FF 3 and why I hate Salamandars

So I have started Final Fantasy 3 on my Fantasy quest. I have actually changed it to beating them all (including side quest) by March 9, 2010. Just in time for XIII.
So a little background on FF3. This is the last of the original series to be released in the states. A few years ago on the DS. Now I have played the fan translation and now I am playing through this one and I like the changes and what they have kept. For example, giving the onion kids a story background, BIG POSITIVE. Always good to see revamping a classic game with some character background (something the original was missing). I also still like all the hidden paths and rooms. Keeps you looking. The jobs system is also good. i like having to make sure I have the right jobs for certain dungeons (a.k.a the MINI tunnel near the Viking cave)

Now on to the name of the post. I hate the Fire Cave here. The Final boss is rediculously hard if you dont feel like level grinding. Man I hate that god damn salamandar and his Fire Breath. I barely made it through. All my guys level 19 and my black mage dishing out 5 Blizzaras (ICE2) doing like 500 damage each and still didnt drop this bastard. I think they made him harder.

Alright So Party standpoint this is after new jobs

Luneth as a Knight 19

Ingus as a Monk 19

Refia as a White Mage 19

Arc as a Black Mage 19

Emperor I had to beat him twice

So I beat Final Fantasy II today. I want to apologize to anybody that actually reads this. I really didn't get time to play it and when I did I just sped through it and decided I would just do one big review at the end.

Frog and Mini

Let me just say that these two spells saved my ass time and time again. I find it weird and funny how many enemies (and bosses ) where vulnerable to these instant kill spells. When ever I ran into a big group of ones I did not like I just spammed on the Mini and Frog and wiped them out.

The Emperor's Weakness to Blood Swords
So I took full adavantage of the PlayStation's memo file to beat this guy 2 ways

1. With the blood swords (took all of three rounds)

2. Once without using the blood swords

I posted two videos on youtube so I ll add the links later.

Lastly I just want to List Firion's and Maria's Key spells for winning this game

Firion : Cure 12 Mini- 9 and Life 7
Again I took full advantage of the instant death spells in this game

Maria- Fire 12, Toad 8, Osmose 6, Berserk 11 and Haste 5


It really seemed that there was an abundance of undead creatures in this came so Fire and the Cure/Life combo came in handy (A LOT)

Overall I liked this game. It has a classic RPG feel to it and once you get past the stat system it is a fairly enjoyable game

Sorry for the absence

Well its been a few since my last post. Sorry been busy with school writing unit plans and subbing. Damn you St. Rose grad school. Well about my progress in FF2. Forgot why I hated the advancement system till I started playing it again. It just seems so tedious. But it does make sense that your skills advance the more you use them.

SO as for my alignments.

I am Making Firion sort of a sword wielding white mage.
Maria is my powerhouse black mage (bitches)
and Gus I am just making an all out Axe wielding fighter (may add some spells down the line??)

As for story progress I just freed the slaves from summit falls and recieved the mythril

Chaos went down like a bitch on to game 2

So I went straight through and beat Final Fantasy 1 tonight and let me say time loops always boggle my mind. For those who have not played the game I wont spoil it but for those who have, you know what I mean when referring to FF1. Now less I forget I have to reflect on Tiamat. Well this dragon put up a fight. I had to make a few trips through the dungeons (3 to be exact, 2 treasure runs then boss time) Tiamat himself was simple once I employed some simple boss strategy. Boost up my fighters with the black wizard while the white wizard brings up the defense stats. I took Tiamat down in 5 turns with me team being at Level 29.

On to the last dungeon and the god damn time loop. Now not only did the upper levels have some of the hardest monsters in the game but then once you got to basements is where the fun started. You see in all their infinite wisdom Square decided to have you fight all the major bosses AGAIN. Each with some weakness missing and some upgrades (Lich with FLARE FTS). Well that is expect for Tiamat. It seemed they turned him into a damn pussy. All of his strongest attacks where gone and he just hit you with a bunch of elemental spells. Strategies for these bosses was a little different this time around. I had to rely more on items that cast spells to save my higher magic for Tiamat and Chaos.
So I get to the bottom take on Chaos and I use the same strategy I used for Tiamat one to defeat the games final boss. Only difference finished him with the Black Wizard's Flare spell.
Then I got to take in the ending with a nice classic THE END screen which many of the Final Fantasy's have incorporated.

Final Team
Knight Lv 31
Master Lv 31
Black Wizard Lv 31
White Wizard Lv 31

3 Fiends down 1 to go

Well since the last time I blogged I have gotten the class upgrade, saved the fairy, gone to the waterfall cavern for the warp cube, looted the top floor of the sunken cavern for the Rosetta Stone, and finally had a challenging fiend battle.

Ah the Kraken. Let's just say I love the memo file function and magic casting items. So I go into this battle with my Lv 25 team and right off the bat the damned squid takes out my healer. So without a defense to back up this hard hitter I had to restart. Kraken take 2. So the squid didn't kill my White Wizard and thats all he wrote. The white wiz cast Invis2 and Shd2. While that was going I had my Knight and Master use the Giant Gloves and the black wizard to cast haste and Bolt 3. Kraken was finished in about 8 turns. Now its on to Lufenia for the Bell so I can get into the Mirage Tower.


Knight lv 25
Master Lv 25
White Wizard Lv 25
Black Mage Lv 25

Lich and Marilith

After beating Marilith I realized I forgot to blog about Lich. Not much to say about him really. I went in with my heroes all at Level 15 and easily wiped him out in a few turns. It helped with him having a weakness to the fire and light spells.

Now Marilith and Mt. Gulg is another story, well maybe just Mt. Gulg really. So Mt. Gulg took me two runs. In the first run I went through my entire potion supply getting all the treasures on the second basement level. Then I realized I forgot to get Cure 3, so I had to trek all the way back to Melmond and come back to Mt. Gulg. Back in Mt. Gulg I made my way down to the lowest floor and took on Marilith, again going through my entire supply of 99 Potions. God I hate lava tiles which take away your health, which by the way there is no way around them.

Marilith was actually quite simple. I just used some simple startgey, NulFire, Shield2, Haste and Steel on all my fighters, and she went down in about 6 turns.
Now its time to get my Airship, a staple of the Final Fantasy genre.

Current Levels:
Warrior Lv 19
Monk Lv 19
Black Mage Lv 19
White Mage Lv 19

Somethings just great about the classics

I don't know what it is about these classic games but there is just something great in their simplicity. It seems to me that the dungeons themselves are more challenging than the boss. I used up nearly all my magic on my way to the vampire "mini-boss". And I mean mini. I saved my black mage's Fire 3 spell and wiped that sorry sucker in one shot. At least I was stocked with a good potion stock for the trek back. Well after NCIS its back to the Terra Cave to take on Lich

Astos another sub-par boss

Now I am at that point in FF1 where i get the Mystic Key so I go down into the Marsh Cave retrieve the crown then I head a little north a present it to the fake king a.k.a Astos. Eh.. again not as hard as I remembered him. All my guys were at LV10 and I really haven't been doing any extra leveling up. Just really going with the flow. All I did was have my Black Mage cast some Haste and Steel spells on my Warrior and Monk and Astos was history. I guess I can consider some of this luck attributing to his Reaper spell missing. Well now its off to retrieve the locked treasures with my new key. Then go see the dwarves, and off to Melmond for Terra Cave and the first crystal.
and lets not forget the first real boss of the game Lich

Status Update
Warrior LV10
Monk LV10
White Mage LV 10
Black Mage LV10

What I am doing

So in a bored state yesterday (November 10) I decided to start something. I have been a Final Fantasy buff for what it seems as ages now. I played my first game in the saga on the good old NES back when the series started and haven't look back. Now I have collected every game in the numerical series (excluding XI) and decided to challenge myself in beating them all before January 1st 2010. I know this sounds nearly impossible so it might change to a new date if I see the task undo able( grad school does come first after all). I will start with the first game in the saga and go on to beat the games in numerical order. Each day I will reflect on my progress, state my characters levels, jobs (if necessary) and area or dungeon I have left off at for the day.

Yesterday I started late so not much progress but:
FF1 Left off at Elfheim
Warrior Lv 5
Monk Lv 5
White Mage Lv5
Black Mage Lv5

Game starts off just as I remember it, (although some new features, I have to play the Origins version, lost my original NES one) Just some great memories going through beating Garland again.

Day 2 status to come later