“Dammit!” will be posts on unfortunate gaming setbacks. This first unfortunate gaming moment comes from Final Fantasy, which I just started playing. I’m in the Earthgift shrine, for those familiar with the game. If you aren’t, this shrine is one of the cave-type areas you must explore.

First, I got lost in the desert, strangely occupying a basement floor of the shrine. Whatever. I came across a large worm that dealt 350+ damage. My party did not stand a chance. I was dropped off at the front entrance of the shrine with 4 collective health points. I went to town, I rested, I went back.

This time I went a lot faster through the shrine, though I took longer on B2 (which was a forest) than before. I took a different path across the desert and quickly reached stairs. I went through this so fast I don’t even remember B4. I made it to B5, which was a traditional cave-type maze layout that was symmetrical. There were doors ahead to the right and left, which both had blue fire blazing in them. I started to avoid it before foolishly confronting the fire. I don’t remember it’s name but it was stronger than the worm. I was barely hanging on when death came, and killed my entire party.

Why was this so difficult? It was optional. Its was a deadly optional dungeon that I entered twice. Final Fantasy has a fun trick of being open world and not at the same time. Sure, you can wander wherever you’d like. Just be prepared to be slaughtered for deviating from the story line. If you take a lot of time to grind and level up, this is less of a problem. However, the monotony of doing so sucks the fun out of the game. 


Dammit! posts will be rated using symbols above the numbers on a keyboard, with the highest value being eight.
Dammit! rating: !@#$ (4 out of 8)
Breakdown:
!: Lost in the desert
@: Killed by something I didn’t need to fight
#: Sent back outside
$:Returned to be killed faster by something else I didn’t need to fight.