Lines in the Fog

Contents

  1. 1. Curse of the Techie
  2. 2. Back in the Canoe
  3. 3. Into the Cavern
  4. 4. Hello Darkness, My Old Friend
  5. 5. My Rage Knows No Bounds
  6. 6. Conclusion
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11 min read

Final Fantasy I - Shattered Ice, Frayed Nerves

Part of the series: The First Step: Final Fantasy I

Back in the Canoe

We pick back up just outside of Mt Gulg, Fire Crystal charged up, and some Sages to go and show off to. The journey back is fairly uneventful other than the party reaching Level 33, and we stop by the Crescent Lake item shop to stock back up to full supplies of our Potions and Hi-Potions.

Talking to the couple in town, it seems the snoozy gent from before has woken up and mentions a cave to the north that may contain a levistone - something we know people seem keen to get their hands on.

He claims he can't go because "he'll never hear the end of it from his wife". I don't know if this is a like-for-like translation of the original, but it feels crazy to me that a game from the mid 80s was already making wife complaints. It just feels like "games were for kids" then to me, I don't know though...

Anyway, he's more useful than the Sages, who basically just say to come back when we have all 4 Crystals restored and "all will be revealed". That feels a bit ominous, but it's not my place to question.

Looking at the world map, I can guess where Mr-Formerly-Snoozy was talking about, so we head back to our boat and try and make our way in. Fortunately, as well as at docks, we can now leave the boat at the mouth of rivers and canoe our way up them.

The waterways are a bit of a maze, but we make our way thorough reasonably well - it's basically the same enemy-set as the lower part of the continent's. It also seems that those random encounters are often objectively tougher than the ones in Mt Gulg.

Curse of the Techie
Into the Cavern
EconomyDungeon CrawlFinal FantasyLet's PlayCombat NotesFatigueParty DynamicsReal-Time Reflection
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Final Fantasy I - Everybody Get Into a Big Canoe (and Then Into the Lava)
Final Fantasy I - Warriors on Trial
Part of the series: The First Step: Final Fantasy I (20 posts)
  • 1. Final Fantasy I - The First Hour
    A retrospective on the first hour of Final Fantasy I Pixel Remaster - my thoughts and feelings so far.
    • 15 min read
  • 2. Final Fantasy I - Out into the World
    The first steps into the world of Final Fantasy I, Matoya's Cave, and the town of Pravoka.
    • 9 min read
  • 3. Final Fantasy I - Elfheim
    The first steps into the world of Final Fantasy I, Matoya's Cave, and the town of Pravoka.
    • 14 min read
  • 4. Final Fantasy I - Heavy is the Head
    Getting back on track, heading to the Western Keep
    • 8 min read
  • 5. Final Fantasy I - Magical Mystic Key Tour
    Heading around the world with the Mystic Key, and seeing what we can unlock.
    • 9 min read
  • 6. Final Fantasy I - Go West, Young Warriors
    Setting sail to the west, exploring Mount Duergar, and the town of Melmond.
    • 9 min read
  • 7. Final Fantasy I - Into the Bowels of the Earth
    We head into the Cavern of Earth, with a goal of defeating the Vampire and restoring the Earth Crystal. Things are never quite that simple though, are they?
    • 14 min read
  • 8. Final Fantasy I - The Wandering Heroes of Melmond
    We return to Melmond, but struggle to find our next task.
    • 9 min read
  • 9. Final Fantasy I - Everybody Get Into a Big Canoe (and Then Into the Lava)
    With a renewed sense of purpose, we're ready for some amphibious adventuring. We head to Mount Gulg, and find ourselves in a lava-filled dungeon with a fiery boss.
    • 10 min read
  • 10. Final Fantasy I - Shattered Ice, Frayed Nerves (current)
    We get some more mileage out of our canoe as we head further north and into the Cavern of Ice, where both the party and I have more trouble than we have in a while.
    • 11 min read
  • 11. Final Fantasy I - Warriors on Trial
    In this post, we try to find what to do with our newly acquired Levistone, but end up being put to the test.
    • 8 min read
  • 12. Final Fantasy I - A Rat's Tale
    Hot on the heels of collecting a Rat's Tail from the Citadel of Trials, we head out on the task of working out what to do with it, and make some nice progress along the way!
    • 10 min read
  • 13. Final Fantasy I - Out of the Bottle
    Today we continue to explore the new areas that our airship has opened up - starting with the town of Onrac.
    • 8 min read
  • 14. Final Fantasy I - Canoes, Cubes, and Cat Claws
    This morning, we head out to try and use the oxyale that we've been given, and head to the waterfall we'd spotted to the north.
    • 7 min read
  • 15. Final Fantasy I - Under The Sea
    In this outing, we make our way down into the Sunken Shrine, in an attempt to save the mermaids from the wrath of the Fiend of Water.
    • 11 min read
  • 16. Final Fantasy I - Duolingo on Steroids
    We make our way back to Lufenia, but it turns out that just having the Rosetta Stone in our inventory isn't enough to bridge the language gap - we need a teacher!
    • 6 min read
  • 17. Final Fantasy I - The Flying Fortress
    We make our way to the Mirage Tower, and with our Warp Cube in and onto the Flying Fortress to take on our final Fiend
    • 12 min read
  • 18. Final Fantasy I - Entering the Chaos
    With all four of our Crystals illuminated, we head back to the Chaos Shrine, where this all began and try to unravel the mystery of the world's decay.
    • 10 min read
  • 19. Final Fantasy I - From Utter Chaos to Calm
    We reach the depths of the Chaos Shrine - time twists, fate unfolds, and history demands a reckoning.
    • 19 min read
  • 20. The Chronicles of the Lightbound
    From the annals of the legends, a tale of four heroes emerges - Rukus, Kaili, Clair and Glitz - the Warriors of Light
    • 11 min read