Right. Now I have no clue where that northern pathway leads to, but we've got more important concerns!
Like our newest character, Banon! Obviously, since we can't name him he's not going to be staying around for long, but that doesn't mean that he isn't good!
For instance, see these stats? They're completely irrelevant. All that matters is that special ability. The one that says Health. It's probably the most useful ability in the entire game. Wait... No, it's definitively the most useful ability in the entire game. Not the most powerful, but... you'll see.
Since I have telepathic powers, I stripped the useful Mithril Shield from Locke before he left the party. He's getting that Genji Glove anyways. Since the Returner Hideout doesn't sell equipment, Luke is getting that shield. He kinda needs it.
Since Banon starts in the back row, that's all the preparation we need. It's time to jump onto the raft and head down the Lethe River!
This screen pretty much sums up the entire journey. You'll be facing a gauntlet of enemies, and if Banon kicks the bucket that's it. Even if you have 99 Fenix Downs in your inventory, you can't use them to bring him back to life.
Oh, and did I mention that you can't open the menu while you're travelling down the river? Yep, you can't use tonics or swap weapons while you're on the raft.
Thankfully this section is much, much more easy than it seems. Remember Banon's Health ability? Well, it's exactly what it says on the tin.
It heals the entire party for stupid amounts of health. Something along the lines of 2/3
rds of someone's total HP. Yep. If Health scaled with level (and we got to keep Banon) then it would be the most useful ability possible. Banon can also whack enemies with his staff, but the damage is pitiful, so he should be using Health every single turn. Unless the enemies gang up on Banon, you pretty much can't lose. Well, unless you are at a terribly low level or something, but in that case it's probably not your first time playing the game.
Here's a fun fact: In the Japanese version of the game, Health was originally called Pray. Obviously American Nintendo couldn't have that, so they changed the name. Just be glad that they didn't change it to Wish, like they did for a couple other Final Fantasy games.
Given how easy this section is with Banon, I don't really want to talk about the Lethe River too much. It's basically a railshooting section. The river pulls you down a certain path, and enemies pop up at certain points.
I suppose that the enemies here a bit on the strong side, to try and counteract Banon's amazing ability.
Pterodons are flying wyvern things.Their damage is okay, but they have one, really powerful attack.
I'd start wishing that you'll never see two Pterodons together, because Fireball will pretty much nuke your entire party.
Okay, nuke is probably a strong term, but Fireball will definitively drop everybody down to double digits from full health. Only Luke, with his fancy mithril shield, managed to end up with 120 health. Two Fireballs together will wipe the entire party, so either hope that you end up lucky...
Or use the old standby, the Noiseblaster.
Hah! How do you like them apples, Pterodons?
I have nothing to say about the rest of the enemies. Exocites are crab-things that pretty much exist to die horribly. They have a special attack, and are weak to fire like the rest of the enemies here, but using Fire on them is a waste. Just keep hacking away and they'll die soon enough.
Nautiloids are pretty much just Exocites with a different sprite, if it wasn't for one important difference.They know Ink, which inflicts the darkness status effect. Want to know why Darkness is the coolest status effect ever?
Because it gives the character badass shades! And the best part is that Darkness does nothing else, due to the evasion bug. It does drop that character's evasion and temporarily increases the evasion of any monster he/she attacks, but as we all know evasion does nothing. So really, if you cure darkness the only person you're hurting is yourself, since you'll have to suffer through these battles without the badass shades. And we wouldn't want that, would we?
:
Hells no!
As I've mentioned before, this area is a railshooter. You're basically stuck on a predetermined path, except for a couple points.
Admittedly both points don't have any meaningful choices. All paths on the first point seem to lead to the same place, with only the lengths of the paths changing. I'm not 100% sure though.
The right path might lead somewhere different. As if.
The second point is... much more interesting than the first. Obviously you can either go up or two the left. Going to the left progresses the game, while going up...
Just loops you back around. Gravity does not work that way, game. Mind you, the... oddities of the second point makes the Lethe River the number one place to grind in FF3/6. Why? Well...
- You can use the... memory(?) option to choose which battle command the cursor points at.
- You have an infinite source of free healing.
- The 'Up' choice is the first option that you can choose in the second point.
- Turbo controllers exist.
Yeah, you can see where this is going. Set up the characters so that Lando always uses his autocrossbow, Banon Health and Luke/Leia Fight. Hook up a turbo controller and tape down the A button. Then go off and read for a couple hours before coming back to stupidly high level characters (unless you completely screwed the thing up, of course). And the great part is that new characters that join have their levels adjusted based on the party's average level, so you won't end up with a party of heroes and a party of zeros. Well, except for Locke, but who cares about him?
Obviously I won't be ultra-grinding, because that would kinda ruin the point of this LP.
Still, I did gain a couple levels, meaning that Leia now knows Drain! Drain is... definitively not a good spell. For its MP cost it does surprisingly low damage, and the only good thing about it is that it also heals Leia for the same amount of damage it causes. It's completely useless. If you need healing you're better off casting Cure on the entire party for much less MP, and if you need to deal damage you have Fire, which can also target multiple enemies.
Every so often the raft will go into a cave, where you can save at the save point, or maybe do some organizing or whatever.
After a little more cruising down the Lethe...
:
It's...
Ultros! Yay!
: Game over! Don't tease the octopus, kids!
:
What.:
Don't act so coy, my little Minx. I'm coming for you!
:
BAD TOUCH. BAD TOUCH.
Poll
5 (26.3%)
Author
Topic: Let's Play: Final Fantasy III/VI! (Read 8136 times)