Final Fantasy III Part #19 - Part Nineteen: The Tower of Owen (Second Part)

Part 19: Part Nineteen: The Tower of Owen (Second Part)

Part Nineteen: The Tower of Owen (Second Part)

Here we are, still in the Tower of Owen, but we're almost to the top.

This place and its bridges are still really boring. A lot of designs could have been used to make this place, a tower which holds up an entire continent, look like a cool machine with slightly alien design and it would be really out of place with the rest of the world, but instead they went with "slightly higher-tech but not impossible".

There's a weapon for the Monk here. I may never use it, who knows?

Hooray, levels! The EXP goes pretty far for me (the guide I follow suggested level 14-17 for this place) but most of it is just overflow against the regular enemies. They're still the same I saw down on the bottom floors, instead of changing every couple of floors. Of course, that's the case in Final Fantasy on the whole, not just this game.

And up we go!

First stop: some armour, which I may or may not have equipped on Kuja. It looks like I was about to here, but I think that instead I left it in my inventory. The Flame Mail, by the way, doesn't seem to actually have any elemental affinity; the only information I could find listed for it was that it had 6% Evade in the NES version. I don't know if the lack of information actually means anything, though. It could well be that this game just has poor documentation.

I also find a Salamand Sword. This is a fire-elemental sword, but I don't give it to anyone because I was operating under the assumption that the boss coming up absorbed fire and was weak to ice. The wiki agrees with me on the ice thing, but my guide doesn't, and neither says she absorbs fire.

For a Final Fantasy game, it's very hard to find reliable information on things that are actually in this game.

This is the last treasure on this floor. A first-tier lightning elemental damage item, hardly anything special.

Kuja also picks up a level right here. She's the EXP leader right now, sitting a few points ahead of the boys. Since she's also a primary damage dealer on track to grow into a proper tank, that's not likely to change hugely as things go on.

Before I move on, I also make sure that Golbez is packing Blizzara, still believing in Medusa's ice weakness.

And now it's on to the top floor. Pretty much a straight shot on to the boss now.

First, though, let's chat with Desch.

No, Kuja, he's saying that he is an Ancient. Take a comprehension class sometime.

Desch status: still has amnesia.

Here we go.

Let's rock!

Or, uh, we can talk. Talking is cool too.

This is Medusa, and she was also the voice talking to us on the way up - you can tell by the characteristic laugh.

For real, now, let's rock!

Ol' snakehead here sure lost weight in a hurry.

Here's how she looked back in '90, by the way:

Welcome to the boss fight against Medusa. My strategy is pretty much the same as I use against the regular encounters: fight/staff or heal/Advance/staff or attack.

I do end up a touch short on the attack, but Advance holds up well enough.

And the staves carry their weight.

I've put out about 500 damage here, and Medusa has 3,000 HP - up from 980 in the NES version - so I could finish this fight in about six rounds, theoretically. By the way, I don't know if that HP increase is balanced by reworked damage mechanics in the DS version or if it's just an inflation for the sake of difficulty. Another change: Medusa was level 42 in the original, but she's only level 17 here.

Stare is her special attack. On the NES, it was the spell Break, and it did the same thing: petrified one target. It only hits about a third of the time, which is nice, because petrify sucks. A petrified character is basically a KO'd one, except you use Gold Needles instead of Phoenix Downs. Since you can buy them, you want to be sure you have a handful of Gold Needles before you come here.

Her physical attacks can hit fairly hard, and they can also inflict silence. Besides Stare and physicals, she can also sling some spells. As far as I found, in the NES version, all she could do was cast Break and attack physically, so the spells and the HP both make her a bigger threat.

These are from two different points in the battle, but they really show off how useless Desch's physicals can be. Any time Desch shows up, you want him to use Thundara.

A hop, skip, and a jump ahead, and Medusa knocks Sephy out.

I get him back on his feet, then she shits right on the party's face, leaving me with a near-dead healer and an alright-condition attacker.

I pull it out, though. It was a little tight, and she probably could have finished me with a double dose of magic, but that's just how things break.

Decent money, lotta EXP. Jacked up because of casualties, but still, a lot.

Jecht gains a level, and Sephy and Golbez are shorted on their job levels. This fight went really sideways for me about halfway through, and if I'd lost I would have had to do the whole dungeon again. I don't know how I would have handled that.

Cutscene time!

: Desch! Don't go too close! The fire... I think it's going to blow up!

Two things: first, it's some kind of molten metal, not fire; second, fire can't "blow up".

: I'm the guardian of this tower... An "Ancient," as you call us. I was asleep for a very long time. I was supposed to awaken when this tower was in danger. I guess I slept too long... It took me forever to remember my task.

Desch remembers everything, and just in time to save us! Probably, I mean.