Thursday, November 5, 2015

TEXT PLAY: Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest (Square, SNES, 1992): Issue #014: o/~ Forrest Alive! o/~


You know, for a place called Alive Forrest, there are an awful lot of undead monsters here. In fact, every enemy encounter here is with Mummies, SPECTREs, er, make that Specters, which are stronger versions of the Ghosts from the Volcano and Lava Dome, or some combination thereof.

The good news is that Ben and Tristam can kick some serious ass here, thanks in part to the Aero spell we found in Focus Tower with Reuben an issue or two ago. Two somewhat interesting things about this area are the “secret area” trees that are accessed by way of the game's warp-tile-and-crest system and the fact that we have to do it twice to finish it, not counting the time we have to come back with the third warp crest to get a special item we can't just yet. The first two, which can be accessed with the Libra and Gemini crests are ammo for either the bombs or Tristam's throwing stars and Refreshers, respectively. There's also another special item that we can get right now, from a red chest that's just out in the open. It's the top-level ax, called the Giant's Axe. It's a nice upgrade, but as far as weapons go, we're just about done using axes for that. Once we're done with this area and the next, I don't think there are any more instances when we'll really need it for anything.

Once all that's taken care of, the party comes to a giant tree with what looks like a face on it. Ben asks it if it's the king of the area, but gets no response. Tristam suggests going to Aquaria to get Kaile, because I guess she's there now. I'm sure there's a reason for that, but what that reason is, I don't quite remember. Probably something to do with rescuing her dad, Captain Mac. Kaile's resting up in Phoebe's house, with Phoebe herself watching over Kaile. Phoebe says Kaile still needs to rest up a bit, so we should go talk to her grandpa in the tunnel.

Grandpa says he can't finish digging all the way to where Captain Mac is because if he could, there'd be fewer steps to finishing this game. Not in so many words, of course, but that's the gist of it. Then he sees Tristam, and since these two seem to know each other, too, they decide to just fuck off in search of some nifty armor or something. Before he leaves again, Tristam gives us the Dragon Claw, which is the thing he horked from the Bone Dungeon back at the beginning of the game. The Dragon Claw can inflict pretty much every status effect in the game, and also acts a lot like the Hook Shot from Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past. That's going to come in handy from here on out.

Once Gramps and Tristam have gone, Phoebe comes in and sets off a bomb that collapses the chamber closest to where Captain Mac's ship was because herpy derpy derp derp, I guess. That area is now inaccessible, which means if there was anything in there I needed to get, I can't now. I think I did get everything I needed to, though, so no worries. She then runs the hell off to where she'll be our last partner in the game, to help with the final battle.

But this is one of two areas I can think of at present that are off limits now, the other being the Rope Bridge. We can only do that once, kind of like some areas in the Famicom version of Final Fantasy II. It's an interesting bit of trivia, but there's really nothing notable beyond that to say of it.

Back in Phoebe's house, we can talk to Kaile now, who just up and joins Ben, simply because she's well all of a sudden and can come talk to the big tree in Alive Forrest now. It's really no big deal getting through there the second time, because Kaile's at level 31 and has the Aero spell, too.

Where I'll leave off here is in front of the big tree, just before Kaile talks to it to find out what the deal is. We'll pick up there next time, so until next time, stay safe, have fun, keep gaming, and DFTBA!

No comments:

Post a Comment