Let's Play FF1!

Seems to be some confusion as to how ProRings work. They only protect you against unclassed death attacks; RUB, XXXX, BlueZOID's added effect, that sort of thing. For elemental death attacks (like BANE, QAKE and CRACK) you need to have a Ribbon. Either way, like Sven said, attacks still have a shot at getting through, something like 1/256. There is no such thing as perfect immunity in FF1, as BERT the Bl.BELT found out the hard way when he was farming EYEs.

This is even true for the FIENDs. You could theoretically RUB out the final boss if you wanted to invest all your resources in pounding out that last dungeon just for a 1/256 crapshoot, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Originally posted by: Alex Scott
Question: has anyone here ever encountered a T REX? They're quite possibly the only monster I have never encountered in any version of FFI (excluding the ones added for Dawn of Souls, o'course). Brickroad, if you encounter one, I demand a screenshot, simply as proof they exist.

I can't remember ever seeing one in the NES version, but I've seen them in the PSX and GBA versions. It's one of the three rarest monsters in the game (along with the IronGOL and the WarMECH). Difference is, you encounter it on the overworld rather than in a dungeon, and in the endgame you don't spend a lot of time on the overworld.

Originally posted by: PapillonReel
someone compiled a list of every party configuration possible, all of which you can vote on in terms of usability. Thought it was worth the mention.

That list is missing some parties, like FIGHTER/(dead)/(dead)/(dead) (ie: a FIGHTER solo). I would definitely rank some of the easier solos as better overall than some of the hardest full teams.

Originally posted by: Beat
HI MY NAME IS BRAK

Well played sir! But in case anyone's wondering, BRAK is the FF1 version of Break, which Stones a target.

Originally posted by: Stiv
This is making me want to try a solo run of FF1, even though I've got like 4000 other games on my plate right now. What's the best character for that, a Red Mage?

FIGHTER, hands down. It's by far the easiest solo game.

Adventure to onward!


You cats have like a mega-hardon for NINJAs, so I'll go ahead and get promoted. First of all, if all it takes to prove to BAHAMUT that you'rE deserving of high honor is a rat TAIL, I should think I could have found one in, say, the Coneria Castle cellar rather than having to fight through a labyrinth of magical pillars.

Secondly, let it not be said of the King of Dragons that fool ain't ready for hurricane season. There are like seventy candles on screen here, and the throne room stretches south for like two more screens. Have you ever actually tried lighting that many candles? It takes dedication.


Class change, baby! You won't hear me complaining. Here's a quick breakdown of what all new stuff I get.

My RedWizs now have access to several spells they didn't before: RUSE, LIFE and WARP among them. In addition, they'll now be able to learn magic spells L6 and higher, something puny RedMAGEs can never hope to do. That's, uh, it actually. That's the dark secret of RedWizs; they kinda suck. Jacks of all trades, masters of none, the RedMAGE is awesome early in the game when he can swing a sword well and cast both kinds of magic, but towards endgame their equipment selection and spell charges are both lagging behind. They can't learn L8 magic at all, and they get L6 and L7 magic so prohibitively late as to be almost useless.

SKUB the Wh.Wiz can now learn L8 magic (once he gets the charges, anyway) and a few sub-L8 spells he couldn't get before -- most notably EXIT. That's pretty much it, and it'd be the same story for a Bl.Wiz if I had one in my group.

ADAM gets by far the greatest buff out of everyone; NINJAs can use virtually any weapon and can learn black magic up to L4. In other words he can equip some of the game's best weapons and then FAST himself. He can also start equipping heavy helmets and shields, making him my best front-line choice.

I don't have any FIGHTERs, but if I did they'd be promoted to KNIGHTs, gain the ability to equip some more gear (most notably Xcalbur) and cast L1-3 white magic.

I don't have any Bl.BELTs either, but their promotion into MASTERs is inconsequential since they gain absolutely nothing. I think his stat gains actually decrease after promotion, but really, who cares about boring things like stat gains when everyone else is getting new equipment and new magic?


The first thing I'm going to do, of course, is give ADAM the best of my three swords, now that he can equip it. EDIT will only have to make do with the weakling Dragon Sword until the next dungeon, so don't pity him too much.


Near the OASIS on the northwest continent is this river that leads up to the town of Onrac. CANOEing past Onrac will take me to the Waterfall, my next destination. River creatures are notorious for being stronger than typical land creatures; you can see the hurt these GATORs put on ADAM before I made handbags out of them and took L14 for my troubles. BOSS is behind everyone in EXP thanks to that Ice Cave mishap, but some NITEMAREs early in the Waterfall bring her up to speed.


Here's the Waterfall, possibly the easiest dungeon in the game. Even the Temple of the Fiends carries the risk of throwing a big gaggle of GrWOLFs at you before GARLAND, you know.


The Waterfall is only one floor, but it's kind of wind-y and maze-y. There is only one single treasure room, inside which is this robot. He's actually a renegade from the FLOATING CASTLE, a dungeon I'll need this CUBE to enter later.


The treasures here are pretty wonderful. Among them is the Defense Sword, one of the most useful weapons you can find in the game. Not only is it more powerful than anything else I have at the moment (note that it pushes ADAM's HIT up over 64%, meaning he's now capable of 3 Hits), but it casts RUSE when used in combat. Every single solo game relies on RUSE for protection from the bosses in the latter half of the game, and even if you're not going to equip the thing it's not a bad idea to leave it sit in your party leader's inventory so they can add that extra line of protection in the rough fights.


We also find our first Ribbon, the best piece of headgear in the game. Equipping the Ribbon makes you resistant (but not immune) to most status effects and elemental attacks. In other words, if I'd had this back in the Ice Cave I could have had one person survive those relentless LIT3s.


The same treasure room nets me the Wizard Staff, a spellcasting item that uses CONF. CONF is L4 black magic that attempts to confuse enemies, and if it were a useful effect I would have bought the spell back in Elfland. Instead I'm going to sell this thing for fat lewt. Speaking of fat lewt, there's nearly 30000 in raw GOLD in these boxes at well. Looting the Waterfall is mandatory (because you need the CUBE) but even if it weren't I'd come out here as soon as possible for all this great stuff.


Hey, did you know my CANOE was a magical CANOE that can be rowed up waterfalls!? There's nothing up here except for a mountain lake, but when I was a kid this whole thing blew my mind. Once I tried this out, I just had to see what other weird things I could do with vehicles, which is how I learned how you could land on the OASIS and even save your game aboard the AIRSHIP by using a TENT. Hooray for fun useless information!


Back in Onrac I meet up with this lady who has invented a submarine. She won't let you take it down to the Sea Shrine unless you can breathe underwater, but I took care of that OXYALE subquest before even setting foot in town. I'm not actually ready to fight the Water FIEND yet, but the Sea Shrine is full of great treasure that I simply can't pass up.


First up is the Mage Staff, which casts FIR2 when used in battle. I'm going to pass this off to SKUB, giving him his choice of FIR2 or LIT2 as far as free magic goes.


Only FIGHTERs and KNIGHTs can equip the Light Axe, but anyone can swing it for a free HARM effect. This goes in ADAM's inventory, so now everyone has an option against undead; almost no undead party in the game can stand up to a full assault of Light Axe/FIR2/FIR2/HRM2. Actually in another level ADAM will be able to use his first charge of L3 magic, but that's just one shot and the Light Axe lasts forever.

There's another Light Axe even deeper in the Sea Shrine (not subjected to the duplicate chest rule we learned in the Marsh Cave for some reason), but I'm going to turn around and head upstairs now where all the really good treasure is!


The top floor of the Sea Shrine has no monsters, a simply ridonkulous amount of treasure, and best of all, mermaids! I'm biased because I'm just a sucker for mermaids, but if I weren't already on a quest to kill some FIENDs I would totally be on one now after being asked politely by bright young women, sick of swimmin', ready to staaaaand.

Also note: mermaids are topless, pixel-boobs all hangin' out everywhere. Square was pushing the envelope back before Rockstar was even a gleam in some depraved vehicular manslaughter fetishist's eye.


The floor is laid out with a series of rooms in a 4x4 grid, but to get to the northeast room you have to go to the northwest and walk along this bizarre looping pathway. It's not clear who, exactly, built the Sea Shrine, but its architect managed to twist it through the fifth dimension. You have got to respect that kind of craftsmanship.


Ta daa! This is the goal of this excursion into the Sea Shrine. Unlike the Ice Cave, which is designed to force the player to fight through half of the dungeon twice and is a thousand miles from anywhere, the Sea Shrine seems to have been designed to be as player-friendly as possible. Take the up-stairs and you arrive at fabulous treasure, take the down-stairs and you're pointing towards the boss. Even better, town is literally just outside in case you have to make a quick retreat or the unthinkable happens and you have to reload.


The first thing you'll notice is that INN prices skyrocket in some of these late-game towns. It's 300 here in Onrac and a whopping 500 over in Gaia. The second thing you'll notice is that even this monumentally egregious price-gouging won't make a dent in my wallet, which is actually big enough by now I can climb inside it and take a nap.

So what's a young band of newly-promoted LIGHT WARRIORs to do with one-hundred twenty-three thousand GOLD? That's right -- shopping spree!


I somehow missed getting a screenshot, but everyone attained L15 back in the Sea Shrine which means now my RedWizs can cast L5 magic. This means a trip back to Melmond, which is convenient because good ol' Dr. Unne here is the only cat in the world who (with the help of my SLAB) can teach me the long-lost language of Lefeinish. Without this knowledge nobody in the town of Lefein would be able to communicate with me.

By the way, in DoS the SLAB is called the Rosetta Stone, which is one of the few name changes I actually approve of.

Everyone gets a full stock of L5 magic: FIR3, LIFE and BANE for my RedWizs, HEL2 and HRM3 for SKUB. In the end I decided to skip CUR3; with the Heal Staff + rank swapping strategy and all these shots of CURE I haven't actually used a HEAL potion since very late in the Ice Cave. HEL2 is always a good choice because, due to another of FF1's fortuitous programming errors, the spell acts like HEL3 when used in battle, finally giving SKUB a worthwhile in-combat emergency healing option. HRM3 isn't strictly necessary now that I've got three FIR2 users in the group and a Light Axe besides, but there are some powerful undead in the next few dungeons and it won't hurt to be able to take them out quickly. (FIR3 serves this same purpose.)


I'm also going to finally buy some L2 magic: ALIT for all my white magic casters. This protects me from LIT magic, which is good news for the three members of my group who are un-Ribboned.

"But Brick, you keep bitching about MAGEs and LIT3! Shouldn't you have gotten this before?" Well sure, except ALIT won't protect you against RUB or SORCERERs or COCTRICEs or any of the othe crazy shit in that dungeon. Believe it or not, even if he had the opportunity SKUB's better option in those fights would have been to RUN rather than cast ALIT.


Finally, I head back to Gaia to pick up my ProRings. I already have a screenshot of that, so instead here's one of the Gaia weapon shop. For sale, a dagger that is a totally decent weapon for Bl.Wizs. It's roughly comparable to the Flame Sword in terms of DAMAGE and HIT. Since Bl.Wizs can cast FAST (which doubles their HIT) and SABR (which increases their DAMAGE and is stackable) this gives them the capability to deal some real damage even without magic.

Wouldn't it have been nice to have a Wh.Wiz equivalent of this weapon? Sorry SKUB!

Next: Lu....pa....?

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