Are we there yet? (FFIII, Days 36-40)

It feels like it's taking me forever to finish this game.

Now, I deliberately took some time off from posting because it was my birthday over the weekend and I felt like it. Despite this, I did not take any time off from playing FFIII, so buckle up for a long post today. If all goes well, (It won't) I may only be making a couple more posts about this one.



We all live in a yellow submarine.

Our last cliffhanger left me at Odin's doorstep, about to wreak some havoc on him. Things did not go according to plan. I mean... He was an optional boss anyway, so I opted to move on instead. I continued the main quest to find Noah's Lute, and spent a fair amount of time looking for the underwater Temple of Time. And, no, there was no green garbed hero inside.

I finally found it and went inside to find a short, but confusing dungeon. So far, I've found DS style maps of every single dungeon. Not this one. I ended up winging it with a map from the original. Somehow, I managed to make it through. I collected some neat loot on the way, most of which was actually pretty useful, and finally found the thing I'd come for. It played a jaunty little tune and I promptly teleported the heck out of there.


This magic lute is magic loot. Your mind is blown, I'm sure.

How strange! I'll put Lack Sidetable on the case!

So my next stop was to go and wake up Unei, another one of those Jedi Master types. She promptly joins my party and starts ordering them around. She informs them that they need a new airship. To my relief, this need did not coincide with another destroyed vehicle. After my real life experience last Thursday, I don't think I could have taken it! Anyway, off we went to some ancient ruins.

I don't really remember the ancient ruins giving me much trouble. Also, there were funny little researchers all over the place who were upset about a cave-in. So Unei took care of the junk that was in the way by hitting it with dream stones. As far as I'm concerned the stuff was basically antimatter. I mean, it destroys itself along with whatever it touches. Between Unei stepping into battle now and then, and a 'town' area in the middle of the dungeon where I could upgrade my stuff and take a rest, I had an easy time of it. Also, I had a decent map once more.

Nice ride.

Once I found the ship, I was treated to a tour by Unei, and discovered that now I basically had a flying village. With beds, shops, and even a fat chocobo, everything I could need was right there. With that, Unei left to go work on something with Doga. Then I got a cool little cut scene of the airship surfacing out of the ocean. I flew around for a bit, then figured out my next move.

The cave of shadows awaited. In some ways, I really liked this dungeon. It was annoying to have to keep finding the secret passages to move around, but the aesthetic of it was really cool. In the first room, I met a Batman (Dark Knight) who gave me a Kotetsu and then promptly died. Free Kotetsu! I took this as a hint that I should probably switch jobs. Thus Ektorp Sofa became Batman.

Batman was helpful. The enemies here decided that dividing would be fun - meaning that if you hit one with the wrong kind of damage, you end up with two of them. Dark Knight weapons seem to neutralize this effect, so that was pretty darn convenient. If nothing else, this game has taught me to pay attention to clues about effective classes. With Ektorp "Batman" Sofa now tearing it up, this dungeon became much less of a challenge, and I reached the Fang of earth with ease.

Hemnes has been taking lessons from Lack.

Beefcake Boss

The boss, Hecatoncheir, showed up and gave us a 'over my dead body' sort of look when we were about to take the item, so the party was happy to oblige. This was one of the easier boss battles in the game, and for that I was thankful. He lasted a couple of rounds, and then fell like a brick. So we took his treasure.

After the battle, and once we had the last of the 4 fangs, Po'Ang excitedly mentioned that now we got to go back to visit the creepy old Jedi couple who were cooking up something special for the party. So that's at least interesting, I guess. At this point I'd gained several levels and decided I wanted to do something before resuming the main quest.

That's right. This guy again.

I realized that I had to go and grab the Nautilus to get back to Doga's manor, so on my way back I decided that Odin was going down. With my new levels and Batman powers, I dispatched him in something ridiculous like two rounds. Now if I decide to change someone to a summoner I can summon Odin. (Spoilers: I wont.)

Getting back on track, I sped off to Doga's house, and was invited to step into the magic circle to Doga's Grotto. Dude keeps lots of gnarly monsters in there, that's for sure. The dungeon was short, but tough. The enemies are all quite resilient, so I took my time, and had to keep a careful eye on party health. I teleported out once or twice to take advantage of the wellspring water and revive book in Doga's manor, before I made it all the way to the end.

 Doga and Unei were waiting for us. The surprise was actually a bit surprising as they revealed that we had to kill them to move on. I'm just glad they attacked one by one. They even healed the party between fights, so that made what could have been a disaster into a manageable event.

After the battle, the music got all sad and everyone was really sorry that they were dying. We got the standard 'it's all up to you now' sort of vibe before they disappeared, Yoda style. Now, the death of the mentor is a pretty standard part of the Hero's Journey, so objectively the scene makes sense. But there's an elephant in the room. Why is no one even remotely surprised when the kindly old wizard people transform into cthulean nightmares in battle? I started fighting and I was like, Wat?!

That brings us to the final part of my progress. I went back to trade out the Nautilus for the Invincible, and flew over to the four statues. One by one, they crumbled as I passed, and then a short hop over a mountain left me right in front of what I've been informed is phase 1 of a three-part final dungeon.

I travelled through, and made it out the other side of the Ancient's Maze, only to realize I was nearly out of mana, and I haven't seen a single tent or sleeping bag type item to use on the world map. So I trekked back through to the outside of the maze and took a nap on my airship. It's a good thing too. I apparently accidentally skipped the boss. Oops.

Tune in next time for Kate's Adventures in Backtracking (TM).