Day 5

Game - Final Fantasy, Day 5
Hours Played/Hours Total - 5 hrs / 18-1/2 hrs
Starting Point - Outside the Cavern of Ice.
Current Goal - Find and defeat the remaining Fiends. Figure out what to do next.
What Happened - 5 hours of gameplay but I feel like I didn't accomplish anything!
     So, I began today's journey outside the Cavern of Ice with the feeling of "WHERE DO I GO!?" This feeling continued on for quite a while until I finally sneaked a peak at a guide trying to figure out where I needed to go. Turns out I went by it several times and never realized it. I had to head south of Crescent Lake along the river to find a desert. (I looked up and found out the name is Ryukahn Desert.) It was the resting place of the airship (Wooo!). After a small and simple cutscene, I was rewarded with my very own airship. I immediately took it for a spin around the world. So glad that I can finally get anywhere I want without having to worry about ocean, but now I get the NEW problem. The airship can only land in flat fields of just grass. I realize that's fairly realistic to how you'd have to land just about any aircraft, but it really brought me down to realize the airship just did what other items did...opened up slightly more options.
     Still, with the ship in hand, my exploration of the rest of the world began! I flew to all the continents and was very discouraged when I initially found no way to land. However, I finally found one new town I could get to. Although it took some time to find, it was pretty easy and only required my having the airship. It was a town in the middle of some mountains called Gaia. Really not a lot do do here...or any town for that matter. The weapon shop only had a weapon called Cat's Claw. Thankfully, the armor shop seemed much more fruitful. I bought Ruby Armlet's for most and Protect Ring's for all. The Protect Ring...protects from death, which should prove useful against jerks with the Death/Kill spell. All the magic shops only contained spells I couldn't learn yet, so that's all I had shopping-wise for the moment. Some guy mentioned a rumor about needing a fairy to collect something called Oxyale. Having no idea for the moment how that'd be useful, I went ahead and left Gaia for now.
     From some prior experience, I already knew I was needing to locate the dragon king Bahamut to get class upgrades for everybody. I guess I just barely missed the island locations with their holes when exploring. Upon my re-searching of everything, I spotted the islands and started exploration! Each island had like 1-2 holes on it leading to more dragon communities. After several hole investigations, I finally happened upon the one that lead me to Bahamut. (The others had stuff, but most of it wasn't that great.) Upon approaching Bahamut, he tells you that he will grant you a great power if you go and complete the trial at the Citadel of Trials. I already know what the great power is, and boy am I ready for it! I took off towards the location of what I believed to be the Citadel. Unfortunately for me, I couldn't get up there with my airship. I had to return back to the port near Crescent Lake to get my boat and then have the pleasure of backtracking all the way back there. One long round trip later, I am arriving at the Citadel.
     You arrive at the Citadel and are greeted by an old man who says something I don't really recall. Yeah, I know that's not very descriptive, but it wasn't really very important. Simply put, he just told me to sit on the throne in the corner when I was ready to take the trial. The throne transports you to the second floor of the Citadel, and so the trial begins...Turns out that a "trial" means running around a bunch of rooms hitting random teleporters.  If you hit the wrong one, you go back a room or return to the start. It can be very frustrating if you forget which one you hit or just plain hit the wrong one every time (couple spots have more than two ways). Several stupid mistakes on my part later, I managed to get through the second floor of the Citadel. Good thing for me, the 3rd floor is just a small walk about until you hit a grouping of chests. You find the final chest by another throne, and it contains the great and powerful...rat tail. You go all this way for a rat tail. Regardless, I left the citadel and returned to Bahamut. He takes the rat tail (claiming it is a representation of your bravery and power) and grants your group some awesome class changes.
     For my group this did the following...

• Fighter -> Knight (Gains more awesomeness and ability to cast some white magic)
• Black Mage -> Black Wizard (Opens up some more spells for him, mostly just a costume change outside of that)
• Thief -> Ninja (Probably the greatest change look-wise but also allows him to use black magic and opens up all the weapons for him to use)
• Red Mage -> Red Wizard (Opens up more weapons, armor, and spells for him to use. Doesn't open up everything but it is still a better selection.)

The class change also gave everybody some form of a new look, and the new looks are generally pretty awesome. That aside, I was very glad to have my new character classes so I began a trip to all the old cities. Why? It wasn't to show them off obviously. I just had to backtrack to all of them so I could get my characters with new magic abilities their spells as well as replacing old spells that were previously unavailable to my mages. Of course, this whole trip dried my rather large gil account (I had over 200,000 gil at one point). With my shopping trip all done, I started again towards my quest of saving the world, but of course, I was again stuck with a question of what to do. With some luck, I found another city I could get access to and headed for that.
     The newest city I found was the seaside town of Onrac. Talked to everybody there with very little idea of what to go with. One guy mentioned something about a jewel that would translate stuff. One girl mentioned a caravan in the nearby desert. Those proved useless for the moment, but a couple people down by the water finally gave me something to work with. Mentioned something about a hidden cave underneath a nearby waterfall. Canoe time once again! A small trip up the river later...and we're in the Waterfall Cave! Not too much going on here, there is really only monsters located here. Some time later, I entered a room containing 4 chests and...a robot. The chests didn't really contain anything new, but the robot was glad to finally meet you. Claimed he had been waiting for you and was to give you THIS (this being something called Warp Cube). With the Warp Cube in hand, he mentioned an ancient flying city and something else.After telling you this, he immediately becomes fried or something. He just wizzzs and brrrs after that. With my new Teleport spell, I didn't have to do a bunch of backtracking out of the cave. I simply magic-ed out.
     With the Warp Cube in hand, I returned to Onrac to discover that...it does nothing for me. Disappointing in myself, I decided to check out the desert caravan thing. Once I reached the desert on this continent, I became clueless of where to go. She mentioned something about a forest, but I didn't find squat there. I broke my rule of guide-looking again to find out...I should have walked over some squares that were like a few spots away from where I checked. You walk into the caravan and talk to the guy (turns out it's a shop) who offers to sell you a bottled fairy for 40,000 gil. Seriously, that is a very steep price point. Luckily I had just enough on hand to buy it up. Hmmmm, fairy in a bottle...fairies get you Oxyale...I don't know what that does, but I suppose I will need it. Went to Onrac with the bottled fairy and....nothing, so I tried the same at Gaia (considering that's where I had the rumor). That turned out to be the correct choice. As soon as you walk in, your characters release the fairy, and the fairy flies off...Whaaat? Not 100% sure of what to do, I looked around town and found a backwards crazy path that led to the fairy nearby a spring. It thanks you for releasing it and gets some Oxyale for you.
     After handing over the Oxyale, the fairy tells you all about how Oxyale will provide oxygen while in water. Putting this and several other facts together, I immediately set air-sail for Onrac again. Upon arrive in Onrac, I go over to the seaside spot to talk to the person though. Upon seeing the Oxyale I have on hand, she tells me to jump in the barrel thing she has so she can take you to the underwater shrine. I believe she was a mermaid...Moving on. One underwater travel cutscene later, you are getting out of the barrel into the sunken shrine. Considering the five hours I put in, I decided to save here and call it quits for the day.

Ending Point - Inside the Sunken Shrine.
Levels Achieved - 5 levels earned. Currently level 38.

Goals Accomplished -Obtained an airship. Found the Dragon King Bahamut. Completed the Citadel of Trials and obtained the Rat Tail. Gave the Rat Tail to Bahamut and was rewarded upgraded classes. Found the city of Onrac. Traveled to the Waterfall Cavern and received the Warp Cube from a robot. Purchased a fairy in a bottle from a guy in the desert (..kinda strange). Freed the fairy who got me some Oxyale. Used the Oxyale to travel to the bottom of the ocean to the Sunken Shrine.
Next Goals - Explore the Sunken Shrine and defeat the Fiend that is located there. Find the final Fiend and dungeon after that.

~Side Note~
I apologize for the long-windedness of my posts. Final Fantasy 1 is pretty straightforward. Even if you only play a while, as long as you know where to go, you can accomplish quite a bit every time. Hope to get some more game for it in on Thursday.

~May the Crystals Guide Me~

Side Post!

I recently started ordering and purchasing the old Final Fantasy titles so that I would have them all here when I'm ready to play them. I already had Final Fantasy 7, 8, and 9 on my PS3 with PSOne Classics, and I expanded that recently by buying Final Fantasy 5 and 6 on there as well. That means I have all 5 of those games in one great place.~
I ordered a Final Fantasy II and III on Amazon. I paid a bit more than I should have, but I would rather have decent copies with the real case than cheap copies with no case and a possibility of them going bad. Today, I got the copies of Final Fantasy II for PSP and Final Fantasy III for NDS. Meaning that as soon as I finish the first one, I can immediately jump to the 2nd and 3rd titles at my leisure. The rest of the titles shall follow swiftly considering I have everything from the first one to nine covered. (I have Final Fantasy 4 Complete on PSP.)

The next hurdle/unfun part will be acquiring and playing copies of Final Fantasy X and 12 on an old PS2. :|
My PS2 works, but it won't be fun having to go back to it...

It's only been like a week since I started, but I'm feeling confident I shall persevere! This could be easily toppled once I reach some of the later titles, but I will do my best to push through!
I figure the worse thing that could happen involves me skipping all and/or a majority of the side quests in these games. Although that would be a shame considering many of these titles have some great side quests in them.

~May the Crystals Guide Me~

Day 4

Game - Final Fantasy, Day 4
Hours Played/Hours Total - 3-1/2 hrs / 13-1/2 hrs
Starting Point - Right beside Lake Crescent and its city.
Current Goal - Find Mount Gulg and defeat the Fiend of Fire!

What Happened - Didn't have a lot of time to play, but I did at least get something accomplished.
     Started off by Lake Crescent, and I immediately took to the river with my newly received canoe. Because a canoe is a great gift to the heroes of everything as we know it. Exploration of the river leads to new monsters and new locations!...or it would if most of the river didn't lead to dead ends forcing you to constantly turn around and take the OTHER path you didn't take. What felt like forever later, I finally arrived at the volcano and entered to pursue the Fiery Fiend! Unfortunately for me, this meant another twisty-curvy dungeon of ridiculousness. Also you get to walk on lava all the time..I'm sorry I need to attack this. You constantly walk around the dungeon on LAVA! Sure, it does damage to you (a minimal amount) for every step you take on it. The monsters proved to be very little threat or challenge as I walked on through. I even got a few ice-based items that made the fire monsters even EASIER. 5 levels down, I finally encounter the Fiend of Fire, Marilith. Again, another boss battle that feels honestly disappointing. She did fling some nasty attacks at the black mage, but otherwise, she went down without any real fight. Maybe I'm overprepared and/or overpowered for most of the bosses. I honestly don't know.
     With Marilith defeated, I restored the Fire Crystal and now the world is around half-saved! Just two more crystals to go and now I'm back to my original situation of "What do I do next!?" After leaving Mount Glug, I headed back to Lake Crescent with my new vast fortune of over 100,000 gil. I bought up everything I could and decided to actually talk to the NPCs. They gave me nothing to work on, so I looked over the map again and spotted one area just north that I could possibly explore. I went back to my ship and sailed over in front of a river. Fun enough, you can jump in your canoe straight from the ship without having to dock the ship, and so I began my exploration of the river. Same thing as with Mount Glug, you run through a twisted river pathway with lots of dead ends. I came upon a cave along the way...turns out it was just Whisperwind Cave.
     Just a small explanation of the cave, it is another one of those extra fancy dungeons that was tacked onto the newest remakes of Final Fantasy (GBA and PSP). Like the Earthspring one, it doesn't unlock until you beat the fiend that is associated with the element of cave if it. Basically, Earthspring opened when I beat Lich. Not only did I not feel like doing it...it was also impossible for me to do it right now. This cave should open when I beat whoever is the Fiend of Air/Wind. With that in mind, I had no reason to stay here and decided to move on to the next cave I spotted on the map.
     The cave I spotted was something called Cavern of Ice. Seeing as there isn't a Fiend of Ice, I wasn't sure what the importance of this cave was, but I don't know where to go anyways. Therefore, I began my exploration! The cave is pretty simple...I mean, it's just a big cave with ice all over. I'm just glad that I'm not having to do a damn sliding puzzle (aka any ice cave in Pokemon). The enemies didn't seem too bad until I ran into some dark elves. Those little bastards are jerks! They take more to kill than the rest of the monsters, and they can cast lovely spells like Firaga or Thundaga. Never managed to kill me, but they were still a great nuisance. I managed to come upon a room with a weird crystal and two chests. I immediately knew I needed that crystal, so I ran to it. Then a crack in the floor opened up for me and I fell through. I don't know why I thought it would be that simple...so I headed the only direction I could and tried to find a way back up. Some searching and item chests later, I managed to get back up and found a staircase that took me back out. I healed everybody in my party with a cottage, and then I went right back in. I HAD TO GET THAT CRYSTAL THING!
     I did cheat a bit here as well. I wasn't sure how to get to the crystal (found out it's the levistone), and I looked up a small wiki about the cave. Just told me I couldn't directly approach it and had to fall on it. Simple enough, retraced my steps down and found a hole into the room. I approached the stone and then...a boss appears! The Evil Eye is so menacing and evil. His very steps inhabit even the bravest dreams, or they would if he didn't drop after the first attack...Yeah, he went down so easy it was sad and embarassing. With his defeat, I earned myself a nice little reward..the levistone! Now I just have to figure out what to DO with it. And that concludes my playing for today. I gotta head to work soon, so I'm looking for a spot to save. Most likely I will save my game outside the cavern of ice.

Ending Point - Outside the Cavern of Ice.

Levels Achieved - 8 levels earned. Currently level 33.
Goals Accomplished - Found Mount Gulg and explored the Cavern of Fire. Defeated the Fiend of Fire. Found Whisperwind Cove and left. Found and explored the Cavern of Ice. Obtained the Levistone from the Cavern of Ice.
Next Goals - Find and defeat the next Fiend. Figure out how/where to do that. Figure out what the Levistone is for.


~May the Crystals Guide Me~

Day 3

Game - Final Fantasy, Day 3

Hours Played/Hours Total - 4-1/2 hrs / 10 hrs

Starting Point - Outside the city of Melmond.
Current Goal - Figure out what I'm supposed to do next.

What Happened - Well, this was almost a very unproductive day...
     I started off near the city of Melmond. Before I quit the other day, I bought what I could from the city and upgraded my group again. The problem with this was that I can't use the expensive level 5 spells offered, so I skipped getting them. Then there were a few items that I didn't have enough for everybody, so I had to leave without them. After that, I started travelling the world. Starting with the continent Melmond was on, I searched all around for caves or anything else. I managed to find one cave called Giant's Cave, but it had some sort of giant in it that talked about wanting jewels or gems. I decided this was a dead end for now and headed back to Melmond and the port with my ship.
     Thankfully, the PSP version allows you to access a world map by pressing the Select + Circle buttons. All the ports are marked on the map, so I was looking to find any port I hadn't been to yet. I went to a few of them, but they all lead me to dead ends. They either lead to nothing, or it required I have something extra on hand to get anywhere. Upon further inspection of the map, I noticed a location I had missed when exploring earlier. Turns out I passed by a cave when exploring the continent that Melmond was on! I went down and there I found was the Cavern of Earth! With it being the Cavern of Earth, I figured this might be the home to the Earth Crystal, and so began my descent downward...
     Now keep in mind, the remake of Final Fantasy 1 is fairly easier and faster than the original version on the NES. Regardless of that, this dungeon is just unfun in many ways. It has a lot of random branching exploration to be found, but many of the things you find are useless and/or not worth the effort. Your first trip there (spoiler?) consists of 3 floors down to fight a boss. The boss is a vampire claiming you can't stop the earth's rotting and something about the inability to slay the undead. We proved rather quickly he was far from 'unslayable.' He drops an item called the Star Ruby, and then your path to the next door is cleared. You go through the next door to find...a dead end. How fun is that? Considering the giant wanting jewels/gems earlier and the current "Star Ruby" I now have in my possession, I figure I'm going to have to backtrack aaaaaall the way back up the dungeon and to the continent with Melmond on it.
     One unfun trip back to the surface and to Melmond later, I find myself in the cave handing the Star Ruby over to the giant. He immediately eats it and walks away...Personally, I don't get it. All that work for a gem to feed a giant so he'll move his fat ass. Why can't I just kill him? Is that wrong? Would he just stomp me into the ground? I dunno, but I guess there is no point arguing over it. You go out the exit of the cave to find yourself on the other side of the mountains. Heading southward briefly, you run into a cave. Upon entering the cave, known as Sage's Cave, you find yourself face-to-face with the all powerful sage known as Sadda. He claims something about being able to kill the vampire and then gives you an item called the Earth Rod. Says you can use it to clear the path behind that cave where the vampire was. Yaaaay! Backtracking yet again!
     Skipping forward through my trip to and through the Cavern of Earth. I find myself behind the vampire's room and use the Earth Rod to open the path. This allows you to continue down 2 more floors and then you finally find the first crystal. However, as the RPG must go, you run into a boss guarding/infesting the crystal. The evil, infamous, undead superbeing known as Lich, also known as the Fiend of Earth. Apparently he's been sapping the energy of the earth to make himself more powerful or something. Can't be TOO powerful considering I beat him with what felt like very little effort. Sure he got off a good Blizzara in the beginning, but that was all he really accomplished. I just lashed at him with plain ol' attacks with casting Haste on my best warriors. After that, you approach the non-glowing Earth Crystal, hold up your own crystal shards (that apparently they all have) and reactivate/recharge/turn on the Earth Crystal to its former glory! With it back online, the earth stops rotting and begins to recover. Woo! 1 Crystal down, 4 more to go...
     After restoring the Earth Crystal, you are shown a small scene with a previous place opening up to you, the Earthgift Shrine! For those who don't know, when they remade Final Fantasy for the GBA, they added in a few new super dungeons where you can go to level up, get some new items, and overall just challenge yourself. Not knowing where to go next, I headed in that direction. The first thing I discovered in there is that once you go in, you can't climb back up. You simply have to keep going forward until you beat the dungeon. About an hour later, I came to a large cave with 4 rooms in it. I entered one of the closest ones and came face-to-face with a hideous boss monster! The first thing it did was cast Earthquake which killed everybody except my Black Mage. Somehow he survives another several rounds without being hit by any of the magic attacks the monster threw at him. He eventually is taken down by some lame physical attacks. I thought it was game over, but then I respawned at the beginning of Earthgift Shrine. Thankful for this break, I ran back to the nearest Inn, healed up, and set back out into the world.
     With my newfound monies, I went back to Melmond (as well as other places) to stock up on items, new equipment, and a few new spells I was missing. However, I was now stuck with the giant question of "Where do I go next!?!" I looked all around for at least 30 minutes before giving in. I was avoiding using a guide for any of this, but I hit the guide up so I could find out what to do next. I glimpsed long enough to find out I almost went there earlier on. Told me I needed to go to Crescent Lake, which is a town surrounded by a moon-shaped lake. Not exactly the best named town, but I have heard much worse.
     Earlier on, I had ran into this location and thought there was no way to get to it. Turns out I went the wrong direction and that the entrance was on the opposite side of the lake I went to. Upon entering the town, I immediately spot that is most definitely the smallest and most compact of the towns so far. I went by the armor and weapon shop to upgrade my characters where I could. Jumped into the magic shops to find out...I couldn't even get the spells for any of my characters yet. I get to make the fun trip back here after I get them upgraded. Walked all around the town and finally spotted a back pathway which leads to a circle of old men (sages). After talking to all of them, the last one I talked to (of course I talked to him last) gave me a canoe and told me to go after the Fiend of Fire, who is only active because I killed the Earth one. Deciding I put in enough time for the day, I saved my game outside of Lake Crescent city and quit there.

Ending Point - Right beside Lake Crescent and its city.

Levels Achieved - 9 levels earned. Currently level 25.
Goals Accomplished - A lot of pointless searching. Found the Cavern of Earth. Defeated the Vampire. Fed a giant a Star Ruby. Got the Earth Rod from Sadda. Went back into the Cavern of Earth. Fought and Defeated the Fiend of Earth, Lich. Restored the Earth Crystal. Got lost and had to resort to a guide. Got to Lake Crescent and received a canoe! (So exciting!)
Next Goals - Get to a volcano and kill a giant fire demon known only as the Fiend of Fire!

~May the Crystals Guide Me~

Day 2

Game - Final Fantasy, Day 2

Hours Played/Hours Total -  3-1/2 hrs / 5-1/2  hrs

Starting Point - Outside the harbor city of Pravoka. Level 8.

Current Goal - Defeat the pirates that are currently terrorizing Pravoka.

What Happened - So...wow. I got a lot done today.
     For starters, the pirate foothold in Pravoka doesn't look like much of a problem in the actual city...There are    like 3 pirates (including Captain Bikke) standing near one part of town. If you get into a battle, there are nine pirates total, and they aren't much of a challenge if you are somewhat higher level. After handling the pirates with ease, Bikke surrenders and gives you his ship. A ship is a decent reward thankfully...unlike a stupid bridge. With the ship at your disposal, you can finally make way for different places and lands!
     Before heading off to the south, I ran back up and looked for a cave in the northern part. I already knew there was a cave with a witch named Matoya...and so I went there! Once in Matoya's Cave, there isn't too much you can do right now. You walk in and hear her complain about her missing eye. Obviously you get to retrieve it, but with no idea where it is, you kind of just get to walk away from this for now.
     Back to Pravoka with me! I immediately set sail for the south and for foreign shores! Along the way, I fought with random sea creatures that threw themselves aboard my boat...8-bit theater pointed out this exact thing. If they had thrown themselves on my boat, they'd just be flailing around. Aside from the sea creatures, you run into random pirates out in the ocean. I guess they came up with their invisible ship, or maybe they swam all around the ocean looking for a fight. A few battle and a small water distance later, you arrive at the nation of Elfheim, the country of the elves and a GREAT name! You arrive in their city to discover the prince is under some sleep curse from the evil dark elf king Astos. You can probably put two and two together and assume they want you to help the prince. Add another item to my ever growing list of things to do.
     With a future challenge upcoming (one I've done before), I upgraded my group's magic and equipment to help me along the way. This is a very long task considering the price of level 3 spells is 1000 gold each and level 4 spells cost 2500 each. I skipped the level 4 spells for now (mostly because I can't cast them), and I left Elfheim for some sort of cave in a marsh, which is greatly named Marsh Cave. Before heading that way, I traveled northward and found a castle with a spooky interior and one inhabitant. He asked me to retrieve a crown for some reason that I didn't really listen to. So...southward to Marsh Cave! Marsh Cave, the stuff of nightmares!...or so it would be if it was scary or challenging. In the original NES version, Marsh Cave was pretty difficult and scaryness. The PSP version of Marsh Cave has all these fancy special effects and enhanced graphics that don't really make it feel scary. Oh well! I begin my search of the cave by heading north, and with my luck, the northern part of the cave contains nothing for me but a handful of treasure chests and some monster battles. After searching all about, I turn around and head to the southern end. Thankfully that was the right direction. A bit of searching and some treasure chests later, I find myself in a battle with 4 Piscodemons. In one of my original playthroughs of Final Fantasy, these 4 guys kicked my ass and screwed over me playing the game any further. Well not this time! I came in, I slayed them with ease, and then left with the crown! I immediately headed towards the castle in the north to hand over the crown. I went inside and gave the king the crown. And to my surprise (because it was SOOO surprising), the king turned out to be the king of dark elves, Astos! He gloated about tricking me and somehow combining the crown with a crystal eye (HMMM) to become powerful or something. He then charged forward and attacked me. Boss Battle Time!!! Normally, this would be a pretty challenging battle. However, thanks to my super leveling and upgraded equipment, I defeated Astos easily. Upon defeat, he dropped the crystal eye he had. With no thought necessary, I took the eye and left the castle.
     With the eye in hand, I rushed back to Matoya's cave to give it back to her. Grateful for my returning her eye and her only way of seeing me, she gave me a powerful...jolt potion (something like a fancy coffee). She claimed it would wake up ANYBODY. As I was about to leave, she made sure I should know that I didn't look as handsome as she thought I would. Glad she threw that in there...Anyways, I small walk and some sailing later, I swiftly returned to Elfheim to apply the jolt potion to the prince. Regardless of my thoughts on Matoya, her potion worked instantly and the elf prince awakened from his long sleep. He complained about nightmares and then said he would fulfill his duty according to destiny. Apparently, his duty was to hand off something a key called "Mystic Key." Best reward ever!
     In most situations, a normal key would be lame and open up maybe one door. However, the Mystic Key immediately rewards you with the ability to open several doors that have been available since the beginning of the game, but you couldn't open because they were bound closed. Unfortunately, this also means a rather large amount of backtracking all over to open a random bunch of doors for items that may or may not be worth it. I didn't hit all of the ones I know, but I got the ones that I found the ones I needed to get. Up at Coneria Castle, there was a locked room you could get to but not INTO at the beginning of the game. With the Mystic Key at your disposal, you easily enter the room and obtain some weapons and armor as well as a key item called Nitro Powder. I honestly had no idea what to do with this, so I set off for more exploration on the high seas!
     Turns out my exploration on the sea was short and I almost immediately found where I needed to be. I found a small port I hadn't been to before. I did a bit of exploring and found a cave, Mount Duergar to be exact. Inside there was a community of dwarves who were digging into the mountain and trying to make a canal through to connect the inner sea to the outer oceans. They were stuck at a small point with no way to go further, but I thankfully had their solution in hand. They used the bit of Nitro Powder I had to blow up the section there and open up the canal. With the canal open, I left Mount Duergar and set out for the newly open world! I decided I had put in quite a bit of effort for the day, and decided to end my game once I found a port to stop at. Thankfully, I looked on the world map and found one just north of the outside of the canal. There I stopped and saved for the day outside the city of Melmond.
   

Ending Point -Outside the city of Melmond.

Levels Achieved - 8 levels earned. Currently level 16.

Goals Accomplished - Defeated the pirates in Pravoka. Got a ship. Traveled to Elfheim. Retrieved the crown. Defeated Astos and got back the Crystal Eye. Gave Matoya her Crystal Eye. Used the jolt potion to awaken the prince. Recieved the Mystic Key. Used the Mystic Key to get the Nitro Powder. Gave the Nitro Powder to the dwarves to open the canal. Went through the Canal to the city of Melmond.

Next Goals - I don't know! Something about getting restoring the crystals and stopping everything from going bad/worse than it is.

Day 1

Final Fantasy - Day 1

Hours Played/Hours Total - 2 hrs / 2 hrs

Starting Point - Beginning of the Game. Level 1. Kingdom of Coneria.

Current Goal - Rescue the Princess from the evil knight Garland. Try to save the world.

What Happened 
     Before you begin the game, you choose the makeup of your party from the following 6 classes:
Fighter, Black Mage, White Mage, Red Mage, Thief, and Black Belt. Being who I am, I made my party consist of the main group from the web comic 8-bit Theater (Fighter, Black Mage, Thief, Red Mage). And so the game begins!
You start off outside the Kingdom of Coneria with 500 gold. I immediately went to town and upgraded all my equipment to the best available as well as buying some spells. Thankfully the first set of armor and weapons is really cheap so I was easily able to get it all. With my previous knowledge of playing this title on both the NES and PSP before, I already knew I needed to level up.
     After some time spent leveling up, I began my trip to the Temple of Fiends. I managed to get up there in one piece and avoided any problems. That was until I actually entered the temple. I figured I'd look around rather than immediately fighting Garland. Apparently this was a huge mistake on my part. The first battle I got into killed my black mage, so I had the fun task of running back to Coneria to revive the black mage. Thankfully it wasn't as painful a task in the PSP version as it would be in the original NES game. However, this immediately put my black mage at a experience difference between him and the rest of my party, which I hate so very much. That was the only detour along my initial goal. I made it back there and easily kicked Garland's ass. He's really not much of a challenge with a few extra levels in tow (Level 4) and some well placed magic (Fire!).
     With the princess rescued, you return to Coneria. The King graciously awards your group with...the rebuilding of a bridge to the north! SO EXCITING! All that work just to have a bridge fixed so that you may continue on with the quest of saving the world. Proceeding north, you are presented with a small cutscene and inspirational words. It's actually really close in appearance to the one that appeared on the NES version. Of course, it has had some significant graphical improvements (as has the rest of the game).
     And then I continued north...unfortunately for me, it was too far north. I ran right into a pair of giants that smashed the black mages face off. Apparently nobody likes the black mage. Thankfully I wasn't too far away and was able to double back to Coneria for a revival. And speaking of the revival process, why is it...that a group of people attempting to save the world are forced to pay a hefty revival price? Why not revive them for FREE? They are trying to save everything as we know it after all. Anyways, I started back north and instead took a turn eastward heading towards where I knew the next town was. Ran into a few monsters here and there, but nothing a couple spells and strong warriors couldn't take! After reaching the harbor city of Pravoka, I took the time to enter in and buy a few new spells and equipment.
     Although I didn't get very far, I felt like it was safe for me to save and quit for the day. Not a massive leap by far, but it's a small step in a fairly long game. Let us hope my next time in-game will lead to great things!


Ending Point - Outside the harbor city of Pravoka.


Levels Achieved - 7 Levels earned, Currently Level 8

Goals Accomplished - Defeated Garland. Got the bridge rebuilt (woo?). Reached Pravoka.

Next Goals - Confront and defeat the pirates in Pravoka. Hopefully proceed easily from there...


My first post...it's not bad. I hope the format evolves from here and begins to look better.
I also hope I manage a little more in-game time next time. We shall see how it goes from here!


~May the Crystals Guide Me~

Deciding the format...

Well, I'm currently going to post with something along the following as my post formats.
This is more likely than not going to change!

*Post Title - Day # (I will only be posting days I play, so although it will say 'Day 1' or 'Day 2' it will probably be several days apart.)
*Game - Final Fantasy # (Obviously Final Fantasy, but mostly labeling which one)
*Hours Played/Hours Total - # hrs/# hrs (Going to try and keep track of how long it takes me to beat each title)
*Starting Point - Insert place here & Level here (Straightforward, just wherever I start in-game to as accurate as I can describe. )
*Current Goal - Simply going to state what I need to be doing in-game. Will also tack on any side quests I wish to tackle.
*What Happened - Hopefully will describe in fun detail whatever happened during the period of time. I will also go over any fun Final Fantasy knowledge I might have! Keep in mind...it's not much. ._.
*Ending Point - Insert place here & Level here (Same as starting point...but instead the ENDING point!)
*Levels Achieved - I'm not going to explain this... It explains itself! 

*Goals Accomplished - Insert list here (Hopefully, I will accomplish a little something every day. Mostly going to name if I finish a quest/beat a boss/collect important item #1)
*Next Goals - Will mostly consist of "What am I going to do next!" than anything.

Will end each post with my fancy signature line that I am going to do! :O

~May the Crystals Guide Me~

(For those in the unknowningness, a lot of the Final Fantasy titles involve crystals somehow.)

The First Post!

So, this post is here simply to state my mission.
My mission (if I choose to accept it) is to play the entirety of the numbered Final Fantasy catalog, including but not necessary limited to, Final Fantasy through Final Fantasy XIII.

Will I succeed? 
I sure as hell hope so...
For the sake of humanity (and myself), I have to succeed!

Do I have a reason?
Honestly, I have no reason. I just want to do this to hopefully prove I can finish it. Part of me just wants to do this so that I will follow through with it and complete my goal. As a plus, I'll be playing what are considered some of the greatest RPG games of our generation.

Got a goal?
Other than the obvious ones already stated...no.
I have played several of the titles in the series already, but I have only finished a fraction of them.
It would be nice to see the entirety of the series in...well in series.
Along the way, I'll be getting frustrated and bored of the games, but I will see it through!

Lay down some ground rules man!
So apparently I'm going to make posts like that...like I'm talking to myself.
The only true rule will be to finish one title before going to the next.
I'll start on Final Fantasy 1 and go from there.

Another big deal to me will be the use of guides...
I plan to avoid any use of a guide. If I get so stuck that I don't want to play it, I will consult a guide then.
Otherwise, no guides will be consulted. This does mean I probably won't do any/all of the side quests in the titles, but I can honestly say it'll be more refreshing this way. If I discover them by myself, it will feel like more of an accomplishment.

Although it is kinda cheating, I'll be playing the latest releases of most of the titles as opposed to the original versions. The reasons for this choice are...
1. Final Fantasy (1) - The original title is a classic, but it's also much, MUCH harder. I'd probably have to play it with an emulator, and that would decrease my progress significantly as compared to the PSP version.
2. Cost - Remakes of most of the titles are going to be cheaper than the original most likely.
3. Obtaining them - As said, I'm not going to emulate them, so I'll be buying them. The cost is one thing, but obtaining a copy of the old game is risky at best. I might get a bad copy, it might die halfway through, or it may just be unfun to deal with (NES, SNES ones). With all the remakes/ports of these games, I might as well just buy the latest versions.


This is not really a great first post, but it will have to do.
My journey will be a long and difficult one. I hope that I don't mess my life up over this.
And above all...I hope that I will actually make my goal.
If I even get through half the series, I will be proud of myself (and hate myself some too).

Here's to hoping that these fantasies...won't be my final ones.

May the Crystals Guide Me~