The 24 Days of Final Fantasy III -- Forum Edition

Destina Faroda · December 20, 2006, 03:54:19 PM

Day Twenty

LOCATION: Phoenix Cave

PARTY MEMBERS: Edgar (Lv. 32 HP 1701 MP 307), Celes (Lv. 32 HP 1701 MP 316), Sabin (Lv. 33 HP 1832 MP 319), Gau (Lv. 33 HP 2260 MP 365)

ELAPSED TIME: 27:29

STEPS TAKEN: 64747

What a horrible day. Words can't describe it. That's why this report is short.

First. I tried my hand at the Veldt, but I couldn't get any new Rages, so I decided to head to Jidoor. I was finally able to buy Zoneseek, but when it came time to so the Relm scenario, the party got annhilated by two Dahlings. Dahlings who cast Cure 2 on you. Today was that bad!

I then went to the Opera house and fought the Dirt Dragon with a party of Setzer, Terra, Shadow and Mog. The boss was of medium difficulty and netted me lots of Magic Points.

After this, I went to the Phoenix Cave with the aforementioned party at the Save Point and the active party of Edgar, Celes, Sabin, and Gau. Once again, I had difficulty navigating the cave due to my capture device. Now I'm stuck because I decided to go for the Dragon Horn in the chest, but the Red Dragon has me pinned. Every time I reset he's right there. Celes can't Runic all his spells, and his constant Fire 2, Fire Ball, Flare Star, and Lvl 4 Flares are killing me. I don't have the Slam Dancer Rage, and Vanish/Doom is just too cheap too use. Don't worry, I'll figure it out. But will I be able to get all the characters and finish most of the sidequests tomorrow? Find out next report.

Toric · December 20, 2006, 10:50:39 PM

Playing through FF again, I'd forgotten about the Star-Wars reference.

During the three-party split as Locke, when you enter the secret passage from the mansion to rescue Celes, wear the soldier's uniform.
Celes: "You're a little short for a soldier."
Locke: "Oh yeah! I forgot I was wearing the uniform!"

Destina Faroda · December 21, 2006, 04:28:58 PM

Day Twenty One

LOCATION: Mt. Zozo

PARTY MEMBERS: Setzer (Lv. 31 HP 1597 MP 297), Mog (Lv. 31 HP 1590 MP 304), Strago (Lv. 31 HP 1982 MP 301), Relm (Lv. 31 HP 1588 MP 305)

ELAPSED TIME: 29:24

STEPS TAKEN: 69018

Today was a little more successful than yesterday, but not much.

I was able to beat the Red Dragon and finished the Phoenix Cave to talk to Locke. After this and the wonderful Phoenix/Rachel scene, it was off to Narshe with a newfound party of Terra, Locke, Shadow, and Mog (wih Moogle Charm), the now for junior members of my party. At Narshe I picked up the Ragnarok and the Cursed Shield, then went to fight the easy Snow Dragon. After this, I then fought Tritoch's ice prison and freed the poor Esper. Then I went down into the caves to fight Umaro, recruit him, then pick up the Terrato Esper. Yay!

After this, I decided it was time for me to pick up Relm from Jidoor. I kept the same party as after all, no one had gained experience. I equipped the Ragnarok on Locke and the Cursed Shield on an unlikely character -- Shadow. Why lower his stats further? Because he can equip the Memento Ring, and with that handy Ribbon I found earlier, he was immune to the effects of the Shield. I also de-equipped Mog's Moogle Charm, so that I could fight some random encounters and steal some items.

In Owzer's mansion, though, I actually picked up an item I never picked up before, a Relic Ring. I had known these existed, of course, since the Ghosts from the Phantom Train came equipped with them. But I never knew there was one in a chest until now.

After going through this mansion, I fought Cadarnook in a long battle. Despite doing it the "right" way I still accidentally hit the lady in the painting a few times. But I was victorious, and soon left with both Relm and Starlet. Quickly I took Relm over to the Fanatics Tower and got Strago. Since they were not both Level 31 they were automatically in my party, whereas the others (except Mog) had gained too much experience and were ineligible.

Once this was doone, I went to Mt. Zozo. Then I fought a long, long battle with the Storm Dragon. I was victorious, but it was very long.

Tomorrow it's Cyan, Gogo, the Ancient Castle, The Fanatics Tower, and a whole lot of playing!

Destina Faroda · December 22, 2006, 03:10:17 PM

Day Twenty Two

LOCATION: Fanatics Tower

PARTY MEMBERS: Terra (Lv. 32 HP 1702 MP 320), Celes (Lv. 32 HP 1701 MP 316), Relm (Lv. 32 HP 1689 MP 319), Shadow (Lv. 32 HP 1703 MP 345)

ELAPSED TIME: 32:19

STEPS TAKEN: 72019

Another awful day this was.

I talked to Cyan to get him into my party. I then decided to go get Gogo. En route, I encountered Doom Gaze, who left before I could damage him very much. However, I hope to fight him again so that I can get that Magicite.

Actually getting to Gogo proved to be an interesting experience for two reasons. One was the fact that Cyan performed a Desperation Attack. This is something that I have never actually seen in action as a result of me actually playing the game. This is probably because I don't tend to use the Fight command when HP is low. It was nice, but I don't think I'm going to change my style of play for this feature.

The other interesting experience repeatedly getting killed in that room where you have to avoid the dropping ceiling. It took me a whipping five tries to get past that section. To make matters worse, one time, I was off the actual tile that would have crushed me, but because the character was still walking and not "still," I got crushed! I did get to Gogo, though, and got him into the group, which means technically I filled all the requirements to take Kefka on two days from now, even though there are side quests that I would like to finish.

I also decided to storm the Fanatics Tower instead of the Ancient Castle. My party was made of the members listed above, Terra, Celes, Relm...and Shadow. I hadn't purposely leveled Shadow to be a mage, but he had the highest Magic stat out of all Usually, I can do this, but beccause I haven't fought as many battles as I normally do, and because I have, I had to turn back on the fourth screen. I distinctly remember from previous plays that L.90 Magic can cast Merton when she's by herself, and given that may characters are still around the 32 Level range, that's dicey even with magic boosting. I did fight the White Dragon, though, who was a pushover. I left the tower, then took a break.

Or at least, I intended it to be a break. Once again something came up to pull me away from the computer. Unfortunately, it looks as though tomorrow will be a barebones day, which will leave me severly underleveled and out of offensive weapons to take on Kefka's Tower.

Destina Faroda · December 23, 2006, 04:33:07 PM

Day Twenty Three

LOCATION: Ancient Castle

PARTY MEMBERS: Terra (Lv. 32 HP 1702 MP 320), Celes (Lv. 32 HP 1701 MP 316), Relm (Lv. 32 HP 1689 MP 319), Mog (Lv. 32 HP 1691 MP 317)

ELAPSED TIME: 32:52

STEPS TAKEN: 74051

Not much to say for today. I switched Mog for Shadow so I could climb the Fanatics Tower without random encounters and beat the Magi Master. Of course, foolish me, I forgot that I didn't have any non-elemental spells learned. So, how did I beat the boss without resorting to cheating? I cast Bserk on him. This way he wouldn't do his WallChange and I could pummel him with whatever elemental weakness that he happened to have. Relm cast Life 3 on everyone except Celes and as a result, everyone but her got 10 Magic Points when he pulled Ultima out of nowhere.

After this, I tried for five minutes and failed to look for Doom Gaze, so I decided to go the Ancient Castle, with the Moogle Charm. With fifteen minutes, I thought I had enough time to get Odin, beat the dragon and raid the treasures. I did the first and the last of those. I avoided the chest with the MasterPug, but I fought KatanaSoul, who was a bit rougher than I rememebered. Of course, it hit me that I had my equipment set up for a magical defense and not a physical defense, so this was another ten-minute long battle. But after this, I was out of time.

Destina Faroda · December 24, 2006, 04:22:38 PM

Day Twenty Four

LOCATION: Kefka's Tower

PARTY MEMBERS: Terra (Lv. 34 HP 1906 MP 348), Edgar (Lv. 36 HP 2122 MP 366), Setzer (Lv. 33 HP 1800 MP 324), Mog (Lv. 33 HP 2241 MP 331)

ELAPSED TIME: 37:08

STEPS TAKEN: 79318

Mission Failed.

Believe it or not, I played for a while today. A long while. I stomed Kefka's Tower and despite my worries the characters were not underleveled as I had suspected. They were actually able to take on the enemies, although I did skip the dragons for time concerns.

But I got lost.

In all my playthroughs, I have never gotten lost in Kefka's Tower. But here I was lost, for hours, all because I could not literally see the door to proceed.

If I had an hour or more of time to play, I'd be able to complete it. I finally got to fight Doom and Poltergeist. I only have Goddess and the Final Battle itself to go.

Well, I gave it my all. The end.

Aridas · December 24, 2006, 06:21:33 PM

Technically you didn't really play a regular 24 days anyway, because you played pretty close to the bare minimum (96 hours being a fairly more decent amount of playtime, and not that unreasonable for some people), so I think we could just say you've pretty much done it.

Destina Faroda · December 25, 2006, 09:56:46 PM

I usually beat the game in about 50-70 hours, but I know I could do it in less time, since a lot of the time-consuming sidequests (uncursing the Cursed Shield), I skipped. There are times in other playthroughs when I abuse cheap game mechanics, such as using healing items on the undead. While they weren't prohibited by the rules of the challenge, in the spirit of fairness I didn't think it would be right to do them.

96 hours is a bit excessive for Final Fantasy III, unless you're going for either a really low-level game (and need to spend hours and hours on the Veldt), or you're trying to get every single item.

Still, the bottom line I couldn't put nearly enough time into this. While I knew I'd have problems even before I started the challenge, things came up on my schedule that I had no clue about until the day prior to the event. This is completely my fault, though, as I had not planned for these contingencies. If I were to do this next year, my schedule would have to be completely different than it is now. Saturdays and Sundays -- days that most people use to unwind -- are monstrously busy days for me, even without the challenge.

Last year I promised I'd continue playing even though I had to drop out. However, soon after I made that promise, I got a new job that took up a lot of my time, then I got anoher job that took even more of my time. This time, I'm going to continue playing, simply to see if I could beat Kefka at the levels that I am now. If I can't, then it means I wasn't as close as I thought and I won't feel as badly for failing. If I can, then it means I just needed to shave off a minute here and a minute there.

Aridas · December 25, 2006, 10:45:17 PM

Well, you could also be going for a pretty high level game too >.>

After all, it doesn't take much to start slaughtering everything there with no mercy.

Netami · December 26, 2006, 01:45:44 AM

Commendable.

Destina Faroda · December 26, 2006, 01:47:12 PM

Well, I was able to beat the game after all. I would have needed about two hours extra instead of one, but I was able to beat Final Fantasy with the current levels that I had. Goddess was a little harder than I remembered, because I forgot she had that Overcast technique which Condemns your characters and revives them as zombies. Still, I expected her attacks to be far worse; Poltergeist's retailatory Fire 3 was far more dangerous than anything Goddess threw at me. But I beat Godess, and then went on to fight Kefka

Usually, by this point in the game, I had some non-elemental spells like Meteor, Flare, and of course, Ultima. In this play through, I obtained none of the three. I didn't even have access to Quake.

I simply pooled my equipment and put the best of it on the best characters (Terra, Celes, Edgar, and Relm), and sent them off as my main party, hoping that they wouldn't die. I made sure Celes had the Gem Box since of the mages, she was the least proficient (this made up for her lack of firepower). The battles before Kefka took a lot longer than I expected, partly because my strongest offensive weapon was Relm's Bolt 3. I did get to see Edgar's Desperation attack, though. However, the final third of the tier frustrated me because the healing part of the tier that I can usually kill in one Ultima kept rehealing itself wiith Pearl Wind. It was only when I went on the offensive that I could put it out of its misery, then attack the other part.

So finally, I got to Kefka in his two-winged angelic glory. One of the things I noticed was that Kefka seemed to be very toned down. Other than Fallen One and Hyperdrive, his attacks were absolutely pathetic. He used Train a few times, but given that I was casting spells at him and using Edgar's drill. I morphed, but it seemed I really didn't have to, as Kefka was dead fairly quickly. Even his Goner didn't hurt very much. I remember this battle being harder at a higher level.

Well, I beat the game with all my characters under level 40, which isn't a crowning achievement by any means but something I didn't think I could do. Too bad I didn't do it within the time limit.

Darkmoon · December 26, 2006, 05:27:47 PM

Ah, well... there's always next year.

Now, quick, do the 3 days of Chrono Trigger... or the 12 hours of Secret of Mana...

Destina Faroda · December 26, 2006, 11:41:19 PM

Haha...I'm more likely to do the 26 weeks of Ogre Battle. Although failing at this has made me less likely to attempt anything else in the future.

I'll upload the rest of the clips in the following days.

Darkmoon · December 26, 2006, 11:53:48 PM

Oh attempt. I once did the 8 hours of Chrono Trigger... It was just a test to see how fast I could beat the game, completing all the quests, on a fresh game.

Yes, I was able to do it in just about 8 hours... that was brutal.

Destina Faroda · December 30, 2006, 02:55:23 AM

The 24 Days of Final Fantasy III -- Forum Edition

Aridas

Aridas

Netami