Get a job! - Let's Play Final Fantasy III

At first it looks like the M. Knight's body has vanished, leaving only the armor. But there's still a little pixel of light representing an eye in the helmet. So the M. Knight was decapitated, and the rest of his body just disintegrated? Or did the monsters just suck out the meat from inside the armor as if they were eating a crab?

It's always a bit sad when I realize just how much FF3DS was made easier than FF3 original. You walk into Sylx at level 42 in the DS version, and the place is almost (but not quite) completely unlike challenging. In the Famicom version, you get bum-rushed by a pack of super-beasts 2 steps in and die embarrassingly fast.

And of all those groups, only the last one really scares me, because it's nearly full. The lower monster limit in the DS version is a pretty big change here. Six nasty monsters getting a surprise round is... well. That last screen-shot.

Holy crap, the M.Knights get reduced to a severed head and suit of armor when killed? That's pretty awesome, though not as quite as awesome as FFIV's roadkill Cid or deflated FuSoYa.

Progress is being made! Update coming soon!

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Good Lord! How long did that take?

Over an hour, and that's with near-constant fast forwarding.

Update probably won't be until Monday, but I unlock Ninja and Sage, collect a bunch of legendary weapons and stock up on 24 Shurikens.

I'm looking forward to the eventual conclusion of this LP. Man, I need to update my Survival Kids LP again at some point.

4/26/2010 - Grinding Pays Off, New Jobs Appear!



Returning to the tower, we use our EurekaKey to gain access to that which lies beyond the mirror- the Forbidden Land Eureka.



The first section is pretty straightforward, and thanks to all the grinding the enemies aren't really posing much of a threat as well.



The next floor has one of the essential items for our team- an invaluable Ribbon that prevents negative status effects. Katie immediately dons it after dispatching the rouge Ninja.



One of the new items we find in Eureka is a Shuriken, though it doesn't seem like any of our party members can actually equip them at the moment.



Most of the boxes down here are either FenixDowns, Elixirs or more Shuriken so its obvious that this is the section where they're preparing us for something big.

B4 brings us to our first legendary weapon boss, Amon, who is simply just a recolor of Hyne from back in the floating tree fortress. SL and Ringo's weapon skills are quite high from all the grinding, so they're belting out hits in the 10+ range consistently.



This nets us the FullMoon boomerang, that I toss on SL.



Even the regular enemies on the deeper levels are more boss-like in appearance.



Next up on the legendary weapons list is the Masamune, which you have to take by force from a lady ninja.



B6 is a total fake out, with a series of invisible bridges, followed by an intangible wall passage.



This passage leads to B7, and a new boss Scylla who promises new Jobs Ninja and Sage if we can best her in battle. Between the M.Knights' hits and Titan's fury it looks like a losing proposition for her.

For our trouble, we not only receive the two best jobs in the game but also another of the legendary weapons, the Eldest staff.



I waste no time turning our M.Knights into Ninjas and PERCY into a Sage. I can't bear to take Katie out of that cute kitty hood, though.



Just on the other side of the room is another legendary weapon, Ragnarok. Again, the boss is quickly dispatched and SL equips the spoils.



The next room has both a revival and healing spring. Who would have thought this game would be so forgiving at this point?



It also has another pair of elixirs and another pair of shuriken.



It also has one more hidden passage that leads to a vendor selling the strongest armor (of which Ringo already had a set of, but I got for SL) and more shuriken that SL and Ringo are now capable of using.

Before blowing all my money on ninja throwing stars, though, I return to the main room's magic vendor and stock up on my final tier of spells.



Hopefully 24 of these suckers will be enough to last me through to the end of all this.



On the way out of the dungeon we grab Excalibur from the other side of the floor with the false bridges. SL is now dual wielding both Ragnarok and Excalibur, and Ringo has Masamune and the FullMoon.



Exit tower, run back to ship, rest, fill out PERCY's spells.



Run back to the tower, prepare to die horribly at what's to come.

Next time: Sylx Tower and the Darkness Within

I'm pretty bummed then nerfed the final jobs in the DS version, because damn do you look powerful now.

You should give us some tasty status screens shots.

We both know that having access to the best jobs won't amount to squat in the World of Darkness.

Wait, so shurikens are still just for throwing in this game but they cost over 65K a pop?

Yes, but they're dual-wieldable and do 9999 damage apiece. In other words, win buttons.

So do these uber-tier Jobs make this version easier? They sound way more powerful than the Ninja and Sage in the DS remake.

Yes and no. The jobs are way more powerful (essentially negating the use for anything but them), but the final dungeon is incredibly tough compared to its DS incarnation.

Except for the final boss anyways. The NES version just spammed Flare Wave, which while deadly was at least predictable.

So are we ignoring the other 'big' summons on the grounds of them being useless, or did I miss a page while reading this?

Are you asking TheSL to go back through the Ancient Maze?

Weapon levels? Guess they cut those out.

...not seeing the mythological reference for Fullmoon? It feels out of place, but I feel like I know there's something that it's supposed to refer to.

Ugh... I've heard plenty about how bad these dungeons are, so forget I said anything.

EDIT: Though, looking back... It doesn't seem that bad, and I imagine the grinding will make it more tolerable than the trip in was.

On the other hand, after Eureka you'd be in much better condition for getting through the Maze and able to make short work of the Summon Bosses.

Something very important is going on in this screenshot that sort of dispels the idea that sages are unequivocally the best magic user in the game (an opinion I've never really gotten). It's also something that paves the way for Tellah to suck as much as he will.

The entire last area of FFIII and FFIV are very thematically similar as you kill bosses for legendary pickups and with all the twisty invisible paths.

What, the low amount of spell charges? Sages totally make up for that by actually making every single charge worth it.

EDIT: Also, I'm pretty sure what you're seeing in that image is a Sage that's already been drained quite a bit. At level 51, a Sage's spell charge list is supposed to be 54/47/39/31/27/22/18/14.

It's been a long time since I played the NES version, but I distinctly remember sages having significantly fewer spell charges of low level magic (though they were pretty close on top-tier). May also be a pretty faulty memory, though.

I found it pretty useful to start off in wizard/shaman and burn low-level spells through the final dungeon, then switch to sage once they were exhausted.

And FFV, to an extent.

That was immediately after switching jobs, before it had any chance to build skill. By the time I was able to escape Eureka it was more like this:

Another update coming tomorrow! The big one won't be until next week, though.