Thursday, July 18, 2019

Final Fantasy Adventure, Part 4 - Castles of Sand

 Julius...is living large.


Another reference to the ancient, technology-rich Vandole Empire. I've done some research on what the deal is with Vandole. Turns out that in the Adventures of Mana remake of this game, they go a bit more in-depth on this. Julius, as "the last survivor of the Vandole Empire", is in fact the reincarnation of the Emperor (or potentially the Emperor's son, it's never made completely clear).

So if this takes place after Secret of Mana, Julius might actually be the Emperor from that game, reincarnated. Interesting stuff, too bad it's never really embellished upon.

Elsewhere, my chocobo is now outfitted with mecha-legs due to the injuries he suffered. When did that happen? And is he basically Ziggy from Xenosaga now?

My God. Boco Haram is stronger than ever.

The cool thing about Chocobot is that he can run on water now. In addition to having entire future religions based around him, he's a big help in traveling. I can now reach pretty much the entire overworld. Our next stop is an island cave, where I must fight...

...Lich, of Final Fantasy 1. Not quite Dark Lich but still a formidable foe, easily the toughest fight yet. He kills our hero in two hits, which means...yeah, my earlier grind-fest has finally leveled (heh) out and I'm encountering issues again.

He kills me around TEN TIMES.

His skull-lob attack just does a huge amount of damage. I could go grind out more levels, but instead I keep at it.

Some very cool animations on this fight, too. Probably the most interesting boss up to this point. When I finally squeaked past him it was a minor miracle.

Victory gets you the best attack spell in the entire game. Wow. I fought that guy a lot earlier than I was supposed to, which explains the power spike...

Here's the fight when I replayed it in the Switch collection. Properly leveled, it isn't too bad.

I barely, BARELY escape the seaside cave. Let's never go here again.

This is definitely a Squaresoft series trope, the emperor/dictator/whatever summoning monsters in to do their dirty work. It happens all the way up to the recent Final Fantasy XV.

It didn't take long for Marilith to show up after Lich. Here she is with her original translated name of Kary. Are Kraken and Tiamat on the way too?

After spending most of my money on Flame equipment, it's already hitting me with new/better stuff. When games rapidly hit you with new shop upgrade sets like this I start to wonder if I'm better off skipping every other set. Seiken Densetsu 3 and Secret of Mana do the same thing.

Speaking of which, I wonder when I should start referring to SD3 as its new NXT name, Trials of Mana.

There's also a ridiculously-overpriced spear upgrade here. Luckily, the opals that enemies have been dropping sell for a ton.

Our next destination is the snow fields of Lorimar (though they aren't called that yet). On the way we see CRAB PEOPLE. CRAAAAAB PEOPLE.

Unfortunately, these snowlands don't have "A Wish" from Secret of Mana.

WALRUS PEOPLE. The Devil's hands have been busy.

The real question is...what's Kary/Marilith doing in the snow lands? I guess she isn't really a fire elemental in Square canon, FF1 aside.

DUUUUCK PEOPLE. Alright, I'll stop that.

Finally, I reach the top of the mountain.

Kary is another very difficult fight, like Lich. This one also took a few tries.

Here's the actual fight. Once I realized the path to victory was swinging the whip at Kary's head, it was all over.

I've got a choice of three doors now. WHAT'S IN THE DOOOOORS?

Behind door #1 is a vicious boss, Ifrit.

It rolls into a ball to crash around the screen and attack, which is a very Secret of Mana move.

It's a lot easier than the last couple of fights, and victory gets me the Rusty Sword. This eventually becomes the Sword of Mana. In the meantime it's just collecting dust in the inventory.

Next up, Dime Tower, probably the most memorable dungeon from this game.

The way forward begins with this inconspicuous hole in the desert.

It leads to a cave, which leads to some ancient ruins, which leads to...

...the Mantis Ant? My God! The Mantis Ant!

This is a pleasant surprise. It's a fairly simple fight.

It's got the same name and everything. Awesome.

Here's the fight in the Switch version.

Here's Dime Tower. It's...kinda boring-looking. It's the first of two towers that comprise most of the finale of FFA.

Behold, our next challenge is Kraken. We're 3 out of 4 on FF1 fiends now! Will Tiamat make an appearance? Time will tell.

This is a very basic Game Boy boss fight. The Kraken doesn't really move or do anything, attacking only with a tentacle. It's mostly a test of your magic power since you're best off slinging spells.

In the Adventures of Mana remake, it's a more intense battle, with Kraken right there attacking the bridge. That's one angry squid.

Much like Paladin's Quest, in the second-to-last dungeon our hero finds an ancient robot that speaks in all caps. DR. BOWOW sounds like a refugee from Tecmo Secret of the Stars.

Well, that's depressing. No word on if the robot grew a beard and got a job at a construction site.

...it's a Terminator Genisys reference.


You're a little behind the times bro, Secret of Mana already ended a while ago.

Continuing on with my Tetujin accomplice.

::Merry points at the sky:: "The eagles! The eagles are coming!"

This is a very Link's Awakening sort of fight, except you can't fall off the tower.

...so basically this post has been 90% references to other things. Well, so it goes sometimes.

Win the fight and the eagle SHATTERS INTO PIECES. ...or at least that's how it looks on the limited Game Boy hardware.

Nobody...tosses a dwarf

The tower is crumbling, and Marcie stays behind on it. Man, even the robots have to die in FFA.


NO

WHY IS THIS GAME SO DEPRESSING

Our hero jumps down the cliff and ends up near Glaive. How many times has this happened now? This time the waterfall is flowing in reverse...

...allowing our hero to zip up to...

...the Tower of Gemma. This is where the Rusty Sword will be repaired, I believe, and might be the end of the game. We'll see. More on this later.


1 comment:

  1. Robo-Chocobo, what a terrifying thought.

    We're already in the Trials of Mana era, drink it in, man.

    I like how expressive the boss faces are.

    MARCIE NOOOO

    ReplyDelete