Final Fantasy PR (Steam) Side Quest Challenge Part VI

Aug. 31st, 2025 10:44 pm
Well... I didn't finish yet. This was played on August 31, 2025.


The first thing I wanted to do was beat Frost Gigases to enable Thor's Hammer. I expected them to be easy to find around Gaia, but it turns out that wasn't the case. I ran into some other interesting things, though.
We encountered a Tyrannosaur.
I gave up on this after a bit and decided I'd be better off doing it in the Cavern of Ice. While I was there, I encountered some Dark Wizards and realized I could do a different quest while I waited for the Frost Gigases to show up.
Here are the things I did, mostly in the order that they happened:

Title: Magnetic Elf Battle
Author: FreshFeeling (2019)
Story: From another universe (or timeline or something), the party's fighter recalls having to travel through a cave with a strong magnetic field such that they had to rely on wooden, leather, cloth, and crystalline goods in order to face a corrupt elf. An ally's magic aided the fighter in overcoming this struggle and use of a magician's weapon is what the party has to gain.
Requirement: Defeat at least one Dark Wizard, Dark Fighter or Astos. From the time you enter the dungeon where you are searching for this quarry until you kill it, you must use no metallic equipment.
Unlocks: (e)Mage's Staff

For this Final Fantasy IV-based quest, we took off a bunch of our armor, even though the magnetism of equipment is somewhat ill-defined. For example: is a Diamond Helm metallic? I'd say I mostly erred on the side of caution. For weapons, we had Staff on three characters and Power Staff on the fourth.
Cecil's equipment is poor, but not magnetic. We defeated some Dark Wizards with magnetic fields.

Title: The God of Thunder
Author: Linguar82 (2019)
Story: Lukahn has heard of an artifact that holds the power of an ancient god within. But in order to tap into that power, the wielder must prove themselves worthy in the eyes of the god for whom it is named after.
Requirement: Defeat 10 Frost Gigases by only damaging them with Thunder family spells and physical attacks with a hammer, or making them run away.
Unlocks: (e)Thor's Hammer

It took quite a while to get these ten Frost Gigases done, getting me into roughly the 55-minute mark of my gameplay this day. But we did!
Fighting some random Frost Gigas. Fighting another Frost Gigas, who has some wolf buddies.
I found the idea of the ninja with the giant, metallic hammer amusing.
Now, with Gauntlets, Mage's Staff, and Thor's Hammer, I have three potent spellcasting items! This makes a big difference to how we fight random battles against large numbers of weak enemies, and generally saves us a lot of spell usage. Or, well, that would be true except that I don't actually own Thor's Hammer yet. Let's buzz over to the Mirage Tower and get it.

I could finally unequip the Mythril Hammers that most of the team had been using for this, but I cautiously kept Mythril Axes on Cecil and Locke most of the time because of a quest involving Vampire Lords. We looted all of the Mirage Tower's chests, but there was nothing we could actually make real use of until the 2nd floor, where we finally retrieved the Sun Blade, Thor's Hammer, and the Dragon Mail.
Cecil is wearing Dragon Mail.
I didn't end up finding any Vampire Lords, although I did encounter a random Blue Dragon.
Fighting a random Blue Dragon.
This was exciting, but there wasn't really a practical way to have it contribute to quest completion at the moment. I left soon after and decided to do the Sunken Shrine. It was very easy, and the only significant treasure we hadn't already got here was the Giant's Gloves / Power Gauntlet. I beat some Water Elementals using only elemental attacks, and got to Kraken.
Fighting Water Elementals with only elemental attacks. We met Kraken. Nice sprite.
Kraken isn't a very hard fight, except when he targets an un-buffed mage and does 300+ damage with an 8-hit physical attack. We took some steps to prevent that, gently buffed Locke and Cecil, and then beat him.
Locke does 673 damage to Kraken.

Title: Cagnazzo's Final Gambit
Author: FreshFeeling (2019)
Story: In another universe (or timeline or something), after having faced the archfiend of water, the party's fighter was once saved by two children who turned themselves to stone. Though the fighter and his allies had the ability to magically teleport away, it was their decision to walk out that put the children in danger. Being in a similar position may somehow remind the fighter, allowing him to tell the tale to his magical allies to inspire them.
Requirement: After class change, visit the Altar of Water and exit the Sunken Shrine by walking to the submarine thingy. Characters who can cast (w)Stona or (b)Break must not be killed or petrified during this trip.
Unlocks: (w)Stona, (b)Break

Visiting the Altar of Water.
This is another Final Fantasy IV reference. All this quest really entails is walking backwards after beating Kraken instead of warping out. It's also important that my wizards don't die during the trip, requiring some caution. This was no real problem. Amazingly, I never encountered Ghosts on this entire trip - they would normally be the biggest scare in the Sunken Shrine for this sort of thing.

This part got strange; I had beaten three Water Elementals with elemental attacks earlier, and this was important for a quest where I needed to fight them as well as Air Elementals without resting. Thus, I was trying to get by using very few spells for a long time. Since I knew I wanted to fight Air Elementals, that meant going into the Flying Fortress. Going into the Flying Fortress meant fighting the game's only fixed Blue Dragon. Thus, I wanted to fight a Green Dragon in the Waterfall Cavern to do the quest involving fighting the different elemental dragons... while also conserving spell charges. It was sort of a strange cascade effect.

Title: Diamond Ore
Author: FlamingXP (2025)
Story: Did you know that the Waterfall Cavern was once used as a diamond mine? Apparently the rare Green Dragons that live there still hoard some of the diamonds. The Green Dragons are hesitant to show themselves while the Mummy Lords are present.
Requirement: In one trip to the Waterfall Cavern, defeat at least one Mummy Lord and then encounter at least one Green Dragon.
Unlocks: (a)Diamond Armor

I thought I'd need to get to the forced encounter at the end to fight a Mummy Lord, but I encountered one randomly almost right away. Thus, I just needed to beat a Green Dragon. They are quite rare here! But eventually, I got one.
We are getting hit with Poison Gas from a Green Dragon.

Before heading back into Mirage Tower, I would need to fight both a Red Dragon (in Mount Gulg) and a White Dragon (in the Cavern of Ice). These were substantial detours but they didn't really take long. I did buy some potions but I was careful to avoid resting and fleeing. On the way to the Red Dragon, I ran into an Ogre Mage, and I made sure it got to buff itself before I clobbered it.
This is a twice-blinked Ogre Mage.
Then, in fairly short order, we did the Red Dragon and the White Dragon.
We got hit with Blaze from a Red Dragon... yet again. We got Icestorm'd by this White Dragon. Actually, there were two White Dragons.

Title: Ultimate Protection
Author: Zzonkmiles (2019)
Story: There exists a special piece of equipment that can protect its bearer from all elements. But in order to prove that one is worthy enough to equip this, a trial is required.
Requirement: Without running away and without resting (inn/sleeping bag/tent/cabin/house), defeat at least one of each of the following enemies: White Dragon, Red Dragon, Green Dragon, and Blue Dragon. Additionally, the party must sustain damage from Icestorm, Blaze, Poison Gas, and Thunderbolt from the four dragons they kill.
Unlocks: (a)Ribbon

Before even getting to the cloaked figure acting as the fixed Blue Dragon fight, I once again encountered a random Blue Dragon on the 2nd floor of Mirage Tower. We got hit with Thunderbolt and earned our Ribbons!
We got hit with Thunderbolt from a Blue Dragon. Lenna is wearing a Ribbon now. Vivi is also wearing a Ribbon.

Amazing! This was a quest that required some serious setup and care, even if my team is strong enough to stomp these dungeons now. It's one of a few that I thought I might just leave by the wayside, but I'm quite glad it happened.

Title: The Shield of Perseus (not actually done)
Author: FlamingXP (2025)
Requirement: Defeat 3 Medusas or Earth Medusas using the (b)Break spell. If a character with (b)Break or a character who can use the Aegis Shield are slain or petrified, start the counter back at 0. After beating 3, report to the Circle of Sages.

I'm mentioning this here although the final check-in doesn't happen until just after I leave this area, just because this is the timeframe when this quest was being completed... and in fact, a lot of the quests I do here require returning to a town to talk to someone. I hadn't really planned it, but I ran into quite a few Medusas here and thought I could get it done.
Vivi casts Break on a Medusa.
Although Cecil briefly had to be a statue, Vivi completed the core criteria for this quest in one battle...

...waitasecond.

Huh. I think I thought Vivi was the one who had to not be petrified! Okay, I'll have to consider this one not-yet-complete. The good thing, I suppose, is that I hadn't actually used the Aegis Shield in battle yet.

Title: Masters of Defense
Author: FlamingXP & FreshFeeling (2025)
Story: The Defender sword is a semi-intelligent magical weapon spoken of in legend as being able to provide its wielder with a potent defensive spell. It refuses to be held by anyone who hasn't observed this spell and also shown understanding that it can also be overcome.
Requirement: In separate battles with an Ogre Mage and a Spirit Naga, allow this enemy to cast Blink at least twice, and then defeat it using only physical attacks. A character that can equip the Defender must survive these battles for them to count.
Unlocks: (e) Defender

Remember when I was last in the volcano, and I let an Ogre Mage use Blink a couple of times? Well, I did that here with my first Spirit Naga.
This buffed Spirit Naga got walloped.

Before getting anything else big done, there was a lot of treasure, including the adamantite. We also got our third Ribbon, which Locke would wear.
We got the adamantite. Locke is wearing a Ribbon now.

Not long after that, I ran into three Vampire Lords - our first.

Title: The Annointed Axe
Author: FlamingXP (2025)
Story: It's possible to endow an axe with holy power by using it to overcome a great evil.
Requirement: Defeat a Vampire Lord in the Mirage Tower using only damage caused by attacks with axes. Sell the axe that deals the killing blow.
Unlocks: (e) Light Axe

Again, we have to head back to a town to sell the Mythril Axe, but Cecil did this nicely.
Cecil beat a Vampire Lord with a Mythril Axe.

Title: Blue Magic: Death Force
Author: FreshFeeling (2025)
Story: Supposedly there exists a blue magic that allows its caster to resist the power of death! You'll need to observe an enemy setting up a barrier and resisting these magics to understand.
Requirement: Observe an enemy casting (w)NulShock, (w)NulFire, (w)NulFrost, (w)NulDeath or (w)NulAll. Cast (b)Death or (b)Kill on the monster and ensure it survives. Win the battle without any characters who can learn (w)NulDeath ever having any negative status effects.
Unlocks: (w)NulDeath

We sat in this fight for a while waiting for the Vampire Lords to (maybe ineffectively?) cast NulBlaze on themselves.
Sitting around waiting for Vampire Lords to buff.
We did exactly as the quest says! The Death spell just doesn't animate or anything so it wasn't very anticlimactic.

Title: Undead Are Uninvited II
Author: Diamond_Dragon (2020)
Story: While in Cornelia, the party's white mage happened to bump into Krylos again. Krylos still hates the undead. Just talking with the man for a few moments reinvigorated the desire to destroy the undead within our white mage.
Requirement: Complete Undead are Uninvited. Kill 30 undead including a Dragon Zombie and a Vampire Lord. Stand in the woods near Cornelia and say out loud, "Thanks Krylos for hating the undead so much." Express your own disdain/loathing for the undead out loud. Imagine the world without the undead and how pleasant that would be.
Unlocks: (w)Diaga

A Vampire Lord was also the last missing piece of this puzzle... although like many of these other quests, I couldn't shout about the undead in a forest until after leaving.

Title: Blue Magic: Mighty Guard
Author: FreshFeeling (2019)
Story: A technique mastered by blue mages over the ages is one that massively bolsters the caster's defense. Often, enemies powerful enough to use this are quite rare, but once you've seen it cast you'll be able to use this powerful ability for yourself.
Requirement: Observe an enemy casting (w)NulAll. Win the battle without any characters who can learn (w)NulAll having any negative status effects.
Unlocks: (w)NulAll

Again, pretty quickly after those Vampire Lords I encountered a Dark Fighter. First, he cast Mighty Guard, er, NulAll... but I stuck around and let him just keep casting spells.
 
Title: Blue Magic: White Wind
Author: FreshFeeling (2025)
Story: White wind is a well-known blue magic ability that allows the caster to heal themself and their allies. (Often, it's only able to be used in battle!)
Requirement: Observe an enemy casting (w)Healara. Win the battle without any characters who can learn (w)Healara having any negative status effects.
Unlocks: (w)Healara

Because after a while he cast White Wind, er, Healara!
This Dark Fighter was very helpful.
 
Title: Gotta Go Fast!
Author: FlamingXP (2025)
Story: Later in the journey, the party was able to befriend a hedgehog being bullied by Goblins in the forest. They learned that this hedgehog had a gift of immense speed that was partly limited by a lack of powerful emeralds that had been co-opted for use by some ancient Lefeinian who created robots with them.
Requirement: After obtaining the airship, defeat a group of 5 Goblins in a forest. Then, defeat at least 3 Guardians and 3 Soldiers.
Unlocks: (b)Haste

We had gradually been beating Soldiers and got this done almost immediately after, too. It was just a fight or two after the Dark Fighter. I had done the 5 Goblin encounter between the Green Dragon and Red Dragon in this play session to get this started.

Title: Advanced Studies in Elemental Physics
Author: KingRamz (2019)
Story: Jeff the Sage (you know, the one standing right next to Lukahn. Wow, do you really not remember him? Savage.) has been impressed by the way you handle yourself in battle. But if you want to unleash the true power of the elements, you must demonstrate that you know how to use it. Speak to Jeff while all of your training is fresh in your mind, and he will know you are ready.
Requirement: Without resting (inn/sleeping bag/tent/cabin/house), defeat 3 Water Elementals and 3 Air Elementals by damaging them only with fire, ice or lightning elemental attacks, and then return to Crescent Lake and talk to Jeff. (Elemental weapons and spells cast from items are ok.)
Unlocks: (b)Thundaga, (b)Blizzaga

Again, immediately after the fight with the previous, singular Soldier, we got an encounter with four Air Elementals. I was really careful to just use elemental attacks (including Ice Brands) here.
Cecil and Locke are chopping up Air Elementals with ice swords.
That's it! This is why we hadn't rested in so long. The team was actually doing quite well though. We weren't done yet.
Not long after this fight, I noticed the text for The Qake Is a Lie! and realized I could back out of the Flying Fortress and still do that quest, which sounded pretty easy. I may as well!
 
Title: The Qake is a Lie!
Author: FreshFeeling (2019)
Story: For some reason the ancient robotic guards in the Flying Fortress seem to have taken up taunting the humans who pass through, and they are obsessed with sweet edibles. Unfortunately you'll never get any qake until after you escape.
Requirement: Without using any restorative items from the time you enter the Flying Fortress, defeat at least one group of robotic enemies (Guardian, Soldier or WarMech). Leave without using (b)Teleport or (w)Exit.
Unlocks: (b)Quake

It took a minor backtrack but really wasn't hard!
The Qake is a lie!

Many of the restrictions like healing or items or using elemental weapons were listed now and we got to more freely enjoy our new spoils.
Locke tries out Sasuke's Katana.
I guess the Katana has been renamed in this version. I had forgotten that they did that.
As I approached Tiamat, I thought it might be fun to fight WarMech. It doesn't do too much for me, other than fill the bestiary and make a bit of progress toward enabling Excalibur. I dawdled for a while waiting for it to happen, but despite all the other rather rare fights I've seen, it didn't. So I fought Tiamat!

We encountered Tiamat. Cecil is using Saber via the Giant's Gloves.
We didn't really need any defensive help, but Lenna used Protera anyway. Cecil and Locke buffed. After a while, Vivi tried using Break and Scourge to go for the instant kill, but it didn't work.
The poison-type instant kill spells did not work on Tiamat. We defeated Tiamat.

We checked in with a lot of people, like Jeff, to finalize many of the quests noted above.
Hi Jeff.
This also allowed one more quest!

Title: Synthesizing a Black Robe
Author: FreshFeeling (2019)
Story: In another universe (or timeline or something), the party's black mage was able to have a fine protective garment crafted by the dwarves in exchange for the necessary supplies. Those supples included a protective armlet, and an earth-empowered robe. As no earth-empowered robes exist in this world, the black mage would need to improvise to have appreciable results.
Requirement: You must have access to a hammer and already earned some means of applying earth resistance (probably NulDeath or NulAll). Bring a Clothes and a Protect Ring to the dwarven blacksmith and drop these when you speak with him.
Unlocks: (a)Black Robe

We've got a hammer and NulDeath so all we needed was to squander a Clothes and a Protect Ring.
Vivi is now able to use a Black Robe.

This is great! There are actually relatively few quests remaining... and some, like the quest for Diamond Gloves, are impossible... and others, like the quest for the Fear spell, are pointless. There are just a few left that are worth doing but I sure hope we'll finish next time I play.
The team's status at level 39.

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Final Fantasy PR (Steam) Side Quest Challenge Part V

Aug. 20th, 2025 06:33 pm
I played again on August 19th. I felt like I got quite a few quests done in a relatively short play session, and also made some game progress.


Although I was set up from the end of the previous session to fight lots of Weretigers/MANCATs, I did something else entirely right away. I started by walking through lava to get the entire team down to pitiful amounts of HP again and then I prepared to have my ninja, Locke, solo the Mount Gulg.
Locke is fighting some Goblin Guards by himself.
This would check off a few boxes, but the actual completion order was sort of like this:

Title: The One Who Kills the Ogre Will Be Named Champion
Author: FreshFeeling (2019)
Story: You are the best and brightest in all the land. Today one of you will be named champion. That champion shall have the privilege to go forth and rescue the lovely Princess Sara from the Temple of Fiends. If for any reason the winner is unsuccessful, the first runner-up will take his place and so on and so forth. Some of you may die, but it's a sacrifice I am willing to make! And if Sara has already been rescued, you shall be allowed to take credit for it, and take one prize that makes much more sense than a bridge. Oh! What is that? It's hideous! Knights, new plan!
Requirement: With any solo character, win a battle that includes a Ogre Chief and a Hyenadon without them running away. If a qualifying battle is attempted and failed, your next attempt must be with a different solo character. After winning, report to the king in Cornelia.
Unlocks: (a)Mythril Helm

This whole thing was a gigantic Shrek reference, right down to the helmet reward. Locke happened to run into a gigantic squad of Hyenadons with an Ogre Chief and Ogre Mage, which met the criteria for this challenge. He wiped most of them by using two Blizzaras.
Locke uses Blizzara on an Ogre Mage, a Shrek, and seven donkeys. Locke destroys Shrek.
This, by the way, is a rather extreme example of an encounter that could never exist on the NES; these enemies are all considered "large" so the most of these enemies who could ever congregate together in older versions of Final Fantasy was four! Here, we got two ogres and seven donkeys!
Although the check-in with the king in Cornelia happened later, I thought that I should tell Locke's story in something like chronological order, so I put it here. I spoke to the king after finishing up in Mount Gulg.

Title: Falconmaster
Author: FlamingXP (2025)
Story: The Falchion was named for an expert in falconry. To use it, you need to demonstrate your mastery over birds.
Requirement: Defeat a group with at least 5 Cockatrices and/or Pyrolisks.
Unlocks: (e)Falchion

I happened to encounter a lot of Pyrolisks on Locke's trip through the volcano!
Locke uses Thundara on a group of 5 Pyrolisks.
This was at least the fourth I encountered, and the second that included this many birds. Each time, of course, my heart sank a bit, anticipating getting Squinted out of existence... but it didn't happen. I ran from the first group of 5 birdies, but realized I could take advantage of the situation with the same amount of risk when I encountered this second group. Done.
I have... zero intent to actually use a Falchion.

Title: The Phoenix Cave
Author: FreshFeeling (2019)
Story: In another universe (or timeline or something), the party's thief was known to be seeking a powerful treasure said to have the ability to restore life. Ultimately, he pulled off the amazing feat of travelling through a trap- and lava-filled dungeon to find the treasure only to find that it did not carry the same kind of power that legends suggested it would. However, he did find a powerful weapon - the Valiant Knife - during this trip.
Requirement: Solo Mount Gulg with a thief or ninja. You must enter Mount Gulg with the other characters dead, exit through the teleport square behind the orb, and open at least one treasure chest along the way (even if it's empty).
Unlocks: (e)Katana

This is why Locke was alone! It was actually quite easy, even despite doing other non-trivial quests along the way. Locke having an Ice Shield certainly helped. I made sure he inspected a chest during this trip.
Locke is depicted as Cecil - who is unconscious - and checks out an empty treasure chest.

Title: What Are You Doing?!
Author: beege_man (2019)
Story: Everyone gets a little confused sometimes...
Requirement: If you are playing with a controller, you must complete a trip from an Inn to an elemental altar while playing with the controller upside down. If not using a controller, complete said trip by only attacking physically and always picking a random target for your attack.
Unlocks: (b)Confuse

Did I mention that I did this entire solo trip with the controller upside down? Hahah.
It really wasn't that bad! I would say I sort of mostly got used to it, and I think the Pixel Remaster's diagonal movement made some of the trickier movement simpler, too. In the video posted above, you'll notice I held the controller up for most of the trip to make it apparent.

Four non-trivial quests done in one trip! The rewards aren't really a big deal at the moment, but I'll be thankful for the Katana later, for sure. This solo stuff was quick to set up and the result was encouraging, so I dove back into the lava to swap my solo character to Lenna. It ended up being a close call when she went to step out of the volcano!
Lenna is the only character alive against 6 potent enemies, with 19 HP.
Believe it or not, she survived this!
Our next stop was the Cavern of Earth. There were two side quests with heavily overlapping requirements that I could get done under these circumstances. There were times when it didn't seem like it would be a cakewalk.
Lenna runs away from six Cockatrices. Check out this stupid, semi-impossible encounter!
She pulled through regardless! Against small undead squads she mostly used Dia instead of running.

Title: The Quest for Life
Author: Diamond_Dragon (2020)
Story: Legends tell of the mythical fountain that can restore life. Turns out it's in the Cavern of Earth! Who knew? However, it is completely hidden to those without a pure heart.
Requirement: With a solo white mage (all others dead or stoned), enter the Cavern of Earth and exit out the portal behind the altar.
Unlocks: (w)Full-Life

Title: The Test of Exiting
Author: FreshFeeling (2019)
Story: Once you have proven your ability to exit a dangerous dungeon, mastering a magic that facilitates this must be easy, right?
Requirement: You must solo a multi-level dungeon with a "rear exit" with each character capable of learning (w)Exit. This could include any of the Cavern of Earth, Mount Gulg, Cavern of Ice, Citadel of Trials, Sunken Shrine, or Mirage Tower/Flying Fortress.
Unlocks: (w)Exit

Honestly, these quests are nearly identical, except for the fact that one more directly specifies which dungeon to do. It only made sense to me to do them at the same time. The reason this happened at all, to be clear, is because these were written in different years/threads.

Title: White Mage's Adventure
Author: gameenjoyer (2019)
Story: Our resident white mage wants to prove their worth as a combatant and not just a healer. As such, they venture off alone to prove their skill in battle. Upon doing so, they weary of combat and brings the others back a weapon so they can fight more effectively.
Requirement: Win one battle in the (former) PNEoP with only the party's white mage alive. They must enter the battle alone and win.
Unlocks: (e)Broadsword

This quest was easy to check off since Lenna was wandering around by herself anyway. It's also kind of useless at this point. Heck, it was kind of useless ages ago! It might be nice to swap the Broadsword with the Mythril Sword. Oh well. Lenna hammered a few Tarantulas to finish the quest.

Title: White Mage's Compassion
Author: FreshFeeling (2019)
Story: In another universe (or timeline or something), the party's white mage was a hero renowned for their kindness. They had a deep connection with animals, and dragons in particular. An independent quest to focus on compassion while connecting with dragonkin may help awaken their latent power.
Requirement: With a solo white mage, speak to every dragon in the Cardia Islands (omitting Bahamut if you like) between saves. You may not deal damage to any monster during this quest.
Unlocks: (w)Curaja

This was also really easy while Lenna was alone. In fact, as we crossed Cardia, I think we only ran into one encounter.
Lenna speaks to a dragon.
It turns out there are 11 dragons in the Cardia Isles not including Bahamut.

I wanted to get some spells, like Healaga and/or Curaja, so after healing the rest of the team, I decided to head to Onrac for the first time.
A woman says, "Are those legs REALLY yours?".
I then got sucked into going through the upper levels of the Sunken Shrine and getting the Slab/Rosetta Stone.

Title: Kope's Keen Peepers
Author: FreshFeeling (2019)
Story: As you know, Kope of Onrac has a real knack for spotting distant objects. He's been looking out into the sea east of Onrac recently, and he thought he saw something really valuable, but there were too many damn fish in the way for him to tell what it was and exactly where it was located. Control the ocean populations and maybe he can help you out.
Requirement: After speaking to Kope for the first time, defeat 20 Sharks or White Sharks within the Sunken Shrine, and then speak to Kope again.
Unlocks: (a)Diamond Armlet

Along the way, I defeated over 20 sharks just incidentally. Very nice. The Diamond Armlet went on Locke at first.

I got the Rosetta Stone and did my Duolingo.
We got the Rosetta Stone. We learned Lufenian.
Although I didn't have a really plan to rush the Mirage Tower, I know there are a lot of goodies and a lot of quests there, so I went to Lefein to claim the Chime.
A Lufeinian namedrops Cid. We got the Chime.
While I was here, I also got Full-Life! I can't actually unlock Flare/NUKE until after I enter the Mirage Tower, so this trip was necessary regardless. Here's what our mages' spell lists look like at the moment:
Lenna's white magic spell list. There is at least one spell for each level. Vivi's current spell list. He has at least one spell for each level other than 7.

Next, I went to the Waterfall. Part of what I wanted to do here was Wyldstar's recently-added Diamond Legacy quest... but I found that, in this version, you can't canoe north of the Waterfall. That quest might not be possible... although we'll see, as I haven't investigated yet whether there might be a tiny airship landing spot.

In the Waterfall Cavern, I spoke to bats. I was sort of hoping to encounter a Green Dragon for a couple of quests, but that didn't happen. Cecil and Locke both got squinted in our first battle, so I was grateful to have just learned Full-Life for Lenna. The spiked square presented no real difficulty.
Vivi casts Fira on birds and mummies in the Waterfall Cavern. We got the Cube.
The Waterfall Cavern has two amazing treasures at the end and we can't use them yet.

Title: Decked Out in Mythril
Author: FlamingXP (2025)
Story: Once you're dripping with mythril, you might be able to attract a golem that provides enough extra mythril ore to craft a suit of armor from it.
Requirement: Equip one character with a Mythril Shield, Mythril Helm, Mythril Gloves, and any weapon made of mythril, then defeat a Clay Golem.
Unlocks: (a)Mythril Mail

I realized when I encountered Clay Golems in the Waterfall Cavern that I now had the required equipment unlocked for this quest. The Mythril Armor is never really going to be an asset, but I finished it anyway.

Title: I'm Batman
Author: gameenjoyer (2019)
Story: Legends tell of a great hero who once donned a bat costume and fought against a really powerful villain named Bane. Prove yourself worthy of the hero's name and you can use the villain's sword. Retranslation may have ruined a fun joke here.
Requirement: Between the various dungeons, talk to at least 50 bats.
Unlocks: (e)Razer

By the end of the Waterfall Cavern, I still needed three more bats to total 50, so I wandered back to the Marsh Cave to finish up. FlamingXP had joined me and encouraged me to fight Hill Gigases for a few quests.

Title: Tanks, You're Welcome
Author: Diamond_Dragon (2020)
Story: The fighter is proving his worth as a tank, but he's not satisfied yet. His will to improve continues.
Requirement: Receive a hit from a Hill Gigas for exactly 1 damage.
Unlocks: (a)Knight's Armor

FlamingXP was on to something; this was super easy to check off in one trip into the Cavern of Earth's hall of giants. And since we were there...

Title: Rare Drop from Hill Gigases
Author: FreshFeeling (2019)
Story: Let's be unoriginal!
Requirement: Defeat at least 32 Hill Gigases between saves.
Unlocks: (e)Great Sword

This was a bit annoying. The new format of the hall of giants meant that I had to re-spawn the cloaked figures by leaving and re-entering... although that's still faster than hoping for Hill Gigases in random encounters... probably. I didn't get any "naturally-occurring" Hill Gigases, so this was 8 dives into the Cavern of Earth. With auto-battle and whatnot this was a little under 10 minutes.

Title: The Spirit of Flame
Author: FlamingXP (2025)
Story: As the party approaches the Flame Armor, they quickly realize that it has been possessed by an evil flame spirit. It can be purified by sprinkling the ashes of an evil wizard.
Requirement: After facing the Red Dragon square by the Flame Mail, defeat one Dark Wizard with the finishing attack being fire-elemental. Then return to the chest with the Flame Mail.
Unlocks: (a)Flame Mail

I went to the Ice Cave and put a Flame Sword on Cecil for the purpose of this quest. The Dark Wizards had really wrecked my day during my prior visit so it was nice to have the fight go my way. I purposefully used the Flame Sword for this in order to double dip on another quest, too. Oh, and I did a super fast jaunt into the volcano to clear this after leaving the Ice Cave, but not before checking off the next quest.

Title: Professional Jewelers
Author: Zzonkmiles (2019)
Story: Nobody likes having their life snuffed out of them cheaply. Eliminate that problem by donning the armor that renders such attacks harmless! But there is a catch. The goons that are holding this armor are the goons that best exploit those who don't have it.
Requirement: Defeat two separate groups of Dark Wizards in the Cavern of Ice in one trip without magic.
Unlocks: (a)Protect Ring

So in just two Dark Wizard fights, I did this! They really do seem to have very high absorb, but their HP is low enough that they didn't get a lot of attacks off.

Around this point, as usual, the stream dropped, so this session continues in a second, shorter video. Now I chose to go back to the Citadel of Trials area to start the Cat Army quest that FlamingXP really wanted done. Despite his interest in cats and him having written the quest, he left before it concluded.

Title: Weapons of the Cat Army
Author: FlamingXP (2025)
Story: In the forests near the Citadel of Trials, the party comes across a lost tower surrounded by an army of... cats. The cats request the party's help dealing with... dogs. After dealing with the dogs, it's important to take care of any additional dogs that may have followed the group back to the tower.
Requirement: After achieving class change, encounter a Weretiger group in a forest and run away without killing any of them. Then, defeat a group of Winter Wolves. Then, encounter another Weretiger group in a forest and run away without killing any of them again. Then, defeat a group that includes Warg Wolves. Finally, encounter a Weretiger group in a forest and run away without killing any a third time.
Unlocks: (e)CatClaw

It did conclude! Here's a magnificent screenshot of the aftermath of my encounter with Winter Wolves:
A very post-Winter Wolf image. There are no wolves in it.
And here's what happened to the Warg Wolves after I checked in with the Weretigers again.
Locke casts Blizzara on the group of Warg Wolves. Locke didn't finish them off, so Vivi cast Firaga, which is kinda overkill.
They were very dead. It took a long time to encounter Weretigers again after this. I instead found some Barettas and they were very cruel to me.
These Barettas got Cecil to 1 HP and killed Vivi.
I was once again grateful for my resurrection spells. Shortly after, I ran into Weretigers for a third time.

Title: The Long Way
Author: FreshFeeling (2019)
Story: The best way to master speed is to become aware of its significance.
Requirement: Travel from any town to the Citadel of Trials without using the ship, and without any characters who can learn (b)Slowra dying or being petrified.
Unlocks: (b)Slowra

Since I was in the area, I chose to finish the walk to the Citadel of Trials. Frankly, it wasn't as long or inconvenient as I remembered. Also, while I was there, I decided I should defeat some Medusas to finally make use of my Gauntlets.

Title: Blue Magic: Mind Blast
Author: FreshFeeling (2019)
Story: Sorcerers stand out as an enemy that has a proclivity for a spell-like effect similar to paralysis-inducing magic.
Requirement: Observe an enemy using Mind Blast. Win the battle without any characters who can learn (b)Stun having any negative status effects.
Unlocks: (b)Stun

We got this by happenstance. I didn't recall Mindflayers showing up the 2nd floor of this place, but they did!
Locke got killed but we dodged a lot of Mind Blasts. Vivi casts Firaga on the group of Mindflayers, leading to a victory.
I got a bit lucky with who was affected by Mind Blast, but it worked out.

Title: The uh, other God of Thunder
Author: Linguar82 (2019)
Story: Lukahn has heard of an artifact that holds the power of an ancient god within. But in order to tap into that power, the bearer must prove themselves worthy in the eyes of the god for whom it is named after. He swears this one is different.
Requirement: Defeat 25 Medusas using only Thunder family spells or the Break spell.
Unlocks: (a)Gauntlets

It took ages to find enough Medusas for this to happen, but we got access to the Zeus Gauntlets! I don't have Thunder or Thundaga, so I exclusively used Thundara with both Locke and Vivi when opportunities presented themselves. This took two shots for Locke.
Someone uses Thundara on a group of Medusas.

Title: Diamond Drip
Author: FlamingXP (2025)
Story: Diamonds are so luxurious and expensive! Nobody could wear a hat made of diamond without amassing a ton of treasure, enough to buy several expensive jeweled bracelets. Once you have that kind of drip you might think the bracelets are garbage.
Requirement: Sell 5 Ruby Armlets at the same time.
Unlocks: (a)Diamond Helm

The shopping was very exciting after the last few quests.
Vivi checks out a new Cat Claws.
When I went to Gaia to grab Cat Claws, I also grabbed a few extra Ruby Armlets and then sold a batch of them to finish this.
Selling 5 Ruby Armlets. Cecil tries on a Diamond Helm.

We're very well geared up and set to do either the Sunken Shrine or the Mirage Tower! I could go either way.
The team's stats at levels 32/31/31/31.

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Final Fantasy PR (Steam) Side Quest Challenge Part IV

Aug. 18th, 2025 03:17 pm
I did a bit more side questing on August 17th. This time, I was joined for most of the play session by FlamingXP, who is one of my kids and also the author of many of the newest quests. It didn't feel like I got that many quests done, really, but it was... productive.


The plan was to get through the Citadel of Trials (aka Castle of Ordeals) with only Cecil. I did have a couple of nasty deaths in the relatively early going, and ended up using the Pixel Remaster's quick saves.
Cecil got wiped by a large group of Mindflayers.
The Nightmares wear beautiful blue robes.
Instead of a spiked square, the horses are represented by a blue-cloaked figure.
Although we can't make use of most of the treasure here, we do qualify for the Ice Brand sword, which is a very nice upgrade before the Dragon Zombies. I actually encountered some random Dragon Zombies before the ones guarding the way out!

There were three quests I was trying to complete, including one that had Cecil wasting four turns at the start of the battle and one with Cecil wasting ten turns at the start of the battle. Let's just say the first one I got done is this:

Title: The Darkness Within
Author: FreshFeeling (2019)
Story: In another universe (or timeline or something), the party's fighter was a dark knight who overcame his trained power of darkness to become a paladin by going through an intense trial, culminating in facing the darkness within himself. Ultimately this allowed him to wield great powers of light.
Requirement: Defeat at least one Dragon Zombie in the Citadel of Trials with a solo fighter or knight. You must start the battle by taking four ineffective actions or actions that only affect your own character.
Unlocks: (e)Sun Blade

Cecil facing Dragon Zombies.
It became apparent pretty quickly that 10 turns wasn't happening! Even squandering four turns was pretty hard. Thankfully, the game's innate quicksaves were in play and I was able to roll through roughly 10 attempts pretty quickly. I tried variations of defending and using potions and eventually got it. This was actually pretty hard! Cecil doesn't have any mythril armor pieces, so he is taking more damage than a casual player might at this point. Any paralysis that landed would usually herald a losing attempt. However, after roughly ten minutes of attempts aided by autobattle and quicksaves, Cecil did it!

Next, I went and got my class change! Now most of the team was face-down with exciting new graphics.
Status with class change! Locke, Lenna and Vivi are still dead.
FlamingXP encouraged me to buy a Bottle at this point, so I did that, too.

I thought some things Cecil or others might want to do soon might benefit from the knights' and ninjas' access to low-level magic, so I wandered from town to town buying up spells. I hadn't considered that Cecil and Locke won't have spell charges for a while. I wanted Cecil to get spell charges so I tried to grind for a bit. In the course of this, I noticed I could get this IKEA-themed quest done.

Title: You Feel Bad For That Lamp?
Author: FreshFeeling (2019)
Story: Sarda is an old dude who lives alone in a cave. Despite his odd life situation, he has some of the finest furniture in the world. He has a bed, a fireplace, two tables, a chair, and lots of jars. Where does he get this all? Not Ikea. If it breaks, he's not sure how to replace it. We will need go around the world asking people, "Where did you buy that?". Sarda will go shopping, and y'know, you always come back with something extra.
Requirement: After getting Sarda's Rod, find a bed, a fireplace, a table, a wooden chair, and a jar. Finally, talk to Sarda again.
Unlocks: (w)Blindna

With the new shop interiors, it wasn't hard to find most of this furniture. We found the fireplace in Cornelia Castle.
Next, we stepped briefly into the Ice Cave to get this done:

Title: An Old Dragon and His Ore
Author: FlamingXP (2025)
Story: There's a White Dragon named Fred who has collected lots of mythril over the years, even filling an entire room of the Cavern of Ice with mythril. Fred has a Dragon Zombie cousin named Zack. Fred is mad at Zack for stealing his precious mythril ores. If you can defeat Zack, Fred may be willing to share.
Requirement: After encountering a White Dragon, defeat a Dragon Zombie, and return to the Cavern of Ice.
Unlocks: (a)Mythril Gloves

Next, I wanted to do the thing where Cecil solos a dragon for ten turns. I thought the White Dragons in the Cavern of Ice would be the easiest candidate for this as well, and I wanted to be able to use his spells. This had a few problems: for one, I died while attempting to grind him two levels to gain some MP/spell charges. For another, this was stupid in the first place since knights can't use NulFrost. This was a misguided idea and eventually I gave up and just attempted this challenge near the entrance of the Cavern of Ice anyway.

Title: Blessing of the Dragons
Author: gameenjoyer (2019)
Story: There exists a powerful armor made out of dragon scales that can mitigate both physical and magical damage. Only by proving your ability to take a beating as well as dragons can will you ever be allowed to wear it.
Requirement: A character who can use Dragon Mail must enter a battle alone with at least one dragon in it and last ten rounds without being killed, then defeat the dragon. The character may not take any battle actions against the dragon or to buff for those ten rounds, but may heal himself.
Unlocks: (a)Dragon Mail

I had some stunlocks, but I was (legitimately) saving very frequently at the Cavern of Ice entrance anyway, basically after nearly every battle. When I eventually met a single White Dragon, I just had Cecil use a potion every turn for 10 turns and survived easily. I accidentally left auto-battle on while I took screenshots so it was actually quite a bit more than 10 turns.
Cecil is taking a beating from the White Dragon. The White Dragon is using Icestorm.

FlamingXP encouraged me to do a Fashionista quest that required my team to use no equipment with an evade penalty greater than 2, so I went around and made sure I could equip the knight and ninja with lighter gear. We put that on pause for a little bit because I read the description for Intermediate Studies in Elemental Physics: I knew this would be easy to do at the start of the volcano, so I wanted to go to the bottom of the Cavern of Earth to fight Earth Elementals for that. Even before that, I realized there was a quest available that I was basically done that would make my life easier!

Title: Honoring Erdrick II
Author: FreshFeeling (2019)
Story: As the stories go, Erdrick adventured around his world and was able to purchase or procure more impressive items. Perhaps he can be further honored by offering up some of the stronger equipment that this hero once used. The stories say he once used a Flame Sword and carried an impressive Silver Shield.
Requirement: Having completed Honoring Erdrick, bring a Flame Sword and a Silver/Mythril Shield to Erdrick's grave in Elfheim. Carrying these, but not using them, is allowed at any time for the purpose of fulfilling this quest.
Unlocks: (e)Flame Sword, (a)Mythril Shield

We already visited this grave once, but now Cecil has epaulettes.
This is one of a few quests that was re-numbered when the quests were compiled. Not only would we benefit from these shields, but Locke could start using the Flame Sword. We already had the gear, so completing this now was trivial! I went to grab a bit of mythril gear and Crescent Lake made me realize I had a lot of gaps in my magic list, so I quickly banged out this one:

Title: Appreciating... a Swamp?
Author: beege_man (2019)
Story: Elvish legends tell of a giant swamp east of Elfheim over the mountains. No one knows what lies in the swamp and due to its remote location blocked off by mountains, almost no one has set foot there in ages. Explore the swamp to see if you can find its secrets.
Requirement: Walk on every square of the swamp east of Elfheim.
Unlocks: (w)Protera

This is a very large swamp. I've truly never had a reason to walk through it, so good on beege_man for making this happen. It happens that I entered from the right-hand side and then gradually worked my way left, so the line between Crescent Lake-area enemies and Elfland-area enemies was pretty stark.
These Warg Wolves are not the least bit threatening anymore.

Now, the plan was to go through the Cavern of Earth and fight three Earth Elementals, and without resting, go to Mount Gulg and defeat three Fire Elementals. Doing this would unlock a few things, and set us up to wander through Mount Gulg anyway.

Title: Let's do the Time Warp Again
Author: beege_man (2025)
Story: You can learn basic teleportation spells through repeated observation of teleportation circles.
Requirement: Use the teleporter at the end of the Earth Cavern, Mount Gulg, Sunken Shrine or Flying Fortress a second time.
Unlocks: (b)Teleport

It took a very long time to encounter three Earth Elementals, and that was the biggest barrier to getting this done.

Title: Intermediate Studies in Elemental Physics
Author: KingRamz (2019)
Story: Jeff the Sage (you know, the one standing right next to Lukahn. Wow, do you really not remember him? Savage.) has been impressed by the way you handle yourself in battle. But if you want to unleash greater power of the elements, you must demonstrate that you know how to use it. Speak to Jeff while all of your training is fresh in your mind, and he will know you are ready.
Requirement: Without resting (inn/sleeping bag/tent/cabin/house), defeat 3 Earth Elementals and 3 Fire Elementals by damaging them only with fire, ice or lightning elemental attacks, and then return to Crescent Lake and talk to Jeff. (Elemental weapons and spells cast from items are ok.)
Unlocks: (b)Firaga

Once we got into Mount Gulg, the Fire Elementals basically wouldn't leave me alone! Within just a couple of battles I had beaten three of them and defeated them appropriately.
Vivi casts Blizzara on a Fire Elemental.
We went back to Jeff reasonably promptly to finish off this quest before delving deeper.
This is Jeff. He is beside Lukahn.
There was a bit of a shopping trip and we went back to the land of lava. I skipped the Mount Gulg B2 treasure.

Title: Giant Power
Author: FreshFeeling (2019)
Story: Gauntlets of Ogre Power, Gloves of Giant Strength, Power Gauntlets... whatever they're called, to be able to find and utilize these magnificent creations you need to know what you're getting into, by observing the strength of giants firsthand.
Requirement: Defeat at least one of each of the following enemies: Ogre, Ogre Chief, Ogre Mage, Hill Gigas, Fire Gigas, Ice Gigas. Observe any of these creatures doing 90 or more damage at least once.
Unlocks: (a)Giant's Gloves

I had been keeping track of the giant enemies I'd beaten all along, but finally ran into a Fire Gigas here. I had also noted a 90+ damage hit from a Hill Gigas a while ago. Anyway, it's done!
After B2, I got most of the treasures, including a second Ice Brand sword that Locke could use.

At the bottom of the volcano, with my characters in good shape, I ran into a Red Dragon. There's a quest about enduring a Red Dragon's Blaze attack, so I tried that. I also tried to tie it into the quest to walk a lap in the lava, but I left my party too weak and actually did wipe once.
We enduring 3 Blaze attacks from this Red Dragon. This started out kind of okay but didn't end well.
Although I did this successfully, I ended up un-completing it since my party died. We'll come back to this.

Title: Hyperthermastery
Author: FlamingXP & FreshFeeling (2025)
Story: To gain a shield of flame, you need to forge your spirit in the fires of a volcano!
Requirement: Go to Mount Gulg B5 (the lowest level) and do a full lap around the staircase without leaving the lava. Without accessing an out-of-battle menu, defeat a Red Dragon.
Unlocks: (a)Flame Shield

After loading my save, I immediately did a lap and used the Flame Armor chest Red Dragon to do this. The first time I did it, I had endured three Blaze attacks; it turns out the lap of the floor in lava did a lot less damage than I expected and this left my team much better able to survive the Red Dragon. 

Title: To Hell and Back... and Back to Hell
Author: beege_man (2025)
Story: If you can weather the flames of hell, you can learn a spell that will help you mitigate their fury.
Requirement: Have a character who can cast Healaga survive Blaze from a Red Dragon or Tiamat 3 times in a single fight.
Unlocks: (w)Healaga

Now that I was able to do some out-of-battle healing without ruining another quest, I lingered hoping for a Red Dragon before Marilith. Healing afterward took my Potion stock down to 1! With this finished, I changed equipment such that nothing had a weight/evasion penalty over 2 and went to the boss.

I had a feeling that some of Marilith's vulnerabilities to status effects might've been modified in this version of the game... but it was spotty. Dark didn't work in one attempt, and Silence didn't work at all. Hold worked briefly and Slow worked well, and with NulBlaze we reduced her offense considerably.
Locke casts Dark and it did not work. Marilith casts Fira on my team.
Vivi used Temper on Locke and Cecil once each, and then they attacked. Lenna was still trying to get status spells to stick when I won.
We defeated Marilith!

Title: Fashionista Jeff
Author: FreshFeeling (2019)
Story: Perhaps the only person in the world who knows fashion better than Arylon is Jeff. Just like Arylon, he knows how to reward someone who can fight while looking good.
Requirement: Defeat any version of Kary/Marilith, Kraken, Tiamat or WarMech while only wearing equipment each with an evade penalty of -2 or less, then talk to Jeff.
Unlocks: (a)Ruby Armlet

FlamingXP very much encouraged me to get this done. I even went up to Gaia promptly to buy all four of these!
I'm going shopping! And there is a fairy.
I may have forgotten to speak to Jeff again. Only after making that purchase, I realized it was easy to get some other armor.

Title: Thirty Pieces of Silver, with Discount!
Author: FreshFeeling (2019)
Story: They say that the pink-clad pirate in Gaia once sold out his crew for thirty pieces of silver, and we can only imagine that smug bastard would do it again. Carrying 30 pieces of silver equipment could probably convince him to do just about anything. He could even steal some heat-resistant gear from the desert-dwelling caravan he's been dealing with! Also, there's a sale because 30 is excessive so it's 50% off.
Requirement: Visit the pink pirate in western Gaia carrying 15 silver or mythril equips of any kind, where duplicates are allowed. Drop all of them in his presence. This can be done over multiple trips.
Unlocks: (a)Ice Armor, (a)Ice Shield

Since dropping doesn't exist, I can't effectively waste as much money as was intended by this quest. Thus, instead of using very cheap Mythril Daggers, I used Mythril Helmets. I put the Flame Shield and Ice Armor on Cecil and the Ice Shield on Locke. Amid these trips to Gaia, I also got Oxyale and bought Vivi the Kill spell that I unlocked much earlier. He already has 1 level 8 spell charge.
We got Oxyale.

I don't know what we'll do when we play next time! A lot of quests are in play, but it might also be nice to hastily open up the Mirage Tower since there are a few goodies inside that we can immediately make use of.

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Final Fantasy PR (Steam) Side Quest Challenge Part III

Aug. 15th, 2025 07:10 pm
The side quest-a-thon continued on August 13th.
There were a few side quests added (some by GameFAQs folks, some by my kids) within the last week, by the way, all of which are documented in the as-of-now current topic on GameFAQs. With those, there are only six things in the whole game that have no means to unlock!: Diamond Shield, Healing Helm, Curaga/CUR3, Invisira/INV2, Diaja/HRM4, and Dispel/XFER. I'll stop myself and my kids from adding anything and hold out for a while for quests from other community members... although there's definitely some kind of opportunity to make the party walk around naked to unlock Invisira.


We were starting from Crescent Lake and our main goal to start was to do the entire Earth Cave. Right off the cuff, there was a situation where I must have not saved the game even though I had saved my quest progress. I only fully realized exactly what happened a little bit later when I didn't have my new Mythril Sword for Cecil and Mythril Hammer for Lenna. I didn't think it was worth trekking back to Crescent Lake at that point so I did the next part of the game without those upgrades. However, the quests I completed, such as Fashionista Arylon, will still be considered complete.

On the way to the Earth Cave (or whatever it's called in this version), I finally encountered the Ghast I needed for Double, Double, Toil & Trouble III. It was a bit of a silly battle, too, where everyone was stunned except for Lenna blowing all the undead away with Dia.
Lenna blows all of the undead away with Dia.

This version of the game treats spiked squares very differently... which is to say, they seem to not exist at all. Fixed encounters like the "hall of giants" are replaced by cloaked figures who initiate encounters, resulting in a much less dangerous/profitable experience there. The spiked squares that would be guarding chests are replaced, as we've already seen, by "monster-in-a-box". Part of what this means is that encounters with Earth Elementals and other enemies on spiked squares are much, much rarer - and less predictable.

Another thing I learned during this session: whether an encounter is escapable or not has changed. It's not associated with the encounter formation itself, but rather with the, um, circumstances? What this means is random Piscodemons or Ogre Mages can be escaped, where in the FF1 version they can't. As well, enemies that are monsters-in-a-box that are normally escapable spiked squares, like the Sphinxes, are not escapable. I found this out when I attempted to fail at running from Piscodemons for one of the side quests, but succeeded!

Title: IF FIRE FAILS, USE LIGHTNING
Author: FreshFeeling (2025)
Story: Elfheim's black magic vendor has refused to sell (b)Thundara, saying there's no market for the spell as long as (b)Fira is available. You'll need to prove that it can be an asset to change his mind.
Requirement: Cast (b)Fira on 8 different enemies without defeating them.
Unlocks: (b)Thundara
Vivi casts Fira on an Earth Elemental.
The Melmond area's Lesser Tigers were the seventh enemy to survive Fira, and an Earth Elemental guarding a chest was the eighth.

I got the Coral Sword and put it on Cecil, since I didn't have a Mythril Sword and he was still using a Battle Axe. It made a pretty good upgrade for now. I was surprised not to find any Ogre Mages on B3 at all; the cloaked figure was an Earth Elemental.
A cloaked figure guards some crappy treasures.
That basically brings us to the Vampire. This was an opportunity to complete a few quests!

Title: Learning to Lose Intelligence
Author: nesplayer & Jay_Shaw (2025)
Story: The party's Black Mage has learned of a way to cause his opponents to \"lose intelligence.\" However, to properly study this technique, he will need to observe his companions attempting something awfully dumb - what could work better than having everyone repeatedly try to flee from a situation they could never possibly hope to escape?
Requirement: Have all party members try to run (and fail) from an unrunnable battle twice, then win the battle.
Unlocks: (b)Slow
The party tries to escape from the Vampire and fails.
Knowing that finding unrunnable encounters is actually a little bit challenging, I decided to build it into this fight. I wasted the first two rounds, and accidentally left auto-battle on, wasting a third round.

Title: Undead Are Uninvited
Author: Diamond_Dragon (2020)
Story: While in Cornelia, the party's white mage happened to bump into a ranger by the name of Krylos. Krylos really, really... really hates the undead. Just talking with the man for a few moments stirred a similar desire to destroy the undead within our white mage.
Requirement: Kill 20 undead including a Mummy and a Vampire.
Unlocks: (w)Diara
We defeated the Vampire!
We had well over 20 undead defeated for this quest - in fact, it was probably over 100. We fought our first Mummies on the first floor of the Earth Cave, and the Vampire finished this off. So, not only did we finish this quest, but we got the Star Ruby.

On the way out, I wandered through the "hall of giants", completing some quests.

Title: The Giant Loop
Author: gameenjoyer (2019)
Story: Legend has it that there is a wing in a cave somewhere that is populated by so many Hill Gigases that one cannot move without being attacked by them. Is anybody brave enough to try to traverse that entire area?
Requirement: Walk through the Hall of Giants in the Cavern of Earth, fighting every battle you encounter along the way. You may not run from any of them.
Unlocks: (e)Crosier

I am... very unlikely to make use of the Crosier/Iron Staff. It's one of those things that's so dumb that perhaps using the Crosier should, itself, be the objective of a quest.

Title: It's For More Than Cutting Trees
Author: hawkeyerules (2020)
Story: The party's fighter has been racking up the kills with his sword but he wanted to experiment with other weapons.
Requirement: Kill a 2 Hill Gigas 2 Lizard formation twice in the Cavern of Earth without dropping any party member to their knees and without healing in either battle.
Unlocks: (e)Mythril Axe

I decided for this one that I may as well count the 2 Hill Gigas 3 Lizard formations as well, since it was technically impossible on prior versions of the game and expressly harder. This is something that I considered with some reluctance, especially given how that one quest for the Thunder spell is phrased. But since the Hall of Giants works differently and I did my absolute best to clobber everything in it, I think the intent of this quest is fulfilled.

I went straight over to Sadda (who used to be called Sarda) instead of taking the time to go back to town to rest.
We fed the Titan a delicious Ruby.

Before heading back into the Earth Cave, I went back to the Aldi Sea towns for some shopping, particularly because I wanted my newly unlocked Thundara and Diara spells. I also had never bought Temper and a few things were missing perhaps from my save debacle. Since I had met nearly every requirement of Double, Double, Toil and Trouble III, I actually wandered back over to the Marsh Cave to finish it up.

Title: Double, Double, Toil & Trouble III
Author: beege_man (2020)
Story: Matoya let slip the tale of a witch who set up shop just outside the ruined NW Castle. Apparently lots of people enter that castle, but few exit... be careful. After visiting the NW witch, she asks you to hunt around and in the Marsh Cave for some ingredients that can make an even more potent disabling spell.
Requirement: Visit the NW Castle, then kill 1 Green Slime, 1 Ghast, 1 Werewolf, then return to the NW Castle.
Unlocks: (b)Hold

Since I got some Ghasts around Melmond, I just needed the Green Slime. It didn't take too long, and I got this done!

Title: Double, Double, Toil & Trouble IV
Author: beege_man (2020)
Story: After finishing the previous collection, the NW witch was surprised to see you return. Well if you were able to get those ingredients, perhaps you can delve a bit deeper and get some even tougher ones for an even better spell?
Requirement: Complete Double Double Toil and Trouble III, then kill 1 Grey Ooze, 1 Scorpion, 1 Crawler, and 1 Bloodbones, then return to the NW Castle.
Unlocks: (b)Sleepra

I hated fighting so many random weak idiots for quests, but I was right there, so I decided to get this done. It was actually a fairly quick dive.
Lenna casts Dia on a group of Skeletons and a Bloodbones.

Title: Cure for Lycanthropy
Author: FreshFeeling (2019)
Story: There have been a number of sightings of Werewolves in the region just west of Elfheim recently, and it seems that these lycanthropic creatures are becoming an epidemic. Lycanthrophy is sometimes described as a curse, and sometimes a disease, and it seems like Dr. Unne could be close to cracking the case and finding a solution, but he needs more field data. What is this guy a doctor of, anyway?
Requirement: After speaking to Dr. Unne for the first time, defeat 10 Werewolves on the southern continent, and then speak to Dr. Unne again.
Unlocks: (e)Werebuster

I also got this done, beating plenty of Werewolves in the Marsh Cave.

When I went back to the Earth Cave, I read the text of the Path of Peace quest. I decided I would get through while running away from every encounter I could.
Opening the plate using Sadda's Rod.
What was funny was I also decided to do the Batman quest and talk to bats, and I distracted myself from running and accidentally started killing some randos on B3. I decided it was worthwhile to just start over.

On my way back down, I opened some treasures and met Ogre Mages.
 
Title: Weathering the Storm
Author: nesplayer & Jay_Shaw (2025)
Story: The party's White Mage is aware of a technique which will allow him to protect himself and his companions from all types of ice spells. However, in order to learn it, he must first observe a relatively slow opponent attempt to use a Blizzard spell against the entire party.
Requirement: Encounter an Ogre Mage with all party members alive. Allow it to cast Blizzara, and the white mage must survive the battle.
Unlocks: (w)NulFrost

I started encountering WzOgre / Ogre Mage groups in B4, in treasure chests. Since I was trying to do Path of Peace, I made sure that the encounter was still unrunnable before proceeding with the battle.
We tried to flee from the Ogre Mage, but failed.
After this, we allowed it to cast Blizzara and then defeated it, fulfilling this quest.
The Ogre Mage used Blizzara. It was mildly effective.

Also for the sake of Path of Peace, when I met the Sphinxes I checked that I couldn't escape before beating them.
We tried to escape from the Sphinxes, but failed!

Then, without much issue, we met Lich!
We found the crystal of earth!
I had Lenna cast NulBlaze and NulShock, while Vivi used Temper on both Cecil and Locke. I didn't try stacking Temper, just because I wasn't sure that would work in this version... and my damage seemed good enough that it wasn't worth fussing about.
Vivi buffs Cecil with Temper.
Eventually, Vivi and Lenna joined in with damaging spells and we took Lich out in a few turns. Not long after that, we won!
Lenna casts Diara on Lich. We defeated Lich!

I wasn't watching too closely, but it was clear to me that I had done well over 400 HP (as in the NES original). I guessed that I must've done 800 damage (as in Dawn of Souls). Well, shortly after the fight, I checked the built-in bestiary...
Lich has 1200 HP.
1200 HP!? That's madness. The balance in this version sure feels like it's all over the place. Between this and all of the encounter differences, this is hardly the authentic experience I was promised. Whatever.

Anyway, beating Lich here also completed Path of Peace for me. I also talked to a lot of bats - roughly 40 of 'em - but not enough to complete the I'm Batman quest.

Title: Path of Peace
Author: KingRamz (2019)
Story: Esterith, a priestess at the Clinic in Elfheim, wishes you to teach the world the virtues of mercy and nonviolence. The best way to teach is by example.
Requirement: Complete a trip through the Cavern of Earth from B1 to the exit behind Lich without killing any monsters, save those you cannot run from (eg. Piscodemons, Earth Elementals, Ogre Mages and Lich).
Unlocks: (w)Cura

There wasn't much else I could get done before returning to Crescent Lake to get a Canoe... however, I did take the time to wander through the forest.

Title: Appreciating Nature: Crescent Lake Edition
Author: FreshFeeling (2019)
Story: In the legend of Wood the fighter and his companions, there was no greater obstacle they faced than the treacherous journey to Crescent Lake when they were seeking additional equipment. It was said that the party fell an incredibly short distance from their ultimate destination. It was a great learning opportunity and a great trial with little in the way of reward, but perhaps if you can follow in Wood's footsteps you will learn something as well.
Requirement: In a single trip to Crescent Lake, step in every single forest tile outside of Crescent Lake before entering the town.
Unlocks: (a)Buckler

This was so particular issue, and this meant we could grab Locke a Buckler when we finally got into the town. With this, and our upgrades for Cecil and Lenna, I thought it was worth taking a snapshot of their loadouts.
Locke has a shiny new Buckler. Cecil has a shiny new Mythril Sword. Lenna has a shiny new Mythril Hammer.
Vivi is still using a Mythril Dagger and is otherwise dressed like Lenna. It's not a particularly bad loadout for anyone, although a fighter at this point in the game might normally be decked out in more silver/mythril equipment.

The guy two sages to the right of Jeff gave us a Canoe.
With my new Canoe, I needed to figure out where to go next. I thought the Citadel of Trials (formerly the Castle of Ordeals) would be a good destination, but very little of its prizes are actually usable yet. I read through some quests and eventually found one involving beating a White Dragon and a Zombie Dragon in that order, so I decided to go to the Ice Cave first.

The rivers were... weird. My knowledge of the NES and Famicom releases of Final Fantasy is pretty darn strong, and I know that there is separate domain mapping for the rivers in the southern continent and for the northern continents. Where the southern rivers - where you'd generally go first - tends to feature tons of Caribes, Hydras, and Ochos/Ochus, the northern ones have a few tougher enemies, like Red Caribes, Frost Gators and Naochos/Neochus. Clearly every river encounter I had in the southern continents' rivers were from the northern continents... and those monsters didn't mess around.
Fighting a Neochu in the southern rivers.
Again, this is the kind of change with encounter behaviour that would be easy to overlook, but its another little thing calling the authenticity of the Pixel Remaster version into question.

Because of those nasty river monsters, we camped up before heading into the Ice Cave. There are a lot of quests that involve this place, and some were much more attainable-seeming than others. I did not endeavor to do all of them now!
I fought a lot more White Dragons than is normal! I guess that's great since there are at least three quests involving White Dragons specifically.

Title: Snicker-snack
Author: beege_man (2025)
Story: One, two! One, two! And through and through / The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! / He left it dead, and with its head / He went galumphing back.
Requirement: Kill a Dragon or Wyvern type enemy in a single attack.
Unlocks: (e)Vorpal Sword

To set up the finish of this quest, I had Locke and Cecil get rid of one White Dragon and had Vivi buff Cecil with Temper on the first turn... so that Cecil could clobber the other White Dragon on the next turn.
Cecil slays a White Dragon in one attack. 
No problem!

Title: Forging Frost
Author: FreshFeeling (2025)
Story: To create the legendary Ice Brand sword, it has been theorized that you could freeze the breath of a White Dragon!
Requirement: In battle with a White Dragon, allow it to use Icestorm at least once, cast either (b)Blizzara or (b)Blizzaga on it, and then defeat it.
Unlocks: (e)Ice Brand

A White Dragon uses Icestorm on us. Casting Blizzara on a White Dragon.
I actually did this quest more than once; I got wiped by Dark Wizards (aka MAGEs) more than once, and I felt like this effectively undid this quest since getting hit by Icestorm is meant to consume some resources. Thus, after my party wipe and at the start of my last good attempt, I repeated this. As usual, I had a stream issue - this one was different, caused by a brief but total internet outage for my home - so this part was right around the cusp of when the second, shorter video started.

Title: Robes of the Deadly Mages
Author: nesplayer & Jay_Shaw (2025)
Story: The party's Black Mage has become aware that mages in the Cavern of Ice are capable of casting a spell which can inflict instant death against someone. However, in order to commit this technique to memory, he will need to approach these mages in a location where they are certain to appear and inspect one of their robes after they are slain.
Requirement: WIth the party's black mage alive, inspect the chest containing Clothes in the Cavern of Ice next to the spiked square.
Unlocks: (b)Death

Remember how I mentioned that I had a TPKO against Dark Wizards/MAGEs? It happened right here!
Looking at the chest that contains Clothes. Fighting four Dark Wizards.
This battle started out so strangely. All four Dark Wizards used physical attacks against me. I was thinking, "I can't believe how easy this is!". I was surprised, however, that all of my own attacks were doing pathetic damage. I had the entire party using regular attacks, too, hoping I might be able to do a different quest (Professional Jewelers). Well, after they stopped their basic attacks... the fight changed a lot.
A Dark Wizard casts Firaga on the party. Locke and Cecil are already dead. The party is defeated, with 3 of 4 Dark Wizards still alive.
Yikes! That hasn't happened much. While it seems a bit cheesy, auto-saves are built into this version of the game, so I went with that. That's why I had to re-do the prior quest. The auto-save didn't lend itself to fantastic luck either, though.
We fought two Mindflayers (SORCERERs) who instantly killed Cecil and paralyzed Locke. Oh look the Mindflayers also killed Locke.
We ended up reloading that save, too. Ultimately it was my third auto-save load where I finally checked the Clothes chest and won. I didn't want to endure a barrage of Thundagas and Firagas so instead of using no magic, I had Vivi casts Blizzara. That worked very nicely, completing the quest.
We beat the Dark Wizards.

The forced undead group and other White Dragons were fairly kind to me.
Vivi casts Fira at a large group of minor undead enemies.
I skipped the treasure room full of gil in the bottom left corner of the next room, and worked my way up to the EYE who is evil. I decided to cast Silence on the Evil Eye, which worked, but didn't matter since Cecil and Locke defeated it on turn 1.
Lenna used Silence on the Evil Eye. We defeated the Evil Eye!
With that, we earned the Levistone!
We got the Levistone, which used to be called FLOATER.
We left successfully, and went to claim the airship.
We got the airship in the Ryukhan desert.

Naturally, this opens up a ton of quests. I decided to quickly finish this:

Title: An Old Man and His Dragon
Author: FlamingXP (2025)
Story: Farmer Jim of Melmond recently received a magical message beetle from his brother, who sought the treasure of a White Dragon. It turns out that Jim's brother was caught in the jaws of a White Dragon! If we can hustle to the Cavern of Ice and defeat a White Dragon, maybe we can still save him.
Requirement: Talk to the farmer in Melmond, then defeat a White Dragon in the Cavern of Ice, and return to the farmer.
Unlocks: (e)Wyrmkiller
This guy is a farmer.

I went through the list of quests and I decided I really wanted to go to the Citadel of Trials next. Given what I've learned about how fixed encounters have changed, I was nervous about one quest that involved beating Zombie Dragons in the Citadel of Trials with a solo fighter. What if there's only ever a single encounter with Zombie Dragons there? I decided to go to the volcano - Mount Gulg - to burn everyone down to 1 HP so that Cecil could easily solo the Citadel of Trials. Well... saying "easily" might be a bit silly! Time will tell.
The party is severely weakened by lava. A group of Buccaneers killed most of the team.

I ended up saving directly outside of the Citadel of Trials with Cecil in good shape and everyone else dead.
Cecil is level 21 with 401 HP. Everyone else is dead.
Supposing I get just a little bit of luck, this'll be great! I'll get the Ice Brand soon, which he can wield, and he might be able to unlock the Sun Blade, Mythril Gloves, and Dragon Mail all at once. I will attempt that next time.

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Final Fantasy PR (Steam) Side Quest Challenge Part II

Aug. 4th, 2025 06:28 pm
In the first session, I completed about 30 quests of what was 116 at that time. On August 4th, I continued. With a few new additions from GameFAQs, there are now 125 quests.


I started out by realizing that the Battle Axe I was eligible for was probably worthwhile, so I scooted up to Pravoka to grab it. While I was there, I did a quick quest.

Title: Ableism Awareness
Author: FreshFeeling (2019)
Story: Matoya's blindness has left her particularly keen with regards to auditory information... in fact, she finds loud noises particularly annoying. Avoid disturbing her with noisy equipment and she will be able to help you learn a new trick.
Requirement: Visit Matoya, starting from Cornelia or Pravoka without using the ship or airship. From the time you step foot in the forest near her cave, avoid carrying any loud, rattling equipment, including Chain, Iron, Silver or Steel armor, helmets, or gauntlets, as well as the Iron Staff / Crosier and Iron Nunchuk weapons.
Unlocks: (b)Focus

I had labelled this quest as "abandoned" so it wasn't showing in the list, but I realized it might be useful for other quests. Some quests are specified as pre-requisites of others, after all! And given all of the trouble I had getting Thunder, I may as well learn Focus. I was at Pravoka anyway and this was pretty simple.

Next, I went to the Marsh Cave. I had a few false starts caused by quick battles that went wrong. I bought lots of Antidotes and Potions for the trip. I sure fought a lot of wolves! Perhaps in a bit of foreshadowing, sometimes it seems like I just get the same encounter over and over. In the Marsh Cave, I grabbed the free Dagger, which I'm eligible to use, so Vivi wielded it.
Fighting some Marsh Cave Gargoyles BEFORE THE FALL.
Shortly after getting the Dagger, Locke died in a fight with Gargoyles. I figured I would get a quest done and back out instead of reloading entirely (partly because reloading complicates my quest tracking).

Title: Take This Copper!
Author: Diamond_Dragon (2020)
Story: The Elves have learned to work with copper to make protective gear, but their methods are very unorthodox. To craft the perfect bracelet, they need some ingredients.
Requirement: Kill a Green Slime and a Grey Ooze.
Unlocks: (a)Copper Armlet

I happened to get into a fight with some spiders, a Green Slime and a Grey Ooze on the way out. Vivi wiped them with Fira and that made it easy.

Title: Pure Bodyguarding
Author: FlamingXP (2025)
Requirement: Starting from the empty room at the dead end in the first level of the Marsh Cave, return to Elfheim with at least one living party member taking no damage.
Unlocks: (w)Poisona

It turns out that dead end is just a dead end with no empty room - FlamingXP or I had mis-remembered - but I think I covered this by intent. I went to the end of the dead end, then walked back to Elfheim. Locke was dead, Cecil and Lenna took damage, but Vivi didn't, staying at 113 HP and effectively bodyguarding the skittish elven child!

Back in Elfheim, we revived Locke and healed up and got Copper Armlets for the three of our party members that it might be an asset for. We also grabbed Poisona. I visited the NW Castle (Western Keep) to start one of the Double, Double, Toil and Trouble quests, and then to run into Ghasts I chose to do this:

Title: Appreciating Nature: Elfheim Edition
Author: FreshFeeling (2019)
Story: When travelling through the Elfheim region, it was said that Wood's companions were able to convince him that nature needed no further appreciation because the elves are a bunch of tree-hugging hippies. Wood travelled through the Elfheim region, hiding his tears, as his companions urged him toward their destinations. It would put Wood's nature-protecting soul at ease if someone were to carefully inspect and appreciate the forests of Elfheim.
Requirement: In a single trip, step in every single contiguous forest tile in the area west of Elfheim / south of Northwest Castle.
Unlocks: (w)NulBlaze

Wouldn't you know that one I had activated a quest asking me to defeat Ghasts, that they never showed up again? I had seen them before going to the castle, but I don't think I met a single one after! After another round of healing, I went back to the Marsh Cave, where this happened:

Title: How Can You See In That Thing?
Author: Diamond_Dragon (2020)
Story: Helmets can be very useful, but not if it impairs the wearers vision. The party's fighter must get used to fighting in the dark before becoming comfortable wearing one.
Requirement: Kill 4 enemies with the party's fighter while he's inflicted with the Dark status.
Unlocks: (a)Great Helm

Cecil waiting to be blinded, fighting some Shadows.
It's funny, but there are relatively few enemies in this game who can inflict the Dark status, and it doesn't stick around after battle. This means you need to do this during the battle where you get afflicted with blindness. It turns out the early-game Shadow enemies are perfect for this, because their damage and general threat level is very low. I just sat there waiting until they blinded Cecil, and then had Cecil clobber them all with his eyes closed. This happened in two consecutive encounters with 3 Shadows.

Title: Chain Is Great But Steel?
Author: hawkeyerules (2020)
Story: The party's fighter was walking through Cornelia when a guard called them over. They had a conversation about the value of chain armor compared to iron plate. "Legend has it", the guard drew nearer and whispered, "that in a chest in the Marsh cave there is a suit of Iron Armor for FREE.".
Requirement: Gain access to the Ship and Chain Mail. Go into the Marsh Cave and retrieve the Iron Armor from the chest.
Unlocks: (a)Iron Armor

This is one of the weirdest ones. I am not sure how effectively I'm playing by the rules here, because it turns out the Iron Armor chest has been fully removed from the Pixel Remaster version of Final Fantasy. I had recently played the GBA Dawn of Souls version and I had even said, when I played that I looked for Iron Armor and couldn't find it. In fact, one of the chests that used to hold Iron Armor now has a Phoenix Down... which didn't even exist in the original Final Fantasy!
We found a Phoenix Down in the Marsh Cave's Iron Armor chest.
With this in mind, I think getting this Phoenix Down - which, by the way, I'm not using - meets the requirements for this quest. If it doesn't, then this quest is now impossible (and it seems like this isn't the only one where subtle but significant changes in the game caused impossible quests). I got another Iron Armor from a chest shortly after in the locked Cornelian treasure rooms anyway. So... I marked it complete! Come at me, I guess?

The Piscodemons - or WIZARDs - were up next. In this version of the game, instead of being a "spiked square" they are a monster-in-a-box.
You open this chest to fight the Piscodemons and get the Crown.
I got four of them. I had Vivi cast Fira to soften them up, which helped a lot. Despite his robust defenses, Cecil was utterly clobbered. But we won and got the Crown.
We defeated four Piscodemons! We got the Crown.
Before leaving, I kept checking every room I could in the Marsh Cave still seeking Iron Armor but it wasn't there. I left and it wasn't too bad getting out safely without Cecil. In fact, this might present an opportunity!

Title: Pity of the Guard
Author: FreshFeeling (2019)
Story: The guards of Cornelia are among the most consistently well-equipped in the land. And given that Garland has left, the rest are mostly well known for their compassion as well. They won't mind the discipline that they'll take for misplacing their equipment if it means helping out someone in desperate need.
Requirement: Speak to any guard in Cornelia with a character who can equip an Iron Shield having 1 HP.
Unlocks: (a)Iron Shield

Cecil dead and the rest of the party facing a team of Ogre and Gigas Worms.
Reviving Cecil got him set to 1 HP, which made it pretty easy to enable the Iron Shield. In fact...

Title: The Gift of Life
Author: FreshFeeling (2019)
Story: To truly master the power over life, you must be aware of the value of life and how each life is different. You must observe life beginning and ending; only then will you hold power over it.
Requirement: Each party member must die and be revived in a clinic at least once.
Unlocks: (w)Life

Lenna and Cecil are both dead, with Locke and Vivi facing a single Sahag. Lenna and Cecil have been revived, and have 1 HP.
I let Lenna die as well. Each character had died and been revived once now, so when the time comes I'll be able to make use of Life or Raise or whatever it's called.

For fighting Astos, there were three quests where the first spellcasting enemy you can face made opportunities to complete quests. Really, I think this might be the last opportunity before Lich? So I thought I should take advantage. One in particular I wanted to do was this:

Title: The Princess' Secret
Author: FreshFeeling (2019)
Story: In another universe (or timeline or something), the black mage's journey with the princess of Alexandria started off with clumsiness, coincidences, and plans gone awry. As part of this, the black mage accidentally let loose a fire spell that singed the white cloak of the princess of Alexandria, revealing her identity to the masses and throwing a wrench in the plans of his eventual companions. The black mage wishes they had used any other spell, or perhaps one that could put the fire out!
Requirement: The party's white mage must be hit by a fire-element spell or special attack while the party's black mage is alive and has no negative status effects. Both characters must survive the battle.
Unlocks: (b)Blizzara

When I went into the Astos fight, I was really hoping he would cast Fira, and I intended (at first) to cast NulBlaze to mitigate it. But, when I opened my spell list, I saw Silence there, and I got tempted! So what actually happened? On turn 1, Astos cast Fira, and then Lenna successfully landed Silence. I couldn't have hoped for a better result! Without all of his other spells, Astos was nearly completely helpless.
Astos tried to cast a spell, ineffectively.
We also wanted to do this one:

Title: You Runed My Day
Author: Diamond_Dragon (2020)
Story: One of the rune smiths in town has practiced channeling magic into weapons, but he needs the magical energy of an evil creature to recharge his runes.
Requirement: Use a bladed weapon to kill an enemy that can cast spells. Then drop the weapon used to kill the enemy before another encounter.
Unlocks: (e)Rune Blade

We defeated Astos!
Cecil landed the finishing blow on Astos with a Saber! You can see that Lenna was using "defend", and that's because she was the only character not using a bladed weapon. Since this version of the game doesn't allow dropping weapons, I unequipped the Saber and sold it reasonably promptly, which is as close as I can get. (Don't worry, I wasted tons of money in other ways to compensate for the financial difference.)

This also means we get the Crystal Eye, allowing us to do tons of game progression and the quests that go with that.
We got the Jolt Tonic. We got the Mystic Key. We got the TNT or Nitro Powder! It was actually in the box next to this one.

While I was dealing with Matoya, I did this:

Title: The Sound of Nature
Author: FreshFeeling (2019)
Story: Let us follow in the footsteps of Wood the fighter once again and recall that his interest in nature was the product of someone who adored being able to magically restore one's voice. There is a lot of quality nature outside of Matoya's cave, and oh how she hates loud noises. If you appreciate her nature and scare some of the birds and monsters away from her cave perhaps she will help you restore your noisiness as well.
Requirement: After giving Matoya the Crystal, in a single trip, step in every single contiguous forest tile directly outside of Matoya's Cave.
Unlocks: (w)Vox

...and this one happened accidentally as I did it:

Title: An Old Man and his Horses
Author: FlamingXP (2025)
Requirement: After completing An Old Man and His Worms, defeat a group of 4 Crazy Horses in a forest.
Unlocks: (a)Leather Shield

This is the one that I had to fix up because there were two quests that unlocked Helm. At some point that must've been a typo or a copy/paste error on my part, because on the original post with that quest it had said Leather Shield all along. Anyway, I've got a better shield already... but there's always a chance this could matter later.

Having had some success letting party members die by leaving all of their armor off during sea battles, I decided to invest in this:

Title: The Power of Death
Author: FreshFeeling (2019)
Story: To truly understand the power of death, you must become death and feel its hold falling over everyone you hold most dear. Recall the story of Tick the fighter and his companions, who were compelled to face each of the four fiends with a different member of the party having already succumbed to the beyond, each of them marked upon Tick's soul as an "X".
Requirement: Finish four consecutive battles each with a different light warrior dead at the end of the battle.
Unlocks: (b)Kill

This is the level 8 "power word-style" spell originally called XXXX. It's kind of neat to unlock this so early although I certainly won't be using it for a while. In a way, I'm sure it's easiest to do this while the team isn't amazingly buff. I actually died once in the course of this, but when I reloaded my save I managed to carefully have four consecutive battles where each had a different dead warrior. First was Locke, then Cecil, then Vivi, then Lenna. It helped to have them all start unequipped and then after I revived each of them I gave them all their gear so they could carry the team somewhat. For some reason it didn't occur to me that I ought to re-order the team.

I continued my Mystic Key looting after this. Elfheim and Cornelia were done, so I went to the Temple of Chaos yet. I was surprised that the spiked Gargoyles were gone. I got the Rune Blade, which was a fantastic upgrade for Locke the thief. Next, I headed to the Dwarf Cave. As I hit the port there, I noticed something.

Title: Pretty Good Axe
Author: FreshFeeling (2019)
Story: The Titan guards an axe that's usually pretty unimpressive... at least in this game. In another game where it's a little bit better you can simply buy this axe at a port. Let's suppose you can do that now.
Requirement: Have 15,500 GP on hand and step on any port tile.
Unlocks: (e)Great Axe

I happened to have just barely crested 15,500 Gil! This is a reference to the Great Axe in Final Fantasy XII which I think is at Balfonheim Port. Then I talked to Nerrick. I also got the Great Helm here, which I could use because of what I did with the Shadows earlier.
Nerrick talks funny. He says, "Noo we can blast this rock tae smithereens!" I also got the Great Helm here.
I was also able to do this one, mostly:

Title: That's Not a Knife
Author: Diamond_Dragon (2020)
Story: Whether or not your nickname is "crocodile" you can still get a bigger knife. The dwarves don't get to work with silver as much as they'd like, so they're eager to help.
Requirement: Drop a dagger/knife and any item made from mythril/silver in the room with the dwarf smith. You may purchase/find a locked item for the purposes of dropping it in this quest, but it cannot be equipped or used in battle.
Unlocks: (e)Mythril Knife

To do this, I needed to consider my new Mythril Hammer "dropped" - e.g., ensure it's unequipped and then sell it. There was a hitch here where I had accidentally equipped the Mythril Hammer recently when I re-equipped Lenna. I feel a bit bad about that but it was a pretty minor oversight over a fairly short span of time so - although I wish I'd been more to-the-letter with the rules - I'm not going to dwell on it too much.

Title: Double, Double Toil and Trouble II
Author: beege_man (2020)
Story: The witch in Cornelia mentioned an even more powerful witch in a cave up north. After visiting her, she tells you to bring her the eye of a Lizard, a Warg Wolf's tooth, pus of Gigas Worm, and a poison sac. With these she can teach you to do more than just put things to sleep.
Requirement: Visit Matoya, then kill 1 Lizard, 1 Warg Wolf, 1 Gigas Worm, and 1 Tarantula or Cobra, then visit Matoya again.
Unlocks: (b)Dark

I had actually been waiting for ages to encounter a Lizard and finally ran into one. These Double, Double, Toil and Trouble quests are mostly linked so I'm really glad to get another out of the way; it had been feeling like a bottleneck. As I did this, I had Vivi in the leader of the party for a quest called

Title: More Than Just a Pretty Face
Author: Primus_Ultimas (2020)
Story: The party's black mage is growing frustrated at being relegated to simply support and wishes to prove that they are a valuable member of the party.
Requirement: With the party's black mage leading the party, win battles with a Goblin Guard, a Sahagin Chief, a Crawler, an Ogre, and a Grey Ooze in any order. The black mage must be in front for the battle and also land at least one physical strike on said monster, and survive.
Unlocks: (b)Temper

This required a mini-backtrack into the Marsh Cave. During all of this I had been hoping to encounter Green Slimes and Ghasts for another quest but they absolutely refused to show up. Also in the course of this, I tried going to the Mystic Key doors at the bottom of the Marsh Cave but I had a terrible time with Scorpions, leaving Vivi dead by the time we fought Anacondas (the ones that were COBRA on NES). Thankfully this particular quest was already complete.

We stayed here quite a while looking for both Green Slimes and Ghasts but neither appeared. I eventually got sick of waiting so we just won't have some of those Double, Double, Toil and Trouble quest rewards for a while. Those were mostly status effect spells. These enemies also appear in the Earth Cavern, I believe, so I'll probably still finish it without a terrible grind eventually.

I talked to Dr. Unne to start another quest and I got the Life spell. I popped over to Crescent Lake, mostly to get a Mythril Sword for Cecil, but I noticed when I fought Minotaurs and Trolls that they were worth over 1000 experience points altogether.
Minotaurs and Trolls look awesome in this port.
With that new info, I stripped Cecil down and did this quest:

Title: Fashionista Arylon
Author: FreshFeeling (2019)
Story: Arylon is one of the most talented and beautiful dancers in the known world and she holds others to a fairly high standard. There is no reason you can't fight evil while looking good, and she will reward warriors who can prove this.
Requirement: Win any battle with total experience over 1000 while only wearing defensive equipment each with an evade penalty of -2 or less, then talk to Arylon.
Unlocks: (a)Silver Armlet

With Cecil's bad armor situation he actually did get knocked out by Trolls once before I pulled this off successfully.
Y'know what's strange? The Cornelian dancer is unnamed in the Pixel Remaster version!
I talked to the nameless Cornelian dancer.
I actually didn't talk to her at this point chronologically; I did that after completing the next big quest. After that first visit to Crescent Lake, I decided to complete this:

Title: The Great Barrier Reef
Author: FreshFeeling (2025)
Requirement: Circumnavigate the entire southern continent by circling it with the ship, without entering a town or dungeon. Outside of battle, at least one tile of coastline should be visible at all times.
Unlocks: (e)Coral Sword

I fought a lot of seafood.
This took a really long time and wasn't very fun (bad quest maker!), but it's nice that it is done. In terms of dedicated time for a single quest, this was probably the longest besides fighting 32 Goblin Guards.

Title: Dwarven Hammer
Author: FreshFeeling (2019)
Story: The dwarven blacksmith is known for his ability to craft quality hammers for metalwork, and the crude iron hammers made using salvaged iron is questionable for the kind of work he would normally undertake. If you can provide 5 pieces of fine elven mythril or silver, he'll be able to create much improved hammers that will surely help you down the line.
Requirement: With access to at least one Hammer, bring 5 pieces of Silver or Mythril equipment to the dwarven blacksmith and drop these when you speak with him.
Unlocks: (e)Mythril Hammer

This one was kind of dumb. While I was in Crescent Lake, I grabbed 5 Mythril Gloves. In getting those for 2000 gil each instead of Mythril Knives for 640 gil each, I wasted a ton of money that ought to pretty well make up for any I should've dropped instead of selling in the early game. I sold those Mythril Gloves and thus effectively completed this quest.

Title: Bikke's Boys Bite
Author: FreshFeeling (2019)
Story: Bikke's pirate are woefully underprepared for any serious battle and the light warriors learn this first hand. If they're ever going to be an effective pirate crew again in this crazy world, they'll need to seriously upgrade their gear. You can start by showing Bikke a selection of traditional pirate weapons that have more than 10 attack power.
Requirement: Talk to Bikke while carrying a Broadsword, a Sabre, and a Longsword. Carrying these, but not using them, is allowed for the purpose of fulfilling this quest.
Unlocks: (e)Longsword

Well, this was easy. Pointless, but easy.

I got a few more consumables, including some Gold Needles to prepare for Cockatrices in the Earth Cavern. Then I rested and saved up in Melmond.
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