We exit the Sealed Cave and make a quick journey back to Final Fantasy IV’s underworld town of Tomra. There we buy some armor upgrades, stock up on potions again, and head back towards the Sealed Cave for more fun with Deadly Doors.

As a side note, in previous Final Fantasy games and up to this point in this game, I’ve mostly used potions for healing purposes. However, here in Final Fantasy IV it makes more economic sense to use Rosa and Cecil’s healing powers instead of potions. Rosa in particular has a large pool of magic points which lasts for dozens of battles if I manage it well. At a save point, I can get all magic points back by using one or two tents, which cost 100 gil each. High potions, however, cost 150 each, and they only heal about 500 hit points. On the initial run into the Sealed Cave, I used potions for healing, and to replenish them cost me nearly 8,000 gil. I could get the same amount of healing from Rosa at a cost of about 400 gil in tents.

But I digress. Back to our adventure…

We continue hacking our way through the deadly doors, which thankfully get fewer and fewer as we move further into the cave. After another couple of levels, we once again come to a safe zone, where we rest before moving on. Shortly after that, we hack through one last door to find ourselves in a magnificent room. There, in front of us, is a Dark Cyrstal! We’ve done it.

Wary of a trap, we move forward and grab the crystal….

Nothing happens. Humm? This is too easy.

We exit the room and warily begin heading out of the cave. Something’s not right. They wouldn’t let us have this thing this easily, would they?

Status: Paranoid
Image: olivetti

Good grief, Charlie Brown. So much for thinking the way is clear. There are more doors in Final Fantasy IV’s Sealed Cave than in Home Depot. This wouldn’t be so bad if they were relatively easy to take out, but they’re not. These doors hit hard, and in every battle we lose at least one member of our party.

Rydia’s Bios spell works wonders against the doors, however, and this keeps the battles under control for the most part. We pick up boatloads of experience against the things as well, and are rocketing up in levels. Our gil supply is growing as well, so we should be able to afford some of the upgrades for sale back in Tomra.

Many of the doors lead to dead-end chambers that are completely empty, but several of them lead to weapon and armor upgrades that help our party significantly. Between the accelerated leveling and the new gear, I can feel our party gaining in strength.

After a couple of levels in the cave, we come upon a safe zone. We pitch our tent and save our game. We’ve amassed quite a bit of cash now, so tomorrow I want to return to Tomra for some more upgrades, then we’ll come back to push on in the Sealed Cave.

Status: Killing Stuff with a Purpose

Short session last night. Only about five minutes before I crashed from exhaustion. Good progress, however…

Once again we use the dwarven necklace to open Final Fantasy IV’s Sealed Cave, and once again we head to the damn killer door. Once again we start beating the tar out of each other.

This time things are equally difficult, but after a couple of rounds, we strike the jackpot by finding the door’s weakness. One spell we cast hits the thing for significant damage, and the door explodes into nothingness before it transforms into another creature.

The way is clear!

Status: Killing Stuff with a Purpose

Well, that was easy. Final Fantasy IV’s Sealed Cave was just a short hop away from Tomra. We set the Falcon down, approach the door, and use the necklace to open the thing. The necklace works perfectly, and we find ourselves in a spacious subterranean cavern. We explore the cavern a bit, fighting enemies as we go.

There are two exits from this level, and both seem to be blocked by large doors. Picking one at random, we are surprised to find the door attacking us. I don’t believe we’ve ever fought a door before.

And this is no ordinary door. This door hits hard. It used a two-step attack that can take someone out in one shot, and then it transformed into a nasty beast that puts significant damage on our entire party. We’re hammering the thing with everything we’ve got, but we’re not doing much damage. Within a few short rounds, our party is in deep trouble, and I’m struggling to find some magic that might work against the door.

Things go from bad to worse, as we cast a spell that heals the door instead of damaging it. Oops. And two short rounds later, we are all dead. Argh. Wipe out. Damn door.

We’ll try this again tomorrow.

Status: Dead

Success! Cid was in the infirmary at the castle hospital! Despite being in poor condition after his fall from the Enterprise, Cid rouses himself out of bed and proceeds to customize the Falcon so that it will be capable of flying over the molten lava of the underworld.

After Cid is finished, wishes us luck and heads back to the infirmary. We lift off on the Falcon, point our bow to the southeast, and set sail. This time we scoot right over the lava fields. Within a short while, we’re flying over a vast lava sea and looking for any signs of life. After a bit, we come upon more land, and almost immediately locate a small town. We drop down to check it out.

Apparently, this is Tomra, a small dwarf town. We explore the town shops. There are a number of weapon and armor upgrades we’d like to buy, but we are well short of cash. I’m not up for grinding again at the moment, so we buy the weapon upgrades, which we can afford, then head out of the town. We’ll continue our search for the Sealed Cave tomorrow.

Status: Vacationing in Tomra.