The Ice Cave is a familiar location to
those of us who are long-time fans of the series. Ice caves played
major parts in the first two classic NES titles. I forget what,
exactly, was in the one from the very first Final Fantasy game. I'm
tempted to say it was the Float Stone that allowed the party to raise
the airship from the desert area of the game, but it's been long
enough since my Text Play of the game I can't quite remember. The
connection to the Ice Cave in Final Fantasy II will become more clear
as the game goes on, trust me. Although I have played the Origins
version of the second game in the series, the only thing I remember
for sure about that Ice Cave is that it's where either the first or
second plot-related death of a party member happens. I think this is
where Joseph winds up eating it to save the rest of the party from an
agent of the main villain of the game. It's been awhile, so I don't
remember for sure, or what the item was supposed to be in there.
Unless there's one in the fifth title in the series, I don't think
the Ice Cave shows up this directly again until this one here.
So, what happens in this one? Well,
for one thing, the fact that it's actually cold in this one factors
into the party's trip through here in a few ways, mostly in the form
of the cold wind that blows through the place. For the most part, it
causes drafts where a big, tusked, rather mammothlike creature shows
up in random battles and gives a hint about how it'll only show up if
the party tries to run through the wind. There are also a few places
in the walls, mostly, where Vivi's fire magic can melt holes to allow
access to a few chests. One has a new dagger for Zidane, others have
armor that everybody but Steiner can use, but you'll want to give
that to Zidane for now, too, because there's a boss fight coming up
and he'll need the extra defense for it.
One thing I think I forgot to mention
before is something about the limit breaks in this game. For as much
as I like about how they work in this installation, there are a
couple things I consider rather major flaws about it. I was reminded
of the biggest one going through here. It's that once that Trance
meter fills up, it can only be used for the remainder of the battle
where it actually happens. That actually kind of sucks, because of a
character hits their Trance just before the last monster in the fight
dies, that opportunity is gone for good. There's no carrying it over
to the next battle. For as overpowered as the actual abilities can
be, I suppose that's not such a bad thing, but it is an annoying one,
to be sure. In this case, it was Steiner's that I wound up losing,
which is OK, because the little monsters in here are not really ones
that need the whole “Crush, Kill, Destroy” treatment that he goes
for anyway, but it's still annoying.
Not too much beyond where that
happened, there's a fork in the road, where the left goes to a save
point, and the right goes to the boss fight. It's always a good idea
to take advantage of those things, because I've had just about every
major fight in this game I've been in go bad on me at some point,
even this one coming up. There's also a Mognet letter for the guy at
the save point in the next town, which I'll be saving for next time.
The right fork, with all the wind
coming out, doesn't have any of those mammoth things in it, but there
is the first of the four battles against the three Black Waltzes in
the game. The reason we wanted to give the equipment we found to
Zidane is because the cold wind along that path gets the better of
everyone else, and they all pass out, with only Zidane remaining
alert enough to do something, so he has to fight this one alone.
Thing is, though, I usually have
Zidane's Trance meter just about full by this point, and the boss
fight is almost always enough to finish it up. It's good because his
Dyne skills can kill off both Black Waltz Number One and the Sea Lion
it summons in one or two hits, which makes staying alive that much
easier. At the same time, it's just as bad because I know that both
the Sea Lion and the Waltz have at least one good item to steal each,
and it'll be awhile before we can get them again. I did manage to
get the Mythril Knife from the Sea Lion, but I wound up whacking the
Waltz before I could get his stuff, too. I'm OK with that, though,
because you've kinda gotta be clever to pull off getting all of that
without getting whooped yourself, and I always seem to have the worst
luck ever with trying to be that kind of clever.
On a personal note, I can relate to the
rest of the party in the cold here, as I've been almost that cold
myself a crazy number of times. The one I remember the most was one
of the last Christmases my family went to spend the holiday with my
mom's side of the family, so I was maybe fifteen or sixteen years old
at the time. We all lived in the same state, but they lived a fair
ways north of us all the same, which means that it can get a fair bit
colder than where I live. I know my dad and I, for sure, and maybe
even my little brother had decided to go see if anything was biting
through the ice on the local lakes up there. Just our luck, nothing
was. I do remember getting back to the hotel and running as hot a
bath as I could and just being in there until the water got cold and
still not warming up.
Anyway, the town coming up is called
Dali, I believe, and if memory serves, there's actually quite a bit
to do there, plotwise as well. On the way out of the cave, for
example, Garnet adopts the nickname Dagger, which she'll use the rest
of the game. From here, though, we'll pick up next time. See you
then, folks, and DFTBA!
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