{"id":58346,"date":"2025-01-20T00:01:09","date_gmt":"2025-01-20T05:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=58346"},"modified":"2025-01-19T20:17:17","modified_gmt":"2025-01-20T01:17:17","slug":"final-fantasy-1-part-002","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=58346","title":{"rendered":"Final Fantasy 1 (part 002)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Day Two of Final Fantasy 1 Pixel Remaster.<\/em> I spent a bit of time seeing if there was even a point in loading Roland MT-32 compatibility. However the Pixel Remasters are CD mixes, or at least CD-capable; so while any for any given piece of music there can be an honest argument about the best implementation, the PR versions are broadly the best version of every soundtrack for the first six games. I did, not too long ago, get MUNT working on my system for Sierra games. As those are some of the oldest, later games that used Roland emulation should work just fine. The secret is in the game’s startup, not the system. Once MUNT is installed correctly, I just have to have MUNT loaded. It’s the game itself that has to point to the right libraries for sound. But looping around to the beginning, there really isn’t a point to even trying, and so we move on with the next segment of our journey.<\/p>\n

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The guards recognize us as the Light Warriors, the mother and younger daughter both thank us for returning Evil<\/del> Princess Sarah, and the person with the blonde ponytail adds some information about “the lute:”<\/p>\n

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Upon leaving the castle, the same person shows up at the bridge and commands it to be rebuilt:<\/p>\n

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After a few scenes of animation and building noises, the guards assemble in front of Ponytail Person:<\/p>\n

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If we revisit the various townsfolk, we will learn four new things, now: NORTH of town, which must be across the bridge because we have visited every square inch of Cornelia Kingdom, is the Cave of Matoya. Also, Matoya can’t see a thing without her crystal eye. That second bit is just a random bit of trivia dropped by one villager. You might talk to them before you talk to the person who knows Matoya lives in a Cave NORTH of town; and that’s a pretty weird thing to just say suddenly. It’s like they’re being paid to do it. Maybe they are, as this is clearly being said only for our benefit. The third thing you learn is actually something you might have heard before the battle in the Chaos Shrine: one person once lived to the EAST (again, this must be after crossing the bridge) in the HARBOR town of Pravoka. They left because the town was OVERRUN BY PIRATES. Before the fight with Garland, this seems like such a shame; but nothing that has to do with YOU. NOW one other person in town has something new to say, “If you’re having trouble GETTING A SHIP, you could always BORROW ONE FROM A PIRATE.”<\/p>\n

Yes, we get the message. Cross the bridge, check the cave to the NORTH and see about Matoya, then travel EAST from there and find a new town where we can GET A SHIP.<\/p>\n

Also, the Dancing Girl, supposedly a source of mysterious hints, asks us why we haven’t crossed the bridge yet. Assignment earned, we cross the bridge and get the original Final Fantasy 1 start screen, as well as a message:<\/p>\n

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BUT FIRST, despite needing to buy NOTHING NEW, we have been advised maybe we should be level six before crossing a few screen widths to reach Matoya’s cave, and much like before, we’ll reach level seven. I spend about 30 – 40 minutes dipping into the Chaos Shrine to add some XP. Having reached 7, we run straight NORTH more-or-less and dive into Matoya’s cave. There are no random encounters here; there aren’t even “officially” any quests. You are given a little show of Matoya bumping into things and complaining about someone taking her eye, after which you can loot three chests for two potions and an antidote. There’s also a small word-puzzle just for fun:<\/p>\n

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If you talk to one of the several brooms operating on their own in the cave (a Sorcerer’s Apprentice<\/em> reference), the broom will say the above followed by Eno Ldna lecnaC. This is adapted from the original puzzle. Either one tells you the controller keys to load the World Map. This map will also “fill in” as you visit notable places. I can’t remember if the original manual identified the proper key-presses or not…the Pixel Remaster tells you when you first load the game. And obviously *now* you can just look it up online, for either version.<\/p>\n

We have to make our way almost back to the bridge before going EAST. The trip EAST and SOUTH is the longest trip we’ve made so far, and by the time we reach Provaka the team has leveled again, to 8. The only people out and about complain about how pirates have taken over the town. In the NORTHWEST corner of the town is a “gang” of pirates standing outside a building. We have been warned to be ready before talking to them, as it will automatically trigger a battle. We still have just about all the items we had previously purchased, but we don’t have the few thousand Gil we need to both purchase all available weapon and armor upgrades *and* the next second level spells. So, we go grinding again. Adding a level to 9 gives me enough gold to purchase a new sword, gloves, and armor for Fighter; a new weapon and gloves for Thief, and new gloves for both the Mages. White Mage adds the Invisible spell to heighten a character’s evasion even more, even though I haven’t used that spell at all. However, I’ve noticed the Protect spell doesn’t really do that much against the more powerful enemies, so it might get some use. I also pick up the Silence spell, even though that will only work on casters, which I haven’t run into yet. But better to be prepared. For the Black Mage I only pick up Blizzard for now. It’s the only near-definite spell available. Hopefully the Sleep spell will start being effective soon, as we’re seeing more large groups now.<\/p>\n

In fact, the pirates are ludicrously easy at this point, largely because the sleep spell takes most of them out. Most of them? Yes. Even though the main “pirate,” Bikke; is only flanked by “two” pirates, the actual fight that kicks off is NINE. The Sleep spell goes off first or second, I don’t remember which, but it hits Seven of Nine (drink). Another two rounds and there is only one pirate left, and only two ever got an attack in. It’s almost comical when we return to the overworld town screen and Bikke finds himself alone.<\/p>\n

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He then offers his ship to us. Free. Also, there are suddenly many people wandering around town. We learn:<\/p>\n

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  1. Elves live ACROSS THE SEA, but the ELF PRINCE has fallen asleep and cannot be awakened. Awoken. Awaked?<\/li>\n
  2. But they must not be TO THE NORTH because there are NO HARBORS IN THE NORTH. Don’cha know.<\/li>\n
  3. There are MANY MONSTERS in the Aldean Sea. Presumably the one we’re going to be in, and not some other see somewhere else.<\/li>\n
  4. One person came FROM THE CITY OF MELMOND, one of the cities we were told about in the Legends of Old. It is FAR TO THE WEST. The earth there is ROTTEN, and MONSTERS ATTACK IN THE NIGHT.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    That’s FOUR THINGS! Again! I didn’t even notice that before now. As we have purchased everything we need, as far as we tell at the moment, we are ready to move on. However, I have been informed in the metaverse that we should probably be level 15-ish before we move on. We are currently only level 10 or 11, or close to 11. The best I can remember, anyway. I got *very* lucky with random encounters on the way here, and only leveled as much as needed for the story. Unfortunately, it seems the next area is a big jump, although the sea itself offers a new challenge. So, the next step is to level up a bit via grinding, which I will do OFF SCREEN.<\/p>\n

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    I tried very hard to like the Belsavis planetary armor (which is also available under several other names, to be fair); but all I can see in most screens is a Cyanide & Happiness<\/a> face. It ruins it for me.<\/p>\n

    That’s it for now, see you next week!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Day Two of Final Fantasy 1 Pixel Remaster. I spent a bit of time seeing if there was even a point in loading Roland MT-32 compatibility. However the Pixel Remasters are CD mixes, or at least CD-capable; so while any for any given piece of music there can be an honest argument about the best […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[638],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-paige-writes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58346"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58371,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58346\/revisions\/58371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}