A new quest

Well, after talking with a bunch of elves in the town and the castle I find out that the Elf Prince has fallen under a curse. Astos, the king of the Dark Elves stormed the castle, cursed the prince, and then stole all of the treasure. Heck of a security force, huh?

Everyone is sad because the prince was meant to be the next king and clearly the whole nation cannot continue without him. Instead of picking someone else to be king they have decided to languish and concede their nation to the dark elves.

A few hints as to what I need to do popped up:
No one knows where Astos has gone.
There is a witch who makes potions.
Someone came across a spooky castle, but was so scared that they ran off.

Well, sounds like I need to find the castle, beat Astos, and then find the eye so I can talk Matoya into making a potion for the prince. Sound like a plan?

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A voyage across the ocean

My shiny new ship.



Imagine my surprise when a shark jumped onto the deck and tried to bite us.



Then some crazy mermen type creatures tried to take us down.



Woo hoo! Level 6!



Into the land of the elves.



Hmmm, who could this be referring to?

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The Aftermath

After a few coup de grace's on his sleeping minions, Bikke's attitude changed fairly quickly.



bHaveBoat = True;



A reformed pirate.



"THEM"? I just don't get it, can't they mention who "they" are?

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Pirate Force...Assemble!

The dread pirate Bikke seemed to think he was pretty tough.



Of course, he wouldn't do anything for himself. Not when there are minions around.



And what kind of minions would they be if they didn't immediately jump to protect their fearless leader?



So they attack en masse, trying to overwhelm the valient heroes.



Hmmm, they must have just come back from a long voyage at sea because they were all very susceptible to Inky's sleep spell.

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Racketeering

We made the long trek to Pravoca (not Pravoka) after our ordeals in the Temple of Chaos. The people there seemed friendly enough. They just whined about the tough pirates that had taken up residence near the back of the town. The pirates were very disrepectful and just plain mean. Obviously something had to be done.

I went around to all of the shop owners, including the weapons shop, the armor shop, and both magic shops, and explained the situation. Basically I laid out the facts and gave my thoughts thusly:
1. The town was under seige by notorious pirates from the Aldean Sea
2. No one in town could force them out
3. I could easily do it if I had the right equipment
4. I didn't have the most up to date spells or weapons and armor

So what do we have? The shop owners have equipment and want the pirates gone. I want equipment and can get rid of the pirates. It seemed easy to me, that they should give the party giant discounts on stuff as a kind of payment for our good deeds.

Unbelievably I had no such luck convincing them. They kept going on and on about their "bottom line" followed up with praises and thanks to the "Light Warriors" who they were sure loved to "help people" out of the "goodness of their hearts".

What a racket. So we left town and left the pirates and started wandering around the woods to find enemies and take their money. Since the stuff we needed was so exhorbitantly over-priced we wandered around for a while, resting at the inn (again, no discount) when we needed to. We did get to level 5, which could only help with the pirates.

After a long time we finally had enough Gil to buy the spells and equipment we needed. So we went back to town, bought our supplies, readied ourselves, and waded into battle.

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Mystic Key?

After a nice sleep at the Cornelia Inn, the party decided to head out once again for the Temple of Chaos to pick up any treasure that happened to still be lying around. Some goblins and wolves took offense at our trespassing through their forest again, but we beat them into the ground again and took their gil.

While wandering around the Temple of Chaos we met some new enemies. Like Black Widows, Zombies, Skeletons, and a Ghoul. I did find some treasure, locked up in a few chests I found a Leather Cap, a Potion, and a Tent. Inky immediately slapped the Leather Cap on his head, using his pitiful defense and low hit points as an excuse to need it the most. Potions are always handy and tents are very expense, so picking up one of those was a nice find.

On our way to the next room with treasure (we hoped!) we ran into a couple of very strong groups of enemies. They were both huge and anchored by Warg Wolves, which were very tough and very strong. One group was very varried and included some normal wolves and two types of goblins. The other was just a bunch of wolves headed by a warg.

We were barely able to hack and cast our way past the second group. Inky's new cap didn't help much with the onslaught of the wolves. Luckily Pinky was there to cast a healing spell and we limped over to the next room, only to find it was locked! Locked with the Mystic Key. What the heck is the Mystic Key? I don't know. I can only assume that it is a key and that it is mystic. Possibly containing many mystical properties.

We hurried as fast as we could out of the temple and back to Corneria for a rest at the extremely comfortable, and cheap, inn. What a day!

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New Enemies Du Jour

I did get to fight some cool enemies. Like this horse. I'm sorry, Crazy Horse



Or this lizard. (who was actually really tough)



Here was an enemy I had been looking forward to seeing. An ogre! And then a gigas worm tagged along each time.



Lastly we saw a cobra. Luckily, no poison.



All of those enemies (and many more like them) added up to Level 4!

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In Matoya's Cave

Matoya isn't too happy at the moment.



Matoya's magic brooms speak in a mystic language! Can you figure it out?

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A bridge to a new land and a new adventure

The king decrees that the bridge be built quickly. Everyone has to work overtime. The workers seem a little put out.



I thought that maybe they wouldn't put this part of the game in the remake. But no, when you cross the bridge it goes to a "cut scene."



Words scroll for an eternity telling you nothing. Basically it tells you that the game is just beginning.



Just to prove to you that the game is really just beginning, they show you the title screen again.

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Saving Sarah

Garland seems surprised to see me.



The fight begins.



A little lightning helps the cause.


Sarah seems thankful enough to be saved. Thanks for letting us know your name and who you are. We had no clue what we were doing here.

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Could it be???

Could this be the key to actually playing every Final Fantasy game ever made? Doubtful, as it would mean buying a whole other system and who knows if the game with make it to the US, but it's interesting to think about.

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Movin' on up

So I played for a little bit tonight (maybe a few pictures tomorrow). (By the way, are there any types of pictures that are more or less interesting than others? Any kind that you haven't seen that you'd like to? I've only been playing for like an hour and a half, so I haven't seen a ton yet, but ideas are always welcome.)

I went in and defeated Garland very easily. And I was mistaken, the Temple of Fiends is now actually called the Temple of Chaos. Kind of a foreshadowing. (and if you've played and beat the game before, you know what I mean). I forgot to go back and clean out the Temple of its treasure chests, so I'll be doing that next. I did bring the princess back to her castle, for which everyone was very appreciative. The king was so glad that he built me a bridge. He couldn't spare a few dollars (or Gil) to buy me some sweet equipment, or let me into the armory, but he had the time and money to construct a bridge over a strait to the next continent. Oh, wait. This is a console role playing game, it's not supposed to make sense.

On a side note, if you find little inconsistancies in games like that funny, check this out:

The Grand List of Console Role Playing Game Cliches.

It's hilarious if you've spent any time playing any of these games.

Anyway, after the bridge was built we made a trek north to find some tougher enemies. The first one we found was a Wild Horse, and then a very tough Lizard. We hadn't stayed at the inn after fighting Garland so when we met up with four Wild Horses, we decided to make a break for it, after the Horses got in their preemptive strikes. First Blinky tried to run and didn't make it, then Clyde, with no success, Pinky was next, it was a no go. With hope running out Inky tried with one last gasp and succeeded. We were out of there. With only a few Goblins met along the way we high-tailed it to the inn for a well deserved rest.

Fully restocked with HP and MP we headed north for Matoya's Cave. Matoya is a blind witch that can only see when she has her crystal eye. The crystal, predictably, is missing. She has no clue where it might be, so we'll just have to look around a bit. On my way to her cave we ran into a few tough enemies. An Ogre and a Gigas Worm (??) tried to stop us twice, but both times we were able to beat them down. We ran across a cobra as well and were able to kill it before it had a chance to poison us.

Back to the inn for another rest, but not before gaining level 4! That is where I now stand. The plan next is to head back to the Temple and clean it of its items. Then head north and east to the next town which I believe is Provoka.

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Latest Picture Updates

Gaining another level (3).



Deadly purple Goblin Guard.



Sleepy Time


Can't wait for the fight against Garland.

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Level 3

I played for nearly an hour while listening to Monday Night Football in the background last night. I leveled up to level 3, now my guys are kickin' butts and takin' names...of goblins. I did finally meet up with a couple new enemies, some skeletons and some goblin guards (which are more powerful than goblins. eluded to by the fact that they are purple colored.) I will post some pictures later. I saved the game right in front of the Temple of Fiends on my way to fight Garland. I will probably do that tonight and of course have pictures for you.

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Compare

If you didn't see the links in Steve's comment you didn't see the comparison of the new graphcs to the old. Hopefully he doesn't mind me directly posting those pictures into the post here.

This first is the first thing you see playing the game. Sitting outside the first town. Compare with the last post.



Then we have a picture of deadly goblins. Compare this one with the second picture in this post.



It's kind of fun to see the differences. I think Steve is about right, the graphics seem to be nearly lifted from somewhere in the FF IV to VI range in time. Another clue to the fact that not much has changed is that the default party is still the same and the HPs of each character are the same as before, too.

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