction of someone or some place. I guess it's just little things like that here and there.

The Active Battle System is up, and I'm glad to be seeing the bar again. I turn it on, because if you know what you're doing, you actually can take advantage of spells like "Haste" in the game.

Adventuring is easy. I've gotten to the point where I don't level up at all and rush from one cut-scene to another without fear. If you know the weaknesses of the bosses, you can do that without hesitation. I'm about five hours in, and I'm about to fight the Magus Sisters, this game is going to be short. I suspect half of the game time will be accounted for getting to the Crystal Palace, and from there the latter half will be to leveling up inside.

One last note about starting Final Fantasy IV is the much awaiting Gameboy DS version of the game. As you noticed, I'm using the latest Logo design featuring Golbez instead of the original design which features Kain. It's not because I'm a fan of the new over the old, but I just can't find a good scan of the old one yet. But yes, I would love to play the New FFIV, but it's going to be awhile before it hits the states. I hope it will not cost too much. Here are some pictures from the current GBA version: (1) the first party of five. (2) the second party of five.

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• Game Time: 4 hrs and 46 mins
  
• Days: 84

Final Fantasy Evolution (part II)

Well now that Final Fantasy III is over, I should take some time to jot down some ideas about how Final Fantasy evolved. It's hard to say what evolved because so much is redone in the 2007 DS version, but I will note some major differences. Recall what was added in Final Fantasy II:

1. Ultima (magic)
2. snow craft (vehicle)
3. temporary party members (people come and go)
4. Chocobos
5. Cid as the air-ship maker/owner
6. Aura, Osmosis, Drain (spells)
7. Dragoons
8. Bows and Spear class weapons

Here are some additions in Final Fantasy III:

1. New Job Classes: Thief, Ranger, Scholar, Geomancer, Viking, Dark Knight, Evoker, Bard, Magus, Devout, Summoner, Sage, and Ninja.
   
2. First appearance of Mog and Moogle
3. Ragnarok Sword
4. Use of Mini and Toad in the story-line
5. NPC's that join in the battle
6. New Weapon classes: Throwing weapons, Books, Harps, hammer, and bell.
7. Ability to change job classes, and job class levels
8. Meteor Spell
9. Ability for Summons
10. Summons: Chocobo, Shiva, Ifrit, Ramuh, Titan, Odin, Leviathan, and Bahamut.

Hope Reigns Over the Void (Day 78)

After a harrowing battle with "the Cloud of Darkness" or the Void that lasted for 15 minutes, I finally beat Final Fantasy III. Too bad it's already day 78. Let's recap:

In the last blog I told you guys that I was beaten by the Cloud of Darkness, the last boss in FF3, and it really took a lot out of me. Not because of the defeat, but because there were no save points from the Crystal Palace all the way up to the last boss. There was a lost of an hour of playing and a sense of disinterest consumed me. Work mounted up at the company (Peterson Tractor, where I'm an order analyst), and I started getting into the TV show Heroes. I also took a few days off of the Final Fantasy Challenge to play Age of Empires DS - Stupid war strategy games always get me giddy. But last week I started playing Final Fantasy again, step by step. I had to start leveling up again, the old way. So I did about 30 minutes of leveling-up a day until I got to level 60, a comfortable level to be at, and rushed to the end.

I changed my party up a bit. My main character changed from Thief to Black Belt, I needed the more HP. Ingus changed from Dragoon to Knight, so that he can wield the Ragnorok and Excalibur. I kept on waiting for my Devout to be able to level up her White Magic, but it never got strong enough to cast Haste or Protect on everyone. Perhaps it didn't work. My configuration for the final battle was having the Black Belt attack, the Summoner summon Bahamir, the Knight using items to caste Haste/ Protect, and the Devout to heal after EVERY TURN. It was going to be a long battle, but it was a safe battle. I ended up with only one death because the boss used Particle Beam (her strongest attack that attacks all) and Lightning. I had Ribbons on everyone so that her Bad Breath attack was nullified. When push came to shove, I beat her with my defense.

The ending to Final Fantasy III was not bad, but not the best. Light is restored to the crystals and all the characters got to go home to their families. Every character that you've met kinda came back to help you out in the fight, not a first for Final Fantasy games - you kinda expect them to return in the end now. You have to defeat four mini-bosses before you can fight the Cloud of Darkness. Each of these bosses release a Warrior of the Dark, who supports you in your fight against the last boss. The story is confusing, but I guess you need to use both Light Warriors and Darkness Warriors to defeat the Void; which is something worse than light and dark, but the antithesis of Hope.

I missed a lot of side quests in the game because I couldn't get my Mognet Mail to work, but I'm tired of FF3. Onwards to Final Fantasy IV, what some may say is the greatest FF story ever written. In some ways, it's "easy street" from here on, because I've played Final Fantasy 4 through 10 before. The second, third, and twelfth ones are the only ones new to me. Let the games begin! Thats the last save screen after the credits roll. I got three stars to show that I beat the game, but I'm not sure what does three stars mean. Perhaps a perfect game is four stars? Anyways, here goes some numbers.

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• Game Time: FF3: 31 hrs 19 mins + 1 hr 15 mins (Gameovers and ending)
• Attained all job classes, spells, and summons.
  
• Gameovers: 2 (1 from the beginning, and 1 from the Cloud of Darkness).
  
• Days: 78