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.