Final Fantasy III (DS)

First time in Europe

Continued with the third game in the series and as the only version released in Europe was the DS version there was no other choice. The game begins with Luneth (the main character) falling into a cave where he is guided by one of the four crystals. He returns to the surface and the village of Ur where the village elder wish him luck on his journey out unto the world since he have nothing that binds him to the town since he was an orphan that was cared for by the elder. Trying to say goodbye to his friend Arc that tries to stand on his own legs, Arc runs away to the neighbouring town that have been rumoured turned into a ghost town. The town have been cursed by a djinni and one of the ghosts are the airship captain Cid that allows you to use his ship to get to the djinni's cave. The ship already have a passanger in Refia, the blacksmith's apprentice. All three travels to the castle to look for a mithril ring that is said to banish the djinni that belongs to Princess Sarah. Arriving you found the knight Ingus that follow you to the cave and finding Sarah you battle the djinni and returning everything back to normal.

First boss of the game

After that you return to the crystal and gets what is the most important gameplay mechanic, the jobs. Each crystal you save will give you a set number of jobs that you can use to get different abilities or let you use different equipment. First is the classic classes from the original Final Fantasy: Warrior, Thief, Black Mage, Red Mage, White Mage and Monk. So I began with a classic setup that they even show in the intro movie, Warrior, Black Mage, White Mage and Red Mage. Also due to knowing what I need. For one, the magic in this game have secondary function outside of battle. Mini and Toad affects how you play due to shrinking your character or turning you into a frog to pass certain areas in the game. It's like Golden Sun in that magic affects the world around you. Unfortunately it's only used like 3-4 times. It also have the problem that mini causes normal attacks being worthless so you have to rely on magic... actually forcing your character to use jobs with magic. And due to not being any restorative items for magic (with exception of Elixir, but you want that at the end of the game so don't use it), magic need to be rationed. Golden Sun improved that idea by locking the characters in monster free areas for puzzles and the ability to regain psynergy points by moving around making it impossible to lose or restart a dungeon. Sad they never used the ideas of mini and toad spells.

Where is Golden Sun 4?

So after rescuing everyone the four set of out into the world trying to find the other crystals and help people they meet. Escorting Cid home to his wife in Caanan you learn of Daesh, a man that left his girlfriend while climbing a mountain and having amnesia. Climbing the mountain gets you caught my Bahamut that takes you to it's nest and you need to escape. Daesh joins you as you travel to the gnomish village and later the village of Vikings where you get a ship. Back to Caanan Cid tells you of king Argus that can help you turn the ship into an airship. He's gone so instead go to the village of Dwarves get to the Fire Crystal, but a whirlpool blocks the way out of the inner sea so you climb the tower of the ancients where Daesh remember who he is and sacrifices himself to stop the tower engine to blow up and casting the continent to the world (since it is revealed that it is a floating continent above the real world). The whirlpool disappears and you can get to the fire crystal and get more jobs. Like the scholar which you need since you arrive to a town under attack from the soldiers of the king Argus that kidnapped you and took you to the ancient fairy tree where you learn the king was betrayed by his advisor. He shift what his weakness is so you got to use the sage that have a free Libra move so you can see what it is. And as stated, magic need to be saved up. Defeating him lets you get the airship running and you can leave the island and at the same time learn from Cid that you all came from the world below right before it was covered in darkness. So first order of business is to undo that so you travel to a ship to get the priestess Aria to join you. You now can reach the water crystal where Kraken attacks and kills Aria as she saves Luneth so you kill him and get a set of new jobs. 

I don't know about the viking job

Now you get some boots to get to a gold manor to get the key to get back your airship back. Which quickly gets blown up at the kingdom of Saronia where there is a civil war enacted by the king to train the army. Well, of course he is brainwashed by his advisor so as you protect the prince you defeat the advisor, but not before the king dies so the prince is now the king. You now get a super quick ship called the Nautilus that allows you to reach Doga's Manor, one of the apprentices to the great sage Noah. Doga got the gift of magic, Unei the gift of the dreams while Xande got the gift of mortality. So he is the bad guy. Doga enchants your ship to travel underwater to get a lute to awaken Unei so you can get another airship, the Invincible which allows you to reach areas beyond mountains. Where you gather the last of four fangs you found during the adventure that is the key to open the four barriers that block the way to the crystal tower where Xande lives. Doga and Unei also sacrifices their mortal bodies to give you the keys you need in order to enter the tower as well as reach Eureka, the place where you can get the best magic and equipment. Which you need. 

Get used to your characters dying

To tell the truth I got all the way to the crystal tower with level 40 something and I got my ass kicked. So I got my old save where I was level 61 and did the dungeons I missed the last time I played when the game was released. I missed Bahamut's Lair, the treasure cave and the Saronia Catacombs, missing the most powerful summons (that I instead bought in Eureka). And with that I used two ninjas, one sage and one devout to get through the crystal tower, finding a mirror that locked me in place until Doga got the people I saved during my journey. Sarah, Cid, Daesh (who survived the engine room), the prince and one of the four old men you saved in a sewer. They help you so you can fight of Xande. Killing him reveals the true enemy, the Cloud of Darkness that intends to drag the world into the void. The Cloud kills you, but you are resurrected by Doga and Unei sacrificing (?) their souls. Entering the Void you fight four bosses releasing the four warriors of Darkness that saved the world a millenia ago when it was about to be destroyed by Light. With their help you now are able to fight of the Cloud and with that restore the world. Returning your friends and then traveling home (Ingus the only one getting the girl in Princess Sarah). The End!

Evil Woman (by ELO or Black Sabbath, both songs are ok)

Is that really the whole game? No, being on the DS it have some forced social aspects. You can use moogles to send letter to 5 NPC's and friends. If you send something like 7-10 letters you can get more letters from the NPC's letting you get access to a secret blacksmith and secret dungeon. No such luck for unsocial me, and now it's even harder since the server is down so you got to use local multiplayer... in Sweden... on a DS... great luck with that. So I'm actually looking into getting another copy of this and Dragon Quest IX to actually get everything... if I only knew where my DS Lite is. So back to the game as is. It's enjoyable but hard, especially with the forced 10 hours grind I had to do to finish the game (which I know by looking at my 35 hours finished file and the 20 hours save I used). It has nice mechanics with the job where you are expected to use different jobs in certain situations, but I ask myself why they even bother enforcing a couple of battles before the job is adjusted. Well, it's probably realistic, but the gameplay is hindered. For example I for some reason used Luneth as a thief in the new save racking up some rather high levels on that job, but you need that job to unlock doors until you get a third through the game and can buy keys. But the old save I've spent 0 levels on thief on any character meaning I walked by that. And the reason is probably I didn't use that class and never got that I could do it. Meaning thief, black mage, white mage and red mage at start and then shift red mage to monk and later scholar and then back to monk since the thief and monk are powerhouses in damage department (especially since the monk get claws well into the end of the game). Also the last jobs Ninja and Black Belt are great throwbacks to the original game. Which gives me inspiration for when I run through the first game on the PSOne and skipping fighter.

Anyway, you should have the ability to change without distraction since it discourage change in your jobs to see what situation they class fits. So you're gonna stick with the first classes that have the most potential since they reach level 70 before the end or even the max of 99 increasing effectiveness in attacks and such. Except when you have to, like the dragoons, dark knight, scholar and different magic users when using mini, but you don't get them much higher than 10 (or if you grind 25 according to my saves). The grind in the end is hard though and I believe maybe the sidequest would elevate it, but that would be for a different time. Otherwise grinding occured two other times for me. The first before the djinn cave since the first time through I got killed of by a griffin getting the wight sword... after 20 minutes of the game... and without saving. So I started over and grinded the character for a couple of levels. And then before the temple of Time, but after getting killed of a couple of times I went of doing some sidequest and dicovered the ones I missed the first time around. I'm glad I skipped the 10 hour grind though, but I wonder what I should do if I ever get the second copy. And why not have a New Game + where you keep the job levels? At least reward me for finish the game.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S1E3 - Le Grand Oiseau D'Or

Mariko, the fisher girl

As the girls are trapped in the Condor Estaban does his signature move and calls forth the sun (I don't recall if they ever did that in season 2) and Zia is able to guide the plane to the kids can get away. On their way they head over the rice field (if they found it on the way to the castle or knew where it was I don't know, but I get they wanted to show Mendoza and the others they haven't abandoned them). Mendoza and his pals are digging around the airship while Ambrosius try to fix the ships engine while trying to get back his things that the lord confiscated as he was captured.

Flying the condor have the ethereal synthesiser sound from the original and now we get the kids harassing the lords forces so that Mendoza can spring all of them and run away in the forest. The kids have to leave them since they can't land and goes north I gather toward Mount Fuji and a shrine where the mirror shield is located. I assume it's one of the three sacred treasures of Japan. The kids fly against time since there is supposedly a ceremony that only happens once every year and it's next morning, but they arrive at nightfall and see the shrine is guarded. So they look for an alternate way in and find a fallen tree that they can bridge the river that surounds the shrine. And of course Estaban falls into the water as he's the last on it while being afraid of heights. And the episode ends on a cliff hanger.

At the same time Mendoza and Co runs through the forrest with the plan to join the portuguese ship, but as they are hunted by the lords forces Pedro gets an arrow in his arm. Ambrosius tells them to continue while he lures the troops away. I get that he believes he has the upper hand since he is trusted by the lord and Mendoza don't trust him so when he gives himself up to the hunters he says he have interesting information to give them, implying he will sell Mendozas plan to them so that he can fix his ship. Or at least I think that was going on.

And the documentary was a bit about the lord himself. Apparently he is a historical figure and it's pretty much something similar to Pizarro from the first season.

So far the series is definitely better than the second season. The music is on point. But it feels a bit formulaic in that each episode so far ends on a cliffhanger that within 5 seconds of the next episode is resolved. And then it feels like a subplot that have been present for the current episodes is that it was revealed that Zia also was a descendant of the people of Mu at the end of the second season so they reveal it to Tao that gets super happy about it, but he drones on and on about it. I don't know if I'm lucky that I can't understand it or if that is the reason why it nags on me.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - Season 3 - Episode 2 - Le Daimyo Shimazu

Always fun to see a familiar face

Second episode starts out with the children being attacked by the guardian of the orichalcum thing, but after he spotted their medalions he stopped and instead showed them where they could place them. This allowed the machine to fill with water, opening it and forming some kind of women of the water atop of it. I don't know what she said, but I gathered it had something to do with a mirror shield being the key... key to what I would assume another city of gold.

Then we see Gaspard training the lords troops in rifle combat and almost killing the lord. He's only saved by a peasant informing about the crashed airship at the rice field. The lord, Gaspard and militia arive and captures Ambrosius who is thrown in the same cell as Mendoza, Sancho and Pedro. Ambrosius is called to the lord that believes him to be a spy, but Ambrosius is able to sway him and that he would help in their war against their neighbours if he could get help in fixing his airship. When questioned by the three spaniards I believe he sold them out as spies in order to get rid of them. I'm not sure by the subtitles, but if that was the case I really hate him now. And I still don't know why he tries to find the cities of gold.

Meanwhile the fisher girl from earlier arrives to her grandfather that as I said was the guardian of the orichalcum machine. Apparently it's believed to be a gift from the god of the sea and will protect them from something. Volcanic eruption looming? Anyway they head back to the village to get the condor, spot the fisher boy as he have been drafted into the militia and then discovered by Gasparard. Estaban lead him onto a goose chase while the other boards the boat and after knocking Gaspard out Estaban joins them. At the condor Estaban tries to swim to it, but is caught in the seaweed and struggles to get out... even though he have always been carrying a knife? Zia and the fisher girl jumps in instead as the girl have been catching pearls in the water and know how to avoid the sea weed. And it's a wonderful sequence with synthesizer music. And we are only in episode 2, last season it wasn't until the middle of the season we got good at the music department.

As Zia and the girl enters the Condor the cockpit have a pocket of air, but as they are about to lift the machine locks it self down. The others look up and the clouds are blocking the sun and at the same time several sharks are swimming around the condor, trapping the kids in it. And that ends the episode. Wow. Does the condor know before that the sun is going to be obscured? It doesn't really make sense.

The documentary was of the Castle of the White Heron, I don't know it's real name since the subtiles called it Jim, but you know the one. The white castle that is iconic for japanese fortresses. 

You know, this one.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - Season 3 - Episode 1 - Kagoshima

Finally!!!

So since there doesn't appear to be an english version out yet, even though the french version been out for 2 years, a desperate man have to do what he have to do. He looks it up on Youtube and rely on the automatic translator that the site provides with extremely small knowledge of the french language. 

So it starts of with a small recap of the last episode of season two and it starts with Ambrosius loading his ship, but he has three companions in hoods that help him, One is a female I gather from the voice. They also seem to load Estabans father from the ship to the Olmec flying machine... I guess since it looks like Ambrosius leaves without him. 

Meanwhile the kids and Mendoza have reached Japan and are nearing I assume Kagoshima (due to the title). The condor takes over and try to land in a forest, but since it can't find a great spot to land give back control to Estaban that fly them towards a cliff before the sun gets down. After making camp an earthquake happens and the condor falls into the water. They are picked up by some kid fisherman and his sister that have to take them to the local lord. Arriving Mendoza spots a portuguese ship and gets an idea. He proclaim himself ambassador of Spain for the townspeople and occupy the local guard enough so that the kids can get away and then gets on the ship and uses some law for protection between Spain and Portugal, but the captain of the ship is none other than Gaspard who somehow survived the ordeal at Eldorado and ended up as a portugese weapons dealer. They don't explain how or what happened to Gomez. 

The kids leave town as an ash cloud hits the village and wander the forest until they find some sort of orichalcum orb at a spirit gate, guarded by some old man in a mask (I would assume its the fisher siblings grandfather they mentioned earlier in the episode) following them closely and then jumping out while Tao pushes some kind of button that activates the machine.

At the same time Ambrosius have reached Japan and Kagoshima, but he flew through the ash cloud that destroyed his engines so he crash landed in a rice field. I know that was what happened since volcanic ash clouds have that effect on machinery which the whole world learned when the Icelandic volcano erupted a couple years back.

And the documentary at the end talks briefly about Japan and the spirit gates.

I gotta say it's hard following what happens when I can't fully understand them, but at the moment I get the gist of everything having some understanding of the cultural and historical setting of Japan and some familiarity with certain elements like the crash explained above, but the intrigue between the japanese lords and what not is gonna be a problem.

Final Fantasy II (GBA)

The sequel

Just like Final Fantasy II I got this also on PSOne, but as stated, no TV and not available to me at the moment so let's play this. 

First enemy of the game, I'm f***ed!

So it begins when the Empire attack the kingdom of Flynn that forces Firion, Maria, Guy and Leon to escape their home. Maria and Leon is siblings and Guy is a "nature child" who was raised by animals while Firion is some kind of best friend I believe. After the intro attack Firion, Maria and Guy wakes up in the rebels hideout. Leon is missing. Firion & Co want to join the rebels, but princess Hilda says no, so you sneak into Flynn anyway. There you meet Scott, one of the princes of Kashuan at his deathbed as he protected everyone fleeing the castle during the attack. Returning to the rebels with Scott's ring you get aloud in and tasked with checking up on some mythril deposit in the north after talking with Josef from Salamand. With that you know have equipped the rebellion so they can fight back, but unfortunately news reach them that the Empire is finishing of the construction of the Dreadnought, a gigantic airship. 

I feel like playing Empire of Steel again

So you have to head to Kashuan to get the Sunfire to drop in the engine to blow it up. Scott's brother Gordon tries the same thing, but joins up with you at the castle. Returning the Dreadnought have captured princess Hilda riding on Cid's airship (Cid is a recurring character in every Final Fantasy game, often having something to do with airships). So a rescue operation is on the way. You rescue the princess and blow the ship up. But it wasn't the princess but a lamia disguising as Hilda. So off to the arena to rescue her. Meanwhile Minwu the white mage that saved you in the beginning have been missing in the search for the spell Ultima. Following in his footsteps you get eaten by the leviathan where you meet Ricard, the last of the Dragoons and together you climb a tower where Minwu uses his life force to break the lock on Ultima. You return, take back Flynn, but the Emperor summons a cyclone that wreck havoc on the rebels. Firion & Co awakens the last wyvern and storm right in fighting the Emperor at the top ending his evil reign. But it's not over since the Emperors Dark Knight have taken over. So you look for Cid who is dying of the wounds from the cyclone and hands you the airship so you can enter the Empires capital from the air. Battling to the top the Dark Knight is... Leon, but before you can do anything the Emperor returns from Hell and only with the sacrifice of Ricard does Firion and the others escape. Leon joins you and you know have to travel to Hell to fight the Emperor. 

And this one didn't come to the West?

You beat the Emperor and the End pretty much. The story is really good in my mind. Characters you meet during the adventure dies left and right. They incorporated a buzzword system so you could learn certain words and then ask them to get more information. So why is this regarded as one of the worst games in the Final Fantasy-series? Because they also implemented a new way to "level up" by removing it and focusing what you use is what you get. Including different spells and weapon types. Again they have refined it in the GBA game since I didn't grind anywhere. Although you have to go out of your way to use magic since MP hardly goes up due to being so limited at the start and then the spells doesn't get effective until something like level 5. And some enemies need to be attacked with magic. Doesn't help that originally it was also a thing that if one stat went up, another went down. Opposing stats that is so magic went up and strength down I believe. Also since it's so long between playthroughs I forget what spells are worth putting time and effort in. For example Haste, Berserk and Osmosis. All protection spells are worth it and I must put time in on Esuna since it never work that well for me. This is basically a reminder to when I get to the PSOne version where I can't save anywhere. I recall save scumming through the end portion of the game last time since I got hammered then, but this time no problem, which apparently is due to me not grinding for 5000 HP and 500 MP giving the magic defence and agility skills opportunity to raise to decent levels making the game much easier. And now I got the extra mode to play through.

I saw this a lot playing that mode

So I screwed up the leveling... again. Minwu and Scott hardly survived the first enemy and Josef didn't add much. Ricard was the only one that stood a chance and appropriate for the end game. So after reaching the town I gave up. So you are supposed to be the dead companions (plus Scott that looks like Gordon who was one of two companions two survive beyond the four main) and travel through another kind of Hell (or it might be heaven) to fight the Emperors "good side". For those that really liked those dead companions (and Ricard and Minwu are the best). This mode doesn't exist on the PSOne version so we will see if I ever finish it.

Overall I personally liked this game. I liked the "leveling up" system and it at least wasn't random like in Legend of Legacy that randomized the stat upgrade (game was made by the same people). The story might be cliched, but as proven time and time again, I can get down with it. And if you are gonna play one version this is probably the best due to the player friendly alterations they did for a modern audience. The music, while not abundant with tracks, is at least enjoyable. I especially like the boss theme. Now, if that is exclusive to the remakes I don't know.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn Premiere Edition

At least it was mint condition

So being a fan of the series I also got the other guide and went through to see if it was anything to have. And this was definitely better. just look at the number of pages, this one was 208 pages from start to finish while the first two game needed to share 224 pages. No, it definitely improved with more pages. Really, the first thing was the content page where I quickly can see where every town or dungeon is without problem. The other one only separated it in the different chapters it itself created, but if you don't know where Kolima or Lemuria is supposed to be it can be hard to find. Also a bit fun that they explain how you play the game in more detail here. And best of all there is an actual world map (which is only an enlarged map that came with the game itself, but it's more than what came with the other guide). 

Is something worse then? There is no item/equipment lists like the first guide and still no bestiary. I found at least one instance with some very weird sentence structuring. If it wasn't for the Points of No Return in the game it would be rather worthless. And I don't get why they printed in checkmarks on every box for objectives to complete in every area. Why not have it like the first guide with just empty boxes? And no class list?

Really, in modern times who needs guides like these when everything exists on the web? The only thing is to get the maps, and bestiaries and item lists. And these guides got one out of the three mentioned. I just got them because I'm a sucker for this series and still waits for the continuing story... or now just a remake for modern consoles. At least Crossbone Island is here this time.

Golden Sun & Golden Sun: The Lost Age Prima's Official Strategy Guide

I still love these games

So some time back I got the official strategy guide for the first two Golden Sun games and I thought, maybe read through it and see if it's any good? After all I played the game so much that I know it like the back of my hand. So lets start with the first game.

Best of the bunch!

So first problem reading through the book, there isn't any world map in the whole book. It's not much of a problem in the first game since it's pretty much linear, but it would have been nice for the bearings of where I am in the world. There is also a bit jarring "I" 2 times in the text around Tolbi. I expect that in Online Walkthroughs, but this? It feels a bit unprofessional. And then we have some information I actually miss, for example the whole optional dungeon Crossbone Island. Theres no guide for the different room puzzles, they don't mention the earth djinni Bane which is one of the most powerful ones. They mention it in the list of the djinn's at the start of the guide, but for some reason the stats on Bane and Zephyr isn't written down, which is weird. I also miss that they didn't stat Deadbeard who is one of the tougher bosses in the game. And also that one of the most important items is hidden there, the Cleric Ring which nullifies cursed equipment and is the only place in both games you can find it. Also I think the guide writer got confused on what ship you get to use later on since it is referring to Babi's ship as the one we use at the end of the second game, but that isn't true, it's Piers ship he got from Lemuria.

Thing's I didn't know was that Hsu was Feizi's brother. I don't know if the guide is correct, but it changes at least some of the dynamics and why she is worried. I don't think any people in Xian mentiones it either so how the guide knows that I wouldn't know. The guide also gives me easy checkable lists on what to get on the Tolbi fountain. It's also nice have the weakness of bosses handy and actually learn that some status effects have a possibility to work. And then it's the second game.

Intro music is better though in this one

Right of the bat I get a bad feeling since the first thing is they spell Ivan wrong as Iwan. Secondly is that they mistake Piers ship with Menardi's even though it's stated that Piers was found on it. Then we have the problem of the map when I'm supposed to sail all across the world and don't get any visual clues on how the world looks like. Which poses another problem and that is that the hidden items that exist in the shallow waters of the ocean isn't shown. The rusty weapons are listed at the weapon and armour section since you can bring it to the smith Sunshine, but items aren't since they aren't unique. Which leads to another problem that affects the guide for both games. There isn't any enemy compendium, so say, for example when you read about the Prophet's Hat and that it is a dread hound that have it... where is it? I know it's in Altmiller Cave in the first game and various locations like Gaia Rock in the second game, but it isn't mentioned at all in the guide. This is especially problematic when you think about the forgeable materials that you really need to grind for. They also missed the first bonus for transferring data from the first game and that was fighting the bandits from Vault again as you leave Madra. They missed the golden shoes and they aren't mentioned at all. There's also an inconsistent in how they write this guide since Tolbi fountain had every item in a box which you could tick of, but Lemuria Fountain you got them in the text mentioning what everything is. Why the inconsistency? 

What's good is the guide for the classes which I never bothered with since each normal element are powerful enough, but maybe I should try it with the guide by my side. I miss a bit of content though. Why no mention of the Dark Panther Method? That a djinni of opposite element increase the chance of an item drop. I don't expect them to outline the whole 100 % drop method, but that one is rather important. And the 3 x Select at the naming screen to name other three characters in the game and then the other code to name Felix, Jenna and Sheba at the first game? It's in the game and it's a fun code to use (if you want to since I never use it other than to look that I can do it). It's also nice to have a overview map of towns and dungeons, although it's kinda irritating that if a house is important, like the lord's different castles there ain't any map of the interior.

Really, you don't need this to finish the games and things that are useful like list of forgeable equipment, classes and such you can probably get on GameFAQ, and things that should have been here like Bestiaries and secret codes defintliy exist there since I printed it out ages ago. Had all of that been in these guides I would recommend it as a complement in case you want to 100 % or test different strategies to finish it faster or such, but it doesn't exist here.