Playing FF4...Again

[Forsaken Lover]

Well most probably won't remember but I started to play FFIV Advance for the first time about a year or two ago. I abandoned the game because I have the attention span of a goldfish.

However I've recently rekindled my interest in the game. i want to find out of it's truly as good or as bad as some say.

My second playthrough is coming along well. I'm about to go and try to rescue Rosa and get the Crystal back. If i recall correctly the Leviathan attacks soon.

On my last run I made it to right before the gimmick forest where you can't use anything metal. So I still have a ways to go before I get back to there.

I am really enjoying myself more this time around though. Tellah seems a lot less fragile than before. Edward, sadly, remains as useless as ever

But yeah I just wanted to make this thread to periodically post my thoughts. I am determined to finish the game this time.

I may know what's generally going to happen but it's all about the immersion. Even if you know how a movie ends, as long as the middle act sucks you in, it doesn't really matter ya know?

[Rostum]

Good to know. Not.

[Forsaken Lover]

In any event the game does a decent job of making you feel bad for the characters who die.Even though it's clear to me, even before I knew the game's plot, that Porom and Palom were not actually dead and gone, it is still emotional.

Though so far Tellah's character strikes me as the most genuine and heartfelt. I guess characters with singular and obsessive devotion simply shine brighter.

I still feel slightly jipped that the game took my Dark Knight equipment. I was planning on selling it for some nice Gil but no. It had to vanish into nothingness along with the money I wasted on it.

So I'm pretty much already right back to where I left off. I guess I'm moving a bit faster this time around but still, I guess I didn't even make a dent in the game. That's good to know and leaves me very excited for all the many things to come.

[Wolf Kanno]

Good luck, and if you need help, feel free to speak up. :onnanoko:

[Forsaken Lover]

So i just killed the Dark Elf. My fist time fighting him he owned my entire party in a few seconds.

Then I read I'm supposed to talk to Edward first. Otherwise you get slaughtered like I did.

I also spent about a half hour grinding Zus by Mysidia. They give you 489 Gil per fight and they're easy enough to kill. Combine that with the very high encounter rate and you got some easy Gil farming.

I thought I was rich and wouldn't need to worry about money. Then I found the Mythril Armor for 17,000 Gil and there went most of my money.


Right now I'm about to exchange the Earth Crystal. One thing that is bothering me though, you lose the equipment your party members had when they leave the party right? Well given the fact I hear most of my party will be "dying", I am worried I'm going to be losing all this equipment I wasted money on.

EDIT:

Well I trusted my instincts and unequipped Tellah just in time. He fought valiantly and was easily the most awesome character in the game so far.

EDIT 2:

Oh good, the game doesn't just make your equipment go poof when the party member dies.

[Depression Moon]

Yeah Tellah was one of my favorites in the game. He started out being shaky before he could really remember his spells, but became decent when he actually did. I say decent because he still had low max MP.

[Forsaken Lover]

So are these optional dungeons in the Underworld worth it? There's the Sychan Cave and the Summons Cave I believe and I dunno if I should go do them before continuing with the plot.

Edge is pretty awesome though. I miss Tellah sure but now we have a ninja on our side.

[Wolf Kanno]

You get better gear in both places but most importantly, you get powerful/useful summons for Rydia by visiting these places. Also, in the Summoned Monsters cave, you'll find the Rat Tail which can be given to the miner near the town that sells mythril (one occupied by tiny people, pigs, and frogs) on the surface world to get some Adamant, which can then be brought to Kokkol the Dwarven Blacksmith who will reforge Cecil's Legend/Mythgraven blade into Excalibur.

Also, going through the Sylph cave, also leads you to another minor quest, which is not only a bit funny (if time consuming...), but nets you the Spoon Dagger (Dagger in the non-Woosely scripts) which is the most powerful throwing item in the game, guaranteed 9999 damage.

[Forsaken Lover]

Thanks a ton for the Rat Tail tip, WK. The Cave of Summons was definitely worth it.

Anyway, I'm on the Moon now. i didn't have any clue where to go so I found my way to Bahamut by mistake.

Oh, it wasn't that bad. I got some Genji Armor and a Genji Helm and those Behemoths gave me :bou::bou::bou::bou:loads of Gil and EXP.

...then Bahamut owned me in 5 seconds and there went all that work.

I guess I suck. Or maybe level 40 is kinda low to fight him at. Or both.

I think I'm going to go back in there to get the Genji equipment and maybe some other goodies but just skip Bahamut for now.

I like the Lunar Whale though. Maybe not best airship ever but it's neat.

[Wolf Kanno]

If you have FuSoYa in your party (and you should) now is the best time to fight Bahamut. The trick to beating him is casting reflect on your party cause it bounces MegaFlare back on him. With Rosa and FuSoYa in your party, it can be done with half the casualties. :D

[Forsaken Lover]

Nope, don't have FuSoYa in my party. I literally just used the crystal to transpor to the Moon. I was wandering around and the first location I tried to get into was Bahamut's cave.

I guess I should wait to tackle him until later.

[Wolf Kanno]

It won't be that long before you get him on the moon. Just swing by Bahamut's cave before you head back to the Blue Planet. Believe me, you will want Bahamut for the next part. ;)

[Depression Moon]

You might also want to go back and get Odin at Baron castle.

[Forsaken Lover]

I got Odin. I glanced at a guide to find out where the Adamant Grotto was so I could trade in the Rat Tail and the FAQ covered Odin briefly before that.

Anyway Bahamut was kinda annoying but not too tough. Apparently that Bahamut was nothing compared to Dark Bahamut. Who I probably won't fight as I don't really care to bother with superbosses my first time through a game.

Oh man the Giant of Babel was epic. I guess that scene in FF9 where everyone attacks the Silver Dragons swarming out of Memoria was inspired by this bit from IV.

Just really great stuff.

It was also cool to see all the Elemental Lords back for one final showdown.

But now I guess I've reached the endgame... It has been a very enjoyable ride.

But man oh man I don't know who to pick! I can choose party members now and I don't know who to take!

I kinda wanna take Porom because she's so cute but that means I have to also take Palom. They're a tag team -a duo of cuteness if you will - and it just won't work unless you take both of them.

So here's the problem....

Cecil is obviously in the party.
Then the Twins.
Then Kain because I think Kain deserves vengeance for what happened to him.

I have a dedicated White Mage and Black Mage so what I really want is a third physical attacker. But that means giving up Rydia and her Summons...

Who does everyone here use as their final party?

EDIT:

Man I lucked out playing the Advance version. I just learned you can't choose your party in any other version of the game.

How frickin' lame is that.

EDIT 2:

And Dark Bahamut goes down.

It seemed hopeless the first couple times I tried it but here's the thing.

It's all frickin' luck.

Sometimes his initial Mega Flare would kill only 2 party members and sometimes it would tkae out three. It was usually different party members too. Porom survived sometimes and others times she didn't.

So if you're lucky enough to only have two members KO'ed it's not that big a problem to revive those two and cast Curaja on everyone before DB puts up Reflect.

Now I initially started trying to be more complex in my strategy. I thought I'd have Porom cast Reflect on everyone then have Rydia use Summons. Then i could reflect Dark Bahamut's own attack back at him.

After this strategy got me killed several times I noticed something important.

Regular Bahamut can only do something like 4000, maybe 5000, damage to DB. That was about how much my physical attackers did per turn.

After I realized this I just left Rydia dead (her HP was not high enough to stand up to even one Flare) and used Porom to Curajara everyone constantly.

And eventually Dark Bahamut went down.

I am happy right now.

[Forsaken Lover]

That's it. Four floors of boss encounters stripping me of all my Ethers and Dry Ethers as well as my Phoenix Downs.

Then i get to Zeromus. Guess what? He smurfing kills Porom.

No way to revive. All I have left is some pissy worthless Hi Potions and like 3 Elixirs.

So the question is do I want to go through all the stress of something like 12 boss encounters again?

The answer is no.

Burn in Hell game. I'm not touching this crap ever again.

Ya know if those useless losers on Earth had prayed to give me some Phoenix Downs it would have been more help.


Sigh... ,Man am I dejected. I don't know when I'll feel up to completing this game now.

[Depression Moon]

I don't remember there being 12 bosses in the final dungeon and if you died and have to fight them all again then I have to say that it's your fault for not saving before you fought Zeromus. Also if you were low on items you could've used warp and went back to get some more.

[Forsaken Lover]

My Overall Thoughts on The Game

I really enjoyed myself. I can see how this is rightly called the "foundation" for the series as a whole. For instance the way most of the games develop their characters is taken directly from this game. Introduce character then give them a little story arc then just kinda have them around. I was a bit disappointed by how brief these arcs were but I guess that's a product of the time.

Anyway I think my favorite character was Tellah. He seemed have the clearest ane most detailed character. His motivation was simple but it also had the most emphasis put on it to the point he stood out amongst everyone else.
His end was quite tragic... Not only could he not defeat Golbez but he understood, too late, that revenge was not what his daughter would have wanted him to waste his life on.

Anna's spirit should have just let Edward stay a pussy and gone to tell her father this.

I gotta say if I'm dissatisfied with any character in the game it's Rosa. I'm not one to point out "that's a cliche!" or "it's been done before!" but she's such a bland, unremarkable love interest that I can't help it. I'd almost rather have Rinoa than Rosa because an annoying personality is better than practically none.


My favorite moments in the game... Damn, so many great ones.
I guess #1 has to be Palom and Porom turning themselves to stone. As I noted earlier I had already played this game some and I remember vividly how much their "death" moved me the first time I saw it. They were such cute, likable characters and it was just really well done.

After that comes Everyone vs. Giant of Babel. What can I say about an epic scene that inspired an epic scene 5 games later? It was really great.


Favorite songs.. This game had an amazing soundtrack. I'm gonna forgo the obligatory mention of Theme of Love and list my other faves:
1. YouTube - Final Fantasy IV OST - The Red Wings ~ Cecil's Theme (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZkQPTuVBl0)

Just pure greatness. This playing during the Paladin vs. Dark Knight fight as well as the Giant of Babel battle really helped make them even better moments.

2. YouTube - Final Fantasy IV OST - Within the Giant ~ Giant of Babil Theme (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq3Xo84PxsA)

Just a really fantastic dungeon theme.

3. YouTube - Final Fantasy IV OST - Battle with the Four Fiends ~ Elemental Boss Battle Theme (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGrTvlE_DO0)

FFIV already has probably the best "normal boss battle" theme in the series and this is even greater.
This song reminds me though, I loved Rubicante. He was such a breath of fresh air to the cartoonishly evil other Fiends.


In conclusion I'm not quite sure where I'd place this game in my favorite hierarchy... I was kinda disappointed but I had really high expectations. It was still most definitely a good game.

Final Note: The Advance version is a cakewalk compared to the original SNES version.

[Depression Moon]

Glad you enjoyed the game. I thought that Rosa too was underused. I don't think they put much thought into her.
I like IV's boss theme too, but I still have to put IX on top for best boss theme for me.

[Roogle]

My Overall Thoughts on The Game
Anyway I think my favorite character was Tellah. He seemed have the clearest ane most detailed character. His motivation was simple but it also had the most emphasis put on it to the point he stood out amongst everyone else.
His end was quite tragic... Not only could he not defeat Golbez but he understood, too late, that revenge was not what his daughter would have wanted him to waste his life on.

Anna's spirit should have just let Edward stay a pussy and gone to tell her father this.

I am glad that you are able to appreciate the character. I thought that his story was among the most tragic in the game as he wasted his life on someone who was not truly to blame for his daughter's death. His motivation and desire is not lost on me, however, and he remains a favorite of mine to this very day.

[Darkwolf090]

Ok so you where playing FFIV Advanced yes? well try the DS version it is infact more difficult, also the whole you can choose to take to the final dungeon doesnt exist in any other version of FFIV then the advanced, you get Cecil, Kain, Edge, Rydia, and Rosa what is a good party so whatever really, the way they counter the difficulty of the DS version is giving you Augments, what if used right will make the game easy or hard if used wrong. Also yea sure Ill give Tellah points for knowing what he wanted to do and being the most human and etc etc but... still hate the useless old fool of a mage, go go 90 mp yea....
Also I do always have to laugh that ya know.. Meteor killed him cuz he casted it right? Then ya have Rydia running around throwing Meteors at people for fun, Golbez throwing Meteors for fun and FuSoYa throwing Meteors for fun and if ya grind him Palom throwing Meteors around for fun.... hmmmm....

[VeloZer0]

I'm sure if Rydia cast a spell that cost more then her max MP it would kill her too.

[Wolf Kanno]

I just remembered, now that you've beaten FFIV, you can appreciate this more. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8vz186pjY0) :onnanoko: