Final Fantasy IV - Retrospective

Final Fantasy II was one of my favorite games for the SNES. I never beat it as a kid; Not until years later when I played the translated Famicom version on an emulator. Final Fantasy IV is a classic-era RPG in all respects: Travel through dungeons, visit towns, fight monsters to gain levels, rinse, repeat. There isn't any chocobo racing, no monster breeding programs, city development simulators, or card battle minigames; Just pure RPG goodness from start to finish.

I already HAVE racing games and card battle games for my DS; I don't want to have to master an entire new game mechanic just to find some special items. This is how Final Fantasy VI shines compared to so-called modern RPGs. There is nothing extraneous to take away from the simple joy of watching your characters grow from weak young adventurers afraid of floating eyes to nigh-godly heroes that can dispatch 25-foot-tall killer robots with ease.

If you're used to RPGs with lots of go anywhere/do anything wide-open gameplay, there is a good chance you will find Final Fantasy 4 very limiting. But for the rest of you who are just looking for an excellent story perfectly told, (With freaking amazing music) Final Fantasy IV may be the answer.

The Good:

• New updated 3D graphics, cutscenes, animations, and voice acting (Edge sounds exactly like he should.)
• Improved translations, especially over the original North American Final Fantasy II release (Edward is still a spoony bard.)
• New game mechanics add replay value and emergent gameplay to the standard game. (The mapping tool, while a cheap game-lengthening device, is still a satisfying way to get free items.)

The Bad:

• Some of the new features seem tacked on and too time-consuming to be useful (I summoned Whyt a grand total of once during the entire game)
• The opening montage of cutscenes, while impressive, is unrepresentative of the actual in-game graphics, and even the in-game cutscenes. (Cocktease!)
• Almost NO new areas to explore. (There's an entire second moon out there.. Optional super-hard dungeon, anyone?)

Defining moments:

• Being able to play as Golbez, (albiet as a child) and learning just how the schism between he and Cecil came to be.
• Learning I'd been pronouncing FuSoYa wrong all these years.

Burning questions:

• What exactly DOES Yang do inside the Tower of Bab-Il control room to stop the cannons?
• Anybody else want to see Rydia and Edge get together? They make such a better couple than Cloud and Aeris. At least they're both, you know, alive.

Progress for August 18, 2008 - FF IV - COMPLETED!

You know, Zeromus is not that hard when your weakest party member is level 92.

Allow me to set the scene for you:

The first time I faced Zeromus, I was on a plane for a 4 hour flight between Atlanta and Los Angeles. I didn't beat him then. I spent the next few days recuperating and relaxing (hence the gap between the last posts) before I finally decided to finish up the game. I spent a good 2 hours just leveling up in the crystal pre-core area before Zemus's lair. Once Cecil hit level 99, I headed out of the cave and finished up some sidequests. Once I had the Safe Travel augment, I knew it was time to finish up.

I started off by berzerking Edge, having Rydia start casting with her Stardust Rod, and having Kain jump before I had Cecil use the crystal. This gave me a good 25,000 damage right off the bat. I continued to jump with Kain, attack with Cecil, and Edge, and cast Stardust with Rydia. when I didn't need her to heal, I had Rosa cast Holy. I was consistenly dealing 9999 damage with everyone, but Zeromus wasn't going to go down that easily. He took out Cecil with a combination of Whirl and Flare, and everyone else went down after a combo of Big Bang and Meteor. Only Kain was left alive, BARELY.

I was sure it was over; I knew I'd have to try again. I had Kain jump again and waited as the battle ran its course. With nobody for Zeromus to attack, we both just sat there and waited for Kain to come down...

CRASH!
9999
*pause*
*flash*
*crackle*
*rumbling as Zeromus dissolves below the battlefield*

Take that, forces of darkness!


I'll post a full review of FF4 tomorrow, including a short retrospective of my experiences with it.

Progress for August 13, 2008 - FF IV

I'm finally back in town. My flight from Atlanta to LAX took about 4 hours, which gave me plenty of time to make it through the final dungeon all the way to Zeromus. He looks... unimpressive to say the least, compared to his appearance as a sprite in the original. I did fairly well against him, but I just hit a stretch of bad luck when Rosa kept dying to Big Bang, leaving her unable to revive the others. Death ensued soon after. I'll try again later (I have to, don't I?) I just have to focus on sleeping to help fend off my cold. Not looking forward to watching that 10 minute cutscene again, but thems the breaks.

Progress for August 10, 2008 - FF IV

The final dungeon is really pissing me off. I've now started my FOURTH attempt at clearing the path to Zemus, every time met with an unnecessary restart.

First time: DS battery died in standby mode.
Second time: Ambushed by a pair of blue dragons (Which I've normally been able to beat rather consistently in the past) who refused to do ANYTHING other than cast Icestorm over and over and over again.
Third time: Ambushed by a single red dragon who kept casting Solar Rays. Son of a bitch.

I'm not messing around this time. This dungeon will pay!

Progress for July 30, 2008 - FF IV

Whoever designed the encounter table for the Lair of the Father is a sadistic asshole. Dark Sages are ungodly powerful, and have an insanely high attack speed, and Moonmaidens are just evil bitches. They're not even worth fighting, since they give you CRAP experience.
Someone please find this guy and throw a brick through his window. Then while he's focusing on fixing that one, break all the others.

(53games does not promote or condone the use of violence against any people who are not polygonal.)

Lego FFIV DS Grinding Machine

After spending half an hour grinding for the four special monster summons for Rydia, I decided there had to be an easier way.

Progress for July 27, 2008 - FF IV

One small step for a Paladin, one giant leap for a Dragoon.

Yep, I've made it to the moon. I finished almost all of the subquests in the game (at least the ones that are in the original) I just need to pick up my Excalibur from Kokkol, and find a pink tail to get my adamant armor. I am not looking forward to that grind, but there's no way around it.

If I remember correctly, the Siren item summons the rarest enemy encounter to occur. In this case, it will be the pink puffs in the lunar subterrane. I have 5 of them.. so I guess I'll summon them 5 times, hope to get it, and if I don't, reload the game.

(For those of you who don't know what the hell I'm talking about, Pink Puffs are an enemy that only appears 1 out of every 64 encounters, and only drops a Pink Tail one out of every 64 of those encounters, making the odds of getting the item 1 in 4,096 normal encounters. Suffice it to say, it's damn rare. However, the item you can trade it for is the most powerful armor in the game, so it can be worth it.)


Tomorrow, I tackle the moon and the giant. Possibly complete the game.

Progress for July 25-26, 2008 - FF IV

No update yesterday. But who cares; nobody's reading this anyway.
I did the underground, the tower of Bab-il, Eblan, and the tower again, as well as the sylvan cave, and the Cave of the Eidolons (Land of summoned Monsters in the original. I got my rat tail and Asura, So now I just need to get Leviathan before I tackle the sealed cave.

Oh yeah, I managed to get some rainbow pudding for Cheatingway. Now if only I could find him again to get my reward, or whatever you get for it.

Cecil: Lv 60
Kain: Lv 59
Edge: Lv 46
Rydia: Lv 52
Rosa: Lv 57
Total Gil: 141,628
Playtime: 31:02

Progress for July 23, 2008 - FF IV

I'm about ready to head into the Tower of Zot. Eblan is just as hard as I remember it, if not more so. I almost died in every single battle with the treasure monsters. What sadistic bastard programmed those things? Crimeny.

Progress for July 22, 2008 - FF IV

This game freaking rocks!
I loved the original, but now with full 3D characters and pre-rendered cutscenes, as well as the top notch voice acting, it just pushes it over the line from sweet to fucking awesome!
One major difference in the gameplay from the original is the higher amount of level grinding you need early on in the game. In the original for the SNES, you could blow through the beginning all the way to antlion's nest without having to stop. In the DS version, I had to grind for like 8 levels outside of Kaipo to ensure Rydia wasn't getting her ass handed to her at the start of every battle.

As for the scene in Damcyan, Tellah still calls Edward a "spoony bard.

Right now, I'm at the base of Mt. Ordeals, and I'm planning to continue through the night until I pass out. Then I'll get some sleep, wake up, and play some more. Yay!

A special announcement

That is all.