FF3 Solo Monk (NES) Part IV

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Before entering the next dungeon, the first side-dungeon of the game opens. The Undersea Cave beneath the triangle-shaped island. The random encounters were quite varied, palette swaps of the Griffin, Mermaid, and those weird tentacle eye things show up, as do weird crabs. Solo came in here to pick up an Elixir, but also fought these monsters in a box.


This looks scary, but Solo punched it down to size in two hits.


Against another enemy...this happens. This is the first of several enemies in the game that split when you physically hit them. The Magic Knight job class' unique weapons, dark swords, circumvents this behavior, as does magic. The clones retain the HP of their origin at the time of splitting, including the damage that made them hit making it possible for other classes to get by. Solo could take down their HP in two hits, so he did that, knocking out the clone and then the original.

There's an entire dungeon full of these things later. Another one is among the monsters in boxes, but gets punched to death in one hit, cutting out its splitting shenanigans. This is the one point of the game where Karateka would be more useful, since with their BuildUp, they would have a better chance of getting these things in one shot.


Besides the Elixir, all he got from this venture was a bunch of stuff to sell. The only thing for Solo to buy anymore are Potions, Hi Potions, and maybe a few OtterHeads - items that cast Exit outside of battle. The shops in FF3 are very limited in their selection, as are equipment options...so all this money may as well just be a retirement fund.


Next dungeon is the Temple of Time. The doors here have to be unlocked by Thieves or a Magic Key, just like Goldor's Mansion.


There's some nasty-looking enemies in here, but for Solo, they're more bark than bite. Behemoths take two punches to take down, but that Dragon is surprisingly frail. And no boss at the end.


What is here though, is through a secret passage up a waterfall, Solo was able to locate this beauty. The Protect Ring in FF3 continues to perform as a good defensive piece of equipment - all jobs but Mystic Knight can equip it. I'm not sure if it protects against Death - the guides seem to be lacking that data, but it does give +5 to Vitality. He sticks with the Power Bracers for now, however.


In the Ancient's Labyrinth...oh dear. These enemies can manually split themselves. It's a special attack which they have a 40% chance of using. And remember, the run system in this game is weird, and often refuses to allow you to run for no good reason.


Solo is able to deal with one of these encounters by throwing some spellcasting items out; with several of them confused and then paralyzed, he's able to win out. Though dies to another such encounter moments later.


Again, another dungeon with no boss. What we do get at the end is access to the Airship Invincible. A ship so cool it has its own vending machines, bed, and Fat Chocobo station.


It turns out I forgot a side dungeon when going for things you can access with the sub, but it flows a bit better this way by happenstance. So these are the Salonia Catacombs. Most notable here are these upper chests, all which have an Elixir. The encounters in there aren't worth talking about, because Solo beat them all in a single attack. Four Elixirs is a really awesome reason to come here.


And Odin is here too I guess. He does 500-600 damage with his Atom Edge special. Solo punches a lot and gets the win.


Back on the Floating Continent...Lake Dol can be accessed with the Invincible's ability to hop over small mountain ranges. These guys are yet another status-inflcting enemy, able to cause Solo tons of grief with sleep status.


Leviathan's Tsunami does around 800-900 damage. Nothing Solo can't handle before punching him to death.


Solo goes up to 14 hits when traversing the next dungeon, featuring Bahamut.


Yeow. Mega Flare hurts. Bahamut's own physical attack isn't much better, though. Unlike the prior two bosses, Solo simply couldn't outrace these with damage. With this much damage being thrown out each turn, simply healing with Hi Potions isn't enough, either.

Solo could easily win this fight; he simply needed to use an Elixir. Just one would be enough. But I want to save all those up for the mandatory fights that might require them. So he's left unofficially defeated.


Navigating the mountain ranges on the way to the next dungeon...there's nothing to say, really. These guys are yesterday's news; I fought them back when going to Dorga's manor the first time. Why they didn't make upgraded air enemies for these spots is a question for another day. They're even easier now, by how the Invincible pitches in at the start of each battle.


Back to the main dungeons, we have yet another dungeon where FF3 wants you to use a specific job class. Remember splitting enemies? The ones that split when you hit them, I mean. Almost every enemy in this dungeon is a splitter. Magic Knights' Dark Blades don't cause them to split when hit, and they're weak to them too. Neither does magic, so they would be okay. Solo would deal with this threat by...staying in the front row and one-shotting them 9/10 times.

This is also a seriously long dungeon. It's over twice as long as any dungeon before. By the end of it, Solo had exhausted his Hi Potion stock to 25, partially due to needing to stay in the front row to kill everything efficiently. At least there was the usual no boss at the end.


Oh. There is a boss at the end for once.


And an interesting one, for once. This fellow simply has a very powerful physical attack. Just like Solo. That's interesting?! Well, when most bosses we've been seeing have been using level 2 elemental spells or just one attack repeatedly, yes, it is!!


Hekaton has 6500 HP to Solo's 4685, so if you do the math, you can guess how this one was eventually going to end if he stayed in the front row. Solo fell back, and began healing with Hi Potions. I kept track of the damage, and it worked out.


The next boss...umm, yeah. Here's how every battle played out: turn 1: Solo punches Dorga, who responds with Quake. Turn 2: Solo punches Dorga, who kills Solo with Brak2. Can't get anything yet to prevent that status. Help?


Wait...fighting them just opens up Forbidden Land Eureka, an optional dungeon. Right? Solo decided to jump ahead to the Ancient's Labyrinth, past the evil statues, and fight the next boss, a palette swap of the one we just fought. Titan casts Flare at times, but otherwise is less of a threat and does less damage than his cousin.


Dammit. Guess we do have to fight them. Well, if he's using Brak2 on the second round, I guess we'll just have to kill him by then, won't we? He's got 4500 HP. Solo went up to Level 65 for 16 hits, then tried again.


Well...it worked, but it didn't work. Dorga eventually didn't use Brak2 on the second round, instead using another Quake and so Solo was able to win. Oh well, I probably will need those levels and then some anyway.


After fighting Dorga, you must immediately fight Unne. She led with a WWind attack, which is more like its FF4 and FF6 incarnations rather than its FF5 one. Rather than use an Elixir, I just had Solo keep attacking. She used Wall next turn...perfect! She died on turn three.

So Solo has punched his way through to the end. But now...the real game begins. There's a reason why I didn't want to use any of the few Elixirs I found at all.

Turn the page to see the last part of the game, where shit gets real.

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