Day 18

Game - Final Fantasy 3, Day 18
Hours Played/Hours Total - 2-1/2 hrs / 6 hrs
Starting Point - Nearby the village of Canaan.
Current Goal - Find a dragon on a mountain. Find the other crystals. Save the world.

What Happened - Another glorious day in the playing of Final Fantasy, and so we begin!
     I started off nearby Canaan. With my business there done for the moment, it was time to journey up the mountain and confront a dragon! Of course, it is too early for a group of young adventurers to fight a dragon. I ran into the dragon, and it carried the group off to its nest. The nest was full of baby dragons and the missing man Desch. He approached the group and suggested we start running because of the dragon. The dragon swoops in and attacks! I attempted to fight, but I should have followed Desch's advice. The dragon immediately killed 2 of my party members, so I went ahead and ran away the next round. Turns out that you are SUPPOSED to run because it immediately threw me into a scripted cut scene of the group + Desch jumping out of the dragon's nest.
     The group comes to at a far off location to the south. Desch tells the group about him having amnesia and remembering nothing about his past. The only thing he knows is some nagging feeling that he has a job/quest to do, so he joins up as the follower character. I don't think I went into details on the last post about followers, but I wasn't 100% about what they were until I traveled with him some. It seems that you sometimes get guest characters that are part of the party, can participate in battle, but you have no control of. They will sometimes randomly unleash an attack or magic on the enemy during battle. Otherwise, they follow behind you, and you can talk to them for advice, insight, or just learning stuff. Anyways, the group has appeared in a remote area of the continent, and the only thing I knew was something about a mysterious and hidden gnome village that was supposedly nearby. However, to get into the village required the use of the spell Mini (which can be bought or given to you in multiple ways). The bigger problem for me was the requirement of a White Mage. Considering both the need and the usefulness of a White Mage, I switched over Refia to White Mage, taught her the Mini spell, and set out to find the village. You have to cast Mini on your whole team and then start looking around area for the village. It took a little time, but I eventually stumbled upon the gnome village of Tozus.
     I'll give this game one thing. Making you shrink your characters so they can enter a miniaturized village is kind of an interesting physic to have in the game. Upon entering the village, you are greeted by one of the little gnomes there. Of course, I guess my party is also currently small...but whatever! Not too much to buy here except some new spells, so I stocked on up on everything. Next up, I searched the houses until I found the one house with something to do. The only doctor in the village was sick and needed an antidote to heal himself. Lucky for him, I had plenty to share, so I handed one over. Upon healing, he thanked me for it and opened a passage to the Tozus Tunnel. I figured it was the only way out of the current separated portion of continent, so I pushed forward. The monster battles for the duration where very unfun for one big reason...Mini. While your characters are mini sized, they have their strength and defense reduced to 1. Meaning that unless you have a magic caster or two in the party, you are screwed. Luckily for me, I have had Arc as a Black Mage since the beginning, and I recently changed Refia into a White Mage. Those two plus Desch's random castings of Thundara allowed me to push through the monsters in the tunnels.
     The tunnel was luckily short lived, and I came out the other side ready to proceed forward. I was also finally allowed to return my team to their original size. This game already proves that you have to be at least somewhat versatile in your team selection. I'm pretty sure that part would have been impossible without at least ONE Black Mage. You could maybe get away with a Red Mage, but it wouldn't go as well. Anyways, after the tunnel, the only place I could go to was a nearby cave. The cave is the Viking's Cove, which is home to a group of vikings (obviously). The Vikings have a problem though...Apparently a sea dragon recently awakened and is causing havoc on the sea. With the sea dragon loose, the Vikings lost all of their ships except one, and they are unable to do anything until the dragon leaves. The leader offered to give me their last ship if I could rid them of the sea dragon. The only problem is...nobody was telling me how to get rid of it.
     I left Viking's Cove and jumped on the ship outside. Now THAT was a huge mistake. I immediately ran into the dragon which wiped out my party without trying. Reload. Let's try that again. So I ventured back outside, but I didn't get on the boat this time! Instead, I looked around the current area and happened upon the only other thing out there...a temple. The temple was called Nepto Temple ,and based on the statue in the first room, it was a temple to the sea dragon. The group noticed that one eye socket on the statue was missing a gem, AND that the statue itself had a gaping maw tunnel thing. So guess what? Mini time again! I miniaturized the party and went inside. Inside was a handful of rooms, some treasure chests, and a MONSTER PURPLE RAT BOSS! I encountered the rat near the end, and he was hoarding a giant red crystal, the missing eye. He was decently hard considering I could only use magic while being Mini. Upon defeat, the group grabs the eye and takes it outside of the cave. I placed the eye in the dragon statue, and the dragon thanked me for doing this with an item and returning to below the sea.
     With the sea ship in hand, I was free to roam a large portion of the world. During this time, I revisted a few locations for generally no reason. I did wander upon some forgotten items and such, but I mostly accomplished nothing overall. I visited the castle in the northwest, Aragas Castle, by mistake, but I found some great items and money while there. After venturing around with little payback, I talked to my follower a couple of times which revealed...basically nothing. I sailed southward and discovered the village of Tokkul in ruins. Apparently an army of soldiers came by, ravaged the town, and took all the able-bodied people away. They village elder asked that I try to find and rescue whoever I could. After getting all of the hidden items there, I made my way to the west and found...nothing. I was basically just lost at this point and figured that now was as good a time as any to wrap it up for the night. I don't feel like I really accomplished anything tonight, but any form of game play is better than none I guess!

Ending Point - Nearby the village of Tokkul
Levels Achieved

• Luneth - Level 14 - Monk Level 10*
• Arc - Level 14 - Black Mage Level 15
• Refia - Level 13 - White Mage Level 10
• Ingus - Level 14 - Warrior Level 12

*The reason that Luneth is only level 10 Monk is because I briefly switched him to a Thief until I figured out that was borderline pointless...also I got a new weapon that the Monk could actually USE!

Goals Accomplished - Found and ran away from the dragon. Found and joined with Desch. Located and entered the gnome village, Tozus. Helped out the gnome doctor and found the Tozus Tunnel. Traversed Tozus Tunnel and made it through to Viking's Cove. Helped the Vikings solve their dragon problem and earned a ship! Used the ship to travel places. Learned about the situation at Tokkul and began the journey to help out.
Next Goals - Figure out where I need to go. Find the other crystals. Save the world.

~May the Crystals Guide Me~