Part 3: Part Three: Spooky Town

Part Three: Spooky Town

Last time on Final Fantasy III, Sephy's nerdy friend ran off to a cursed town to prove that he isn't a wuss.

Since he's totally a huge wuss, today we get to go rescue him.


Before I leave, Ur, there's still people around to talk to. This guy's info is a little sketchy, because Sephy's HP was restored before he was blessed by the crystal.


There's a town south of here that you told me was cursed. Where would you go if you wanted to prove your courage?


It's not Sephy's fault, lady. As soon as he tried to help, Jecht bolted.


Talking to this guy gives me a chance to use a Potion on him.



Using the potion nets me a Phoenix Down. Since I can buy Potions at the store and a ton of enemies drop them, too, but Phoenix Downs are limited unless you grind for them, this is a pretty clear trade up.



Inside the elders' place, we get this. Nina and the other guy have the same lines they had when I spoke to him earlier.

Before we leave town, though, there's one last thing to grab.



What I'm looking for is inside the well.


Pretty dry well, huh? Not a good sign for Ur.


There's three Potions down here, one in each chest. Who puts their medical items in a well?

That's the last thing in Ur for right now, anyway, so we can leave town.


This is where we want to go, straight south of Ur. Since I'm on the world map right now (but not for much longer), here's the world map tune:




Kazus, the town that two separate people told us was cursed. And right over there is the guy we're here for.


Jecht got to the edge of town, but he never made it into the town proper, because he's terrified of the idea of the curse.


So Sephy, of course, sneaks right up on him.


And scares Jecht so bad that he jumps about five feet, screaming like a little girl.

: Jecht! It's me, Sephy! Don't be afraid.


Scares the piss out of his best friend, then berates him for it. Sounds like our hero's a douchebag.

: ...Let me go with you, Sephy. I want to show everyone that I'm not a weakling! I did manage to come here by myself... You'll take me with you, Sephy, won't you?


Sephy thinks about it a second, but we got a chance to name Jecht and he has a unique model. We all know what's coming, here.

: ...All right, if that's what you want.


Hoo-goddamn-ray.

In case you haven't clued in, the driving idea of this first part of the game is putting the party together. In the original, as soon as the game started in the hole cave, you had four characters. For the remake, the devs decided that the characters needed backstories and all that, so this is how they did that. It's, uh, not a very good change, really, but it sure slows things down.


Now that Jecht is with us, we're free to explore Kazus. Let's find out if that ghost curse is real.


Right after we look at these stats, that is. Jecht starts at the same level as Sephy is right now, but you can see that he got slightly better HP gains (Sephy only has 45 HP right now). Every other stat is the same, though.


As far as equipment goes, Jecht has the same basic knife Sephy started out with, but he also comes with slightly better armour. I don't know why the game gave Sephy the vest (which, by the way, is unique), but there you go.


Inside the magic shop, you can see the first ghost. He's that yellow line there.

What Djinn, though?


Can't buy weapons when the weapon store is staffed by...a ghost!


Armour shop has a ghost in it, too. My plan to buy things is really shot to shit, here.


There's a wellspring around that isn't full of ghosts, which is nice, at least.


I pop into the town pub so that I can talk to this specific ghost.


He's clearly very important, because he has a zoom and Jecht comes 'round for this conversation.

: On top of that, I got a curse cast on me along with these other folks. Ain't that a trip an' a half? Hah hah hah!
: Sephy! We have to do something to help these people!

No shit. How else am I gonna buy stuff?

: Say, if I lent you my airship, do you lads think you could help me and these other saps? From what I hear, this curse can be dispelled through the power of a mythril ring. Unfortunately, we all seem to be out of mythril rings here...

What, just any ring? It seems like a really horrible idea to base your curse on nobody having some jewellery handy.

: Even if we could get the mythril, Takka the smith has been turned into a ghost himself...and his daughter, the apprentice, has gone missing! My airship's hidden in the desert west of here. Use it to find a way to lift this curse!

Alright, ghost Cid, I'll get right on that, and I definitely promise I won't steal your airship and hightail it away from all this ghost/Djinn nonsense first thing, no way.

There are a bunch of other ghosts to talk to here, too:

: Only the power of mythril can banish the Djinn. That is why the Djinn cursed this town once it found out how the nearby mines were packed with the stuff.

Why curse the people, then? Wouldn't it be much easier to curse the mines? What's stopping me from going into the mines, grabbing some mythril, and making a ring out of it myself? Or just getting a smith from another town to make it?

I, uh, I think this problem isn't entirely the Djinn's fault, guys.

: If only we had the mythril ring that the blacksmith had forged... It is the only thing that may banish the Djinn!

At least this guy uses a definite article with "mythril ring", suggesting that I might need a specific ring to lift the curse.

: The Djinn that we had banished into the Sealed Cave was released by the earthquake...and cast a curse on us all!

Not much of a sealed cave now, is it?


There's also this ghost upstairs!

: I wonder if she has a mythril ring in her possession...

I'm still not sure about the whole mechanism of lifting the curse. Do I just grab the mythril ring and everybody's suddenly not a ghost? Is there, like, a chant? Mail-in ticket?


In case the wellspring wasn't enough, there's also a free bed in Kazus right now. I don't need it, but there it is.


In another shop, I find Takka's ghost.

: I want to get rid of this curse as much as you, but how am I to temper mythril as a ghost?

Why don't you tell me how to do it, then I will use my special skill of having a corporeal body to solve your problem?

: Even if I weren't cursed, I couldn't work unless I knew my daughter was safe. It's all my fault... I shouldn't have been so harsh in training her.

Yeah, yeah, your daughter ran off, I need to rescue her or whatever.


Over here are the mines. There are useful items in the mines, but there are also some tough enemies, so I'll come back when I have a full party.


And, over on a secret path, I find a lake. Around the lake, I find a Mythril Helm and a Staff. Not particularly exciting, but it's better than what I found last time I went treasure hunting around a lake (a condom wrapper and a bra, if anyone was curious).


Just to the west of Kazus, I check the desert to find...


Thanks, game.


Who's this? What are you doing in my airship? Get outta here.


Oh. My. God. The curse got Sephy.


Also, this girl is tired. Must be a lot of work hanging around other people's airship, huh? Well, I'll show you. I'll use my ghost powers to mess you up.


Motherfuckin' boo and shit. Scare the hell outta ya! But I guess Sephy didn't really turn into a spectre, he and Jecht were just teleported around by the cutscene gods.

: I could ask you the same thing! This is Cid's airship, and he's letting us use it!


All of a sudden, the game gives us a chance to name the girl, so you know what that means:


It was a goon vote! Her name was changed to Kuja. A lot of goons probably had some weird sexual issues after that game.

Oh, and she's our next party member, it means that, too.

: I'm Kuja. And I'll have you know that my father and I forged the parts for this ship back in Kazus!

So? That's not how ownership works, just like my computer doesn't belong to the poor kid in China who soldered the chips together.

: So that means you're the blacksmith's daughter? You have to help us make a mythril ring!
: Yes...that's the only way we'll be able to lift the curse on Kazus.


You what? Are you about to tell me that you have a secret stash of mythril rings and this problem is solved before it even starts?

: I can't. I can't make mythril rings. I didn't study that far. I didn't want to...

What? What? You don't know how to make a fuckin' ring? It is a metal circle, that's not hard! Heat that shit up, bend it around, congratulations, you're done, curse dispelled, have a beer! How did you help make airship parts if you can't make a fuckin' ring? What is wrong with you?

: Swell... I don't think Cid's going to be particularly happy with that news.


Do tell!

: My father forged a mythril ring for King Sasune a long time ago. He should still have it.

Well, let's fuckin' hope so, child prodigy.

: ...Let me go with you. I can't make mythril rings, but I want to help my father and the people of Kazus.

How, exactly, do you think you can contribute to this group? Is it by being lazy and running away, or by being completely incompetent at the most basic tasks expected of you? Because that's all we've seen you do!

: I think she should come with us, Sephy.

Yeah, I bet you would.

: Me too. Slacking off saved her from the curse, so maybe that "luck" might rub off on us!
: Hey! That's not funny!


Anyway, yeah, Kuja joins our party now.



Like Jecht, she joins at level 3, and she has the same equipment he does, but she also continues the trend of having higher HP than the character who joined last. I'm not quite sure how the HP growth formula deals with decimals, but this is at most one point away from the highest your HP can be at level 3.

There's one space left in our party now, which I'll probably fill next time as I look for a mythril ring to lift the curse.