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Stephen Williams (23750)

Stephen Williams
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Software developer. Debian devotee. Nostalgic Amiga fan. Christian. Final Fantasy nut.

Journal of Stephen Williams (23750)

Well, that's another game finished then

[ #14554 ]
Wednesday October 16 2002, @07:07PM
Games

I beat Final Fantasy IV last night.

The final battle took two attempts. I got utterly schooled the first time I attempted it. Before trying again, I levelled my party up five or so more levels (over the course of a couple of sessions), giving me a party with levels between 67 and 72-ish. I also changed my strategy the second time, using three party members to attack and two to heal, instead of having four attackers and only one healer.

The dizzying parallax scrolling effects used during the final battle were very nice, especially considering the age of the game. I don't recall seeing anything like them in FFVI.

In terms of difficulty, I'd rate the final battle about the same as FFIX's, easier than VI's, and slightly harder than VII's. However, I'd rate the game as a whole as the hardest FF I've played so far. The random battles get very difficult very quickly, and the learning curve doesn't get any shallower as the game progresses. Unlike the later FFs, the game is level-driven rather than story-driven. You have to commit time to levelling your party. I tend to be a fairly consciencious leveller-upper in RPGs, but it still came as a shock to the system.

It's my least favourite FF so far. The story was nothing special; the game lacked the certain "something" that made VII, IX and especially VI so wonderful. But it wasn't a bad game, at all. Just not a great one.

I have FFV to tackle at some point. I'll probably play it over Christmas; right now, I have Xenogears to finish.


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  • Zeromus was a friggin' bitch to beat for me...I got whupped, broke down and read about some secret item Edge could steal from him during the very beginning when he won't attack(supposedly it weakened his Big Bang Attack), which took about two hours(not exaggerating, either) of attempted stealing to get, and I still got whupped. I gave up on that and I think I adopted the same strategy as you to win...having Cecil use potions to heal while Edge threw weapons, Rydia summoned Bahamut or Leviathan(forget which was stronger in this game), and Kain jumped.

    He was the hardest FF boss by far for me(end boss, that is; I still haven't beaten the super-WEAPONs or Ozma)...though I had much less trouble with the girly-boys(Sephy, Kefky, Kuja) than you, so I guess it kind of evens out. :P

    Anyways, as far as liking the game itself less than the others, I think that's because you're looking back at it and whatnot. I'm sure the story was pretty rockin' for a game back in its day. I even remember reading a discussion of people's favorite plot twists in a game and one person mentioned playing FFII as a kid and the scene when it shows Kain and Golbez talking...he said it wasn't really a plot twist, but that it was just shocking to see a game show somebody aside from the player/main character. :P

    So yeah, I'm sure the game was probably just as impressive an advancement in cinematic storytelling as FFVII was for me. And it was also cool for me to see the various archtypes that have been used in so many RPGs since show up early on here, especially the Final Fantasy staples. But I agree, I just didn't enjoy playing it as much as the others, though five is my least favorite, as this game has much better characters. And I absolutely love how people say that games like VII and VIII are too melodramatic and lack the charm and light-hearted feel of the earlier games...even though in this one, a major character was killed off in seemingly every scene(yeah, most of 'em only appeared to die, but the scenes of the people hanging their heads and talking about the person's brave sacrifice were as cheesy as anything in FFVIII).

    I do absolutely love the game for one reason, though...it begat the lovely Final Fantasy Celtic Moon soundtrack. :)

    And this is pointless, but I played FFIX before this one, and named Zidane "Edge"(after the pro wrestler) and Amarant "Kain"(just because I thought it sounded cooler than Amarant :P). I just found that a little odd, especially since Zidane and Edge are such similar characters.

    And to end this rambling post, I'll say I also liked that this game's side quests were much more straightforward than those in later games and could actually be done without a walkthrough(btw, have you tried the Chocobo breeding in FFVII yet?), and that I've never had much of an urge to play through Xenogears.

    -DTC out
    • I think I adopted the same strategy as you to win...having Cecil use potions to heal while Edge threw weapons, Rydia summoned Bahamut or Leviathan(forget which was stronger in this game), and Kain jumped.

      I had Rosa casting Cure4 every turn, Rydia summoning Asura almost every turn (she got off a Flare once, immediately after a Cure4 from Rosa that fully healed everybody), Kain jumping, Edge throwing stuff and Cecil attacking normally. Asura is a bit hit-and-miss, but the odds of getting a Cure spell out of it seem to be a bit better than 1/3, which served me well enough.

      I had much less trouble with the girly-boys(Sephy, Kefky, Kuja) than you, so I guess it kind of evens out. :P

      I think Sephiroth was easier than Zeromus; just more time-consuming.

      Anyways, as far as liking the game itself less than the others, I think that's because you're looking back at it and whatnot.

      Oh, absolutely. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

      five is my least favorite, as this game has much better characters.

      I'm keeping V to play over Christmas. From what I know about it, I get the impression that liking it or not hinges on whether you like the job system or not. Personally, I think it looks fascinating. I'm not expecting the characters to be anything like as good as, say, VI's. (But then, I didn't think IV's were anywhere near as good as VI's; nor was I expecting them to be).

      in this one, a major character was killed off in seemingly every scene

      I know! That was overdone, in my opinion. I was sitting there thinking "stop killing people!"

      I'll say I also liked that this game's side quests were much more straightforward than those in later games

      Indeed they were; straightforward enough that I could find them and do them! (Well, I didn't get Bahamut, but I did find him. And I think I only got Odin because I fluked the battle, but hey).

      btw, have you tried the Chocobo breeding in FFVII yet?

      No, nor shall I. I don't have the patience.

      I've never had much of an urge to play through Xenogears

      From what I've played of it (I'm a few hours into the second disc), I recommend it. It's got one of those amazing twisty turny stories that occasionally smacks you between the eyes with a plot development; then, when you've finished reeling from the shock, you realize that it was foreshadowed all along. And it mostly makes sense, too.

      Xenogears was never released in Europe. I borrowed an American import from a friend, along with a modded PSX capable of booting American games.

      -Stephen

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