More than ten, I'm sure, and maybe even
more than fifteen.
So, as our story starts out, our hero
Cecil is a Dark Knight from the Kingdom of Baron. He's in command of
Baron's Air Force, called the Red Wings, made up entirely of vehicles
called airships. The ships land outside the village of Mysidia,
where the Red Wings have been ordered to hork the Crystal of Water
from the mages who live there because the King of Baron wants the
power of having all four Elemental Crystals. After making quick work
of a few mages, the village elder hands over the crystal, and Cecil
and his men head back home.
On the way back, Cecil and his crew
start having second thoughts about what they're doing, brought on in
part by a sudden monster attack. After questioning the king and
Bagian, the head of palace security, on the matter, Cecil and his
friend Kain, a Dragoon, are sent off to a place called Mist to
deliver a mysterious package.
As I said in the teaser post, I could
go on from here and just say what happens next, but that's not the
point of this. So, what follows will be what I hope is a somewhat
humorous retelling of what happens as I start out through this game
for the umpteenth time.
To begin with, I had forgotten just how
long the opening exposition was in this game. The first twenty
minutes or so of this game is just setting up the basic premise of
the game, with very little real play time involved.
That's the thing about having played
this game so many times, though. I knew all of this, but I'd
forgotten just how long it really was. But by the time it's all
over, Cecil and Kain are off on the first quest of the game, to
deliver a package to the village of Mist.
This little trip is a perfect chance to
start taking advantage of a little glitch in the game. See, there's
this little trick that makes it possible to get more than one of a
weapon or shield. Just use the “item” command on the battle menu
to remove a character's weapon or shield, and either finish the
battle or run away. Once out of the battle, re-equip the weapon or
shield, and there'll be two of them equipped. Take them off,
re-equip one. Wash, rinse, and repeat as often as you like for
whatever reason you wish. There's the profit motive, but there's not
much need for extra gil in this game. Of course, the downside to all
of this is that both attack and defense can go way down as a result,
and the monsters can really get you if you're not careful.
But anyway, moving the plot along, the
trip through the cave to Mist is rather easy. A lot of imps and
needle rats, mostly. A few treasures, mostly cure potions. And the
first boss of the game, the Mist Dragon.
The Mist Dragon is a decent first boss
fight. Nothing too powerful, but no pushover, either. Once it falls
to Cecil and Kain, the duo heads off to the village of Mist to
deliver the package.
Funny thing about the package, now that
I think about it after playing the game repeatedly over the last
twenty years, is that the King never says who in Mist to give it to.
That should have been a clue that it was going to bust open and
release a monster that would burn the town.
On top of that, it turns out that the
Mist Dragon was a summoned monster, and killing it also killed the
person who summoned it. As the town burns, we see Rydia panicing
over her mother's dead body. Cecil and Kain try to take her out of
Mist to save her from the fire. She's scared, so she calls a Titan
on our heroes, which causes a quake that brings the mountains down on
them all.
A while later, Cecil wakes up and finds
that Kain is gone, and he's alone in a meadow with Rydia, which puts
them in Not What It Looks Like Theater. Cecil decides that it would
be best to try getting away from Baron for a while. A big factor in
that is that they're cut off from going back anyway.
So, from here, it's off to the desert
village of Kaipo. But for now, we're at a good place to break for
awhile. Hopefully, this won't be too big a break. Back to this in a
bit, and with any luck, I'll have a chance to work up a decent
schedule for all this.
See you soon, everyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment