Let's Play FF1!

Originally posted by: SpoonyGundam
Your HP seems a lot more consistent than what I had the last time I played it. My black belt and red mage had less than half the HP of my other two members throughout the entire game, and it kind of pissed me off. Was the original less random with HP gains? It's been so long since I've played it that I can't really remember.

My THIEF had slightly more HP for a couple levels, but now it's about even. If I had a FIGHTER or a Bl.BELT they would have more HP though, and a Bl.MAGE would have a lot less.

Originally posted by: eirikr
Do it! Flaunt your Final Fantasy ePenis proudly!

Dude what do you think this thread is even about?

Originally posted by: Hargrada
I'd be interested in what a FF1 "pro" thinks of that particular encounter and what strategies they would use (is he as hard as everyone makes him out to be).

WarMECH is pretty crazy, totally the hardest fight in the game. We'll just have to wait and see!

Originally posted by: Sven
I'm amazed I haven't heard a "if you want extra gold, press B 55 times on the ship!" tip yet, frankly. Brickroad, you're the most miserly FF player I've ever encountered.

Suxor. =(

Yeah, I did forget to showcase that "trick" didn't I? You get something like 100 GOLD for completing it. Dawn of Souls, of course, gives you way more.

People have played lowball games where the 15-slider puzzle was the primary way of gaining GOLD without gaining EXP, I shit you not. Can you imagine solving the puzzle 40 times to be able to afford a Silver Sword?

Originally posted by: PapillonReel
"The Birds"

When I was a kid it looked more like a severed claw with wings. I kind of like my mental image better.

Originally posted by: Ample Vigour
The Cockatrice transition between posts was genius, Brickroad. This stuff is a light in the darkness of finals week.

Well, I am a genius. Thanks!

Onwards to adventure!


On the other side of the world is Crescent Lake, home of the Circle of Sages and L6 magic. L6 magic is so far in my future I couldn't even see it with a crystal ball, but this here sage is so impressed that I toppled LICH he gives me a CANOE.


Isn't it cute?

I'm supposed to take this CANOE and follow the river north through some mountains over to Gurgu Volcano to take on the FIEND of fire, but for the first time in the adventure I have more than one option open to me. Gurgu Volcano is far away, and is a really long dungeon with no good treasure in it, and the boss is really hard. So instead of heading there, I'm going to head for a shorter, easier dungeon with wuss bosses and a big pile of great loot. Take that, game!


With the CANOE I can now dock my SHIP at the mouths of rivers as well as at brick ports, enabling me to reach the Castle of Ordeal far away on the north continent. Note the castle is surrounded by swamp and forest. The nearest spot of plain grass is about four screens away, and the intervening territory is full of pretty strong monsters; that's where I'd have to land if I came to the castle by AIRSHIP. The river, on the other hand, dumps me right at the front door. This is the perfect spot to TENT up.


It's never clearly explained what the CROWN has to do with this particular castle, and it's not possible to reach this place without the CROWN already lounging around in your inventory, so I've always just considered this NPC to be some kind of elaborate glitch and not a real part of the game.


CROWN conspiracy or no, though, this dungeon is pretty crazy. As a for-instance, the vast majority of it takes place under the cushions of this giant couch.


After climbing into the couch we are deposited into a maze of pillars. Stepping into a pillar warps you to another part of the maze. The trick to getting through quickly is to always take the bottom-most pillar, when given the choice.


The Zeus Gauntlet is the first spellcasting item. When used in battle it casts LIT2 for free! This is going to sit in SKUB's inventory and replace his hammer as his default means of attack, meaning finally he will no longer be a waste of space.


Here it is in action!

Learning which spellcasting items exist, and what they do, is an extremely important skill to learn. Most solo games simply wouldn't be possible without them! Of course, unless you're equipping the item in question it's going to eat up a slot on either your weapon or armor screen, so you can't simply dump all your magic items on one person and let them be a jack-of-all-trades. This is another area where Dawn of Souls is much easier than the original: your entire party has complete access to all of your magic items at all times, without having to unequip any of their gear to get to them.

I'll be pointing out all the important items as we go, and what they do, and what I'll use them for (or what they'd be used for if I had a need for them).


See? Brickroad keeps his promises. The very next treasure box has the second magic item, the Heal Staff. Using this in battle invokes the HEAL spell, which is about the equivalent of casting CURE on everyone. I'm going to give this to SKUB too and have him wave it around whenever people are low on HP. Combining a dedicated Heal Staff user (and really, what else is a Wh.MAGE good for?) with the rank-swapping strategy I keep advocating makes it possible for you to survive literally forever in dungeons. People have been able to farm multiple WarMECHs by doing this.

(What's a WarMECH, you ask? Ho ho ho, now we're getting ahead of ourselves. Ahem.)

Other treasures in the castle include a Gold Bracelet and an Ice Sword, both of which I will make good use of. The Ice Sword is the first weapon that is stronger than the Silver Sword, so if I'd spent a bunch of time around Elfland farming GOLD to buy Silver Swords, I'd now be replacing one. Incidentially, THIEFs can't use the Silver or Ice Swords, or anything better; the Dragon Sword ADAM has now will have to last him until his promotion.


More undead bosses! Undead bosses are fantastic because they have two weaknesses I can exploit, and this party in particular has three characters who can exploit them. They're also the only bosses a Wh.MAGE can fight in his solo game without requiring the "double RUSE + infinite patience" strategy.


The ZombieDs appear on a spiked square, so I can pop them as much as I like. Much like the MUMMYs back at ASTOS's crib these guys are worth a ton of EXP and GOLD for virtually zero effort. Sticking around fighting ZombieDs until my FIR2 and HRM2 charges are gone earns me L12 and puts me over halfway to L13 besides.


The TAIL is the treasure of Castle Ordeal. Later on I'll have the option of trading this to BAHAMUT for promotions.

By the way, this is as good a time as any to ask... do you guys want me to go ahead with promotions? The difference is basically finishing the game with a team of chubby kids vs. finishing the game with a team of skinny grown-ups. Either way's all good with me.


Now that SKUB is L12 he can start casting L5 magic. L5 white magic is probably the only spot in the game where, if it were possible to teach someone all four spells, I would do it. All of these spells are very cool. The problem with that of course is that they compete with each other for charges. I don't need HEL2 yet because I just got my Heal Staff, HRM2 is fine for the undead I've got coming up, and CUR3 isn't necessary yet especially considering I have two other CURE-casters and a huge pile of potions. LIFE is another situational spell; when you need it you really really need it, but quite possibly you never will.


The next dungeon on my "I don't wanna go to the volcano!" checklist is the Ice Cave, which in some ways is the Marsh Cave on crack. It's full of annoying monsters, but instead of Poisoning you these ones have instant death attacks. Swarms of 8-9 COCTRICEs are not uncommon in here, and they're not even the worst of it. Unlike the Marsh Cave though I am well enough equipped that I can get in, take my treasure and get the hell out in one trip.


Behold the SORCERER, big brother to the ZOIDBERG. So far we've seen monsters that Poison with a touch, Stun with a touch or Stone with a touch; SORCERERs flat out kill you. No damage, no bullshit, just a one-touch death. Even though I'm only up against one SORCERER here, you'd better believe I am going to RUN like the dickens rather than face off with him.


Even that isn't enough though; the bastard manages to grope BOSS before we can get away. But lo! Here is UST #2! And this isn't something another character could have done, either; before the class change the only class that can cast LIFE are Wh.MAGEs. SKUB bringing BOSS back to life here helps keep BOSS from missing out on a bunch of EXP and makes it that much more likely we'll see daylight again safely.


...well, for all the fat lot of good it did us. These MAGEs surprised me and raped me sideways by chain-casting RUB and LIT3. I might have been able to sneak by with two RUBbed characters, but LIT3 deals upwards of 230 damage to unprotected characters like mine. At least our corpses will be well-preserved.

Next: ?rewoP taerg evah uoy oD

<< prev | next >>