This one was a while in coming, but
it's worth the wait.
Once we beat Bikke the Pirate and take
his ship, we're on our way to a place called Elfheim. En route, we
run into exactly the kind of sea creatures you'd expect to fight in a
game like this. Eyeball monsters, sea hags, privateers, that sort of
thing.
In the town of Elfheim, everybody's all
up in arms because Astos, king of the dark elves, has put a curse on
the ruling prince and horked the crown. Astos is hiding out in the
Western Keep. Tool up as best as possible, with new armor and lots
of antidotes and potions, and then go check out the castle. The
prince, as everybody's told you, is in a bad way. The only thing
that can cure him is a magic herb held by Matoya, who had the bad
eyes and needed her crystal to see.
Once that's taken care of, the way I
usually go after Astos and the Marsh Cave is to go to the Western
Keep first so that I can build up gold and levels and then go back to
Elfheim to stock up on healing items and tents. We'll be needing
those to get through the Marsh Cave. It's a pain in the ass to get
through it, but a necessary thing.
After stocking up, it's off to the
cave. The trip there is hard enough as it is because of all the
monsters that can inflict the poison status, which is part of what
makes this section especially so hard. And then there's actually
getting into the cave. On top of all the poisonous monsters, there
are undead monsters and the slime creatures that are notoriously hard
in these early Final Fantasy games. One does not simply beat them to
death with weapons, and sadly, magic is very limited, even on easy
mode, as I'm playing here.
This runthrough of the Marsh Cave was
easier than it has been in previous attempts. It could be that I've
got a better feel for these dungeons that I've been through it a few
times recently. Of course, I'm sure Apple's
Let's Play for County Line Gaming has helped with that some, too.
There's a lot of good treasure to be had in the Marsh Cave, and for
now, I'm leaving a good two thirds or three quarters of it behind,
simply because I don't have the levels or the resources to go for
them right now. Plus, I'll want to come back and level grind a
little bit once I get the class change taken care of. The items I
did get here were a broadsword and some steel armor for my fighter
and a cottage, which will restore full health and spell charges.
That cottage will come in handy in a bit.
The crown we're looking for is in a
well guarded chest. You'll know you've found the right room when you
see a chest with walls around three sides. That fourth side has a
group of Mindflayers that has to be fought before the chest can be
opened. Beat them and the crown is yours. Take it out and head back
to the Western Keep.
This is where the cottage came in
handy. I needed my health and magic refilled before I went after
Astos. Astos reveals his true form when you show up with the crown
and says he's going to kill you because he can become the true king
of the elves now that he's got the crown and Matoya's Crystal Eye
both in his posession. It wasn't a particularly hard fight, as far
as boss fights go. But Astos does have an instant-death attack
called Reaper. When he used it, the game hung up on me for a minute,
which makes me think I only made the problem worse when I tried to
fix the disk. We'll see what happens when I get the Ice 3 spell
later on, though. The worst part is that when the game started
going again, the attack killed off my Monk, which made getting back
to Elfheim a lot like the movie The
Grey, only I did eventually make it to town. Along the way, my
White Mage died, too, so when I got back, I had to revive both party
members before saving at the Inn. I also got Copper Armlets for my
mages and loaded up on Level 3 magic. For the white mage, I got Cure
2, Dia 2, and Heal 1. For the black mage, Fire 2, Bolt 2 and Bind.
But since we're a little more than
halfway through the chapter now, this is a good place to stop for
now. Next time, we'll be paying Matoya a second visit, getting the
Mystic Key to open a bunch of stuff, and doing exactly that. See you
next time, and hopefully also in Legend of Mana, folks.
Until then, have fun, stay safe, and
keep gaming!
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