Day 8

Game - Final Fantasy II, Day 8
Hours Played/Hours Total - 1 hr / 1 hr
Starting Point - Beginning of the Game.
Current Goal - Figure out what to do.

What Happened - So, I took a few days away from the mission, but I finally got started back up today. Not only started back up, but starting on Final Fantasy II. Apologies for long post now.
     As the game opens, you are immediately thrust into battle! Which goes pretty well considering you have a total party kill. This would be disappointing, but it is a set event in the game. You are treated to a small cut scene of sorts showing your characters (minus a missing 4th one) being dragged off by hopefully a group of saviors. A small time later, your characters come to, and you start finding out what is going on. Unlike the first Final Fantasy, you are given a random group of characters that you are allowed to build as you see fit. See the Levels Achieved near the bottom of this post for more information. You can name them whatever or let them have the true name designed into the game/story. I went ahead and let them keep their names. (Firion is the main guy's name.)
     The basic plot so far involves some sort of an "empire" taking over all of the free world as we know it at the moment. There's mentioning of a "Dreadnought" that we can assume is some form of a giant war airship. Your group wakes up in a city occupied by some form of rebels (called Altair). They request to join the rebels, and the leader of the movement (Princess Hilde) declines your request. With that done, your group apparently decides to head back to their hometown that they were chased out of during the beginning bit (when they got killed). So the adventure begins!
     Couple of things I should mention. In addition to the different level up system (again, refer to the Levels Achieved down below), the game runs on some form of a word learning system. Basically, as you talk to specific people, you can learn specific key words which in turn can be used in conversations to trigger events and differing conversaions. What does this mean overall? I have to talk to almost everybody I can to make sure I learn any and all key words so that I can move on in the game. Some words also give you access to different services and such. I really don't know this game very well. I only briefly have played Final Fantasy 2 before on the GBA remake (Dawn of Souls). Overall, it'll be an interesting experience. Back to the game...
     Before leaving the initial town, I went shopping and picked up some potions as well as filling up holes in the characters armor spots (gloves, hats, and shields mostly). With that done, I head out into the wild to find the next location. With just a handful of battles, my characters have already gained levels in their initial weapons (Firion has a sword, other two have a box and axe) as well as their health (Yes, you get to level up their health...have to get hit to get more health in the end =/ ). With that said and done, I begin searching around for another town. A short ways north, I ran into a small village, called Gatrea, with not much to it. Someone mentioned something about the city across the lake (Fynn). One short restock of potions later, I'm back on the road. However, before I got too far, I accidentally ran into too powerful enemies that killed everybody. Ten minutes in and I've already got a Game Over.
     Thankfully I did save before leaving the town so this was only a moderate setback. I also found out the initial town has a magic shop. You can basically buy whatever magic for whoever you want. I gave everybody the Cure spell as well as one black elemental spell each (Fire, Thunder, Blizzard. The classics!). Unfortunately, you get the fun task of leveling up spells as well. At first level, they only cost 1 MP to use and are quite potent, but as they level up, they start costing more and more. Not too far along with those yet, but it'll surely be un-fun until I get more MP (hopefully quick to follow with continued magic use).
     Moving along, I took some more time to level up my abilities. After that, I retried the trip to Fynn, while avoiding the higher leveled monster area, and managed to make it without dying. Upon entering Fynn, you discover it is covered in Empire Soldiers. If you get too close to them, they'll kick you out of the city. Not too hard really, however it is quickly obvious that nobody is left in town, and that you can still get into random monster battles in the streets. If you look around (and listened to some NPCs earlier), you'll eventually make your way to the town pub. Inside the pub, it is crawling with soldiers (they won't mess with you unless you talk to them). You talk to the guy in the back, give him the rebel group code word (Wild Rose), and he tells you about a wounded soldier in the back. Turns out that soldier was a prince by the name of Scott. He tells you plot-related stuffs and gives you his ring. From here, I believe I'm supposed to head back to Altair. After exiting the city, I headed back south towards Altair, but I decided to stop for the day at Galtrea.
   

Ending Point - Village of Galtrea.
Levels Achieved - I'll post it with this day, but I won't post it again til the next game. Pardon the long explanation that is going to follow.
     Final Fantasy 2 doesn't work on a character level system. Instead of the character having a level, they gain levels in specific categories. Apparently everything in the game is a category! You can level up weapon abilities, spells (individually not a group), shields, health, mana, and even your stat abilities (strength, stamina, etc). Meaning that this game will not be fun to figure out when I can/should move on.
Going to be a lot of leveling of abilities.

Goals Accomplished - Started Final Fantasy II. Figured out what to do. Bought items and new equipment. Gained some weapon and magic levels. Made it to Fynn. Got a message and ring from Prince Scott. Began travelling back to Altair.
Next Goals - Deliver the message to Altair.

~May the Crystals Guide Me~