It's a Monday! And you know what that means

A WEEKEND MIRACLE-GRADE UPDATE!!


So yeah, I got as far as getting Edge and actually beating Rubicante. I won't be doing a full recap of events because pretty much everyone here remembers this game's plot, so I'll just go over some highlights.

- The game is much easier than I remember. This might be because I came in straight after III and not after a different version of IV, so I'm more used to just fighting every battle, so I didn't even have to grind to teach Float and Reflect to Rosa. It might also be because I'm using a lot of Augments.

- Speaking of Augments, Kain using Cry is hilarious. He just starts the battle by moping and that lowers the defense of enemies. "You guys, Rosa doesn't love me, sob sob." Gets me every time.

- While Rydia with Fast Talker and MP+50% is a beast. Rosa has Dualcast, but it's really Pray that makes her stand out because Rydia barely loses any MP thanks to her. I just love how they boosted Pray in this game because it was near useless in the original.

- I also had Tellah use Tsunami in the Magus Sister battle a lot. That really helped the battle go down faster.

- The voiced cutscenes are actually all really well done! It's really amazing how a little bit of body language and good voice work can really have some scenes carry so much more weight than the original's presentation.

- That said, the scenes outside of cutscenes can be pretty awkward. The goblins just go to set up the cannon and disappear, despite the fact you've already beaten them in battle. And it's kinda weird that it's no longer Golbez's disembodied hand that grabs the Crystal. But then again, perhaps that's a change for the better.

- Oh dear Lord, are the fake-out deaths corny. But then again, the voiced scene where Tellah dies is actually all the more powerful thanks to the comparison.

- I'm also having no problem buying stuff. Seriously, was I having problems before because I just wasn't battling enough? And I'm still not fighting as many battles as in FFIII!

- Speaking of that, I forgot how well-paced this game is. In FFIII everything was just going from dungeon to dungeon, stopping for a bit in each one to grind some levels. Here, you go from story event to story event, each of which matters, and you really don't need to grind in-between because the levels just come naturally.

Overall, this is super fun and story-wise, I'm now supposed to go get the last crystal, but first I wanna visit the Sylph Cave and the Feymarch. If all goes well, I'll be done with this in a couple of days!