Day XI: Final Fantasy III

Story

Well before the time of the game, as is the case with Final Fantasy, an ancient civilization attempted to harness the power of the four elemental crystals of Fire, Earth, Wind, and Water.  In doing this, however, a major unbalance between the powers of Light and Dark was created and Light was on the verge of engulfing in the world and destroying it.  Four warriors were tasked with placing the powers of Light and Dark back into balance and were given the powers of four Dark crystals in order to balance the powers again.  These warriors, dubbed the Dark Warriors, were able to advert disaster and bring the two forces back in balance again.

However, since the ancient civilizations depended on the power of the crystals, their civilizations eventually feel to ruin.  Just as in Final Fantasy, a prophecy was declared around this time.  While this prophecy again told of the coming of four Warriors of Light as in Final Fantasy, this one had an additional twist.  Just as the ancient civilizations had abused the power of Light, the prophecy predicted that everything would come full circle and the power of Dark would be abused, forcing the Light Warriors to once again save the world from the imbalance just as the Dark Warriors had.

Fast forward to the time of the game and the player finds himself in control of Luneth whom has fallen down a hole thanks to an earthquake that has just shaken the land.  As Luneth attempts to find his way out, he encounters the Wind Crystal, which commands Luneth to find other companions, become Warriors of Light, and save the world.

Yes, crystals talk.  It’s a fantasy, just go with it.

Luneth goes back to recruit his best friend, Arc, and the set out for Kazus, a village that has been cursed by the Djinn.  In the village they met Cid, Takka, and Takka’s daugther, Reifa.  Cid lends the small party his airship and the three set out for Cast Sasune.  There, they meet a soldier named Ignus, who becomes the forth and final member of the party.  The party then learns that their princess (well, just Ignus’ princess) is not in this castle (Mario references are fun) and set out to the Sealed Cave to find her.  Aftering finding Princess Sara, she aids the party in helping defeat the Djinn and lifting the curse from Kazus.  At this point, the party is teleported back to the presence of the Wind Crystal who lends the four its four, giving them new jobs in which to use, making them, officially, Warriors of Light.

At this point the heroes find themselves on the usual series of linear quests that allow them to go from point A to point B.  Along the way, they are joined up by a man named Desch whom has completely lost his memory.  Apparently, a good cure for amnesia is joining a party of four future saviors of the world, so Desch tags along.  The five eventually find their way to the Village of the Ancients who reveal to the party that the continent they live on is actually floating above a much larger surface world.  The parties travels then take them to Guglan Gulch which is inhabited by the Guglans, a group of blind prophets (whom also made the prophecy of old).  Their they are advised to make their way to the Tower of Owen as Desch’s destiny awaited there.

While in the tower, the party is constantly taunted by a mysterious voice with the usual fare of evil gloom and doom.  Despite the “you’ll never make it” taunts, the party is able to make their way through, thanks to transforming themselves into frogs and Desch managing to figure out the complex mechanisms in the tower.  At the top, they encounter Medusa, whom reveals herself as the servant of Master Xande to destroy the tower.  Despite the party defeating Medusa, the Tower of Owen still finds itself in danger of falling.  It is at this point Desch’s memories come rushing back to him.  He reveals he is an Ancient and guardian of the Tower of Owen, and was simply asleep and was only to awaken if the tower was in danger; however, he was asleep too long thus causing his amnesia.  Furthermore, he reveals the tower is the very thing that is keeping the Floating Continent afloat, which means bad news for everyone since it seems ready to crumble.  Thankfully, Desch remembers how to fix the tower, but this involves him jumping into the central furnace in order to reach the tower’s reactor and thus sacrifices himself to save the party and the Floating Continent.

Moving forward, the warriors soon gain the powers of the Fire crystal and with their new set of jobs quickly fall prisoner to Hein, an advisory to King Argus whom has seemingly gone mad and enslaved the entire kingdom.  The party escapes and makes their way through Hein’s base which is the Elder Tree which he uprooted from the Living Woods and is now floating as well (some serious drugs must have been used for some of these locations…).  The party eventually defeats Hein and saves the kingdom of Argus.  As thanks, King Argus gives the party the “Wheel of Time” which is a needed piece for Cid to build an airship to allow the heroes to travel to the surface.

Upon giving Cid this needed piece, he let’s it sleep that the party can now “return home” and reveals to the Light Warriors that they actually came from the surface.  Ten years ago, Cid was traveling from the surface to the floating continent with a ship full of people wanting to make a visit; however, they encountered a large cloud of darkness (foreshadowing!) and they crashed on the floating continent.  No one survived on the ship except for Cid and our four heroes and since Cid now had no ship, the four kids were adopted and they all made a life on the floating continent.

Our Light Warriors head to the surface and find the entire world is nearly one big chasm of darkness, water, and three small islands.  On one island, they find a ship with a girl, whom later reveals herself as the last priestess of Water, Aria.  She takes the Light Warriors to reawaken the Water Crystal as time on the surface has been completely frozen and now, with the Light Warriors around, it is time to get things back to normal.  Aria leads the party to the Water Temple in which they retrieve the last shard of the Water Crystal and then make their way to the Cave of Tides where the drained Water Crystal awaits.  Upon arriving at the crystal, Aria awakens it; however, while trying to leave, another one of Xande’s Kraken attempts to kill Luneth, but Aria takes the bullet for him.  The party defeats Kraken and Luneth attempts to revive Aria to no avail.  The party then falls asleep and has a voice tell them to seek out Doga.

Once the player regains control of Luneth, Arc tells him they’ve been asleep for three years and they all awoke in a town called Amur.  Unfortunately they also learn that their ship has been chained down by a man named Goldor as he is afraid the Light Warriors will steal his crystal.  Needing their ship back and believing Goldor holds the Earth Crystal, they defeat him at his manor; however, he shatters his crystal (which was just made of gold), but drops the key to unlock their ship.

The Light Warriors then take to the air, only to be shot down while flying over Saronia a large city engaged in a civil war.  It seems that once again we have a chase of someone going mad, but this time around it is the king himself.  The party encounters Prince Alus and they decide to help, and, at the behest of Arc, Alus is convinced to confront his father, King Gorn.  The party is allowed into the castle, but that night Alus awakened to see his father holding a knife over him.  Seeming to have a last shard of sanity left, Gorn instead stabs himself saying he’d rather die than kill his own son.  This freed Gorn from the mind control that his evil advisor Gigameth had over him.  Gigameth reveals himself as Garuda, and the party defeats the monster.

After this incident, the party takes control of the airship, Nautilus, allowing the party to finally reach the Dalg Continent in which Doga lives (along with his Moogle bodygaurds).  He then guides the heroes into waking his friend Unei.  Once Unei is awakened, she reveals Xande’s plan.  In his bid for immortality, Xande managed to freeze time by draining the Earth and Water crystals and doing this froze time for over 1,000 years (but somehow the Light Warriors were traveling in an airship from the surface ten years ago–hey there plot hole!) and doing this also caused the floating continent to separate from the surface.  Unei then gives the party their final airship, the Invincible, and bids them farewell.

However, soon after, the party encounters Doga and Unei once again and they instruct the party to kill them.  Upon their defeat, they reveal that it was the only way to unlock the secret land of Eureka, which held many powerful items for the party, and Syrcus Tower, where Xande lives.  The party then sets out for the tower, first passing through the Maze of the Ancients and finding the final crystal, the Earth Crystal.  Upon reaching Syrcus Tower, Xande places the party under the Curse of the Five Wyrms, keeping the heroes frozen in place.  Doga, however, summons five of the party’s past allies to lift the curse (Princess Sara, Cid, Desch [not dead yet!], Alus, and an old man from Amur).  The freed party then crosses into the world of darkness and defeats Xande.

After Xande’s death, the party is then faced with the Cloud of Darkness, a dark entity born thanks to Xande’s meddling with the powers of darkness.  The Cloud of Darkness easily dispatches the party, however, the same five allies that broke their curse then revive our heroes and they set forth to destroy the Cloud of Darkness for good.  Along the way, they encounter the four Dark Warriors from the legend of old and defeat each one.  The Dark Warriors also reveal to the party that the Cloud of Darkness was actually controlling Xande all along in order to achieve her goal of complete destruction of the world.  Luneth and company finally face off against the Cloud of Darkness one more time, except the four Dark Warriors sacrifice themselves, greatly weakening the final foe.  With this extra assistance, the Cloud of Darkness falls and the balance of Light and Dark is restored once again.

As far as the ending goes, everyone simply goes home and lives happily ever-after (seriously).

Next Page: The Characters & Villains

Published by NDtex

Texan by birth, Irish by choice.

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