The 24 Days of Final Fantasy III (December 2007 Edition)

[Destina Faroda]

Remember last year?  When I did tried my hand at this little challenge?  Well, I'm trying it again.  Maybe this time I'll succeed.

And so my quest begins to accomplish even the most mediocre of goals begins...yet again.

Day One

LOCATION: Figaro Castle

PARTY MEMBERS:  Terra (Lv. 5 HP 94/94 MP 17/34)

ELAPSED TIME:  00:33

STEPS TAKEN: 713

GP: 5829

There's really not much to write for today.  Since Saturdays are a horrendous day for me, I can only get 45 minutes of playing time in at maximum.  As a result, I decided not to try and get too much done today.

So I started the game, and went through the whole storming of Narshe in Magitek armor.  I didn't immediately change the settings, though, so as always I made quite a few errors during the first few minutes of the game.  There were not big errors like getting my characters killed, but little things like healing the same character twice and other inefficiencies.  I did decide to use the save point and actually let the instructions I knew by heart display on the screen.  I also fiddled with some of the settings, and I initially changed the color to a Christmas green.  I changed my mind after changing the color, though, and kept the normal background.

So after I saved and had a couple more random encounters, I faced the Whelk.  I did mess up on the timing of the Whelk once again.  I remember years ago when I could do this part in my sleep, and this time my fingers fumbled to epic proportions.  Still, I was able to defeat it with no problem, then sped as fast as I could through the scenes to name Terra.  After a few random encounters in those Narshe caverns, it's more story sequences, and Locke's introduction.

I went through the whole protect Terra sequence next, and this time I did two things differently.  First, I stripped Mog of his equipment and gave the Mythril Shield to Locke.  Second, instead of plugging up the paths that led to Terra with my three parties, I sent Locke's party down to face the Marshal' unit alone.  That's supposed to be better than letting the enemy come to you, or so I thought.

Only that didn't quite work, as I not only still messed up and faced a couple of the mobile units with Locke, I also took on the boss and got creamed.  In part, it was because I was greedy and I wanted that Mythril Knife (which I stole).  But I stupidly got rid of the Lobos first, and the Marshal hit my party with Charge over and over again.

So then, after the other two groups dealt with the remaining troops, I then tried to see if my 1 HP Locke party could last long enough to manage even one steal.  It didn't, so I used the Mog-less group of Moogles to kill the Marshal and proceed.

After that, it was out of Narshe and to Figaro Castle.  I dilly-dallied in random encounters on the way.  Then I saved and turned it off with 00:30 showing on the game clock (even though I had been playing for over 32 minutes).

Then I turned off the game.

Then I realized that since that even though I had played for over 30 minutes today, I couldn't remember if the game time actually began at one or zero, so I decided to play an extra minute or two to bump up my time for today.  (Note, Rule #1 says that I have to play a half-hour each day, but that doesn't mean I can't take it in chunks before writing).  So I went through the first part of the Figaro Castle story, meeting Edgar, talking to the Matron, then leaving the castle to save.

Don't worry, this won't be like last year.  I will play somewhat more tomorrow.

[Toric]

I remember this. Good luck, I'll be rooting for ya.

[Destina Faroda]

Thanks for the support.

Day Two

LOCATION: Outside Returner's Base

PARTY MEMBERS: Edgar (Lv. 10 HP 157/222), Sabin (Lv 11. 148/259), Terra (Lv. 9 HP 125/186 MP 0/61), Locke (Lv. 9 HP 109/194)

ELAPSED TIME: 1:24

STEPS TAKEN: 4215

GP: 6352

Well, I didn't get as far as I planned.  In comparison to last year, I'm a day ahead (which just shows how bad I was last year), but in reality, I'm right about the same point I was before in terms of gameplay time.

So today I went through the whole sequence where Figaro did its submerging into the desert, and went through the story sequences.  I decided not to trigger that lengthy "she uses magic" cutscene and defeated the M-TekArmors with the Autocrossbow.  I went through the cave without taking any of the treasure.

In South Figaro, I fiddled around a little, but despite talking to people even though I'd talked to them in previous playthroughs, I didn't trigger the conversation with Shadow.  I'm not avoiding him entirely in this game, but I was hoping to wait until Sabin's section to meet him.

Instead I made some bad purchases with the little money I had.  I bought two pair of Sprint Shoes, a True Knight, a Star Pendant, and a Jewel Ring.  I also bought assorted pieces of armor to beef up my characters defenses, as I remember there being a rather noticeable increase in the enemies attack power.  Of course, I didn't buy curative items.  After all, I didn't need them, right?

I wouldn't know the answer until later.  I visited Sabin's little house, then went up to Mt. Kolts.  Unfortunately, I made some very poor battle decisions and as a result, Locke ended up dying in a fight with two Tuskers...and I didn't have a Fenix Down.  I had to then go back to Sabin's hut to revive the thief, then head to South Figaro.

About this time, my capture device started to lag really badly, and so I decided to simply walk around town and grab treasures I had told myself I was going to leave for later.  After a few moments, it was becoming clear that the lag wasn't going away so I stopped recording.  Bye-bye lag!

I didn't stop playing though.  Given that I had gained a couple of levels, bought a little equipment, and most importantly stopped having to deal with a choppy picture that froze intermittently, I was able to go through this section a LOT more smoothly.  I was able to get to Vargas, beat him, then welcome Sabin into the party!  After that, it was out of Mt. Kolts and toward the Sabil mountain range where Banon awaits.  I decided to stop there.

[Destina Faroda]

Another day...another entry

Day Three

LOCATION: Outside Imperial Camp

PARTY MEMBERS:  Sabin (Lv 12. 227/289), Shadow (Lv. 11 HP 252/252)

ELAPSED TIME: 2:13

STEPS TAKEN: 7366

GP: 1158

I think I've actually forgotten how to play this game.  I wasn't this bad last year, and that was when it took me three times to beat the Phantom Train.

Anyway, this session began rather ordinarily enough with me going through the whole "meet Banon" scenario.  Well, I bought a third pair of Sprint Shoes because I didn't feel like swapping Relics.  I talked to the guys to help make my decision, raided all the treasure chests and hidden treasure points that I could (including getting that sweet White Cape)  Since I wanted the Genji Glove instead of the Gauntlet,  I initially refused Banon's request.  I talked to the appropriate soldier, who gave me the Glove, and then gratefully became the "light of hope" for the Returners.

Then I thought I didn't need to save, since I'd been through this section dozens of times before.  I put Banon in the back row, then jumped on the raft...and went rafting.  Which was fun.  I went the route that delivered me to the save points, but I thought that only once before I was unlucky enough to die on the raft.  It won't happen again, right?

So I fought Ultros.  It was going well.  Banon healed non-stop, Sabin Blitzed non-stop, Edgar used his AutoCrossbow non-stop, and Terra was casting Fire...until Ultros hit the party, and then hit Banon RIGHT after that.

Game over!

Because I didn't want the "benefit" of any experience I gained, I reset and did this part over again.  So now it's as though the past 15 minutes didn't happen and I have to play again.   So I went through everything as I did before.  This time I did something really dumb, though, and equipped the Genji Glove on Edgar.  Needless to say Ultros was defeated, and it was time to pick a scenario.

Of course, I was thinking that I wanted to do the scenarios in a different order than I usually do them, which means I didn't think at all.  I thought I'd start with Locke's scenario first, since while it wasn't the longest, it was the most difficult.  Oh, and indeed it was, since I had forgotten that I usually choose this scenario either last or second for an important reason...to get some better equipment.

Ah, but I wouldn't be able to write about the trials of Locke.  I stole the merchant's clothes, then promptly got the cider, said the password, rescued Celes.  Then silly me, I went to the Save Point, saved, then decided that Celes needed some equipment, so I went to the quit screen and hit Optimum, only to find out I didn't have any armor for her, and Locke's armor was the Kung Fu Suit.

It gets worse, but not before it gets better.  Fortunately, while the random encounters I came across were a little rough for these poor Lv 10 characters, I was able to snag a few treasures in the basement, including a Regal Cutlass and the Iron Armor!  Then I head out of the basement as fast as I could, left South Figaro, then saved.

My party was low on HP and MP then, so I took a trip to Sabin's house and rested, then went on my merry way to the Figaro Cave.  I ignored the treasures, even though I know one contained a Thunder Rod.  I've beaten TunnlArmr so many times, I thought it would be a piece of cake this time.

So I fought TunnlArmr, and messed up big time at the beginning of the battle.  After successfully stealing and Runicing once, Locke got hit with a physical attack.  It didn't do that much damage, but I thought I had enough time to cure him at maximum HP, then Runic again, so that when he got hit again, I could ignore it and just keep Runicing.  And I was close too...but just a second before Celes could actually Runic, he cast Fire...solely on Locke, which killed him.

Now I've gambled in the past and beaten TunnlArmr after Locke died by simply Runicing until he stopped casting and hoping my window of attack was long enough to do damage.  But I wanted Locke alive for some reason, so I thought in my finite wisdom, that I could beat this boss by reviving Locke, then Runicing.  I still don't know what I was thinking.  Maybe I was mad I got an Air Lancet and wanted to die.  In any case, it was a slow and painful death.   This was the second Game Over!  Once more, it was reset time, and another few minutes that I played that didn't officially exist.

I decided to go through this section again.  This time it went more smoothly, although I still got an Air Lancet, but I still had to pick a scenario, and so I decided to pick Sabin's scenario.  I talked to Shadow and recruited him,.  I put the ninja in the back row, bought 99 Shurikens, and went to the camp.  Actually I went the wrong way for a little while, but not nearly as far as last year when I actually got lost.  But before triggering this sequence I quit for today, because I realized I needed to actually write an entry and turn it in before making up for lost time.

[Darkmoon]

Every time you write about this, I get the urge to finally play FFVI...

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

... quick, quick, write some more ;-]

[Destina Faroda]

I'd better get this thing in before midnight.

Day Four

LOCATION: Outside Narshe

PARTY MEMBERS: Edgar (Lv. 13 HP 354/354), Sabin (Lv. 13  HP 364/364), Celes (Lv. 11 HP 245/245 MP 77/77), Locke (Lv. 11 HP 249/280)

ELAPSED TIME: 5:05

STEPS TAKEN: 12927

GP: 15009

I didn't make up as much time as I would have preferred, but I'm finally headed in the right direction.   Unfortunately, because everything did go well, then I went through the Imperial Camp/Doma Camp scenario in the same fashion as I usually do, taking out the enemy commander, making sure to fight Telstar.   After that, I had Shadow Shuriken himself until I got to the Phantom Train.  This time the Phantom Train experience was marked by a lack of trouble or enemies.  I got quite a few encounters of single Whispers, Bombs, and Ghosts.  The Phantom Train was reasonable today, and there was no nasty Scar Beam to finish me off.

I did mess up, though, after this section.  Shadow left the party at the waterfall and I jumped in to fight those Piranhas.   They weren't any trouble, but Rizopas, the head fish, killed me. I got too defensive after he used El Nino and instead of finishing him off, I tried to heal with items.  So I did that part again and this time, he didn't attack with El Nino and died much more reasonably.

After this and the Gau introduction scene, it was off to Mobliz to get some Dried Meat to give to Gau.   Once I had him in my party, I spent about 45 minutes on the Veldt.  That was far longer than I had planned, but I was able to get all the useful ones such as Templar, Hazer, and Stray Cat.  I also was able to get the Tintinabar in Mobliz, and four Green Berets from those Telstar encounters!

But after this it was time to go to Crescent Mountain and take the Serpent Trench to Nikeah.   I didn't trigger any special scenes this time, and I went the right way this time underwater and grabbed the two treasures.  Once I had been deposited in Nikeah, I bought a couple of Silk Robes, some Iron Armor, and a couple of Magus Hats for my spellcasting ladies.  I wouldn't normally spend so much, but given that I didn't know how

Then it was the Edgar, Terra, and Banon scenario, which went so little incident that the lack of anything interesting would almost be interesting.  I went through the checkpoint without setting off the alarm, but I resisted taking any of the treasure from the chests.  I had to get to Arvis' house on the double!

So then all three parties were reunited, only to be disbanded for another multi-party sequence.  I set my parties up in the following groups

1. Cyan, Locke, Celes
2. Sabin, Gau
3. Edgar, Terra

Today I was impatient.  Instead of just keeping my parties at the choke points, I let Parties 2 and 3 absorb the first wave of troops, then weaved Party 1 in between waves and took on Kefka early.  I was able to beat the Test Rider too easily (I didn't  successfully steal), then had a more "dramatic"  (i.e. filled with stupid mistakes on my end) battle against Kefka.  But he was sent packing, with troops still left of the field no less!

Then it was time to say goodbye to Terra as she turned into a pink humanoid and flew into the sky.  Whee!  But for me, I had to pick which four people to take, and it was pretty simple, since Locke and Celes were only at Level 11 and everyone else is at Level 13, so I picked the Super Figaro Brothers to go along with the two people who would be forced into my party later anyway.  And that's that!

All things considered, I'm actually an hour ahead in game time and three days ahead in actual days.  Of course, I failed last year too, so maybe that's not something I should be proud of.

[Darkmoon]

Awesome so far. Hopefully the good luck works out.

Course, it'd be weird to not have a 24 Days of FFIII post every year, and I know if you finish it, you will doubtfully do this ever again.

[rt]

 

Course, it'd be weird to not have a 24 Days of FFIII post every year, and I know if you finish it, you will doubtfully do this ever again.

Well there is always the 24 days of the other FF of the series. Or there is some special reasion why it is FF 3 that I am not aware of (other than the tradition, an actuall existance of specific rules)?

BTW are we playing Nintendo version ? (mabey the PS, but I think it was numbered '6')

[Darkmoon]

By numbering it II, she's showing it's the SNES version. I assume it'd work with the PSX version as well, but since the load times would be different, it might throw off how much time you'd really be able to devote to it.

[Destina Faroda]

Well I guess we'll have to wait until next year, because I quit.  And that's all I can say for now.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Awww. :-/

[Darkmoon]

Awww, what happened?

[NDDR]

im confused, why do people keep changing between the japanese and american numberings for it. i still remember the original number 3, it was confusing as it was in japanese and i was only 4 at the time back in 90, luckily all the menus for 1-3 were near enough identicle.

[Darkmoon]

People change based mostly on nostalgia, and for no other reason.