And not just the Text Play series.
I'd been meaning to get back to writing
these on a regular basis since the end of March and just haven't made
it happen. I've had a good deal of IRL stuff going on that I may
actually get to at some point, but that's going to have to go on the
back burner for a while longer now. I'm still going to try to finish
Final Fantasy 9 and Secret of Mana, too, but I need something to get
myself back into practice a bit first, and this turned out to be what
I thought was the best option, simply because I didn't want to do a
second or third playthrough of some of the other titles I've already
done and the other alternatives I'd tried to give myself just haven't
panned out quite as hoped.
This specific title is one I've been
meaning to get to for five or six years now, as well. I'd meant to
get to it sooner after I'd finished the original Final Fantasy game
that came on the same disk, as part of the Origins collection.
Basically, what this is is the very first sequel in the main series,
released only in Japan for the Famicom system back in 1988. This was
the second, obviously, of three games in the series released for the
Famicom, though the latter two didn't get global releases until much
more recently. I do believe this was the first global release of
this title, with a similar compilation coming out for the Game Boy
Advance in 2004 called Dawn of Souls, which came with a bonus dungeon
and some tweaks that might have been helpful in this version as well.
I won't say any more about those, though, since I've got the Origins
version, and that's what I'll need to deal with.
The story in this game is a good deal
more fleshed out than the one for the first game in the series. This
time around, our main heroes are Firion, Maria and Gus, who escape a
town being devistated by an army of seemingly invincible Black
Knights. In the opening cinematic that comes with the Origins
version, we see our main pary escaping said town with their friend
Leon. When Maria stumbles and falls, Leon knocks one of the knights
down with his sword while Firion, I'm assuming, hits another in the
eye and neck with throwing knives, giving Gus a chance to help Maria
up and get away. Both the Black Knights shrug it off like it's
nothing and just keep coming.
In the cutscene that most likely opened
the original game, the Black Knights continue their pursuit, managing
to surround the party in the process. When the party realizes
there's no way for them to escape, one of the knights tells them that
this is what they get for being from Fynn, the kingdom they were
invading, and they're going to wind up dead for it. There's no way
to win the fight that starts because the Black Knights are faster
than the party members and do substaintially more damage than they
can handle.
Some time later, we see a lady named
Hilda and a guy named Mindu, in this version, reviving Firion, saying
that at least they didn't lose him, Maria or Gus after finding them
bleeding out as they, too, escaped Fynn. Leon's nowhere to be found,
and will be out of the picture for quite a while, though we will
eventually reconnect with him. I'll say more about that when I get
there, which may be awhile yet.
In the meantime, we've got quite a bit
of game to get into here, so we may as well get started. When Firion
finally comes to a few minutes after Hilda and Mindu leave to discuss
strategy, he realizes he's all alone, calling out to his friends and
not getting a response, much as Cecil will eventually do in Final
Fantasy 4. Luckily for Firion, though, Maria and Gus are right out
in the hallway. They tell their friend and leader that Hilda and her
party rescued them, but Leon was nowhere to be found and nobody seems
to know where he is.
From there, they go see Hilda and ask
her if they can join the royal army and the rebellion against the
Empire. At first Hilda says no and tries to send them home because
she doesn't want more people wasting their lives in the war. All
things considered, I'm not sure why she'd be turning down help like
this, since one would think that any and all willing hands could only
help their cause. Anyway, once Maria explains that they've already
lost their homes and families, Hilda has a slight change of heart,
teaching the party the rebellion's password: Wild Rose. When they
use it on her, she tells the team that perhaps they'll be the ones
who can sneak back into Fynn and find out if there are any survivors
and get a message out somehow.
Once all this happens, the party is
free to move and speak to whomever they like. Mindu is the obvious
choice. He says that his fate is intertwined with that of the party,
but for now he won't be joining them. He's also happy that the
player is getting the hang of the game's keyword system, by which the
party can learn important words and phrases to use on certain
critical NPCs along the way.
Once we leave the rebel base, we learn
that we're in the town of Altair, which is, for so early in the game,
a nice hike from Fynn. Fortunately, there's a town called Gatrea
along the way so the party can at least use an inn and stock up on
weapons and armor if needed. The magic in this game works a lot like
it did in the original in that you have to buy scrolls with the
spells on them and then use them on whichever character you want to
have a specific spell. The only magic shop we can get to right now,
far as I can tell, is in Altair.
And I guess this is as good a place as
any to at least try to explain how what passes for a leveling system
works in this game. In the other games I've played in the series,
the characters would gain levels as they gained an ever-increasing
amount of experience points between levels, and their stats would
improve each time that point requirement was met. In this game,
however, in order for the characters to get stronger, they need to go
out and fight, use magic, and get beat up. For example, to get more
health, the characters need to keep getting the crap kicked out of
them. The same applies to defense and using shields. In order for
physical attacks to get stronger, they need to do physical attacks.
Magic is the same way; using magic powers up the stats related to
magic, and the spells get stronger each time they get used, too.
It's an interesting way of managing
stats, but also more than a little cheap sometimes, too, because it
can come back to bite you in the ass, especially if you're not
careful about it. If you have a character use too much magic, their
physical attacks suffer; the same is true of using too much physical
force, which can make magical power go down. It also seems like the
times when the monsters can do enough damage to the party members to
raise their health- and defense-related stats is extremely limited,
especially early in the game.
I was going to link to the Let's Play
of the game that AppleGodZMG did of the game several years ago now,
because he did a better job of explaining all that than I just did,
but it seems he took it down. Not gonna complain or comment much
further on the matter, simply because what's on other people's blogs
and/or channels really isn't my call. There's an “In A Nutshell”
animated parody of the game on YouTube as well, but I'll link to that
after I've actually finished a few of the missions in the game, just
so anyone reading can kind of understand where they're coming from.
Anyway, when I left off, I was grinding
up the gold to get the last of the magic I needed. I already had the
Cure spell, which I gave to Firion, who's stats make him best for
giving white magic to, and the Fire spell, which went to Maria, since
her stats are good for that. She'll also get the Ice and Lightning
magic once I have the money for that.
When I pick up again, I'll probably
already have the rest of my magic and will be going into Fynn to find
our contact there. Hopefully, I'll also have new issues for FF9 and
SoM up, too. I always do enjoy doing this, and it would probably
help me, mentally, at least, to get back to doing it more regularly
again.
Until next time, of course, stay safe,
have fun, keep gaming, and DFTBA.
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