Final Fantasy IV Not-DS Version

I'm playing it on Steam so....

I've heard a lot about this version, including warnings about the ramped up difficulty. Naturally this makes me nervous but I'm doing the best I can. I just reached Damcyan and wanted to report on a few of my thoughts....

1. Never did think about how Kain was urging Cecil to run off with him and seek aid from other lands in rebelling against the King of Baron. I wonder if he was being genuine or if he honestly believed that and then just got brainwashed afterward?

2. Some things just become more...awkward with voice-acting and "real time" scenes. I mean, Jesus, Anna's dead all of five seconds and Cecil and Rydia laying into Edward just feels a tad unfair. "Suck it up, ya pansy! The love of your life has been dead for almost half a minute already! Time to move on."

3. Tellah continues to be the best character in the game.

4. I worry about being stuck with Kain, Rosa and Edge at the end o the game. Edge in particular I hated and was profoundly glad when I could drop him back in Advanced. Kain was okay but he just wasn't a favorite of mine so I liked being able to use others.

5 I've been told repeatedly to watch out for Augments and to follow a FAQ as they are the most important gameplay mechanic in this version.

6. I like the thought bubbles. It's a neat and simple way to convey changing characterization.

Any advice you would all like to give would be welcome.

Get all chests. Make sure you get them, because monsters don't give you jack trout for money in this version.

Yeah I have 10,000 Gil. Best place for money seems to be in chests as you said or from bosses.

Just had Leviathan attack and get Cecil separated from everyone. Gonna stop there for now. I think I've made decent progress.

Golbez's voice is okay... The reverb is cool I guess. First voice I ever heard from Golbez was in the first Dissidia though and I liked that one. It was appropriately deep.

I passed up the Hades Armor at Fabul. It was 3000 Gil! And I'm gonna become a Paladin any time now so it seemed like a waste of money. Still got the helm and Gloves though for at least a couple points added Defense.

I haven't had a chance to off-load any Augments on other party members though. I mean, Item Lore and Counter seem like they'd be pretty damn useful and I'm not willing to give them to party members who will go away forever.

I had no idea "Yang" was pronounced like "young."

Overall I'm liking the game. I mean, it's more Final Fantasy IV and I've always loved that game. It's especially good to hear more FFIV music. Seems to me its glorious soundtrack doesn't get nearly enough appreciation anymore.

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Originally Posted by Forsaken Lover

I haven't had a chance to off-load any Augments on other party members though. I mean, Item Lore and Counter seem like they'd be pretty damn useful and I'm not willing to give them to party members who will go away forever.

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If you give augments to a leaving character they are gone forever, but when they leave your party you get unique augment(s) back. Some of which are the best ones in the game, which is why a guide is important.

Make sure you pay attention to counters. I know in the original this wasn't well identified by the game (don't know about the GBA), but in this there are many enemies and bosses who counter certain actions in certain nasty ways.

Like the first Archfiend? He seems to counter Fira with a very nasty thing that puts status effects on the entire party....

Scarmiglione is the first boss fight I've run into a brick wall. I kinda had a feeling this might be my first real challenge. I wasted a ton of MP going up the mountain because I figured there would be a circle to use Tents up there before the boss fight. If there was, I missed it.

I couldn't tell exactly but it looks like he has two Counters. One is I'm fairly certain of and makes sense. He'll counter Palom's Fira with a nasty status ailment attack that hits everyone. And in addition to running low on MP, I have no status healing items because I was trying to conserve gil. Cecil's next armor costs 8000! I don't have money to spare...

Also I'm not sure but it looks like he might counter Cecil attacking him. Cecil doesn't do trout for damage compared to Palom anyway so maybe I shouldn't even bother. (dunno what the people in Mysidia were talking about, the "dark sword" does great damage against the undead. Not against this boss though)

But yeah, I have a save right before I even went up Mt. Ordeals. Think I'll just hop on a Chocobo and go spend a lot of money on Eye Drops and Echo Herbs.

EDIT:

Ah, okay I found the healing circle. I was looking in the totally wrong spot.

Even still, there's nothing for it. I just plain need more Echo Herbs and Eye Drops. At full HP/MP I did pretty decently but 1 Echo Herd on Tellah and then him using Esuna isn't enough.

It's not too much trouble to get down the mountain though and then the Chocobo ride ensures it will be easy getting back to town.

If I recall my main strategy was to have Cecil/Telah focus on healing and have the twins blast away with Twin Magic.

I'm glad you're liking the game, it's one of my favorites. I will tell you that at the end of the game you will have quite a bit of freedom with who goes in your party, so don't worry about being stuck with characters. I won't spoil anything, but I will say if you liked fighting Scarmiglione , you are in for a real treat later on regarding archfiend fights...

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Originally Posted by Forsaken Lover

Cecil and Rydia laying into Edward just feels a tad unfair. "Suck it up, ya pansy! The love of your life has been dead for almost half a minute already! Time to move on."

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It's like this in all versions of Final Fantasy 4. Edward may be not be the bravest warrior in the world, but he just experienced a massive genocide, with his parents, people and Anna gone. They all died before they ever had a change to really defend from the attacks.


Then he gets told by a seven year old to shut the hell up.


Then again, Rydia is only seven years old and she wouldn't understand yet that people have a different ways of coping with loss.


I can understand Cecil slapping him and being rough on Edward though. Edward in his emotional panic and grieving wanted to stay with Anna's dead body forever, because he relied on her too much and she was his only support in the world.

Edward needed a good slap, because staying around with a dead body is just creepy and sick and would just get him nowhere, he needed to become more braver and he does.

I hated Edge too.

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Originally Posted by Zelfina Ai'ada

I'm glad you're liking the game, it's one of my favorites. I will tell you that at the end of the game you will have quite a bit of freedom with who goes in your party, so don't worry about being stuck with characters. I won't spoil anything, but I will say if you liked fighting Scarmiglione , you are in for a real treat later on regarding archfiend fights...

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Not in this version. That option was only available in the GBA and PSP releases. The Stram version is based directly off the DS version.

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Originally Posted by Fynn

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zelfina Ai'ada

I'm glad you're liking the game, it's one of my favorites. I will tell you that at the end of the game you will have quite a bit of freedom with who goes in your party, so don't worry about being stuck with characters. I won't spoil anything, but I will say if you liked fighting Scarmiglione , you are in for a real treat later on regarding archfiend fights...

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Not in this version. That option was only available in the GBA and PSP releases. The Stram version is based directly off the DS version.

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Yeah you can't switch out party members in this version at all.

But still, it's nice to play the 3d remake of this game sitting on the couch.