Part 1: A Boy and His Wererat

Update 1: A Boy and His Wererat

Alright, let's get this show on the road. Final Fantasy Legend starts out by dumping you front of this tower/village



You might notice that the tower looks a lot like the Mirage Tower in Final Fantasy. A less charitable person might say that it looks like a giant pile of shit. Right in front of the tower, this helpful gentleman gives us an explanation as to the tower's purpose.



Evidently the tower leads to Paradise, although how this is known is never explained. There's never any indication that anybody has climbed the tower and come down. I suppose if you're stuck at the bottom and can't get in, that's as good an explanation as any.



The door is locked by the magic of black, rather than by black magic. The distinction will make some sense in a bit.


the key to the door in the statue of Hero.

Inside the inn, this gentleman in a top hat and tails offers us cryptic advice about how to open the door, and then vanishes. At this point the game hasn't given us any idea about who Gen-Bu is and where the Statue of Hero is, but most people from Japan would probably recognize the first part.



The next thing to do is pick our party. When the game begins, the player has to choose one character to start with. That character receives some kind of benefit above and beyond their counterparts. For humans and mutants, this is a special piece of equipment. Humans get armor, and mutants get a magical ability to start off with. Some people like to start off with a female character since they have a valuable weapon that can't be bought in the first world. Selling it can get you some starting cash, but I don't think it really matter. I chose Cupi the monster as my first character, since selecting a monster first allows you to select from a more powerful group. Cupi is a wererat, the better for me to manipulate the monster transformation system.



When we're done, our party looks something like this. Cupi is still the most durable, so he can ride up front. This game doesn't give you any starting money, just some starting equipment on each character. Unless you chose a human as your first character this does not include armor. You have to grind for your most basic items.



Our next piece of direction is provided by this big-headed guy. There's nothing to do around here, so off we'll go....after a bit of grinding.



While at the first town I grind enough for a couple of HP potions and a replacement weapon for each of my characters. HP potions give up to 20 permanent HP to human characters. In Final Fantasy Legend each weapon or spellbook has a set number of uses before it's destroyed, usually about 50. It doesn't take long to wear through the first set of weapons with the speed unrestricted on my emulator, and by the time the first set is gone Fina has become my most powerful character.



He's not kidding.



Redbulls are probably the worst offenders, as they can do more than 20 damage to our unarmored characters. They have thick enough armor that they can take several rounds to kill, which spells death.



After a little while we can head down to the village that was previously mentioned. There's nothing new here, but there is a pretty massive info dump.


of Hero stands in the center of the town.





The other two gargoyles near him helpfully explain that the statue also had a sword and a shield.



Our goal, then is to acquire these three lost treasures and restore them to the statue, thus allowing entrance to the tower.



Although we can't do much there right now. The Castle of Armor is to the Northeast, while the Castle of Sword is in the mountains to the Southwest.



They're not kidding about the castle being nearby, either.



Inside the castle the guards will throw us out if they touch us. This is a particular problem when your emulator is running on several dozen times normal speed.



The king, if you should reach him, refuses to give up the goods. There's nothing to be done... yet.



The next stop if you're actually following something plot-like is probably the Castle of Armor to the Northeast.


the second floor.

The reception here is a lot friendlier.



The game randomly picks one person to be your spokesperson. I ended up with Cupi, which is rather comical if you think about it. At any rate, the problem the king has is that he is in love with a village girl to the south but she won't have anything to do with him. He promises us a reward if we can talk her around.



To get to the village, you have to go across a ton of small bridges. This is actually a pretty nice area to grind for money and mutant improvements.



The girl in question explains that while she would love to marry the king, a bandit has threatened to destroy the village if she doesn't go with him. Solution:



While we're in the area I finally get the zombie meat I've been looking for. The secret to gaming the monster system lies in how monster levels interact. When you eat a piece of meat the game generates a resulting new monster category based on the type of monster you originally had and the type of meat it ate. There are, broadly speaking, about 14 levels of monster in each category. The game looks at the level of the meat and the level of your monster and takes the higher of the two as the new base level. It checks the new monster category at that level and if there's a monster at that level that's the end of the story: there's your new monster. The interesting thing is what happens when there is no monster. The game first checks at the level ABOVE the new target level. If there's nothing there, then it starts checking going down the levels. By eating the right sequence of meats starting with a goblin or wererat you can ensure that each time you change your monster will become more powerful. As an O-Bake Cupi is actually weaker, but he has a rather nice chill attack. Further meat transformations will be more beneficial.



While hunting for zombie meat I get enough gold together to buy some strong and agility potions. Each one of these raises the respective stat by 3 points on a human. Most of the weapons you can use basically function by multiplying an attack value times the relevant statistic. Longswords, for example, use strength. This means that even basic weapons can be useful if your stats are high enough.



We also run into some of the most pimp-tastic skeletons in any RPG.



Who somehow have enough meat to leave chunks when they die.



The helpful villagers tell us the cave is to the west. You can practically see it from the village.

Next time, we'll head in there and kick some bandit ass.