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Sunken Shrine

The Sunken Shrine is a location in the original Final Fantasy, situated undersea just off the coast of Onrac, and is accessible by a barrel found on Onrac's dock. The Water Crystal lies here. A resident in Onrac mentions that the shrine contains gold, silver, diamonds, and ancient tablets that reveal the language of some ancient civilizations.

The Sunken Shrine is a more difficult dungeon to navigate than the other abodes of the previous Fiends of Element. The party starts from the third floor with a staircase leading to the upper levels while another leads to the shrine's lower levels (or basement in some versions). The dungeon also has several pathways that lead to dead ends. The topmost level, the fifth floor, is enemy-free and inhabited by mermaids. The party can talk to them to learn of the kraken's actions that threatens the world and the mermaids, and many of their rooms contain treasure chests with valuable equipment. The party must go to the uppermost and the lowest levels of the shrine to find the Rosetta Stone and defeat the kraken.

Nearly all of the monsters in the Sunken Shrine are water-based, so the Coral Sword, the Gauntlets, and Thunder magic are valuable. Most enemies here are not overly dangerous, although Ghosts and Water Elementals can hit hard. The greatest danger is the shrine's size and the resulting attrition from numerous battles. This can be mitigated by exploring the top floors first, then stopping in Onrac to heal and resupply before exploring the lower floors.

Story[]

Prior to the events of the game, the shrine that would later become the Sunken Shrine was located in the surface area of Onrac's previous civilization where it housed the Water Crystal. Two hundred years after Tiamat destroyed the Sky People's civilization, the kraken sunk the shrine and its treasures into the bottom of the sea, which would later become the home of the mermaids. The kraken would later drain the crystal's element of water that causes the sea to become violent, which likely destroyed Onrac's ancient civilization. This also led to there being no light beneath the sea, which can turn the mermaids into sea foam and lead to their death.

Many present day citizens of Onrac have heard stories about an old civilization that precedes them. A few elderly sages in town also remember the Sunken Shrine with one noting the possible presence of mermaids there while another implores the Warriors of Light to restore the Water Crystal's light. A woman at the dock created a submarine out of a barrel to go to the shrine in her attempt to save the mermaids, but had to resurface due to the lack of oxygen further underwater. She denies the Light Warriors access to the submarine while wishing she had some oxyale.

After the Warriors of Light obtain the oxyale from the rescued faerie at the spring of Gaia, they show it to the woman. She believes they are the ones who would rescue the mermaids and floats away and disappears, leaving the submersible barrel on the port. The Warriors of Light use the barrel to descend to the Sunken Shrine and search for the kraken. They defeat it, and restore the Water Crystal.

Later, when searching for the Wind Crystal, the Warriors of Light find the Rosetta Stone on the upper floors of the shrine inhabited by the mermaids.

Items[]

Item Location
9900 Gil Third Floor
2000 Gil Third Floor
110 Gil Third Floor
450 Gil Third Floor
7690 Gil Second Floor
8135 Gil Second Floor
5450 Gil Second Floor
385 Gil Second Floor
Giant's Gloves Second Floor
Light Axe Second Floor
Ribbon Second Floor
9900 Gil Second Floor
7340 Gil Second Floor
2750 Gil Second Floor
Mage's Staff Fourth Floor
12350 Gil Fourth Floor
Light Axe Fourth Floor
Diamond Armor Fourth Floor
Antidote Fifth Floor
Diamond Shield Fifth Floor
9000 Gil Fifth Floor
1760 Gil Fifth Floor
Diamond Armlet Fifth Floor
4150 Gil Fifth Floor
5000 Gil Fifth Floor
Diamond Gloves Fifth Floor
Diamond Helm Fifth Floor
10 Gil Fifth Floor
10000 Gil Fifth Floor
2750 Gil Fifth Floor
Rosetta Stone Fifth Floor

Encounters[]

Battle background.

Battle background.

battle background.

Kraken battle background.

Encounters Areas
Pixel Remaster Other releases
1F
2F
3F
4F
5F (dummied)[note 1]

Other appearances[]

Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy[]

Chaos's seat of power, the Edge of Madness, exists on a floating island with a volcano off the coast of Onrac, above the approximate location where the Sunken Shrine would be. The "Edge of Discord" gateway is here and it is the final destination of the Light to All and Confessions of the Creator storylines, where the player faces Chaos and Feral Chaos, respectively.

Report 12 is titled "Hill with View of the Water Temple", implying that the floating island is where Garland met Chaos, Cosmos, and Cid after being summoned to World B.

Final Fantasy Record Keeper[]

In the Dragon Caves, the party faces Bahamut, the Dragon King, who tells them they must bring proof of their courage from the Citadel of Trials.

Description

The Sunken Shrine is a Realm Dungeon, unlocked by completing Cavern of Ice. Completing it unlocks the Sunken Shrine.

Musical themes[]

"Chaos Shrine"

Music

"Chaos Shrine" is the background music of this area.

Behind the scenes[]

In the PlayStation version, a cutscene is added that shows a view of the Sunken Shrine underwater as the submarine approaches it. This showed in reverse if the party returns to Onrac using the submarine. This is retained in most versions except in Pixel Remaster, where it instead shows a scene of white light (representing the surface) getting dimmer as blue water fills the screen, and vice-versa.

Gallery[]

Annotations[]

  1. ↑ While an encounter set exists for 5F, the encounter rate for the floor is set to 0 in pre-pixel remaster releases, while in pixel remaster the set exists but is not assigned to any map; in both cases, no encounters occur on 5F.