Day 19

Game - Final Fantasy 3, Day 19
Hours Played/Hours Total - 6-1/2 hrs / 12-1/2 hrs
Starting Point - Nearby the village of Tokkul.
Current Goal - Figure out where I need to go. Find the other crystals. Save the world.

What Happened - Strap in for another ride on the Final Fantasy express! Next stop...hopefully a lot further in and through Final Fantasy 3! Also prepare for an extra long read, it's another double-day post.
     I started off nearby the village of Tokkul. I wasn't 100% sure where I needed to go, so I did consult a guide which suggested heading southwest for a different village. There was a fair distance between that village and my current spot, but that was full of what feels like fairly easy monster battles. And unfortunately, it seems the best character on my team (physical attack-wise) is Arc as a Black Mage. He has a bow & arrow combo that allows him to easily do more damage than my Fighter or Monk...I don't get this. I realize now that maybe I could switch the bow over to the fighter, but the main reason my black mage has a bow is so that he can strike faraway targets from the back row without a penalty. Anyways, one small trip later, I end up at a village known as the Ancients' Village. I feel like the people who wrote names in these games either wanted to go insanely simple or really strange/stupid. However, I realize from running campaigns in D&D that naming villages/cities sometimes tends to be hard to make a name that sounds both good and somewhat realistic. The Ancients' Village was full of mostly old men telling of ancient times, histories, and prophesies, namely those involving the party's current quest. However, they also had some new weapons, armor, and equipment, so I stocked up and left the village for a different location.
     If I talked with my follower guy, he kept mentioning something about a valley with blind seers in it. With a little help from a map, I was able to locate the valley with ease. The valley, known as Gulgan's Gulch, was pretty simple and straightforward. A big ol' pile of blind seers giving up oodles of information. One in particular revealed to me where Desch and the party needed to go and fulfill stuffs. He also gave me the white magic Toad. The place he revealed as our next destination was the Tower of Owen. I had already happened upon this tower earlier on, so I was able to get there with speed and ease. Nothing super special about the tower really, the only noteworthy thing would be that enemies really jumped up a notch on their available magic. Many of them seemed to have -ra offensive spells available. For those who don't know/realize, -ra is the second tier of offensive magic. As I climbed the tower, it kept doing these mini scenes of a mysterious voice telling me I'd never make it to the top or something along that line. I then proceeded to make it to the top, and I found out the voice belonged to Medusa! BOSS TIME!
     Apparently, the boss Medusa is just a massive floating red-colored head with snakes for hair. No body whatsoever it seems. That made little difference to the overall outcome though. She didn't seem to have a lot going for her. She did a double attack on her turn and tended to aim for Arc and Refia (the mages). I just unleashed everything I had, and she went down without much of a challenge. Upon defeating Medusa, you find out that she was trying to destroy the Tower of Own, which is important for some reason. Desch suddenly remembers who he is and what his purpose was (not to reveal much but it involves the tower). He leaves the party to try and fix the tower. Before he goes, he tells the group to head to Fire Islands to meet with the dwarves there. The group doesn't want him to go, but he teleports everybody to the sea ship. Thus ends the chapter of faithful follower, Desch.
     Back at my ship and ready to go, the passageway out of the middle of the world is now free of whirlpool, and I'm free to travel to the outside world! This doesn't really open up a lot of options, but I can get to that fire island with dwarves...so ONWARD! The fire island had two caves in mountains, so I entered the closest one, which was the correct guess. Upon entering the dwarves start yelling their Final Fantasy 1 catchphrase of "Lali-ho!" and start going on about an Ice Horn or something. I approached the head dwarf near an altar of sorts. He asks the group to retrieve one of the stolen ice horns that was taken by a guy known as Gutsco the Rogue. They can't go after him because he went into an underwater cavern, and the dwarves can't swim. I got to the lake, cast Toad on my party, and traveled to the underwater cavern. The underwater cavern was fairly straightforward dungeon. You just keep going forward, collect chests, and search for this Rogue guy who stole the horn. You finally find him at the end, and he's just standing on a pile of ill gotten treasure. Upon approaching him, he attacked me. It was a fairly unimpressive battle. He had the ability to strike twice, and he could heal himself. Outside of that, he didn't really offer much of a challenge. After the battle, his body disappears, and the group recovers the stolen Ice Horn.
     I then proceeded to get out of the cave...however, I already noticed something was up. I could tell our group was being followed by someone because there was a shadow spot behind my guy as I walked. You can't talk to it, and nothing you do can stop it. Whatever! I proceeded out of the cave with the use of the magic spell Teleport. Teleport takes you out of your current place and throws you nearby it on the world map. Really love this spell...so nice to not have to climb back up. Although it would have probably been a good idea for experience and money. The group talks to the dwarf leader who lowers the barrier to the altar. I proceeded to replace then ice horn, and suddenly, the shadow leaps forward and appears at Gutsco the Rogue. (Surpriiiiise!) He grabs both horns and makes his way to the northern cave, Molten Cave. He claimed he could use the Ice Horns to get to the Fire Crystal. What does that mean? Something about world is in danger, but the more important part is that I'm going to get new classes soon! (Hopefully...)
     I immediately charged into the Molten Cave and began my search for the Gutsco the Rogue and the crystal. It's your typical lava/fire based dungeon. There's fire enemies, lava that damages you as you run through it (and you HAVE to go through it), and chests with ice-based items for use against said fire enemies. Nothing too special. I did see the return of the Adamantoise here, and his weakness was once again ice. I made my way through the Molten Cave to find myself face-to-face with the Fire Crystal! As I approached it, a cut scene went off revealing that Gutsco has gained the power of fire and plans to destroy my team as to gain power from them somehow. He moves forward and attacks the group. BOSS BATTLE TIME! At some point between the screen flashing and the battle popping up, Gutsco changed into a giant red dragon named Salamander. For the first several rounds of battle, Salamander was mostly a pushover. Multiple ice attacks plus two powerful physical characters were able to deal out the damage to him. However, apparently when he reaches lower health levels, he gains a fire breath. I didn't think it was a problem...until I had a total party knockout. On top of that, Final Fantasy 3 can only be saved on the world map. This meant that I not only had lost to the boss, but I also had to redo the entirety of the Molten Cave. With this in mind, I took some time to level up before re-entering the cave. After I gained a handful of levels, I went back into the Molten Cave. This time I was determined to make it through AND defeat Salamander! And I did! The extra levels made all the difference, and my reward was gaining new powers/jobs from the Fire Crystal! The new jobs I got were: Geomancer, Ranger, Knight, and Scholar.
     I immediately changed 3 of the 4 party members in my group to new classes. I made Luneth a Geomancer, Arc into a Scholar, and Ingus into a Knight. It probably wasn't the best choice, but the new classes have some very interesting powers and abilities. Scholars are able to study/scan enemies to tell you their HP and weakness. Knights just have a crazy high defense value while also keeping some attack prowess. The Geomancer is a class I recognized from Final Fantasy Tactics! Although their weapon of choice appears to be a bell...They gain the ability to cast elemental magics based on whatever landscape they are on. That means the spells they use are more or less random (you can't choose, you simply select Terrain and hope), but they tend to be incredibly powerful and useful. Moving back to my gameplay...
     After the crystal gave me its blessing, I returned to the dwarves' cave to return their Ice Horns and received a hefty reward! Seriously, if you talk to this one dwarf who was guarding their treasure earlier, he lets you at all of it. It's a pretty nice gift of around a DOZEN chests! Woo! After restocking and re-equipping my party, I went to leave the cave when PLOT HAPPENED! A man comes inside the cave and claims that Tokkul is being burned to the ground. I immediately set course for Tokkul...after spending an hour or more doing some power leveling with my new jobs. I did eventually get tired of that and head towards Tokkul. Upon entering, my group was immediately captured and imprisoned in a giant cursed tree. Inside the tree, I was stuck behind menacing bars beside a king and some of his faithful followers. Apparently someone named Hein, who was an adviser to King Argus, turned evil due to darkness after the earthquake (something along that line). With his new found power over darkness, he turned the king's troops against him and then cursed a tree to use as his home base. Trust me, that is almost exactly how it goes. It sounds weird, but that's how some games work! However, I easily evaded the bars using the doorways that very much existed. There's a small hole near the end too, and you can guess what you have to do next. After getting through the hole, I started traversing the tree in hopes of stopping this Hein character. Some rooms, monsters, and treasure later, I was face to face...with a skeleton guy! Turns out that it was Hein. He had been transformed by the power of darkness, and he was completely transfixed by its allure and power. After a small speech about his love for darkness, he attacked the group for yet another...BOSS BATTLE!
     At some point in the game, it was mentioned that I would need use of someone with the Study ability (Scholar) to get around this boss's weakness changing ability known as Barrier Shift. However, by the time I finished this battle, I realized that I neither needed to waste the time on the job nor had any use for its absurd and borderline useless Study ability. It took some time to beat him, but I never felt that my party was in any danger of dying. It was another typically under powered boss. It seems to me that early Final Fantasy bosses aren't much for being a challenge, outside of some extra and final bosses. With Hein defeated, the tree was freed from its curse. It thanked me for doing so and promised to return everybody there to where they belonged. After doing such, I was teleported to the Living Woods. The tree revealed that in order to save the world I would need to go do the surface world and stop the darkness there. It claimed that it would need to go to sleep now as to fix the damage caused by the curse. I was then forced out of the Living Woods, which then proceeded to be locked forever. Now I wonder...how in the hell do I get to the surface world?
     Figuring that King Argus and his men would be returned to Castle Argus, I went there immediately so I could figure out what to do next. The king thanked me for all that I done, and then he gave me the mysterious Wheel of Time. He said that the Wheel of Time was some item left behind by the Ancients, and that Cid could use it to build a new airship. Heck yeah! I've been waiting all this time to get myself a new airship...since the game forced me to break my first one. With the Wheel of Time in hand, I made way for Canaan Village and decided to stop there for the night.
   

Ending Point - Nearby Canaan Village.
Levels Achieved -

• Luneth - Level 21 - Monk Level 28
• Arc - Level 21 - Black Mage Level 25
• Refia - Level 21 - White Mage Level 27
• Ingus - Level 22 - Knight Level 9

Goals Accomplished - Locate Gulgan's Gulch and take to the seers there. Climbed the Tower of Owen and stopped Medusa from causing trouble. Helped the dwarves by recovering the Ice Horns. Chased after Gutsco the Rogue and stopped him from causing trouble with the Fire Crystal. Obtained new powers (jobs) from the Fire Crystal. Returned the Ice Horns to the dwarves (again). Investigate the attack on Tokkul. Defeated Hein, released the captured King and his men, and freed the tree from its curse. Received the Wheel of Time.
Next Goals - Give the Wheel of Time to Cid so he can build a new airship! Use the airship to travel to the surface below.

Side Note - I apologize for making another horrendously long post. I didn't get enough time on one day of playing it to make a post, but then I got TOO MUCH time on the next day of playing it. It turned half a post into around two and a half posts worth of information. Although my goal is just to beat the Final Fantasy titles, I'd really like to accomplish this before the year is up. It's a bit over hopeful, but I think I can manage it if I buckle down.

~May the Crystals Guide Me~