7 min read

Final Fantasy I - Canoes, Cubes, and Cat Claws

Under The Waterfall

We canoe into the waterfall, and into a dungeon aptly titled Waterfall Cavern. In something that loses its difficulty a bit when you check the map, it looks straightforward, but with a lot of winding dead-ends.

We do have "Kee"-ing bats here again too, so there's definitely a through-thread with the earlier areas.

Enemies feel like they're at the same sort of level that we've been at, but maybe slightly more tough? Time will tell - there's packs of Pyrolisks that keep trying to petrify us, but even Rukus is holding strong against it for now. Otherwise they're trivial - even Clair can one-shot them.

At the end of the maze, the one door contains a hooded monster, who turns out to be a stack of enemies: two Mummies, a King Mummy, three Pyrolisks, and three Cockatrices. I guess they were all stacked on top of each other like kids in a cartoon trench-coat.

I decide with the large number of enemies to slow down and have Glitz try out Blizzaga on them. To borrow a phrase from another game, it's super effective, and they're all down in one. Good for you Glitz.

With the monster out of the way, there's what looks like a Golem in the room:

... I have BEEN waiting

...take this CUBE... ...TIAmat...flying fortress... ...please...

We obtain the warp cube! That's not what I came here for again, but great! The golem proceeds to buzz and whir as we eye up the six chests behind him:

  • Wizard's Staff
  • Ribbon
  • 13,450 gil
  • 6,400 gil
  • 5,000 gil
  • Defender

That feels more to me like the sorts of things you'd find in a dungeon. I know enough about Final Fantasy to know that while it's a drop in pure stats, Rukus is crying out for that Ribbon, as it guards against elemental attacks and more importantly - status effects.

I shuffle the swords around too, so Rukus gets the Defender, and Kaili equips the Ice Brand Rukus was using. Glitz takes a look at the Wizard's Staff which casts Confuse when used, but chooses to stick with slicing people with the Cat Claws for now.

So I was hoping to find a Rosetta Stone or similar in this area but no such luck. Maybe though, the warp cube will help us out in other ways.

I decide to swing back by Onrac to see if anyone has anything valuable and non-leg related to say, seeing as I'll have to canoe past anyway.

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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
    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 (current)
    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