Road to Rhone

The mere mention of the Road to Rhone may well send a shiver down the spine of many an old-time RPG player like myself. It's easily one of the most challenging dungeons I can think of from its time (or from any time since, for that matter). Its labyrinthine structure, combined with many perilous enemy encounters, will test the patience and mettle of anyone who attempts it, particularly if they are daring enough to try it without the aid of a previously-made map.

When I was young, I had a map for it that either came with the game or was included in Nintendo Power magazine. I can't remember for sure, but the internet leads me to believe it was the former. I used it when I was young and played this game for the first time. But when I first replayed the game years later (and beat it for the first time) I think I had long since lost the map. I can't remember if I had access to or used the Internet then for a map, but most of the times that I have replayed this I have attempted it without using any other resources.

The hardest thing about not using a map is navigating the many hidden pitfalls on the first and fifth floors of the dungeon, and then re-navigating those same pitfalls each time you fall. It is very difficult to keep track of them all mentally, which is how I, a glutton for punishment, went about it this last time around. Anyone in possession of graph paper and a writing instrument would save themselves a considerable amount of time if they put those to use in marking the pitfalls. Otherwise you'll almost certainly get beyond tired of fighting endless amounts of Horks in the basement floor, where they occur with a much-higher-than-normal encounter rate, or else longing for a view of the dungeon wall on the fourth floor, where powerful Hargon's Knights can seriously test your party's endurance while seeking the correct path.

The deepest feelings of fear and helplessness are evoked on the fifth or sixth floors when one encounters a group of four Dragons who happen to attack before the party is ready. Such an encounter is rather likely to end in your party's demise, even if you are lucky enough to survive the first round. If all four dragons breathe fire, they can deal around 100 points of damage to every member of your party, which is likely more than your characters' max at the point you first encounter them. This amount will be mitigated for anyone wearing a Water Flying Cloth or Erdrick's Armor, but even the reduced amount is devastating to most parties.

If you can successfully navigate the sixth floor maze, where the wrong passage will take you backwards to the starting staircase or to the half-way room, then you still have to hold your breath for that last strip of land in Rhone before the shrine where you can save your game. Some of the physically strongest enemies in the game inhabit this stretch, but they are perhaps not as fearsome as the Blizzards, who frequently cast the instant-death spell Defeat that has a chance of killing all of your party members with each casting. In the last few steps before the shrine, you may well meet one or more Gold Batboons, perhaps the most hated enemy in the game because of their ability to cast Sacrifice, which kills your entire party with a 100% success rate.

But if you can navigate all this successfully, you can go on through Rhone and Hargon's temple to finish the game. I usually find that the last section in Rhone is not as difficult as the dungeon leading to it, although there is certainly a random chance element to the final chapters that can make it seem more difficult sometimes.

I fully expected this to be an ordeal on my Solo Challenge. But despite all prior experience I've had with the game, I somehow managed still to underestimate the difficulty. Perhaps it was because the previous three dungeons had all been so much easier than I expected, once I obtained the Shield of Strength. Indeed, using the Shield of Strength, the first three floors of the Road to Rhone were not terribly difficult, if a little tedious. But the upper floors were downright brutal, taking hours of playtime longer than I had planned on.

Although I didn't start the challenge with this in mind, I ended up having my character explore the whole game world. Part of the reasoning in my mind was that it would offer a chance to gain extra experience without the monotony of a targeted grind. Having done so for the whole game, some mildly OCD tendencies in my head wouldn't let me break the pattern, which made this process more tedious than it otherwise might have been. Basically, instead of doing a targeted grind, I would go up to floor five or six as far as I dared, then turn around and take the Thunder Sword route back to the bottom to get a new password. I made very incremental progress in exploration while still gaining experience this way. However, given the number of times I died trying this, it would have been faster to do a targeted grind and gain three levels before starting the upper floors.

Most of the battles in the upper levels are not consistently fightable solo. I could challenge two Berserkers with ease, and I could reliably beat Magic Vampirii if they were the only ones in the fight. I could also pretty reliably beat one Magic Vampirus with two Berserkers if I started the fight at full strength. I could also beat encounters of just one or two Dragons, but those seem to be much rarer than the deadly three- and four-dragon encounters. I tried a few times to fight groups with just one or two dragons mixed with Magic Vampirii, successfully a few times even, but found that the risk of being put to sleep by the Magic Vampirii was just too great. Since I am playing the challenge with no backpacks, I had to get rid of my Dragon's Bane for this dungeon, and the spell of Sleep was one of my biggest killers (although groups of only Magic Vampirii won't damage you significantly if you fall asleep).

Erdrick's Armor and the Thunder Sword were both large helps when I acquired them, as usual. One of my most heartbreaking moments, which happened twice, was watching a Dragon's Potion (or the Japanese equivalent) drop from a Metal Babble and having to toss it to keep room in my inventory. It's one of my favorite items in the game, but there's literally no room for it in the challenge as I structured it.

I was very fortunate in that, when I finally did finish getting through the dungeon, I was able to successfully run from every encounter in Rhone before the shrine.

My No-Equipment Challenge was definitely much easier, though it still took me longer than I planned. And even though I have been over-leveled for three dungeons after getting Open, I did not feel over-leveled on the top two floors of this dungeon. Dragons are somewhat resistant to magic, and they killed me at least once or twice. I nearly died several times in several other ways. But as long as one of my magic users survived with sufficient MP, I could cast Revive and/or escape the dungeon with Outside and hobble back to Beran with Stepguard.

I sadly discarded a Dragon's Potion drop in this file as well. I was also somewhat shocked to see a Thunder Sword drop from a Hargon's Knight (which I also discarded). I was aware that this was a possible drop, but I believe it's quite rare. I'm going from memory and so may be wrong, but I thought it was a 1/128 drop rate, the same as a Mysterious Hat from a Magic Vampirus. Funny thing is, I got it about six steps away from the pitfall that leads to the treasure chest containing the Thunder Sword.

And that brings me current. I haven't finished the dungeon yet on my other files, though I'm most of the way through on the Super Famicom. Despite my lower levels, that version has been much, much easier. In this version, they have lowered the encounter rate in the basement floor to a normal encounter rate, so you don't get so tired of facing Horks while getting the Life Crest. They also added an NPC hiding in some graves there. One immensely convenient change is that once you fall down a pitfall, the pitfall remains visible on the map ever after, so you don't have to remember where they were or map them out. This makes navigation so much easier in the dungeon. The increased power of Firebane makes encounters much easier here. I think they may even have lowered the Dragons' resistance to the spell (or else I just got lucky in the encounters I've made).

They also have stuffed two previously unimportant chests here with the Mysterious Hat and the Evil Shield, items that are only available from rare enemy drops in the NES/Famicom versions. Incidentally, the Mysterious Hat is also available as an item drop from the Metal Babble. The Dragon's Potion has seemingly been removed from the remake versions of the game. (**EDIT** I was somewhat mistaken when I posted this; it true for the Game Boy and smartphone versions, but I've learned that the Super Famicom version retains the item that was called Dragon's Potion on the NES, as a drop from the Metal Babble. Edit over) Metal Babbles seem to have a pretty decent drop rate, provided you can actually kill the enemy, so all in all this item is much easier to get in the remakes. Note that this item is called the Magic Helmet in the Game Boy Advance version, and the Mad Cap in the smartphone version.

Incidentally, Metal Babbles have been changed to a 4 Hit-Point enemy, and you apparently can't do more than 1 point of damage without a critical hit. This makes them easier to kill at earlier levels, but harder to kill at higher levels, than the original versions. But they also adjusted the experience to match other games in the series, so you get ten times the experience killing them in the remakes. (They made similar changes to the Metal Slime; I can't remember if I mentioned that in a previous entry).

This week I hope to finish the Road to Rhone on all game files. I plan to change my game order slightly after that. I want to finish my dialog comparison, but I also want to finish my remake play-throughs. As previously mentioned, my Game Boy Advance (SP) has been powered on the entire time I've been doing this, and I want to be able to turn it off and play a different game without losing my file. I also have not dared switching games on my Super Famicom after losing my file twice during this challenge, and would like to finish so I can risk changing the cartridge to V or VI. So, to preserve my dialog comparison, I will use an old password on my Famicom to finish the game at max levels, and I will copy my NES file and equip myself on that file--at that level I should easily be able to beat it with equipment. I might try seeing if I can do it without equipment first, though I suspect I will need to level up to beat the bosses.

Then I will complete the remake files, and progress in my challenge quests after that. I suspect I will need to do a significant amount of grinding in order to finish those. The solo account challenge I read on Gamefaqs said that at level 50, he could not defeat Atlas without a critical hit. It's likely I will need to max out my level on that challenge. I also don't know how high a level I will need to be to survive two hits from Atlas without armor on the other challenge. In any case, I don't want that to hold up my completion of the other game files. I'm hoping to finish those by the end of the week, and still hoping to finish the whole thing before Christmas. We'll see.

Getting Closer

I've been pressing forward in my Dragon Quest II play-throughs. I believe I will finish my project in time for the holidays. I'm taking a vacation starting the 23rd and I want to finish before then so I can take my Game Boy with me.

I don't remember if I mentioned that my Dragon Warrior I/II cartridge won't hold a save file, so my Game Boy (Advance SP) has has been on with the game running the entire time I've been doing this challenge. It stays on the charger in a corner of my bedroom where it won't get bumped. I carefully take it off the charger for only a few hours at a time when I play to make sure the battery doesn't die on me. (I recently realized that I don't think I can get the Water Robe (Water Flying Cloth), as it involves a game reset that I can't do without starting all the way over.)

I'm anxious to finish the challenge so I can play Dragon Warrior Monsters on my system, and, if I can find my copy, Dragon Warrior III.

On my Famicom and NES challenges, I have finished the sea cave and am ready to begin the road to Rhone/Rendarek. I am over half-way through said cave on my Super Famicom file and expect to finish it on that system and possibly also on my Game Boy tonight. If I can finish it on my Game Boy by the time I leave for work tomorrow morning, then I can do the smartphone version during my commute and/or my lunch tomorrow, and proceed tomorrow evening to the dreaded labyrinth that leads to the game's final areas.

The Full Moon Tower and the Sea Cave were not as difficult as I expected on my two challenge play-throughs. I had read a rather old post on the game's message boards on Gamefaqs.com from someone who tried this challenge where they said they abandoned the challenge in this zone of the game due to its difficulty. However, although I did die a few times, I was able to get through both areas on my solo challenge with no more difficulty than I have had in previous areas. And unlike most of the dungeons, I could actually fight a majority of the battles instead of running all the time, since I had the Shield of Strength to heal my health. Of course, there were still numerous encounters where discretion was still the better part of valor, but more often than not the risk of fighting the battle is actually less than the risk of trying to run and failing. The Sea Cave takes a little more endurance as the dungeon is longer and you cannot walk off the edge to get out quickly. Fun fact: the Water Flying Cloth negates damage from the fire tiles in this dungeon. (I think it also negates damage from swamp tiles, but I'm pretty sure it does NOT negate damage from the barrier tiles such as those found in the final dungeon, though Erdrick's Armor will protect against those.)

Of course, on my NES no-equipment challenge, my characters were already highly leveled from getting the "Open" spell, so the battles weren't to big of a challenge spamming Defeat, Firebane, and Explodet in each battle. At that level, I had plenty of MP to finish the dungeons with liberal spellcasting, although I did have to make a few trips into and out of the Sea Cave due to the monsters that dance their strange jigs in there. The dungeons have also posed no particular challenge on any of my remake play-throughs. Another fun fact: in the remake versions of the game, Firebane's power is greatly increased to almost rival Explodet in the original game, making battles in this stage ridiculously easy. I do not yet know if they tweaked Explodet to be more powerful still. Interestingly, in the smartphone version only, Firebane (or Sizzle as it's called there) has been changed to be a one-group spell rather than all enemies, one of the few changes I've seen that actually makes things slightly more challenging than the previous remakes.

That's all for now. Maybe by the time I post next I'll be finished with Dragon Quest II, or nearly so.

Open, Shield of Strength, and the Water Flying Cloth

Well, I've been plugging along through the month. On a good day I might get an hour a day to play on a home console, and many days I don't have time at all to play. So even though a month has passed, I am still not finished with my Dragon Quest II playthroughs.

I finished my typical ocean exploration and visiting the different towns, comparing the dialog and item names. Most of it was pretty straightforward, but I found one exciting and notable translation difference that I will talk about in a minute.

I created an outline of my progress before starting, which I've been keeping to more or less, but which I had to revise when it came to the tower where the Star Crest is. I couldn't remember for sure whether you needed a key to get through. I had created a pre-gold-key and post-gold-key section in my outline, and had initially placed this in the pre-gold-key section. But you do in fact need a key. Although the silver key works as well as the gold key, to keep the outline consistent among all of my playthroughs, I moved this down to the post-gold-key section.

The reason I made pre-gold-key and post-gold-key sections at all is because on my NES playthrough, I'm attempting to beat the game only using items that can't be avoided. As it turns out, this means I'm not using either the silver key or the gold key, or the jailer's key. Instead I am using the "Open" spell to open doors. So I set up my outline to do as much as possible without needing a key before working on getting that spell.

I've long thought about what the game might be like without getting any keys. In fact, long ago, I tried to do this when, as a child, I couldn't find the Watergate Key. Although I didn't succeed in even learning the spell Open before I finally learned the location of the key in Nintendo Power, that attempt was misguided, because the Open spell will not open the watergate in Tuhn. Nevertheless, I've wondered may a time about trying to beat it without the other keys.

I had finished my pre-gold-key outline on all my files two weekends ago, except for the Star Crest tower. I realized two things while trying to get through: first, that you do need a key to get through, and second, that I stood little chance of beating the gremlins without having four herbs, little chance of getting to the gremlins with four herbs, and actually, less-than-desirable odds of beating the gremlins even with four herbs. (I'm not using "backpacks," meaning the inventory spaces of my dead companions, so with a weapon, sword, shield, and helmet, I can only take four herbs.) These two realizations were enough to move the tower further down on my outline, so I could come back with upgraded equipment.

This left me with the daunting challenge of learning the spell Open on my NES game. After some online research, I learned that the spell is learned at level 23 by the Princess, which corresponded to 220,000 experience. I was at level 16, which corresponded to 50,000 experience. The best levelling spot I could find was outside Beran, where battles gave me between 50 and 400, but the average seemed to be around the upper 100's range. I quickly realized that this would be a daunting grind.

It wasn't long into my effort before the Prince of Cannock learned Firebane. This was a big boon as I could finish many of the battles in the area quicker. But the real game changer came nearer the end of the week, when the Princess learned Explodet.

Once she learned that, I changed my experience grinding area to outside of Osterfair castle. (Incidentally, I long erroneously thought you could not save at Osterfair. You obviously can't until you get the Moon Crest, but even then, you can't save on the NES until you leave the castle and return. But since there's not much to do there after getting the Moon Crest, I wasn't in the habit of returning.) The average experience per battle is higher there, but I judged that the duration and difficulty of the battles was proportionally higher than the experience yield, and so concluded Beran was better. However, with Explodet the duration and difficulty of the battles was severely reduced, so this became a prime place to level. Soon after the Prince of Cannock also learned Defeat, which also sped up many battles considerably.

The hardest thing in the area is the Gas enemies, which appear in large numbers and cast Stopspell and Sleep, disabling my magic users, and also cast Surround to slow down your non-magic attacks. They have high physical defense and it takes a while to kill them if you can't get Defeat or Explodet off before losing your chance.

The other difficult thing is the absence of a House of Healing. When one of my characters died, I would have to sail all the way to Leftwynn to revive them.

I had also considered levelling closer to Tuhn or Wellgarth. After a few trials I couldn't conclusively determine if the average experience yield was significantly higher, but the danger involved was definitely higher, so I decided it was better to stay clear. The enemies are more difficult and there is no save point or inn nearby.

I also found one alluring aspect of the area around Osterfair was the occasional appearance of eight Metal Slimes. Right after my Princess learned Explodet, my Prince of Midenhall was able to regularly do 4 or 5 points of damage to a Metal Slime, which was frequently enough to kill it when coupled with a hit from one of my other characters. Once my Prince of Midenhall gained another level, he could sometimes beat one on one hit, and after one more level still, he could usually beat them in one hit. I find killing metal enemies in Dragon Quest games to be unusually fun, so I got a morale boost every time I was able to kill a few. I could usually get two or three, and occasionally four for over 900 experience. Once or twice I almost got five, but could never quite finish the fifth one.

It took the bulk of the week, but I finally made it last Saturday after several hours of on and off play. I must say, after all the effort I put into it, I got a little bit of a thrill as I went to each of the major towns and cast the spell Open to get in, laughing at how they couldn't keep me out even when I had no key. Even though the nature of the challenge made most of the gold doors unnecessary, I still went to all of them so I could compare the dialog with the other versions.

Once I finished opening doors in all my files, it was time to attack the Star Crest tower again on my Famicom file. I  had planned on getting the Staff of Thunder and selling it to fund myself a Shield of Strength. Those familiar with the game know that you can get multiple Staffs of Thunder and sell them repeatedly to generate large amounts of gold. I fall into the camp of people that are squeamish about using this trick, which feels like an unintended exploit to me. I also don't know for sure if the trick works on the Famicom version. But regardless of any of that, there's no reason to have any qualms about getting the Staff just once and selling it. However, after thinking about it I decided that the Staff would be useful against certain enemies such as Goopies, and I decided not to sell it, or even get it just yet.

Grinding at Beran, It took less time than I thought earn gold to buy it, especially after using the Gold Key to upgrade my shield and armor at no cost and selling the old equipment. Before actually doing the grind, I went a little bit out of my way to gather up the ingredients to make a Water Flying Cloth, which appears to have the same defense rating as the Gaia armor but added defense against breath (and, I believe, magic) attacks. This was useful grinding at Beran, where the most lucrative experience comes from fighting groups of Dragon Flies. Even groups of five are quite beatable solo if you have the Water Flying Cloth.

As it turns out, with the Water Flying Cloth, the Shield of Strength a Dragon's Bane, and the extra experience I had gained getting them, the gremlins in the Star Crest tower were pitifully easy, even without taking any medical herbs with me. I also finished the gremlins easily on my highly levelled NES file. I will finish that segment on my other game files when I return home from Thanksgiving break.

My last note, which I mentioned above I would comment on, is a revelation I had about Dragon Quest IX, after viewing the new translation for this game on the smartphone version. A minor spoiler follows:

After beating Dragon Quest IX, you can obtain and complete a quest in Port Llaffan to gain access to the Starflight Express and fly around the map. The quest involves collecting a Watermaul Wand, a Silver Shield, and a Flowing Dress and wearing them to summon and fight Leviathan.

Now, without having seen the Japanese dialog for this game, it appears from playing the Android remake of the first game that the Silver Shield is the same as the Silver Shield from Dragon Warrior I, which I think has been in every, or nearly every, Dragon Quest game (I can't remember for sure if it was in IV). It's one of the strongest shields in each game, and it's not easy to come by in IX. I believe you can buy it for a large sum, but I made mine with alchemy.

I also made a Flowing Dress with alchemy. One of the ingredients is an item called the Celestial Skein (I actually didn't know this, but Skein is a work meaning thread or yarn). It took me a little bit of time first to alchemize a Celestial Skein, and then to alchemize the dress.

The dress, aside from being an important quest item, was also the best armor at the time I could equip on my wizard, so I got some good use out of it. But I now appreciate the item even more for its value to the series as a whole, after seeing its name in the smartphone version of Dragon Quest II.

For those who have been long time fans of the series but have had to deal with multiple translations versions, you may find this as interesting as I did. The Flowing Dress is none other than the Water Flying Cloth! This item, I believe has been in every game since II, and one of the best armors of its class in each game. Furthermore, the Celestial Skein used to alchemize it in IX is none other than the Dew's Yarn, of the ingredients used to make it in II, the game that introduced it. I was shocked that I had obtained and used both of these items for an important portion of Dragon Quest IX without ever knowing that they were these familiar items.

Conversations With and Without a Princess

It's becoming increasingly apparent that I won't be able to update this blog as regularly as I had originally envisioned. Life is just plain too busy. But as long as I have things to write about I'll surely keep returning to it.

I've been plugging away on my Dragon Quest II challenges. The Moonbrooke continent definitely showed a divergence in the difficulty of my play-throughs, as my solo game got dramatically more challenging and my no-equipment play-through actually got quite a bit easier, and surprisingly not far off from my remake playthroughs in difficulty. Although the no-equipment challenge was harder to start off, once you gain your allies and their magic spells, your characters begin to perform surprisingly well compared to fully equipped characters.

I quickly encountered an unfortunate problem with choosing the Famicom version for the solo challenge: in the original Famicom version, with no battery save, the password does not record the state of your party. That means that every time you start the game back up with a password, your party is at full health--including the party members that were deliberately killed off! So I had to come up with a system that would result in them dying without otherwise impacting the game or challenge.

The swamp kill wasn't an option because there are no swamps near Moonpita/Hamlin/Moonahan. I resolved to enter battles and have my hero defend while my unequipped, level-1 allies would attack until the enemies had killed them, then run away from the battle and return to the town, and stay at the inn. This brings the game to a state identical to if they had stayed dead and I stayed at an inn. In general, this is identical to what it otherwise would have been, although if I stay at an inn before getting my password it sometimes results in some wasted gold. It's an annoyance, particularly since I have to frequently reset to avoid losing half my gold, but it's one I'll have to deal with to preserve the integrity of the challenge.

I have learned some interesting things along the way. Some of the English town names have been changed for the Android version. Hamlin is now Moonahan, which seems appropriate, because Moon was clearly a part of the Japanese town name, which is in the vicinity of and associated with Moonbrooke. Lianport is now Rippleport. The Japanese romanji for that is Rupagana, so it seems to reference the consonant sounds in Japanese a bit.

I also discovered something that floored me. There's some dialog in the game that I have never seen before, despite numerous playthroughs, and I strongly suspect its existence is not widely known. I found it as a direct result of the solo challenge; there are two NPC's in Rupagana/Lianport/Rippleport whose dialog in the Famicom version changes if you don't have the princess with you (i.e. if she's dead). I confirmed that this is true in both the Famicom and NES versions, although in both cases the NES dialog has been censored to something completely different.

First off is a man in the middle of town. In the NES he says "I have nothing to say to thee. That's right, nothing at all." In the Japanese version, he actually is drunkenly hitting on the princess, inviting her to have a drink. I think that xloto's translation on Gamefaqs.com is slightly off (though I'm not an expert in this and I could be wrong). He rendered it as starting out "nice behind" or something like that, but I think in this case "behind" was actually referring to the girl behind you. In either case, His dialog is truncated to only the first line if the princess is dead. And this is also true on the NES! He just says, "I have nothing to say to thee."

Of perhaps greater note to Dragon Quest fans is the woman in the lower left corner of town. In the Japanese, she pays a compliment to the princess, while on the NES, she says something bizarre about someone who can turn princes to tadpoles (although it's not entirely clear who she's referring to--no one in the town is otherwise implied to have any supernatural powers). What caught me off guard is what she said when the princess was not there. She asks you if you want a puff-puff.

When I saw that it took me off guard. Xloto's guide on gamefaqs.com mentions that this appears to be the only Dragon Quest game that doesn't have a puff-puff reference, which he found remarkable, and I certainly hadn't seen one on my first playthrough. It turns out the reference is there, in the exact same place you see it in the remakes, but you only see it in the Famicom version if the princess is dead.

Now, what was even more fascinating to me was to see this character's dialog in the NES version when the princess was dead, because she does in fact say something completely different: "Dost thou think I am pretty enough to be a queen?" If you answer yes, she says "Perhaps the great Prince of Cannock thinks so too." If you say no, she says "What's wrong!"

I'm sure there is many a Dragon Warrior II fan out there that has never seen this line of dialog, and it floored me to discover it.

That's my main story for this entry. I've progressed all my files to having explored Alefgard and met the Dragonlord's great grandson. I've had a few setbacks. My Super Famicom file got erased just before getting the Cloak of Wind, and I had to replay it up to that point. More recently, my daughter was playing with my camera and erased some of my recent passwords for my Famicom game, so I have to redo some of it. But overall, I'm still moving forward where and when I can, and enjoying it.

I've also been playing a bit of Dragon Quest VII, VIII, and IX on the side, advancing my characters on my existing files to learn what skills are available in the games. Particularly I've played IX, because it's available to play on the bus, on lunch at work, etc. I'm learning more about which spells and abilities persist through the series. It's all good.

Anyone who hasn't seen it needs to Google Nintendo Switch (formerly known as the NX). Dragon Quest XI is in development for that system, and the system looks very interesting.

Dragon Quest II

I have begun an undertaking to accomplish several objectives at once regarding Dragon Quest II. I want to compile item, spell, and monster data in this game and others in order to track recurring elements of the series. I hope to eventually create a website devoted to documenting the evolution of the series. But due to differences in the localization of separate entries in the series, and their remakes, it's difficult to accurately track recurring elements just by looking at English resources. And my proficiency at Japanese is still small enough that it is very slow and difficult to look things up on Japanese websites.

Coupling this with a desire to play through the remake versions, and a desire also to try the game with the challenge quests I conceived while playing through challenge quests on Dragon Quest I, I decided that the time was ripe for an interesting undertaking. I committed to it last week, and have already made some headway. I am replaying, effectively all at once, all five versions of the game that I own, comparing items, monsters, etc. in each as I go. These are the original Famicom version, the NES version which I grew up on (these first two are essentially the same version in a different language, though the NES has a battery save), the Super Famicom version, the Game Boy Color version, and the Android version (these last two are based on the Super Famicom version and are very similar in content).

The remakes are more similar to the original than the remakes of Dragon Quest I were to it, as far as I've seen. But some of the mechanics are still different, such as different character stats, and the dialog has been changed in some cases (mostly added to, it seems--unlike Dragon Quest I most of the original version dialog still seems to be there, delivered by the same characters, but it has been expanded upon in many cases). I had played through half of the Game Boy Color version about 4 years ago while Savannah was a newborn in the hospital, but I lost my game file before I could complete it. Since then I have acquired both the Super Famicom and Android versions.

On the Famicom and NES versions I am doing my two challenge quests. On the Famicom, I'm doing a solo challenge. The idea here is to complete the game without the help of any allies. Although you can't get through the game without recruiting your two allies, I will let them die and not revive them and play through with just the Prince of Lorasia/Midenhall. I know the game can be complete this way because I read the account of someone on Gamefaqs.com who did it.

On the NES I'm going to try a minimalist challenge, where I attempt to complete the game without the use of equipment or items, beyond what is necessary for completing the game. This encompasses what they sometimes call a "naked" challenge, but it a little more involved. I did this on Dragon Quest I and want to try it here. I don't know if this challenge is possible, but I'm resolved to try. My gut feel is that it can be done,but it's possible it may require a good bit of luck.

The remake playthroughs will all be normal playthroughs. Since the three versions are very similar to each other, it will be a bit repetitive, but it will be interesting to compare the localization to each other.

I created an outline on my Google Drive of the game, dividing it up into each of the major events and sub-tasks required to complete it. For each "chapter", I am playing each of the five versions in turn.

I've already made some progress. On each of the versions, I have completed the Hero's Spring/Spring of Bravery and (excepting the Famicom) have recruited the Prince of Samarutoria/Cannock.

By far the most time consuming of these has been the minimal challenge. Without equipment it took some time to grind to a level high enough to feel confident in making it to the Spring and back. I was at either level 8 or 9, whichever one is just after 1000 experience. Even so, I ran from nearly every battle I could and still didn't make it on the first try due to getting poisoned. But with the new prince's help, I should be able to keep up better in the future on that one.

I just obtained the silver key on the solo challenge. I decided to hold off recruiting the other prince on that file until after getting the key, so that I can enjoy non-red dialog boxes for just a bit longer. My plan is to use some holy water and walk to the swamp to drain his HP, so as not to claim that killing him in battle protected my other character for that battle. Up till just before going for the silver key, the solo challenge has not been different from a normal playthrough. But I'll surely start to see the difference from here on out. It should be interesting.

Here's an interesting note on the journey to find the Prince of Samarutoria/Cannock. The NES version actually wrote out two different clues for finding him, and then appears to have mistranslated some dialog in a way that completely misleads the player. After visiting the Spring, the king of Midenhall tells the hero, paradoxically, that the other prince just left for Midenhall, leaving the player to wonder how he could leave Midenhall in order to go to Midenhall. The Japanese dialog says that when the other prince heard you had already departed for Samurutoria (Cannock) he left to follow you, implying that he was heading back to his home. 

If you go to Samurutoria/Cannock in the Japanese version, the king there tells you that his son has not arrived there yet. This line of dialog is completely written out of the NES version, but it implies that you passed the other prince somewhere on the way between castles. The other line of dialog that was changed for the NES version is from the other prince's sister. In Japanese she says that he is someone who is prone to stopping along the wayside on long journeys--in the NES it was changed to say he'd gone to the Spring of Bravery.

It's not exactly difficult to find the other Prince regardless of these changes, but it's still very interesting to note. All three of these exchanges are preserved almost exactly in the Super Famicom remake, and they appear in the American Game Boy Color and Android versions. The remake versions also add a hint in Lorasia/Midenhall, where the person who offers directions to Ririza/Leftwynn mentions that it is a place where people stop to rest while travelling between the two castles--this part of the dialog is not in the original Famicom or NES versions.

Anyways, I plan to write about my progress here in this blog. I'm sure somewhere there's some old-school Dragon Quest fan that will be interested in reading it.

Back to Dragon Quest

After finally completing Final Fantasy XII, after several years, and after getting a little burned out on The Legend of Zelda, my thoughts recently turned back to Dragon Quest. Before getting into my Zelda games on the 3DS, I knew I was approaching the final areas of Dragon Quest IX. About a month or so ago, I decided to resume my progress, and within a week or two I completed the last two or three dungeons and finished the game.

Dragon Quest IX is different at game's end than any single-player RPG I've ever played. The game saves itself, but rather than letting you revert to your last position before beating the boss, you load the game into a save where the boss is cleared and the final dungeon is gone. It's a true "endgame" scenario, where you're actually playing after the end of the game.

I considered putting the game back down at this point to focus on doing more with earlier games in the series, but I decided to keep at it, revisiting areas, completing quests, searching for treasures, and leveling my characters up in different jobs. I've actually found myself re-addicted to this game, and it is currently my portable game of choice. There's a lot that fascinates me about the game. When you visit Alltrades Abbey after the game's end, they tell you that once you reach max level, you can "revocate" back to level 1 to ensure you can earn enough skill points to learn all of the skills, revealing an added layer of depth to the job system. After the end of the game, there are still numerous areas on the map that are inaccessible to me. I never encountered a means to fly in this game, but wonder if there is one. Every Dragon Quest game since III has had some means of aerial transportation, so part of me guesses that this game does too but that I just haven't found it yet.

Meanwhile, the game has still inspired me to revisit older games in the series. I booted up Dragon Quest VII for the first time in a long time to see if I could work towards unlocking the Hero. I don't know the precise requirements, but the job unlocked as soon as I mastered the Dragoon job, after having also mastered Paladin and Pirate. In VI, I was under the possibly false impression that mastering any advanced job would unlock Hero for your main character. For anyone else, you need to master three specific advanced jobs, which would correspond, I believe, to Dragoon, Sage, and TeenIdol in Dragon Warrior VII. It's possible that your main character has to master one of these three jobs, not just any job, to unlock it. I suspect that is the case in Dragon Warrior VII. I also ended up unlocking an unexpected job called Godhand. I don't remember if this was in Dragon Quest VI or not. I decided to level Hero first, and I'll probably do the other later. But after mastering Hero, I decided to take a break from Dragon Warrior VII.

Seeing more of what was available in Dragon Quest VII and IX made me boot up VIII for a bit. But I couldn't figure a good place to grind, and realized how much I didn't remember already about the game, and decided to put that on hold for a little while.

Significantly, I finished my maximum playthrough of Dragon Quest II, finally obtaining the golden card. I had obtained every item besides this on my Famicom version a few years back, and with the help of the save feature in the NES version I worked out the reels in the lottery (each reel has its own repeating pattern which never changes) and tried to figure out the precise timing to get the suns. I couldn't find much concrete about it online, but I was eventually forced to conclude that even with precise timing, there seems to be a random element to how long it takes the reel to stop.

I gave up back then after getting bored, but I recently dug out my old notes to try again. Within an hour I had won the Golden Card on my NES! I was thrilled, but not satisfied, as it didn't constitute a 100% playthrough since this file didn't have other items I had obtained on the Famicom. I decided to try to get those items on the NES, but I made the mistake of switching out the cartridge between game sessions. I had trouble getting the game to load again after putting it back, and I must have hit it just wrong, because when I finally got it up I got the cursed music indicating my game file was lost.

I decided to try for the reels on the Famicom, despite having to redo lengthy passwords to try. I gradually hedged my bets more and more by getting rid of equipment that I knew I could buy or get back. I ended up with 10 free spaces for lottery tickets, and tried over and over. It took me several days, but the reels finally turned up right. Full of joy, I bought back my missing equiment, fought enough battles to earn my gold back, and marched on to beat Hargon and Sidoh knowing I had obtained one of every item in the game at some point.

I had been trying to decide just what to focus on next. I want to replay Dragon Quest V, and I want to max out my levels and finish item completion on Dragon Quest III. But as of this week, I am resolved first to focus on challenge-quest and remake playthroughs of Dragon Quest II, which I have started in earnest as of yesterday. More on that later.

Catching up on Final Fantasy

At some point during the year, when I was tiring of Zelda and looking for something to play, I decided to finally pick up where I left off on Final Fantasy XII and push forward. I had started this game a few years ago, and was enjoying it fairly well. But right when I got my copy of Dragon Quest V, I started focusing all of my efforts on that game, and didn't let up until I had finished Dragon Quest VIII over a year later. Final Fantasy XII fell by the wayside.

At some point I had picked it back up and played for a little bit, then did so again at some point later. I had considered starting over, since after so much time I didn't have as clear a memory of the story at each break point as I would have liked. But I kept slogging on. When I picked it up at the last, I found I was surprisingly close to the end. After playing for a week or so, I found myself climbing a very high tower that felt a lot like a final or just-before-final dungeon, and the story felt like it was building to a climax. Sure enough, at the completion of the tower, I saved my game, and the next area I went to was the showdown with the game's final boss.

The boss took me several tries to beat. Each time I beat the first and second forms without too much trouble, but the third and final form was quite difficult. I felt like I did a little bit better each time as I learned the boss's attack patterns and prepared my party differently. But with the cutscenes preceding the battle and three boss fights (the boss's first two forms and one other fight previous, it takes nearly an hour to even get to the fight from the last save, so it took me probably nearly a week to fight the boss five times. I think it was the fifth try that I finally beat him on. I didn't end up having to level up past what I had when I first got to the save point, but it was a tough fight at that level and I wouldn't guarantee that a sixth try would also beat him.

The ending was very satisfying to me. I really like the characters in this game and their interactions with one another, and I thought that the ending was very fitting for each of them. I have since learned the ending song and decided that I really like it, as well. I ended up watching a long Youtube video afterward that contained all of the game's cutscenes, to tie up the parts of the story that I couldn't remember clearly. I hadn't forgotten as much as I thought, but a few details that I had forgotten really ended up making the ending chapters of the game more satisfying.

I got my hands on a copy of Final Fantasy XIII, and I have begun playing the game through. My brother, Bryan, has made no secret of the fact that he doesn't like this game, and I get the impression that much of the internet doesn't, either. But then again, I've never found that the internet as a whole has the same opinions of things that I do, so I've gone into it with an open mind.

So far, I think I am enjoying it. I actually think it improves on the thing that I disliked most about Final Fantasy XII, which was the combat. The gambit system on Final Fantasy XII was innovative to be sure, but I found it quite ineffective for fighting difficult battles and spent most of my time pausing battles trying to manually override gambits. Unless you spend a lot of time grinding, it is difficult to come up with a series of gambits that will fit all situations, but it is quite tedious to change the gambits for individual situations. I found the system very frustrating overall.

Final Fantasy XIII also uses an automatic system, and removes manual override for your supporting characters. But instead of setting gambits, it has something like a pre-defined gambit system for each character job role that you choose, which appears to be somewhat more sophisticated. Rather than setting gambits, you set "paradigms" to choose from. The paradigm consists of a set of job roles for each character in your party, and you can change them on the fly during battle with a quick button sequence. I have found it so far to be a much easier system to manage than FFXII's.

I'm not too keen on the notion that if your party leader dies, you automatically lose the fight, but at least they offset that by letting you redo the fight if you lose without reverting to your last save.

One complaint my brother expressed that is valid is that the game's exploration is very linear, perhaps more so than any other RPG I've played.There isn't really much actual exploration, as you're essentially confined to a corridor moving forward with very few short side paths, and the occasional fork that branches right back to the main path after a short distance. It helps keep the story to a more regular pace, maybe, but I think I would prefer actual dungeons or wider areas to explore.

But so far I really like the game's story. It starts at the end of a thirteen-day period, right in the middle of the story, as it seems, and gradually reveals the events of the past thirteen days through character flashbacks. I find it a very engaging way to learn about each of the characters and what brought them together. The dynamic works very well, and I am continually looking forward to the next cutscene or story element.

I also like the character development system so far, which seems to combine elements of the sphere grid from Final Fantasy X (one of my favorite systems) with a Final Fantasy Job System element. It also has an element which limits development for certain sections of the game, without limiting the experience points you gain, so that fighting a lot of battles might give you only so much advantage in the short term, but might help you develop quickly when the restrictions are lifted and your grid levels up. I find that interesting, so far.

Patty took an interest in the game's story shortly after I started, so I'm currently playing it only when she is downstairs and not using the TV. (Meanwhile, when that TV is free and she's not downstairs, I'm picking away at Zelda Wind Waker.)

Five Months Later...

Well, I suppose it may be possible that I won't turn out to be a very regular blogger. Life is very busy and time is very short. When it comes to a choice between playing games and writing about games, I'll usually choose the former. But I've had the blog in the back of my mind here and there for a while now, and I thought that it might be a good time to update it.

I haven't played very much of Final Fantasy XI recently. I got a bit burned out on it, and started spending my time elsewhere. The games I have played in the last few months include:

• The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
• The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages/Oracle of Seasons
• The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
• The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
• Final Fantasy XII
• Final Fantasy XIII
• Dragon Quest IX

As of this writing, I have beaten all of the above except for Final Fantasy XIII. I finished Dragon Quest IX finally a week or two ago.

Most of my video game time recently has been spent with The Legend of Zelda series. I figure that out of Zelda, Final Fantasy, and Dragon Quest, Zelda will take the least amount of time to explore as fully as I would like to. My recent efforts include trying to get 100% completion in Wind Waker (not resorting to a guide, if possible), replaying Minish Cap, which I had rushed through years ago prior to playing Twilight Princess, and which I did not remember well, and playing through to the end of my several-year-old copy of Phantom Hourglass.

Playing through Wind Waker was, of course, amazing. It is easily one of the best Zelda games I have played. I had forgotten much in the 13 years or so since I had played it, but the game was no less epic than I thought I had remembered.

The only problem was that after I had completed what I felt like was a pretty thorough playthrough, I was still missing over ten pieces of heart and over half a dozen treasure charts, and had still not been able to figure out how to access the Nintendo gallery near the Forest Haven (meaning, I could get to the gallery, but couldn't figure out how to actually create the figurines--I couldn't figure out how to take color photographs). I didn't have the energy to search for so many missing things, so I put it on hold for a while.

That was a while ago. Since then, I have picked at it here and there. I found a few pieces of heart and treasure charts, but most importantly, I figured out the photos I needed to take to get the Deluxe Picto-Box and start taking color photos. It turned out that the Deluxe Picto-Box almost immediately helped me to get one treasure chart and one piece of heart (the treasure chart itself yielded an additional piece of heart). And then I got addicted to the figuring collection side quest and started playing quite a bit more.

Unfortunately again, after scouring the world and not finding enough figurines in certain areas, I was forced to conclude that there may be some figurines that are permanently missable--in other words, unavailable after a certain portion of the game is completed. For example, there is a character on Dragon Roost Island in the earlier stages of the game that disappears from the island later on, and as far as I can tell his figurine is unavailable at the end of the game.

A couple of weeks ago I decided to start the game over to see if I could capture some of my missing figurines. I just finished the Forbidden Woods and am going to do a quick once-over of each island in the sea to make sure there's no characters I don't remember that might disappear after getting the third pearl. I also intend to see if I can get figurines of Tetra's crew while they are on Windfall. I've been working on this bit by bit when I'm alone at home and don't have to share the TV.

During the early summer, I was working on the Oracle games. After I finished them, I learned about the Hero's Secret and how it was necessary for collecting all the rings. After a lot of time spent replaying the games again, I finally managed to get all of the rings except for the two GBA rings. Some day I'll get a working copy of Oracle of Ages (I have one of Seasons) and I'll use the password system to get the rings from those games.

After completing those, I jumped into Minish Cap. That was a delight. I did remember enjoying the game, but now I realize that it is one of the best 2-D Zelda games, nearly on the same level as A Link to the Past. It is very rewarding to play through. I just wish it were longer. But there's plenty of time to be spent trying to find all the secrets.

Unfortunately, after an exhaustive search, I was still missing two or three heart pieces and some amulet that is mentioned in game. I plan to start the game over and start documenting where I find treasures in hopes that it will help me find the rest. But I probably won't do that until I'm done doing that with Wind Waker.

The most recent Zelda game I played was Phantom Hourglass. That was another good experience. I had played it part way through when I first got it years ago. I even got probably about half way. I think it was around the same time that I was playing Skyward Sword and Final Fantasy XII. I didn't finish any of those games at that time, for reasons I've stated previously. It felt very good to finally complete the game. I found all of the heart containers, but I came up short on several spirit stones. It's another game I'll probably restart and document locations for treasure, to help me focus my search better. I might pick away at trying to get ship parts, but right now I'm taking a break from it.

That about catches me up on Zelda. I plan to write more later about Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest.

Final Days of Final Fantasy XI (Console Versions)

Last week was a bit of an emotional week for me. I said goodbye to my Playstation 2 version of Final Fantasy XI (as well as the XBox 360 version, though that was not quite as emotional). The last few months have been building up to it. Now it's finally over and done with.

The weekend before the end of the month, I decided that, with my full set of Artifact Equipment, and the impending end of console play, it was a good time to try tackling an Orb Battle. Orb Battles were the first kind of specialized battle content aside from several randomly spawning Notorious Monsters on the world map. They're also the only kind of specialized battle content I currently qualify to do. I have tried a few before on my own, and once a few months ago with a member of my linkshell, but I have failed considerably each time. In each battlefield I've tried, I have not had enough manpower to deal with the monsters inside.

In the morning, I asked in my linkshell if anyone would be interested in doing a three-person fight. I suggested one called Royal Jelly, chosen because it uses the lower-level of the two types of orbs that were first available in the game, at the battlefield closest to my home city. There was some initial level of interest, but only one person was ready to commit to it. Since we couldn't get three, I told her I'd ask around later that day and if she and someone else were available, we could try it.

After a break with my family decorating Easter eggs, I returned to the game in the evening and was able to get a party with the same person and one other who had expressed disinterest earlier in the day, but had apparently changed his mind. We decided on a party setup, and once everyone was ready, we went in.

It was fun. There was a ring of jelly-type monsters, each of which appeared to be standing still. One of my allies went in as either a Dancer/Blue Mage or a Blue Mage/Dancer, and went opposite us to fight on her own. The other was a Dragoon, and I had gone in as Warrior, and we worked on jellies together one at a time. It didn't take too long to beat one, and we whittled the group down one at a time. We met our ally in the middle and finished off the fight before any of us was in particularly grave danger. We got quite a bit more loot than I was expecting, including a few scrolls I obtained that I will hold until I get the appropriate jobs to that level. It was quite a nice experience.

Apparently, our Blue Mage Dancer's computer overheated just before the end of the fight, so she didn't get any of the loot. But either her or the other guy had brought along another Star Orb, so we did the fight again. It was a little closer the second time (presumably because some or all of us had used our special 1-hr abilities in the first fight) but we still beat it without any problems. I let my formerly disconnected ally have all the loot the second time, as I had scored all the loot the first time and the other guy had passed on all of it both times. The other guy also sent me his used Dragoon gear, which he decided he did not want anymore.

I learned online later that the Jellies actually were gradually moving to the center, and would have turned into a stronger monster had they reached it, with strength proportional to how many were left.

It was a positive experience for me, and overall a good note to spend my last weekend. I was glad of it. I think I'll try a few more of those down the road, maybe after I level some other jobs.

On Wednesday I logged in for a bit on my PS2. I didn't have any time Monday or Tuesday, and not much even on Wednesday. I had been planning on spending Wednesday and Thursday evening, but on Wednesday evening I realized that it was actually closing according to Japanese time, one hour before midnight, which corresponded to 8:00 AM local time. And Wednesday was a little busier at home than ideal, so I didn't really get to do much besides reminisce with some of my linkshell members about earlier days.

I remembered how excited I was when I brought my new PS2 hard drive with Final Fantasy XI home from the store and started installing and then playing it, all those years ago. It was the most I ever spent for a game, topping my previous record of Final  Fantasy II(IV) for the Super NES when I was young (for some reason, I couldn't find that game for less than $70 when I purchased it brand new at retail). I bought Final Fantasy XI at the end of a high point in my life, just a few months before things really began to go south for me. I really enjoyed the game for a few months, but life got in the way, and every attempt I made later to get back into it just highlighted how much I had missed, and how much harder it would be to "catch up" to the mainstream population. Despite numerous times that I did get back into it for a few months, I never really did get the experience I invested in when I first purchased the game. Last week I cried a few tears over it. But overall I was glad that I had learned several months ahead of the upcoming closing, and I was glad I had decided to spend the money to restart my subscription and experience these last few months.

I logged in Thursday morning just long enough to travel to Jeuno and use a /yell command to say goodbye to my console versions. For full closure, I also booted up PlayOnline in the evening, and downloaded the PlayOnline update that officially closed access to the game from the system.

As I left the room feeling sad, I passed by my daughter excitedly jumping on her trampoline and smiled. Life hasn't always turned out how I wanted it, but it has nevertheless turned out good. I was grateful for the last few months, and very grateful for how the rest of my life has turned out in recent years.

A few days before the consoles shut down, I got my hands on a generic knockoff XBox 360 Wireless Controller Adapter for my PC and successfully installed it. I found to my delight that, unlike my PS3 controller with custom drivers I had downloaded, my Xbox 360 controller worked like a dream on the PC version of Final Fantasy XI, indistinguishable to me from the XBox 360 version of the game. I also verified that it looks great if I attach my laptop to our TV with an HDMI cable, also just like the XBox 360 version. I paid for the next month's subscription, so I'll play it on my PC at least until then, and probably longer unless we decide we need the money to fund my wife's home business that she is currently working on getting off the ground.

Final Fantasy XI Artifact Equipment

Recently, after hitting the temporary level cap of 60 and getting stuck in the Temple of Uggalipeh, I decided it was time to focus my efforts on what is, or at least used to be, an important part of character development for a level 50-60 character. I decided it was time to try in earnest to obtain my Paladin's Artifact Armor.

I had some time ago obtained the Honor Sword, which is the Artifact Weapon for the Paladin. In fact, it reminds me of an amusing story.

A few months ago, after beating the Shadow Lord and exploring most of the original game areas, I had been frustrated that I had not been able to find anything about Artifact Equipment without a guide. I succumbed to temptation and looked up the Records of Eminence objective for the first Warrior Artifact Equipment quest. It said to start it by talking to a certain NPC in a certain area--and I suddenly realized that I had already completed a quest from that NPC before defeating the Shadow Lord that had rewarded me with a powerful Warrior-exclusive weapon. In other words, I had gotten the Warrior Artifact Weapon and didn't even know it! Well, upon realizing that, I looked up the NPC for the Paladin weapon and realized I already had the quest, so I completed it as well.

The same NPC who gave me the quest for the Honor Sword, after getting the sword, gave me another quest, which I correctly assumed was for another piece of Artifact Equipment. I had made an effort to complete it, but got stumped, and decided to return to it later. Once I hit 60 and got stumped elsewhere, I decided it would be a good time to return to this effort.

The quest involves finding a giant shell bug in the Crawler's Nest. I wasn't sure if it was a random enemy drop or if there was something I had to trigger in the dungeon, or if possibly I had to find something in a treasure coffer (I had thought I had read something in passing about Artifact Equipment and Treasure Coffers). After what I thought was a thorough search for triggers, I decided to hunt some beetles in the dungeon (the only enemy with a shell) to see if they would drop the giant shell bug, or at least a treasure coffer. I had learned recently that the Trust NPC Nanaa Mihgo had the ability Treasure Hunter, which would increase my drop rate, so I was more primed to check this.

Well, after many dead beetles and nothing but gil from a treasure coffer, I decided to see if there was something I could do with numerous baskets where an inspection yielded the message "It looks like something was placed here recently." The baskets appeared to be baskets of rolanberries, so I went and bought some rolanberries and tried to place them at each basket. I'm sure I was on the right track for something, as the game gave slightly different messages for each basket (the fact that there was a message at all means that it was the right thing to try for some sort of result) but I did not learn what the result was supposed to be. It's probably for some other quest I haven't triggered yet.

However, while running back and forth between the areas, I happened upon a crevice in a wall with a ??? target that I had failed to notice before. Upon inspecting it, a Notorious Monster appeared, and I knew I had found what I was looking for. After a short fight, the monster fell, and I shouted in triumph (startling my wife who was doing something nearby) as the monster dropped the giant shell bug.

I thought that would be the end of it, but the quest ended up being much more involved than I thought. Rather than getting my reward for giving the bug to the quest-giver, which would follow the pattern of quests I had done in the past, he told me he had changed his mind about going after the fish that the bug was bait for, and encouraged me to go as well. He told me the general location to fish for it, Castle Oztroja, and I went off to look for a place to fish there.

Just finding the location ended up taking much longer than I expected. It's pretty deep in, and it had literally been years since I had explored the dungeon in detail. But I finally found a shallow pond and started fishing. As I hoped, a Notorious Monster caught the line. But all I got for beating him was...him. I got a fish, which was the dead monster.

I took it back to the quest-giver, hoping I'd finally done it. However, he sent me to Selbina to have it cleaned. In Selbina, the guy at the fishing guild found a pair of knight's boots inside. I took those back to the quest-giver, who didn't do more than remark. But when I spoke to the quest-giver's father, he directed me to take them to the prince. The prince, after noting who they had belonged to, finally rewarded me with the Gallant Boots, my first piece of Artifact Armor, and immediately gave me a new quest.

The new quest was nearly as involved and at least as challenging. I'll spare all the details, but at the end of it I was rewarded with the body piece of my gear (Gallant something, but I forgot the name). Both pieces of gear were quite a step up above what I had been using, and I was beginning to feel quite powerful.

I didn't get any further quests, and couldn't figure out how to trigger another one. I still remembered seeing something about treasure coffers in the past, so I decided to look for coffers in some of the dungeons. Since I was still trying to figure out how to access an area in Batallia Downs, and believed solving a puzzle in Eldieme Necropolis held the key, I decided to start there. It was somewhat fortunate that I did. I found a treasure coffer that had a pair of gauntlets in it--just a key item, not something I could wear, but enough to get me excited. At first I thought it was related to my Artifact Gear, but didn't know what do with it. Then, I remembered I actually had a quest from elsewhere that was about gauntlets in this dungeon, and my hopes drained for it being Artifact related. But then I remembered again that this was a quest I had been given recently, in fact since starting my Artifact Armor quests, and that there had been no apparent reason that this NPC had suddenly given me a new quest when he had done no such thing previously. Sure enough, when I followed the trail, I was rewarded with another piece of my set.

I decided to go to Garlaige Citadel, where I had another unsolved quest, which I hoped could be related. On the minus side, I did not solve that quest or get any nearer solving it. On the plus side, I did find another piece of my gear in the treasure coffer there. There was no quest to solve; it was just a piece of gear.

I wasn't sure whether to search for another quest or another coffer somewhere. When I was bored at work, I decided to review the recently completed gauntlet quest online. The website I used actually stated that there were three pieces of equipment tied to that quest; that two treasure coffers would yield Artifact Equipment once this quest was activated. Curious about it, I read elsewhere a contrary statement that once the first Artifact Armor quest was begun for any given job, two pieces of Artifact Armor would be available in specific treasure coffers, and the gauntlet quest would become available from the same NPC for each job. I read which coffer had my remaining gear, and realized it was the logical next place to check anyway, and went and completed the set.

Now, as I walk around with my gallant gear, I feel decked out, and up to meet new challenges. Like an old friend from high school used to say, I feel like "I am a true Paladin!"

My Epic Battle with the Shadow Lord

Well, I've finally finished my summary of my recent gaming activity. It's time to start this thing in earnest.

The subject of this entry is going to be the most enjoyable experience in gaming I've had since starting the blog: my victory over the Shadow Lord in Final Fantasy XI.

It was a bit of a challenge easing back into Final Fantasy XI. Although on the surface the game looks the same, the experience bears little resemblance to the game experience I had twelve years ago. Low level players and low rank players are very rare, and leveling up is so quick and easy that low level players don't stay that way long. Experience parties are a thing of the past. It is rare to encounter other players in any of the game's original areas outside of the cities.

After I had spent a few days getting my bearings back, I went to Jeuno to shout for a party that would accompany me to finish mission 5-1 to Fei' Yin. After a while, I finally got a single response. After a short conversation, he told me about the new Trust system. I had seen the name floating around, but hadn't yet looked into what it was. It turned out to be the answer to all my partying problems. It was a way to form a party composed of Non-Player Characters, guided by their own AI, which would let a player get through areas that were originally meant for partying, without the help of another player. I quickly gathered a few Trust NPC's to help me out, and easily finished the fight at the end of mission 5-1 at the original level cap of 50.

Upon finishing the mission, I was finally given the mission that marked the end of the original, unexpanded game's storyline. I was sent to Castle Zvahl to investigate the seal that had been placed there 20 years earlier in the game's history. Knowing that this mission was originally available when the level cap was still 50, I opted to try it before completing the game's first limit break quest, so that I could experience it at level 50.

It took me nearly a week to explore Castle Zvahl far enough to get to the Throne Room. At level 50, as a warrior without spells like Invisible and Sneak, it is impossible to explore without a party. But with my NPC allies, I was able to push through. Unfortunately, the Playstation 2 suffers serious performance issues in Castle Zvahl, causing battles to lag heavily for much of the dungeon. The enemies are closely packed, and fighting more than two at a time usually resulted in death (or even just two at a time if they both started attacking at the same time). I had to restart the dungeon many times. Fortunately, it is much easier to get to the dungeon than it used to be, due to a new warping system connected to Survival Guides positioned at certain locations (i.e. the entrances to some dungeons, including this one). I usually earned enough gil from the beastmen inside to fund a new warp from the Survival Guide. Once I passed a certain point, it got easier to explore. Although the enemies got harder, and had to be fought one at a time, their density decreased, and the system lag issues disappeared. Also, from that point, it was a mostly linear path to the Throne Room. And just outside there was a Home Point, which, from new game mechanics, I could teleport directly to once I had reached it.

Up until this point I hadn't been sure that this was, in fact, the Shadow Lord mission. I had suspected, wrongly, that the final mission would be the third rank 5 mission, and that this was an intermediate mission building up to that. But the cutscene in the throne room began playing out, the Shadow Lord appeared, my hair stood on end and I got a chill as his true nature was revealed, and the fight began.

Of course, at level 50 with three NPC allies, the fight ended pretty quickly. I don't think I even got a third of his HP removed. I had been aware that in the early history of this game, no full party of player characters had defeated him until after the level cap was raised to 55. So the battle went as expected. I decided now was the time to do the first limit break quest, and I also decided to change my job from Warrior to Paladin and make the latter my new main job. When I got my Paladin to level 50, I tried again, and almost every level thereafter. Of course I did slightly better each time, but still got beaten up to and past level 55.

As I was surviving longer I began to notice that the boss was consistently winning with around the same HP level, despite a few level-ups on my part. Where I had mostly been focusing on my actions and his HP, I began to pay more attention to the actual fight. I suddenly began to realize that there was a point in the fight where he had begun to be immune to physical damage, and his HP stopped going down. It was an alarming realization, and I began to question whether I would beat him before level 60, as I had hoped I would. I decided to look up the boss online to find out whether I had any options to fight him in earnest without leveling up considerably more.

I learned that once his HP drops to a certain point, he begins to alternate between immunity to physical damage and immunity to magic, depending on his stance and whether he is using physical attacks or magic. He would alternate from one to the other once he had taken enough damage. I realized that for several tries I had consistently been fighting through a magic immunity stage without even realizing it, before being stumped by the physical immunity.

I was initially somewhat dismayed. The problem is, before rank 6, the only Trust NPC that does magic damage at all is Adelheid, whom I was using in my party, but he was always out of MP by the time I got to this stage. And as a Paladin I had little hope of dealing the magic damage myself.

Then I finally found it, on only one website out of several describing how to fight this boss: even if you don't do enough damage, the boss will switch between physical and magic immunity on his own after about five minutes! Once I read that, I resolved on a new strategy.

By this time, I was a level 58 Paladin. I went into battle summoning Kupipi, a white mage, Tenzen, a samurai, and Adelheid (I read he's a scholar, but I don't think I've ever partied with a PC scholar, so I didn't know his class until I read it more recently).

I had decided to handle my magic consumption differently. Instead of trying to save Kupipi's magic by curing myself, I conserved my own MP and let Kupipi keep me at full health. The battle was going well, and I held out clear to the point of difficulty when the boss raised his sword and stopped taking damage. By that point, both my magic users were out of MP, but I was at full health and MP. Then I did something I had never tried in any battle. I disengaged from the fight, and started using my magic to keep myself alive and keep the boss attacking only me.

The plan worked better than I expected. Since my NPC's weren't fighting or being attacked, they behaved as if resting. So their MP began to regenerate. I was losing nothing, since neither they nor I could do anything useful while engaged in battle. All I needed to do was stay alive for about five minutes. If I could stay alive long enough for Kupipi to recover enough MP, I figured I had a chance.

At level 58, as a Paladin, equipped with the Iron Musketeer's armor set available from the Bastok conquest guards, the damage the Shadow Lord does is somewhat manageable. As long as I had MP to spare, I could keep my HP up. As I recall, I could get away with using Cure II for awhile to conserve MP before needing to do a stronger Cure here and there. I could take a beating for a good amount of time.

One of my favorite parts of the fight, though I ended up not executing it as well as it should have been, was using Invincible and then proceeding to start resting to recover my own MP. It lasts long enough to recover a little bit, but I fumbled a bit and didn't get very much from it. But it was awesome to watch the Shadow Lord hitting me for 0 damage for a while as my whole party was recovering.

I had wanted to blog sooner, and in the time that's passed some of the details have faded. At some point I ran low on MP, but Kupipi had recovered hers, so I reengaged to allow Kupipi to start healing me again. I think it was very near this time that the Shadow Lord finally sheathed his sword and started taking physical damage again. I was ecstatic to see it, realizing that my strategy worked and I had a fighting chance. But my thrill was shorter-lived than I had hoped--when the boss had just a few slivers left on his HP bar, his sword went up again.

At first I was dismayed, but I wondered if between me and Adelheid we could get those last few slivers. I threw off a Holy spell, but when his bar didn't seem to move after that I decided it might be more prudent to use my MP to try lasting out another five minutes. I didn't have Invincible available, but my party was in decent shape, so I went for it.

One strategy I used that seemed to work well was to run lengthwise back and forth across the room. I didn't take damage while running; it was only when I stopped to turn around that the boss would get a few hits on me. It helped me to last longer.

Again, some of the specifics are fuzzy, but I think it went something like this. Because I didn't have full MP at the start of the second round, I couldn't last as long. When I was in danger, I had to reengage to let Kupipi heal me, and when he started running low again, I had to disengage again. At some point, I believe it was around here, I noticed that I had lost hate, and the boss was attacking my allies, alternating between them. If I remember right, I decided to take advantage of it by resting myself for a short while. I believe he started attacking Tenzen, which allowed both me and Kupipi to heal. I know that by the time his sword came down, all four of us were at less than half HP, though I was healed back to full almost immediately after reengaging.

As it turned out, I probably would have been better off to use Holy and Banish instead of waiting the second five minutes. He went down almost immediately after lowering his sword. I don't think he took much more than 200 damage before going down. Oh, well.

Of course, as I had previously read, like many a Final Fantasy final boss, the Shadow Lord has more than one incarnation to fight. I watched the cut scene and braced myself for the next portion. Seeing how battered my party was at that moment, and knowing second-form boss fights are usually at least as tough as the first form, I wasn't really expecting to survive, though I was hoping to gain insight into tactics I could use.

When the fight started, it went by so quickly I hardly knew what had happened. I led off with the weaponskill "The Spirits Within," which, at full TP from tanking the physically immune section, and full HP from NPC healing, dealt a little over a thousand damage. It was about a quarter of his HP bar. I concentrated on healing myself, not really getting much chance to see what was happening. But I swear, every time I looked at my log window, it indicated a skillchain from Tenzen off of himself, or a magic burst from Adelheid. The Shadowlord's HP was going down quickly, I realized, and before I knew it, his HP was gone.

It's hard to describe just how I felt right then. An enormous feeling of rising elation was kept in check only by wondering if that was really all there was to the fight. As I watched the game's final pre-expansion cut scene (which in true Final Fantasy fashion probably made me shed a tear or two for its emotional impact) it became increasingly clear that this was it; I had done it. At some point I let out a cry of triumph, possibly alarming my wife upstairs. It was a moment I had waited for for quite a few years, and it did not disappoint. From what I'd read, I hadn't expected to win the fight before level 60, (though knowing what I learned in the fight, I think I could have done it a level or two earlier). But there it was, the main story "beaten," after nearly twelve years of owning the game and playing it on and off.

For reflection's sake, and because it seemed right, I decided to go back to my home nation without using any warps. I can't remember if I walked all the way or just to San d'Oria, but I'm pretty sure I did not arrive in Bastok by airship. In any case, it was very cathartic to return to my home nation and have rank 6 pronounced upon me. It's a badge I proudly wear in game, and it feels great to me that I finally accomplished it.

Final Fantasy XI: Online Another World

Well, I had originally intended for the last post to catch me up to present, so I would be writing about current experiences instead of summarizing recent history. But then I started playing Final Fantasy XI, and I haven't really made time for much else leisure-wise until recently.

I guess a little more history is in order. Historically, Final Fantasy is my favorite video game series. I played the original when it was a brand new game on the NES, and in that time period it became my favorite game. It was similar to Dragon Warrior, which till then had possibly been my favorite, but in those days I thought it was better still. (Though in later years, Dragon Warrior has proved to evoke more nostalgia, and I claim it now as my favorite NES game.)

The first sequel to be published in the U.S., then titled Final Fantasy II (though it is actually a port of Final Fantasy IV), is still one of my favorite games of all time, if not my favorite game of all time. I have played it through several times, including the Playstation and Nintendo DS versions. It was the first game I had played that had such a detailed level of storytelling, on par with books I read and movies I watched. The story resonates with me to this day. Several of my favorite Final Fantasy characters are in this game, including but not limited to Cecil Harvey (probably my favorite FF main character), Rydia, and Kain Highwind. My wife actually got me a copy of the Super Famicom version of this, but I've yet to play it through.

The other main contender for my favorite game of all time is Final Fantasy VI, which was originally released in the U.S. as Final Fantasy III. It has the most engaging cast of characters of any Final Fantasy game, or really any game I've played. It has one of the best villains of any game I've played. It has one of the most dramatic plot twists of any game I've ever played. And the game's opera scene is an interactive work of art that I never tire of replaying or rewatching.

In late 2002, between my brothers and I, we owned every main-series Final Fantasy game that had been released to that date in the U.S., which was I - X, excluding II and III. I decided to replay the series, which included a replay of I and IV, followed by a playthrough of V, which had only then recently been released in the U.S. for the first time, followed by replays of VI and VII, then completing for the first time VIII, IX, and X.

I had them all finished by early 2004, at which time I was eagerly awaiting the Playstation 2 release of Final Fantasy XI, the first online game in the series. Although I was leery of the monthly fee associated with the game, I was excited to see how my favorite game series would be treated in an online environment.

I quickly fell in love with the game. At that time, because I got it right at the U.S. console release, there was a large influx of new players, and it was not an issue trying to find a party for just about anything I wanted to try. I really enjoyed the interaction with other people, and the feeling of learning to work together for a common goal. As I've mentioned before, I was also fascinated with the dynamic of interacting with players from Japan. I started as a warrior and took it up to around level 20I with lofty dreams of becoming both a paladin and a summoner. But after a couple of months was when things began to fall apart in my home life. I had a particularly unpleasant experience where I was forced to leave a party waiting for me while I took care of something at home, which ended up, of necessity, taking much longer than expected and which left my party uninformed and very angry with me for quite a long time. It frustrated me so much that I ended up taking a break from the game.

I don't think I really picked it back up again until I had moved out on my own nearly a year later. I don't remember exactly when, but it seems like it was just around the time that the second expansion, Chains of Promathia, was released. It was more difficult to get a party then, and I seemed to run into more people trying to tell me I shouldn't try, so I started doing more solo play as I started to explore higher-than-20-level areas.

I think I had a few periods of on-and-off play for a while, gradually moving my character up to and through the mid-20's. But at some point I decided I could not afford the monthly fee, and put the game on hold.

When my financial situation finally began to get better and I got married, I picked the game up again for a while. My wife worked early morning hours and we retired together rather early, so I would end up also frequently waking up early and playing for some time before I went to work in the morning. This was around 2010 and the game had become quite different than it had been when I had played years before. It was now very difficult to get a traditional experience party; in fact, during this time, I believe, was when they introduced Grounds of Valor tomes that caused people to form large alliances against easy prey monsters to get quick experience bonuses and level up much faster than anything I'd seen before. I didn't enjoy it because I thought that it boosted levels too fast to enjoy seeing how the character was developing, but it was the only common party opportunity I could find. I ended up still mostly playing solo, taking my warrior up all the way to level 50 as I explored the higher level dungeons from the original game and completed the Bastok missions up to rank 5. At that point, the level restriction for mission 5-1 had only recently been removed, but I wanted to try it at level 50 and wanted to look for a party. But after a couple of failed weekends trying to get one, I decided to take what I thought would be a short break while I pursued other interests. But when I was ready to start again, my daughter was born, her medical expenses filled our budget, and after we had cut out all the rest of the fat, there was still no room left for a monthly game subscription.

This last year, we paid off our car and our daughter qualified for Social Security. Our financial situation finally saw some relief. I began to think about taking up the game again, but I was enjoying myself with Dragon Quest, Zelda, and the notion of replaying earlier Final Fantasy titles, and figured there was no rush. That is, until I read something that upset me more than I realized it would. Earlier that year, though I had missed it until over half a year later, Square-Enix had announced that at the end of March 2016, they would be discontinuing the Playstation 2 and XBox 360 versions of Final Fantasy XI, and it would be playable only on PC.

For whatever reason, this announcement filled me with a deep regret and brought me to tears. It reminded me that the game would not be guaranteed to run forever, and I realized that my preferred means of playing would very shortly be gone forever. I had always meant to do much more with the game, but had never been able to make things work in my life. Even though I still did not really want to spend the monthly fee, I realized that I would regret it bitterly if I did not take time to play the game one more time, and at least try to finish the main storyline, before I could no longer play it on my Playstation 2.

And so, after discussing it with my wife, I renewed my subscription around late November (I conveniently and coincidentally made the decision right at the start of a 10-free-day Return to Vana'diel Campaign) and spent much of the following months deeply absorbed in the game. I did finish the original main storyline for Bastok, and played through Windurst and San d'Oria missions up to rank 4 to effectively see all of the game's pre-expansion story. I have also started Rise of the Zilart content, though I'm very early into it. I finally figured out how to unlock the paladin job, and I have adopted it as my main job, and have leveled it to 58, with my warrior job at 52. I also took time to level up my bard and several mage jobs up to around 20, with white mage at 30 for a viable support job. I have enjoyed the experience immensely and will likely write about some experiences. However, my steam on it has finally slowed somewhat, and I believe I may take a break from it when the console versions are shut down at the end of the month.

From Dragon Quest to Zelda, and on to Final Fantasy

Well, I mentioned in a previous post that I had recently begun to pick up Final Fantasy XI. An unfortunate side effect of that is that it has effectively kept me from updating my new blog for a while. Although I definitely want to write somewhat on my experience with that game.

But first I want to bridge just a bit with my experience in the weeks leading up to my previous blog entries, which were occupied by another old favorite, classic series, The Legend of Zelda.

Actually, I had mentally toyed with the idea of replaying various old games nearly since getting my Nintendo 3DS several years ago. I saw some old favorites available on the virtual console, and thought to myself that they would make excellent portable games. But our finances got very tight not long after that, and I decided to forgo it for awhile. But a little while ago, I think for Christmas of '14, I got an E-Shop gift card from my wife, and I decided to use it. Unfortunately, I misplaced it. I actually found and misplaced it a couple of times leading up to the time when we moved last March, at which point I lost track of it again. But a few months later while cleaning and unpacking my wife found it again, and I finally kept track of it long enough to use it.

I purchased the first two Zelda games on my 3DS and played them through. It sure brought back some memories. I didn't spend a whole lot of extra time with them, as there's not much I ever wanted to do with them that I hadn't done. But I enjoyed reintroducing myself to a series that gradually got away from me in my adult years.

After finishing those two, I found my Game Boy Advance copy of A Link to the Past and used it as my next mobile game. By the time I finished it I was primed with excitement to move forward. As our finances have stabilized a bit, my wife has instituted a "chore chart" incentivized with small amounts of money. I was quickly able to amass enough money to purchase Link's Awakening for my 3DS. Unfortunately since moving I have been unable to locate my physical copies of the game (I own one each of the original and the DX versions). Around the same time, having set up my Nintendo 64 for the first time in many years, I played through the opening of Majora's Mask and then started playing through Ocarina of Time in preparation to more properly enjoy its immediate sequel.

While at home I played Ocarina of Time, while on the road I played Link's Awakening. I actually finished them at nearly the same time. However, I decided I was not done with Link's Awakening. I finished missing two Pieces of Heart and I knew I had not found every Secret Seashell. And I was sure I had never found all of each kind. I couldn't quite remember whether I had previously found all the Pieces of Heart, but I was sure that I had reason to believe there were more Secret Seashells.

Some years before, while replaying the series after my mission, I had made the determination that I could not consult a guide to find them until I had exhausted every effort on my own to find them. I had made a pretty thorough search, but near the end I ran out of steam, and didn't finish my thorough effort. Not remembering where I had left off, I decided to start it over. But to motivate me to be as thorough as I had to be, I decided it would be easier to start the game over yet again (meaning after I had just completed it a few months ago).

There were a few things I wanted to be thorough on. Firstly, I used a shovel on every space in the game where it's possible to use it. There are several secret seashells that are found by digging, but most of them are in conspicuous places. There is one that, arguably, is not so conspicuous. It was found near the beginning of my search area and drove me to compulsively check everywhere else. I actually didn't find any other seashells by this means, but it felt good to thorough with it.

Another thing I did was dive underwater in every spot possible. There is one Piece of Heart that can easily be found this way, in a conspicuously otherwise-empty underground cavern. As it turns out, one of my missing Pieces of Heart was in another spot underwater that in my opinion is very inconspicuous, and therefore difficult to find without this type of thorough approach,

Lastly, my approach involved holding out my sword against any cavern wall that ran against the edge of the screen, or any dungeon wall (also at the edge of the screen) where there wasn't a door. This process was done with volume up, to test for weak walls that a bomb could destroy. There are several secrets in caves that can be found in this manner. Most of them can be found by looking for suspicious places. However, after a very thorough search I found two of them that didn't have anything to suggest a weak wall might be there, so without this type of approach I would have missed them. This was how I found the last Piece of Heart that I was missing. I was actually surprised that I didn't find any of these spots in the dungeons (ones that the game doesn't hint at).

I was very pleased that I was able to find all the Pieces of Heart on my own, as I did years ago with A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time. I may also have done it years ago with Link's Awakening, but I genuinely could not remember whether I had (though after finding them I felt like a small bell rang in the back of my mind, as though I might have both had and forgotten the experience of finding them).

As for the seashells, I ended up two short, after all my efforts, and I finally ended up searching through information online. It turns out, there are 26 in all, two of which are only available at certain points and unavailable if you miss the opportunity. Furthermore, once you have 20, if you go to the seashell mansion and get your reward, all of the remaining seashells disappear from the map. In fact, the two I had missed ended up being in places I had searched, but because I had traded in my others they didn't show up. Even though I ended up looking this up, I decided I was satisfied with the results of my playthrough.

Meanwhile, after I finished Ocarina of Time, I started an earnest playthrough of Majora's Mask, which I had been rather excited to replay, I began a notebook to keep track of where I'd found pieces of heart, gossip stone locations and messages, and other notes. Majora's Mask is one of the most fascinating games I've ever played, and I was having a great time with it. Unfortunately, I had an unlucky streak one week. One downside to the game is that you can't do a hard save without also restarting all your progress in an area. In a few days time, I experienced a power outage, a game-stopping bug that froze my controller input (twice), and my daughter pulling out the cartridge mid-play to replace it with Super Mario 64. These all happened while trying to complete the same area. I got frustrated and ended up putting the game down awhile. This also happened the same week that Final Fantasy XI was offering 10 days free to former players. As I had a strong desire to start playing that game again, I decided to take a break from Majora's Mask, and I haven't gotten back to it yet (though I think about it every weekend).

This brings me to the latest chapter of my gaming experience, which will merit a decent size blog entry of its own: my recent experience with the MMORPG, Final Fantasy XI.