(This first post was written on July 24, 2006, and sums up the first two months of play with Final Fantasy I)
The handy dandy play meter says that I’ve spent just shy of 20 hours on the game. I have a party of four level 45 characters. I made a standard party: Warrior, Thief, White Mage, and Black Mage and set out to do stuff. As a result of four or five hours spent Cluelessly Lost (CL) we are fairly uber right now and are mowing down our opposition. 
I’m a little vague on the details of the plot, but I take it I’m supposed to gather four crystals and bring them to these 12 guys who spend all their time dancing in a circle in the woods. This will apparently save the world from its current decrepit state. Yup, beats me, too. The catch, of course, is that the four crystals are in the possession of four bad monsters, and they aren’t too excited about giving the crystals up. Which means I have to kill them (the monsters, that is, not the crystals). Complicating this are the hordes of assorted creatures that randomly attack you from nowhere like Cato in the Pink Panther movies and various little prequests that you do to be able to get to meet the big bad monsters.
So far I’ve actually made decent progress. I’ve got two of the four crystals and just broke an hour-long CL stage by stumbling onto an airship in the desert that allows me to fly all over the world. The really cool thing about this airship is that it allows me to Wander in Circles much faster than when I walk. I’m not sure this really helps, as I’m simply going nowhere a lot faster than before, but it feels I’m getting somewhere when I can go “wheee!” and fly all over the place at warp speed.
Overall, though, I’ve spent a lot less time CL in this game than in Breath of Fire. Come to think of it, I like this game. The combat is better, there are fewer tedious sections of the game, and the plot is much smoother. And compared to the 50 or so times that I used a walkthrough with Breath of Fire, to date with Final Fantasy I I’ve only had to use a walkthrough once to end a two-hour CL stage. I’m guessing this has something to do with rust falling off my Japanese reading skills.
As I mentioned, I just found an airship that allows me to fly all over the place. I immediately flew north to explore two cities that I noticed while sailing around lost in my boat. I’m trying to find the third crystal, which is the water crystal, and I think I’m close to figuring out what I need. There is a fairy (I think it’s a fairy, anyway, but it might actually be something else as I’m not sure of the Japanese) who is missing from the town and apparently she can make something magical with the water from the spring in this town. Since I’m looking for a water crystal, I figure it’s pretty important I find this fairy. Apparently she got sold to a caravan to the west of the town, which seems like a rotten thing to do to a fairy, but it makes for a good story and it gives me something to do, so no complaints here.
Other current mysteries: I found a tower in the desert that I can’t get into and a town where everyone speaks a mysterious language. Back on the main continent is a flooded cave where a man speaks the same mysterious language and a big statue blocks the way farther into the cave.
I’m guessing is all somehow connected, and that’s what I’m working on figuring out.
Oh, yes. I also stumbled onto a beat-up castle with a man standing in it. He said (unintelligible “crown”, uninintelligble), and then vanished. Humm. I proceeded to kill all the nasties in the castle and was rewarded by finding a mouse tail in a treasure chest on the top floor. Seems like a bum deal for an hour’s worth of killing monsters, but it beats Wandering in Circles. What all this has to do with everything remains a mystery.
Current Status: Confused.
Oh, and one quick request: no hints please, as it would ruin all the fun!
