4 Things You Never Knew About FFIV...

[Wolf Kanno]

97. FFIV is the first FF game to have female exclusive gear in the form of the Gold Hairpin and the Minerva Bustier. What makes this interesting is that FF, unlike it's contemporary Dragon Quest, does not really dive into gender specific gear very often, usually sticking to job specific elements instead.

98. IV debuted a few new pieces of gear, but one of the notable ones if Gungnir, Odin's famous spear. What is interesting is that in addition to the weapon getting no fanservice, Kain comes equipped with it when he rejoins the party at the Giant of Babel and it's not even his best weapon with the Dragon Spear and the Holy Spear both being better weapons in the base game; but the weapon doesn't even get real recognition until FFXI when it was chosen to be the first Relic Weapon for Dragoon. Only afterwards was the weapon retroactively brought into FFII, III, and VI as a supreme weapon outside of the occasional Odin summon that uses it.

99. Of the final five party members, Rosa and Rydia get the most customization options. If you plan on using them as mages, you should stick to mage gear like the Faeries Rod or Stardust Rods as well as robes to bolster their Intelligence and Spirit stats. This is because the Artemis Bow, Dragon Whisker, and Minerva Bustier raise all their physical stats considerable (like 10-15 point gains in Strength, Stamina, and Agility) at the cost of giving a deduction in both Intelligence and Spirit by the same amount. So equip them wisely.

100. FFIV has many allusions to the first Final Fantasy game.

• Both games have a title screen that appears after a story/gameplay intro and shows an image of a bridge being crossed by the heroes with a castle as part of the background.
• Both games feature the party facing off with Four Elemental Fiends.
• The Earth Fiends of both games has an undead theme.
• The Wind Fiend is battled in a sky fortress that is potentially orbiting their respective worlds.
• All Four Fiends are fought twice over the course of the game.
• Both games begin in a setting that is largely pure high fantasy, and eventually reveal a more science fiction twist towards the end of the narrative.
• The key to reaching the big bad of the story is found in the first place the story takes place: Chaos Shrine (FFI) and Mysidia (FFIV)
• Both games feature a quest that involves taking down a Dark Elf. And if that is not enough, the FFIV sprite for Astos was used as the basis for the one fought in FFIV.
• Both games have a narrative that is centered around a Prophecy.
• Both games feature a side quest involving the retrieval of a a simple Rat's Tail in order to obtain an upgrade.
• Both games have a questline to obtain Adamantite so the Excalibur may be forged.
• FFIV revamps and basically reuses the Goblin design from FFI.
• The final party of the base game includes representatives of the default starting classes of FFI with Cecil being the Warrior/Knight, Edge as the Thief/Ninja, Rosa as the White Mage, and Rydia as the Black Mage.