I bought Final Fantasy IV Advance yesterday. So far, I've only just covered the light in that "bearing darkness and light" line of the Mysidian legend; Cecil having just become a paladin. Right now I'm saved outside Baron, a little shy of five hours on the clock, and I'll be heading through the Old Waterway next.
Even though I'm only a little ways into the game so far, I can already tell that FFIV Advance blows the SNES FFII out of the water. You don't really notice it right at first, but the game is harder. (As it should be, considering the SNES FFII was the easy type version of the game.) The fight with the Antlion was probably the first place I really noticed the increased difficulty; its counter-attack hurts. And since then it's only been getting harder. In the fight with Scarmiglion (aka Milon, the fiend of earth), especially, I had to be careful. I'm really appreciating the fact that I'm getting a challenge out of the game again.
I'm also loving the better and more accurate translation. Lines don't sound nearly as cheesy anymore and conversations flow a lot better. (Though Cecil's "Damnation!" line when the second wave of monsters attack in the opening scene seemed a bit off.) There's more detail in them, as well. No longer do you have to read between the lines to be able to really see what the characters are like. In this version, you actually see from Cecil's thoughts and dialogue that he's struggling between his loyalty to the king of Baron and his own conscience, that he's not happy with his tainted role as a dark knight, etc. I can't wait to get farther into the storyline to see what I've been missing all these years.
Okay, so, if you're at all a fan of the SNES version, you need to play FFIV Advance. Or if you're a fan of RPGs at all, but haven't played any of the previous incarnations of FFIV, you should really look into it. I just can't imagine going back to the SNES version at this point. So much has improved, from the dialogue to the graphics, that there's just no comparison. I love it.
But enough about FFIV for now.
I finally got my Christmas shopping done today, which is a relief. Now I just need to pay people for my part in some of the gifts, do some wrapping, and I'll be finished. But I'm a bit disappointed. Because of various complications, we won't be having many people outside our immediate family here for Christmas. I still got my little cousins Animal Crossing as a gift, though; we'll just have to mail them their presents. I hope they enjoy it. . . . And can figure everything out okay. I could only find a used copy, which didn't include an instruction booklet.
And I think that's it for now. Everyone have a merry Christmas and, if I'm lazy and don't post again before then, a happy new year.
