Thursday, February 14, 2008

Ogres, fetch quest, and 'Rae's life ambition.

No, I'm not dead, and neither is this project. I may be a slacker but I'm not one to abandon after only 3 posts. The thing is that the Elfland part of the game can be extremely boring because of two things: 1) level grinding in preparation for the Marsh Cave, and 2) fund raising for those darn expensive spells and equipment in Elfland. I can only stand so much ogre-slaying every day before getting sick of it all. They're pink, for Pete's sake!

Alright, enough of me complaining about them pink ogre and more of me talking about the progress made.

ff1-26.jpg

Welcome to lovely Elfland, where everything is peacef- okay, not so peaceful. Apparently, the pointy-eared, inbred punk that calls himself the Prince of Elfland is in trouble. Time to investigate!

ff1-27.jpg

Ah, so that's what happened. I wonder if someone knows how to fix this, or if the people of Elfland are like most of their Cornerian counterparts and only speak nonsense when asked a simple question...

ff1-28.jpg

Wow, look at that! Useful information!

But I wonder...

ff1-29.jpg

Colour me surprised; them elves sure are helpful NPCs! They know their stuff.

Unfortunately, if you go to Matoya hoping she'll give you that herb, you'll be disappointed. She just repeats the same stuff as before about her crystal. Bah. Unhelpful old people...

Someone else in the town mentionned something about a spooky castle to the northwest, so I say it's time to investigate, but before...

ff1-30.jpg

IT'S OGRE-SLAYING TIME! If you go to that area east of Elfland, ogres are pretty common. Each ogre you defeat also gives you 195 gp. Pretty useful since most of the equipment and spells sold in Elfland aren't cheap. For example, the Silver Sword I wanted to buy LOL cost 4000 gp. Level 3 spells are 1500 gp apiece (so 3 spells per mage is 1500x6=9000 gp) and level 4 spells cost 4000 gp each (for a total of 24000 gp). Aren't you awed by my 1337 math skills? I so didn't use a calculator! *eyeshift*

ff1-31.jpg

So, after getting sick of slaying ogres and other local fauna, it's time to head to the Northwest Castle. Which lies Northwest of Elfland. As if the name wasn't obvious enough. Har har har!

For some reason, I'm reminded of Troia because of all the trees. It just lacks the scantilly-clad females loitering in the castle. Instead, you find this fellow:

ff1-32.jpg

Old King dude with green hair and pink robes! Talk about fashion faux pas.

Yeah, I know the text box hides his face. Believe me, he has green hair. And some sickly, greenish skin. It clashes with the pink. What is it about all the pink in Elfland? Did they run out of green? First, the ogres, and now, that King.

Okay, so the King of Fashion Disaster Northwest Castle asks you to find his crown, which is in Marsh Cave. Head to the south of Northwest Castle, around the mountains and through the marsh, until you find the hole in the ground, which is the entrance to the cave.

ff1-33.jpg

Using a tent to save is recommended if you're playing the original, as opposed to an emulator. The Marsh Cave is a difficult area of the game.

ff1-34.jpg

I hate these guys. They're not super tough, but they take a lot of time to kill because they're strong against physical attacks, which means most of the time my characters only hit for 1 or 2 points of damage. I didn't want to waste my spells for monsters that have like 24 HP. And they can poison attack, too.

Thankfully, LOL and OMG would occasionally do crits, which would kill the scums instantly, as seen above.

Most of the monsters in the Marsh Cave do poison attacks. Boy, am I glad I stocked on Pure potions...

ff1-35.jpg

And after some challenging encounters, our brave heroes finally reach the last floor of the Marsh Cave. Within one of the trunk, you can actually find the crown, but you'll have to defeat a group of wizards first.

ff1-36.jpg

Wait a minute. Those aren't just regular wizards, they're Mind-Flayers! Or something like that. I'd have to look in my Dungeons and Dragons bestiary.

Or maybe they're Cthulhu and Davey Jones in disguise. Was it Halloween in Elfland? I didn't notice.

These guys are tough; I'm actually glad I only fought two. You can face up to five of them at once. x_X But, at last...

ff1-37.jpg

Woohoo! The crown!

And so, the Light Warriors retrieved the crown from the Cave of Marsh, and facing the boreal skies, trekked back to the King's castle hidden in the lush forests of Elfland...

Yeah, I was feeling poetic.

I bet the King will give me some reward. I mean, he's a KING! He's bound to have some riches hidden under his throne, no?

ff1-38.jpg

OH NOES! We've been tricked! To arms, Light Warriors!

ff1-39.jpg

So, Astos is the ancestor of the Dark Elf from FFIV.

"But 'Rae, how did you figure that out?" you ask. I'm psychic, that's how. Gimme $4,95 per minute, all I'll predict your future.

Or maybe it's because the sprite of Astor uses the same pose as the Dark Elf's, and is similar, albeit more primitive. It was the age of 8-bits, after all. Sprites weren't as detailed due to a more restricted colour palette.

ff1-40.jpg

After defeating Astos, bring back Matoya her crystal that Astos had stolen, and she gives you the herb to heal the Prince.

ff1-41.jpg

Matoya's also the Final Fantasy equivalent of what I dream to become; an old, grumpy lady living alone with many cats, sitting on her porch all day and yelling at kids to get off her lawn. Except that she has talking brooms instead of cats, and yells at kids to get out of her cave as opposed to get off her lawn.

So, it's time to get off Matoya's lawn get out of Matoya's cave and head back to Elfland.

ff1-42.jpg

Waking for a five years long nap. I hope for his sake that the other elves saw to his personal hygiene, otherwise the smell might just knock him out again.

ff1-43.jpg

No, it's all happening in your head. We're an hallucination provoked by your putrid body odor. But don't worry, Prince of Elfland! Soon enough, you'll wake up, walk into your bathroom, and find your husband, Bobby Ewing, alive in the shower.

LOL, Dallas reference. I rock.

ff1-44.jpg

At least, the Prince is thankful of your help, unlike Matoya.

So, now you have the Mystic Key, which means you can now open all those locked door in Corneria Castle, the Temple of Fiends, Elfland Castle, the Northwest Castle, and the Marsh Cave for treasure.

Next time, on 'Rae Does Video Games: the Light Warriors venture toward their next location/plot point, which 'Rae doesn't remember. Stay tuned while she looks at a walkthrough on gamefaqs to figure out what needs to be done next.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I found this post in passing (educating non-ff literate significant other) and I'd like to say simply this - you're made of awesome :D