Anyone who's beaten FFIV (the SNES version, anyway) should know what's up with the title.
But anyway, I went through the end dungeon and beat Final Fantasy IV yesterday. I missed a couple things (the Crystal armor -- not that I need it anymore, since I got some Adamant armor -- and the Murasame), however, so I'll most likely be scouring the place again after I write this post. I'll also be trying to steal some cool armor from various enemies down there, since I was mainly just trying to get through the place last time and didn't bother trying to steal much.
You know something I really like about FFIV, though? When I'm in dungeons -- at least the first time going through dungeons -- it always feels like I'm really having to fight for survival. Especially late in the game, where I'm constantly having to watch Rosa and Rydia's MP; use too much magic, and you can run out of MP all too easily, but if you don't use enough, you could easily die. You have to kind of strike a balance, and choose carefully when to use your powerful spells in battle so that they'll be most effective. That's something I really haven't felt in many other RPGs; the feeling that death is right around the corner if you're not careful; that you'd better conserve your magic if you don't want to have to throw down a ton of Ethers in order to make it to the next save point. And every time I play FFIV, I realize just how much I miss that feeling in other RPGs.
Why would I miss a feeling of impending doom, you ask? Because it makes dungeons feel like they're actually real. They're not some stroll through the park where you can cut down the baddies with ease, like it feels in some other games, they're places with nasty monsters that can and will tear you apart if you're not on your guard at all times. That feeling of not quite being sure whether or not you're going to make it out alive adds to the atmosphere of the game, and it's something I love. It keeps me on the edge of my seat while playing and makes random battles so much more interesting.
So yay for decent levels of difficulty in RPGs. And considering the SNES version is the easy version of FFIV, I find it funny (and kind of sad) that the later games in the FF series aren't even as hard as it is. I mean, seriously, I can count on a single hand the number of battles from FFVII, FFIX, and FFX that actually gave me as much trouble as I regularly get in FFIV. (Those would be Ruby WEAPON, Necron, the Spectral Keeper, and Yunalesca, if you're wondering.) Here's to hoping Square Enix steps up the difficulty for FFXII.
Probably the hardest fight for me this time through FFIV was when I had to fight all four elemental fiends in a row in the Giant of Bab-il. (I was lower level than I should have been, since I didn't bother with a couple areas in the underworld until later.) They actually killed me once, until I got my strategy down. I managed to beat the first three and get to Valvalis, but then she cast Weak on my whole party; bam, everyone suddenly had under 10 HP, and I was desperately scrambing to heal myself. But every time I'd try to use an item or cast a cure spell, she'd smack that character and they'd die. Repeat five times, and it was Game Over for Dessy. How can you avoid something like that? Kill her before she can cast Weak on everyone.
And that's exactly what I did on my second try. I made better use of FuSoYa's level three elemental spells (Rydia only knew Lit-3 at the time) while timing my healing better with Rosa, and it really showed. I managed to kill each fiend in about two or three rounds, before they could really lay waste to my party, and I managed to keep everyone alive for the entire battle because of it. It's definitely a fight that requires well planned actions.
The end boss fight was also a lot of fun. Its Big Bang attack could kill off everyone but Cecil in a single hit if they weren't really close to full HP, so the whole time I had to scramble to keep myself healed while also dishing out the damage. (Coordinating healing spells and Kain's jumping can be a real pain sometimes, but if you can have Kain in the air during a Big Bang, he avoids the damage.) And it's this fight that makes me especially thankful for Rydia's Asura summon; if it weren't for Asura, which heals the whole party for more than even a Cure4 spell, I would've died for sure one time. You have to be extremely careful with your healing during the fight, or else the boss will kill you with two Big Bang attacks before you can get off another healing spell.
Oh yes, and one thing I've always wondered about FFIV: Where the heck is the Tower of Zot? You never actually see where it is, and when you follow the enemy airship to it, it just shows the two airships ascending straight up and it fades to black before fading back in with you inside the tower. Isn't that just a little odd?
And now I leave you with this bit of IM conversation between me and Alan. I was playing FFIV at the time, just before fighting the end boss, and it was really late.
[03:22:58] Desbreko145: FuSoYa: "Do the Meteo now!" ... *Cecil and company start dancing* :-P
[03:23:17] Desbreko145: Zemus: "Silly!"
[03:23:19] ImmortalyFragile: WTF? lol
[03:23:51] Desbreko145: *Golbez slaps Zemus* "STFU N00B!"
[03:24:09] ImmortalyFragile: *lost*
[03:24:27] Desbreko145: *Golbez and FuSoYa cast W. Meteo*
[03:25:33] Desbreko145: Zemus: "This is just the beginning..." *Zemus pisses on everyone and they die* Game Over? WTF?
[03:25:43] ImmortalyFragile: Dude
[03:25:47] ImmortalyFragile: You have problems
[03:25:48] ImmortalyFragile: Lol.
[03:25:51] Desbreko145: Yeah.
[03:25:55] Desbreko145: I do.
[03:26:30] ImmortalyFragile: I can't talk though
[03:26:34] Desbreko145: ... But wait! Zemus falls over dead from dehydration! Now everyone is dead!
[03:27:19] ImmortalyFragile: Lol.
[03:28:20] Desbreko145: *everyone's corpses fall into the core of the moon and it explodes, destroying earth*
[03:28:33] ImmortalyFragile: Sounds like fun. =P
[03:28:56] Desbreko145: Yeah. It really is the Final Fantasy. Not like those other pansy-ass games in the series.
