Two more crystals to go, and the next is deep beneath the waves in the Sunken Shrine!
But what’s this? A choice of paths to go? It seems one way leads to topless mermaids while the other leads to a slobbering tentacle monster, and never the twain shall meet — doubtless much to some people’s disappointment.
Which way will the Warriors of Light go? I mean, obviously it’s both, but which way will they go first? Find out today, only on the Final Fantasy Marathon, and along the way we can have a nice chat about my leaky roof.
Freshly minted as full-on heroes after Bahamut’s ministrations, the powered-up Warriors of Light resume their quest to illuminate the four crystals and save the world from the Four Fiends.
But the path onwards isn’t terribly clear; some investigation is obviously required, beginning with a strange town on the northern continent that appears to play host to people who are very excited about having legs.
There really is no rest for a Warrior of Light, is there? “Go and bring me proof of courage,” says Bahamut, without any sort of indication of what the bloody hell he means.
Fortunately, some of this subordinates were a little more forthcoming with the information we needed, and so it was that we found ourselves standing outside the Citadel of Trials, ready to find that which would prove our courage once and for all.
All we knew was that it would take a form that we probably wouldn’t expect… and that there was an annoying teleporter puzzle between us and it!
The Warriors of Light are done Down South, so now it’s time to head Oop North. There’s just one problem: how to get there!
The northern continent has an alarming lack of places to dock a ship, so they’re clearly not expecting any visitors any time soon. And apparently canoeing across the ocean is out of the question, so what could the answer be?
Take to the skies, of course! After all, we have everything we need to do just that, right…?
In today’s episode of Final Fantasy, the Warriors of Light finally get back on track and delve into the fiery depths of Mt. Gulg.
Marilith, one of the Four Fiends, is waiting for them far beneath the surface, but first they have lots of exploring to do. And the floor is literally lava. It’s a good job they packed plenty of potions, but you’d think they’d have brought more sensible shoes for such an excursion.
Of course, before they even get to Marilith, they have to face one of their biggest challenges yet: the seemingly endless Big Rooms of Nothing!
After a bit of farting around getting lost, the Warriors of Light finally find themselves in front of their next dungeoneering challenge.
Okay, it’s the wrong dungeon, but they’re there now, so they might as well dive in and have a bit of an explore. What could possibly go wrong, after all?
Mindflayers, dear reader; mindflayers are what could possibly go wrong.
After last week’s unfortunate adventure in the Earthgift Shrine, the Warriors of Light do their best to get back on track.
However, it’s not quite that simple! Their next destination is concealed in the heart of a complicated labyrinth of rivers and streams… and it turns out that they perhaps weren’t even heading in the right direction in the first place.
Oh well. Those are the perils you sign up for when you take on a less linear RPG!
In today’s episode, the Warriors of Light score their first major victory over the Four Fiends and cleanse the Cavern of Earth once and for all.
The fact that this part of the game makes you seek out the advice of an inconveniently located sage then re-run a dungeon in a different context was something pretty distinctive at the time of original release; an audience of players more accustomed to linear “straight line to the finish” games may well have found themselves surprised and baffled when they discovered what was necessary in order for them to progress.
We now know that to be the nature of RPGs, of course; but someone had to define and codify the conventions we take for granted today, didn’t they?
Last time, the Warriors of Light decided to take a well-earned holiday in the town of Melmond, only to discover it was a right shithole.
It (apparently) wasn’t the fault of the people of Melmond, however; the nasty vampire who had taken up residence in the Cavern of Earth was supposedly to blame, because he was blocking the flow of earth energy from the crystal and making everything rot. And this made all the buildings fall down, supposedly.
Motivated entirely by altruism (well, maybe a bit of greed… treasures are shiny!), the Warriors of Light descend into the Cavern of Earth to try and deal with this undead terror once and for all…
In this sixth episode of the Final Fantasy Marathon, we take our legitimately gotten gains (courtesy of the Mystic Key) and take a trip to go and visit the dwarves.
Dwarves are another example of an aspect of Final Fantasy that was lifted from Dungeons & Dragons, though few can deny that the Japanese series puts its own unique twist on the dumpy delvers. Their catchphrase of “lali-ho!” (or variations thereof depending on who was on localisation duty at Squaresoft that week) became a recurring feature for a number of installments… and indeed at the time of writing the dwarves have most recently made a comeback in fanservice festival Final Fantasy XIV as part of the Shadowbringers expansion.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. I’ve got some Nitro Powder burning a hole in my pocket (quite literally) and I can’t think of anyone better equipped to make good use of it than a dwarf.
The best of overlooked and underappreciated computer and video games, from yesterday and today.
