freshfeeling | Entries tagged with final fantasy

One of my favourite FF1 variant runs I've ever seen was Diamond_Dragon's Side Quest Challenge from 2019 on GameFAQs. The basic idea is that everything usable by the party - weapons, armor, and spells - are locked and unavailable by default. The community created a set of side quests, each of which would unlock things. The base game itself is 100% unmodified, you just only access and use things you've made an effort to unlock. As I've espoused before, the goal of my own variant gameplay is rarely about challenge but more about experiencing games in unusual ways, so I was into this bigtime... and you can tell, as I think I made more than half of Diamond_Dragon's side quests in the end.

In 2020, Linguar82 picked up a sequel Side Quest Challenge. This had a different set of contributors and I, myself, didn't actually contribute any. The list of quests ended up being quite different. As well, Linguar did not end up completing their playthrough - or if they did, they didn't document it.

In my enthusiasm for Diamond_Dragon's original run and its thread, I had started documenting all of the challenges into a Google Sheet linked here. What was funny was, when I looked at it recently thinking that I might do a related run, I found that Liguar's challenge offered unlocks for many items that Diamond_Dragon's did not. I ended up, in that Google Sheet, creating an amalgamated version of the sheet, with a list of quests unlocking a very large proportion of the game's equipment and spells. While it's not important to me to make an exhaustive list, I thought it would be fun to play using as many of the previously-provided quests as possible.

One day when I wanted a little coding project, I made a little Python program with a tkinter UI. I exported the Google Sheet to a JSON file and made it so the Python program could display all the information about quests and mark them as complete or not. My plan - maybe obviously - is to play a Side Quest Challenge myself. The funny thing was when one of my kids (online as FlamingXP) saw me doing this coding project...

"What are you doing?"
"Making a program to view fictitious side quests for the original Final Fantasy?"
"Oh that's cool. What does it show?"
"Well, each unlocks a weapon or armor or spell, and you have a set of steps to do to be able to use it."
"Oh. What's something that doesn't have a quest yet?"

I know my kid loves Greek mythology, so I say, "The Aegis Shield, which I think is the shield of Perseus." On the spot, he comes up with a new, valid quest for the Aegis Shield. And then, over the next week each time we walked the dogs he wanted to discuss side quests and come up with some new ones. During this period where I was thinking about it, I added a just a few more myself as well.

Since part of the GUI I made for tracking quests includes the original source of the challenge (as a URL), I figured I'd post the new ones that my son and I made. I had also edited some of the existing ones to fit more modern translations (i.e. Pixel Rem, reduce some of the redundant quest prizes, and other minor factors. Reasonable effort was made to honor the original posts' intent.

Anyway, because I'd like them to be posted somewhere: I present to you... our new FF1 Side Quests!

Title: An Old Man and His Cows
Author: FlamingXP
Story: There is an old man named John who lives in a cabin the forest who lives with a rare herd of magical cows who eat leaves instead of grass and occasionally shed their skins entirely. This allows for fine leather to be collected without harming the cows. Also, the cows taste terrible so nobody really wants to butcher them. Recently, some Goblin Guards have been making trouble for John and threating the cows and on one occasion tried to light his cabin on fire. The Goblin Guards must be stopped.
Requirement: Defeat 3 Goblin Guards in a forest.
Unlocks: (a)Leather Armor

Title: An Old Man and His Worms
Author: FlamingXP
Story: Old man John was thankful for your help, but has considered moving his skin-sheeding cow operation closer to the mountains. It turns out that Gigas Worms are very tempted by these terrible-tasting cows, and have a substantial bounty out on their heads in Gigas Worm currency. For John's sake, try to find a safe location for the new cow pasture.
Requirement: After completing An Old Man and His Cows, defeat at least 1 Gigas Worm while in view of a mountain tile. Return to a town while experiencing 3 or fewer encounters after the Gigas Worm.
Unlocks: (a)Leather Gloves

Title: An Old Man and His Horses
Author: FlamingXP
Story: Old man John was still having problems guarding his flock of leather-shedding cattle. In particular, a group of drunken horses (?) was repeatedly assaulting the leafy pastures. He needs them taken care of, and he can provide some additional leather protection if you do this.
Requirement: After completing An Old Man and His Worms, defeat a group of 4 Crazy Horses in a forest.
Unlocks: (a)Leather Shield

Title: Fashionista Mars
Author: FreshFeeling
Story: Recall the story of Mars the ultra-fashionable red mage who would never dare to buy from the same store twice. You might aspire to wear a fashionable helmet if you could curate a wardrobe as effectively as Mars.
Requirement: Buy exactly one of every available option at once at an armor store you have never visited before. In the event that you have visited every possible armor store, purchase two Ruby Armlets and two Protect Rings at the same time.
Unlocks: (a)Helm

Title: IF FIRE FAILS, USE LIGHTNING
Author: FreshFeeling
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

Title: The Great Barrier Reef
Author: FreshFeeling
Story: It is said there's a large barrier of coral surrounding the southern continent. While it's frowned upon to interfere with the growth of coral, if it's carefully inspected one might be able to utilize a weapon made from it.
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

Title: Forging Frost
Author: FreshFeeling
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

Title: Pure Bodyguarding
Author: FlamingXP
Story: An elven child was lost in the Marsh Cave. If you can bring him back safely to Elfheim, the community can teach you some useful white magic! The problem, however, is that the child is terribly afraid of monsters and will flee back into perceived safety if every member of the party is damage.
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

Title: An Old Man and His Dragon
Author: FlamingXP
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

Title: An Old Dragon and His Ore
Author: FlamingXP
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 Zombie Dragon 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 Zombie Dragon, and return to the Cavern of Ice..
Unlocks: (a)Mythril Gloves

Title: The Spirit of Flame
Author: FlamingXP
Story: As the party approaches the Flame Armor, they quickly realize that it has been posessed 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

Title: The Time Mage Sequence
Author: FlamingXP
Story: The black mage considered, "If I could use float magic to cross rivers back when we first approached Pravoka, dangerous though it could be, this quest could certainly have been shorter!". An ethereal time mage appeared beside the black mage and said, "I wonder if we might put that to the test... and I could offer you a form of mastery over time."
Requirement: With a solo black wizard and without using the ship or airship, leave Pravoka, enter the Cavern of Ice, defeat the Evil Eye, exit the Cavern of Ice, and visit the Ryukahn Desert.
Unlocks: (b)Stop

Title: Rod Replacement
Author: FlamingXP
Story: Sarda needs a replacement for the Rod he gave to the party. Defeat some staff-wielding enemies to show Sarda some alternatives. Green is not Sarda's preferred colour, so you can have any green ones.
Requirement: After getting Sarda's Rod, defeat at least four Piscodemons and then speak to Sarda again.
Unlocks: (e)Power Staff

Title: Weapons of the Cat Army
Author: FlamingXP
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

Title: Diamond Ore
Author: FlamingXP
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

Title: The Shield of Perseus
Author: FlamingXP
Story: Perseus has apparently grown old and taken up residence as one of the sages in Crescent Lake. He can allow you to use the Aegis Shield, but only after a worthiness of its gifts has been shown.
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.
Unlocks: (a)Aegis Shield

Title: Blue Magic: Death Force
Author: FreshFeeling
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

Title: Gotta Go Fast!
Author: FlamingXP
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

Title: Blue Magic: White Wind
Author: FreshFeeling
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

Title: Hard to Forge Adamant
Author: FlamingXP
Story: The dwarven smith is ready to forge the legendary sword Excalibur! Unfortunately, they've realized they require a few additional supplies to complete this masterwork. In addition to Adamant, they require the scale of a T.Rex, the power core of a WarMech, and Thor's Hammer to shape the blade.
Requirement: Unlock and acquire Thor's Hammer. Retrieve the Adamant, then defeat one WarMech and one Tyrannosaur before returning to the dwarven smith.
Unlocks: (e)Excalibur

Title: White Robe at the Bazaar
Author: FreshFeeling
Story: In another universe (or timeline or something), the best protective robe for a white mage was able to be purchased after supplying several different trade goods. Perhaps if we can claim these as loot from monsters we will be able to use the robe.
Requirement: After reaching Gaia, defeat 8 Spirit Nagas (for Holy Crystals), 9 Crocodiles (for Blood Wool), and 7 Chimeras (for Beastlord Hides).
Unlocks: (a)White Robe

As of right now, there are side quests for...

All weapons other than Iron Nunchaku, Falchion, Light Axe, Defender, Wizard's Staff, and Vorpal Sword
All armor other than Mythril Mail, Flame Shield, Diamond Shield, Protect Cloak, Diamond Helm, Healing Helm, and Diamond Gloves
All white magic other than NulFrost (AICE), Curaga (CUR3), Invisira (INV2), Diaja (HRM4), Healaga (HEL3), and Dispel (XFER)
All black magic other than Slow, Teleport (WARP), Death (RUB), and Warp (ZAP!)

FlamingXP actually had a really neat idea for Warp/ZAP! (involving the double door glitch) but that's only possible on the oldest versions and I intend to use Pixel Remaster.

I might start this one after I finish Valkyrie Profile, and I'll probably link that playthrough here when I do.

Although I am a retro gamer, it’s funny because in my youth I felt very much like a late adopter. It’s true that my brother had an Atari 2600 when I was very young, but that was his, and it was relatively rare (and special!) when I had an opportunity to play it. The same was true when it seemed like all of my friends had an NES and I didn’t. The first gaming system I owned personally was a GameBoy that I got in summer 1990, and I got an NES about a year after that. Getting an NES later than my friends didn’t curb my enthusiasm about games, though. In fact, it may have augmented it. Without access to video games themselves, I’d often indulge myself creatively in relation to the games I wished I was playing. This may sound kind of sad now when I think about it, but some of my memories of how I engaged with gaming as a hobby actually feel quite special to me.

Before I even knew about the NES, I loved drawing mazes. I drew mazes on every scrap of paper I could find and I’d try to get my parents or siblings to do them, which naturally they all got sick of eventually. One day I had the brilliant idea to buy a blank notebook and fill the entire thing with mazes. Drawing mazes was a legit passion for me for a part of my childhood.
Just some random picture from my childhood. My brother singing happy birthday to me, badly.

My dad was something of a business person when I was young - with typical 80s businessman equipment - and one day I noticed in his briefcase that he had a pad of grid paper. I was legitimately excited to learn that grid paper existed because it was going to revolutionize the way I drew maps and mazes! For my birthday one year I asked for a pad of grid paper, and my parents delighted me by giving me a stack of five pads of grid paper. I was probably 4 or 5 and had no idea the cost of things; it may have been nice for them that this thrilling, successful birthday present may have cost them a buck or two.

Sometimes I tell the story of my special relationship with the original Final Fantasy. It relates somewhat, so here it is:
Final Fantasy is a game I was obsessively in love with before I had ever played it or even seen it in person. In 1990, someone in my class brought the Nintendo Power Final Fantasy Player’s Guide to school and left it on our classroom bookshelf. Though I did (and do) appreciate the game, I am not sure what it was about that guide that drew me in... but it did. I read it cover-to-cover and started immediately processing the game’s data in my mind. I’d come up with party combinations and consider how they’d deal with the game’s challenges… and this was roughly a year before I’d own the game.

When I finally got a copy of Final Fantasy myself at Christmas 1991, I remember distinctly that I woke up at about 5am on that freezing Boxing Day morning to play it before anyone else woke up, wearing just a bathrobe. Without exaggeration, there was a feeling of adrenaline at being able to experience it.

So, for a video game-obsessed kid with limited access to video games, either because of a lack of means or being ordered to turn the games off every once in a while, what else does that kid do? Well, for me, it was back to drawing mazes on grid paper! I used to constantly draw maps for games as if I could mod them or something - an ability I wouldn’t have for a long time. I drew tons of Final Fantasy-esque dungeons and about a million levels for Super Mario Bros. on paper. The dungeon maps were fairly detailed, with connected doors and treasure boxes. I don’t think any of these drawings have survived in the 30+ years in between. My mom accumulated a large bin of artwork and such from my childhood that I have in my basement, but I haven't found any of these drawings. If I find any, I'll share them.

It started with scattered pages of Mario maps, and then when I saw the style of level layout produced in Nintendo Power, I took to that. I'd draw out my own levels, block-by-block, noting the initial starting position of enemies and the locations of power ups. There would always be a few secrets. I would group these drawn level maps by environment type, which I guess was creating "worlds". Like with the mazes I drew when I was younger, these video game maps would be scattered pages before I tried to collate them into booklets. This was completely self-indulgent; I had no particular illusions that they would ever be meaningful to anyone other than myself.

Although... actually, there was one small group of people who were interested. I had at-least-as-obsessed younger cousins who would want to check out my game maps, and eventually they all did the same thing, producing copious pages of drawn game maps - of course I always generally thought mine were better. One time, after watching an episode of PBS Kids show Ghost Writer where I learned all about copyright infringement, I gave my roughly 9-year-old cousin a stern lecture about how he had to stop creating Super Mario-related content because he didn’t own the rights to Mario. He took it really hard… but quickly drafted a plan for a game called Rug-Bee where a bunch of bees were stuck in a rug and the player needed to vacuum the bees out of the rug. The fact that I remember it decades later might suggest there was something there! His drawings were amusing but I don’t think the Rug-Bee IP went anywhere.

On a small number of occasions, I took my user-generated content for games to the next level, and made what was essentially a LARP based on games. I remember doing a Final Fantasy based one that I played, again, with cousins, telling them, "You can be Yang, and you get a spinning kick!" and so on - I think before I actually played Final Fantasy IV and had only read about it. I don't think my cousins understood what was going on but I guess they indulged me.

Also with cousins, I had a really complex Metroid thing where we'd run around a sandy playground collecting beams and power ups, all of which had stats documented on scraps of paper. This Metroid LARP-like phenomenon had items, imaginary enemies, and characters from the first three Metroid games as well as the Nintendo Power Metroid comic. Each beam had its own properties and a sort of additive power (like combining beams in Super Metroid), and you'd need a certain number of shots at some power level to beat the imaginary aliens. The interesting thing about documenting stats and rules on scraps of paper related to an imagination-based game is that I don't think I was even the least bit aware of Dungeons & Dragons or other TTRPGs at this time.

Eventually, this tendency to make a "rules system" and run a game with it would translate into partly original, partly derivative roleplaying games I'd run on IRC... still years before I would try a TTRPG myself. But my IRC gaming is a rabbit hole only tangentially related to user-generated game content, so that may be a topic for another time.

Another thing I drew constantly as a youth - even through high school - was magic swords. I was always drawing named swords with different properties that I would envision my Final Fantasy characters finding and using; I must have drawn nearly as many swords as Matthew Wills.

The reason I bring up my obsession and my abundant video game-based scribbles is because of the topic of user-generated content, even without a game, even without technology to support it, a person with a strong enough ties to something is going to find their way to expand upon the world they love - a similar idea to obsessive fan-fiction writers (which I am not). I was making user-generated content for my favourite games before it was even an option, and as the ease of user-generated content ramped up through the 2000s it’s an idea that remained close to my heart.

This sixth and final session of play in the quest of the voweless knights was played on January 15, 2022. Even though there's a bit of grinding at the beginning, this was the shortest session in this particular playthrough.

Watch on YouTube

I started by coming to terms with the fact that a few levels might help. I decided to grind using the Eye in the Ice Cave. Earlier, the Ice Cave was a terrible place to be, but it's quite a bit more tolerable now with things like Ribbons and ProRings and... levels. We started with everyone at levels 17 and 18. We fought the Eye enough in 10 minutes to get to level 21, and then I wasn't paying close enough attention and walked into a hole.

By about the 15 minute mark, we were starting to hit level 23. No O was hit with RUB by a Mage, and then No I went down, too, so I figured I should leave. We were running into Wizards on the way out, and while they used to be quite scary they definitely aren't anymore. I also decided to grab AFIR for No O and No E; I seem to have removed from all characters when correcting an earlier error. I had made some good use of ALIT so I thought AFIR might be useful, too.

With our new levels, here's a look at the party:
Party now at levels 22 and 23.

And here's a look at our stuff, which is final besides possibly the Masmune:
Behold, my stuff!

On our first dive (or, more accurately, our 15th?), No I got affected by a Mage's RUB spell before Phantom and I decided I was starting over. On the second (or 16th), the Phantom was no problem. No I was petrified on the earth floor, but we had Soft Potions so it was a non-issue. We also managed to swat Lich before he NUKEd us.
Lich was swatted!

Kary was so afraid of our newfound AFIR that she didn't even try to burn us. We took her out without much issue.
We defeated Kary 2!

Fighting Waters on the water floor earned No I a level where he crossed the 96-hit threshold to earn an extra hit, so that might help. Kraken didn't one-shot anyone this time, so that's a treat. He two-shot No O though, which isn't way better. But we won. We'll press on.
We beat Kraken 2!

We got the Masmune, and we beat Tiamat with the remaining three knights alive.
We beat Tiamat 2!

We had a whole plan for Chaos. AFIR, ALIT, and White Shirt (or maybe RUSE) to get high evasion. Let CUR4 happen, and then go on the offensive. We actually didn't need to do AFIR or ALIT, since No O was dead. No I, who has no Ribbon, was killed by Chaos' CRACK fairly early on. No E and No A seemed to be hanging in there, although No E was hit by SLO2 after several turns and clobbered with a critical attack shortly after. Suddenly, this wasn't going well.
We got beaten by Chaos.

Y'know, that is still somewhat encouraging. This was a lot simpler feeling than most of the runs yesterday.

Attempt #17: We didn't hit a lot of unrunnable battles and thus the pace of this run was way faster. Lich did manage to NUKE us this time, but everyone survived so it wasn't a big deal. Kary took us a couple of rounds, but barely made a dent in the voweless crew at all.

Kraken did some damage, but we also got ALIT and a load of White Shirt spam off and then stall for healing against him. It worked out pretty well!
We beat Kraken 2... again.

As I got the Masmune, I said, "Just so you know, I am thinking about whether this run is going well or not and I'm choosing not to comment on it because doing so will destroy me. You know?". We reached Tiamat in excellent condition. Everyone survived BANE, too. It went well.
We beat Tiamat 2, again!

Here are our stats before this attempt at Chaos:

You can see we've arrived in great condition! We'd need some pretty terrible luck to fail this time. A good strategy could help, too. We used AFIR, ALIT, and some evasion bonuses and we also happened to dodge CRACK on turn 1. We're still going to try to boost evasion, and No I and No O are just going to be attacking henceforth, with the Masmune and Xcalbur, respectively. Chaos tried to get No I with SLO2, but it didn't work, which is just awesome.

After that, we were fully buffed! Our offense was solid. In fact... we managed to outpace CUR4.
We defeated Chaos! Finally.

Despite the 17 attempts at the final dungeon, this was generally a very fun and unique variant playthrough. It was a new way to experience the game, taking the most powerful class in the game and treating it differently but with clear restrictions, and not requiring excessive grinding nor excessive luck. It really seemed like the tiny bit of grinding at the start of this session really helped me win.

How about further runs of this sort? I don't want to beat this idea to death by trying it in a ton of other games or anything like that... but in the relevant GameFAQs thread, beege_man and The_Hacker both suggested doing this with mages and I think that might be legitimately interesting. White mages without the letter A or U would be neat, and black mages without the letter I would be very different. One day I might do that one.

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The fifth session of play in the quest of the voweless knights was played on January 14, 2022. I am going to do this particular entry a bit differently, owing to the little subtitle you can probably see here on the embedded YouTube video:

Watch on YouTube

You can see there it says, "Zero Progress". This session was nearly 3 hours of unsuccessful attempts at the Temple of Fiends of the Past without grinding, so the team was still around level 18 as they were in the previous session. Consequently, I'll be brief here, itemizing the attempts - in some cases linking to a timestamp in the video where that attempt ended - rather than embedding a ton of images.

Attempt #1 happened in the previous session.

Attempt #2: I reset in the second battle when four Frost Ds got an ambush on me and started with a high-damage Blizzard. This is actually pretty close to normal when you start from a fresh power-on.

Attempt #3: I reset on the 2nd floor when Gas Ds opened with a bunch of high-damage Poison attacks. I realized this was going to keep happening because of my hard resets, which I'm going to try to manage going forward.

Attempt #4: We passed the Phantom in good shape. When we encountered unrunnable, physical-oriented enemies like Worms and Earths, I did a combo of White Shirt and healing itemcasts to get our HP back up. Lich's NUKE damage was on the high end but we all pulled through. Kary smacked No A around but we pulled through that, too. Everyone survived Kraken, too. Then out of nowhere, all four knights got instakilled by Sorcerers on the air floor.

Attempt #5: Phantom used ZAP! and killed No I and No O.

Attempt #6: There was a pretty interesting fight with Mages and a Fighter where we got to see two different buggy spell effects play out. Lich NUKEd us but we all survived. Kary wasn't much of a problem. A pack of Waters killed No I immediately before Kraken, which also meant I absentmindedly left No A in the top slot for the Kraken fight. Then Kraken one-shot No O on round 1 from full HP. With No O and No I dead, we've lost access to all of our in-battle healing. Kraken still killed No E before No A was able to beat him. No A was killed by Tiamat.

Attempt #7: We beat Lich without a NUKE this time. Kary nearly defeated No A, but not quite. We stalled quite a bit in the Kraken battle and pulled through without any casualties. For the first time we, we got the Masmune - and with all characters alive! The very next battle was seven Sorcerers who Tranced the entire party before we could get a command off, and then instakilled all four knights. Immediately after getting Masmune.

Attempt #8: No I got affected by the Phantom's ZAP! and I decided to restart.

Attempt #9: The team got wrecked by Gas Ds' Poison attacks before Phantom, including No O dying. I decided to restart.

Attempt #10: We got ambushed by Mages and a Fighter who used RUB successfully on No I before Phantom, and I decided to restart.

Attempt #11: We got affected by Gas Ds' Poison almost right away, including No I dying. I said, "We're not taking a loss this early."

Attempt #12: No O (the Excalibur guy) got affected by the Phantom's ZAP! and I decided to restart.

Attempt #13: Finally, we got to see Lich with four knights again! And we managed to circumvent NUKE too. We beat Kary in one round, although she got a FIR3 in. Kraken swatted No A and killed him, despite ample health and evasion boosts, but the rest of the team was in good enough shape. We got Masmune for No I and then headed back toward Tiamat. With Tiamat, we cast ALIT right before she used Thunder, which was quite satisfying. Tiamat used BANE and killed No I, but was defeated by No E and No O. I should've remembered to move the Masmune from No I to No O, but I didn't.

We got to Chaos for the first time! Unfortunately, only two knights were alive. No O was defeated by elemental attacks after a few rounds, and No E was affected by SLO2. I let it play out and, well, No E didn't win. The CUR4 that Chaos used certainly didn't help.

Then I said... "One more run, but the run only counts if all four characters are alive by Lich."

Attempt #14: Phantom was no problem. No I was petrified by GrMedusas before Lich, but we got that fixed up. Lich hit us with NUKE, and it was quite damaging but we all pulled through. Kary used RUB on turn 2 on No O successfully, which was bad. I didn't even know Kary could do that. Kraken took out the rest of the team with its mighty tentacle blows.

Well... that's that for now. I have to consider some balance of how worthwhile it is to level up and how much patience we have for these attempts. We only actually reached the endboss once.

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My fourth session with the voweless knights was played on January 13, 2022. Between the third session and this fourth one, I also started a GameFAQs topic about it to share some details with the community that partly inspired it. There wasn't a whole lot there, though, other than a list of pretty much exactly what everyone would have access to throughout the game in post #5.

Watch on YouTube

At the start of this day's session, their equipment looked like this:

No I	Flame Sword, Flame Armor, Wooden Helm, Copper Gauntlet, Buckler
No O	Silver Axe, Silver Bracelet, Silver Helm, Zeus Gauntlet, Flame Shield
No E	Giant Sword, Iron Armor, Ribbon, ProRing
No A	Defense, Cloth, Silver Helm, ProRing, Ice Shield

We were starting with the Sea Shrine, which has loads of great equipment. Some of the Opal gear will be usable by No I and No E, a Ribbon will still be an asset for No A, the Mage Staff is usable by No O or No I, and No O will also benefit from a Light Axe.

The first goodie we picked up was Opal Armor, which No E will be using for the rest of the game. For now at least, No E is my best defensive knight. No O also claimed his Light Axe, which granted an extra hit, effectively. It pained me somewhat to discard the Opal Bracelet; the only knight who could use it was No I, who already had Flame Armor that had the same absorb and a useful resistance. As well, No I will have Dragon Armor later in the game. We also had to discard the alphabetically unfortunate Opal Shield, which none of the knights can use. No I got the Opal Helmet and the Opal Gauntlet. With that, No I was once again the most defensive knight.
Armor loadout after the top half of the Sea Shrine.

Armor loadout after the top half of the Sea Shrine.

We had no particular issues reaching Kraken. Kraken himself... was Kraken, dealing 296 damage to No I on the first turn, 253 to No on the second turn, 340 to No A on the third turn, and 291 to No O on the fourth. At least he was spreading it around! Amazingly, No I finished off Kraken with a critical on the fifth turn before anyone could be squidded to death.
Holy moly this guy can deal damage.

I learned a new language, got some Heal Potions, and bought a CatClaw to see whether it might be better than some of our current weapons; I didn't recall. It turns out it's decisively better than the Giant Sword and situationally better than the Flame Sword or Light Axe. For now, we're keeping the Flame Sword and Light Axe ready.

In the Mirage Tower, we got a Heal Helmet and put it on No O, an Aegis Shield for No O, the Thor Hammer for No I (whose Mage Staff was swapped to No O), the Sun Sword for No E (replacing a CatClaw), and Dragon Armor for No I. I tried out spellcasting for the first time against the Blue D, putting up an ALIT spell, but it didn't end up mattering since it got chopped to bits on turn 2 without using Thunder.
We beat the Blue D!

In the Floating Castle, No I claimed the Bane Sword. I was excited for the second Heal Helmet, but since the same two knights can use the Heal Helmet as the Heal Staff, it doesn't actually carry any benefit at all. The moment where I discarded the Opal Helmet ended up being a silly one. No I got killed but I thought I should press on anyway.

With the White Shirt and Black Shirt, things got maybe tricky. The FF1 NES community overwhelmingly refers to these as White Shirt and Black Shirt, perhaps owing to the Nintendo Power Strategy Guide (page 72)... but in all future translations and the rest of the Final Fantasy series, they are the White Robe and Black Robe. And I mean, really, do we think they're shirts? I decided to play this sort of as safely as possible: I discarded the Black Shirt/Robe, and gave the White Shirt/Robe to No A whose alphabetic preferences aren't infringed by either interpretation.
We gave up a Cloth for a shirt?!

Shortly after, we grabbed one of the two ProCapes in the game, which is an okay upgrade for No I replacing their Buckler.

There were many encounters on WarMech's bridge but no WarMech, and I ran from almost everything. We healed up and fought Tiamat. Unfortunately, our Bane Sword is on No I, who is dead. Changing things up, I decided to layer some defensive buffs, with ALIT, RUSE and White Shrobe stacking up for a bit. We maxed our evasion to be functionality immune to physical attacks and used our few CUR2 charges and the Heal Staff to keep No O's HP up despite the breath attacks. It was really the first strategic battle we'd had so far in the game!
We beat Tiamat.

We took our Adamant to get Xcalbur.
We got Xcalbur.

Now this is a funny one, because it's spelled Xcalbur in-game. If it weren't so... character-limited, it would probably be Excalibur and be banned for everyone but No O. Well, it turns out I want No O to have it regardless, because No E can use the Sun Sword, No A can use the Defense, and No I will eventually be able to use the Masmune. Unfortunately, No I is currently stuck with their crappy Flame Sword. There are other arrangements I could make in the meantime and I did consider some of them but... this is probably fine.

I decided to take exactly one shot at the game's last area. Our levels aren't great; I was remembering that the Nintendo Power guide mentioned earlier used to encourage level 24 for the end of the game, and that was without characters with banned vowels!
We are mostly starting at level 18.

We made it pretty far before our first casualty, where No O succumbed to a set of Frost D Blizzards immediately before the earth floor.

We survived Lich Deux, although he hit us with a rather nasty turn 1 NUKE that did nearly 300 damage to No E.
We beat Lich's Revenge!

Kary wasn't much nicer, doing 368 damage to No A on turn 1, and finishing him off with FIR3 on turn 2. We won and used up most of the rest of our potion stock. This didn't feel like it was going well.
We beat Kary... but at what cost?!

A flock of Waters on the next floor took out No I, so now it was a solo, moderately equipped knight vs. the last three bosses.
These Waters were fierce!